Hello Sydney Australia - Let's go downtown - September 29 - October 2

We slept quite well in our new AirBnB.  After breakfast and a rough plan we hit the road.  We needed to buy cell phone sims and a gps for our future Jucy rental.  I had an idea of a fee locations to hit.  We are very fortunate that our AirBnB is a 10 minute walk to a train station.  A very helpful staff member (actually a cleaner guy) saw we were struggling and gave us tonnes of pointers of how to get around and what to consider seeing.  Holy moly he was nice.  I hope to be able to thank him with a gift today.  As this is a huge city, they have a huge train system and it takes a bit getting used to.  Once downtown we found out stores, got our stuff and made our way to the Aquarium.  Holy crap the crowds.  No way we are standing in line for hours to stand in line for more hours inside.  We decided to walk around find a reasonable lunch (challenging) and see where the wind blows us.  It was a tonne of walking (which I need) and very picturesque. The weather was perfect.

It's best to get a travel card called an Opel.  You tap on and off, super convenient

Nice stations here wow,

Noticed a nice design outside the Town Hall station

The architecture here is pretty impressive

This one two.  Wow

We got lucky as this was the location of JB Hi Fi a cool media and electronic store

It took a while to find something not $35 for lunch.

Cool sculptures

The Barbour had a crazy number of boats.  This had to be the coolest 

The past of town is in the midst of a reno.  These were cut (from somewhere) and inserted.

Kinda cool, hope where they came from is not too damaged.

On the edge of the reconstruction as you see

The bridge, it's big

Someone snuck up on me

An again, that's the Opera house

Cruise ship.  Yay lot's of people buying fancy stuff

I had enough of the crowds.  Needed some nature

Okay back in business.  The opera house from like 100 different angles

This dock is cool.  It floats and is held in place with big rubber stopper

That's Michelle looking up

That's the sea reflecting on the glass

Oh at night they play a nice media presentation outside.

It was really nice

Off to bed, we are baked

Last day in New Zealand

Bummer that we had to go.  Our flight was not until 3:30 or so.  We had time to pack, store our stuff and do a few things.  There was a really cool Kiwi Birdllife Park.  This place was really special.  It's run by a local family who originally recovered the location from being a dump.  It's taken years to restore it to a park and is now an important location as a sanctuary dedicated to reptiles & birds, especially kiwis, with a conservation show & audio tour.  https://www.kiwibird.co.nz/

Nice morning shot of a nearby church.  It's nice how not big it is

What a view

The Kiwi Birdlife Park

Sad stats about Kiwi's

The Kea bird.  These things are cute and smart

So smart they need toys and games to keep busy, crazy eh

Nice shot from within this park

A last walk from the Kiwi Bird park down to our Hostel

See yah Queenstown NZ  :-(

Hello Sydney AU.  Thats the Sydney Bridge I think

That's alot of boats.  I should have clued in here how busy it was about to become

Hello Sydney

Our AirBnB is near the airport and away from the $$ park of the city.

They had 4 freezers full of ice cream, ok

We like strong cheese with a bite

Don't you love marketing?

Milford Sound - OMG

Okay technically it's a Fjord and should be called Milford Fjord.  We took a bus to the sound and then a 1.5 hour boat cruise.  The bus was about 5 hours each way, ouch.  We left at 7:00 AM and returned about 5:30 PM

The driver was great, young, cool, a pretty fast driver (it was a bus) and well versed on the history of this amazing part of NZ.  Highly recommend getting to it somehow.  https://www.milford-sound.co.nz/

After a really beautiful drive, our first hint of what was coming

We soon pulled over to walk for 5 and were suggested to dump our water and fill up with fresh glacier water from this river

It was really nice 

Kiwi Tours in the back

About to drive into a single lane 1.2 KM tunnel, cool

Dark and scary

The other side

Looking back

Off the bus and walking to our boat

Our boat

Leaving this cool harbour

Someone is beaming

We were heading into the cool wind here.  It was kinda chilly

These peaks are 1-2 KM's high yo

This area gets up to 11 meters of rain per year.  That's lots.  These are common

Here is another waterfall

Up closer, so nice

On the way back we stopped at Mirror Lake

Normally the reflections are pretty epic.  Still totally awesome if there are ripples

Then a few minutes later we stopped at this place called Eglinton Valley

So awesome

Later