Arriving in the Land of Oz

Happy to be in Australia

Sydney, February 17 – We were all looking forward to our time in Australia. When planning our trip, Australia was top on our list to visit. Like many people we were intrigued by its beautiful landscapes and unfamiliar animals. Now after 3 months of traveling in non-English speaking countries, we had an additional reason to look forward to our 10 weeks in Australia. We were all looking forward to the comfort of being in a country with a familiar language and culture.

Darling Harbour, Sydney

We arrived in Sydney and started our Australian visit with a few days exploring the city and preparing for the rest of our 10 weeks in Australia. Our first stop in Sydney of course was Circular Quay to see the Sydney Opera House and the Harbour Bridge. Both of these structures where impressive and definitely in the same class as other great civic monuments like Big Ben, the Eiffel Tower, and the Blue Mosque. Having seen Sydney's iconic sites we were now free to get on with the bigger goal of preparing for our entire visit to Australia. In other words shopping for camping gear, cell phones, and clothes as well visiting information centres.

Sydney Aquarium

Our preparations also included familiarizing ourselves with the animals that we hoped to see in the Australian bush. This required spending a day visiting the Sydney Aquarium and Sydney Wildlife World. There Aaron got to pet a kangaroo, we all saw a huge saltwater crocodile, and dozens of lizards. At the aquarium we got some amazing views of sharks, dugongs, and sea turtles. Both places had made a real effort to house and display the animals in very natural like settings. If seeing the real animals wasn't enough, both places had some fantastic full size replicas of the animals all made of Lego.

Niall with a Croc

We enjoyed both places and appreciated the close views of the animals as well as some good insights from the exhibits and guides about these animals. Hopefully we would have some of our own opportunities to see these animals in the wild. Well perhaps not all of them, as Wildlife World was complete with some of the many large insects and poisonous spiders that would also be lurking out there. This of course did not help to ease Aaron's or Susan's concerns about our plans to camp in Australia.

Enjoying the surf at Manly

Our last full day in Sydney was a Sunday and we decided to spend it like many Australians with a visit to a beach. As it was family day on the Sydney transportation system we took advantage of the cheap ferry fares to Manly Beach. This gave us a 30 minute cruise of Sydney Harbour before arriving at Manly wharf where a 2 minute walk took us to the beach with the open surf of the Pacific Ocean. There we spent the afternoon playing in the surf under the supervision of the iconic yellow and red dressed Australian surf guards. We finished the day with a meal at a local bistro (aka pub) before cruising back to Sydney and enjoying the view of the city lit up at night. It had been a great day.

Harbour Bridge at Night

After only a few days it was easy to fall into the lay back and friendly lifestyle of the Australians. This is a place that is less about wearing suits and more about wearing flipflops or going barefoot and when an Australian says “no worries” they really mean it.

Check out more of our pictures of Sydney in our web album.