4/11/14 - "Windy" Wellington

On our Wellington City tour the highlight was the Parliament Buildings. We toured the site which was extremely informative re: the government of New Zealand. The Governor General is appointed by the Queen as her representative. The governor-general is viewed by some as the de facto head of state. The functions and roles of the governor-general include: appointing ministers and judges, dissolving parliament, granting Royal Assent to legislation, issuing writs for elections and bestowing honors.

Parliament and the Library

Beehive

We learned all about the New Zealand government at a high level while touring different chambers. The House has a Mixed Member Proportional electoral system which is intended to represent the diversity of the population including minorities and is better explained by their website. They can only campaign for 2 months. Their responsibility is to pass laws. The Executive Branch is housed in the Beehive building and has accountability to the House of Representatives for its actions. The Beehive was designed in 1964 and has 14 stories above ground.

We viewed the Maori Affairs Select Committee Room which is decorated with carvings of the four tides, all tribes and their legends and cultural heroes. You can find out more on the parliament website as we weren't allowed to take photos. It was very interesting.

OK, for those who like engineering feats: in 1992-1995 a refurbishment project was carried out involved separating the Parliament House from its foundation placing the building on isolation technology. Very cool.


We took the cable car up the side of the hill and had a view of the city in the rain. At the top was a Cable Car Museum and the entrance to the Wellington Botanic Gardens.

4/10/14 - Australia to New Zealand

We spent most of the day travelling to Wellington, New Zealand. 

"Aotearoa" is the Maori name for New Zealand, though it seems at first to have been used for the North Island only. It means "long white cloud". There are three official languages of New Zealand: English, Maori, and sign language.

We stayed at the Copthorne Hotel Oriental Bay in Wellington. Welcome to RAIN and cooler weather!

Wellington is the capital of New Zealand and the world's southernmost capital city of a sovereign state. New Zealand is the biggest island of Polynesia. There are many imperceptible earthquakes.

Wellington city has a population of 150K and with suburbs 500K people. The minimum wage is $13.50 and the average yearly salary is $50K/year.

The Whittaker’s Big Egg Hunt in support of Starship Children's Hospital.was the first campaign of its kind in the southern hemisphere and took place from 21 March – 22 April 2014, with 100 giant eggs created by New Zealand artists hidden throughout Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch

4/9/14 - Sydney Free Day

We had a free day in Sydney so we filled the day with sites to see. First we visited The Art Gallery of New South Wales.

There was art by Australian artists, Aboriginal artists and European artists. There was also a section of art by women artists of Australia. Very unique. We spent a lot of time there. Wonderful.

Ancient trees in the domain.

Next we visited the Hyde Park Barracks Museum.

160,000 convicts were sent to Australia, 50,000 to North America and 9000 to Bermuda. In 1821 ex-cons and children were 85% of the free population: 7556 adults and 5859 children. Racism came in the 1920s prior to that blacks and whites lives in the same town. 1970s social values changed.

Initially the barracks were used by convicts, some their only crime being a small debt (think Dickens books). In 1848-50 over 4K orphan teenage girls from Ireland were shipped to Sidney and other places. They were housed in the barracks and some hired away as servants, some married.

Sometimes there were double the number of prisoners than the capacity so their hammocks were tied above the lower hammocks.

After prisoners were no longer housed there, the barracks were used for poor and ill and homeless women. It is now a World Heritage site along with other Australian convict sites. Then the barracks became the site of public services offices and then was finally restored to be a historic site.

Painted Rhinos around city streets for charity 

Afterward we visited the Royal Botanic Gardens until it became too dark and we went back to the hotel to pack for New Zealand tomorrow.

4/8/14 - Featherdale Wildlife Park and Foodie Tour

Today we visited the Featherdale Wildlife Park. We were looking forward to this because although we had seen animals in the "wild" we hadn't seen all of them. We were able to feed kangaroos and wallabies. You could hold koalas, have birds perch on your hand, and view a baby Kangaroo (joey) in the mom's pouch. Feeding a Kangaroo/Wallaby is like having a small pony eating out of your hands, soft lips and very gentle.

The different areas of the Park included: farmland, reptile pavilion, dingo (dog) area, Koala, Big Birds (Emu, Pelican, Cassowary, Tasmanian Devils, Nocturnal house and a baby area. The Tasmanian Devil ran around in a circular fenced in area so fast it was hard to get a good photo!

Bill with an Owl

Diane feeding with roo food

Koala

Tasmanian Devil

We could have stayed here a while longer, but that's the way of a tour.
We traveled back to the Sidney city center to have a foodie tour, which focused on the immigrants to Sydney.  We also sang Waltzing Matilda! 

We stopped at four places: P.R. Rainer Deli - an Italian deli, Sydney Fish Market, Harry's Cafe de Wheels (Tiger Meat Pie) and the Old Fitzroy Hotel which is a 150 year old pub.

Olympic Stadium still making a profit!

The evening was free and we went to purchase a small carry-on suitcase as our backpack had completely fallen apart.

4/7/14 - Sydney Opera House, Harbour Cruise and other city sites

In the morning we walked over to the Opera House for a private tour. The Opera House is found on Bennelong Point. It houses four major resident companies: Opera Australia, The Australian Ballet, the Sydney Theatre Company and the Sydney Symphony Orchestra. Over 2000 performances are given in a year by various artistic groups. There are multiple types of tours given in a variety of languages. For those late performance attendees, the performance is shown on video in the lobby.

Sydney Opera House

Danish architect Jørn Utzon began the design in 1959. His design was really complicated. He hid all ventilation equipment behind big wings. He also placed two large halls next to each other. The larger hall was designed for instrumental acoustics. There is a set of seats around the stage for the choir (like Symphony Hall in Chicago). The organ has 138 pipes showing in front and 10K pipes behind the stage!

Each of the white curve sections has the same curvature and were put together on site. There is an abundance of wood used for walls and floors.

Dame Joan Sutherland

The second theater is the Joan Sutherland theater which is used for opera. The acoustics are designed for voice. There is not much space on the stage or the wings. They run 3 operas at a time.




Sydney and Melbourne share a ballet company and the opera. Every 3 months they switch locations.

Due to political issues and over-runs the architect resigned. Another firm completed the work. It took $102M to complete rather than the estimated $7M. And it took 16 years vs 3yrs to complete. The original architect eventually won prizes for the architecture. He also designed tapestry and mosaic patterns used in the areas outside the theater.

Following our tour of the Opera House, we took a guided Harbour Cruise. We saw many landmarks, neighborhoods and famous buildings. The Sydney Harbour Bridge is the largest single span bridge in the world. You can climb to the top.

Sydney Harbour Bridge

After the cruise we took a bus tour past the Domain, The Rocks, King's Cross and Bondi Beach. Bondi Beach is approximately 1 KM long, very near the city and is one of the best places to go to swim and surf. Its pavilion was built in 1928. Surf life saving tarted at this beach - first life guards in the world.

Bondi Beach

The Domain is a large public park which is a rallying place for crowds when issues of public importance come up. It is also a place for picnics and entertainment events.

The Rocks are rugged cliffs that played a big role in Sydney's development where in 1788 the first makeshift buildings were built by convict's hard labor. It still features colonial history. Kings Cross is a very cosmopolitan and densely populated part of the city, with lots of coffee shops, bars and the red light district.

In the evening, we had dinner at the O'Bar. This revolving restaurant was at the top of a building with nice views.