Sydney Explorer

Continued from my previous blog 'Sydney Australia', this is what happens at this time of year when tasks are many and time is short, stories need to be broken up into seperate blogs. We had met Alison at the hotel, caught up, taken a quick tour of our hotel and surrounding area. During our quick tour we had gathered some provisions including a bottle of wine which we consumed whilst watching an approaching storm from Alison's penthouse apartment. Plans had been made to explore Sydney the following day using the ferry and a sightseeing tour or two :)

I arose at about 05h00 and attempted to get online to retrieve email and check social networks but unfortunately the WiFi left a lot to be desired so after 30 minutes of frustration I went down to the lobby and had a chat with the reception staff who assured me that there was no problem with the service and they were quite right the WiFi service in the lobby was good so I took a seat and downloaded emails to deal with later. I had just returned to our apartment when Alison knocked on the door, it was about 06h30 and she was returning to her apartment after an early morning swim and stopped by to remind us that breakfast would be in her apartment whenever we were ready. A few minutes later we gather in Alison's apartment and had breakfast as we finalised a very loose itinerary for the day.

By 09h00 we had taken the ferry from Darling Harbour to Circular Quay and booked a tour with the Sydney and Bondi Explorer which allowed for a single 24 hour ticket at a cost of AU$30.00 each which allowed us to hop on and off of both the Sydney (Red) and Bondi (Blue) tours as frequently as we liked. Tour buses ran every 30 minutes so one could take advantage of the stops to get in some awesome photography. Unfortunately as with all good things there were far too many great stops and not enough time or energy to see it all. The bus trip to Bondi seemed to be at breakneck speed and Alison along with a number of other passengers were concerned that they were not getting an opportunity to photograph much of anything en route. Happily we arrived at Bondi safe and intact despite the haste of the journey. 

Alison was keen to have fish and chips on the beach at Bondi so we set off to do just that however, there was a slight breeze and the sand is fine so I suggested that perhaps the beach itself may not be such a good idea and we settled on the foreshore instead.

After our splendid lunch we browsed the shops along the foreshore and promenade. Later we took a stroll down to the beach where we took some photo's before heading back to our bus stop. We returned to continue the 'red' route pretty much where we had embarked on the 'blue' route. How time flies when one is having fun, the day was slipping away as fast as the 44 years between meetings. It was 22h00 before we got back to the hotel exhausted, time for a quick nightcap ... but time flies and it was well after midnight before we retired.

I leave you with some images taken on the day, starting with a panorama of Bondi. I'll continue the 44 year reunion in the next blog - Sydney Chinese Gardens.