Great NYTimes article on Milford Track, which we hiked on the April 2007 trip
"A Walk Through New Zealand’s Watery Wild", January 18, 2009
Monday, January 19, 2009
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
Sydney
April 2008
I love Sydney. I had an amazing whirlwind six days in New South Wales, with wonderful Australian hospitality care of GSB roommate Tristen and her family and Dartmouth expat Kelly
Facebook album
Part 1 - http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2048073&l=bfc2c&id=502186
Part 2 - http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2048074&l=df02e&id=502186
Restaurants: Ripples (cas harbor side restaurant), Café Sydney (overlooking Harbor), Bowers Restaurant (at Manly Beach, on water), Almond Bar (cozy Med place), Longrain (in Surry Hills, my fave, SO good)
Echoes in the Blue Mountains - http://www.echoeshotel.com.au/
Day 1 – Thursday
With great luck, I had an empty United flight to Sydney where I got to sleep across the seats. The ultimate red-eye, the flight leaves SFO on Tuesday 11pm and gets in to Sydney on Thursday at 7am. Tristen picked me up and I got to freshen up at her parents’ home in northern suburb Riverview where we were staying, before I head into North Sydney with her to work. Turns out the Southern Cross office is just about across the street from the Cisco building. I had a lovely lunch on the north side of the harbor at Ripples with Tristen (new Australian food – zucchini blossoms stuffed with cheese, yum) before venturing out to Sydney.
I took a quick ferry over from the north side to Circular Quay (pronounced “key”) for $5.50 AU, though I learned that the ferry ticket machines only give change in coins (not good when you insert your $50 bill…) Circular Quay is the big ferry terminal on the harbor and where the iconic Sydney Opera House is. They do one hour tours of the Opera House in many languages, so I signed up for the English tour ($35 AU). I learned about Utzon, the Danish architect, and the history of the performance hall. It is such an amazing structure and the theatres are great. There are five total and we got to see two of the smaller ones and the North Foyer symphony hall. Swan Lake was actually going on at the same time in the other large hall, definitely a living, active facility. I had a nice walk around the adjoining Botanical Gardens before training back to North Sydney.
After some wine with Tristen’s co-workers, we went back to Circular Quay for a wonderful dinner at Café Sydney overlooking the harbor. We had a great flight of Australian white wines with “bugs”, the Australian word for these huge yummy crustaceans.
Day 2 – Friday
Tristen took the day off and we drove out to Manly Beach, where Tristen had signed us up for surf lessons in North Steyne. Unfortunately, there were tiny waves, but the instructor let us pass on lessons and gave us wet suits and boards for the hour for free. Water was really nice and we bobbed around, with some surfing, then over to Manly proper and had a nice walk and lunch at Bowers Restaurant on the water. It was perfect – we had rock oysters with ginger and lime, as Bloody Mary shooters, and natural, and a great crab spaghettini and salt and pepper squid. After some digesting, we found a spot at Shelly Beach, and I went out for a brisk open water swim. The water is really clear so you see tons of fish near the shore. It was a little darker when you swam out further and I turned around when I realized there was no one for hundreds of meters and I couldn’t see around me. Scary. I also had a minor scare when all of a sudden, I could see a huge school of tiny fish on the bottom swimming away from me and I was afraid there was a big fish that they knew about that I didn’t. But it was ok J
After some sun time, we drove to Belmoral Beach, which is smaller but beautiful with the finest sand felt so good to walk on barefoot. We had tea and raspberry gateau at Bather’s Pavilion
Ironically, the NY Times Travel Dispatch did an article on the Blue Mountains while we were there – “Going Green in Australia’s Blue Mountains.” See page three for a write-up of Katoomba and Echoes!
I love Sydney. I had an amazing whirlwind six days in New South Wales, with wonderful Australian hospitality care of GSB roommate Tristen and her family and Dartmouth expat Kelly
Facebook album
Part 1 - http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2048073&l=bfc2c&id=502186
Part 2 - http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2048074&l=df02e&id=502186
Restaurants: Ripples (cas harbor side restaurant), Café Sydney (overlooking Harbor), Bowers Restaurant (at Manly Beach, on water), Almond Bar (cozy Med place), Longrain (in Surry Hills, my fave, SO good)
Echoes in the Blue Mountains - http://www.echoeshotel.com.au/
Day 1 – Thursday
With great luck, I had an empty United flight to Sydney where I got to sleep across the seats. The ultimate red-eye, the flight leaves SFO on Tuesday 11pm and gets in to Sydney on Thursday at 7am. Tristen picked me up and I got to freshen up at her parents’ home in northern suburb Riverview where we were staying, before I head into North Sydney with her to work. Turns out the Southern Cross office is just about across the street from the Cisco building. I had a lovely lunch on the north side of the harbor at Ripples with Tristen (new Australian food – zucchini blossoms stuffed with cheese, yum) before venturing out to Sydney.
I took a quick ferry over from the north side to Circular Quay (pronounced “key”) for $5.50 AU, though I learned that the ferry ticket machines only give change in coins (not good when you insert your $50 bill…) Circular Quay is the big ferry terminal on the harbor and where the iconic Sydney Opera House is. They do one hour tours of the Opera House in many languages, so I signed up for the English tour ($35 AU). I learned about Utzon, the Danish architect, and the history of the performance hall. It is such an amazing structure and the theatres are great. There are five total and we got to see two of the smaller ones and the North Foyer symphony hall. Swan Lake was actually going on at the same time in the other large hall, definitely a living, active facility. I had a nice walk around the adjoining Botanical Gardens before training back to North Sydney.
After some wine with Tristen’s co-workers, we went back to Circular Quay for a wonderful dinner at Café Sydney overlooking the harbor. We had a great flight of Australian white wines with “bugs”, the Australian word for these huge yummy crustaceans.
Day 2 – Friday
Tristen took the day off and we drove out to Manly Beach, where Tristen had signed us up for surf lessons in North Steyne. Unfortunately, there were tiny waves, but the instructor let us pass on lessons and gave us wet suits and boards for the hour for free. Water was really nice and we bobbed around, with some surfing, then over to Manly proper and had a nice walk and lunch at Bowers Restaurant on the water. It was perfect – we had rock oysters with ginger and lime, as Bloody Mary shooters, and natural, and a great crab spaghettini and salt and pepper squid. After some digesting, we found a spot at Shelly Beach, and I went out for a brisk open water swim. The water is really clear so you see tons of fish near the shore. It was a little darker when you swam out further and I turned around when I realized there was no one for hundreds of meters and I couldn’t see around me. Scary. I also had a minor scare when all of a sudden, I could see a huge school of tiny fish on the bottom swimming away from me and I was afraid there was a big fish that they knew about that I didn’t. But it was ok J
After some sun time, we drove to Belmoral Beach, which is smaller but beautiful with the finest sand felt so good to walk on barefoot. We had tea and raspberry gateau at Bather’s Pavilion
Ironically, the NY Times Travel Dispatch did an article on the Blue Mountains while we were there – “Going Green in Australia’s Blue Mountains.” See page three for a write-up of Katoomba and Echoes!
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