A Day at the Opera

Our first official full day in Sydney we headed to the Circular Quay Harbour to see the infamous Sydney Opera House.  I knew that the building would be great, but nothing could prepare me for the way I felt when I saw the building up close.  When we got off the tube and walked around the circular quay to the end of the harbour, there she stood like a white beacon against a dark sky.  My breath just caught in my throat. She was so fantastic, I almost tripped over my own feet because I couldn't take my eyes off of the spectacle.  What an amazing engineering and architectural feat to create such a unique building, that put Sydney on the map forever.  She is now one of the most recognized buildings across the globe.

We did a tour of the opera house to learn about how it was built and to see it inside.  There was a design competition for a national opera house in the 1950s, and it was won by an architect in Denmark named Jorn Utzon.  He didn't actually think he would win, and didn't have a clue as to how it could actually be possible.  He worked with a pair of architects who helped him come up with the concept of using cut-out sections of different sized spheres to make the 'shell-like' roof.  The project was originally intended to take 3 years and cost 7 million, but in actuality it took 16 years and 103 million dollars!  During its build there was lots of controversy from residents and politicians,  but now it is the pride of all Australians, and has won Jorn the highest architectural award in the world. We loved its location on the harbour to get choice shots of the harbour bridge.

Contrary to the implication of the name, it houses a multi-venue performing arts centre, rather than a single Opera theatre, and we went to a performance later that night in one of its small studio theatres (set up like a lounge with tables).  The show we saw was a late night lounge comedy/music cabaret to celebrate upcoming the Mardi Gras.   Which was essentially transvestites (trannies is what they call themselves) singing really funny songs about love and life.  There was also a guest appearance by Alan Cumming (well known gay actor/director) who told us stories about working on a movie 10 years ago (Buddy) where the chimp fell in love with him. Very funny stuff!  Following the movie, we had a drink on the promenade in front of the opera house so that we could enjoy it lit up at night.

Trapped in a Holding Cell in Toronto?

In the city of Melbourne we visited an old gaol (jail) used in the 19th century that housed thousands of criminals.   It took up an entire city block and contained exercise yards (both men & women), hospitals, a chapel, a bath house and accommodation for staff.  It was eerie to walk through the prison and peer into all of the cells in the 3 level block where many stories were listed about the prisoners that were housed there. 

The most infamous was Ned Kelly - the hero/rogue/bank robber/murderer of the late 1800's that has had 2 movies made about him, and he is still referenced in modern retail stores (like this wine store).The scaffolding where he was hanged (hung?) in the prison still exists today.  Creepy.

We then did a tour of the watch house, which is basically a holding area for inmates awaiting trial, or drunk/disorderly people being held overnight by the police.  When we entered we were ordered around by the sergeant on staff and he directed a number of each of us into large cells that he locked us into and turned the lights out on us.  Nobody spoke a word in the darkness.  I could sense how the "prisoners" felt in Stanley Milgram's psychology experiment of inmates & guard behaviours, now in a movie called 'Das Experiment' (highly recommended).  I was committed for having a bad hair day.

Syd was committed for shaving his yeti beard.

Also during our stay in Melbourne we enjoyed Little Italy (pasta & gelato), walked along the southbank of the river (reminiscent of the Thames in London), took the tourist bus around, and then visited the botanical gardens - where I saw a tree that had a bum! ;o)  

This city felt eerily familiar.  With its frequent streetcars (trams) and their dedicated lanes, its condominiums on the harbour, its cubism type building (like the ROM), its raised freeway 10 stories above the city, its streets/sidewalks, its arena right next to the train tracks with a retractable roof, and its tall skyscrapers.  I could swear we were home, except in summer weather! ;o)  A nice feeling. 

We stayed in a suburb called St. Kilda for the next 2 days.  This beach made Melbourne different from Toronto.  It was really nice, with soft sand, with oceanfront cafes and a killer sunset, as well as an old amusement park built in 1912 (called Luna Park).  In addition, the water was warm and clear and no jellies! 

We have a bit more piece of mind about our 5 weeks in Oz now as we just booked our greyhound ticket and excursions up the east coast - so its no worries mate!  Off to Sydney!

New Zealand Road Signs

On our travels through NZ we found some very interesting road signs.  This post is to share some of those with you.

Astrid & I love canoeing, so to find the 'Place of the Canoe', we thought that was pretty cool.  Unfortunately this "town" (read: tiny ass hamlet) was hardly worth the wood this sign was created from, and we powered through in about 48 seconds :)

This sign is awesome.  While simultaneously reminding you of the 100km speed limit, it informs you of a windy road for 7km.  They should combine the two signs into one that reads:  "Windy ass road for 7kms.  The limit is 100, but aint no way you gonna reach that, so consider this the Kiwi Autobahn'.

This is one of the numerous 'dont speed' signs in NZ that are mildly humourous.

This is the coolest bus shelter I've ever seen.  Painted in both South Park and The Simpsons, you can rest assured your kids will wait for the bus while reinforcing the bad habits and manners they learn from the telly.

I've seen a lot of wildlife signs in my day, but this one is just plain cool.

Not really a road sign as such, but worth an honourable mention.  This is located in the supermarket parking lot -- apparently shopping carts are referred to as 'Trundlers'.

Syd.

The Great New Zealand Ale Trail

Our love of beer has forced us to seek out a number of breweries across New Zealand.  In total we have been to 9 breweries - 2 in the North and 7 in the South.  The beers tend to be based on English and German recipes, and we have become fans of quite a few! 

In Auckland we did Galbraith's Alehouse, but then never saw its beer since - obviously not a crowd favourite with the kiwis.  We both liked their wheat beer from their tasting menu.

In Wellington we tasted Mac's brewery beers. We enjoyed all of the beers here - and kiwis do too - they tend to be quite pricey in the supermarkets though.  My favourite was the 'Great White' wit beer and Syd enjoyed the original lager.

Our first brewery in the South Island was in a town called Westport, called West Coast Brewery but is known as the Miners' Brewery.  This was basically a tiny little place where we just tried beer straight from the taps, and then bought a rigger (2 litre bottle) of their golden lager.  He threw in a bar towel for free so that was pretty sweet.

We then did a full-on brewery tour of Monteith's brewery in Greymouth on the west coast.  It was a well-guided tour of a large establishment and they have an engineer that has worked there 43 years that invented some helpful machines such as a keg un-denter that has saved the company lots of money.  Really neat to see the bottling machine as well.  The tasting section of the tour was well done with elaborate stories told about how each beer came to be, before drinking the sweet brew.  Our unanimous favourite here was the unique Radler - a 5% beer based on a German recipe (much like a shandy) where lager is mixed with lemon & lime juice for a refreshing glass.  I quite enjoyed that she opened the taps up for us to drink at will for the next 20 minutes. Much to Syd's chagrin who just observed as the DD.  We both agree that this brewery was our favourite overall.

In Wanaka we went to beerworks.  It was a very small shop/brewery and we weren't a fan of their beers in general. But if we had to choose, Syd would choose the lager called Brewski and I would choose the dark porter beer (though forget its name).

In the mining town called Arrowtown, we visited their brewery called Arrow.  They made lovely steak pies that we gobbled up for lunch along with some English wheat ales that we fancied.  Though the black beer, Roaring Meg (named after the rapids in the area) was quite tasty as well.

In the Southland we went to Invercargill Brewery.  It was also small and only ran tours once a day (which we missed) so we just tried their beers.  Syd loved a honey beer called Biman (pronounced BEE-man) but he had the last glass of it, so ended up buying a rigger of Wasp (another type of honey beer) (sidenote:  it does feel kinda weird walking out with a 2-litre of fresh tap beer).  They use NZ manuka honey in the beers here and they are quite tasty.  I was fond of the dark porter called Pitch Black, but bought Boysen-Beery (summer fruit ale) for a novelty.

In Dunedin (the Edinburgh of the south), we went to Speights Brewery.  This is the most popular (and highest selling in NZ) beer in New Zealand, and is highly marketed as 'the pride of the south'.  There is also commercials about the 'southern man' which kind of reminds me of the Malboro man.   We met some fun people on this brewery tour and at the end got 15 min to pour our own mini-pints of the 6 different beers (no DD this time!). Our favourite was Distinction Ale because it tasted like caramel and was 5%.  Gold Medal Ale is the most popular and we have bought it this month at the supermarket on occasion (twist off caps of these stubby bottles have been quite handy, and there is nifty trivia under each cap!).

Lastly, in Christchurch we went to the Twisted Hop brewpub and bought another tasting tray of 6 beers.  My favourite was the Honeydew (yet another manuka honey beer) while Syd's was the Sauvin Pilsner.  This pub was located down a cobblestone alley with brick buildings everywhere - characteristic of Toronto's distillery district actually!

Overall, it was great to taste the subtle (and sometimes great) differences between beers based on the type and quantity of hops/malts used in the making of the beers.  The beer here is actually very good, and we're sad to leave it behind to go to Australia.   But maybe they'll have new beer avenues to explore...

Astrid.

New Zealand's National Sport -- Our First Live Rugby Match!

We were in Dunedin the morning of Friday Feb 13th when we found out there was going to be a rugby match that night -- the Otago Highlanders (obvious Scottish connection :)) against an Australian team called the Brumbies.  It was a little windy and chilly out so we bought a souvenier Highlanders toque (known as a 'beanie' here), had some haggis and local brew, along with some scotch for dinner, and headed to the game.  The stadium was surprisingly empty, but it was still great fun and a memorable experience (and tix were only $25 NZ!).

Unfortunately, our team The Highlanders lost 33-31 against the stronger aussies.

Mmmmm Speights.  Pride of the South.  Plastic bottles that were allowed to be taken into the stands :)

Nice looking toque!

Syd.

Curious Marine Life at Curio Bay

After a great trip to Milford Sound and an overnight camp on beautiful Lake Te Anau, we headed to the Southland - south coast of New Zealand.  We stopped to do a quite strenuous cave in Clifden where we were crawling, crouching and gripping like spiderman to cave walls to avoid falling into deep pools along the 400m underground dark passages.

The cool thing about a camper van is you can have lunch pretty much anywhere.  Check out this sweet setup for a quite bite to break up the journey:

The coast here was wild and windy, so much so that the trees were permanently formed into slanted trunks and branches.

We stopped at the main south town called Invercargill, where they chose not to take down their Christmas decor.  We enjoyed some wine at the local brewery there and bought some boysenberry fruit wine called boysen-beery. ;o)

Then we trucked on to the south east coast called 'the catlins' and stayed at a campsite at the end of a peninsula called Curio Bay.  This bay is famous for lots of marine life.

No sooner did we pull into the campground and we saw people taking pictures of something.  So I hopped out with a camera to check it out and sure enough, it was a female sea lion just coming out of the sea to hang out.  She walked right up to me and I was able to get great shots.  She wasn't scared of people at all, she just wanted to find a place to pass out for a while - which she did - on someone's campsite for a good 20 minutes!

Following that, we parked our van in a secluded flax patch and walked out to the yellow-eyed penguin cove where the penguins were coming in from a day of hunting in the sea to feed their chicks. Apparently it takes them most of the evening to walk along the beach to their nests in the rocks.  It doesn't help when us tourists are trying to take their pictures so it slows their progress.  These penguins we saw up close on the rocks had their wings out (at attention) and were probably waiting for papa penguin to come in with more fish.

They were so cute, and it was so neat to watch them hop around. I just wanted to hug one, and squeeze one, and call it my own!  Laws prohibit such things of course, so I just ogled from 10m away. ;o(

Lastly, there was one more bay in the park to check out - porpoise bay - that has resident dolphin pods of the rarest breed of dolphins called 'hectors dolphins'.   They just bounced around in the surf and were majestic to watch.   We wanted to go swim with them but the water (and air) was too bloody cold!

Upon return to the campsite there was another sea lion hanging out on someone's tent fly and trying to catch some zz's.

 

We definitely made our money's worth in that park - 3 different types of unique and fascinating marine life within 20 minutes!  Sweet as.

Astrid.

Glorious Milford Sound

On Tuesday Feb 10 the rain let up and we awoke to a gorgeous day in Queenstown.  Though there were a few more items in Q-town we wanted to check out (like luging down the hill!), we wanted to take advantage of the weather and head up to Milford for an afternoon cruise (which was highly recommended by everyone we asked about it).

Milford Sound is actually incorrectly named, for it is not actually a sound but a fiord.  A sound is usually a delta of a river that gradually gets deeper as it approaches the sea.  A fiord on the other hand is caused by a glacier and is characterized by being deep inland, then having a relatively shallow 'shelf' before joining the sea.  In Milford's case, the sound is approximately 1000 feet deep -- the first 30 feet of which is fresh water that is brown which sits atop of of sea water (I think this is due to salt water being heavier than fresh water).  Where the 'sound' meets the sea, the depth quickly reduces to just 120 feet -- this is due to the glacial silt and rubble being pushed out to the opening of the fiord.

Though we heard that its just as amazing when it rains, since rain causes nearly 1000 waterfalls to appear, we were happy with the wonderful sun, and to be able to capture some great pictures.  I'll let the photographs tell the rest of the story:

Syd.