Tellin' a "Ginny"

We experienced a Bush-walk with Regis’ cousin Wade and his daughter Stephanie, but

Are You Sure This is Only an Hour Walk?

number one son was still in school when we had this adventure and he was a little put out by not being included, so he claimed to have a new and improved bush-walk he wanted to take us on. This one within walking distance of the house. He said he had gone on this walk with his “mates” and it was a good one with a multitude of Australian bush vegetation to experience. When questioned, he assured us it was approximately an hour’s journey, with a great view at the top of the hill. He pointed out a distant cell tower and said that was where we were headed. It looked a ways to me but when questioned he assured me it was probably only a little over an hour’s walk.

A big Gum Tree

Always open to another Australian adventure we said we were more than happy to go with him. Being a teenager, it took a while to actually get to the walk, as homework at the library, and difficulty waking up on the weekend, delayed the walk, but on a sunny warm Saturday, he appeared dressed in camo gear, army boots and a Boston Red Socks hat, saying he was ready to go.

This was a different bush-walk. Instead of following a clear national park trail, we started up a narrow worn stream track with rocks and roots trying to trip you. Other than the narrow track there were no markers on the trail, but he assured us he thought he recalled the way.

He was correct about the varied forms of vegetation. As we entered the bush the distinctive

Finding the Local Wildlife

bell ringing call of the Bell Bird greeted us. We walked through a dense almost tropical section, where we saw an iguana that was a good three feet long that scurried away as we approached, and a little water dragon that ignored us as we passed his spot on a rock by a little pond. We passed massive gum trees including “Ghost Gums”, which are so white they look like they are made of concrete. A group of Kookaburras were roosting on a group of these trees as we passed and their unique laughing call pointing them out as we walked on. Other areas were dry bush and other areas were full of Australian pines.

It was worth the walk.

I'm Tired Let's Head Home

As we reached the top of the hill, and started along the crest, I realized we were being “Ginnyed”, as my watch showed we had been walking for an hour already. At the top, we joined an actual marked track that lead us to a spectacular look-off with views out over the area. I questioned our young guide about the time difference, and he claimed he thought it only took an hour, and I told him the story of our friend who took us on a bike ride that was “Only 20 Km” when in fact it was 20 km just one way so the total was actually 40 km. That is where I invented the term “Telling a Ginny” which means you slightly mislead your friends about the distance of a trek to convince them to go.

We arrived back slightly dusty, and a lot tired and hot, but it was another great Australian experience.

How to "Stage" your Motorcycle

Kurt & Steph - Tour Guides

I found a local “Hot-Roder” and his girlfriend and convinced them to take me to the Gosford Classic Car Museum today. I spent the afternoon wandering around a huge collection of classic and exotic vehicles. The museum has over 450 interesting cars and other vehicles. Again, rather than tell you about all the great cars there, I am going to just include a series of pictures. This is a little different, I have taken a series of pictures of the various motorcycles featured in the museum, but if you look carefully, you will see some pretty exotic cars in the background, making these motorcycles look their best. I know that many of my friends will not be interested in this post, but I’m sure my car friends will enjoy trying to figure out what cars are hidden behind the motorcycles.  

Rockin'

Australia Rocks!

I have a friend who has a summer retreat in Cape Breton, and on a walk there I discovered fascinating patterns in the sandstone cliffs that I took many pictures of. I meant to do a post on that, and now here in Australia, in a country so different from back home I discovered a little cove with very similar rock patterns. The post therefore will be mostly pictures. The first two are from Nova Scotia, the rest are from Gosford, Australia. Can you tell the difference?

The trees may be different, and the folks down here may speak a lot differently but I think the rocks are pretty much the same.

Cape Breton

 

Cape Breton

Australia

Australia

Australia

Australia

Australia

The Cellar Door

Tasting at the Cellar Door

Australia has good wine, and with a week in the country, fitting in a day to taste some Aussie wine seemed a good activity. I enjoy a good full bodied red, and the Hunter Valley, an area a short way north west of Sydney and about an hour away from Regis’ cousin’s house, is renowned for its excellent reds; Shiraz, Merlots, and Cabernet Sauvignon. Shiraz is one of my favorites, and this is the grape this area really excels at, so this was a good spot to go do some Australian wine tasting. There are over 150 “Cellar Doors” (Australian for “tasting rooms”), so we had lots to choose from in Hunter Valley.

Having visited wine regions in Ontario, California, Spain and of course back home in Nova Scotia, we had some experience at how vineyards and wineries tend to take over an area,

All About The View

replacing other farms and crops, but the amount of wineries here is amazing. You can drive down section of road and find winery after winery side by side. Just the list on the Official Map and Tourist guide is slightly overwhelming . . . so many wines, so little time . . .

The up-side to so many wineries it that there is a great deal of competition, so the cellar doors offer mostly free tastings. After the $8.00 per taste fee in New Zealand this was a pleasant surprise. Some of the wineries do charge for “Superior” tastings, but the ordinary samples are free.

Cool Name, Good Wine

We left the choice of wineries up to “Cousin Wade”, our guide and designated driver, and he chose one he was particularly fond of, Audrey Wilkinson, but since he admitted that he liked this winery because of the spectacular views from the main building, I did not mind offering my method of choosing wineries with cool names, and requested visiting the “Cockfighter’s Ghost” cellar door I had seen on the way to his choice. As it happened, both were excellent, with Cockfighter’s Ghost having the most delicious Shiraz and Audrey Wilkinson having a delicious red blend I enjoyed enough to purchase a bottle for later.

Ready For The Steak!

Unfortunately, doing wine tasting when traveling far from home does not allow me to purchase much wine as my suitcase is stuffed already. I returned from Niagara-on-the-Lake with a trunk full of wine, but walked away from Hunter valley with only a bottle that will probably not survive this evening’s Aussie Barbecue.

Bushwalking

Ready to go Bushwalking

Our first full day in Australia and we had to do something “Australian”. Since it is spring here and the temperature was expected to go up to 25°, our first choice was to go to the beach, and have lunch of Chicken-salt French Fries on the beach for lunch, but Steph, Regis’s niece came home and changed the plans, suggesting we go Bushwalking and then go to the beach.

Great Views

Here in Australia you do not go to the “woods”, you go to the “bush”, and you don’t hike, you “Go for a Bushwalk”. Now they do use the same term for the trails as in New Zealand, and we headed for the Wyrrabalong (Pronounce that “Where I Belong”) National Park Track. This is an interesting park, situated between a residential neighborhood and the steep ocean cliffs, so although a beautiful natural site, it is conveniently close to the city so people can use it easily. There was a nice parking lot at either end, and the track itself was well maintained and easy to walk on with sand underfoot and stairs on the climbs. As you “Walk” the track you come out onto beautiful look-offs with spectacular views all the way to Sydney from cliffs that are shared with para-gliders and hang-gliders launching out over the ocean. Fortunately no one was taking advantage of the updrafts and we had the cliff to ourselves.

Time for Chicken-salt French Fries

Hiking through the woods, or “Bushwalking” in Australia is so different than in Canada, because the vegetation you walk through is so completely different from what we are used to. No maple trees, no oak, and no pine or spruce. There were Banksia, Gum trees, and paperbark trees. It is really weird, It was like walking through a completely different landscape. Even in Asia or Europe there are trees I recognized, but here on a continent not connected to anything else, a completely alien world has developed. The trees are different, the flowers are foreign, everything is new. As I walked along I was constantly stopping to photograph plants and trees I had never seen before.

We still got to go to the beach only it was even nicer after a long bushwalk and those chicken-salt French fries were even tastier.

Termite Nest

Wallaby Burger & Beer

Regis meeting a Wallaby

After a day exploring a new city, I love finding a local Pub where they serve good hearty local beers, preferable local craft brews. Finding some nice local food specialty to snack on with the beer main course is even better. Everything came together here in Hobart Tasmania during our visit.

Although the captain had cut our stay in Hobart short so he can try to outrun a storm on the

Yup, Cobras in Tasmania

way to New Zealand (Who says cruising isn’t exciting?), we still had almost a full day to explore the city. So far, my impressions of Australia are very favorable. I loved Sydney and Hobart was just as nice. It is a clean, vibrant, modern city with lots going on. We arrived on a Saturday and Hobart has a really fabulous market that takes over an entire section of the downtown, with local fresh produce and hundreds of local craft-people selling unique hand made products. How about a lovely hand carved wooden bow-tie for my Tux? Although I have one more Gala night on the cruise requiring formal wear I did pass on this unique item, but I may try my hand a making one at home . . .

SPRING!

One nice thing about visiting the southern hemisphere in October, is that it is Spring here and everything is green and the flowers are blooming, and a walk through a residential area allowed us to see some beautiful gardens just coming into their best. Having two springs in one year is great!

Sampling the Local Brew

Getting tired, thirsty and hungry after a morning of exploring, I led us back to a pub I had noticed offering 16 local craft beers, and I discovered they had a Sampler tray where instead of having to only choose one or two beer, I could try five of them. They were all good, but then I have not found too many brews I do not get along with. Among their Gourmet burger selection we discovered a Wallaby burger, and Regis reluctantly agreed to try it (We were sharing). The meat was shredded instead of a patty, and to be honest it was like pulled pork only a little bit stronger tasting. I enjoyed it, but Regis’ imagination kept her imagining cute little hopping animals, so I got most of the meat . . .

Down Under at Last

Sailing Into Sydney

After almost 30 days at sea, we finally arrived in Australia, and at 6:00 am, we sailed into Sydney Harbour.

It was not an easy journey to get there.  After leaving New Caledonia we sailed through seas of almost 4 meters, so the ship was bouncing and pounding through heavy swells and waves. As we walked around the ship there were noticeably fewer people out and about. I think many passengers were finding the rough seas a bit unsettling so were staying close to their staterooms. Many of the people I saw around the ship were complaining about the rough ride. I imagine most people were happy to feel the ship pull into the calmer waters of Sydney Harbour.

Just fitting under the bridge

We were docking at the White Bay Cruise Terminal, and the Noordam is the largest ship that can make it this far into Sydney Harbour. It still has to be timed closely so the tide is low enough to give the ship’s funnels the two meters clearance under the bridge. This timing worked well, however and the sun rose as we entered the harbour allowing everyone to watch as we slowly made our way into one of the most beautiful harbours in the world.

Sydney Harbour really is spectacular. It is deep and long, allowing the largest ships to get far inland. Of course there is the iconic Opera House sitting right out into the water underneath the city’s famous harbour bridge. We had to make two tight turns, which forced the local ferries to stop and wait for us the get around and once we reached the cruise terminal, the ship swung completely around, and the captain backed us neatly into the mooring.

Barangaroo Park

Sydney is a beautiful city, with a pleasant combination of modern buildings and old historical landmarks. I was especially pleased to find walkways all along the waterfront. It is a particular annoyance of mine to find prime waterfront locations sold to big resorts and hotels that then block access for the public. Increasingly cities are seeing the value to creating “Public” areas along the waterfront and Sydney is following this example. I was able to walk all along the waterfront from the Opera House back to Darling Harbour with only a short break where a waterfront park was being constructed. One section called Barangaroo was once a huge concrete pier and has been reclaimed and converted into a beautiful park with trees, sandstone breakwaters, and trails for walkers, joggers and bicycles. Of course there is lots of commercial development along this same waterfront, but attractive public walkways have been maintained and you do not find yourself blocked by fences and exclusive resorts hotels. Even the converted warehouse condos in Dawes Point feature walkways all around them.

One nice thing about cruising is that you get a taste of many different places and it is brief stops on cruise journeys that have brought me back to places like Spain, Italy and the Caribbean. Sydney is certainly a city that our one day visit made us put it on a list of locations to visit again.