Lovely Sydney

We really loved Sydney. It’s very different from Melbourne and the other places we’ve visited here in Australia. It reminds us a lot of Baltimore (times 100!). There are beautiful harbors with shops, restaurants and museums surrounded by a very modern city of hustle and bustle. The people are so friendly (as they have been everywhere here in Australia).

We had a “free” day to do what we wished. We started the day out with the new “high maintenance” Joan as she had to get her nails refreshed at a local nail salon.

After that, we visited one of the highly recommended jewelry shops that had all types of Australian opals. They were extremely friendly and explained all the different types of opals and what locations they were from. They had in their vault the largest black opal in the world called “Aurora Australis. (180,00 carats) found in 1938. They had it mounted on something that made it rotate so you could see the various colors illuminate. It was gorgeous and valued at over a million dollars. It is a part of the owner’s private collection.

We walked through the middle of the city to the “shopping district” where the shops were endless. We had to buy a new piece of luggage so we could fit all the things we’ve collected over the past two weeks.  We made our way to Darling Harbor where there were countless restaurants overlooking a large harbor that had large vessels, Navy ships, party boats, and private yachts.

For dinner, we decided to go up on the “bucket” which was similar to Seattle’s “needle in the sky” that rotates and has spectacular views of the entire city. We arrived at the perfect time as the sun was still shining to see for miles over the harbor that was filled with sail boats. We stayed through sunset and watched the city lights come to life over the beautiful city. Life is Good!!

The next day was a travel day. We left beautiful Sydney and took a 3 hour flight over to Auckland, New Zealand. What a different country – both vegetation and temperature wise. We had a smaller group dinner at a wonderful Italian restaurant at the hotel.

Good bye, Australia! Hello, New Zealand!