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Well better late than never. We
finally had a great day on Heron Island. Without a doubt the best thing about Heron Island
was the helicopter flight off the island. Neither Andrea or I had ever been on a
helicopter and we had no idea what to expect. If we had known how great the helicopter
flight would be, we never would have taken the launch out to the island. Instead of a two
hour ride on 3 meter seas, we had a smooth 35 minute flight back to Gladstone. Plus we
finally got some great pictures of the reef, albeit from the air, with the help of the
helicopter pilot. It's hard to see them in these pictures, but we passed over a number of
sea turtle and ray colonies. The pictures posted below are from left to right: Heron
Island; Heron Island Reef; Heron Island Reef again; Me in the helicopter; Wilson Island;
Wilson Island Reef; Our Helicopter.
Before we left Heron Island I found out that we
were on the island during the peak nesting season of the Black Noddy. Probably the best
time to be on the Island would be from April to August, because that's when the Black
Noddys are away from the island. It still wouldn't make up for the disorganized service on
the island, but I'm sure the smell of the island improves quite a bit when nesting season
is over. After landing in Gladstone we flew in a turboprop plane to Brisbane and then
caught a Qantas flight to Sydney. We arrived in Sydney at 4 o'clock in the afternoon and
caught a taxi to the Ritz Carlton at Double Bay.
 We actually thought we had booked a room at the
Ritz Carlton in Sydney, so we were real surprised when our taxi driver took us east of the
city to Double Bay. It turns out that there are two Ritz Carltons in Sydney and we were at
the one that was ten minutes outside of the city. We checked into switching over to the
Ritz Carlton in the city, but they didn't have any availability. After taking a look
outside our window we were glad that they didn't have availability. We're on the fifth
floor of the hotel and we have a beautiful view of Sydney Harbour. Double Bay is one of
the more exclusive suburbs of Sydney. It was originally a fishing village and then at one
time it was planned as the site for Australia's first Botanical Gardens. Today it's the
home of the expensive Cosmopolitan Centre shopping hub (nicknamed "Double Pay"),
the Ritz Carlton, and a number of other shops, galleries, and restaurants. We had dinner
at Botticelli, an Italian restaurant two blocks from the hotel, and once again the food
was fantastic. Andrea had the Seafood Pasta and I had the Veal Scaloppini with minestrone
soup, bruschetta, and Tiramisu for dessert. Tomorrow will be our last full day in Sydney
and we're going to try to get to all the things we missed two weeks ago including the
Botanical Gardens and Sydney Tower. See ya' tomorrow!
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Great
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