Sydney/Melbourne
Sorry this is so late. What with one thing and another, I haven't got around to posting for far too long. Now we're ensconced in a lovely B&B in the Kauri forests of North Island, New Zealand, I can get caught up on many things: sleep, posts, laundry, and my poor, neglected, half-finished story.
First, here is a post I wrote September 3, on the plane from Sydney to Melbourne. It seems like 9 years ago, not 9 days, but I've noticed that time seems to move differently when we're on the road. Yesterday, for instance, lasted about a week.
Be that as it may.
Our last day in Syndey was the usual rush of sorting, packing, and last-minute sightseeing. We divided forces, Ellen going to the Mint and the Library (where there was a big exhibition on the legendary Governor Macquarie) and me to the Australian Maritime Museum to see the replica of Captain Cook's The Endeavor. In the event, I saw the Library exhibit, too, and it was fascinating--the early history of the colony all in documents, letters between Macquarie and his wife Elizabeth, Macquarie and the big-wigs back home, broadsheets, official reports, journals, and lists. He was only here 12 years, but he got an immense amount done in the time, despite constant intestinal complaints and a no-good son who seemed born to bread his parents' hearts. And so did Elizabeth, whose frail health didn't keep her from traveling all over the east coast of Australia and northern Tasmania with her husband.
Plus, she had pretty citrine earrings.
But first, I saw the Endeavor.
I'll say this for Captain Cook and his officers: they were a hardy lot, even by the standards of any early explorer facing the limitless sea in a cockleshell. The Endeavor was a converted coal ship, which meant it had an open hold to make loading coal easier. In order to carry a full crew, a deck was laid over the joists, creating a between-decks section I had to bend almost double to negotiate. Now, I'm tall, but I'm not a giant. I had visions of the officers and gentlemen shuffling along at a semi-crouch, unable to stand up fully even anywhere below decks except in Cook's Great Cabin. Which was great only comparison to the other cabins, which were about the width of a modern Queen-sized bed, and maybe twice as long. It's all beautifully done up, though, and you can sail on it, either as a genuine rigging-climbing, sail-reefing sailor or as a gentleman in (I hope) one of the lower-deck modern cabins with normal headroom.
The Maritime Museum also boasts a destroyer and a submarine, but I skipped those in favor of the museum itself. It had excellent exhibitions on immigration, with models of convict hulks and folding furniture from first-class passenger cabins later in the century and actual immigrant's sea-trunks and belongings, which reminded me of the room at Ellis Island in New York where immigrants' donated pots and embroidered pillowcases and shoes and curling irons and suspenders are exhibited. And then Ellen texted me that the Macquarie exhibit was excellent and I should walk over to the library, so I did that. And then we walked over to Galaxy Bookshop to say hello and for Ellen to sign stock, and then we poked our noses into a fancy jewelry store that sold opals and learned a great deal and did not buy a small but firey rectangular white opal, but came close. And then we staggered back to the flat, stopping on the way for sushi, and packed and packed and packed. And then we flew to Melbourne, and it was a WorldCon, and another story.
First, here is a post I wrote September 3, on the plane from Sydney to Melbourne. It seems like 9 years ago, not 9 days, but I've noticed that time seems to move differently when we're on the road. Yesterday, for instance, lasted about a week.
Be that as it may.
Our last day in Syndey was the usual rush of sorting, packing, and last-minute sightseeing. We divided forces, Ellen going to the Mint and the Library (where there was a big exhibition on the legendary Governor Macquarie) and me to the Australian Maritime Museum to see the replica of Captain Cook's The Endeavor. In the event, I saw the Library exhibit, too, and it was fascinating--the early history of the colony all in documents, letters between Macquarie and his wife Elizabeth, Macquarie and the big-wigs back home, broadsheets, official reports, journals, and lists. He was only here 12 years, but he got an immense amount done in the time, despite constant intestinal complaints and a no-good son who seemed born to bread his parents' hearts. And so did Elizabeth, whose frail health didn't keep her from traveling all over the east coast of Australia and northern Tasmania with her husband.
Plus, she had pretty citrine earrings.
But first, I saw the Endeavor.
I'll say this for Captain Cook and his officers: they were a hardy lot, even by the standards of any early explorer facing the limitless sea in a cockleshell. The Endeavor was a converted coal ship, which meant it had an open hold to make loading coal easier. In order to carry a full crew, a deck was laid over the joists, creating a between-decks section I had to bend almost double to negotiate. Now, I'm tall, but I'm not a giant. I had visions of the officers and gentlemen shuffling along at a semi-crouch, unable to stand up fully even anywhere below decks except in Cook's Great Cabin. Which was great only comparison to the other cabins, which were about the width of a modern Queen-sized bed, and maybe twice as long. It's all beautifully done up, though, and you can sail on it, either as a genuine rigging-climbing, sail-reefing sailor or as a gentleman in (I hope) one of the lower-deck modern cabins with normal headroom.
The Maritime Museum also boasts a destroyer and a submarine, but I skipped those in favor of the museum itself. It had excellent exhibitions on immigration, with models of convict hulks and folding furniture from first-class passenger cabins later in the century and actual immigrant's sea-trunks and belongings, which reminded me of the room at Ellis Island in New York where immigrants' donated pots and embroidered pillowcases and shoes and curling irons and suspenders are exhibited. And then Ellen texted me that the Macquarie exhibit was excellent and I should walk over to the library, so I did that. And then we walked over to Galaxy Bookshop to say hello and for Ellen to sign stock, and then we poked our noses into a fancy jewelry store that sold opals and learned a great deal and did not buy a small but firey rectangular white opal, but came close. And then we staggered back to the flat, stopping on the way for sushi, and packed and packed and packed. And then we flew to Melbourne, and it was a WorldCon, and another story.