Manly and North Head

On Sunday, November 22nd I didn't have to work, so I decided to go with Matt across Sydney Harbour to see the beach town of Manly and take a walk to North Head. The ferry trip was only about 15-20 minutes but was very scenic. We passed close by Fort Denison and were able to see North and South Heads from the ferry. The heat was already making the air hazy and we were expecting the day to get hotter!

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Manly is a small town on a strip of land between the North Shore area and North Head, a rocky outcrop that guards the north side of the entrance to Sydney Harbour. The beach was already fairly crowded despite a dangerous current and fierce waves. We had a quick breakfast and then started walking up the cliffs.

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It really started heating up and our thermometer read 43C / 109F by the time we reached the top of North Head. We were drinking a ton of water and sweating it out just as fast. I was frequently distracted by the exotic plants that decorated the area. There was a park museum at North Head where we stopped in to ask where we should hike, the rangers seemed very concerned about the heat. It did feel hot, but we were determined to finish our hike!

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After walking back into Manly we caught the ferry in the nick of time back to Sydney. On the way back I really started to feel the heat! We got back to Circular Quay and ducked inside the Quayside Brasserie for some cool air. I ordered a beer and regreted my decision within minutes. The day was still pretty young so we decided to go to the Australia Museum where it would definitely be air conditioned!

Company in Sydney

November 21st, 2009

Matt, originally uploaded by zuctronic.

Being in Australia puts you into a time zone that makes talking to friends back home slightly inconvenient. The morning in Sydney is the evening in Chicago and evening in Sydney is the middle of the night in Chicago. I end up chatting with friends through instant messenger during the early hours of the morning. One morning I was chatting with Matt and suggested that he take Thanksgiving week off and come visit me in Sydney. I could show him around the city and he could get some sun.



Matt lived in the suburb next door to where I grew up. We've been friends for almost 15 years now. When Matt booked his trip to Sydney I was a little bit surprised but mostly excited to see my friend again and share what I love about Sydney and Australia with a like-minded countryman.

I got up early to take the train to the airport to meet Matt and help him get his bearings. We got a taxi back into the city and he dropped off his luggage at his hotel. We took the monorail to Darling Harbour for breakfast at Nick's. The air conditioning on the monorail was not working and the city was starting to heat up... the temperature inside the monorail cars was at least 90F/30C.

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We walked around Darling Harbour for a while since Matt was waiting for his room to be ready. After being on airplanes for 24 hours, all a person wants to do is take a nice shower. After stopping back at the hotel we were ready to do some sightseeing. We walked to Circular Quay and past the Opera House. Then through the Botanical Gardens and back into the CBD. We went up into Sydney Tower so we could see the city from above and I could point out where we'd walked and where I've been. After that we went back to the Circular Quay for a quick dinner and then called it a night. The next day we would be going to North Head for some hiking so we wanted to be well rested.

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Sydney Tower

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Dinner at the Quay

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Sydney Observatory

On Tuesday, November 17th - the week after seeing the sculptures by the sea - Cheryl invited me to go with a group of her friends to the Sydney Observatory for a guided tour. I would need to work at midnight to put some new servers into our APAC website environment, so this would keep me occupied until then... and I love this sort of thing!

We met at the Circular Quay to grab some dinner at a sports bar in The Rocks. After that, we walked up to Observatory Hill where I got some nice pictures of the surrounding harbour and city. Then we went inside and started our tour.



The Sydney Observatory is the oldest on the continent of Australia. We were able to get a live demonstration of a historic 29 cm refractor telescope built in 1874, the oldest telescope in Australia in regular use. The tour guide pointed it to a clock tower in Sydney, it through the eye piece in reverse. After that, we went to the other tower of the observatory and got to see Jupiter and two of its moons through a modern 40 cm Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope.

Sculpture By the Sea

Okay where were we... Sydney Harbour Bridge... right!

Things really started to heat up in Sydney later that week. It hit 30s/90s (C/F) toward the end of the week so it seemed like a great time to hit the beach. Cheryl picked me up and we went to Clovelly Beach to start our walk around the beaches. This also happened to be the last weekend of Sculpture by the Sea, an annual sculpture exhibition / competition that takes place at the beaches of Sydney.

We also walked through Waverly Cemetery, which dates back to 1877 and occupies a beautiful space on the cliffs of Bondi. A picture is worth a thousand words, so here you go!



That is a view across the rocks toward Bronte Beach just south of Bondi Beach.



There were signs that said things like, "Memory 300m" and "<-- Past" "Future -->" pointing in different directions. I liked this one "You are here" the most. There were parrots in the trees, but they were hard to see clearly because they kept hiding in the leaves. I finally got this clear view of one.

The Cemetery was really beautiful and a small island of quiet between the loud beaches.



Here is some of the artwork we saw during our walk:

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After the walk Cheryl and I were both a little sunburned on the face. I didn't wear any sunscreen, but just got a little pink. Cheryl was wearing some SPF 2billion and still got burned on her nose enough to peel! I am surprised I had such a good resistance to the sun, I have a pretty light complexion.