All Things Aussie!

We made it to Sydney! Yesterday we woke up at 4:45am and flew from Christchurch to Auckland, had a 5 hour layover and then flew to Sydney. We took the train into the city center and found our hostel where the work program we are meeting has booked us for 2 nights. We got settled and then Sarah's parent's friends David and Lynette, who live in Sydney, came and picked us up and took us to their apartment for dinner. We went to bed fairly early due to our long day of traveling and then David and Lynette came and picked us up this morning at 9:30 and took us on a 5 hour driving tour of the city. It was SO nice - a personalized, chauffeured tour of the city! 

We drove to see the Opera House (that's when it hit me that we are really in Sydney!), saw Luna Park from across the harbor, gazed at people doing the bridge climb on Sydney Harbour Bridge, had a coffee (hot chocolate for me), stopped by Bondi Beach and a few other beaches close by, saw Nicole Kidman's apartment that is for sale for $20 million and saw jellyfish floating in the harbour across from her place (how Australian! haha), had lunch, then they dropped us off at our work program's office so we can use the free internet! The weather is PERFECT today, its warm and sunny. So far I love Sydney, its a big city but its clean and beautiful! Old buildings mixed with new, parks all around (including Hyde Park - but what big city doesn't have a Hyde Park?!), beautiful beaches a short distance from downtown, cute boutiques and TONS of cafes/restaurant. We've had quite a nice welcome and I can't wait to get to know Sydney more! 

Tomorrow we have an orientation at 10am and will commence our job/house search. It was nice to see all the parts of the city so we can have an idea of where we would like to live and where we shouldn't live. Our plan for now is to work in Sydney for a month, until my family comes May 16th. Then we will travel with them around Sydney, to Tasmania and up to Melbourne where they will leave on March 28th. After that Sarah and I will head north and meet Jessica for some beach time, then go even more north and meet Jamie for beaches, animals, parks, and hopefully India! After all our guests have come and gone we will probably go back to our favorite city and work until its time to come home, and do some traveling to Indonesia, Malaysia, etc while we can. But from now till May 16th its time to work work work so I can do all the aforementioned traveling!  

It was sad to leave New Zealand but I'm excited to see what Australia has to offer! So far so good!