New Zealand Cruise . Day 14 . Sydney

Our last two day of the cruise were spent back in Sydney.  Our last day on the ship, we decided to check out the Tauranga Zoo which is located on the opposite side of the harbor from Sydney.  We took the ferry from Sydney over to the zoo and then took a cable car to the top of the hill where the zoo is situated.  Talk about an awesome way to get to a zoo!  Getting there was half the fun.  On the cable car you went over the different animal exhibits so you got to see the elephants from above and so forth.  Pretty awesome.

The zoo in and of itself without the cable cars was, in fact, amazing.  The exhibits were sweet.  They had every animal you could think of and all the Australian ones you have always wanted to see more of.  I finally saw a platypus and a tasmanian devil and saw an elephant playing soccer.  We saw a bird show (where someone proposed to his girlfriend by having the bird fly a ring to her), a seal show (always a hoot), and got stuck in a rainstorm for 20 minutes.  There were of course millions of kangaroos, koalas, and tons of fun animals.  The one thing I didn't like was the fact that we had to eat lunch there (Sydney has the most expensive food on the planet). We stayed until it closed and then headed back to the harbor.  Since we missed the Opera house (it closed at 4:30pm), we headed back to the ship for dinner.  One more night of free food!

The next day, we left the ship.  It was quite a process since we have enough luggage to colonize a small planet.  We got a lot of mixed information on what to do with our luggage for the day (our flight didn't leave until late).  We decided to pray upon the good nature of the people at Marriott and checked all our luggage with the bellman and then took off for the opera house.  Once again, a flavorful college student led us around the inside of a truly impressive building.  It's amazing places like that exist.  Makes me proud to be a person.  The kids really liked the tour (especially Andrew).  After that, we had lunch and then bid adios to Franz and Ann.  We decided to go on the red bus tour of Sydney so that we could get in all the last minute sites.  It really is a great way to see the city.  We headed out to the beach (seeing as it was still freezing in Tokyo, we had to get one last day in the sun).  Bondai beach was gorgeous and it was a little unfair that we knew we had to leave the warmth, the sun, and the sand, and head back to Japan.  The boys got wet playing in the water and girls rolled around in the grass.  It was the perfect way to spend our last afternoon in Australia.

After the beach, we headed back to the city. It started to downpour (so we were glad to be on the bus). We decided to have dinner at the pancake place we ate at our first day in town. A fitting end to a glutinous voyage down under. Soon, we were in the taxi and at the airport. I have to admit that the airport was a little unfair. It was like Australia was rubbing it in as you left. Yeah, Australia is great, but our airport is even better. Sydney's International terminal is the most awesome I have ever seen. What a place. I waited my whole life to go to Australia and New Zealand, and it didn't disappoint. I have been just about everywhere on the earth, and I can say that there are not many places more exciting and beautiful anywhere on the planet. Hope it's not another 35 years before I get to go back.

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