The Goodacre's: Sydney Australia June 14-18, 2009

We flew over to Sydney in the brand new A380 airplane, so that was a great start to the trip! Madi found the stairs up to the second floor of the plane that houses all the first and business class passengers…we promptly got kicked out, but fun to explore this monstrous plane!
We landed in Sydney and old friends of ours, that we met in 2005 on our Europe Contiki tour, met us at the airport. We stayed with them for the 4 days that we were in Sydney. It was so much fun to see them and get caught up with them. They are expecting a daughter in November and it was so nice to be able to introduce our Madi to them. Ryan and Nicole were so wonderful to us, making sure that we had everything we needed and more! They even took a day off work to show us around the city!
June and July is Australia’s winter, so it wasn’t cold Canadian standards, but it was really cold Singapore standards! We went from 40+ to about 15 degrees. But as long as we dressed for it, it was totally fine.
The first day we went down to the Sydney tower to get the 360 view of the city. Then we went down to the waterfront and did the Wildlife centre, we saw kangaroos and koalas, I even got to pet one! After that we went for Fish and Chips at James Squire Pub on the water. We raced home, just in time for Ryan to take us to a League Rugby game! So fun! We had a great time watching! Madi even enjoyed it!
The next day Ryan and Nicole took us down to the Sydney Harbor Bridge and the Sydney Opera House. Another one of those wow moments in our lives, standing there thinking, who knew we would ever be here to see it in real life.
The day was not the nicest weather wise, but still loads of fun cause we were all together. From the Opera House we took the Ferry over to Manly Beach. We walked the strip, had some lunch, looked at the beach, had a hot chocolate and headed back. We then went and saw Bondi Beach and then head home. We rested at home for awhile, had some wine and went out for dinner, we went for good Australian Beef!
The next day the weather was rainy and cold so we headed to a mall and looked around there while the weather cleared up, they we walked in Ryan and Nicole’s area, they live in Cornulla Beach, so we walked along the streets and up the beach back to their place. It was our last night there so we ordered pizza and just hung out.
The next morning Nicole drove us to the airport on the way to work, which was so great! I can’t even imagine getting around without their help. We said our good byes and flew off to Melbourne.
It was so great to see Sydney and it was made all the better because we got to see Ryan and Nicole. They were so generous and welcoming, it made our stay in Sydney so wonderful. We hope they can come visit so we can return the favour.
Off to Melbourne…