Sydney: the opera, Manly Beach

Nothing prepares you for the magnificence of Sydney harbor. Coming from a country with great harbors like Vancouver, Halifax and St. Johns we (Canadians) have high standards, but Sydney is in a class of it's own! This city really is the "Emerald City' of the Southern Hemisphere. There are many, many, bays, coves, beaches and points around the inner and outer harbor that provide wharves, beaches, and beautiful shore line for the residents to enjoy.

We were lucky to book the Sheraton on Elizabeth Street on priceline. It is next to St. James Cathedral and Hyde Park. It connects with the Botanical Gardens and leads to the Sydney Opera House. The botanical gardens are tropical and subtropical plants and wildlife that we just love to explore. Curiously, as the seasons change, the trees lose their bark here instead of their leaves. There were more of the huge bats just hanging around and large Ibis wondering in the heat (it was something like 39C today). There is water watch on so the plants were at the end of there season and looking a little wilted, but the Blue Ginger and the Daylillies were still blooming.

We had a serendipity moment when we met up with our new friends from our reef cruise who were also in Sydney. We ran into each other at the botanical gardens. Philippa and Don had climbed Sydney Harbor bridge the day before and were spending a few final hours in Sydney before departing for New Zealand by cruise ship. We hope to meet up with the in NZ during one of their ports of call.

We were able to get some tickets for a modern version of 'Tosca' with Rosario in the lead. It was a moving performance. They had almost a sold out performance despite the heat (the average age of the opera audience has to be 75).

We headed out to Manly Beach on a ferry after the performance and the weather changed dramatically. Suddenly it was much cooler and the wind whipped the waves in the outer harbor so that the surfers and sailors had to lower their sails and come into to shore. We were told that bottle head shark attacks occur in the harbor and swimming is not always safe. It certainly didn't scare off the crowds at Manly Beach. This beach meets the city streets, but is more like a street in Cabbage Town than Queens Quay. We had a nice stroll over to Shelly Beach along the rocky shoreline where the iguana shares the rocks with the humans. Manly was a great place for a fresh fish dinner and some good Hunter Valley Australian wine.