Another G’day in Sydney
24 hours in Sydney

An ideal place to begin a day in Sydney is on the spot where Sydney itself began.
With the early sun throwing the shadow of a classic tall-ship across the cobblestone wharf towards my breakfast table it was not difficult to picture the scene when the first Poms (Prisoners of Her Majesty) landed here in 1788. A century later the colony that they built here on ‘The Rocks’ was still largely a slum, populated by sailors, convicts, whalers and brigands. Even the most optimistic of the new settlers would have found it hard to believe that one of the world’s most pleasant cities would eventually grow out of this seedy backwater trading-centre.
            A waiter in a starched apron arrived, with a sprightly “G’day,” to offload onto my table fresh-baked bread rolls, the best cappuccino in the southern hemisphere and a frosty glass of mango juice. It was a combination that seemed to be deliberately designed to symbolise Sydney’s three main characteristics: the city’s deep sense of its own unique history; its easy-going aspirations to European chic; and the way in which it lends itself to good-living tropical-style.
            It was also a great way to start another ‘G’day’ in Sydney.
            Most of life in this ‘southern belle’ of a city takes place out-of-doors and, with one of the world’s largest natural harbours dividing the city and its suburbs, much of it seems to take place on the water. The harbour is as important for recreation today as it ever was for trade. This is a city full of people who commute to work by ferry and who spend their leisure-time sailing, swimming, snorkelling, surfing or just sunbathing at any of a dozen beaches in the area.
There would be time for all that later but I had promised myself a day on terra-firma. I was interested to see what this city, descended from sailors and explorers, had to offer to a land-lubber.
            So I steered a steady course past the waterborne transport that was amassing on Circular Quay and headed for the great white sails of the Sydney Opera House. This is one of the world’s most instantly recognisable national icons, along with the Harbour Bridge and the astounding monolith of Uluru (once known as Ayer’s Rock) almost 1,500 miles away in the centre of this immense island-continent. The Opera House is most spectacular from outside and is far bigger than it ever appears to be in the tourist brochures. I wandered around it until my neck ached and then followed the shoreline onwards around Farm Cove.
            Sydney is as rich in parks as it is in beaches. The Royal Botanic Gardens with their picturesque ponds, palm groves, jogging tracks, manicured lawns and tropical gardens, are the Sydney-siders’ premier playgrounds. For visitors this is also a surprisingly enlightening place to make a first acquaintance with Australasian flora and fauna. Long-beaked white ibis strut around the lawns and cockatoos squawk in the treetops where flocks of flying foxes roost. At night possums leap like wide-eyed monkeys through the branches, adding to the enchantment of romantic movie-goers at the park’s open-air cinema.
            The path led me onwards, among the paper-bark trees and pandanus that were so useful to the Aboriginal Iora tribe who lived here before the prisoners came to Farm Cove to work on the colony’s first vegetable patch. From Mrs Macquarie’s point at the far northern edge of the Botanical Gardens I sat for a while, inhaling the scent of eucalyptus and enjoying the views along almost ten miles of this wonderful harbour.
If this view wasn’t reason enough for the walk then Harry’s Café de Wheels, just around the point in Woolloomooloo Bay, certainly was. It was early for lunch but Harry’s is famous for opening hours that are almost as generous as the meat filling in its legendary pies. Apparently there has been a pie cart on this spot since 1945 and - apart from being a prime stop for party-goers from the nearby night-club district of King’s Cross - it was a favourite with the likes of Frank Sinatra, Robert Mitchum and Marlene Dietrich. More recently Kevin Costner and Pamela Anderson have eaten at this unremarkable-looking food-trailer and Elton John has become such an addict of their meat pies that he actually held a press conference here a few years back!
Fuelled for an afternoon shopping skirmish I made a bee-line back across the green spaces that are known collectively as The Domain, aiming for the soaring spire of the Sydney Tower. The tower is an invaluable navigation landmark for finding your way around this city of convoluted waterways and its observation platform, 305m above City Centre, also makes a great place to get your inner-city bearings. The area around Pitt and George Streets are a shopper’s paradise and the Queen Victoria Building and the Strand Arcade, in particular, are good hunting grounds and for the best offerings from top international designers…or for more casual Australian outfits (moleskin trousers and ‘Blundy’ boots) known in the Outback as the ‘Territory Rig.’ Other equally famous shopping areas in the centre are Oxford Street (for bookshops, art galleries and the phenomenal ‘Chocolate Bar’ at number 447), The Rocks Centre in Argyle Street (for Australian ceramics and fashion) and, on Saturdays, Paddington Market.
            One of the most original places to eat in City Centre is at Edna’s Table (204 Clarence Street / www.ednastable.com.au) where Australian stock-brokers and city-gents go to get ‘back to their roots.’ Native herbs and vegetables add a delicious twist to kangaroo, crocodile and emu. Edna’s is all indoors, however, and I was still indulging myself in the outdoor life so I headed instead for Doyle’s (www.doyles.com.au). One critic has described Doyle’s as ‘superior seafood on the choicest piece of real estate in the world’ and I couldn’t argue with him on either the barramundi steaks in beer-batter, or the terrace with its world-class views of the gleaming white shells of the Opera House.
            The constant ebb and flow of waterborne transport around Circular Quay was hypnotising. There was a ‘Sydney Showboat’ paddle-wheeler that looked like it had cruised straight out of the Mississippi, a roaring Harbourjet jet-boat, with its throbbing engine revving in preparation for another adrenalin-fuelled blast up the Parramatta River. There was the faithful old Manly Ferry (at under $3.50, rated by many to be the best value sight-seeing tour in Sydney) and there was even ‘The Bounty’ (the replica tall-ship, built for the Mel Gibson film).
            And looming over it all was the great steel arch of Sydney Harbour Bridge - known to Sydney-siders as the ‘old coat-hanger.’ Since it was built in 1932 the bridge has been carrying eight lanes of vehicles, two railways lines and countless pedestrians between City Centre and North Sydney. Then, five years ago pedestrians began to cross it by a new route. Now as many as 1,500 ‘bridge-climbers’ a day make the three-and-a-half hour hike over the 134 metre-high summit of the world’s largest steel arch bridge. It has become one of Australia’s most popular tours and at peak season it is necessary to book well in advance. The views are particularly impressive at sunset (but the usual US$116 rate for day or night walks ‘hikes’ up to US$163 for the twilight session - see www.bridgeclimb.com.au).
            Doubtless, somewhere up there on those 39,000 tonnes of arched metal, there was yet another group of twelve bridge-climbers - zipped up in the pale blue safety jump-suits that ensure that an Australian cent cannot fall from their pockets to become a ballistic missile by the time it reaches the cars whizzing below.
            But while they were checking out the harbour from above I was going to have a look below it. Sydney Aquarium (www.sydneyaquarium.com.au) is the city’s premier tourist attraction and it took me all that was left of the afternoon to visit this unique collection of 650 Australian species, including huge turtles, rays, platypus, crocodiles and one of the world’s largest shark collections.
The sun sets quickly in these latitudes and the light was fading fast when I stepped back out onto the gleaming waterfront. I knew that just a short walk down Darling Harbour plenty of other temptations lay in store, from the Dharma-tranquillity of tea and cake in the Chinese Gardens to the thrill of virtual-mayhem at Segaworld. I could take in a show at Star City Casino or the Opera House, or I could catch a live band at King’s Cross.
Tomorrow was set aside for a day’s surfing at Bondi Beach and for now I was happy with a stroll down to Cockle Bay Wharf to let a perfect day in Sydney end as it began…at yet another waterside table.
It was strange to think that here, under the glittering lights and shining skyscrapers of Darling Harbour, I was just twenty minutes walk - and two centuries - away from the olde-worlde alleyways of The Rocks.
            I leaned back in my seat, took another long sip of mango juice and tried, once again, to figure out how I could fix it so that I too could be a ‘prisoner’ of this wonderful city for the rest of my life.
           

Best of the Rest:

Take a surfing lesson at BONDI BEACH. Buses run to Australia’s most famous beach - the perfect place to experience Aussie beach culture - every 10 minutes from Circular Quay.

Enjoy a day-trip, or better still, an overnight excursion to THE BLUE MOUNTAINS, to check out the kangaroos and cockatoos that inhabit this wilderness region of eucalypt forest and cascading rivers. Trains go from Central Station.

No visit to the city is complete without a visit, and perhaps lunch, at SYDNEY FISH MARKET (www.sydneyfishmarket.com.au). This is the largest market of its kind in the southern hemisphere and, as the world’s second biggest in terms of variety, it makes a great place to visit. You can even enrol in a class at the immensely popular ‘Sydney Seafood School.’

The ROYAL NATIONAL PARK (www.nationalparks.nsw.gov.au) also offers great hiking, and swimming on quiet beaches. This is the world’s second oldest national park and on Sundays and holidays you can get there by tram from Sydney Tram Museum.

For special occasions you can even HIRE AN ISLAND! Any of the islands in the Sydney Harbour National Park can be reserved (from about US$700) for a private party through the National Parks and Wildlife Service (www.nationalparks.nsw.gov.au).

The End