Sydney: Our first night in Sydney was a colourful one, spending time with Tony and enjoying the cityscapes from his 9th floor flat. Next day, we borrowed Tony’s car and made a sightseeing circuit around northern Sydney – I loved showing Karen my home town. We even returned to the house where I grew up and photographed the complete change in the street. At Chatswood, we called in to see my 95 year old mother who is still in amazing health. She and Karen warmed to each other immediately, as I knew they would, and I was thankful that we had made it back to see her at last, after 3 years. Not so funny story – we decided to treat Tony’s car to an automatic car wash; paid the money and lined up at the entrance – read the sign saying `retract your aerial’; tried to do so but it would not push down; figured it must have been that way for a long time; entered the flailing brushes and watched, horrified, from inside as the aerial disappeared! Well, we managed to find another aerial for $60 and I fitted it before we returned the car – Tony doesn’t know and I’m not about to tell him and listen to his laughter.
For the next 3 days, we stayed with Wendy and Alan, friends of Karen’s, in a bushland setting further out of Sydney; a delightful time here; watching white cockatoos screeching through the tall gum trees; parrots flashing colour around and kookaburras laughing at us from their lofty perches. Wendy (Blaxland-Ashby), although working furiously on editing her latest set of educational children’s books, was still able to give us plenty of attention – including sharing a visit from her resident Water Dragon – a large lizard that lives around her swimming pool.
Wendy also treated us to seats at a pantomime production of "Cinderella". Suprisingly for Greg, it was held at his old 'ballroom dancing lessons' venue, of his youth, The Marion Street Theatre. Karen was delighted finally to see this theatre 'in the flesh', having heard many family-related tales about it from Wendy in the past. We sat amidst a sea of excited fairies and princesses, all come to see the budding teenage actors, who put on a royal performance for us.
We had the privilege of sharing tea and biscuits on the veranda of a talented ceramicist’s colonial-styled cottage. Nicky Coady, lovely friend of Tony, allowed us a glimpse of her work studio, crammed with shelves and shelves of her uniquely-styled sculptures and crockery, carefully erected around several kilns. It was funny to see a “bed” positioned for the guest appearance of the local possum – in her studio! Aussies certainly view possums differently to Kiwis.
We caught the train into the city on the last day (always a nostalgic trip for me as I recall the school years of my youth, where I travelled by train each day to Sydney Grammar in the heart of the city) and walked down to Circular Quay, the Sydney Harbour Bridge, the Opera House and the old Rocks area of earlier times. It was a sunny Sunday afternoon and we revelled in the ambience of unhurried people; the haunting sounds of competing didgeridoos; azure blue harbour waters; flotillas of boats flung about and the magnificence of those Sydney icons framing the scene.
Gold Coast: Again, with that tinge of sadness, we farewelled Tony, my mother, and friends Wendy and Alan and flew to Coolangatta on the Gold Coast. This was where we were to fly from, to Kuala Lumpur, on the low-cost airline, Air Asia. Now, I had lived and worked on the main street of Surfers Paradise some 36 years ago, when it was a sleepy seaside resort town. My, how it has changed: sculptured high-rise buildings sprung forth from the sand like flowers in springtime; a wild profusion of houses of every design were lined along the waterways and everywhere; shops, businesses and restaurants competed for space along the roadways; the lure of the sparkly “Jupiters Casino”. We wandered between Mermaid beach and Surfer’s Paradise on foot, over the next two days and explored everything of interest.
Strangely, the highlight for us was not the glitz and glamour, but noisy, Rainbow Lorikeets in their hundreds, flying in to roost in one of the parks in the middle of the town and flocks of Flying Foxes ( large bats ) hanging upside down in the trees branches, their black capes wrapped around them as they sleep through the day - to fly out at night in great numbers, to feed and socialize till the sunrise. Oh yes, the beaches are still beautiful; golden sands stretching along the coast and the pedestrian malls are picturesque; the cafes are great and the girls still as attractive as ever.
It was `Schoolie’ week at the time and the streets were awash with recent students, freed from their educational bonds and celebrating their short-lived liberty. We enjoyed the stop, but on to KL.
