Sights of Sydney

Today we spent the day wandering around the Sydney harbour area and saw some of the sights of, from the ground this time! It was particularly impressive for me, seeing the iconic sights of the Sydney Harbour Bridge and Opera House for the first time. There aren't actually many truly iconic places we've been on our travels, ones that most people would instantly know - Sydney definitely, Angkor Wat in Cambodia and possibly Halong Bay in Vietnam; but they all make your spine tingle when you first see them. Around the harbour area, we also saw The Rocks, the area where the first convict immigrants landed in Australia back in the 1800s and circular quay where all the ferries depart from. The cruise ship terminal is also here and there was a huge liner docked - we think it was the same one that we saw docked in Wellington back when we got the ferry from the South to North Island of NZ - small world!

Sydney has a real "big city" feel about it, the first such city we've seen since Bangkok (although Auckland may have had that feeling, if we hadn't been there on a Bank Holiday weekend). Unsurprisingly that Sydney feels big really, as its population is about 5 million people; more than the entire population of New Zealand! Perhaps surprisingly for such a big city, we also saw plenty of wildlife whilst wandering the sights today. Whilst we were walking under the Harbour Bridge we saw lots of beautiful metallic coloured beetles (see photo). Then this afternoon we spent some time in the Botanic Gardens and we saw lots of different birds, including parakeets, cockatoos, ibis, a heron and, best of all, a real-life wild kookaburra - we really must be in Australia now we've seen a kookaburra!

The weather was perfect today too - temperature in the narrow window that all 3 of us are comfortable & happy (i.e. I think between 20-22C!), mostly sunny and still. Back at our apartment, we cooked dinner and enjoyed the sunset view across Darling Harbour out of our window whilst we ate. We also happily found out that Solana has got a place at our first choice primary school, St Chads. We hope that those of you who are also awaiting school places have received good news too.Read more