Sydney, Australia (April 2018)

Our trip to Down Under continued from New Zealand and Fiji to Australia: the real Down Under. We would have missed the connecting flight from Auckland to Sydney if we had taken the flight from Nadi to Auckland which was delayed for more than 4 hours. But, we were able to buy a flight ticket to travel directly from Nadi to Sydney.

Australia is an island continent. It is the largest island and the smallest continent. Due to distance from other parts of the world, Australia or OZ as is called has a lot of unique things. Great Barrier Coral Reef, Ululu, Kangaroo, Koala, Boomerang, Outback, the Bush, just to name a few.

Australia has a little less than 25 million people in population. About 20% reside in Sydney and another 20% or more live in Melbourne. The rest is scattered in six federal states and three territories.

Sydney Hosanna
Jean Lee, a sister in Christ living in Sydney, came to the airport to pick us up. We had dinner together and met with Jean and her colleague, one of the founders of Sydney Hosanna. Sydney Hosanna is involved in mobilization, praise and business mission. Our meeting centered around exploring the possibility of collaboration in the BAM area.

City Tour
The next day, we took a half day city tour of Sydney, which included driving tour of a lot of places in the city and its vicinity. But, Sydney is famous for Sydney Opera House, Sydney Harbor Bridge or "the Coat Hanger" and the Bondi Beach. We could not miss them.

Sydney Harbor meets Parramatta River at its mouth and it connects several port towns along the river bank to the City of Sydney. Sydney was built by and for the convicts  who were exported from England. The tour guide, however, was listing a few examples of how minor the charges for which the convicts were indicted.

On our city tour, we stopped over at Bondi Beach that is the most visited beach in Sydney. It is Sydney's another icon. Along the coastline, there were many other beaches that may be lesser known, but still beautiful.

Sydney Opera House was an impressive structure that still shines like an architectural gem stone. We took the tour in the afternoon and it was worth the tour, the time and the money. It was designed by Utzon, but his design was rejected initially. An American judge of the competition resurfaced it from the reject drawings. It can have 2,600 people sit at the main hall and hosts 1,800 performances a year. Tiles are self-cleaning and it has not been reordered since the inception. This Opera House is definitely Sydney's most famous icon and it is UNESCO World Heritage site.

Sydney Harbor Bridge overlooks the harbor, the river and the city. Many people choose to pay a hefty amount of money to climb the bridge, but to us it was not cost-effective. So I passed.

We took a boat trip to Manly that is famous for its small but cute beach and many other activities. The scenery of the harbor to the northern entrance of the harbor was fantastic.

We walked back to the hotel from Circular Quay via Pitt Street. There were plenty of street performances in this carless street.

We stopped over at Queen Victoria Building, another icon of the city according to the tour guide. Inside the building were giant clocks and many many stores with Victorian architecture and decorations.

The following day, we visited Australian Museum where we saw the aboriginal people and their culture. They call Australia Gadigal Land. 4.7 meter long crocodile was quite scary. It was a good thing that it was not alive.  We saw an exhibition of Crown of Thorn Starfish threatening significantly Great Barrier Coral Reef.

Also, we visited St. Mary's Cathedral, Royal Botanical Garden, State Library of New South Wales, The Parliament Building, Sydney Hospital, The Mint, St. James Church. Later in the afternoon, I walked to Darling Harbor and China Town.

Obviously, a few days were not enough to see and experience the Great City of Sydney. But we were able to taste the city full of cosmopolitan flavors coming from all over the world. - Jeffrey