Sydney and HOME!

We got home yesterday and jumped right in to sorting the mail and doing 5 loads of laundry. I have no idea how we managed to stay awake over 35 hours. What I do know is we crashed pretty hard, sleeping 14 hours! I almost missed my 1:30 PM massage.

So here are the final photos. We spent spent 5 days in Sydney which was a big change from hiking and touring New Zealand. This is a huge city. We especially enjoyed the 2 activities I booked ahead: a Sydney Bridge climb and an opera at the Sydney Opera House (of course). We also squeezed in a tour of the facility.

Here it is, the Sydney Harbour with the skyline, Opera House and the bridge we climbed.

This is what we must have looked like as we climbed the bridge. We had perfect weather, great views

We spent most of one day just touring this amazing place, eating at one of the restaurants there, seeing the opera and enjoying the views.

I was quite surprised to learn the Opera House is not white. It looks beige in person but changes with the light conditions. Check out this close up of the tiles covering the building.

It was tough not to throw in a marsupial pic but this sleepy little koala at the wildlife center is so cute.

Bondi Beach is the Sydney hot spot for water sports and family getaways. The clouds look ominous but it was about 85 degrees and quite humid. Lots of surfers here.

This tower is a landmark over the Westfield shopping mall in the heart of downtown. I wonder when they are building a tower at Vancouver Mall?

 What is John doing? What all of the Aussies do, watching cricket and drinking beer. This is certainly the most boring game on earth, even worse than baseball. A "test" lasts 5 days!

We spent a few hours at the Royal Botanic Gardens, 83 hectares with lovely plants and huge trees. John especially liked this eucalyptus.

St Mary's Cathedral is in the CBD by Hyde Park. We didn't see or tour many churches so I thought I would include this.

As of today, we have 636 page views for the blog. Thanks for following along on our adventure. We hope to see you soon to catch up on what you have been up to while we were away.

John and Jennifer