January 9th / 10th / 11th

January 9th
Up at 5am to get to the airport for our flight to Sydney. The flight will take 3hrs with a time difference of 2hrs, so we will arrive in Sydney at 8.30am. Current temp was 23c. Our friends that are balloon pilots ( Paul and Maaika) picked us up and took us to breakfast.
In the afternoon we went to Palm Beach, but before we could relax we climbed up to the lighthouse.
Beautiful lighthouse on top of the mountain looking out over the beaches. Original settler was named Cunningham, which was my maiden name. ( He was a convict from Ireland ! )
On top of the mountain with our friends Paul and Maaike. We had a fantastic picnic on a rock jutting out of this mountain ( hill !!!)
After the climb down, we relaxed on Palm Beach. Weather was approx 30c, with a lovely cool breeze. What a way to spend our first day in Sydney.
Sun 10th,
Walked to city center, across the Harbour Bridge, which gave us great views of the Sydney Oprah house.

This is the entrance to the Opera house. It looks completely different from the front.
At the backside of the Opera House. People actually climb over the Harbour Bridge, it can get quite windy, but they're attached to a safety wire. Decided to not try it.
This is a beautiful tree that we saw on the way to dinner with Paul and Maaike and friends. Had to take a photo! St. Marys Cathedral is stunning! The stained glass windows , and the enormous size of the Cathedral is really something, unfortunately I could not take any photo's inside. But this is in the middle of the city of Sydney.

After dinner we walked around the harbour and got a night time view of the Opera House.
Mon 11th
Up at 4am to go ballooning. Paul flies Special Shaped balloons and has just signed a new contract with this balloon. Libra is the brand name here for tampons, and the lucky box refers a box that will be sold with a prize of $10,000!!! Ideally, he wants to fly this balloon with as much exposure as possible.
After ballooning we walked back to Sydney harbour and caught a ferry to Manly Beach. The ferry took 30 mins and we had great views of the harbour as we sailed out of it.
We walked the 10k loop around North Head, which was used as a Artillary school up until the 1980s. The actual barracks are now being used for the Australian's Biggest Loser program! We watched them filming the exercise program, but were not allowed to take any photos! The coastal walk was great, but quite crueling in the heat of the day.
This is Manly Beach, which actually has numerous beaches, all of them have golden sand and are quite empty of people. Numerous sail boats in the harbour, which were fun to watch on our trip back to Sydney Harbour. Should sleep well tonight after 7hrs of walking, just as well as we're ballooning tomorrow, which means rising at 4am!!