Rog and his kangaroo buddy

Last view of NZ

Update #20 Sydney Snippets

-Woke up to the laughing sound of a kookaburra!! Gotta look for a gum tree now!!

-Spotted this poem & dedicate it to Rog's Mom:

I think that I shall never spy

A poem as lovely as a pie.

-Saw a Woolworth with a cafe so had to eat there for nostalgia sake...Rog's mom's egg run lunch stop. It was serving Chinese food and seemed to be for seniors only. We were the young ones! 

-10:30 a.m. Monday 2/8: we heard rowdy cheers & saw a huge crowd pouring out of a bar...walked in to see the Super Bowl on the big screen! A day late here but just as exciting!

Update #19 Tom & Vanessa

A traveler we met once told me never say "Goodbye" but instead "Hope to see you later!" And she was right. Here in Sydney we met up with Tom who we met in India & Vanessa in the Philippines. Tom is an Aussie & works for McD here...yup we told him we want more good stuff offered at McD in USA. Over BBQ lunch at his apt we reminisced about our time in India & caught up a bit. Later we went to the beach with him & his daughter, Charlie where they & 800 other nippers (kids) were learning to swim & be safe in the ocean. Some of Tom's friends& Charlie's mom & stepbrother joined us after class and we had a lazy couple hours relaxing & conversing about life, US & Aus politics & travels. We felt like family. Tom has a good life here. Vanessa, a Filipino, has been just 4 months and is still in culture shock. Her Aussie boyfriend encouraged her to come here to get a job. She misses home but likes her job & the $$. She was so excited to see us and filled us in on all the All Hands/Leyte news. 

> We have noticed that while traveling in NZ & Aus, we see so many tourist and you just don't make the connections like when we traveled where tourist are few and far between. And locals, though very helpful & friendly, don't end up giving us their email addresses!! Even our Airbnb hosts are great for sharing their homes & having interesting conversations...but we are one of many and we are quickly gone & replaced. On the buses, trains & planes, we often can't start up a conversation like we have done in so many of the 2nd & 3rd world countries we've traveled...because the person next to us is on his phone or has earplugs in. We miss making those connections...like Tom & Vanessa.

Update #18 Sydney Sites

So much to see and do here...and we can jump on ferries to get from site to site!! We've enjoyed Darling Wharf with its Chinese celebrations and its Month of Love events...and since both love the color red, the Opera House & the Harbor Bridge glowed red. Luna Park's carnival was a fun setting. The Botanical Gardens had thousands of flowers & trees in bloom...many of the flowers we have at home but they have many more types of trees. At Watson Bay we walked the Gap Trail which led us out to the cliffs that protect Sydney. The ferocious Tasman Sea beat against the high vertical cliffs leaving only a small gap for boats to enter the Sydney harbor. One day we hopped on the train & took it as far SW as we could. We passed miles of suburbs crowded with small homes, tall apt buildings, large factories & commercial buildings until finally, quite near the end of the line, we came to open land & a few grazing cattle. Walking the many piers was always entertaining as musicians & performers try to earn a few coins. We especially enjoyed listening to the didgeridoo, an ancient instrument. This city is alive and well