A rough start to our last leg of Australia

We hopped on board a Qantas flight from Alice Springs to Sydney. We heard that there were thunderstorms and winds, but the flight was going anyway. Everything was fine on the flight until we approached for a landing. We looked out of the window, saw the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge and then the plane immediately started climbing again. Then, there was a lot of turbulence and people hollering and carrying on--it was really OK, we didn't think we were in any danger, except of losing our in-flight meal. The plane circled around again, lots more shaking and people using their sick bags. It was really lousy. Fifteen long long minutes later we landed very hard and fast. Whew. It was terrible.

We made our way out of the airport, to our YHA Hostel in the central city, settled in and found some dinner in Chinatown. Our hostel room wasn't very restful, it was about 50 feet from the railway (still being used) and our bunk room was a refurbished train carriage. Seemed nice in the photo, but a bad idea in retrospect. Between the snoring bunk mate and the trains running till 11 and then again at 5:30 AM, we got little sleep after our stressful flight.

The next AM we changed rooms, and went sightseeing in Sydney. What a great city, so easy to get around in and very pretty. We saw the usual sights, Opera House, Harbour Bridge and toured the Botanical Gardens. We walked around the shopping areas, QVB, Queen Victoria Building, which was three stories of shopping in mall stores in a cool old 19th Century building.

The next day we headed out by train to the Blue Mountains. A two hour train ride brought us to the country for three nights of peace and quiet and a lovely YHA, full of charecter and clean! The Blue Mountains are a World Heritage Site, a very large stretch of beautiful country. The National Park portion of the Mountains is actually larger than Yosemite. We stayed in Katoomba, a quaint small town which is right next to the Park and great for hiking around. We saw some great rock formations called the Three Sisters and a large waterfall, Wentworth Falls.

We headed next to Collaroy Beach, which is north of Sydney and a nice ferry ride to Manly Beach. We stayed one night and headed out the next day back to the ferry in Manly where we watched some surfers from the beach. Our last day in Sydney, we continued our touristing and visited the Sydney Fish Market and the Sydney Aquarium--all sorts of fish that day! Some battered and fried and some just swimming around. Nemo too! and a very social seal that came right out of the water to pose for photos. We also walked 1/3 of the Harbour Bridge, but no climbing for us.

Now, we are in Christchurch, New Zealand and have been busy buying camping gear for our trip around the South Island.

PS: No photos this time, we'll try to add them when internet cafes cooperate!