We’re home, safe and sound. Return trip went like clockwork. 

See you next time!

Jon and Judy

As great as the chorus performance was last night, today’s city tour was a bust. We rode around town in a van with a half-dozen other tourists. The guide stopped at a park and a couple of viewpoints and told us some stories about the history of Sydney, but if I hear about Governor Phillips and the 11 convict ships, I’m gonna choke. That’s not the guides fault, I suppose, and maybe we’ve just got gethomeitis, but it didn’t work for me. Other than the stops it was difficult to see anything and to appreciate what we were seeing.

Our guide did drop a few interesting tidbits. Metropolitan Sydney has 300 Km – 180 miles – of shoreline. It’s a big bay with lots of nooks and crannies, giving it a seemingly impossible statistic. There are only 57 private homes in that entire stretch. Sydney is blessed with lots of public parks and, I think he said, over 50 swimming beaches. It’s a good place to live.

Twenty nine years ago, after several mass shootings, the Australian government appropriated enough money to buy back everyone’s rifle and other firearm capable of holding more than two cartridges. Possession of such a weapon now is treated as an act of attempted murder, with a fourteen-year prison sentence. Since the buyback was put in place, spanning 29 years now, Australia has had zero cases of gun violence. He hastened to point out that direct comparison with USA isn’t appropriate, given the different histories of the two countries. Australia has never had gun-slinging cowboys, nor has it had revolutionary or civil wars. Australia just rolled over and played nice with the Brits.

Christmas isn’t as big a holiday as it was when he was a kid (I’d guess he’s 60). He says that scandals in the Catholic Church have decreased attendance. Further, Australia has had a big influx of Buddhists and Muslims from Asia and the Middle East. Parents have complained about Christmas in schools. Times they are a changin’ in Australia as everywhere else.

Sixty five percent of Australia’s federal revenues come from royalties on mining production. That means they can be generous when it comes to providing education, health care and pensions.

The tour ended in The Rocks, a neighborhood right next to our hotel in the Circular Quay. This whole area – Circular Quay and The Rocks, is where Governor Phillips set up the first penal colony in 1888. For the first two years or more the convicts and their guards alike lived in near starvation conditions until they figured out how to grow crops. Virtually none of the convicts had any practical skills such as farming or construction, so the going was tough. Now, it’s a place of tourism. The average visitor probably consumes enough calories in a day to feed a convict for a month. We’ve each been good for two convicts for a month.

We toured the Rocks, a fairly compact neighborhood and, as is our custom a) got an ice cream cone to hold us until lunch time; b) bought souvenirs to take home to the Fam and c) went back to the hotel for a 30-minute nap. After the nap, we hit the Executive Lounge here at the hotel for cookies to complete our lunch. Sufficiently fortified, we caught the ferry across the bay and almost to The Gap – the entrance to the harbor from the South Pacific. Our final destination was the beach town of Manly.

Manly is indeed a beach town – think Old Orchard Beach, Maine. T-shirt and souvenir shops, fast-ish food restaurants and lots of kids parading up and down the sidewalks and the beach. Being old folks, we found a comfortable bench in the shade and watched life pass by. An old guy sitting next to us did Sudukos. The next old guy on the beach read a newspaper.

Back across the bay we went, and back to The Rocks for dinner. Having no plan, we found Le Foote, advertising itself as serving mideastern cuisine with a modern twist. Judy had a very nice pork dish and I had Barramundi, a South Pacific fish. The waitress apologized that today’s catch produced 500 gram filets – that’s more than a pound. I gulped, gave it my best  but couldn’t eat the whole thing, no matter how good it tasted. “Nice try,” complemented the waitress.

We’re back in the hotel, pretty much packed and planning on a 6:30 AM alarm, breakfast in the Executive Lounge, and an Uber at 8:00. Flight time is 11:50 AM. We change planes in Houston and get to Tampa at 3:18 PM the same day. It’s actually 18.5 hours travel time but the International Date Line gives us back a day.

Judy has put together another video, this one dealing with our time at Uluru. Here’s the link:

https://judyrick.zenfolio.com/australia_videos/hcb496d10#hcb496d10

So, this is the last blog posting for this trip. If I think of it, I’ll make a posting confirming our safe arrival, but don’t get concerned if I forget. ↓

Thanks for traveling with us and we’ll look forward to posting again when we start our trip to Antarctica January 31, 2024.

I don’t know where to begin. Last Spring, when we planned this trip, we wanted to include the Sydney Opera House on our itinerary. And what better way to see it than to attend a performance? There were two rock performances, one outside on the steps (Guy Sebastian, if that means anything to you), for December 11. A ballet that had been sold out since last March. And some kids’ choir performance. Kids, yes, but it’s in the main venue and any music is OK as long as we get to experience the Opera House firsthand.

What a mind bending, awe inspiring and inspirational show it was. The show, titled “Gondwana Choirs presents Voices of Angels 2023 – Mystery of the Stars,” turned out to be a Christmas concert put on by kids from, I’d guess six years of age through high school.

The Gondwana Choirs are teen singers, 56 of them, from all over Australia who are selected to come together for two weeks of choir study. They were the foundation of the performance, accompanied by an eight-piece orchestra (adults) and a piano. There were other choirs from around Sydney made up of 34 middle schoolers, and another “training choir” of 221 and 34 grade school kids. Close to 400 in all.

The singing was phenomenal. The program ranged from traditional religious carols (O Holy Night, We Three Kings) and secular choral works to modern (Blackbird by Paul McCartney). Each piece was song by some combination of choirs. And each change of music – uninterrupted by applause – involved a complex choreographed movement of kids from one position to another, all in seemingly random order, no one standing in a line. Changes in lighting accentuated one choral group or another. Middle schoolers in upper ranks of seats would suddenly appear and start singing.

There were two songs performed by the SCC Young Men’s Choir. They were joined by other members of the Gondwana Choir to perform intricate, multi-harmony pieces. One especially effective piece was sung without a conductor. All 56 kids, spread across the entire stage, sang as their adult leader walked off to the wings. They never missed a beat.

The show stealer was the performance by the grade schoolers along with all the other choir members. They paraded in, again in a complex maneuver, wearing holiday hats, to sing Frosty the Snowman and Sleigh Ride. Frosty was reimagined by the pianist to be “Frosty the Snowman-An Inconvenient Truth,“ and included lines, written by the pianist Luke Byrne, such as:

            Bad luck Frosty Snowman we’ve got

            Different plans you know

            We’re gonna put you in the squishy machine

            And make a Frappuccino!

            But who cares about climate change, we

            Like our SUVs.

            Just put the air conditioner on and turn it

            Down a few degrees.

            Ah! That’s better.

Sleigh Ride included a snowball fight among the middle schoolers. As if these kids had ever seen snow before.

The other amazing aspect of the evening was the quality of the acoustics in the Opera Hall. Someone at intermission told us that the hall had recently been modified and that the acoustics are much better than before. To me, every note and every voice was crystal clear and projected throughout the hall.

For Blackbird, the Beetles song, the Gondwana group formed a circle around the orchestra. Half the singers had their back to the audience. The other half were blocked from view by the kids in front. And of course, the orchestra was completely surrounded. Nonetheless, the music they produced was perfectly projected by the hall’s acoustic design.

The hall was packed, not just with adoring parents and grandparents. It’s an annual event and deserves the great reception it received.

Earlier, we had a successful flight up from Melbourne that was smooth but maybe 20 minutes late. No worries for us. We’d been booked for business class, so we enjoyed the Qantas lounge and a nice meal on the two-hour flight. The views of Jackson Harbor (erroneously called Sydney harbor by many) were spectacular and demonstrated the urban sprawl that is Sydney. The Harbor Bridge was constructed to allow Sydney to grow, mostly residentially, on the north side of the harbor. Our taxi driver, a guy from Pakistan who’s lived in Australia since 2014 and who has a girlfriend in Orlando, Florida, was a lot of fun to talk with.

We’re checked into the Marriott Circular Quay hotel and Jeff, our much-traveled son, got us upgraded to the Executive Level with a great view of the Opera House and the bridge. We’re getting spoiled rotten.

Speaking of being spoiled, niece Amy put on to the Aria restaurant, a few steps from the Opera House. They feature a really nice per-concert dinner, set menu with options. In by 5:30, out in time for the 7:00 show. All went well, the food was excellent – we had John Dory, a fish popular in this part of the world, and rightly so. We were getting worried, time wise, and asked the waiter to bring desert and the check so we could make it. “No worries,” and he was right. We at dessert quickly and made it with time to spare.

Judy was equally blown away by our concert experience. Here are her thoughts:

We just had one of the most amazing experiences of my life!  We heard a Holiday Concert with 390 children and students from Sydney and all of Australia.  The Sydney Opera House is an amazing place with wonderful acoustics and these choirs sounded amazing.  The performance went continuously from one piece to the next not interrupted by clapping.  I found that the flow of the program was much smoother with the orchestra playing as the performers smoothly moved around the stage and hall.  The only other time I have experienced such smooth movements from one piece to the next was at the Tattoo in Halifax.

It was wonderful to experience the Holiday Concert and get me into the Christmas spirit. When they sang O Holy Night it brought tears to my eyes as I realized I was hearing it performed by these beautiful voices in this amazing concert hall!  It is an evening I will never forget!  

Tomorrow’s our last day of the trip. We’re being picked up for a half-day tour of the city at 8 AM and then will have the afternoon and evening “on our own,” as Viking likes to say when they have nothing for us to do. We’ll probably go to the The Rocks area, nearby.

Well, we’ve done Melbourne. On to Sydney

That’s the problem with these tours: fly one day, tour the next and then on the plane to another. At least there’s no bus involved, both there’s the every other day chore of repacking the suitcases to include the trinkets we’ve bought to remember the latest city.

Today started with a 9:30 AM city tour by bus, led by a great driver/tour guide. He knew how to navigate the torn-up streets of Melbourne and give us the lowdown, interjecting humor every now and then. The place is under massive construction with a new subway line being built, new highways and new skyscraper projects as thick as Dunkin’ stores in Massachusetts.

Melbourne was founded around 1835, 47 years after the first wave of 11 ships carrying convicts set up camp in Sydney harbor. Melbourne never had a Transport colony; the territory that became Victoria State was convict free. Melbourne did have an influx of former convicts, coming from Sydney and Tasmania. Melbourne is second in size, after Sydney in terms of population but first in size if you look at contiguous urban areas. Take that, Sydney!

My feel about this place is that it retains a strong British connection. The streets carry names with British connections and the parks and gardens around town are filled with British flora. Cricket is a big deal, as is rugby. King Charles II is the ruling monarch of Australia. And, like London, it’s full of non-British residents. Among other nationalities, the Chinese community is strong, and Melbourne has the second largest Greek population in the world, trailing only Athens. Like many other places we’ve visited, the “old” is mixed with the new. No Old Town with quaint shops. It’s steel and glass mixed in with the occasional building preserved from the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries.

I mentioned to Judy that if I was forced to move to either New Zealand or Australia, I might choose Australia, a choice I wouldn’t have made before coming here. We both fell in love with New Zealand when we visited for 30 days in 2016. But Australia, a bit raw around the edges, maybe, has an exciting feel to it where New Zealand is more laid back. Both seem to be populated with a welcoming and pleasant bunch of natives.

Most of the bus tour involved viewing buildings of some import and listening to our guide’s history lesson. We did stop and tour the Fitzroy Gardens on foot. That’s where the “Cook Home” is located. It’s a loose connection to Captain James Cook, however. Cook never set foot in Melbourne. He never lived in the house now standing in the Fitzroy Gardens. It’s his parent’s house, which he maybe visited once or twice between voyages. It was disassembled and brought to Melbourne to further cement the ties back to the Mother Country. You have to pay extra to go inside. We didn’t.

We stopped to tour the largest church building in Australia, The Cathedral Church and Minor Basilica of Saint Patrick’s. OK. So Saint Mary’s in Sydney is a smidgen longer, ours is overall the biggest. Building started in 1851 but, as usual with big projects like this, it wasn’t officially completed until 1939. There were only two cathedrals in the world that were substantially constructed in the19^th century: this one and St. Patrick’s in New York City. Factoids are us.

We stopped at the Shrine of Remembrance. A war memorial originally designed to honor the fallen from WWI, it now is a memorial to all who have served in any war. An impressive memorial with great views of the city from its rooftop observation deck.

Across the street is an entrance to the extensive Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria. We spent over an hour touring both the Shrine and Gardens. The gardens are indeed a botanical display of all sorts of flowers, trees, shrubs, you name it, many with ties back to the Mother Country. Lots of families enjoying the early summer air, although we’re in a cold snap. Temps didn’t get up to 70 I don’t believe, and the skies have been cloudy, albeit without any rain. There was a cute birthday party for a little girl under a lavender tree, complete with a birthday fairy.

Back to the hotel, Judy and I developed a touring plan of action for the afternoon. Our next and final Viking tour event is the 6 PM farewell cocktail half hour. What ever happened to the farewell dinner? We’re on our own and believe you me, I didn’t have any lunch today. Ok, three scoops, total, of ice cream (Coconut, Tim Tom and Golden Gaytime) but that doesn’t count. Judy had a sandwich at the Botanical Gardens.

Our hotel is located near the Yarra River, the main waterway in Melbourne. Ships used to sail up to near our hotel’s location back in the day. We decided to walk up the river on the south side, cross over to the northern bank to Fed Square and then back down the river to the Melbourne Skydeck for an aerial view of the city.

That all went pretty much to plan except for one detour: an open air display of arts and crafts being sold by the works’ creators. “Just looking, thanks, was our plan.” Right. We bought earrings and a necklaces form Diana, table napkins from Judith (that’s my name too!) and a Christmas Tree ornament from, you guessed it, Rebecca. Meant to be. Three nicer ladies you’d ever want to befriend.

Next, up the Skydeck with the predicted great views of the city but not the promised mountains in the distance – the clouds got in the way. Then back to the hotel for an hour’s nap before the farewell booze fest, which turned out to be Australian wine. Six of us decided to go into the attached Crown Casino for dinner. We found a pub-like place with cricket on the wide screen TV. Our friends from New Zealand tried to make sense of it for us but to little avail, I’m afraid. But it was fun to watch nevertheless. The fish and chips paired well with my ginger beer. Who needs a farewell dinner when you can watch football and eat fish and chips – beats the usual farewell dinner fare by a furlong.

Tomorrow is Sydney. Our ETA is 3 PM and we have dinner reservations at 5:30 and show tickets at the Opera House for 7. One day of sightseeing after that and we’re homeward bound. Can’t wait!

I made a friend today. Her name is Oshaiya. Our acquaintance started in the hotel swimming pool. She was swimming while her mom sat by the side of the pool, often talking on her phone. Oshaiya had some toy weights that she would drop to the bottom and then retrieve. I asked if I could try to do it, so she dropped the weight, and I dove down to bring it up.

Eventually, I said, “Close your eyes and count to ten and I’ll hide it and you see if you can find it.” That game, which I’ve played with all four of my grandkids, continued on, taking turns, for most of the thirty minutes Judy had on her washing machine timer.

After a while, Oshaiya said, “What is your name? I forget.” We’d never exchanged names, but I said, “My name is Jon. What’s yours?”

She told me her name and after a few tries I could pronounce it (I didn’t have my hearing aids in).

“That’s a pretty name. I don’t know anyone called Oshaiya. How do you spell it?”

“Guess.”

“O-S-H-A” I guessed

“You need three more letters.”

Eventually, I gave up and she told me.

“How old are you?”

“Eight”

“Oh, my grandson is 10.”

“Actually I’m almost 10. I’m 9 and will turn 10 on December 31.”

I’m guessing 8 is closer to the truth. You know how kids can be.

But here was the real eye opener:

“Do you live in Australia?” I asked.

“No, I live in the Bush.”

“Is that in Australia?”

“No, it’s the Bush. Because of the color of my skin.”  pointed to her arm with what I took to be pride. I live in <something> Station. In the Bush.”

I didn’t get the <something> (no hearing aids, remember?) But a station is what we would call a cattle ranch. So I concluded that she lives somewhere in the center of Australia, that she’s a member of an indigenous group and that she’s proud of it. She also knows that she doesn’t live in Australia, and that’s not a defect in her understanding of geography but rather an awareness of her heritage.

“Our creek flooded.” “From the rain?” “Yes, from the rain.”

“I have an uncle who lives in Sydney. He has skin the same color as mine. He has a tattoo here,” pointing to her wrist.

What did I learn? That kids everywhere like to play the same games, regardless of national origin or ethnic heritage. And I learned that Oshaiya is being brought up to be proud of her heritage and to celebrate it without a hint of shame or defensiveness. Only, “you’re an old white guy and I’m from the Bush with my dark skin and we can have fun playing together.”

I was in the water for a long time, swimming underwater to play the game. That’s why my eyes are stinging right now, I am sure.

Sorry for the long recitation, but I wanted to get it down on paper while it was fresh in my mind. When someone asks, “What’s the best thing you did in Australia, I’ll have a ready answer.”

Today, otherwise, was a scenery day as we drove up into the Western MacDonnell Ranges west of Alice Springs. The Western MacDonnell Ranges is a series of mountain ridges formed 350 million years ago through I’d guess the same geological plate movement that created Uluru. Since then, folding, faulting and erosion have created a number of gaps and gorges. These are what we explored this morning. Some local guides claim 500 million years and that, back in the day, the MacDonnell Range was taller than present-day Himalayas. That makes a better story so I’m going with that one.

On our way to the gorges, we stopped just outside of town to see the Reverend John Flynn’s burial place – he’s the Royal Flying Doctor Service guy, remember? His image graces the 20-dollar Australian bill. He’s a big deal here.

First, we visited Simpson’s Gap and then Ormiston Gorge and the Eller Creek Big Hole. Then, on our way back toward town, we stopped for lunch at Standley Chasm. I’ll let the pictures show you what we saw: mountain peaks (the tallest are 5,000 foot-ish) and the same arid desert-like foreground similar to what we saw at Urulu. There were significant signs of brush fires almost everywhere. Our guide/driver told us that the fires occurred three weeks ago. The green grass has grown since then. The scrub trees will leaf out again later.

We had a chance to get out and walk at all three gorges. It’s hot again today – well over 100 but maybe a touch cooler than Uluru, or maybe I’m just getting used to it. The paths were well prepared and fairly flat, so not a huge challenge for most of us. We have, however, had two casualties so far: a lady tripped and fell and bruised her ribs yesterday going into the RFDS building yesterday. She spent the night in the hospital for tests and recovery. Then today her traveling companion tripped and hurt her arm. The guides put all of us in one bus (we’ve been traveling with two) and took her back for examination.

At Simpson’s Gap, climbing on a rocky section of the gap, big as life, were several wallabies. Yes, they look like small kangaroos but they are different. Finally, wildlife in the wild, not a zoo!

The Eller Creek Big Hole is a swimming hole. I was hesitant at first but quickly changed my mind and put on my swimming suit and enjoyed a delightful float in cool, refreshing water. See the pictures. Judy enjoyed a shady log while I swam.

The hike at Stadley Chasm was the longest – maybe a half mile – and the hottest. The guides wanted us there at noon since that’s the only time the sun shines down into the chasm. After, we had a nice cold buffet lunch.

I hate it when I do it, but I napped the 30-minute drive back to town. Just think of all the pictures I didn’t get to take!

One other cultural note. Several signs along the road pointing to Alice Springs and other destinations were defaced, the English words marked out, replaced by handwritten words. in, I presume, the language of the Arrernte people, the traditional owners of the Western MacDonnell. I asked the bus driver about that. “Well, these things take time,” was his response

Back at the hotel, Judy started a load of washing and then we went for the swim, described above. We’re off this evening for a “traditional bush dinner.” Given Oshaiya, I can’t wait to see what the tour company considers a bush dinner to be. Maybe I should invite Oshaiya.

We’re back from the bush dinner and it turned out to be a western show like you’d find out west in the US but with an Australian accent. You know, first the guy telling funny stories: “I’m going to make you some raisin-rum bread in a Dutch oven. The recipe calls for thirteen and a half mouthfuls of water and six and a half metric handfuls of flour. We’ll cook it over the embers at 362 degrees, metric or Fahrenheit, doesn’t matter.” Then a steak dinner followed by Katie, a pretty good country and western guitar player/singer, including audience participation. Remember Dancing Matilda? Did you know that it ends with the cowboy drowning himself in a billabong? Finally, a lights-out internal to observe the stars, including our old friend upside down Orion, with an electronically assisted Didgeridoo playing in the background.  A good time was had by all, and the bread, served as dessert, tasted fine.

But the best part of the evening was the bus ride to the show. We saw a half dozen or so of real life kangaroos in the wild, hopping around just like you’d imagine. One of our group says one of the ‘roos had a joey in her pouch.

Tomorrow it’s a noonish flight to Melbourne. No more Outback for us. It’s two of days of Melbourne, two days of Sydney and then home.

OK, so I didn’t get this posted before we left Alice Springs. We’re now in Melbourne. It took most of the day. The only flight was scheduled for 12:30 and left a half hour late. Traffic was bad in Melbourne and so we didn’t get to the hotel until 6 PM. The weather: rainy and cold. It didn’t break 70 today and after 100+ up north this is a pleasant relief.

We were on our own for dinner tonight so off we went in search of food. Turns out the Crown Metropol hotel is part of the Crown casino complex, and what a complex it is. In addition to the casino there’s a web of mall-like corridors with shops, restaurants, bars, you name it. We wandered through the casino, resisting the temptation to pull a lever or two, walked by one food court featuring KFC and another with upscale offerings. We ended iup at a medium-scale Chinese restaurant. The upscale Chinese restaurant we tried was fully book.

Everywhere was packed some ladies were dressed to the nines (the guys they were with looked like slobs), and there were families with kids and everything in between. We were undoubtably the oldest in the entire operation.

Melbourne is a big city. We’re doing a tour in the morning and have the afternoon to ourselves. One stop tomorrow is to the house where Captain Cook lived. It sure would be fun for him to come back and see this place today.

Judy’s been hard at work putting together videos. Here are the three latest.

Australian Zoo at Mooloolaba: https://judyrick.zenfolio.com/australia_videos/hc812bddb#hc812bddb

Newcastle and Sunrise at Sydney: https://judyrick.zenfolio.com/australia_videos/hc8d2f140#hc8d2f140

Townsville, Queensland: https://judyrick.zenfolio.com/australia_videos/hc956949b#hc956949b

You can see the gallery of all videos for this trip if you want to see the ones you missed. Here is that link:

https://judyrick.zenfolio.com/australia_videos