Day 4 - Featherdale Zoo and North Sydney Beach

We started out today at Featherdale Wildlife Park. I will have to admit that when we were in the States and Julia suggested this over Taronga Zoo I was a little worried. Taronga is in EVERY book about Sydney in the Top 10 places to see. Julia suggested Featherdale b/c it is only Aussie animals as opposed to Taronga which is like a normal zoo – zebras, giraffes, elephants, etc. Also, she said Taronga Zoo is great if you have a whole day, but when time is limited Featherdale is great! HERE IS MY POINT (yes I have one) if you are going to Sydney and are on a time schedule Featherdale was amazing! The animals weren’t really in cages so you could walk right up to them (except for the dangerous ones like tazmanian devils, wombats, and crocs – of course). We got to feed kangaroos, pet koalas, and see the most beautiful birds. The park attendants were very friendly and one even climbed into a cage for us to get a blue tongued lizard so we could see it up close (that picture is for you Ellen!)

In the afternoon, we met up with the rest of the family (Julia took Mitchell out of school and Peter knocked off early) to drive down to the Northern Beaches from Mona Vale to Palm Beach. I can’t even name all the beaches and lookouts we went too – Peter and Julia really went out of their way to show us these amazing views. I know we wouldn’t have been able to see all this without their hospitality – and it was such a beautiful drive. The one cool think that Australia does that I think other places should do are the pools –they have built “pools” on the side of the beach that fill up with ocean water during high tide (there is a drain as well so the water is always being recycled). This is cool b/c you can swim “in the ocean” and not have to worry about being taken out to sea – the water is pretty rough and they told us there are a lot of rip tides. You also don’t have to worry about the sharks! After some time at Palm Beach, we went back to Mona Vale and got fish n chips at their favorite place and took it to a park near Pat’s place (Peter’s mum). We had a relaxing dinner then the boys played some ball and we had a last walk on the beach. What a fantastic day!

Day 3 - First Day in Sydney

So we got into Sydney at around 8 am on Sunday the 17th. This flight (in coach) wasn’t that bad either (but Mom if you ever come I say spring for First Class!) I waited for the luggage, while Nathan went to exchange the currency. I was waiting on the side of the line to go through “quarantine” when this nice official looking woman came up to me and asked if she could help me – I was the only person not jocking for a position in the line (it was REALLY long – about an hour I would say – you would think I would have tried to save us a place but I couldn’t enter the line b/c they wanted your passport and declaration slips – which of course Nathan had in his possession). So I pointed to Nathan standing at the Currency window and explained the situation. She then started to ask me questions (same as on the declaration slips) –“Do you have any food to declare?” Which I had to say yes b/c the family we are staying with requested Bisquick and York Peppermint Patties. The official looking woman asked if the “patties” had meat in them (so obviously they don’t have them over here in AustraliaJ) I explained what they were so she kept asking questions to which the rest of my answers were no. She said “Fine then –is that your husband in the orange jacket? If so I will stamp your papers and you can get in this other line instead” I said thanks and thought I was going to be able to get in a shorted line – sweet! Nathan was confused as he thought this lady was taking him to jail or something but I said follow me – and much to my excitement – it wasn’t another line at all - I had gotten us a PASS completely!!!! GO MANDY! So LONG story short we by passed the 1 hour long line and were able to meet our friends even sooner. Carolyn and her daughter Julia and her 7 year old son Mitchell were waiting to take us on our first exploration. From the airport, we toured around Sydney by car to Bondi Beach (South of Sydney). (Yes that is correct – we did not go home to shower after our 36 hours of traveling b/c they thought we would get acclimated to the time change better (which was probably better) so I am VERY Greasy in the pictures – GOOD TIMES! Nathan said you could fry up some food in my hair!) So ANYWAY - From Bondi Beach, we went to Mrs McQuarie’s Chair to capture some wonderful views of Fort Denistone, Sydney Opera House, Downtown Sydney and the Harbour Bridge. We then toured lots of the neighborhoods where Carolyn was able to relate them to Atlanta Suburbs – too funny! (Carolyn lived in Atlanta for about 16 months) From here we went to Kings “Bloody” Crossing and saw the Elmane Fountain. From there we went to a local cantina to get bloody famous “Meat Pies”. These are local favorites. After a couple of hours of rest and relaxation in the afternoon (we are staying with Carolyn at her home in Castle Hill), we strolled out to dinner at a local Vietnamese restaurant to meet the rest of the gang. Here we meet Julia’s husband, Peter, and her 4 year old son, Anthony. Now we are going to sleep – long day!

BONDI BEACH

This is a view of Sydney Harbor from High on the mountain side.

Elmane Fountain at Kings “Bloody” Crossing in Downtown Sydney

Sydney Marina - I apologize that I captured this picture of this woman in the photo

Sydney Opera House with Harbour Bridge in the background

Mrs. MacQuarie's Chair

New South Wales Art Gallery - Nathan is not much for art history...so we did not go in to this.

We got to drive across the extremely cool Harbour Bridge

Day 2 - Layover in Seoul Korea

We have landed in Seoul/Incheon airport. It is beautiful and huge. Lots of designer everything! We got through “transfer” and the first places we saw were Burberry & Cartier. Damn this is going to be an expensive trip.


All of the Koreans are carrying designer stuff (head to toe). The 15 hour flight (in coach because Nathan is a cheap bastard and used frequent flyer points) really wasn’t that bad.

Mandy loved the outfits of the Korean flight attendants. Korean Air surely puts Delta to shame. We will be visiting Seoul for an evening on our way back to the states. We will fill you in on that later. We are now getting on a 10 hour flight to Sydney.

Day 1 - We are off to Australia

We are sitting in the RDU airport waiting to get on our plane to Australia. Well actually to Atlanta then to Seoul, Korea then to Sydney, but hey details right?! This is actually a lot more direct then we thought so we are excited! During check in, we quickly realized that we have packed over 200 pounds of luggage. Delta was not very happy, but Nathan made it happen so that we were able to bring everything (delta medallion status – yippee!). Please note that we are going to be gone 3 weeks. Nathan’s stuff totaled 30 pounds and Mandy’s was 170. IMAGINE THAT!!! (Note – so I, Mandy, wrote most of this until the very end Nathan had to put his two cents in – I can really only be blamed for about 50 okay 75 pounds okay 79 (I had to bring a 4 lb bag of Big Train Chai Tea – of which I am addicted and can not live without. How does one acquire a 4 lb bag of Chai tea you may ask – well if you visit the same coffee house every day for 5 years they pull a few strings for you! Thanks Java Jive!)