Sydney, Australia

We departed Papeete on Saturday, March 22, and after an eight-hour flight, arrived in Sydney on March 23, crossing the International Date Line en route. We are now fifteen hours ahead of New York time: it is now approximately 10:35 pm on March 26 in Sydney, and in New York it is 7:35 am. Our room at the 4 Seasons is on the 27th floor, and the first photo shows the view from our room -- a spectacular view of the Sydney harbor and the Sydney Opera House.

We went for a run along the waterfront and through the Botanic Garden, one of the most scenic parts of Sydney, including a number of resident sacred ibises (photo 2), whose sacred status does not prevent them from picking up discarded human trash (photo 3).

The next day, Monday, March 24, was a public holiday (Easter Monday), and we had a busy day at the Taronga Zoo, a back stage tour of the Sydney Opera House, and at the Aquarium. We hired a guide at the zoo, Bubbles (stop laughing!), with whom we connected immediately. She is active politically, having worked on the Kevin Rudd campaign, and is an Obama supporter even though she can't vote for him. In addition to her extensive knowledge of the animals in the zoo, we were astounded to learn that she had met David Gulpilil, the young aborigine in Walkabout and The Last Wave. Her father was an executive of Twentieth Century Fox, the distributor of Walkabout, and brought David to Sydney as part of the promotion for the film. Another piece of evidence for the "six degrees of separation" thesis.

The Taronga Zoo is a must for anyone visiting Sydney. To see a duckbill platypus swimming in a very large fresh water pool (behind glass), a bilby (another marsupial), an emu, and a dingo, plus more than can be described here, was a once-in-a-lifetime experience for Joyce and me. A photo of the emu is attached, and a supplemental post will include photos of a dingo and of a happy gorilla.

For some history of the Sydney Opera House, see David Owen, Dept. of Architecture, "The Anti-Gravity Men," The New Yorker, June 25, 2007. It is an awesome structure in its breathtaking beauty and soaring lines, and in the sheer daring of its design.

More on Sydney on the next post!