Fighting Foo in Sydney

We are in Sydney, Australia, and it is a city we like very much. Getting here was a bit more difficult and a day later than anticipated, due to unspecified "mechanical difficulties" of the Air New Zealand plane scheduled to pick us up in Noumea, New Caledonia. This led to an extra 8 hours in the small, hot, and humid international airport. We were too late to make the connection to Sydney, so ANZ put us up for the night in Auckland, and we were off again refreshed and ready to go.

My Photo of Dave (trust me)

Dave Grohl and the Foo Fighters did a Christchurch benefit concert in Auckland the day before, so our delay put us in the airport and on the same flight as Dave and the Foos to Australia (as he has said, if he knew they would become famous, he would have come up with a better name). Airport security discouraged photo taking, so I tried to get this shot unobtrusively at the luggage carousel
....pretty lame, I know.

Real Photo of Auckland Concert from the NZ Herald

As for Sydney, most of friends in New Zealand said they prefer Melbourne. Well, it must be really special, because so far Sydney has been a treat. The Opera House and Harbour Bridge are iconic and amazingly photogenic (no bad angles, really). You have a compulsion to take picture after picture of them. The story of the Opera House and its Danish architect Jorn Utzon is a fascinating one, full of public outcry, massive cost and time over-runs, politics, firing and recrimination, and eventual triumph and recognition as one of the 20th Century's masterpieces. Many consider it still "half done", because none of Utzon's detailed plans for the interior were ever implemented. In fact, there are two large concert halls there, and political pressure caused a last minute switch of the "elitist" opera house into the smaller of the two, resulting in an orchestra pit too small to perform Wagnerian opera, and deemed so unhealthily loud by musicians that the there is a complete replacement of the orchestra after intermissions.  

There are a number of lovely well-preserved sandstone buildings from the 19th Century, and beautiful parks, fountains, and open spaces.

Hyde Park with St. Mary's Cathedral in backround

Some of these have been turned into museums illustrating the history of the nation. The Hyde Park barracks Museum was designed by a convict and built in 1818-19 to house convict men and boys, with many other uses over the years. The site has been carefully restored and utilizes imaginative interactive computers and murals to tell the story of this place, and of European immigration to this country.

Hyde Park Barracks Museum

In many ways, it is the Ellis Island of Australia. Families can go and search the data-base for records of their fore-bearers. 18th and 19th Century Europe went through hard times, depression, industrialization, and urbanization. People were sentenced to exile to Australia for stealing bread or chickens, forgery, and all sorts of minor offenses, mixed in with some more serious ones. The people did not have the skills to easily adapt to this harsh, arid, and infertile area.

Sleeping Quarters

In  1848-52, the building was used to house Irish orphan girls, victims of the Potato Famine and desperate conditions at home. They were brought in to help correct the gender imbalance, as a majority of the convicts and settlers were male, and then subjected to severe discrimination and hard work, and were married off quickly. The museum honors these matriarchs of the nation and their descendents. 
Another important part of Australia is the shameful treatment of the indigenous peoples. History is full of countless examples of man's inhumanity to man, from American slavery and treatment of native Americans to the Holocaust, and this is one more sobering lesson. You may have heard of some of these injustices through films such as Rabbit-Proof Fence which shows families being involuntarily separated, but it is staggering to be reminded that the Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islanders were only granted full citizenship and civil rights after a 1967 referendum of the non-indigenous voters, amending  the constitution (it did pass by a 90% vote, however).
Other impressive Heritage Buildings include:

Art Gallery of NSW

Town Hall

Sydney Observatory

There are lots of interesting museums to see, including the Australian Museum, with displays to entertain children of all ages.

Skeletal Tableau, Entitled "domestic Bliss"

Dare-devil Tourist at Play with T-Rex

It is a great place for shopping, or window-shopping, with many stylish shops and arcades, both new and old.

"The Strand" Shopping Arcade

There seemed to be an unusually large number of chic and very attractive women in heels with skirts up to here and legs down to there (and probably an equal number of good-looking men, although I didn't particularly notice). Australia in general, and Sydney in particular, prides itself on its diversity, and many ethnic groups are well-represented here.
The Botanical Gardens abut the Opera House are a must, and we enjoyed an informative walking tour there focusing on native plants. In addition to the plants, indigenous and introduced, there is abundant fauna, such as this lorikeet.

Rainbow Lorikeet

The cockatoos and flying foxes are as thick as thieves here, make a terrible racket, and kill their host trees. We spent a total of  eight nights in Sydney, plenty of time to take in some out-of the-way spots, like the largest formal Chinese garden outside of China,

Chinese Garden of Friendship

and the Harry's Cafe de Wheels, a Sydney institution since 1945. From a trailer along-side the Woolloomooloo Wharf, they serve a variety of hot meat pies, preferably covered with mashed potatoes and peas, eaten al fresco, like Tommy's Burgers in LA or Nathan's hotdogs on Coney Island.

Harry's Cafe de Wheels

Continuing with New York City comparisons, just as taking the Staten Island ferry is a must, so is taking the ferry to Manly Beach. It is a great, inexpensive way to cruise the harbour. You land at the harbour-side beach and walk across a small isthmus to the ocean-side beach.

Manly Beach at Twilight

Tucked in at the opposite end of the Sydney Harbor Bridge is the eye-catching amusement park called Luna Park. The manically-grinning painted face stares out across the water, luring you in like Pleasure Island from Pinocchio.

Tourist at Fun House Mirror, Luna Park

And no visit would be complete without walking across the bridge. I did not pony-up the $200 for the full 21/2 hr walk over the arch, but for $10 you can climb up the southeast pylon, and it is free to take the pedestrian or bike path. The view is spectacular.

View of Port Jackson from the SE Pylon, Sydney Harbour Bridge

Off now to the hinterlands of  the state of New South Wales.