Oz: Opera House Revisited etc

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Arriving in Melbourne, we were rather surprised by how cold and miserable the weather was... I supposed I'd never considered that the Aussies have weather resembling that of the UK, sometimes at least! We caught a bus to 'St Kilder', which seemed to be a reasonably run down sort of area, perhaps it was that time of year/weather. We stayed at the 'Oslo hotel', a characterful backpackers with friendly management.

We spent a day in Melbourne City taking in the various sights. We'd hoping to have a look around the 'CH2 Melb city council building', one of a new breed of 'ecological skyscrapers'... and lucky turned up at the place 15 mins before the weekly public tour. We'd had a lecture on the building whilst studying in Auckland, so it was a great opportunity to see it for real. Melbourne seemed like a nice ish city, with old European buildings mixed in with the new, although i think the bitter cold left me with a tainted impression!

The next day we decided to make the 12 hr bus ride to Sydney (from where we'd eventually be flying to the orient). The sun seem to come out as we left Melbourne. It was interesting to watch the Aussie countryside roll past. I was quite surprised by the quantity of greenery... didn't see any kangaroos, wallabies or dingoes though unfortunately.

In Sydney both myself and Fred were keen to get another look at the Opera House. We opted to take a tour of the interior this time, which was very informative... including history and architectural info (geeks! yes, we know...) We spent some time exploring Sydney a little more, including the famous fish market, and maritime museum.

I arranged for us to meet up with my great aunt Mary and uncle Bill, who took us for a drive outside of the city, treated us to a meal and showed us some of the pleasant coastal spots; which was nice.

On the morning of Sunday 23rd we left the city for the airport and on to Hong Kong

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Photos

The ceremonial kissing of the Opera House
Well, it is rather good after all!