Australia or Bust!

Well, the New Zealand museum was quite informative. The display on volcanos and earthquakes was most interesting. Did you know that a major fault line runs right down the middle of the country? After the museum, we wended our way to the airport. My fear of being late for anyting got us to the airport about 4 hours early, and then our plane was delayed too!

We finally made it to Sydney - we could even see the famous Opera House out the plane window! Michael was particularly excited about arriving in Aussie land. His eyes were quite big when we touched down!

This morning we took the double decker subway two stops to start our walking tour of the Rocks area. This is where the first convict colony was established. Rather than living in prisons, the convicts were allowed to live in homes but were kept on a short leash. If they were to steal food from the government store houses, they would be executed! Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on who you were), no one wanted the hangman's job, so the first convict to be convicted of stealing government food was pardoned on the condition that he took the hangman's job!

During the walking tour, Michael saw a shop with boomerangs in it, so as soon as the tour was over, we hoofed it on back to the shop and he bought three! He is now a very contented young man!

In the afternoon, we joined a bus tour that took us all around the city. The weather all morning had been quite inconsistant. First rain, then sun, then rain, then sun again. It was nice to be in a warm bus for a while. Our guide took us past Hyde Park, the Botanical Gardens several interesting churches and a very wealthy neighbourhood where a home recently sold for 47 million dollars! We also were taken to some interesting spots to view the Sydney Opera House before heading out to Bondi Beach. The weather here was quite strange. We arrived with sunshine, but once on the beach, a storm rolled in and we just made it into a surf shop before getting drenched. By the time we had to get back to the bus, the rain had stopped! The wind, however, is another story! We almost got blown off our feet! And the sand from the beach stung as it hit our faces. There weren't many surfers - I think only three brave souls dared paddle out into that raging surf! I hope they survived! We barely did! This picture was taken by our bus driver on the road away from the beach so we don't look as windblown as we were down by the sand. Now, however, we are home in our cozy hotel and looking forward to tomorrow's adventures. Hopefully it will be a bit more sunny and less windy!