Snorkeling on the Great Barrier Reef

We drove up to Yeppoon, on Queensland's Capricorn Coast (it's where the Tropic crosses).  We spent a day at Great Keppel Island, on the Southern Great Barrier Reef, viewing fish and coral from a glass-bottomed boat and snorkeling on the reef.  Saw some fantastic colors of coral while snorkeling.  Passed on an opportunity to "Boom Net" - being towed behind the boat in a net - but enjoyed watching those who participated.

Capricorn Penguins (Shags) Perched on Reef

An Unusual Whale Sighting in Yeppoon

Great Keppel Island

Nick Relaxing in Paradise

Dee with Aboriginals and a Tasmanian Devil

Many Varieties of Coral on the Reef

And Lots of Fish

Boom Netting.  Note the Guy Doing a Selfie with Tripod

A Whale of a Time in Hervey Bay

It's now Sunday evening, October 19.  We're at the Brisbane airport for an overnight flight to Taipei, then connecting to Shanghai.  We flew from Sydney to Brisbane a week ago this morning, picked up a car and drove north to Hervey Bay, along the Fraser Coast of Queensland.  Hervey Bay is beautifully situated with miles of sandy beach, and is famous as the home for thousands of humpback whales who migrate up to the warmer waters from Antarctica to mate, returning about 11 months later to birth their new offspring.  We went out on a 6 hour boat trip to look for them.  Saw a one or two day old newborn, already cavorting along.  Also a whale mother fluke feeding, nursing the baby whale vertically upside down, evidently a quite unusual sight.

Humpback in Hervey Bay

Mama Whale and Male Escort Whale Spouting

Mama Whale Fluke-Feeding Baby Whale

Newborn Whale In Early Breach

A Few More Scenes of Sydney

Bondi Beach.  We're the ones with all the clothes on.

Admiralty House.  Where the Royals stay in Sydney.  No Holiday Inn for Will and Kate.

Regatta at Neutral Bay

Rudolph the Red-Spinnaker Craft

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Busy Saturday at Bondi Beach

Wanna Buy an "O"?

We spent a morning wandering around the Woolloomooloo neighborhood in Sidney, once home to a thriving wharf.  Finger Wharf was scheduled for demolition,  but preservationists prevailed and it's now home to a fancy hotel, restaurants and bars, and private residences.  We lunched at a less-fancy spot, Harry's Cafe de Wheels, which has been serving pies to the famous and folks like us for over 70 years.

Digging in to a Beef, Mash and Pea Pie

The Legendary Harry's

Guess All Lizard-Type Animals Look Alike to Me

Nick has pointed out that I mis-identified the Komodo Dragon as a Gila Monster in the previous post about the zoo.  I could blame it on jet lag, but since we've been in the same general time zones for over 3 weeks, that probably won't wash.  Anyway, it was a Komodo Dragon, but still was quite ugly.

A Day At Taronga Zoo

Zoo Bird Show

Bird Cracking Emu Egg with Rock

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The Giraffes Have the Best View

Cable Cars

Koala Not Doing Much

Red Kangaroo Napping

One Ugly Gila Monster

Blue Penguin Taking a Swim

We spent an entire day at Sydney's Taronga Zoo.  It has a great layout overlooking Sydney's Harbor, and over 4,000 animals.  We took the cable car up to the top from the ferry landing, then walked down admiring all the animals.  The free-flight bird show was awesome!  We sat in an open arena while trained birds soared right over our heads, snatching coins held up by willing attendees and performing all sorts of tricks on command.  We also got to see blue penguins swimming, and got some photos of them.  We'd watched 161 of them come ashore in Oamaru, New Zealand, but hadn't been allowed photographs.

A Night at the Sydney Opera House

The landmark Opera House, with its roof of over 1,000 self-cleaning tiles, is a great venue for all manner of performing arts.  The building contains several theaters and concert halls and a number of restaurants and bars.  Wednesday night we had dinner at the Opera House and then attended a performance of Walton's Belshazzar's Feast with orchestra and massed choirs in the main concert hall.  The program also included a new work based on Machievilli's "It is better to be feared than loved."  

Interior, Opera House Main Concert Hall

Bars and Restaurants Along the Quay

The Harbor Bridge and Opera  House from Circular Quay

October 6, Labor Day in Sydney

Wwe

We arrived in Sydney Sunday evening, October 5.  We've rented an apartment here for a week, and are really pleased with the accomodations.  Have a fully equipped kitchen (2 sets of dishes, all sorts of utensils, a dishwasher), a washer and dryer in the unit, books and dvds, a very comfortable place.  There's a bakery next door, groceries and the train station a couple of blocks away, and a 24 hour concierge on duty.
 Australia celebrates Labor Day, a public holiday, on October 6.  It was a gorgeous day here.  We breakfasted on our porch, then walked to the train station where we purchased "multi" tickets - 7 day passes good for travel by train, bus, light rail and ferry boats - a very good deal for less than $45 per person.

We took trains to Circular Quay and hopped on a ferry to Watkins Bay.  Sat on the upper outside deck and enjoyed the wonderful scenery with many, many pleasure boats (sail and power), past crowded beaches and a couple of seals.
 Returning to the Quay, we strolled along the waterfront to the Opera House.  There are a great many outdoor restaurants and bars along the way, all full of people eating and drinking, and sidewalk entertainers.   We hadn't realized that the roof of the Opera House is made of hundreds of tiles.

How I Saved Excess Baggage Charges

We're flying business class on our Skyteam around the world tickets, but have several flights on our own that are in coach.  These "foreign" airlines have more restrictive requirements for carry on baggage, and excess weight can result in your having to check the bag and pay an additional bag fee.
 New Zealand Air, which we flew from Christchurch to Sydney, limits carry on weight to 15 pounds.  To comply with this, I really layered up in Christchurch, where the temperature was in the high 50's - heaviest shoes and jeans, t shirt, sweater, fleece jacket and waterproof jacket.  I rolly-pollyed through check in and security, then removed the jackets and packed them in the carry-on bag. Upon arrival at the Sydney airport, with the temperature in the 80's, I removed and packed the sweater.  I'll probably have to do this again when we fly from Sydney to Brisbane and for internal flights in China, but I think I've figured out a way to beat the system.

Lovely Gardens and a Wonderful Example of Kitsch

Before leaving Christchurch we spent Sunday morning visiting the botanical gardens and the adjacent Christchurch Museum.  The gardens were lovely and full of Sunday strollers.  The museum had a good many exhibits - natural history, Christchurch history, etc. but what we enjoyed most was Fred and Myrtle's Paua (abalone) shell house.  Fred was a shell collector and his wife Myrtle was tired of picking up his shells and began nailing them to the wall of their living room. The walls were eventually totally covered with hundreds of shells, and they began collecting every conceivable shell object - ash trays, telephone, lamps, outdoor fountains, and so forth.  Their home, on the southern tip of the South Island, became a visitor's magnet, they became minor celebrities and stars in TV commercials, and Myrtle was honored by Queen Elizabeth. Christchurch museum has the actual lounge (living room) as well as many of the shell objets d'arte.