Aussie! Aussie! Aussie! Oy! Oy! Oy! Australia Day in Sydney

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Where better to celebrate Australia Day than in Sydney, so we jumped on the train and spent two days in the capital of New South Wales.

We arrived on Wednesday afternoon and tracked down our hotel close to Central Station (thank you Expedia.ca). We then headed out on foot and straight down George Street. Our wanderings eventually took us toward Darling Harbour and the Sydney Aquarium. The aquarium was incredible! A menagerie of animals including seals, Fairy Penguins (very small) stingrays and sharks (Too bad that Sarah won't get to experience any of these while scuba diving!). After several hours at the aquarium, we explored the rest of Darling Harbour and Cockle Bay. After a good helping of ice cream, we called it a night.

Australia day began with us boarding the "Hop-on-Hop-off" tourist bus. It was a cloudy day - perfect since we planned to be outside all day long! Tom purchased two Aussie flags that we displayed all day - Tom's tucked into his belt, and Sarah's fluttering from her purse. We quickly changed busses to head out to Bondi (pronounced Bond-eye) beach. It was a fine-sand, long white beach, which was very busy with swimmers, surfers and families enjoying the national holiday. The beach was about the same length as our beach at Copa - but it's right in the middle of the city! We explored the rock shelf East of the beach and watched as people waded through the tidal pools digging up and sucking the guts out of sea urchins. Yuck!

Back on the bus, we headed into the centre of the city and alighted at the Opera House. Very impressive! There was a huge screen and seating area set up at the base of the stairs showing the live tennis match at the Australian Open. We checked out the bathrooms inside the Opera House - WOW! Curved walls and lighted toilet-paper holders! We watched a short airplane show out over the very full harbour and then walked through the Botanical Gardens. We'll have to come back again - what a restful spot!

As we continued our walk through South past the Botanical Gardens, we found ourselves in the middle of a vintage car show - which lead us straight into Hyde Park and the "Great Australian BBQ" - it was about time! We were hungry! After a meal of steak burgers we donned our Australia Flag tattoos and aimed ourselves toward Darling Harbour for the evening's festivities.

The harbour was packed, and even 3 hours before the fireworks there was no way of finding a full-view seat. We did find a good spot behind a floating restaurant and set ourselves down for the evening. There was a large raft in the middle of Cockle Bay with large screens and a huge sound-system. We were entertained with a variety of boat parades and the arrival of the Queen's Baton - the "Olympic Flame" for the Commonwealth Games, which are being hosted in Melbourne in March. The sun gradually set (which we were very thankful for since we had forgotten our sunscreen!) and we were ready for the fireworks. The finale began with the Australian National Anthem (we really should have learned the words) and ended with a tremendous 15 minute multi-media fireworks display. What a great way to end a very full but fun day!

Unfortunately, time has run out and we can't avoid reality any longer... school starts on Monday and we've got lots to do to get ready. Wish us luck!

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Photos

Warning
A cute little sign by the salty (saltwater crocodile) tank

Zzzzzzz
I can't believe I ate the whole thing!

Fairy Penguins
Unfortunately, they were "turning in" for the night :(

Pythagorean sharks
a squared + b squared = c squared

The big saltwater tank
... ever wonder how windows get finger prints on them?

A reef anemone fish
... just write any clever Nemo quote here.

Sarah on the rocks
Um, Sarah. I think the tide is coming in.

Just one more way to die in Australia
Probably looks easier than it is.

On Top of the World!
The open-topped hop-on-hop-off bus.
The best way to get a burned nose on an overcast day.

The Sydney Opera House
The steps were filled with people watching the Australian Open (on a big screen tv).

Some relief from the sun
One impressive ficus tree.

Bondi
Bondi beach from the Eastern corner.

Bondi Panorama
You may have to download and enlarge this one. The panorama is composed of 13 full sized photos.

Comments

[Cornel]

Thanks
Lokks like you guys are having a wonderful time. Great pictures. Thanks for the updates. Take care,

[Luce]

What a life... Enjoy every moment of it.

[Molly]

I'm not jealous AT ALL...
Wow - how super. It's so great that you guys "took the plunge" and decided to do this. I'm very envious (maybe when the kids are a little older...). Thanks for the great updates!