Sydney Continued

Monday April, 15, 2013
We went to Koala Park to see some of the Australian animals. They are ones that could no longer make it completely in the wild, but are still wild animals.




Koala up in a tree.




Walt and the kangaroo.




Kangaroo ready to hop away.




A cockatoo that speaks if it wants to.




Emu strutting along.




Our group on the Sydney BridgeClimb. I am 4th from the right with blue cap on first row. Walt is right behind me with cap and sunglasses.




Our Certificate. This was great!




We had a Dinner Cruise in the harbor as a farewell to Australia. Tomorrow morning we have a flight at O Dark 30 to New Zealand.

Sydney

Sunday April 14, 2013
We toured the Sydney Opera and learned about the history of it as well as of the trials and tribulations of building it. It took 12 years to build instead of 2 and of course was considerable over budget. It sure was beautiful. We also went to the harbor area and got lovely photos of the bridge, the opera and the skyline.








The opera and bridge of Sydney.




The skyline of Sydney.
Russell Crowe also has a home or condo here that is selling for about 17 million. That is in downtown Sydney.
We also went to Bondi Beach area which is similar to Muscle Beach in CA. Wonderful waves were rolling in.




Our next stop is the opal area. Walt can not wait to purchase a black opal for me for his birthday,

Cairns, Australia

Saturday April 13, 2013
We were up and ready to go today to take the cable car up over the rainforest. It had a couple of stops enroute to see waterfalls and and various flora and fauna. It was spectacular. We definitely were way up in the mountains and absolutely could not see the ground with such thick foliage and tall trees. Only about 1% of light actually hits the floor of the rainforest.












On the way to Sydney we each had an iPad in our seat pocket. Once we got going, we just had to do a streaming movie. That was pretty impressive.

Great Barrier Reef and onto Sydney

Friday April 12, 2013

We did get to the Great Barrier Reef but the weather did not cooperate. The waves were awful. Brian will remember what the one in Greece was like. This boat trip was real similar. The only thing was that it was shorter. Many folks got sick and other things on Green Island where we went were cancelled. The snorkeling, the glass bottom boats and trip to outer reef was called back due to the turbulent seas.

We did get to go through a special marine museum which was really quite nice. They had crocodile feeding as well. That was fascinating to see that they don't care what or who they chomp on, as long as they get something in those large jaws.




Awfully large crocodile.




Fish swimming within the coral seas plantlife.



This sort of shows the different coloring as to where the reef is.




Lots and lots of green crud that has washed up on the beach area. The wind was really, really strong.

Leaving The Outback Area

Thursday April 11, 2013

We began our day at 5:50 am to go out and view the rock at sunrise. After breakfast and checkout, we did our tour around the big red rock of Uluru and noticed all of the cracks and crevices close up. It was really a special place since it was so dry and desolate yet plants and wildlife and people exist in this harsh environment. We toured the Cultural Museum and then headed out on our flight to Cairns.






Sunrise photo of this lovely rock.


Cave paintings under crevices of the large mt. rock.



It really was very pretty. The sky almost looks too blue to be real.


The sign below was in the airport at Cairns. It just struck us as being very strange.




We will be heading to Green Island to experience more of the Great Barrier Reef tomorrow. Our hotel is just a short walk to the beach. It looks pretty good from what we can tell. We will have a better look tomorrow when it is daylight.

Kata Tjuta and Uluru

Wednesday April 10, 2013

These are the two names of the rock formations called Ayers Rock. We did a nice hike in the gorge of Kata Tjuta and had some wonderful photo opportunities. The blue sky almost looks fake and the red dirt and rock formations are such a nice contrast. The formations themselves at Kata Tjuta are really rocks of all sorts of shapes crunched together as if by cement.







The colors are really spectacular. This is Kata Tjuta.

I could have purchased WiFi at the hotel for $5 for 6 min. I wouldn't have even gotten gmail open in that amount of time since the connection looked pretty weak. I will see what Cairns near the Great Barrier Reef has to offer. We will be there for 2 nights and hopefully there is something nearby.




This is the big old rock that Walt has been waiting for. It is really pretty especially at sunset. We had a champagne and mimosa tailgate party at Uluru and it was a lot of fun. Pictures, maybe a few between sips and snacks. :-)

Enroute to Ayers Rock

Wednesday April 10, 2013

We will be spending a greater part of the day traveling to Ayers Rock. The bus ride could be a bit long but we will have breaks throughout the journey.

Walt is also trying different types of liquid refreshment as we travel around. He did try the rum of Fiji which did not impress him. The beers have been pretty good. Even the one local beer of Fiji.
The following are Ausie beers that meet his approval.
VB
XXXX Gold Premium
Tooheys
Crown Lager Premium

Enroute we have seen some animals but going at bus speed does not make for good photos especially since you can't get your camera focused in time to actually spot the animal. There were camels, wedge tail eagle and dingo (wild dog). We did see emu at our rest stop but they were behind cages.

Our guide also explained about opals the country stone of Australia. The "bolder opal" is a stone that represents the tropical colors. The "black opal" is the rarest and will soon no longer be mined. Obviously the black will be most expensive, sort of like the price of a home. I think Walt should get me a black opal for me to celebrate his birthday. :-)




Here is a photo of a "bolder opal" with all of the pretty blues and greens.

We continued on our day journey and did make a short stop to see Connor Mountain. There we walked up a red sand dune to see a salt flat that resembled a large lake. Nice view of Connor Mountain.




Connor Mountain with the red sand dune in the foreground.


Here I am with the salt flats in the background. The ground here doesn't look very red, but it was like the red sand of Kauai.