Day 51 sydney opera house, chinese new year, powerhouse

Tues 20 Feb
We had our Opal travel cards and were keen to see Sydney, the day was set to be warm but cloudy so it seemed an ideal time to see the sights. The bus stop was right outside our apartment and the opal app was brilliant giving prices choice of routes, stop info and times. For us it was really easy, get on the 377 or the 376 and stay on it, the last stop was circular quay which is right next to the harbour, the bridge and the opera house. You tap your card on the reader as you get on and then tap it as you get off. It calculates the fare and deducts the balance, stops are short because no one is buying a ticket so the journey is faster and it is so cheap, $4.61 to get all the way to the harbour and that is the maximum bus fare.
We arrived and immediately noticed a giant snake hanging under the roadbridge, and a big ox made of mah jong tiles. All the chinese animals representing the years were scattered along the harbour.

Horses with my favourite charioteer

Rats of love 

Its the year of the dog 

                                                                  Mah jong ox

Tiger

Flying pigs

Boy has released jewel from dragons mouth so he can breathe water and bring rain to the land 

Link to 360here of the opera house

Of course we had to stare at the opera house and take a million pictures of it and the harbour bridge and the impressive skyline.

Theres a new cruise ship in everyday and they are huge.
Jono and I are both roosters so we had to get one of these.

And we both liked this sculpture to ideas on the side of a building

We wandered down to Dawes point passing a couple of Chinese "brides" (we think these were having shots done for an advert  or promotion as there was a distinct lack of any guests) and checking we knew where to come for the bridge climb the next day, then headed into the city to find a sandwich. There were loads of cafes and restaurants  around but we just wanted a quick bite. It proved hard to find but eventually we spotted a woolworths and sat in a park along with a lot of people having their lunch break.

These birds we saw all over sydney. They are White Ibis and are totally unperturbed by people.

As we ate it started to spit so we decided to go to the Powerhouse Museum for the afternoon. As a nice extra we got to take the walkway over Darling harbour seeing the naval museum on the way.

We spent all aftermoon until they chucked us out there. There are still bits we didn't cover.

Interactive gaming part with massive screens

Yugi

Lots of things had buttons to press, like this to see how it worked

Pictures of a lady reclining on a bed!

The building was a powerhouse and some of the stuff is still there like these cranes perched high on the gantries

there was also an origami station

we made both the heart and the skull

Everything in this room looked black and white including me

Until you turned on a torch and realised everything was actually brightly coloured. Ok this was in the kids section. I had so much fun in this part.

Outside the museum is a pedestrian way that leads all the way to central station, along it is water play for kids, places to sit, mini outdoor gyms, table tennis and information plaques. It made for a pleasant stroll under the blue sky which had appeared sometime  while we were inside. Central station is a stopping point for most buses and all trains so it was an easy ride back again to our apartment.

Spot the big kid playing with water

Quirky uni building en route

Day 50 goodbye NZ, latam airlines, hello Sydney

Mon 19th Feb
Our hotel provided transfers to the airport and we were on the 5:30am one. It's only a 5 minute journey and it wasn't  long before we were in the Qantas lounge. It was very quiet. Plenty of breakfast style food and drink available and comfy chairs. Announcements were made giving warning of when people needed to move to their gate which were nicely accurate,we arrived at the gate and people were boarding.

We were flying Latam airways this time, just over 3 hours for the flight time and the aircraft had a ' turn left' for the business section. Plenty of leg room and comfy seats. Not anywhere to stow things close to you like on Korean airlines though. Drinks ( orange juice or water) were brought round and we both decided to check out the movies on offer. That was when I found out my remote control didn't  work. The air stewardess was unable to fix it so we moved seats. It was lucky there were two seats unoccupied! We were now in row 1,slightly smaller TV screens than where we had been but still ok. Latam had quite an extensive range of movies to see so I didn't  check out their selection of TV shows and started to watch LaLa Land. Jono chose Bladerunner 2049, both films were starring Ryan Gosling!

Jono chose the egg option

Vegetarian breakfast ( plus croissant, I'd  already eaten that)

Electronicaly operated windows

Reclining seat with footrest

Oodles of leg room

Can't  actually  touch the maroon shelf thing with my feet 

The plane had windows which you could brighten or darken electronically either as a whole by the crew or individually. The plane was kept in low light for most of the journey for anyone who wanted to sleep a bit longer and to help with that we received a black and white pack containing socks,a blind, a pen and ear plugs.
Breakfast was served about halfway into the flight, I had a vegetarian meal and Jono had the egg choice.
When La La Land finished there was enough time to watch most of Me Before You before the plane landed. Business passengers were let off first and we were off to claim our baggage, be questioned and inspected on what we had brought in (shells from a NZ beach) and then we caught an uber to our airbnb at Maroubra beach.
We already knew the place would not be ready for us but we had permission to dump our luggage there while we spent the day on the beach until checkin time at 3pm.
Maroubra had loads of surfers out on the water with lifeguards patrolling and a small swim between  the flags section. It was fairly cloudy but pretty warm. The lifeguards kept having to tell the surfers to move down the beach away from the swimming area, generally followed by a warning that they'd close the surfing down if the surfers  didn't  move. They also warned the swimmers that the sea was pretty powerful, that the waves were knocking people over and the current was strong and dangerous. We went down for a swim and quickly realised that it wasn't  safe to go past knee depth; the waves would easily reach waist height  pushing us over and the tow was dragging us into the sea.

360 view here

After a relaxing time on the beach we walked back up to our apartment at the northern end, keen to get settled and unpacked. We were not happy to discover the apartment in the same state  as earlier and had to email and ring the people who were managing it. They didn't seem to realise it hadn't  been  cleaned but promised to get someone in straight away. We decided to go and find a supermarket and get in food. This took us about an hour and a half as we were on foot and the nearest Woolworths was at the other end of the beach and then some! We arrived back to find the cleaner still there with not a lot done. We unpacked the food and had to leave again while he finished. We used the time productively, buying and loading two opal cards which are used to travel around Sydney (these are brilliant, we have used them continuously). They are capped so after you have spent $15.40 (£8.62) in a day or $61.60 in a week all journeys are free. Yes all journeys whether by bus, train, tram or ferry.
Back to the flat to find the cleaner had gone at last. Unfortunately he hadn't  left towels, washing up liquid  or cleaned the hob. Back on the email to the management company who promised to get them delivered. A couple of hours layer the cleaner turned up with the towels and a load of shampoo. I explained we needed washing up liquid and off he went. Eventually the washing up liquid arrived!
On the whole we are not as happy with this place as the ones we have had in NZ. It has no tablespoons or dessert spoons,no veg peeler or grater and only two eating knives (its meant to sleep 3 or 4). The windows could do with a good clean and the single glazing means sound travels rather too easily but it's location is good.
We could see the beach from our dining area and the bus stop was right outside. We planned what we wanted to do and cooked a meal ourselves.

Day 48 hundertwasser toilets, wangeray revisited Auckland with Lyn

17th Feb sat
The road out  of Paihia to the south was still closed so we did the 3 sides of a square detour again. We had to stop in Kawakawa  to gawp at the Hundertwasser toilets.

Ladies toilets

Passageway 

Gents loos

Outside the toilets

 The town has adopted Hundertwasser's unique style and put other art around the town. It makes it very colourful!

Lamp post with handy feet

Colourful couch on the main street 

Created by primary school children there are loads of short inspirational sayings in the picture 

Our next stop was lunch back at Wangerai. This time after we had eaten we explored the path alongside the marina which has sculptures dotted along and big plaques with information about Maori life and history on one side and the modern developement of the area on the other. It made for a pleasant hour. It looks cloudy in the pictures but this didn't  stop the temperature from being in the high 20s.

Clock museum, this was our view as we had lunch

Marina walk, plaques on righthand side with info

The waka and the wave sculpture

We decided to branch off the SH 1 just before the toll road north of Auckland and follow the coast road. The guide book told us this would only take an extra 10 minutes and it would allow us to see more of the coast and save us the vast expense of the $2.30 toll charge. We decided to have a break at Orewa for another driver swap and a leg stretch but were pleasantly surprised when we got there to find out the town was having some sort of festival or family fun day. The main road was closed to traffic, stalls were up,live music was playing at different stages and a mini funfair was operating. We joined the crowd and had a good wander around and an ice-cream before getting back in the car.

The icecream was delicious, honest

Next stop Lyn and Bruce's place in Auckland where we were staying the night.  Bruce loves Harley Davidson, Lyn is the older sister of one of Jono's school friends and  used to take Jono to rock concerts when he was a teenager. She emigrated about 25 years ago with her trusty land rover which is still going, and her collection of teddy bears which is extensive. They've  also been joined by 5 cats and two rabbits. Lyn took me to her church for the vigil mass and then we rejoined Jono and Bruce for pizza and a great talkative evening. Lyn and Bruce made us feel very at home (thankyou!!).

Also called Our Lady of Lourdes

3d stations of the cross

View of Auckland as we crossed the harbour bridge