Day 1 of Trip

The day dawned fine and warmish changing to impending thunder storms this evening so have gone through the whole gamut of temps today. Cardigan on and off, on and off, LOL. Breakfast was interesting this morning - it was cooked, in stages, no butter out to go with toast (which I cooked for our lot), not tea or coffee, had to ask for sugar to go with cereal and eventually got margerine to cover toast. The cooked part was processed bacon, cooked tomatoes, two sorts of eggs, sausages of some heavily processed sort, and mushrooms. There was ample juice and towards the end, pieces of cut apple and a bowl of candy canes - go figure.

Semi fortified by toast and scrambled egg and a coffee from Starbucks (one of the other staff did a run for the rest of us) and I was up waiting for the bus which happened to be outside a glorious second hand bookshop with what looked like end of lines that were new. Thankfully the bus came before I had too good a peruse, LOL. First stop was Sydney Tower and Oztrek. I had been up the tower last time I was here and it is a bit like the Eifel Tower (shameless name drop, LOL), once climbed, it's done. Today it was fine so did have a good view and Sydney is spectacular from that height. Oztrek involved sitting in a darkend room viewing a diarama that with the aid of technology had a couple talk/display four different aspects of Australian culture. Each time one interactive diarama was over, our seats moved in a circular stage kind of way and we were at the next post. This was followed by going into a small theatre and being seated in groups of four, with a hand hold bar that dropped down over us much the same as a ferris wheel bar and once again we were interactive with some dramatic scenic views of Oz. The bar was to hold you in place as the seats moved,swooping and juddering, diving etc much the same as a simulator for flying. Went from the rain forests, to the national parks, the ocean, and the outback with a few highlighted tourist areas in between. The girls did very well and screamed when we shot down the mouth of a crocodile in a swamp and dived into gorges, underwater etc. It took about 40 mins so was not a shabby, shortlived experience.

We left there and by bus headed to the Barracks. This has been a major restoration project since I last visited it over 20 yrs ago. Can you believe it, I was the only one out of 70 people who had been there before, and I am the Kiwi!!!!!!. The building has been pared back to the original roof and ceilings that had been covered by lowered ceilings over the years. There is the remains of the original lime wash which is over 200yrs old on the ceiling. The Barracks was where all the early convicts were housed on arrival in NSW. At one time 600 men were living in the building. As convicts slowed down being sent out to the colonies, the building then housed women settlers who arrived to work/and marry. As they have restored the building many artifacts have been found and there is a display of the same in the museum part of the building. After our tour there we had some down time so lit out to find a Commonwealth Bank as we needed to cash a school cheque for trip money. OMG, we came across the Versailles of Banks - it had soaring green marble pillars throughout, marble floors in pinky, tan colouring and the sort of hush that says serious money. There was a bloke in a suit holding the door open out the front of one entrance. Looked more like a fabulous old hotel than a bank or some small palace, LOL.

After sorting our transactions we walked back to Hyde Park where we had lunch. There was this strange bird on the lawn (another pest I was told) and I believe it was an Ibis - I am sure they are the birds of Egyptian tales and pictures. I have taken a photo but have done something when I downloaded them and cannot find them on my computer at the moment - grrrrr. Anyway, they are a strange looking bird with a curved beak, about the size of a pukeko. After our picnic lunch we went to the Power House Museum which is a technology and science type museum with lots of interactive exhibits. Not unlike the Museum of Transport and Technoogy in Auckland, NZ. I had a quick look at the musical instruments on the way to look at 'a women's work is never done' which is an exhibit about all aspects of the last centurary's (mostly woman at home) tools of daily living, clothing, and leisure activities for women. Another exhibit that was very exciting was seeing a replica? of the robot from Lost in Space ( got a photo of that too). I initially thought it was a dalek but wrong show, LOL.

Once we finished there it was a quick trip to Circular Quay and on to the ferry for Manly. There was a storm warning and it had begun to drizzle so wondered how the trip would go. There was a bit of a swell as we came into Manly but the trip was mostly smooth without the storm eventuating. A pizza dinner had been organised and then we had some free time to wander through the town. Stopped at this ice cream place called 'Cold Rock' where you can order a variety of ice creams, then a variety of lollies etc to mix into the ice cream (crunchy bars, snickers,sour snakes etc). I decided to try peanut butter ice cream with Tia Maria. The Tia Maria ice cream tasted a bit feeble but the peanut butter icecream was delicious. Will look for that again.

Another ferry trip back to CQ and it was back onto the bus and our accommodation. Got the girls straight to bed as it was 9.30pm Sydney time and we had another early start today. I began this post last night and am finishing typing this whilst in the bus being driven to Canberra. The marvels of modern science and the fact that Bigpond actually works so well in a city, LOL. We are driving in a drizzle of rain and the motorway looks just like peak hour on the Auckland motorway. In fact I havn't seen this much traffic since Easter when I was home. I could be in a car just driving under the East Tamaki turnoff (pause for a small homesick moment - you know, rain and bad traffic, LOL).

Will quit while I am ahead with the battery and try to work out how to get my photos from one place in the computer to where I can access them. Catch you later.