Our flight from Cairns arrived at the Sydney Airport on Friday the 24th around 1:00 pm and after we rented our car we headed north to Gosford on the Gold Coast. This was a chance to spend a brief time in this area while getting a start on our next destination, the Hunter Valley wine region where we arrived on Saturday morning.
Our first winery visit was to Adina Vineyard. Nice wine
but better olives! We bought a jar for our picnic lunch
and enjoyed leftovers for several days.
We were actually back to this Winery for dinner
and happy to get in. It was an important holiday
in Australia and NZ – 100th anniversary of Anzac Day.
Then on to more vineyards…McLeish had nice wines and was very
proud of their Scottish roots.
Then back in the car and more pastoral scenes.
Lindenman’s is a big winery, that admitted that
their best wines don’t make it to the US market.
Then on to Tulloch.
We had our picnic lunch at First Creek Winery,
but we were not the only visitors…
More Kangaroos Video – 1
More Kangaroos Video – 2
More Kangaroos Video – 3
More Kangaroos Video – 4
We then drove to the Bimbadgen Winery
We spent Saturday Night at the Kurri Motor Inn at
Kurri Kurri (no relation to Curry with that spelling)
and drove on to the Mudgee Area on Sunday morning.
Our first visit in this area was to a very small but
interesting and well represented farm and winery
called Short Sheep.
These are Facebook pics of our
hostess and the farm/vineyard.
Then nearby was the Pieter Van Gent Winery
Despite my first impression, the cat
did not handle the wine tasting nor
wine sales.
Lowe’s is perhaps the largest winery
in the area.
The head wine maker was handling
the tastings on Sunday afternoon.
He worked for a while in California and
makes perhaps Australia’s best (and
not quite only) Zinfandel wines. He
won this award (below) in London
and called his buddies in Sonoma to let
them know, ignoring the time changes.
We found the Mudgee Brewing Company
and enjoyed some craft beer and a snack.
Then we crossed the street to the Lawson Park
Hotel. This establishment was recommended by
Simon (Dr. Simon Pedder – my old CEO at Chelsea
for anyone who doesn’t know him). He was a
patron some years ago when the hotel still had
rooms to rent. Today you can still get good local
wines and a big steak to grill yourself.
Monday morning we drove to Sydney.
We returned the car to Avis (so no more
driving on the left for at least 6 weeks!) and
found our accommodations, the apartment
of a friend of a friend on Darling Point, with
nice view of the harbour.
Monday we took the train into the city
to see the sights and explore Sydney.
They have quite a nice Opera house here,
which photographed from every angle
and from various parts of the city.
And they have a bridge. The shot below
was taken as we walked to the train station.
As I lined up the shot above I thought I
recognized this bridge from somewhere
closer to home.
On the bridge: 
Lots of birds, although we took no pictures
of the ubiquitous sea gulls. These birds
were hustling for sugar where we got coffee.
And these guys are busy all over town.
We had lunch at a Belgium Beer Restaurant
located in an very old (for Sydney) building.
Other shots from around the city:
Above is taken from the Sydney bridge, looking
east. The building in the middle is where we
stayed at Darling Point.
Below is now a pass under the approach to the
bridge but originally it was a cut through “the
rock” to easy transportation between eastern and
western areas of the town. The solution to doing this
back in the 19th century was convict labour. Such
servitude was banned before they finished, slowing
the pace and increasing costs considerably! 
The next several shots were taken at
the Queen Victoria Building (see link)
City hall 
Wednesday the 29th was our last full day down under. We
got in to town in time to get some dim sum in China Town
and to walked around a bit in the area before heading over
to The Australian National Maritime Museum where we
spent the remainder of the day.
Outside the museum were a couple ships to tour: a
destroyer – HMAS Vampire and a submarine – HMAS Onslow
The crew facilities on both were perhaps the most
fascinating. Above and below are crew berths on the sub. 
Above, galley space on sub. Below is berth for
officers or petty officers (was not clear)
Below is the captain’s quarters, just off the command
centre with the periscopes and sonar stations.
Below is the officer rec area. They played
Battleship? Really?
Now used for tourist entry and exit, this
opening was used for loading torpedoes.
Also in the museum, the ~38′ sailboat that a Sydney
woman sailed around the world, becoming the first
woman to circumnavigate alone.
If you can see it, note the extent of the fore and main sails
compared to the ~18′ length of this sailboat. Don’t know
how it doesn’t get rolled with that amount of sail.
A sailboat made of beer can. What can one say about
those folks isolated up north in Darwin?
The ships bell from a US ship, named after an Aussie
ship sunk in WW2 fighting with US Navy
Near the end of our touring we encountered this
deep-see diver and Hornblower-era sea captain.
And in the harbour, a cruise ship
had arrived during the day.
Our fight left Sydney around 1:00 pm on Thursday, April
30 and arrives in Dallas about 1:30. Dan and Shelly
picked us up at CLT and we were home by about 11:00 pm.
