Sydney

I went to Sydney! (the trip was in the middle of November apologies for the lateness of this post.) It was a business trip to the Asia Pacific region Gartner conference. As you can tell from the title this post is about the city not the conference.

So what can I say about Sydney outside of the fact that it is a great city! Sydney is located in ... Sydney Harbor, an estuary dead center on the eastern coast of New South Wales. New South Wales you ask! That is a state in Australia, oh about the size of Texas it is located in the South East of Australia. Sydney is a 3.5 hour flight from Wellington. One of the few direct international flights from New Zealand's capital.

Sydney is the largest city in Australia and is divided into two by the bay. The main city, Sydney is located on the south side of that famous bridge you have seen. And on the otherwise they have (imagine this) North Sydney.

I was staying near the Sydney convention center which is on Darling Harbor (yes they called a harbor darling!) It is a cute little harbor basically made up for tourists. I promptly left the harbor every evening after the day's festivities.

My first night I met a old Chicago friend for dinner. Kurt and I were sailing partners back 0n Lake Michigan. I walked to a wharf which seemed more interesting than hanging around the harbor which would be home for a week. We had a great dinner somewhere nearby and with some help managed to find my way back to the hotel.

The next evening I walked to "The Rocks" which is old Sydney. It looks like a cross between a wild west town and a medieval city in Spain. At night the rocks showed at their best. The locals have put in extensive indirect lighting which gives the whole place a magical feel. A wonderful place to be.

Following night I walked to the Opera House via the botanical gardens. The gardens are lovely but the Opera House! Wow it is even more amazing up close and real than in the various pictures you have seen. I hung around the opera house for a while than grabbed a cab back to the convention center for a night of networking. As I got into the cab I noticed that the Opera House is quite close to "the rocks" just across Circular Quay to be precise. Circular Quay is quite significant for my third night out I met Kurt again at ... Circular Quay. I managed to find three different paths through Sydney to effectively the same place. Each walk through the city was spectacular.

On Thursday night after meeting Kurt at Circular Quay we took a ferry to Manly. Manly is a small tourist town on the far North of Sydney Harbour. It is quite an amazing town actually. The harbour itself is more like a train station with cafes and shopping. From there we took the main street right across the peninsula to the ocean. Wow the moon was at its full and the beach was lovely. Even with the southerly blowing which meant we were being sand blasted while looking at the water. So quickly turning around we took another road back towards the harbour and found ourselves in this little hole in the wall Italian restaurant. It was great food, great conversation, in a great town. What more could one ask?

My last day in Sydney reminded me of why I live in Wellington. I left for the airport at 3:15, arriving at 4:00. It was an uneventful ride but contrast it to my 15 minute cab ride in bad Wellington traffic. Then at the airport I stood in line for one hour to get my ticket. Compare that to my standard of walk up to the ticket counter in Wellington. (Well once there were two people in front of me.) Then I had a half hour wait going through customs and a similar wait to get through security. Finally there was the walk to the terminal which is a typical lugging luggage through a big airport. I really like the scale of Wellington.

Speaking of Wellington. Arriving at Wellington was very strange. Emotionally I was going home. Yet it was only seven months ago that I arrived here for the first time. So driving to the house I was very much aware of both the newness and familiarness of Wellington. It was a turning point for me in this great adventure. I still call Chicago home but now I call Wellington home as well.