Australia and New Zealand

Our first stop was Sydney, what a wonderful place. Below you see the Harbor Bridge, can you see the 2 flags at the top, well yes Al and I climbed it and we were right at the top with the flags, that picture needs to be scanned and I haven't had time to do that yet! The climb was good, I was scared a few times, but once we made it up the ladders then I was set! The view from the top was great and we couldn't have asked for a more beautiful day.Here we are across the bay from the Opera House

We took the ferry across the bay to Manly Beach. That was my favorite beach from my last visit. We got to see some surfers and we had our lunch on the beach. There was a slight problem, while we were eating the sea gulls were all around and one decided to take food right out of Al's hand, that ruined the rest of his sandwich and he was a little angry at them for the rest of the day:)

On the ferry ride back to Circular Quay, we had some wonderful views of the city. Below the best view, the Harbor Bridge and the Opera House.

We took a tour to the Blue Mountains and Featherdale Wildlife Park.
We started the day at The Three Sisters - an Aboriginal God turned three sisters that were princesses into stone to save them from an attack, but the Aboriginal God did not survive the attack and therefore the sisters were stone forever.

After we saw the Three Sisters, we went to another location and we took a Bush walk where we saw Katoonga Falls, below. The walk was great, we saw some birds and had a lot of wonderful views of the Bush.

Then it was off the Featherdale Wildlife Park - my favorite. There we got to feed kangaroos and wallaby's and also pet the Koalas:)

CAIRNS - The Great Barrier Reef
One of the days we took a walk through a rainforest and saw some bamboo.

The Great Barrier Reef. We took a boat ride about 45 min out of Cairns and stopped at a Reef and got to snorkel, the water was warmer than standing on the boat! As you can see the Reef was really pretty, you can see the waves breaking into the reef!

The underwater camera isn't developed yet, but I can't wait to see those. There was this one fish that was right at Al's face and his mask it was so cute:) We saw a lot of great fish and had a wonderful time. After being at that Reef for a while we went to another one, there we were a bit shallower so you could see more of the coral and more fish, so great! After a few times in the water we were ready to dry out, so we sat on the boat and got some sun, it was great.

Here is a picture of The Great Barrier Reef from the plane as we are on our way to Melbourne.

Our last night in Cairns, on our balcony of our hotel room

MELBOURNE
In Melbourne we rented a car and in Australia, Drive on Left, those signs were all over and it was great. Al did most of the driving, I was a little nervous. We took off for our drive along The Great Ocean Road.

Along the drive we would see these signs, not a deer sign, a Kangaroo sign:) We were able to see wild kangaroos on a golf course along the way, just hanging out while the golfers played their game.

Here is the Birthday Boy, at The Great Ocean Road Sign. We were able to celebrate Al's 30th Birthday in Melbourne.

Here we are at one of the many lookouts, the water and views were so beautiful.

We were also able to see Koalas in the wild along the way. We did see 6 of them and it was great. Although they sleep for 18-20 hours a day we were able to see most of the moving around. This was the most active.

The Twelve Apostles, one of the most visited sites on the Great Ocean Road. You can't see all 12, since some of them are hidden but here are a few.

In Melbourne there is the Rod Laver Arena where they play the Australian Open and so we went to check that out.

NEW ZEALAND
We were able to go to the top of the Sky Tower, on our last day there, but here is a picture of it at night. it is the Tallest Building in the Southern Hemisphere, very neat. We did eat at the revolving restaurant and at the observation deck they had glass where you would stand so you could all the way down to the street, pretty crazy.

We spent the day going to Waikatere Ranges and the Black Sand Beaches. Here we are on the first beach we found, the sand was so soft, it was a bit chilly, but it was great.

After we saw the Beaches, then we went for a "Tramp" or hike in the Rainforest. Below you can see the Stump of a tree that has been there from a long time ago. This rainforest is regrowth, so it is newer.

At the end of our tramp we found the waterfall, it was so great. If it was warmer we would have been able to swim in the pool at the bottom but since it was a bit chilly we didn't.

We had a great time on our trip, we have a ton more pictures, but I wanted to just get a few up for now.