We finally reached the Opera house and I groaned seeing the zillion steps for the first time. It was not so bad because of the cool breeze. It was a hot day but not humid and the cool breeze enticed you to drop things and fall asleep on the steps. No, we did not do tht but it was close 🙂 This snap is a good example of how difficult it is to take snaps in this tourist-crowded place. But, it was fun as well. You can see the guy in a white shirt posing for someone’s camera.
Most ppl were seated at the steps and we decided to do tht as well. A family with a bunch of kids were having a snack. All of a sudden we realized that the number of silvergulls shot up. Soon the kids were tossing crumbs and the birds were enjoying the crumbs and fighting for them. We enjoyed the way the birds jumped and fought for the crumbs. Soon the snacks were finished but the gulls did not understand or chose not to. They started inching closer. The mother shooed the gulls away but they did not go away. The gulls were sure that there was more to be had even when there was not. We left just as the fight got serious. One of the kids started screaming and the family moved away. The gulls left immediately.
We went inside the opera house but because we were not watching any play or buying any tickets, we did not stay long. The Arien was busy shooting pics of the Harbour bridge from the Opera house. I felt we were getting good exercise. Back home, both of us have sedentary jobs and though the Arien manages an hour of gymming, I do nothing. We were both quite tired after the walk and we were yet to visit the Botanical Gardens.
As soon as we reached the Botanical garden, the Arien shot more snaps. He was taking pictures of a sailboat and trees. The place reminded me a lot of the Botanical gardens in Ooty. But, the place was very clean. There were a lot of families having picnics at the botanical gardens. It was a very nice and calm place. We also noticed 3 fitness-crazy ppl. 2 guys and a gal, dressed in black. They were doing a bit of running, push-ups, spot-jumping, followed by running. It was scary. The gal was able to keep up with the guys. Impressive!
There were a lot of birds as well which was very surprising for us. The Arien went a lil crazy with the bird snaps. It is so difficult to get a great picture of any bird. We noticed a bird, which looked a lot like a parrot, but was not a parrot. The arien informed me that it was a white cockatoo. Its actually the sulphur-crested cockatoo. Hmmm.. I have learnt a lot ’bout wildlife from the Arien.
There was a boy, another tourist, I presume, who was feeding the cockatoo. The Arien shot a zillion shots of which a few are good. Just when you had everything angled for a good shot, the cockatoo would turn its head away from you and you would have a funny snap. These are a few of the good ones.
I got a bit bored, to be honest. The Arien took forever to take those snaps. And the birds would simply not smile, I mean, look at the camera. You get the picture, rite 🙂
And then we saw the cormorant australian wood duck swimming in the small pond. The Arien of course, knew the name. I had no clue. I thought the bird resembled a duck 🙂 She happily posed for the pics and the Arien was able to get a neat pic.
We noticed a chick sunbathing and in my extreme ignorance asked if it was the duckling. The Arien told me that the chick was a purple swamphen. We saw the mom walking nearby – not pretty at all. I was sure this chick could not possibly belong to the swamphen but of course -I was proven wrong. It is not good to have this bet with the Arien. I always lose. So, we had caught sight of the silvergull, the cockatoo, the cormorant australian wood duck, and the purple swamphen — on one sunny day wen we visited the Botanical gardens. And we were not that into bird watching… wooohooo!! This improved the Arien’s mood. From starting off with a cranky mood, he was now planning which ones to share. The credit goes to Botanical Gardens for totally distracting the Arien and keeping him in good temper.
The Arien also shot pictures of the Opera house from the Botanical Gardens. You can see the Opera house and a bit of the Harbour Bridge as well. It was a good shot. He was pretty impressed with that shot as it captured both.
The last shot for the day was an upside down tree which looked very pretty that the Arien was least interested in. It was fenced in – I think to prevent folks from climbing on it and marring its beauty. The Arien was quite surprised that the picture looked nice. We decided to leave after taking that snap. It had been a good day, relaxing. It also provided us an amazing photo-op which we took full advantage of.
We returned to our room re-charged – having thoroughly enjoyed the respite.