Emma's visit.

Emma came to visit me during her birthday week!  A week is not much time to experience Australia after traveling such a long distance, but we tried to fit in what we could.  That said, we weren't too rigid in our schedule that we couldn't fit in a spontaneous game of giant chess outside the Museum of Sydney.  I was able to check off a few more items on my own list, but it was extra nice to be able to share those experiences with my sister.

We spent the first few days in the Sydney area, visiting some of the highlights (which included purchasing flip-flops/thongs from a Havaianas vending machine, of course).  We started off walking the Bondi-Coogee Coastal Walk in reverse.  I usually run parts of it and seldom have my camera with me, so it was nice to grab a few shots this time.  Most of the beaches had bigger swell than normal, so we saw heaps of surfers.  Now I finally have a photo of Coogee Beach, where I have been living these past months.

Within 24 hours, we visited the three major icons of Sydney: Bondi Beach, Sydney Opera House, and Sydney Harbour Bridge.  We toured the Opera House, learning about its history (especially the relationship with architect Jorn Utzon) and construction.  The low maintenance tiles on the roofs/sails/shells are two different colors (neither are exactly white) that combined appear white from a distance without glare.  We checked out almost all of the performance areas, which are more varied than I expected.  Outside the Concert Hall, the foyer is decked out with purple carpeting.  How regal!

You can spot the Harbour Bridge in the second photo.  The bridge is so large that I would not have guessed that it took four times the amount of steel in the bridge to make the famous roofs of the Opera House.  Emma and I had the opportunity to learn more details and stories about the bridge during our Bridge Climb.  Emma had won a free double pass through a Facebook contest!  The climb is generally listed as a top activity for visitors to Sydney, but it’s certainly not a cheap activity.  Therefore, the free pass was well appreciated.  The best time of day for the climb is supposedly at twilight, but as the pass wasn't valid for that time slot, we went on the last climb in the afternoon.  That slot allowed us to catch the sunset during our descent.  It is quite impressive to hear about the construction of the bridge during the 1920’s and 1930’s without the engineering and safety tools of today.  The bridge has six million rivets.  The rivets were heated up before placement and had to be caught in buckets; only another 10,000 or so are on the bottom of the harbour, because they were dropped by the ‘catchers.’  Personal cameras are not permitted on the climb, but because we had the free pass, we decided we could purchase one of the photos they took of us.

While on the bridge, we saw some of the lights installed (zip ties!) on the west side of the bridge in preparation for Vivid Sydney a few days later.  The multi-week festival includes musical performances and idea exchanges, but it is most known for its light installations and projections.  This year is the first time the bridge has been included; it is actually interactive, because the public can choose what colors to display with a control panel at Luna Park.  Many other buildings in the CBD, especially around Circular Quay, have light projections including the roofs of the Opera House.  As it was still a few days before the festival, Emma and I had to settle for the white sails as we celebrated our climb with drinks at the Opera Bar.

After our game of chess the next day, we hopped on the ferry to Manly.  Emma wanted to experience the harbour more from Marlin’s (Nemo's dad) perspective.  I have a feeling that Marlin wasn't rewarded with a double rainbow like this one we saw at Manly Beach.

For the second half of Emma’s visit, we headed north.  We stayed in Brisbane, the capital of Queensland, for a few days after brief stops on the North Coast of New South Wales in Port Macquarie and Coffs Harbour (where we saw the Big Banana, the first ‘Big Thing’ in Australia).  From Brisbane, we visited Australia Zoo, made famous by the late great Steve Irwin.  There, Emma was finally able to cuddle a koala.  However, her favorite part was the opportunity to feed some roos.

To finish off her day at the zoo, Emma spotted Terry Irwin!  I’ll get into my favorite part of our zoo visit in my next post.  In the meantime, here’s a photo of a pair of tawny frogmouths.  These birds, native to Australia and New Guinea, are often mistaken for owls.  They are nocturnal; during the day, they camouflage themselves by remaining very still on low tree branches or logs with their eyes barely open.

During Emma’s visit, I passed my 10^th month anniversary of my Australian arrival.  It seems like both a short and a long time ago…