Last day in sydney

We had a great last day in sydney. We had a great breakfast at a cafe, walked through the park and did a guided tour of the sydney opera house.

The opera house is truly fantastic! We only wish we would have been able to hear a concert. The music hall is more majestic than the opera hall. One of the highlights of the trip for sure.

We then packed up and headed to the airport. The flight is going to be full, so we will not have any empty seats next to us. Bummer.

We got something to eat and are on the waiting area. We had a brush with celebrity in the waiting area. Ice Cube is on our flight. I got a picture of him, but it wasn't that great. Hey, maybe I'm sitting next to Mr. Cube on the plane! Unlikely.

We have a long 13 hour flight ahead of us so we are praying for sleep!
Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

Sydney whirlwind part 1

What a day! We saw a lot of sydney in 1 day and we are tired.

We started out by going to our hotel. I love Marriott because they take care of you. We were actually able to get our room at 9 am in the morning!

We decided to see the city by taking a hop on hop off bus tour. We went the entire way around and saw some great sites,

We stopped at the end of the botanical gardens and got the picture I posted. We then walked through the gardens and went to a free art museum.

Our other stop was in darling harbour for the aquarium.

We got a little something to eat after changing into our swim gear and caught a bus to Bondi Beach to get in the water. We got there and the water was FREEZING but we got in anyway. Too cold to really have fun or bodysurf, but we were in nonetheless.

We made our way back to the hotel and headed for our night bridgeclimb. We spent the next 3 hours prepping for and climbing to the top of the Sydney Harbour Bridge. No pictures yet because we couldn't bring our camera for obvious reasons. It was a real highlight of the trip, but it is late and we are tired.

One more short day in sydney and we head home.

Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

Koalas, kangaroos and platypus--oh my!

Today we visited the Healesville Sanctuary outside of Melbourne. It was one of the highlights of the trip so far.

We took a tram, train and bus to get there (we didn't want to face Melbourne traffic.....). We arrived safely and on time and the very first animal we saw were Koalas!

After that, we had good timing to see the kangaroos with the keepers and got to feed and pet them! They had a baby roo (a "joey") and he was SUPER cute! Very soft.

We then got to see wallabies, wombats, dingoes (one of my favorites) and a platypus. It was a wonderful place and would love to return. We will post the best pics we got when we return.

We are headed to Melbourne now to spend a bit of time before we leave.

Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

Tasmania

We were expecting a cold rainy day in Tasmania but were greeted by a beautiful, sunny day.

Once we finally got off the boat, we found our rental car and headed to Cradle Mountain and Dove Lake, a world biosphere preserve. It was a great 1.5 hour drive. We were greeted with the gorgeous view of the picture attached. We took off for a 3.5 mile hike around Dove Lake and loved it! It was one of our favorite walks--and as an added bonus, we were greeted by two wallabies as we did our walk!. we could have stayed there for a week!

We went to the visitor center and did another short walk and then went to a Tasmanian Devil center where they protect them. Their growl lives up to the name-i ill post some video of them fighting when we get back.

We had to leave all to soon. We would love to return someday. On our way back to town, we stopped at a paper mill that sells "roo poo" paper. They recycle kangaroo poop into paper. I'm not making this up. Of course we had to get some!

Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

Dunedin

We had a great day in Dunedin. It is on the soth coast of the south Island and was settled by Scottish immigrants so it has a totally different feel than the other places we have visited.

We first visited the Cadbury chocolate factory. Interesting and fattening!

The railway station was a must visit due to the floors alone. They had very intricate tile patterns and some beautiful stained glass. Very classic.

We then rented our car and started our journey down the Otago Peninsula along the shoreline. Our fist stop was the only Castle in New Zealand--Larnach Castle. Some scottish guy decided he wanted a castle and built it in the 1800s. He went through 3 wives, shot himself and then his children fought over it. It was abandoned and then bought and restored in 1967. Pretty cool place.

We drove to the end of the road to try and visit the Albatross center. If you don't know, Albatross are huge birds. Their wingspan can be over 10 feet long! Unfortunately it is nesting season and they don't allow visitors as to not disturb the birds. So we looked around and saw other birds and a couple of seals.

The highlight was our next stop-Penguin Place. It was a refuge for the rarest penguin-the yellow eyed penguin. We got there just in time for a tour-and we were the only people on it! We got to see the yellow eyed and the tiny Blue penguin. Along the way we ran across a couple of seals-real close up. They actually smell pretty foul...

It was a great tour-one of the best we had on the trip. We then headed back into town to drop the car off.

We made it back to the center of town and had some time left. We got a taxi driver to take us to the worlds steepest street-Baldwin Street. It was crazy-very steep. Very cool.

Once we left Dunedin, we passed the Albatross center, we saw some in the air-very cool!
Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T