Sydney in Seconds

Wednesday November 18th,
The days have passed by very quickly, here in Sydney. It might be all the activities we have packed in. Yesterday, by Bridget’s request, we went on a double Decker bus tour of the city. It was a hop on and off thing. So we hopped off and went to the Australia Museum. They had a special display of Egyptian artifacts. The Grade 5 teacher in me was fascinated. I could have spent a couple of hours in there, but there is only so much you can make a 5 and 7 year old endure. They had some “text to world” connections as they just finished reading The Magic Tree House book, Mummies in the Morning. Jack and Annie was a great learning tool to understanding mummies, tombs and Gods.

Next stop was the Sydney Opera House. What an amazing structure. The roof is actually tiled, with beige tiles. Definitely not white as the pictures show!! We didn’t do the tour of it. The adults wanted to, but knew the kids would not be interested in anyway. We had our first views of the Sydney Harbour Bridge from here. Once again, the teacher took more than enough photos of this structure.
Our last tour of the day was out to Bondi Beach. Just strictly seeing it as it was the last bus out there that day. It is no wonder than Janne’s daughter calls this area home. We saw lots of people learning how to surf on the huge waves. The white beach area was breath taking.

The toughest part of our stay here is that we don’t have a kitchen. So every meal is take away. Did I mention that we are staying in Chinatown. It makes finding food for our little Canadians a bit difficult. They are not interested in the BBQ ducks hanging in the shop next door for some reason! There are many places to eat and we have pulled it off. You can’t have too many hot chips (aka French Fries) can you??

The weather fined up today and we did a cruise of the Sydney Harbour. Thanks for the tip, Lep. What an amazing trip. Learning the history of Sydney and seeing the different architecture of homes located along the water. The kids really liked the morning tea served on the boat. So of course the trip was a success. They had the best chocolate muffins and orange juice.

Next was the Sydney Observatory. We learned about the solar system and black holes. We got to look through a huge telescope in a dome that opened up. We saw 2 stars in the middle of the day!! We promised the kids if they could manage a big walk from the quay area to our next stop it would be worth it. They pony-ed up and were very excited to get on the MONORAIL. Yes Quinn, a train that runs on ONE rail!! Bridget had been seeing it for 2 days now and couldn’t wait to get on it for Quinn. It is just a short loop around the CBD, but really neat to be travelling above the busy streets and right near the buildings.

Finishing up Australian tour tomorrow with a day at the beach. We are heading over to Manly on the ferry for the day. We have to soak up our last bits of heat, before we head back to the slightly cooler New Zealand.

Carolyn