Sydney, Cousin Jill, and a killer opera

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The Sydney Acquarium is spectacular. We went along for Megan's cousin Jessica's birthday outing of going to the acquarium. They have excellent exibits but the best one has got to be underwater walkway through various types of sharks, turtles, sting-rays and other sealife. My mom enjoyed it so much we had to go through it twice. Afterwards, we went through the Wildlife World next door where we took in some deadly spiders, snakes, as well as wallabies, koalas and wombats. Wombats rule~!

We drove to Parramatta and took one of the Harbour Cat ferries through the river and into Sydney on Tuesday. It started out cloudy but soon turned into a beautiful clear and sunny day. We arrived in Sydney harbour around lunchtime and purchsed tickets for the hop-on hop-off Sydney explorer bus. It went absolutely everywhere and I got a much better feel for Sydney despite having a fifteen minute snooze.

After the two hour explorer bus, we walked around the boardwalk, purchased tickets from the opera house for the Sweeny Tood performance on Friday, and then had a quick look at the Botanical Gardens.

My cousin Jill is living in Charlestown, about a half hour's drive from Megan's house. She married an Aussie (Adam), and is currently in a race to renovate their recently purchased home before her baby arrives. She came down for lunch on Wednesday and then drove us to Charlestown to see her house and to meet Adam for the first time. Her house is going to great once it's finished and we even managed to meet Adam's father Mick as well. We even tried Australia's equivalent of Starbucks (Gloria Jeans). It was really good to see her again and we were her first Canadian relatives to visit her down under.

Friday night, we went to the opera. We arrived a little late so we had to watch the first 25 minutes on a monitor but once we were in, it was quite enjoyable. It was more of a musical than an opera and was billed as a comedy thriller. I'm glad that the singing was in english and that we could follow.

On Saturday, we went to Megan's brother's house for the naming day of his first child Georgia Elizabeth. A naming day is almost the same thing as a christening day (the difference being it's non-religious) It was a large all-day family affair with about 25 or 30 attendees. We had a bbq dinner before heading home.

The heat has been great except for yesterday when it was actually too hot at 41C. It's really exhausting being out in that kind of heat. Thank goodness for air conditioning.

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Photos

Darling Harbour
Darling Harbour - Sydney waterfront

Mom & Jill
In front of Jill's new house. Will the renovations be finished before the baby comes?... I think so

Summerland Point Sunset
Sunset at Sandi Beach after picnic.

Naming Day
John, Sandra, Megan, John at Baby Georgia's naming day.

Comments

[Vanessa]

wombat please?
You need to post a picture of a wombat so I know what my new pet will look like! :D