Sydney

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After arriving in Sydney, we had the pleasure of joining Stuart Kirkwood and family at their lovely home for a barbeque. We first met Stuart when he and "A" were working in Hong Kong. His children Rochelle and Bradley use to come play dress up with the girls. (Sure wish we had the pictures…but they would probably kill us if we posted them!) Stuart, Karen, Rochelle and Bradley were awesome hosts and we thoroughly enjoyed their company.


Our hotel was right across the street from the famous Manly Beach. "j" and Dad took surfing lessons and are now gnarly surfer dudes (almost). No we didn’t see a single great white shark. The ferry ride from Manly Wharf into Sydney Harbor is incredible and we enjoyed walking around Circular Quay and Darling Harbor. We toured the world renowned Sydney Opera House, strolled though the Royal Botanical Gardens, and listened to aboriginal didgeridoos.

On our way to the Blue Mountains we stopped at Featherdale Wildlife Park. Featherdale is such a unique place, we were able to get inside the enclosures to touch and feed the kangaroos, wallabies and koalas. The park has a wide variety of Australian wildlife. It was definitely a memorable experience.

We were pleasantly surprised when we arrived at the lodging we booked in Wentworth Falls. It was a beautiful brand new apartment that allowed us more space than usual. We may not have had internet access but we did go ”aussie” grocery shopping and cooked a few meals.

The Blue Mountains have amazing views including Echo Point that overlooks the Three Sisters rock formations. The Scenic Skyway cable car that carried us across a thousand foot drop has a glass floor, better not be afraid of heights. We also rode the scenic railway down to the valley floor. It is the steepest incline railway in the world. We did a lot of bushwalking (hiking to us) but we didn’t see Steve Irwin or any snakes…thank goodness.

When we returned to Sydney we went to the Powerhouse Museum to see the Lord of the Rings Exhibit. It really put us in the mood to head for New Zealand and Middle Earth.

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Photos

The kids
Bradley, Rochelle and girls

The Sydney Opera House
Taken from the ferry.

Sydney Harbor
Taken at the Luna park ferry dock.

Standing on the first Sister
We had to go straight down the side of the canyon to get to this spot. The walk up was less fun.