Day 21 – Exploring Sydney

Today was a partly sunny day in Sydney, and we started by exploring the Circular Quay area by our hotel.  This area is basically the main transportation hub of downtown Sydney, where you can catch a bus, train or ferry to pretty much anywhere in the city.  It’s also a great spot for restaurants and cafes, as well as the Botanic Gardens and the famous Sydney Opera House and the Harbour Bridge.

This is the wharf area at Circular Quay.  We had lunch at one of these sidewalk cafes.

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Looking back at the city skyline from the wharf.

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Here is the Opera House at the end of the pier.

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Looking across at the Sydney Harbour Bridge from the pier by the Opera House.

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For a while, we thought about doing the Harbour Bridge climb.  However, after seeing the people in the following photo walking across the top of the bridge, we chickened out reconsidered.

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Later in the afternoon, we took one of the Sydney commuter ferries over to Manly, which is a beach area of Sydney.

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We arrived in Manly and explored the area.  There are plenty of shops, cafes and restaurants, and a very nice beach.

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After dinner, we caught the ferry back to Circular Quay.  Sydney is a beautiful city at night, and while I tried taking some photos of the harbour bridge and opera house all lit up, my amateur photography skills are simply not good enough to take night photos from a moving boat.

We then returned to the hotel to pack for our flight to Hamilton Island tomorrow morning.

Day 20 – Wellington to Sydney

Today was another wonderfully sunny day.  After breakfast at the cafe next to the hotel, we walked around Wellington one last time before returning to the hotel to pack.  Shortly after noon, we checked out of our hotel and headed for Wellington airport for our flight to Australia.

Upon arriving at the airport, we settled in at the Air New Zealand lounge for a bite to eat and to catch up on e-mail.  I also uploaded the blog entries for the past couple of days, taking advantage of the free internet access in the lounge.  I wasn’t about to pay the $30/day they wanted at our hotel in Wellington.  For that price, I should get a month of access.

The flight to Sydney was great.  It was only a little over 3 hours, but as with our flight from LAX to Auckland, the international service on Air New Zealand is excellent.  The meal was great and the seats were far more comfortable than the business class seats on Air Canada.

Upon arriving in Sydney, we cleared customs and picked up our baggage.  It was nice that Sydney airport offers an express customs line for first class passengers, allowing us to breeze through the whole process.

Our hotel is great, located in Circular Quay.  It’s actually more my taste than Nadine’s, but that’s only fair since I did all the work planning this trip!  I love the historic charm of this hotel.  Below is a picture of the lobby, and our room is large and decorated in the same historic style.

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After getting settled, we went out for an evening walk around downtown Sydney.  Because it was dark, I decided to leave the camera back in the room as my night photos don’t always work out so well, especially without a tripod.  Therefore, I don’t have any more photos to post for today.  After walking around a bit, I was wishing that I did bring the camera with me, but we’ll have a lot more time in this area for photos.

Sydney is a fabulous city, and at night, it really looks great!  We’re looking forward to spending some time here.  Our plan is to spend two nights here before flying up to Hamilton Island for a few days, and we’ll then have two more nights in Sydney after returning from Hamilton Island.

Day 19 – Exploring Wellington

This would be our last full day in New Zealand, before heading to the airport tomorrow afternoon for our flight to Australia.  It was a nice sunny day, so we decided to walk around Wellington to see the sights.

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The following photos are of New Zealand’s Parliament buildings.

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We then took the Wellington cable car to the top of the hill by the Botanic Gardens and the observatory.

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We then walked along the waterfront to the Te Papa Museum of New Zealand.

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After wandering around the museum for a bit, we headed back out to explore some more.

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Later, we walked down to the waterfront area again in search of some dinner.

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After dinner, we had another quick walk around the downtown area before heading back to the hotel.  Below is a night photo of the Supreme Court of New Zealand.

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