Days 40 – 45 May 9 – 14 2025 – Sydney

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This may be long, but I will try to summerize Sydney with one post. Enjoy.

Day 40 May 9, 2025 Arriving in Sydney

We got an early start for our 2 hour flight from Hobart to Syndey. Arriving in Sydney we were met by our driver to take us to our hotel, the Park Hyatt. We had a room with a fantastic view of the iconic Opera House!

After settling in we took a walk around the neighborhood to find a place for dinner. There is an area nearby, the Rocks, the oldest part of town where the original settlers first landed and where the convicts were brought. Here there are many restaurants, cafes, galleries and other shops. We found a little French Café to have dinner, Le Foote.  Since we were getting up early the next morning for our tour of Sydney we made it an early night.

Day 41 May 10, Sydney and the Opera House

First thing in the mornings, Derek our dirver, showed us around the city pointing out the different neighborhoods and sites. We stopped at various places for some specifics of an area and photo opportunities.

Around 10 we arrived at the Opera House for our private tour. Nick was our guide and he was obviously passionate about the building and the various venues and performances.  First, he informed us the Opera House is on an historic site. The design was proposed by Jorn Utzon whose plan was selected out of 218 submissions. The idea was for the building to represent sails in the harbor. Construction began in 1958 and took 16 years to complete. It was formally opened by Queen Elizabeth II in 1973.

The roof, commonly referred to as “shells” are actually precast concrete panels supported by precast concrete ribs. Though they appear uniformly white from a distance, they actually feature a subtle chevron pattern composed of over 1 million tiles in tow colors, glossy white and matte cream.

The concert hall had recently undergone a major renovation costing over $100 million and incorporating the latest in technology.

We could not take pictures of the opera venue as the ballet company was rehearsing.

Leaving the Opera House, we drove around some more, ending at Bondi Beach where we had lunch at the Bondi Iceberg.

After lunch we walked along a shoreline path to the car for more touring around the various neighborhoods including a drive through Centennial Park and China Town, and then back to our hotel. We are meeting a former colleague of Cathy’s for dinner.

Day 42 May 11, 2025 – Sydney

After a brief stop at Blues Point for another view of the iconic bridge and opera house, along with the story of Billy Blue, this morning, we met with Genel, a woman of indigenous heritage. We walked along a path on Berry Island for about 2 hours while she explained some of the customs and history of the indigenous people. While Australia, as in New Zealand, much is being done to recognize the errors of the past, she says there is still racism. We stopped along the way to sample some food made with some of the natural plants.

Our next stop was lunch at Midden, a restaurant by the Opera House that’s indigenous chef uses indigenous ingredients. The manager brought us a plate to sample some of the plants and berries they use in the food. All was delicious.

After lunch, Martin, our driver took us to Potts Point another neighborhood they called the “Paris” of Sydney, characterized by cafes and boutiques. This is the first area where apartments were constructed rather than single family houses.

Martin dropped us off at the Art Gallery. We wondered around finding interesting works and some we just didn’t quite get.

Sir Robert Muldoon of New Zealand once said, “New Zealanders who leave for Australia, raise the IQ of both nations.”  Proof?

Day 43 May 12, 2025 – The Blue Mountains

We got an early start. Derek our guide and driver from Saturday, met us at 8:00AM for the drive to the Blue Mountains. Though, our first stop was at a wildlife park / Zoo where there were many exhibits of animals endemic to Australia. As we entered there were Wallabies and padymelons running lose coming up to be feed. There were many enclosures with beautiful and noisy birds, Kangaroos, Koalas, and Wombats.

We wandered around among the exhibits and along the way Cathy fed some of the animals.

We then continued on our way to the Blue Mountains, but when we got to the first look out the clouds were low and little could be seen.  We wandered through some local towns before heading back to the national park to board a skyway / cable car. By this point some of the clouds had lifted and we could get a good look at the “Three Sisters” a formation of three rock towers along the ridge line. There were originally seven sisters, but four of these have collapsed over time. The original seven pillars are an integral part of the Seven Sisters Dreaming story, based on the Seven Sisters of the Pleiades star cluster. While there are variations of the story, what we were told was the sisters were pursued by men in a different tribe. But marriage between tribes was not allowed. The men conspired to kidnap the women but the plan was uncovered and to save the women, the local “wise man”/ witch doctor, turned the women to stone with the intention of turning them back, after they had disposed of the men. However, in the ensuing battle, the witch doctor was killed so he was unable to return the women to their natural state. Somehow, the women’s essence was released to the heavens forming the stars that make up the Pleiades.

The Cable car took us down to a forested area where there is a boardwalk through the forest. The 40 minute walk ends at an area where there was a coal mine in the early 1900’s. Here we boarded a railway to take us back up the side of the mountain and then back to our van.

We then stopped at another area for a brief bush walk and a fantastic viewing site.

On the way back to Sydney we stopped at the Hydro Majestic, a historic hotel built in the early 20th century.

Day 44 May 13, 2025 – Sydney

There were no specific plans for today, so we did not set an alarm. After a hearty breakfast we took a walk to the Royal Botanic Gardens.

Then our intention was to go to the Contemporary Art Museum. Along the way we stopped at the Museum of Sydney. Located on the site of the first governor’s house this small museum provides the historical explanation of the founding of Sydney and the initial interaction with the aboriginal / First Australians. There is an exhibit of the various ships that formed the 11 that first entered Botany Bay intending to create a settlement and penal colony here in Australia. However, Botany Bay proved not to be a good place to settle so the ships moved up the coast to what is now Sydney.  As the story goes, the intention was to form a congenial relationship with the indigenous people and while the first governor, Arthur Phillip, had good intentions, as always happens, cultural classes ensued. The museum, though small really did a good job in covering this early history.

We then made our way to the Museum of contemporary Art, only to find it is closed on Tuesdays. So we made our way back to the hotel to have an early dinner as we have tickets to a concert at the Opera House!

Day 45 May 14, 2025 – Sydney Harbor

The plans for today were a harbor cruise with lunch. Since we were to meet the boat at 12:30 we had the morning to ourselves. So after a late breakfast we walked down to the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia. It was just down by the quay. We were just in time to join a short tour of this small, but marvelous museum displaying the works of native Australian artists. The first thing of notice was outside the museum. Since it is in circular Quay, the spot where the British first landed and set up a colony the artist pays homage to the historic significance of the site.

Inside there are many examples of recent works by Aboriginal and white artists. One of particular note, to me, was another expression of the importance the story of the Seven sisters and the Pleiades plays in aboriginal culture.

After the tour we waited a short time for our “ship to come in”. At 12:30 the boat pulled up to the pier and we were off for our cruise around the harbor. Sydney harbor is the largest natural harbor in the world, covering an area of approximately 55 square kilometers. The harbor has many bays and coves and throughout our 4 hour cruise we covered many area showing extravagant and pricy houses of many different architectural styles along the shore as well as public beaches and natural forests. There are numerous ferries that ply the waters constantly to move people from one side of the bay to some other side or location. Clearly the water is the center of life in this city.

Historically the military has been a major presence throughout the harbor. This has led to much land not being developed and eventually turned over to the government for national parks.

Eventually we made our way back to the pier and back to our hotel. Dinner tonight, for our last night in Sydney, was special, at Quay a prefix 6 course tasting menu. It turned out to be quite special as there was first, three different tastes for amuse-bouche, then there were two courses from the menu and then an extra course before returning to the menu.  All were amazing and I cannot begin to describe them.

1 thought on “Days 40 – 45 May 9 – 14 2025 – Sydney”

  1. SueSue

    Dear Cathy, Dear Howard, thank you so much for sharing your trip with me. It is such a pleasure to follow you around. Going to Sydney Opera is on my top 3 of the travel wish list. Therefore a special thanks for the beautiful pictues and the information about the Opera building. Big Hug, Sue

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