Australian Adventure (Saturday, June 15, 2013)

40 Days Down Under (Day 2)

Saturday, June 15, 2013
Normally I would tell you that you're crazy if you ask me to wake up at 6am on vacation, but that was a perfectly reasonable expectation today. Afterall, we had gone to sleep around 8:00pm last night.

We had a leisurely morning since most places don't open until 10am on Saturdays, and grabbed breakfast from a local takeaway (CQ Cafe) eating it on a park bench. One of the ibis was getting a bit too close for comfort while begging for food. Kris chased it away, but it kept coming back.

After breakfast, we walked down by the harbor and the Circular Quay area before exploring the Rocks. The Rocks area of Sydney is one of the oldest with remnants of the original structures/stairwells/narrow roads still remaining and signposted. Super easy to trip if you aren't careful. Luckily we were careful enough to avoid disaster. We did run into some street art.


We arrived at the Museum of Contemporary Art of Sydney at opening. (Many of the museums in Sydney are free of charge, and the MCA is no exception.)

The feature display for Winter 2013 (so odd to say that) is an artist named Wangechi Mutu. I found her art to be rather disturbing and dark. One display had us walking on floor covered in clumps of artificial hair.


The other exhibits were easier to stomach, and the roof had nice views of the Opera House.








After the MCA, we headed to the vendor market they were having at The Rocks. We both got some street food from different vendors, me a meatball, spinach wrap and Kris a Turkish chicken flatbread melt. We enjoyed many of the vendor stalls and found some quite interesting - especially the one that revealed that some Australians use kangaroo balls like some Americans use a rabbit's foot.


We decided to cross over the iconic Sydney Harbor Bridge and head to Luna Park on the other side. Luna Park is a quirky Australian amusement park.


The bridge offered great views of the Sydney Opera House and other items in the harbor.


Luna Park was fun. I love the captivatingly animated entrance. They've put some plastic over the eyes that make them truly reflective.





The characters in the park are over the top animated with appearance appropriate voices.


There were some lively dancers stuck in the '80s and creepy clown illustrations all over the place.


Children in bumper cars did the Macarena while waiting on their ride to begin.

Seems awfully young to so enthusiastically know the Macarena

Kris kept (affectionately?) repeating, "this isn't Disneyland."








I found the entrance to the little kid section of the park particularly disturbing.



Admission to Luna Park is free, and most of the rides were free to observe (even if they were inside of a building). The park had some old rides that you could observe in action. One spins so quickly the people stick to the wall as the floor drops away.


The place had a really reasonable annual pass and was located next to $1.8 million dollar condos, so Kris and I speculate that those parents just get the kids an annual pass and tell them to go play at Luna Park (instead of the regular old outside).

You can actually take a ferry ride right from the Circular Quay to Luna Park, but we thought we'd take the less expensive train back. You get some great views of the bridge from the park, so you don't need to take the ferry for awesome photos. It turned out that the train rides were temporarily suspended due to construction, so we walked back on the bridge.











We went back to the hotel to rest for a while until nighttime so that we could go get a photo of the Opera House illuminated. After nightfall, we walked back down to the Quay and the MCA for amazing photos of the Opera House.











We wandered for a while until we wound up at Peace Harmony a family-run vegan restaurant that wound up having the best spring rolls I've ever tasted.

Kris got the noodle chili basil (with some tofu and soy chunks) while I got the spring rolls and some steamed rice.


Super tasty and under $20 for the two of us!

Alas - I'm getting spoiled by this jacuzzi tub. It's going to be tough going to four minute saltwater showers.

Australian Adventure (June 12 - 14, 2013)

40 Days Down Under (Day 1)

Artwork by Kris

Wednesday, June 12, 2013
Our Australian Adventure would have never been possible without the use of airline miles.

Our Qantas flight from DFW-Sydney and Perth-Sydney-DFW would have cost us $4,762.20 total ($2,381.10 per person), but we were able to redeem 150,000 airline miles and $290 ($145 per person) to get the same flight.

We also redeemed airline miles to fly Qantas from Melbourne to Perth. Those tickets cost us a mere 40,000 airline miles and $38.94 in taxes and fees instead of $928.

Thank you airline miles!

Eric Watkins was nice enough to offer us a ride to the airport complete with curbside service. He picked us up at 6:30pm for our 10:15pm flight. We were at the airport in no time, and we got through security quickly.

When we finally boarded the plane, we found out how nice the seats I had claimed really were. We were in seats 70J and 70K. Most of the coach configuration of the Qantas flight we were on was a 3 - 4 - 3 seating arrangement. A few rows at the back of the plane are in a 2 - 4 - 2 arrangement instead. We were in one of the 2 seaters, and Kris and I swear that they had a ton more room than the others. In addition to there being no window seat (so Kris could stretch his legs to the side), we think there was more seat pitch.

Qantas coach service for the international flight was nice. We were fed dinner and breakfast and given a snack bag in between. There was good seat entertainment, pillows, blankets, and a small pouch with a eye pouch, small toothbrush, and tiny toothpaste. They even gave us some interesting snacks.


Kris and I were able to sleep more than we expected.

Friday, June 14, 2013

That's right...no Thursday!

We got through the 16 hour flight and disembarked in Brisbane for a flight crew change. An hour and a half and quick Facebook post later, we were on our way to Sydney. When we arrived in Sydney, we had to take an airline bus to the terminal and (unfortunately) go through semi-traditional customs. Our Global Entry didn't work as planned, but the Australian customs agents were quite friendly to Americans and let us go to a different line.


We got on the Green Line train to the Wynyard Station stop to head to the Radisson Blu Sydney down by the Circular Quay.


This hotel is in an optimal spot downtown and an absolute treat. They have excellent customer service, upgraded us to a jacuzzi suite (amazingly spacious with great decor), and brought us complimentary chocolates!








They allowed us to check in at noon, so we were able to clean up a bit before heading to the lovely Sydney Botanical Gardens. We detoured for lunch at a food court establishment not attached to a mall. The Wintergarden Deli (where I ate lunch) had a very tasty Chicken Caesar wrap with side salad and drink lunch combo.


Next stop, the Botanic gardens.








They are free to access and massive. There are so many beautiful flowers and trees. There are many varieties of trees - most of which are labeled. We were very impressed with the root structures and size of many of the trees.




















The garden has excellent floral and plant arrangements from various parts of the world. Kris was delighted to find some prickly pear!








Skitler liked the gardens too!

Kristy and Skitler

I was less than delighted to find our first huge spider of the trip. He seemed unconcerned by us though.

Ack!  Spider!

We also ran into some stingless Australian bees. Kris got up close and personal.


There were also a plethora of birds. I'd never seen an ibis before. The park/garden is teaming with Australian White Ibis birds that started moving in around 10 years ago during great droughts in the countryside. There are bunches of other birds too.

The ducks have tiny beaks.

We saw many sculptures and interesting people. We ran into a wedding party too.

I love the grass circle.

You also get a great view of the Sydney Opera House from Mrs Macquarie's Chair, a spot in far edge of the gardens.

Kris likes any excuse to climb.

We walked to the Opera House and around the water to get back to our hotel after calling it an early night.





We headed back to the hotel to unwind. It was super strange to look out of the window at the building across the way and see people hard at work while I was ready for bed.