Even though Australia is the smallest of the seven continents, seven days is nowhere near enough time to get even a bare sense of this megadiverse country. Nonetheless, we chose to spend our next two days enjoying Australia’s nature, beauty, and history in downtown Sydney and its surrounding area.
The capital of New South Wales, Sydney, has the largest population of any city in Australia and is the country’s oldest and most prominent city. The metropolis is on Australia’s southeast coast of the Tasman Sea, where our cruise ship deposited us.
Because of the relentless rain, we did not spend nearly enough time exploring the city on foot. Sydney has numerous beautiful bridges, beaches, and an active nightlife area. The town around that famous and impressive harbor makes finding one’s way around reasonably easy.
We decided on this very brief visit to Australia at the end of our 23-day transpacific journey because seven days worked best financially for us. Hopefully, we will get another shot at Australia someday soon and see and learn more about this place.
After our rainy day in the Blue Mountains the day before, we were delighted to have a day of sunshine and warm weather for our visit to Featherdale Wildlife Park, Everglades House & Gardens, Sydney’s St. Mary Cathedral, and the beautiful Royal Botanic Garden also, in the heart of Sydney.
What a perfect day!
Featherdale Sydney Wildlife Park
217-229 Kildare Road, Doonside
Sydney NSW 2767 (near Blacktown), Australia
The most unique animals on the planet make their home in Australia, so there are many animal sanctuaries, zoos, and wildlife parks in the country. Featherdale is one of the most popular in Sydney, has over 1,700 animals, and features daily wildlife encounters.
It’s a dingo!
The park is about 40 minutes from downtown Sydney. It has nicely paved walkways over its seven-plus acres, making walking very comfortable. It is also easy to maneuver through with strollers or wheelchairs, so it is perfect for everyone. Free Wi-Fi is also available here.
We discovered a couple of picnic areas with tables in the park. One picnic area is near the Featherdale Café, where we purchased food for our lunch, but visitors can bring their food in if they wish.
Notice that this crocodile, as small as it is, has its mouth taped shut! This is not my favorite moment.
There are so many birds and animals here! We had our photo taken standing with the cutest koala, fed kangaroos, saw quokkas, wombats, penguins, porcupine-looking echidna, and all kinds of beautiful birds, including lorikeets. We held a baby crocodile and even got a great photo of a dingo!
I worried about the sweet koala we had our picture taken with because we waited in line behind 5-6 other groups, and several others were in line behind me. The koala appeared to be working a very long shift. I asked the attendant how long the koala had to hang in that tree and have photos taken.
I was told the koala decided when it was ready to leave the tree, and it just climbed down to be replaced by another. Fairly good working conditions, I’d say.
A wombat!
We truly enjoyed our time at Featherdale and knew we made a good choice coming here. There are other zoos and wildlife encounters to choose from, of course.
Everglades Historic House and Gardens
37 Everglades Avenue
Leura 2780 NSW
As we often do, we just happened onto these beautiful gardens. We followed signs for a home and gardens tour and were lucky to end up here during the 2022 Leura Gardens Festival. Several homes and gardens participated in the Festival, but we only visited the Everglades gardens.
Paul Sorensen is the designer of Everglades. The National Trust manages the Leura Gardens Festival; the Everglades Gardens are the most extensive of the eight gardens. These 1930s grounds are exquisitely beautiful. See the National Trust’s video below for an idea of the beauty.
Once again, we found ourselves trekking through muddy walkways in the rain. Surprisingly, the cold and unpleasant rain did not interfere with our sightseeing. We only had seven days in Australia and did not want to miss this great opportunity.
On the lower terrace of the gardens is an Art Deco House and Tea Room, where we could escape the rain for a few minutes to enjoy scones and a cup of coffee served by pleasant volunteers.
Everglades is available for weddings and other private events. The gardens have also appeared in movies, TV, and magazines. I cannot think of any spot more beautiful to hold a spring wedding.
Royal Botanic Garden
The Botanic Gardens in downtown Sydney became our next stop. Parking, incidentally, is not very difficult in downtown Sydney. We parked in large underground parking lots three times and had no issues finding adequate parking wherever and whenever needed.
The Royal Botanic Garden Sydney became a Garden of National Significance in 1978 and is Australia’s oldest botanic Garden and scientific institution. It is superbly situated with incredible views of Sydney Harbor and is one of Australia’s most spectacular gardens.
The garden contains about 4,800 plants, including many varieties of roses, orchids, Japanese maples, camellias, azaleas, and trees. It also includes an arboretum with rare trees from Australia’s three primary environmental regions: tropical rainforest, temperate forest, and arid zone plants.
The play Alice in Wonderland was in mid-performance in the Garden on the day we walked through. We did not have tickets, so we could only watch from a distance.
Geocaching
We had the good fortune to find a geocache in nearby Hyde Park. We are not the most skilled cachers, and we are delighted we found this one!
St. Mary’s Cathedral
St Mary’s Cathedral, dedicated to the Virgin Mary, stands where the site of the first Catholic Chapel in Australia once was. The Cathedral is a Gothic Revival architecture constructed by the architect William Wilkinson Wardell to replace the original Cathedral after the fire in 1865.
I know little about architecture, but this cathedral has many features, including three levels of arched openings and various chapels surrounding the Sanctuary. The cathedral is open to the public and is quite a sight to see.
Stained glass windows in the cathedral came from artisans in England and are eye-catching.
Deceased Archbishops of Sydney are in the Crypt below the cathedral. The Crypt is not open to tourists or tours at this time.
We always enjoy visiting cathedrals and churches when we travel, where we always get a great history lesson about the area we see.
On our trip to Sydney, we found a city living up to its reputation for charm, friendliness, and fun.
Sydney, Australia, is one of the most famous cities in the world, and after these few days here, it’s easy to see why. We get to spend another day in downtown Sydney, but guess what? It was a RAINY day!
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