The next day we had to leave New Zealand to go on to Sydney. We had by now grown rather fond of New Zealand and we certainly will return sometime to see more of South Island and perhaps get to see some of the North as well. We left the hotel around 10:30 to go to the airport. We got a bit lost on the way (basically not paying attention to where we were) and so only arrived at the Antarctic Centre around 11:15.
We were greeted by a very large 'Emperor' and two real Huskies (one 18 year old male and his 18 month old great grandson). I took some pictures of Barb hugging the penguin, as well as a few of the Centre itself. We spent a couple of hours taking our time looking at all the exhibits much more thoroughly than we did when we visited on our way out. We then dropped the car off, checked in for the flight to Sydney (the weight of our baggage had increased by some 25kg or so - we have spent a lot of money on penguin stuff!). Next we went to get some lunch. Barb joined the queue while I grabbed a table; I was immediately approached by Jo Richardson, one of my ex-students, who was travelling back to the UK with her boyfriend. It is a small world.
The flight proved unusual for the awkward characters on it. First we were delayed for about 45 minutes taking off because two passengers who had come from Dunedin and had checked their baggage through to Sydney had decided to go in to Christchurch and were late getting back. Secondly the people in the seats behind us (we had to travel in economy again for this flight - we are getting too used to business class) were plain difficult; they objected to us reclining our seats but goodness alone knows why. Finally, there was a Japanese passenger opposite us who insisted to the purser that he wanted to go into Sydney despite the fact that he (as well as his baggage) was checked through to Tokyo. The argument had several entertaining rounds. I had to admire the calmness of the purser, he kept repeating that it was simply not permitted but the passenger kept trying new arguments why the rule should not apply to him. When we got off the plane the purser pulled the passenger aside and had another airline official (presumably Japanese speaking) there to talk to him as well. The purser had said he would have the passenger's checked baggage removed from the plane if he went into town. I expect it was removed anyway (and perhaps 'lost' as well).
The contrast between horizontal quiet New Zealand and vertical busy Sydney came as a culture shock almost as great as that of getting off the isolation of the ship and into the comparative 'civilisation' of Bluff and Invercargill. Sydney, at first sight, is more like a cross between Toronto and San Francisco. The city is made of many modern tall buildings with a reasonable mixture of architecture. Particularly noticeable features are the traffic jams - the first we had seen since leaving home; and the dirt and litter in the streets - again the first we had noticed since leaving England.
We had an excellent meal that evening in an Indian restaurant. This was a most welcome aspect of being in a large cosmopolitan city - Sydney has a similar population to that of the whole of New Zealand!
The following day we really turned into proper tourists. In the morning we walked to the monorail station and then took the monorail to Darling Harbour to go to the Aquarium. We got on and off the monorail several times as we slowly soaked up the local atmosphere and browsed through the shops and tourist attractions. The Aquarium had two large tanks with perspex walk-through tubes. One contained Sydney Harbour fish and the other was full of sharks and rays - a bit like the shark encounter at Sea World. There were also some large Saltwater and small Freshwater Crocodiles.
We slowly made our way to the Powerhouse museum where we spent a couple of hours looking at the exhibits, especially the 'hands on' science part. The 'experiments' were different from many I have seen elsewhere, but I felt the explanations and the static displays could be much improved.
In the evening we went to a performance of Turandot at the Sydney Opera House. It was really great to experience the atmosphere of the place. However, the performance itself was slightly disappointing. No real sense of the great passions and emotions of the story came across. The performers remained rather passive in their roles. Nevertheless we did have a most enjoyable time.
The opera finished quite late and by the time we had got back to the hotel we were both tired so we simply grabbed some sandwiches from a local take away and ate them in the room with some wine from the mini-bar.
We decided to go to the Zoo on the next day - the last full day of our holiday; it proved to be a good decision. We took the subway to the ferry and then caught a bus to take us up to the zoo. We found out that they had Little Blue Penguins from the information desk. We also knew, from a photo in the newspaper delivered to our hotel room that morning, that they had a Fiordland Crested Penguin that had been found on a local beach.
We went directly to see the penguins, pausing only briefly to look at some alligators. We soon noticed that the Fiordland Crested Penguin was in the enclosure with all the Little Blues. While we were taking a few photos and a bit of video of the penguins a keeper came into the enclosure with a woman who was obviously a visitor. They sat down and fed some fish to the penguins and petted the Fiordland. We thought 'if she can get in there so can we!'. So when we saw them coming out Barbara quickly went up to the keeper and asked "Is that a Fiordland Crested Penguin in there?" The upshot was that we were quickly recognised as penguin lovers and taken inside to see some seals and to have a brief chat. The keeper, Elle, was most interested, and envious, when he learned that we had been to Macquarie Island. Although he is another penguin enthusiast, he actually works in the marine mammals section - their main exhibit is of seals and is called 'Macquarie Island'! He invited us to meet him later at the seal exhibit where we could feed a seal. When we got there we were given an excellent tour and shown the places behind the scenes where they care for beached animals before returning them to the wild. At the moment they have a female elephant seal waiting to go back to Macquarie. We were allowed to pet one of their Australian fur seals (she was in one of the pools behind the scenes as she is pregnant) and later a female elephant seal who has been in the zoo for about eight years. After the 'tour' we went upstairs for a cup of coffee and a chat. Elle told us about a newsletter for penguin enthusiasts and gave us the address of the publishers and about the 3rd International Penguin Conference which will be held in Cape Town in September 1996. Perhaps we might go, we shall certainly get the information about it. Finally, just as we were leaving, Elle said that if we turned up at penguin feeding time we could go inside with him and meet the Little Blues and the Fiordland (who has been named 'Milford').
When penguin feeding time came round we were of course already waiting. After giving a short talk about the penguins Elle beckoned us to go round the side and go on in. We did and we spent about a quarter of an hour inside - Barb fed several Little Blues and we both petted the Fiordland who was particularly friendly. When he arrived at the zoo about 3 months ago he weighed 1.5 kg, now he is about 2.7 kg. They hope to be able to send him back to New Zealand to be released soon (but apparently DOC are reluctant to pay the quarantine costs).
All in all this was a very good way to spend our last full day before returning home.
