Rain Down Under!

We arrived in Sydney and into the worst weather they have had in some 30 odd years with floods and rain a plenty! Thank god for our hosts Ian, Jules and the kids (Charlie, Leo and Chloe). We were invited to stay at their gorgeous house with fantastic views over the harbour. After a confusing taxi ride we arrived to a very warm welcome from the kids (adults out to dinner) and after a few questions from Leo and a guided tour from all three, we were soon sat with some pasta and wine. Very nice too! Due to the weather being so terrible it was difficult to get out and do an awful lot to be honest, but when we could we got out and about; this is what we got up to........

We were very kindly taken out on Ian's boat. He really needed his arm twisting, not!


.....so that we could get the best views of the harbour!


The kids even put us to shame by jumping in! Although it must be said we did go out clubbing the night before, so we could be excused!


We managed to get along to the Zoo (It has won the tag of best zoo in the world in previous years and it has some proper rare sights, the rarest probably being the Snow Leopard). We walked around the botanical gardens, visited Bondi and Manly surf beaches, got up close to the Opera house, went to the Aquarium and generally had a smooch about the the city.

Without going into detail on each, here are a few snaps from our little outings.....

Snow Leopard.


Koala (of course!)


Needs no title me thinks


(wild?) Cockatoos in the botantical gardens


Surf dude riding huge wave at manly.


Huge sharks at the aquarium.


More aquarium action.


Bondi Beach.


We managed to get flights out of Australia, just! Due to school holidays we couldn't fly to a destination of our choice (i.e Bali and Borneo being the favourites), so we had to do it the long way around and get a flight to Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia (where we can get flights to our choice destination) in order to get out of Oz! We didn't expect that to be honest, but thought it would still be great to have a couple of days in the up and coming Malaysian capital!

Big thanks to the Martin family, thank you so much for your hospitality! We had a great time with you guys.

I also managed to hook up with an old work colleague for a few beers by the pera house which was great! (Cheers Geraldine!)