P&O ships

Lots of cruise ships come into Sydney every day, especially in the summer. Sydneysiders seem pretty proud of this fact, and it really hit me this week just how true that is. 

I was walking to work on Wednesday and as I was crossing the bridge, I slowly realized that there were A LOT of people on the bridge - way more than normal. I also began to process that some of them had little handheld radios, and others had binoculars, and they ALL had cameras. It was a pretty hot day - probably already about 80 degrees, so I couldn't fathom what everyone was doing, just standing and staring into the glaring sun rising across the harbour. 

Having been here for a couple Royal visits, my best guess was that one of the Princes was out in a boat on the harbour somewhere. But I stopped to ask an older Australian couple what they were looking at. Turns out, it was cruises ships. 

As she told me, with her husband nodding enthusiastically behind her, "All five" P&O cruise ships were going to be in the harbour that morning. And two of them were new! 

I had a look at the water, and I did see three cruise ships out there with a fourth coming in. But to be be honest, it was so bright looking at the water, I really could barely make anything out. 

I had a hard time processing that these people were just standing there sweating, looking into the sunrise, to watch five ships, but they were SUPER excited about it. She then went on to tell me that they'd been there since 6:45 waiting for them all to arrive!

This also turned into a legitimate news story of the day as well: http://www.businessinsider.com.au/photos-the-spectacular-arrival-of-5-cruise-ships-into-sydney-harbour-2015-11#9

Aren't Australians just the cutest?!

Stoneleigh No. 50

On Saturday, I had concocted a really weird activity for us to do. Usually when I plan something that I'm not sure T will like, I talk it up or just act really confident that it will be fun. But this one was so weird that even I wasn't sure what to expect or whether I would like it. But T put on his good sport face and went along with it! 

This mystery event was called Stoneleigh No. 50. Stoneleigh is the name of a winery in New Zealand, and 50 is the house number where the winery was hosting this promotional event. In a nutshell, the house had been filled with plants and nature-y things. And not just a few plants: so many that the house looked abandoned and the rooms looked like they had been overtaken by nature. 

It's a bit hard to explain in words, which is why I didn't know what to expect when we went. But it was free so I signed us up for a 12:30 tour, and there we were! 

Our "tour" was a 25 minute guided walk through the house, which is a lovely old terrace style house in the oldest part of Sydney. 

Standing outside also gave us a sneak peek at some of the rooms we were going to get to see.

Then we got to go in, and that's when it turned pretty cool. Our guide explained to us that each room in the house was designed to represent the different natural aspects of different Stoneleigh wines. And in each room we'd get a taste of the wine represented there. Hard to go wrong with that!

The main hallway had big stones and grapevines it it. There was a lot of talk about how the stones in the ground at the Stoneleigh vineyard contribute to the mineral taste of the wine, but I was sneaking looks in to the other rooms and missed most of these fancy details. 

The first room up was the bedroom, which was meant to represent the floral aspects of the savignon blanc. Again, I didn't 100% pay attention to the tasting notes, because I was checking out all the different things to look at in the room. Like the mattress that just had tons of flowers growing out of it, and the little shoes by the fireplace with the same. It was hard to take it all in. 

And then it was on to the living room. This room was cool because there was actual grass as the floor, which kind of played with my head a bit. There was also a lot going on in there, with some herbs and veggies growing on the dining table that we could taste with that room's wine. And it was borderline creepy: with chairs overturned and dirt on the piano, it definely looked the most "abandoned" of any of the rooms. 

It was about at this point that we learned this house had recently been sold for a cool $4.5 million. While the owners wait for approvals for all the renovations they want to do, they agreed the house could be used for this event. It's hard for me to imagine a scenario where I would spend 4 million dollars on a house and then let it be filled with dirt, but I suppose this will never be a real decision I will be faced with. 

Next up was the bathroom, which I would have loved with or without the plants. It was just so old fashioned and quaint!

Last up was a trip to the cellar/basement, which was the "earthiest" room of all. I snapped some pics of the stairs going up as we went down too. 

The cellar theme was dirt and mushrooms, and it was cool and dark in there. By this time we'd tasted four rooms worth of wine, so I was really appreciating all those dirt tones in the wine. 

And then we were done! We were welcomed to hang out in the back garden to drink wine and enjoy the views for as long as we wanted. 

We left with gift bags of wine and feeling slightly surreal. But we also both agreed that the gamble had paid off and it was indeed a very fun activity!

Ferry ride to Parramatta

On my rainy Sunday, I decided I had to get out of the apartment for a little while. I always have a hard time figuring out what to do when it's raining, since all my mental plans throughout the week involve lovely sunny days. But on this day, I decided to do something I've had in the back of my mind for a while. I decided to take the ferry from Circular Quay to Parramatta, which is a city in western Sydney.

Parramatta is far inland, up on the Parramatta River. The trip from Circular Quay actually takes an hour and a half, with a bunch of stops at little towns along the way. 

The ferry ride to Parramatta takes over an hour. It goes under bridges that I've never seen or been on. 

I'd also never seen the Dame Edith Walker Hospital either. While we were cruising by, I googled what this lovely building was, and learned that it was an estate built in the 1800s by some of the very wealthy people of early Sydney. But it was given to charity in the 1930s and now it's a hospital and medical offices. 

There were lots of interesting boats and boat-related things along the way. 

A naval boat anchored in the harbour

Cute dockside buildings and a yellow ferry

If you can afford to live by the river, you can probably afford a boat too

A rowing club

An interesting looking boathouse - with a buck on the roof, of course

Toward the end of the ride, the river got really narrow. Ferries have to go one at a time down the pass, so we waited for a ferry to come through before we entered it. 

And then, we reached the end of the river! The river flows on through Parramatta, but this is the view at the ferry stop. 

And at the end of the day back in Sydney, there were signs of support for France all around.