Month: July 2026

Sydney, Australia (contd)

Blue Mountain Tour

The Blue Mountain Tour included Fantastic views of the Blue Mountains, the Hydro Majestic Pavilion, Scenic World, and a Zoo which had everything from Koalas to Kangaroos to a very large Crocodile!.

Hydro Majestic Pavilion
Beautiful views of the Blue Mountains on or way up.
Jan was particularly fond of this piece.
The views from inside were quite beautiful.
The color scheme and decor was quite “arresting”.
The billiards room with the biggest pool table we
have ever seen!
This place had quite a eclectic assortment of decor and furnishings!
I snuck a quick picture of the very elegant main dining room which we weren’t allowed to enter.
The main check in area. The is a living vine behind it!
Outside the building were ver beautiful landscaping and fantastic views of the Blue Mountains.
This fellow apparently can’t decide what color hair he wants!
One lone Cockatoo!
Young and vibrant
Older and not so vibrant!
Back on the bus with our fabulous guide Leonard and his little pal (I forget his name!)

On to Scenic World!

Our first mode of transportation was this Cableway
The glass floor was a bit disconcerting!
This formation is the famous Three Sisters
It was a beautiful ride but there seems to be an awful lot of slack in those cables!
It was very lush and green up there!
The next mode of transportation was quite different. It’s a Scenic Railway Incline and you can choose how inclined you want to be!
Three Sisters in the distance.
Once at the bottom there was nice wide path to follow with things to see on the way.
Lots of displays depicting the mining operations .
This was the original Scenic Railway Incline, not quite as plush and comfortable as the current one!
Here’s my obligatory lawyer picture of the working of the cable car.
Now they show this after we’re trapped at the bottom and have to take the cablecar back up!
On our way back up.
A bit cloudier on the way back up!

On to the Zoo

Of course they had plenty of these cute fellows & gals!
Just chillin’
This isn’t a baby Kangaroo, its a Tasmanian Pademelon.
Whatcha’ lookin’ at?!
Native language hyrglyphs? Your guess is as good as mine!
Tasmanian Devil, perfect name for this odd creature!
Koalas sleep most of the time! Kind of like cats!
No Zoo is complete without a VERY large Crocodile! You’ll notice he’s in that tank all alone! Such a cute smile only his mother could love!
And we finish with monkeys doing what monkeys do: monkey around!

To be continued with a more in depth look at the Opera House…

Australia & New Zealand Adventures

Welcome back to the Casa de Ziegler II Blog! I know it’s been quite a while since we posted anything but we’re back now! We hope you enjoy our new adventure abroad in beautiful Australia and New Zealand. We spent the month of March there with our dear friends/family Joni Berg and Lane Hammond.

Sydney, Australia

Our Walking Tour of Downtown Sydney

This is the Garrison Church in Sydney, one of the many beautiful stone churches there.
This bridge arch was pretty cool with the vines growing right out of the stone walls on either side!
The message on the side of this rental bike cracked us up!
This was a walkway along our walking tour.
I saw this beautifully done drawing on our tour and, of course, I HAD to take a picture!
Just a typical Post Box!
Another church and great old world architecture,
One of many wine shops.
Open air dining abounds!
This gigantic Cruise ship was in port!
The skyline was impressive with the mixture of old world buildings and modern, very progressive design, architecture!
The Contemporary Art Museum.
And of course the very iconic Opera House! (More of this later on in this post!)
The girls with the Opera House in the distance.
One of the many (MANLY?!?) ferries available.
An Australian White Ibis, a flightless bird.
Cameras, cameras and more cameras! Even Australia has Big Brother watching!
Some of the beautiful landscaping that was everywhere!
A Silver Gull, common in Australia.
LOTS of steps from the pier up to the street above!
More beautiful flowers!
We’re now in the Royal Botanic Garden in Sydney. This was an unusual art exhibit.
Lane and Joni enjoying the Gardens.
A view of the famous Sydney Harbour Bridge from the gardens.
I zoomed in with my 300mm to catch the crazy people who choose to walk over the top of the bridge! They actually pay money for this honor!!
This exotic bird blends in quite well don’t you think?
This tourist lady asked Joni to take her picture and of course she obliged! As you can also see in this picture is a view of the opera house you don’t usually see, the front side where you enter the building!
Beautiful VERY old tree!
This was a very “interesting” sculpture!
Another very old tree!
This wrought iron structure was pretty cool!
This was constructed using smooth stones and cement.
The Royal Government House (Estate, Mansion, ETC!!)
Another view of the downtown architecture from the Gardens.Jan especially liked the “LEGO” building on the right!
These trees are massive!
Another impressive old government building near the gardens,

To be continued…….