Where's Wally?

Well, what adventures can four days bring. After a lazy Sunday to try and beat that wretched jetlag, we took a ferry on Monday up to Manly Beach. All the weather forecasts were for 27C and sunny, so we thought it would be a great beach day. Seems the weather forecasting here is just as good as at home, and instead, we got a day of drizzle and maybe 18C at best. But we still managed a good beach walk, shopping, and drinks at a number of bars, overlooking both the wharf and the beach. Only got our toes into the water, so we're still waiting for our first ocean swim.

Tuesday we took the ferry up the river to Paramatta to meet up with Jodi's parents' friends, and we picked up our new little baby, Wally, measuring around 16 feet long, and weighing 1600 kgs. He's a fine proud grey 95 Ford Falcon Wagon, complete with air, cruise, and a tape deck!! We both had a go at driving, and have to say, it's pretty crazy to have cars going the opposite direction, only a foot or two to your right. Many of the controls are on the opposite side too, and Chris set the record of turning on the wipers 6 times instead of the turn signal. But he got us home safe and sound, and we've decided the car will stay put until we leave Sydney.

Today we got over to the Taronga Zoo, and it was quite impressive. We spent a good four hours there, and still didn't see all of the exhibits. Of what we did see though, we got to see elephants (and the most gorgeous baby ever), platypus, kangaroos, koalas, frilled neck lizards, komodo dragon, giraffes, tasmanian devil, gorillas, chimpanzees, and way too many others to name. Suffice to say, it was way better than the zoo at home, and we can't wait to see many of those animals in the wild. The 11 of the top 15 most poisonous snakes in the world that live in Australia, well, can't say I'm looking forward to them at all, but the rest will do just fine.

Arrival in Sydney

After far too many hours in airport lounges and cramped airline seats, we made it safe and sound to a beautiful "winter" day in Australia, with the temperature reaching around 20C. Found our ride to Jodi's mom's cousin's apartment, located about a 15 minute walk from downtown Sydney, and fell asleep for a much needed nap. Spent much of the rest of the day wandering aimlessly through downtown, trying to get some bearings, had a great seafood lunch on the wharf, and found beer and grocery stores.

Second day was spent much like the first, heading over towards the Harbour Bridge and the Sydney Opera House. Jodi has seen this all before, but I think Chris was in a bit of a state of awe at the fact that yes, we really are here. We're both still getting used to looking the opposite direction when crossing the street, and we're sure it will be quite interesting when we learn how to drive on the opposite side of the road.

Jet lag is still trying hard to keep ahold of us, as we're barely able to make it past 9:00 at night, and waking up bright and early by 7:30. This isn't our idea of vacation hours, so we're going to do our best to kick it before too long. Hoping to have an easy day today, off to Manly Beach tomorrow on the ferry through Sydney Harbour, then plan to pick up our car on Tuesday.