Sydney 2

On Saturday, 23 February, we were up early and off to the city centre, by bus this time, to catch the boat for our harbour cruise that was leaving at 9 am. It was a lovely old wooden boat named Radar:














There were about 70 us board, current exchangees and their families, some former exchangees, and the organizers (all former exchangees). We had a tour guide that pointed out places of interest along the way, such as the swimming pool where a famous Aussie swimmer started swimming in the 1970's. This pool was right down on the water's edge, and just had a canvas shell and was filled with harbour water. More than a few of the pools in Sydney use this technique for their water supply. Various bridges were pointed our, including the famous Harbour Bridge of course, and also the ANZAC Bridge and Iron Cove Bridge. Cockatoo Island has an interesting history, it was once used as a prison http://www.cockatooisland.gov.au/ We boated up the river first as far as we could, then headed back. The properties along the harbour are also fantastic. Here is a sampling:



























































What amazed me, was that some of these places had their own little sandy beach, right in Sydney Harbour. We sailed under the Harbour Bridge and past the Opera House. Our lunchtime break was on the north side of the harbour at Clifton Gardens. There was a long pier, and an enclosed swimming area; not like the pools, but just along the beach with a net extending down form the pier to keep the sharks out! We had a lovely barbeque lunch; the kookaburras were waiting in the trees, and one of our leaders told us to watch our plates because last year a kookaburra came swooping down and grabbed a piece of chicken off someone's plate. Not one minute later there was a commotion and a kookaburra had done the exact same thing! The piece of chicken as almost a big as the bird as he sat there on the pavement with his prize.

Sydney Harbour Week had just started that day so the harbour was full of all manner of watercraft, especially sailboats. It was just beautiful. They had a lovely windy day for it, too.




























When we disembarked, John and I and the girls wandered around an area called The Rocks, where the original settelment of Sydney was. Lots of nice old buildings and housing areas. We even stumbled upon a little piece of Canada in the shape of the embassy, Canada House, on Harrington Street.
























We headed back to Abbotsford and 'home' after that and had a really nice barbeque dinner with our hosts and an early bedtime.