All good things must come to an end...

I find myself with mixed emotions with less than 8 days left in Australia. It has been an amazing experience, but I'm ready to start the next segment of my trip. And what better way to spend the last few days in Australia, but with a buddy from Canada. Darryl...thanks for being the only one to come to see me in Australia. For those of you who promised to come and didn't...phewy on you...but there's many more countries to come...don't be shy!!




It was great to be back in Sydney as you already know I fell in love with the place the first time around. The hardest part of the week was getting used to a faster pace of travel. Darryl only had a couple of weeks to see "everything"...whereas my travels to date had been at a much more leisurely pace. Darryl had done much more research than I had on Sydney and found some great ways to make the most of our time. One of my highlights of the week was definitely being in a hotel room. Only sharing the bathroom with one other person was bliss.

The first three pictures are of Bondi Beach and the path between Bondi Beach and Coogee Beach. The walk was longer than we expected, but even though we are both out of shape...we managed to finish it and find a bar not long after to quench our thirst. That bar was neither the first nor the last we would find ourselves in during the week. I blame Darryl for that!

I took a picture of the oldest bar in Sydney since it felt like the only bar I didn't set foot in. Maybe I should go back!

During Darryl's research, he found the "Sydney Pass" which I recommend everyone look into if you're coming to Sydney. This pass gave us free admission into about 60 different venues within the city. We paid for a two day pass and tried to cram as much as possible into it.

We found ourselves in the Opera House, on a buffet lunch cruise around the bays, at the zoo, at the aquarium, up the Sydney tower, the wildlife pavilion and the maritime museum (toured a destroyer and submarine). We would have had time for a jet boat cruise of the harbour as well, but sitting on the patio overlooking Darling Harbour having a few local beers won out.

As I mentioned the East Coast of Australia has had a lot of rain, but we managed to see quite a few sights anyway. We did get pretty drenched at the zoo, but it didn't stop us from "stalking" a pretty blond Aussie girl around the zoo. She didn't seem to mind and even chatted us up along the way. Honestly, we didn't see much of the zoo.

I was also fortunate enough to hang with Carla and Michelle for a few days in Sydney before I left. Sorry for the hangover Michelle! Darryl and I found a place that sold tasty $10 steaks and ate there most nights so even now I'm a little sick of steak. I guess the $3 happy hour pints didn't hurt either. I think Canada needs to bring back happy hour. Who's in agreement with me?

I'm sure most of you are getting pretty sick of the scenery shots, but I'm still a sucker for cool clouds so sorry about your luck. I'll give you a little foreshadowing and say that many more "people" shots may be coming your way. A few people I've been travelling with lately are pretty camera happy. I won't mention any names Susan, John and Beth!!

I put this fountain shot in primarily because it took me almost seven days to get a shot of it. I never seemed to have my camera with me or the homeless people were often taking a bath in it. It's found in the heart of King's Cross in Sydney. Check it out sometime!

Does anyone have any questions for me about my travels that I haven't already answered? And no Yabo...this doesn't include you.

I bid Australia adieu. I promise to be back!!

I hope I've enticed some of you readers into getting your butts down here. It's been everything I had hoped for and more.

Hello New Zealand...what do you have to offer besides sheep?