Sydney Aquarium

The Sydney Aquarium was awesome! Ben went over on the ferries with us but had to leave early for the start of his conference. It was a rainy day so this was the perfect place to go. We saw some really cool animals and the kids always love to see the fish, sharks and such. We even saw Nemo and his daddy (because as Calvin told MaeMae, Nemo's mommy got eaten by a shark) and we also saw Dori and her whole family. MaeMae even had her picture taken with a mermaid (statue). :)

A Dugong (or what we'd call a Manatee) eating lettuce. There were 2 at this aquarium and there are only 5 long-term captive dugongs in the world. We were quite lucky to have seen these 2 fellas, Pig and Wuru.

After the aquarium, the kids and I ate lunch in the cafe. We then caught the ferry from Darling Harbor to Circular Quay and from CQ caught the Manly Ferry to Manly Beach, where we are staying. It took about an hour to get back home, between the two ferries, and the kids were exhausted by the time we sat down on the 2nd ferry. However, they caught their 2nd wind as soon as we got back to the room so we journeyed back out to the playground on the beach, down from our hotel. It was colder today so we only stayed out a bit and meandered back to the hotel on the boardwalk.

Manly Beach is really nice with its beautiful scenery, of course, but it has wonderful pedways, beach volleyball nets, spring water fountains and plenty of benches to sit and take it all in. It's quite a busy place all throughout the day with runners, surfers, tourists and locals.

In the lobby of our hotel, there is a little playarea. The kids love to stop by on the way in and have a little play. Today one of the front desk gals gave each of the kids a stuffed elephant. How nice! We had just gotten a stuffed shark and mermaid at the aquarium so they felt very lucky to have received yet another plush toy to take home.

*For dinner our first night, we had Mexican (which there is none in NZ) and Ben enjoyed a nice crocodile burrito and tonight we ate at a pizza place where we had kangaroo pizza. Hey, when in Rome!