Sydney

Confusingly, we were to fly out of Sydney to get to Singapore, so we had to head all the way from Cairns (far north Queensland, Australia for the cheap seats) to Sydney (South...). Thankfully my wonderful Auntie and her partner put us up for a few days for our whirlwind tour of Sydney.



So this is me with Prue (your left) and Auntie Jan (right). The shock of the temperature difference when we got to Sydney was bad - we both quickly caught colds. Cairns had been 25-30c, and Sydney was in the 5-12C range... Cold, even for a Wellingtonian!



Here is Princess looking fabulous. Showing some bling off maybe?



Princess spent lots of time trying to figure how to smuggle one of the pets on as hand luggage - THEY ARE SOO CUTE! Both doggies have their grease-for-pats technique well practiced and are hard to ignore. Tiger the cat has only 3 legs, so the sympathy card would be easy, but cats are too aloof for that. Tiger is awesome, and if you scratch him just right behind his ear, his missing leg stump goes mad like hes scratching his own head and he thinks hes doing it himself. Very funny for immature people like me..



How could you say no to him? Especially when he gets his puppy-dog eyes out, and taps you on the leg with is paw softly in a "please pat me..." kind of way



We actually slacked a bit in Sydney and slept to try and recover from our respective colds. We did go out a little tho, and so here is the obligatory Opera house picture...



... and the "is he 28 years old or 12 now?" The shopping is great here, according to Princess. Unfortunately, we have little in the way of discretionary cash so it was more looking and less buying - I promised that in Asia (where stuff is cheap) she can buy up clothes.



When I went to Sydney (when I was 5 or so) Auntie Jan took me here to Luna park, so I wanted to go back. Its right next to the harbor bridge, and very visible. Unfortunately, in quality, its something like that scary traveling winter show that you see in Taupo every year. You know; the ones where half the thrill is hoping that the dodgy guy who assembled it wasn't too drunk and forgot any bolts etc....

Was good for nostalgia value, but crap for real fun. Jan and Prue also took us for a driving tour around Sydney, including of the grounds for the Australia games, the beach where home and away is filmed and lots of nice viewpoints around.

Was great to unwind a bit, fix a few things around their house (and break a few too sorry..) and prepare for our Asian excursion... Thanks Aunties!