Travel Diaries // The Royal Botanic Gardens (Sydney, AU)

Almost two weeks ago, my husband and I stepped off the plane returning from Australia and New Zealand and were faced with a dramatic change from the warm, sunny weather that we had been experiencing Down Under. Rather than 30 degree sunshine, we were shocked by the appearance of snow in -3 degree temperature (what a great welcome home, right?). However, now that we've been back long enough to recover from our jet lag, I feel like I've decompressed enough to start posting about our two-week-long trip. Nevertheless, while editing these sunny photos from Sydney, it feels even more depressing that our days in Vancouver are getting dark at around 3 pm and that it's rainy almost every day.

To start things off, have any of you ever travelled from the North American west coast to Australia before? Let me tell you-- it's no small feat! Somehow we managed to survive over 20 hours of flight without losing our sanity. Despite that travel setback, I must say that Australia and New Zealand were entirely worth the trouble.

On the 10 hour flight from Hong Kong (our stopover) to Sydney, I made sure to sleep as much as I could as we would be arriving at 9:45 am and therefore would be starting our action-packed first day right after leaving the airport. Happily, we arrived on a beautiful day full of sunshine and 21 degree warmth, which was already much different from the rain and gloom back home.

After taking a shuttle to our lovely hotel in Potts Point, we dropped off our luggage and made our way over to the Sydney Opera House (it was my first major thing to check off on the travel list). However, along the way, we stumbled across an attraction that I honestly loved much more than the Opera House-- the Royal Botanic Gardens in Sydney.



During our stay in Sydney, we stayed in the Hotel Challis, which was located in a lovely central area very close to many well-known attractions. In fact, we were only a 30 minute walk (or 15 min run) away from the Opera House and numerous other landmarks. We ended up running the same route almost every morning: from our hotel through the gorgeous Royal Botanic Gardens and onwards to the Opera House. Since Sydney's inhabitants are very fitness-minded, we were joined by countless other runners!

However, on the first day, I was overwhelmed by the beauty of the Royal Botanic Gardens and could hardly tear myself away to head over to the Opera House. Prior to leaving for our trip, I had already become quite enamoured with plants and gardens; consequently, this place seemed like a nirvana or dream oasis of gorgeous tropical and temperate plants. I also loved how almost every plant was lovingly labelled with its name and a little description (which helped me to be a little less clueless about plants).



Another thing that really struck us about Sydney and Melbourne were the amazing birds that we saw just about everywhere in the city-- ibises, cockatoos, and other exotic winged creatures. Coming from a city where seagulls, robins, and crows are the main show, seeing long-billed ibises and white cockatoos walking alongside the road was amazing.

However, I was sad to discover that ibises are treated little better than crows and seagulls in Australia as they are common scavengers and disliked by the locals. As a result of displacement from their natural habitats, these adaptable creatures have begun to thrive in the cities and are becoming endangered in the wild. Thanks to human encroachment and exploitation of the environment, these birds are forced to learn new ways of living in the urban areas-- and we hate them for it.



The Royal Botanic Gardens were established in 1816 and is the oldest botanic garden and scientific institution in Australia. The spectacular collection of 8,900 plant species are gathered from across the globe; however, the 64 hectare garden focuses on Australian and South Pacific flora. While it contained many amazing trees of the like we had never seen before, the Royal Botanic Gardens' oldest specimen is an Australian red cedar that was planted in 1822. As well, there were many beautiful plants, such as the striking golden barrel cactus pictured above, that decorated the garden grounds (a helpful placard informed us that this cactus is so popular that it is becoming extinct in the wild).



After spending several sunny afternoons and mornings in this garden, I still feel like I could happily spend many more hours there-- reading, picnicking, running, or just walking around.



We were particularly fascinated with the Sydney Fernery, which featured gigantic ferns from the prehistoric age; these enormous plants would have been similar to those that existed alongside the dinosaurs! I felt absolutely dwarfed by their size.



This amazing tree, colloquially known as the "Dragon Tree," was a striking sight and often guided us through the garden as a landmark because of its easily recognizable branch structure.



The "Oriental" section containing bamboo shoots and the like.



Sadly, I don't think that we got to explore every part of this fantastic garden as our short stay in Sydney meant that we had to move through the garden quickly. However, I would gladly revisit this amazing garden one day if I was given another opportunity to visit Sydney!

Anyways, this garden was a fabulous way to start our first day in Australia. The next stop, as shown above, was the famous Sydney Opera House. Stay tuned for my next post about our visit there!

Cheers,

The Stylish Wordsmith