The Road to Chookyblues. Part One Sydney.

Chookyblue and I started blogging within a few months of each other, twelve years ago!! A lot has happened in that time, for both of us. Some good, some bad, some wonderful. We have crafted and blogged our way through many adventures. Reading each others blogs along the way.

Recently we finally got to meet in person. But I had some other stops to make first.

I told Tony that I wanted to visit Australia for my 50th birthday, and he agreed, I knew I was onto a winner when I suggested that we go in October instead of August (My actual birth month),and visit Janice and Mick while we were there, but more about that in another post.

First stop, Sydney.

We left home in New Zealand on a beautiful warm sunny Sunday afternoon and drove to Christchurch where we booked into a hotel, but only for half a night as we had to be up just after 3am in order to catch a very early flight to Sydney.

 The plane landed at about 7am local time on Monday, so lots of time to wander around. Tony hadn't been to Sydney for about 20 years and was a little disoriented, as he said, he used to start in the docks, not mid town! He soon found his bearings and we made our way to Darling harbour where we visited the Maritime Museum. Tony was excited to discover that we could visit both a warship and a submarine. They brought back many memories for him of his time in the New Zealand navy.

Inside the museum I was fascinated by some sculptures made entirely from rubbish pulled from the oceans.

There were many pieces suspended in the entrance foyer,

 And even attached to pillars and walls.

We spent quite a lot of time at the museum before heading back into town and looking at the shops. The only purchases made were a sun hat, as I had left mine at home and some head ache tablets. 

It was a long day so after a look at the shops we had an early tea and an early night.

On the Tuesday morning we visited the aquarium. That was my treat, I do love to visit the fishies.

We got there twenty minutes before the doors were due to open, in the hopes of missing out on the long queues. We were not the only ones who thought of that, but luckily didn't have to wait long. Tony took LOTS photos. I didn't, I was too busy watching the fish.

The Dugong was very friendly and hung out at this window for quite some time. As it turned out, we had arrived at this window just before feeding time.

 We also hit lucky and turned up just on feeding time for the eagle rays too.

 If no one was waiting, a staff member would bang on the structure near the surface and very soon a ray would appear and leave very shortly after with his jaws working away at whatever had been popped into his mouth.

 It was wonderful to watch, of all the fishies I think rays are my favourites.

 They look so graceful flying through the water. Such beautiful creatures. Not just eagle rays, but all rays, large small, what ever. Love them! 

 Of course there were dozens of species of  other fish and sharks too. There was also a sea turtle, but he didn't want to pose nicely for Tonys camera. It was fun to see him though.

Last of all, a trip to see the penguins. I think they may have been Tony's favourite judging by the number of photos he took!

We spent most of the morning looking at the fish and I made sure to go around the ray tank twice. 

After lunch in town, we headed to the station, to begin part two of our journey.

I'll blog that next time.