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The following email message was received from Steve and Suzy Waltar, who is in Australia for the Olympics:
Thursday, September 14, 2000
Hello everyone from Sydney!
We pulled into Sydney today around 3:30 p.m. local time here and were met by our host family Geoffrey & Kay Brunner. On
the way to their house we took an extensive scenic route including downtown and the sights there, driving over the Harbor Bridge and viewing the city from the north side of town, then
driving eastward toward the Olympic Village and viewed that from a fairly short distance away.
The Olympic fever is very high here!!! AUSSIE AUSSIE AUSSIE AY AY AY!!! One TV station is almost doing 24-hour coverage of
the events even now like the carrying of the Olympic torch though out the city. Tomorrow we are planning to spend time in downtown Sydney then go to opening day ceremonies, which
start at 6:00 p.m. local time.
Let me share with you a little bit of our time in Cairns. It is pronounced "cans" and sometime "canes." The place reminded
me a lot like Hawaii. The resort we stay at was out of this world. It was at a community of Palm Cove just north of Cairns and our hotel was the only one right on the surf edge. Getting up to watch
sunrises, jogging on the beach, watching people catch barracuda-looking fish off a pier, tropical fruit, and warm ocean breezes. It was like a honeymoon for us. We SCUBA dived two days out on
the Great Barrier Reef enjoying beautiful fish sea creatures and the colors of the water were unbelievable!
We also went to an Aboriginal theme park and went through the rain forest there by train and sky rail. We held koalas, petted
kangaroos, and saw an amazing crocodile show also.
Bring on the Olympics!
17-9-00 (that s how its done down under)
Friday night we attended the opening ceremonies. They were awesome!!! Took over an hour to make it to our train to depart
Olympic Stadium. On Saturday morning we enjoyed the women s triathlon at the Opera House. We were probably on world TV. There were lots of cameras, and during the medal presentation
Steve showed off his hairy chest to the world. There are so many lovely parks. Suzy & I take a little nap in a park each day.
The Harbour Bridge climb was truly awesome. It’s a have- to-do whenever in Sydney. Other highlights: Harbour Cruise in the
evening was great. Today, Sunda,y I let Suzy sleep in while I went for a jog. We went to the AMP Tower for a buffet lunch. The food was good (kangaroo, camel, emu, lamb, and all of the normal
stuff) and the view was INCREDIBLE. We were in the highest tower in all of Australia and it rotates like the Space Needle, but so much more to see. The city never ends!!! Then we viewed the
Aquarium in Darling Harbour, once again incredible to be underneath sharks and fish in the huge aquarium. We just got back from watching the U.S. men’s volleyball team lose to
Argentina and the Aussies lose to Brazil. These next two days we will hit some beaches like Manly and Bondi.
Monday, September 18, 2000, 10:00 PM
We have been having wonderful weather here in Sydney and spring does not officially start until the 22nd. Today, we went on a
harbor ferry towards the harbor entrance and went northward to a place called Manly Wharf. On the other side a few blocks walk you end up on Manly Beach right on the ocean. Lots of people
were there enjoying the sun and surf. A few girls were even topless. On the way there to Manly we had to detour around the Olympic sailing courses in the harbor. They were out there racing
small sailboats called 49er,s and also the lasers were out racing. There were tons of spectator boats along with patrol boats and official boats.
We sat out on the beach just enjoying the hot sun and sand that was really soft. We heard that when Honolulu is low on sand for
some reason, they ship this sand from this beach to restock it.
We finally came up with an idea to handle our extremely heavy luggage problem, considering that we have come very close on
maxing out our weight limits on our checking luggage. Since we have only been checking in three pieces and been carrying two on to the planes, we decided to buy another suitcase today to
even out the load. It also gave us more space for souvenirs now.
Tomorrow, we are planning to hit another beach on the oceanside called Bondi Beach. Then, if time permits, we will try
to squeeze in an Opera house tour. Then, tomorrow night we get to watch the Americans play against somebody in baseball. Everyone one around here has Aussie flags, and a lot of visiting
people also have their home country flags. I wish we had brought an American flag because we are having a difficult time finding one to buy to wave at the sporting events.
Rotary
This evening (Monday night) Steve went to a Rotary dinner with Geoff our host. Most members lounge around beforehand having
drinks before dinner. Two Aussies offered me cool ones and how could I turn them down? After an opening blessing that sounded very much like a church doxology, they do a toast to the Queen
and enjoy a quick drink. It was quite a pleasant meeting. I got to exchange Rotary flags/banners. They had been looking forward to hosting even more families (11 couples originally) but were
thrilled to have a visitor. They were very gracious. Our speakers were from the Trinidad Olympic team, including the 4th ranked Tae Kwon Do female athlete. Every time the Aussies were
competing for a medal the meeting would stop and we'd all run back to the bar to view the event.
 We rode on a bus with and stayed with the
parents and grandmother of Megan Quann while we were in Palm Cove. She just won a gold medal in breast stroke!!! She is from Puyallup so check the papers for any write up about it.
Best regards,
Steve & Suzy Waltar
from Down Under
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