“Australia, the Land Down Under”

I have waited now more than 15 days to write anything about the goodly land of Australia.  I wanted to be sure the jet lag I experienced on the trip over and on return had finally cleared from my brain.  My friend, Stephen, who regularly flies in and out of China, told me to give myself one day of adjustment for each one hour of time difference.  Sydney, Australia is about 15 hours, more or less, from Los Angeles, our port of departure and 13 hours difference from our home, so, hence, I have waited 15 days.

Australia is such a beautiful place, with so many beautiful and diverse people, I am finding it hard to describe.  Sydney is a beautiful city, with many green places, gardens, harbors, zoos and churches, which enhance its overall appeal.  The people are genuinely nice, helpful and often smile. There are many different cultures.  The drivers on the road are courteous, and stay within the speed limits, although my daughter, Hannah, who has lived there for a year and has a car says it is because the speed cameras are everyone and the police write heavy fines, over $200 for most infractions.  She reports that beyond the city, drivers often go as fast as they want!

We were in Australia over the Christmas holidays, to be with our daughter, who is in Vet School training.  She had a few weeks off, so we let her for the first time be “a tourist in her own town.”  She planned almost all our itinerary, over the two weeks.  We did many tourist things, such as seeing the Sydney Opera House, taking a harbor dinner cruise, visiting the Sydney zoo.  We also saw the Sydney botanical gardens, which has species of plants from all over the world.  I got many ideas for how to do formal gardens and less formal areas, which I hope to put in place at my new home.  I even obtained seed (legally) from Tasmania, for my garden at home, including a Tasmanian geranium and some other wild flowers.  The garden has a shop to purchase seed of many varieties of plants.

We saw the Blue Mountains, and experienced the “Three Sisters” formation there while traveling down a cable car to the bottom of the mountain.  I saw a fern that was descended from ferns over 95 million years old, predating the dinosaurs, which was thought to be extinct, but was found in the lowlands of the Blue Mountain preserve!

One of the high points of our trip was going on a tour of the Hidden Beaches, done by a very kind and literate woman, “Jenny”, who had started her second career showing visitors the smaller beaches in Sydney no one ever sees.  It was a perfect day for the tour and she was the perfect host.  She also shared with us stories from the aboriginal culture of Australia which helped us connect with the “real Australia”, ancient and modern.  Her tour is found at exclusiveeasttours@gmail.com if you want to look her up!

On our trip later to the aboriginal center, I bought an authentic aboriginal didgeridoo.

We stayed in a very nice hotel on the water, Pier One Sydney Harbor, Autograph collection.  They have full breakfasts on the water, which are included in the hotel costs.  Two waitresses Naomi and Morgan stand out as exceptional, one from Indonesia, the other from France. They are on temporary visas to learn English and make enough money to travel to other parts of the globe.  Since the minimum wage in Australia is around $17 per hour, they can afford to live there for a short season.  Most stay about nine months to a year and then travel on.  I wonder why we don’t have a similar program in the USA.

One of the most memorable days of our trip was Christmas day!  After reading together the story of Jesus’ birth from Luke 2:1-10, Dorothy, Hannah and I went for brunch on the Sydney Eye.  It is a tower with a revolving restaurant from which the whole city, harbor and distant beaches are visible.  We could see St. Mary’s cathedral directly below us.  For about two hours we dined on some of the most delightful cuisine while enjoying conversation and the view of the whole of Sydney.  The weather was sunny, the temperature outside around 80 degrees F.  From our air conditioned restaurant overlooking the city, I enjoyed a full turkey dinner and completed this with English pudding.  I was pleasantly surprised that the English pudding was exactly the same as my grandmother Johnsie’s fruit cake.  After some 40 years, I was privileged to have her fruit cake at Christmas with my family once again!  I plan to obtain that recipe for our Christmas dinner here next year and if I can share it with all the family as Grandmother Johnsie did a long time ago.

So, if you have the means and the time, go see some part of Australia.  You will not regret it!  Likely, you will have as good or even better a time than we did.  One word of advice.  When you fly, request “comfort plus” seating on the plane.  The extra 3 inches on a 15 hour flight makes a world of difference to your legs.  The seats are also wider, which helps if you plan to sleep on the plane.  Also, if your legs get tight, wear compression hose to the knees.  This will make the journey so much nicer overall!

Bill Wilson, MD