After arriving we wasted no time, visiting the aquarium and for some reason every time we walked by (it was next door to our hotel) we had to sing "the age of Aquarius". So many fish, snakes, lizards, and other deadly sea creatures! My personal favorites were the seahorses and the penguins!
Day two we were off on a city tour. We grab a 24 hour ticket on the hop on hop off double decker bus which gave us fun Sydney facts. We rode it under the Sydney Harbour Bridge and all the way to the Opera House! We took an hour tour of the Opera House and although I was quite tired after having been outside in the heat all day it was a very interesting story about the architect. The Opera House was amazing! After we headed to the Ice Bar, where we put on parkas, watched a safety video, and enjoyed drinks in a -15 Celsius bar. It was cool, all the decorations were ice sculptures, it was so cold you were only allowed to stay for 30 minutes.
Day three we headed on a bus tour to the Blue Mountains and the Jenolan Caves. After an hour and a half on a bus (not my specialty) we hit our first stop, the Blue Mountains. It is a huge mountain formation with a rainforest embedded in it. They had three different ways that you can see the rainforest we took the steepest railway in the world down to the bottom of the rainforest (it only took 60 seconds and I wanted it to go faster). When we went to the bottom there were a lot of walks we could go on. It was a rainy day so the rainforest took on a very eerie scary movie look! After the Blue Mountains we got to Jenolan Caves where we took a guided tour through the Lucas Cave, there were many caves to tour. As we waited for our tour they were setting up to have an opera inside a huge rock formation. One gentleman who was testing out the piano started playing and everyone was enjoying the music so much he played for quite some time! The Lucas Cave was so cool, so many stalagmites and stalactites. They had them lit so it helped to emphasize the different formations.
Day Four we went to the Museum of Contemporary Art because there was a great exhibition called "Take Your Time" by Olafur Eliasson, Google it, it was so much more amazing in real life though. We also visited the Wildlife Habitat so this girl could see the Koala she has been dyeing to see since deciding to go to Sydney. They had kangaroos, wombats, koalas, and the most deadly snakes in the world (no diamondback rattle snakes, sorry dad). That night we went on a starlight dinner cruise that was amazing. A three course meal, a bottle of wine, beautiful views, and great company (Ben) made it a perfect evening.
Day Five we spent at the Maritime Museum (obviously Ben's choice, but I enjoyed it too) learning a little of Australia’s History and they even had some US info as well. We got to tour a submarine, a battle ship, and a replica of the ship Captain Cook sailed on when he discovered Australia.
Day six we took the ferry to Manly Beach and had some beach time. Enjoyed some great Thai food, some sand, sun, and sea! We were going to take a hike around the beach until I discovered that the place was crawling (literally) with ginormous spiders, and they seem to be breeding like rabbits because there were a lot of them! So obviously there was no hike! We ended the day with a little Asian massage, which I am still sore from! Ben had been eyeing the casino since we arrived so that night we visited there. After losing almost $200 and brought it all back making over $300 when we finally we walked out. That was certainly a great day to end our perfect holiday!
The flight home was quite nice and quick but when we got to the airport I was most worried about Ben's visa and immigration, what I should have been more concerned with was customs. We had our bags searched....twice....and it took us two hours to get out of the airport. The shuttle driver nearly left without us. We were quite glad when we got off the crowded shuttle! It was a great holiday and we can't wait for another!
Ben made us breakfast every morning!
In front of the Opera House!
Right before we hit the casino....it's like Ben already knew he would win!
Scary fish at the aquarium!
Ben and I in front of the Sydney Harbour Bridge.
At the ice bar in our parkas
My KoaLa!
Ben wanted to punch a kangaroo!
Saw lots of wild kangaroos on our way here!
In the Lucas Cave, there were only spiders on the outside of the cave!
The inside of a submarine...obviously!
In front of the HMAS Vampire
On are starlight dinner cruise passing the Sydney Opera House
At Manly Beach....surrounded by giant spiders!
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