Sydney

Kristi and I went to Sydney a couple of weekends ago. It was our first trip together outside of Victoria. Thank you, Dad & Joyce, for letting us use Worldmark - the condo worked out very well and we had a great time!


Since being in Australia we've learned that Melbourne has a funny relationship with Sydney. The two cities have enjoyed a complex rivalry through most of the history of Australia - going back and forth over which is the more significant city. They take it pretty seriously here. And so, when we told others we were going to Sydney for the weekend, we would often get responses like "I'm sorry" or "Why?". Even at the airport when we asked a fellow traveller if they come to Sydney often, his response was "Not by choice." It's quite odd.

Luckily, we were not deterred by the cynics. We thought Sydney was awesome. Sydney must have more waterfront property per capita than any other large city in the world. It seemed there was an endless supply of hidden tree-lined coves, many with picture-perfect white sand beaches.

An integral part of the Sydney transportation system is the ferries, which carry only people - no cars. They take you to all over the Sydney harbour, and it was one of our favorite ways to get around. We spent the first half of the first day seeing the opera house, harbour bridge, botanical gardens, etc, and we then spent the next three days out exploring the harbour. It was beautiful. You can see some of our pictures below, but they don't really capture all the beauty.




















Oh, and we found our first clothing-optional beach. We did not venture down to the beach itself, but we could see from the distance that some people were on the beach... and exercising the "option."



We spent one full day on Bondi beach, which was amazing. It reminded us of a nice beach in Hawaii. Australians claim it is the "most famous beach in the world," but we are not so sure. Have you even heard of it? In any case, the day we went it was 28 degrees (~82 degrees F) and it was perfect for relaxing after a couple days of walking around the harbour.







Here's a little video...we could have sat there forever and watched the waves roll in.


On Sunday, we went to Hillsong church, which has two "main" campuses and a dozen or more "extension" campuses. We went to one of the main campuses, but it was apparently not the main "main" campus because Brian Houston and Darlene Zschech weren't there. Still, it was pretty cool. We determined that Hillsong does Hillsong better than any other church. And then we lucked out because the church was celebrating 25 years and they had a big celebration down at Darling Harbour later that night. We went and got to see Darlene Zschech singing Shout to Lord, which was pretty cool.

So in summary, we had a great time in Sydney. It was nice to have a little vacation. I already want another one!


PS. Here's some more pictures from our trip that didn't fit in this blog.

Sydney