Rendezvous Stafford Hotel, The Rocks, New South Wales, Australia

WOW big city, almost forgot whats that like. I said almost dammit STFU. Sydney is clean, quiet and beautiful. It might have the most amazing harbor on the planet. Imagine a city oriented around this huge harbor; bridges, ferries and an enormous amount of waterfront property. For those who have been following my New Zealand trip, my sister has joined me for 3 weeks as we explore the south east corner of the country. Our first day was overcast with intermittent showers but that doesn't stop the intrepid sightseer. We took a guided took up through the Blue Mountains with a stop along the way at a unique zoo. I will post some pictures separately. The Blue Mountains are a HUGE nature preserve that also serves as the catch basin for Sydney's water system. I just goes on forever an ever, just amazing all this nature just an hour west of the big city. We are in this rather mediocre boutique hotel. I would have thought that mediocre and boutique were mutually exclusive but I was wrong. What this hotel does have is the classic and overused LOCATION LOCATION LOCATION. A great jump off position for so many things. Some of the highlights was the harbor bridge climb, a evening cruise of the harbor, a ferry to the famous Manly beach and of all things a trip to the zoo.

The Bridge Climb: Its not what you expect, nope, not that either. Upon arrival, you dress in a ghostbuster jumpsuit and climbing harness. You need to have everything tied down to protect all those cars and pedestrians who will be below you as you climb. The harness has this neat ratcheting binder that clicks onto a guide wire for the whole climb. Up through the inside infrastructure and up some ladders you then arrive on the curving upper structure from which all of Sydney is laid out as far as the eye can see. Simply breath taking. While this does have some touristy connotations it was just amazing. The people on the climb with us were also pretty cool which just made it better. They run climbs every 10 minutes including sunrise, sunset and night climbs.

The Cruise: This so exceeded expectations. Our host Shaune was from all places upstate NY, ROFL. 14 years in Australia qualifies him as an expert though. We tooled around the harbor going into all the little basins and bays. But lets be honest, sitting on the front of a power boat with a beer on a beautiful harbor is hard to beat. Add great companions and you have a recipe for success. Something so simple became just perfect.

Manly : Take the 30 minute ferry to Manly, a suburb. WOW. All you people sitting in the frigid east coast of the USA would probably have a heart attack if I honestly told you how nice this place really is. Imagine having this commute, I don't think you are actually up for it. What did I do in Manly? I can't tell all but we did spend a few hours testing beer quality in this bizarre Bavarian style beer garden. Looking out over a section of the harbor drinking beer with the lush hillsides in the background, it could have been Jamaica.

Taronga Zoo : Just a 10 minute ferry ride is the zoo. We took a guided tour of the zoo which turned out quite well. The highlight for me was when we went inside one of the exhibits and were allowed to feed the denizens. With a possum on my shoulder and a bird on one of my fingers, I held live worms in my other hand while the birds picked at them. Not bad for a city boy.

Tomorrow we are out of Sydney and hitting the road. We will be taking a few stops along the way before reaching Melbourne. Not sure when I will have time to do another update so stay tuned.