Sydney

We had a great time in Sydney. The harbor is great. We walked around a ton as there is so much to see and the weather was nice, except for the last day. We felt like we could have easily spent a full week there, if not more, and still had plenty to do. We walked around the royal botanical gardens, went to two shows at the Sydney Opera House (a magic show and the Mahler I symphony), went to the aquarium, walked around both Sydney and Darling Harbors, and visited the Blue Mountains.

The Blue Mountains are about a two hour train ride from Central Sydney. We took a cable car with a glass bottom over a 1200 foot or so gorge. Then, we took the steepest train ride in the world (or so they said) 53 degrees to the bottom. We then hiked around and saw some waterfalls and rainforests. This is where the Three Sisters were located. We then took a gondola straight up from the bottom to the top of the mountain. Once there, Ed had a buffet consisting of kangaroo stir fry, crocodile and seafood paella, lamb, and steak. He also ate lots of tiramisu and trife (a cake with raspberry in it) for dessert. Jeanette, who is not an adventerous eater in the least, opted for a chicken parmesan wrap.

On our last day in Sydney, it rained. We went to the Australia Museum, where they had a whole floor of rocks and gems and another floor dedicated to dinosaurs and extinct marsupials...Jason's dream. There was also some information on Aborogines, who were treated very badly through the 1970s...the government legally removed kids from the home and put them into foster care or institutions, where they were supposed to forget their culture. They also made them work and took all their money. Luckily, they've tried to reunite families recently and have started treating them with more respect...although New Zealand seemed to respect their Maori culture a lot more.