Christchurch after the earthquake

We've had to park in some narrow driveways at our accommodations in Australia over the last week, and at one of these places I managed to scrape the front bumper on a fence. I thought we might be on the hook for the damages but luckily the attendant didn't notice or care when we dropped the car off in Sydney. What a relief.

We spent Thursday night, our last night in Australia, at a swanky downtown hotel in Sydney. The kids were happy to visit the Apple Store one last time, and it was nice to stroll down to the harbour again to see the Opera House and bridge. Catheleen and I stopped in at a pub in The Rocks district next to the harbour, and I had a schooner of beer called 150 lashes, which was really good.

The beer is named after a rogue and entrepreneur from the early days of Sydney named James Squire. He was sent to Sydney in the 1790's with the first fleet for stealing some chickens. After serving his seven years, he led a colourful life in Sydney with his mistress, wife and businesses. He's credited with starting the first brewery in town, and was later caught stealing plants from a local hospital to imitate the flavour of the hops used in his beer. For this offence he received 150 lashes immediately and 150 lashes later when he could bear it. This was a lenient sentence at the time, and the last 150 lashes were conveniently forgotten. It's suspected that the local authorities really liked his brewery, and maybe received free drinks, which probably played a role in his lenient sentence. When he died in the 1820's, it was the most well attended funeral up to that point. There's more information on Australia's convict past these days, and it's a point of fascination for many now to have a convict ancestor, rather than it being something to be covered up. From shame to fame.  

The next morning we flew to New Zealand. We really enjoyed the in-flight safety briefing with the catchy song based on the Men in Black movie. You can find it here or just search for it on You Tube - http://www.slashfilm.com/men-in-black-airline-safety-video/ . New Zealand airlines has collaborated with Sony on a number of videos, including a Lord of the Rings video. What a nice change from the dry safety demonstrations we've suffered through over the years. Leave it to the crazy Kiwis to mix it up a bit. On our descent we had clear views of snow capped mountains, grey silted rivers, and endless farms in the plains. Very exciting so see all this packed into a small area.

On our first and only full day in Christchurch today, we took the gondola ride up to the summit near Christchurch which offered stunning views of Christchurch city, the Pacific ocean, the Southern Alps and Lyttelton Harbour. It was a beautiful cool sunny day, and we enjoyed walking around at the summit on some of the trails, with tall clumps of shiny golden grasses surrounding us and small birds overhead, singing continual melodic tunes as they went. We also took a ride at the summit called the Time Tunnel, where a carriage rolled slowly through a few rooms with videos and displays showing the history of the Cantebury region. It started with the aboriginals who arrived here 1,000 years ago, and moved on to the first settlers who arrived in 1850 with visions of creating a model English town in a Neo-Gothic style like Oxford England. We all liked the ride, it was well done.

Later today we took a tram ride around the city centre. Christchurch was severely damaged by major earthquakes in 2010 and 2011. The one in 2011 killed 185 people and destroyed much of the downtown core - it's estimated that insurance payouts will total $20 to $30 billion. The tram driver provided great commentary on the reconstruction efforts. Over 1,000 buildings have been torn down since the earthquakes, and many more are slated for demolition. A lot of the abandoned buildings are covered in graffiti with broken windows. A large number of buildings are under construction, many with just steel frames built at this point.

The main cathedral in the centre of town is a wreck with its demolished spire and cracks throughout the structure. There is a standoff at this point between the church authorities, who want to tear it down and rebuild, and many residents who want it repaired to help maintain the character of the downtown. The government has appointed a mediator to help settle the dispute. In the meantime the church built a transitional cathedral in 2013 called the cardboard cathedral, since it was built in part with cardboard tubes. I can't see the tubes but I was impressed with the building with its tall A-frame style. When we stopped by on a Saturday afternoon there was a service going on, which was nice to see.

We also visited a temporary memorial downtown to the victims, which consisted of 185 chairs, all painted in white. Each chair was unique, to signify the uniqueness and value of each person who lost their lives. The chairs included small stools, a wheelchair and a baby car seat. It was very poignant and moving.

Our hotel proprietor Annie told us her story. Her daughter was downtown at the time of the 2011 earthquake, and had to run for it to escape the mud and water. It turns out Christchurch is built on a diverted river bed, and ground water rushed out of the earth as it liquified during the earthquake. She came back home with mud up to her chest. What a harrowing tale. Annie's house in the outlying streets was not affected, but other houses were ruined, seemingly at random. She said many people feel guilty that they were not affected when others were.

Later we stopped by one of the only shopping areas open at present in downtown Christchurch called Re:Start, which was built out of shipping containers. It was actually well done, with some of the sides of the containers replaced with glass. From the inside of some of these buildings, it was hard to tell these were temporary structures. Good for them for thinking about innovative ways of getting on with it.

Here are the kids at the summit on a walking trail.

Human nature and alpaca encounters

Before leaving the coast, we visited Hyams Beach in Jervis Bay, which was purported to have the whitest sand in the world. The sand was fine like sugar and was very white. But what we liked the most was the feel of the sand itself, which squeaked and sang under our feet when we walked on it. I don't know why this was so. One theory is the fine sand grains are uniform in size and shape and somehow resonate when the particles rub against each other like crystals. The kids must have spent a good half hour jumping around in the sand before they tired of it.

When John and I had our hair cut in Sydney last week I chatted with the barber. He was very interested to find out we were from Canada and lamented that he wished he had four seasons including winter, since it's too hot in Sydney sometimes. I was surprised and didn't know what to say. Maybe I should have told him to be careful what you wish for, or you might end up with five months of winter. I've had a few encounters like this with Australians who clearly think the grass is greener on the other side. It really must be human nature on display - we are a restless species.

The next time it happened we were at the Cambewarra lookout, 700 meters above sea level, with views of the flat valley below including the ocean shore line, Gervis Bay, and the meandering Shoalhaven River. At the tea room lookout we saw a sign that said the lawn was a hang glider takeoff point, and that the local naval base should be contacted before lift-off. I don't know why - perhaps the hang glider will show up on military radar scopes? After being greeted by the restaurant dog, a grey Great Dane, we met an English woman who was sitting on the veranda with her two smaller dogs, feeding them bacon appetizers from the restaurant. I marvelled at the view and told her so. She said it was nice but certainly couldn't compare to Canada. I just said that every place has its charms.

Later in the day we stopped in at Fitzroy Falls, another pleasant surprise. The falls drop 80 meters straight down over sheer black and tan limestone cliffs. The kids enjoyed releasing stones over the side of the railing and counting how many seconds it took to hit the bottom. The falls reminded me of the Angel Falls in South America, which I've only seen on television. The Angel Falls are so tall that I understand much of the water turns to mist by the time it hits the bottom. At Fitzroy Falls, the cliff is so sheer that it seemed as though some the water also turned to mist by the time it reached the bottom. It was very mesmerizing.

We eventually arrived in MossVale at a bed in breakfast affectionately called Nana's Place, since the attached residence used to be home to the owner's mother before she passed away. Later we chatted with the owner on the back porch. I mentioned to Denise how beautiful the countryside was and how special I thought Fitzroy Falls was. Denise was self-effacing and qualified that it couldn't possibly compare to Canadian scenery. I begged to differ. Come on Australians - the goal is not to see who's country's mountains are taller. I personally get a kick out of anything new and different. The scenery here is definitely unique and worthy of admiration. Like I said, every place has something to offer.

We've enjoyed the last couple of days in the southern highlands around MossVale and other small towns, so called because this area is on top of an escarpment, 700 meters above sea level. The high ground makes for cooler weather and four seasons, unlike the sub-tropical coastline around Sydney. The area feels a lot like Canada in many ways - maybe it's just the quaint smaller towns that remind me of Perth or Westport in Ontario.

We certainly enjoyed spending time at this bed and breakfast, which is really a home in itself and so well appointed. We've had great luck with these types of places so far. This one has been a real treat, and everyone has enjoyed the animals especially. There's Boris the Dalmatian, Smokey the grey long-haired cat, Honey the tan-coloured horse, and a dozen or so alpacas in all shapes and colours. Elizabeth and John both were able to ride Honey today, and we were all were able to pet the alpacas, who were not too skittish.

Here's John and Elizabeth on Honey.

Baristas and the open ocean

On our first day in Australia I walked down the street from our apartment in Sydney and stopped in at a 7-eleven convenience store to grab a sandwich. The attendant was chatty and after discussing his trip to Vancouver Island, he talked up their coffee maker and suggested I try the coffee. I wasn't expecting much from a 7-eleven but thought what the heck. I was confused by the options though. Did I want a long white or a short black? I went for the long white - whatever that was. It was very good and tasted much like a latte. By contrast the next day we visited a Starbucks and I didn't find the coffee as good.

Australians are not a pretentious bunch, but they could be about their coffee. It's excellent and they're willing to pay a few dollars more to have it made to order. No ready to pour drip coffee pots are to be found here. Starbucks tried opening up some stores in Australia but most of them closed down a few years later. It turns out Australia already had great coffee on offer from many independent cafes, which have been in operation for decades. I was intrigued to learn why - Australians don't strike me as too picky when it comes to food and drink in general.

For example, just today we stopped at a very popular local burger place and ordered the burger with 'the lot', which included the beef patty, fried onions, cheese, bacon, pineapple, a fried egg and a beet - this artery clogging concoction isn't subtle cuisine. It was really good by the way. As I understand it, the country has a large Italian community, and had a very large influx of Italians after WWII. These immigrants brought their love of espresso machines with them, and spread coffee to a bunch of tea drinkers. I understand many Australians will drink an instant coffee at home, but they will take the time for a barista to make them a flat white or perhaps a cappuccino when they're out.

We're staying in an area a few blocks from the beach that looks like a suburb. After a while things started to look like other mundane suburbs, with people walking their dogs or mowing their lawns. Then out of the blue we spied a group of kangaroos hopping down the street. There are other unusual things about this neighbourhood. We heard a cacophony of strange sounds from the birds overhead, and we saw succulents taller than me growing on the front lawns. Walking by the shore we saw a half dozen large pelicans standing stoically in the water a few feet offshore while young kids fed the seagulls bread. But it's the kangaroos hopping and grazing throughout the suburbs in the parks and brush that strikes us as most strange. What an unusual animal to see.

This morning we took a whale watching boat tour from Gervis Bay. We had high hopes since October to November is prime humpback whale-watching time in the bay, where the whales come to feed. Sadly there were no whales to be seen today, but we did see a pod of dolphins swimming by, their dorsal finds and open bodies breaching the surface as they propelled themselves along. We also saw a couple of pods of seals, resting near the shoals with one of their flippers waving out of the water to either cool themselves down or heat themselves up. After leaving the bay we travelled for awhile along the sandstone cliffs, feeling the rolling waves from a open ocean with no land heading east for thousands of miles. What an awesome feeling to be on the open ocean with massive waves crashing on high cliffs, creating a mist. It all had an alien, eerie quality to it.

The Aussie salute and six seconds of free fall

At times we practise the Aussie salute, waving our hands in front of our face at regular intervals to prevent bush flies from landing on our face, and entering our nose or mouth. After awhile I started to look around to confirm that everyone was doing it, including the locals - yes most people were saluting. The bush flies looked like house flies but are attracted to us to feed. I was surprised to find them in downtown Sydney - but there they were, especially in the parks. I understand the flies used to be an even worse nuisance, until the Australians introduced foreign dung beetles a few decades ago that significantly reduced the bush fly population. I would tell you why the beetles helped but it's gross, so look it up if you're interested. I don't think I would want to move to Australia just because of this. Sorry Australia, amazing place and all, but what's with the flies?

After learning about the beetle, I started wondering what other foreign species have been introduced to Australia, and to what effect. It turns out this country is an invasive species theme park, where foreign species like foxes and rabbits have caused havoc to the local environment over the years.

It is thought that perhaps two dozen rabbits were let loose for hunting sport on one farm in the province of New South Wales in the 1850's, and within ten years there were millions of rabbits eating the vegetation and causing soil erosion problems. The problem was so bad that by the 1870's the government was offering a reward for any new ideas to control the population. A large fence was constructed across Australia from north to south in the early 1900's to prevent rabbits, foxes and other animals from moving to the west, but it didn't work. By the 1950's viruses were introduced to the rabbit population, which killed off many of them. But the survivors were immune and re-established themselves soon enough. Some would say the foxes have had an even worse impact, and were responsible for the extinction of many native animal species. Even domestic cats cause havoc with the easy prey, which are so vulnerable to foreign predators.

We haven't seen any rabbits or foxes, but we have enjoyed sighting the local wildlife. On the way by car to the Blue Mountains we spotted a few wallabies, including one with a baby in her pouch. We pulled over and were able to get up very close to the pair, who were feeding on the grass, with baby in mother's pouch copying what the mother was doing - they were very endearing. On a related note, yesterday at the grocery store we saw kangaroo burgers and sausages for sale. I was up for some roo but Catheleen would have none of it - maybe next time. I understand it's very tasty, and I don't think we should discriminate by only eating the ugly animals.

We've also seen flocks of scarlet rosella parrots and cockatoos. The parrots are blue and red and are very bold. We were able to hand feed them crackers very easily. The cockatoos make this awful squawking noise. But they do make up for it when we see a flock flying overhead, all in white with smatterings of light yellow on their under bellies.

Last Friday was cold and wet so we decided it was a good day to visit the Jenolan caves. We've seen a few caves on this trip, but this cave complex was the best one we've visited. The highlight was a guided tour of the Chifley cave, one of many caves available for tours. The cave walk was well described by the guide, and well done with concrete pathways, railings and stairs which led down pathways from one large chamber to the next. As we descended down into the deeper chambers we saw beautiful limestone crystal formations, including delicate opaque sheets of limestone crystals called veils that looked like flowing sheets. We also enjoyed learning about the history of cave exploration starting in the 1800's, when the cave explorers were mapping out the caves using basic ropes and candlelight. It's been an increasingly popular tourist attraction since that time, and it's good to see the operators have been kind to the place and have kept the formations intact.

Yesterday we visited Scenic World in Katoomba, which provided stunning views of the limestone cliffs and the Jamison Valley floor below. The place had a glass bottomed gondola which travelled 300 meters above the valley below, allowing us to see the cliff faces we were leaving from and travelling to. Once on the other side, we took a hike along the top of the cliffs. Along the way we were able to go up to railings, and look straight down the cliff faces to the tree tops below. One of the guides on the gondola said it would take six seconds of free fall to reach the ground. I did the math though and I think it's closer to eight seconds (sorry, I can't help doing the math - old habit). We saw a few foolhardy people who were on the wrong side of the railings and sitting close to some of the cliff edges. This gave me the creeps - a few people in the area fall to their deaths every year doing crazy poses and selfies near the edges.

We next took a train ride down to the valley on a 52 degree decline in a glass roofed carriage. We were told this was the steepest passenger railway in the world. It was pretty fast as it whipped us down through a tunnel in the rock and then along the side of the mountain to the valley floor. Once there, we took a boardwalk through the rain forest, saw some remnants of coal mining from the late 1800's, and then eventually went back up via another gondola. The rainforest had massive eucalyptus and turpentine trees, and also these unique fern trees with canopies spanning 20 feet or more. It was a strange but beautiful place.

Here is Elizabeth and me travelling down the railway.

War memorial and the Blue Mountains

On our last day in Sydney we visited the ANZAC War Memorial in Hyde Park. I'm glad we did. The building itself was beautiful. Built in the 1930's and constructed in an Art Deco style, it commemorates the Australian and New Zealand (ANZAC) joint forces that fought in the First World War, starting with the 1915 Gallipoli quagmire. The exterior stone statues and bronze reliefs were superb depictions of the Great War, and the interior was dominated on the lower level by a sculpture. It showed a dead warrior carried on a shield by his mother, sister and wife. It is based on the legend of Spartan warriors from Ancient Greece who were raised to come home from war either with their shield or on it. Clearly the experience for many families during the First World War was one of sacrifice and loss. I found it very moving.

The memorial was re-dedicated in the 1980's to veterans of all wars, and inside we saw displays from the Boer War to Australia's latest involvement in Afghanistan. Of particular interest to me was information on Australia's involvement in the Vietnam war and the recent Iraq war. I wasn't aware that Australians fought in both these wars and I was intrigued to find out why Australia followed the U.S. into these conflicts (Canada did not fight in either). I did some investigation, and I understand Australians felt and perhaps still feel particularly vulnerable to aggression, given its geographic location far from other Western powers. For example, one of the memorial displays described Japanese bombings of Darwin Australia during the Second World War. Its foreign policy strategy appears to align very closely with the U.S. to help mitigate for this vulnerability.

Yesterday we rented a car and travelled to the Blue Mountains, a couple of hours west of Sydney in the interior. It was strange at first to drive on the left side of the road, but I think I got the hang of it. I still have trouble remembering that the change signal is on the right though. Driving around today we admired the landscape, with sheep and cattle grazing on gently rolling grassy fields, and individual trees scattered around. In the distance were the forested mountains, which did look blue. But I think all hills look blue from a distance, since the atmosphere tends to absorb or scatter red light over long distances, leaving only blue light. This is the same reason the sky is blue.

We stayed in Leura, a small but picturesque town in the mountains, at a bed and breakfast run by the owner Isabella. She was such a wonderful host, and we felt like guests in her home. She has a great kitchen which she offers to guests, so I made the most of it and cooked a roast beef dinner last night with all the fixings, and invited Isabella to join us. She did, and we heard many of her stories.

She immigrated to Australia from France 30 years ago after she married her Australian boyfriend, and has been living here ever since. She's since divorced and has one daughter, who now lives in Sydney. We enjoyed listening to her stories of visitors to her bed and breakfast over the last few years. She's a self-professed hugger, and told a story of one Japanese university student on school break who started to cry after she hugged him goodbye. He told her he grew up mainly in boarding schools and had never been hugged before. What a strange and sad story. One last story - her ex-husband lives in Vietnam now, as he always had a fascination and longing for that country. I asked why and she said that he couldn't serve in the Vietnam war since he had heart problems. In fact he was one of the first Australians to receive a heart transplant. However he felt a connection to Vietnam, since many of his friends served during the Vietnam war. Isabelle was very kind to us, offered us breakfast, and filled the kids up with ice cream and hot chocolate. I'm sorry we have to go so soon. It's nice to be in someone's home for a change.

Here's Catheleen watching out for kangaroos and wombats in the Blue Mountains.

Platypuses and rent control

We've learned something about the fauna in Australia over the last couple of days. The animals here, as most everyone knows, are very different from other places. We visited the zoo a couple of days ago, and saw a platypus, koalas, a Tasmanian devil, and an assortment of kangaroos. The platypus had to be one of the strangest creatures I've ever laid eyes upon. He was swimming in a tank, back and forth, wiggling his bill from side to side. He looked like a mix of parts from other animals with its duck-like bill, otter-like body, and webbed feet on the side of its body, and eyes like a lizard. He was every endearing in a way. The zoo breeds these creatures, but we didn't see any baby platypuses, which are called puddles.

In the zoo we spotted some koalas, including a mother and baby. They were sleeping in the eucalyptus trees with their faces tucked into their arms. I understand they sleep 20 hours a day so it's not surprising that we caught them napping. We also were able to do a walk-about along a path, with two emus taking a bath on one side and kangaroos taking a rest on the other. The Sydney zoo was well worth the trip. The kids especially enjoyed the seal and bird shows. There was one vulture that flew down onto the stage from above with a body the size of a dog. It had a massive wing span and proceeded to crack open an emu egg with a rock. This particular bird was born in captivity and wasn't taught to do this, which is standard behaviour in the wild.

Yesterday we visited the Australian Museum in Sydney, which is mainly a nature museum, and included a floor on aboriginal culture and history. We saw many of the same Australian animals we saw living at the zoo, but this time they were either displayed stuffed or in skeletal form. There were even some models of some of the mega fauna that roamed Australia millions of years ago, like large marsupial carnivores that looked a lot like cats.

The museum provided some insight into why Australia has the creatures it does. Australia has most of the marsupials in the world, which are mammals with pouches to grow and house the babies. I didn't get a really great explanation for why that is, other than marsupials arrived here before placental mammals, and then Australia became isolated geographically. The marsupials would have travelled from South America via Antarctica to Australia maybe 100 million years ago, back when these continents were joined together and Antarctica and Australia were both covered in forests.

An explanation for hopping kangaroos builds on this theory. Once Australia separated from Antarctica, Antarctica continued to drift south to the pole and became a very cold place. Australia continued to drift north and became a warmer, drier place. In this isolated, hot and dry landscape with few remaining trees, hopping became a more efficient way to cover long distances than doing it on four legs. Go figure.

Later in the evening Catheleen and I went for a walking tour of the Rocks. Back when Sydney was first established the convicts and poorer folk were given the rocky land up the hill from the harbour to build their houses and businesses (called the Rocks). Government officials and the better off settled on the gentler rolling hills nearby. As we walked around the narrow roads and alleyways in the Rocks, we were told stories of some of the more interesting characters who lived in the area.

My favourite story was about one of oldest pubs in the neighbourhood, which in the 1840's would have regularly plied an unsuspecting patron with free rounds of beer. After all the other patrons had left in the early morning hours, this drunken soul would remain at the bar for one last free pint. A trap door would then open up underneath, dropping the victim into a holding cell below where they likely passed out with a beer still in hand. Upon awakening, the victim would find himself on a ship in the harbour, pressed-ganged into service.

We also heard about recent government plans to evict the last renters in government controlled housing in this area. It's quite controversial and we saw some protest signs. The properties are very valuable now, with modest garden homes selling for millions. The government plans to sell off the remaining properties, and use the proceeds to fund other government subsidized housing in other parts of the city. Some renters are descendants of the original renters from the early 1900's, and pay nominal amounts for their rent.

Here's Catheleen on the ferry on the way to the Sydney zoo.

Australia's convict past

Yesterday we visited the Hyde Park Barracks Museum, which we really enjoyed. The building was originally built to help process convicts transported from England at that time. The museum displays and the audio guide were well done, and provided some excellent insight into the formation of Sydney from a penal colony into the vibrant city it is today.

England had a surplus labour problem in the 1700's thanks largely to land reform that privatised common lands, and better farming techniques that improved productivity. The end result was a population boom and idle hands in the countryside. Subsistence farming was no longer a viable way to make a living, and many peasants poured into cities looking for work. This time was also the start of the industrial revolution, and factories were built in the cities. But this surplus labour drove down wages, and many still struggled to make a living in crowded cities. Theft was on the rise. The government reacted by getting tough on crime, and for awhile making theft above a minor amount punishable by death. But this approach didn't seem to have the deterrent effect intended. In any case, influential citizens no longer considered the death penalty for petty crimes humane or appropriate. So the jails started to fill up. Eventually the government started transporting convicts to the colonies. This served many purposes, including relieving the pressure on overcrowded jails, providing forced labour to expanding colonies, and providing an avenue to rehabilitate prisoners. 

Convicts were shipped throughout the British colonies, and many were sent to America, until the American Revolution removed that option. Then in the 1780's, ten years after the explorer James Cook visited the east coast of Australia, the first convict transports were sent to Botany Bay, near what is now Sydney. Over a thousand prisoner ships were sent to Australia over the next 70 years, and many arrived in Sydney. In the 1820's over 85% of Sydney's population of 12,000 were emancipated criminals, who had served out their sentences, typically seven or 14 years. Today around 20% of Sydney's population of 4.5 million are thought to have a convict in their lineage.

In the museum we learned about life for convicts in the early 1800's. I didn't realize this, but convicts were not incarcerated upon arrival, but were instead employed as labour by the government or by private citizens. In many cases the private citizens were emancipated ex-convicts. The convicts could even earn their own money on Saturday. The best plan for a newly arriving convict, if he had a skill, was to hide that fact on the way over. That way he could avoid providing his skills for free as forced labour and instead use them for profit on Saturdays. The barracks building was mostly just used to provide room and board for convicts who hadn't yet found room and board in the town for whatever reason. Even the building itself shows how vital a role convicts played in building Sydney. The building was designed by a convict architect and built with convict labour in 1820.

The barracks must have been influenced by naval traditions, since we saw how the men slept in hammocks all packed together on the top floor, and we learned how the men were formed into messes to organize and cook their own rations, including salted meat. In one room there was a list of the convicts living in the barracks in 1821. We noticed there was one William Turnbull, age 36, who was a wood turner, and was serving a seven year sentence. It didn't say what his crime was though. The youngest person on the list was 13 years old, and had stolen a watch.

There was a poignant memorial outside the museum to the Great Hunger, the Irish potato famine in the 1840's which lead to the transportation of 4,000 young women to Australia. The memorial consisted of a wall with a table and stool, with no food on the plate.

The kids enjoyed the museum too, since many of the exhibits were hands on, like lying in a hammock, wearing prison clothing, or trying on leg irons. The barracks served many purposes after the convicts stopped coming here in the 1840's. In the late 1800's it was a waypoint for young women, who arrived and were quickly employed as domestic servants or in other trades.

Here's Elizabeth wearing a costume from this time period.

First day in Sydney, Australia

Good thing we happened to arrive at the Bali airport last night about four hours before our flight departed for Sydney, since we were in for a surprise. When we tried to check in we hit a snag. It didn't occur to us that we would need visas in advance to enter the country, but it turns out all foreigners need them. It was a team effort though to solve the problem. John and Elizabeth helped search for a WIFI site and outlets to get our devices charged, and we scrambled over the next couple of hours to get our visas issued on-line. What a pain but we made our flight!

We then took the red eye flight overnight to Sydney. John and Elizabeth were both looking forward to pulling an all-nighter to get in some quality movie watching time on the plane. Catheleen and I managed to get a couple of hours of sleep but the kids did manage to stay up for the most part. But everything has a cost, and they did end up crashing later in the day in Sydney.

We're staying downtown near the Sydney harbour. Again we're staying at a apartment we rented from the AirBnB web site. We're finding we're getting better value using this method than booking regular hotels, since he AirBnB places are usually more spacious and better priced.

Today we didn't venture too far from home. Just by walking around I felt more at home than I have in a while, more relaxed. The weather was cool today, a nice change from the previous three months. Coming from Indonesia, I appreciated everything we've been missing lately - wide sidewalks, sandwich shops, good coffee to go, grocery stores, an English speaking population. I think my favourite difference today was just being another person on the street making my way around town. Very nice.

In the afternoon John and I went down the street to see what we could see. John was thrilled to spot the three-story Apple Store, and he was happy to show me the new features on the latest iPhone. We also found a really good three member band playing on the street called CuzN - two guitarists and one violinist. They were selling their CDs between songs, and somehow I felt compelled to buy one too. I don't think I've ever bought music from a street performer, but there's a first time for everything.

Later Catheleen, Elizabeth and I took a walk to the harbour to see the iconic Sydney Opera House and harbour bridge. It was great to see the opera house from different angles as we walked along the harbour and under the bridge. The opera house with its overlapping shells looked good from all angles. We went again at dusk, and it was interesting to see how the building lit up as night fell. The harbour bridge was beautiful to see as well, and we could see people walking the top of the bridge.

Here's Elizabeth and I at the harbour front. It's just water in Elizabeth's Starbucks cup by the way, in case you're wondering if she's picked up a venti coffee habit lately.