Australia Part 2

Our final stop in Australia was Sydney, but first we had to get there as we'd dillied and dallied on the way, as the song goes :)

On the way south from Fraser island we passed back through Brisbane, where we stopped at the Koala Sanctuary. They had kangeroos to stroke, a duck billed platypus - which was even stranger than you'd imagine - and, the main event, lots of koalas. Liz got very excited by these! She had her photo taken cuddling an especially large one called Sumo. Then we fed wild lorkeets, some of which thought Liz's head made a good perch.

Liz and the other Sumo

Liz and bird brain

We also stopped off at a seaside town called Coff's Harbour where we had a lovely meal. It was a beautifully sunny day and the views from the resturant were stunning. We walked along the harbour and up the headland where we admired the stunning views of the golden beaches up and down the coast and watch a (very distant) whale.

Coffs Harbour from the headland

Our final stop before Sydney was a small town on a river called Tea Gardens. It had the feel of a large retirement village, yet tranquil with beautiful lake where we ate very tasty fish n chips and were fascinated by the pelicans swimming by in the gorgeous lake.

Tea Gardens

2 residents of Tea Gardens out for a swim

We finally arrived in Sydney, where we stayed with Matt, Lou, Abbie and Frankie. It was great to see them all again after a few years and spend a few late nights catching up. During the day, Liz and I visited the harbour with the iconic Opera House and the Harbour Bridge. We found out that it's almost impossible to take a bad photo of the Bridge, and almost impossible to take a good one of the Opera House. The Botanic Gardens had some very cool trees, tons of cockatoos wandering and flying around and flocks of huge fruit bats squabbling in the trees - cool. We also visited the Sydney Tower which has amazing views of the city below. We stayed through sunset and the views got even better as the city lit up. Then it was out to dinner with Matt & Lou to little restaurant on Manly beach, where we had an excellent meal, and of course great company!

Sydney Opera House

Sydney Harbour at night from Sydney Tower

The Bridge (of course)

Opera House again

The following day we walked along the coast from Coogee to Manly, taking in the views of the beautiful beaches and houses to match. The day after this Lou joined us for a day out in one of the endless number of national parks,where we saw kangeroos and wallabies in the wild, and walked down hundreds of stairs to a deserted beach - beautiful.

Cool cliffs somewhere between Coogee and Manly

Wallaby

On our last day we all went out together. We checked out Paddington Market and then busy Darling Harbour and the tranquil Chinese Garden. All the walking meant the tasty ice creams we had were well deserved. Finally we went to an award winning pizza restaurant, where the girls nearly falling asleep in the pizzas as they were so tired. But the food was certainly good enough to keep the adults awake.

Frankie helterskeltering

Darling Harbour

The Truman's & us

Marc Frankie & Abbie

Someone loves pizza!

Matt & Lou were wonderful hosts, so a HUGE thank you to them! It was lots of fun spending time with Abbie and Frankie. So a big thanks to them for lending us their play room and keeping us entertained!

Overall we loved Australia. The winter weather was warm and sunny everywhere we went, there were more parks than you could ever possibly visit and the people were great too. But we weren't wanting Jetstar to extend our stay by a few hours by delaying our flight to New Zealand. Seems nothing is perfect after all!