Sydney, Australia - Part 3

This is the third post of my time in Sydney, Australia.  As you may remember, I'm on a tour of Asia for my company.  I've spent the last two days meeting with press.  Now, however, I have a few days off - because who really wants to work, when so much beauty surrounds you in this city?!?

I switched hotels, because now I'm paying for the trip ; )  I used points with Hyatt to get a room at the swanky Park Hyatt, located in Circular Quay.  The view from my room is...breathtaking:

It's beautiful here...I wish my entire family could be with me.  The interior of the room was also gorgeous:

Yup - if you kept the shades open, you can see right into the bathtub ; )

Today, I decided to venture outside of downtown Sydney, to explore some of the beach areas.  Most people go to Bondi or Manley Beach.  I've been there before, so I tried something a little different.  This time, I headed out to Watson's Bay.  To get there, I took one of the regular harbor ferries.  These are an awesome method of transportation.  You get to cruise along the water, taking in the gorgeous Sydney Harbor, and they're pretty quick - even making several stops to coves and bays along the way.

While cruising, we saw a ton of sailboats out on the water.  The weather was fantastic and there was a decent wind:

We pulled into Watson's Bay, and right as you exit the ship is a large beach area.  It was still early in the day, so not too many people laying out:

If you look at the map, you'll see that Watson's is as far away from downtown Sydney as you can get, while still being in the harbor.  I hiked above the harbor and you can see downtown in the distance:

What makes Watson's Bay so special - aside from some great beach areas - is that on one side, you can view the Sydney Harbor.  On the other side, is the Tasman Sea, leading out to the Pacific Ocean.  I hiked along the coast to a park area called The Gap.  Here are a few pictures of gorgeous views from this park...the water was a spectacular shade of blue this day:

I actually ended up walking for almost 12 miles in total on this day.  I think I was over 20,000 steps on the pedometer ; )  I came upon an interesting tree species called Banksia.  I believe it was named after one of the original botanists that came to Australia.  There are dozens of varieties of Banksia, found throughout Australia. This one had a unique "cone":

I learned that these were used by Aboriginal people to transport fire over long distances.  If I'm even caught in the Australian wilderness, I'll have to keep that in mind ; )

I made my way from the ocean side of the Watson's, back to the harbor side.  Here's another view of Watson's Bay, looking back toward downtown Sydney:

I hiked all the way down to the water, and found Camp Cove Beach...a little oasis of a beach, secluded from the rest of Watson's:

Here's a quick video of the view looking around Camp Cove Beach:

From there, I hiked back up the hills to what is known as South Head, or the tip of land that creates the south part of the "mouth" of Sydney Harbor. They built a lighthouse there in the 1800s, to prevent shipwrecks that had occurred in the area.  I stopped here and just gazed out across the water:

I made my way back to the original harbor, and I could tell that my sugar level was getting pretty low.  I decided to eat at one of the area's most famous restaurants - Doyle's.  They specialize in fish n' chips, with the fish being caught nearby every single day.  I decided to get mine "to go" and eat in a nearby park:

I then boarded a harbor ferry to go back to Circular Quay.  The view, coming back through the harbor, was simply beautiful:

One thing I noticed - all over town - were statues of rhinos.  These are part of an awareness campaign for Taronga Zoo.  They put these all over the city, with different artists decorating them:

That's it for now.  Another spectacular day in Australia.  Next up?  A tour of the Australian Blue Mountains...