Whale watching is a must do in Sydney and thanks for Tammy who treated me to such an awesome experience, thereby allowing me to tick another box successfully. It was a sunny Sunday and we embarked on our 3.5-hour tour with the Go Whale Watching team at Pier 7 of Darling Harbour. During the whole trip, the crew members were helpful, friendly and informative, who tried to let us get the most out of our time, thus making this adventure so enjoyable.
Tammy and I chose a good seat area on the deck so we could enjoy a better view of the sea. It was bloody freezing but fortunately, we kept ourselves warm enough to resist the coldness. Due that it was not a big ship, there were often “gentle” rock and rolls over the waves and as a result, I, being used to brag about how much I am keen on the sea, began to feel a bit seasick. So a warm hint is to either take one or two seasick pills in advance or ask the cabin attendant for help when necessary.
The staff is experienced spotters and they are always able to tell the whales’ exact locations if there are any traces or footprints of them, like ‘Watch 2 o’clock direction, 200 meters’ or so. The tourists on board were also encouraged to make whistles or sing an anthem (so hilarious) to attract the whales’ attention or curiosity so that they would possibly jump to the surface to breathe more often. Based on the description of the captain, in general, the scratches on the back of male whales were caused while fighting over females. Feel the SILLY power of love? In addition, I really felt overwhelmed by the fact that this feeding migration route of the whales involves swimming all the way from Antarctica to Great Barrier Reef in order to give birth to their calves and because of the tremendous change of the seawater temperature, mother whales will lose weight dramatically in the meanwhile. This is great parental love!!!
Apparently, patience was indeed required and the sad fact was, the humpback whales seemed to be mostly single rather than swimming in pods. They were not so active and cooperative today and there were not so frequent blows as expected and even when they were spotted, it would just last as short as 2 seconds before they disappeared from our eyesight again. I realise that whale watching is really a good exercise of concentration which works better than playing ping-pong because you have to keep your eyes and ears wide open towards any direction! Just a big associated problem is that your eyes will easily get strained after a while, especially under the glaring sunshine (even though you wear sunglasses)…
On the way back, Tammy and I went into the cabin to have a rest and ate some food to regain energies. It was nice that fruit, cakes and hot beverages were served for free on board. And after returning to the land, we both felt a relief and went to have dinner at Miso Japanese Restaurant to comfort our stomachs.
Miso is a very busy and popular Japanese restaurant which specializes in pork cooking. We waited outside in the queue for a little while before getting seated (Table 7, lucky me again), and the food was soon brought to our table after taking the order. The pork fillet coated with breadcrumbs and then deep-fried, was the highlight and turned out to be tender and juicy and every bite was so satisfying. While enjoying the crunchy fillet, we also had rice, miso soup and a couple of various side dishes. I was in particular into the cold but nice pumpkins and also learnt the cooking method in detail from a nice waitress there. OKla, I will share the top secret to my dear readers right here: Cut into pieces, boil with a pressure cooker and wait for another 10 minutes after the cooker began to let off steam (The way the lady explained was pretty lovely). No seasoning is required and as long as it has totally cooled off, it is ready to enjoy!
As a Japanese food lover, I would say that while Miso may not be the best Japanese style restaurant I have ever explored, it is a good choice as a minimalist spot for a quick meal which provides high quality of food with good price.
