The End of Sydney and on to Cairns!

Tuesday was day four in Sydney. We took all morning on the trains and buses but we finally made it to the Sydney Temple. The workers there were so nice and determined to find a way for us to make it into the temple even though they were short on workers. After that we spent the afternoon at the beach where we took no pictures because, well, we were at the beach!

We started at Bronte Beach and did the Walk up to Bondi Beach. We tried out the water at Bronte and it was freezing so I stayed on the beach for the most part. But Neil ventured in and completely forgot that his wallet was in his pocket. Yay for plastic money in Australia! The walk along the coast was gorgeous and Neil gave me several heart attacks as he ventured out to the edge of the cliffs. Bondi Beach was lovely but very crowded. We ended the day with gelato from Gelato Messina. So yummy.

Wednesday was our last day in Sydney. We breakfasted at Pancakes-on-the-Rocks at Darling Harbour and then walked through town. 

We found this amazing playground in Tumbalong Park. I think this was the only time that Neil wished the kids could have been with us so that he could play without everyone looking at him weird. Here Neil is trying out the Archimedes Screw.

It had amazing water features, a huge zipline, ropes course, crazy swings... This park would never show up in the US because it's just too much fun (ie dangerous). You should look at the awesome pictures here and here.

Thursday was spent flying to Cairns. We rented a car for this part of the trip and we were happy to find that driving around Cairns was easier than we expected. And after the teeny little hotel room we had in Sydney, our poolside studio room felt very luxurious. We stocked up on groceries that first night and cooked a lot of our meals that last week.
On Friday we headed to Kuranda. We walked through the rain forest, saw the Barron River, and shopped at the markets. It was so lovely to be surrounded by so much green when we're used to desert brown.

And look! They actually have water in their rivers! Our river has dirt, brush, and cactus growing in it.

The markets were pretty typical of a tourist town but Neil found some lovely leather Akubra hats that were on clearance so he and Madoc both got one. And we met a really nice lady who we talked with in her shop while it rained outside. We were comparing water - what she got living in the rain forest as opposed to us living in the desert. Made me want to move to Australia just so I could drink rain water from a cistern!