Sydney Leadership Forum

After getting back from Fiji, I had a quick turn around, and Ryan and I headed to Australia.  We had been asked a few months ago to join in a leadership summit for Australia and New Zealand Campus Crusade staff.  We learned a lot!  I am always amazing at the great caliber of people that are on staff with Cru and I enjoyed getting to soak up some of the wisdom.  We learned some great skills in coaching others, managing finances well in our ministries, and how to send our students well into life beyond Uni.  Good stuff!

The summit was held outside of Sydney near the Blue Mountains at a camp, which had alpacas!  So that was entertaining during our morning tea times.

After the conference Ryan and I stayed in Sydney an extra 2 days through the weekend.  We spent Friday evening visiting an animal park, where we saw wallabies!

And a koala!

 And this crazy bird.

And most importantly, kangaroos!

Afterwards we went into town and visited the opera house with our new friends.

On Saturday we bought unlimited transport tickets, so we made the most of our time that day!  We had lunch after visiting Paddy's Market near Darling Harbour.

Then took the train out to Bondi Beach.

And this is a pretty sweet pool.

And then we took a ferry over to the Olympic Park.

And this sounds so wrong, but that night we had a kangaroo and emu pizza.  And a crocodile pizza.  It was delicious, but a bummer to be eating the animals we just saw!

 And ended our night back in Darling Harbour for fireworks!

We really do love Sydney, it's such a great city and so fun to get around.  If anyone ever wants to visit, just let us know, we would gladly join :)

Taupo

After conference, Ryan and I were wiped!  We had a pretty busy trip to the States, and conference required some very long hours...so, we were glad to take a few days to recover on our way home in Taupo.  Max dropped us off as he drove home from conference to Wellington, and we stayed with our friends, Brandon and Jen.

Taupo is right next to Lake Taupo, which is really beautiful.

We joke that somehow we always end up eating at Burger Fuel whenever we are in Taupo.  It's delicious.

On the next day Ryan and I rode bikes over to 'Spa Park', where you can sit in a hot spring!  Ryan has been dreaming about this for a few months now, so it was time to make it happen.  The water is so hot, it actually takes a while before you can get all the way in.

The hot spring is right along the edge of the Waikato River - which is freezing.  So you have to find a happy balance.

We had a nice, chilly bike ride back to Brandon and Jen's.

We happened to be in town at the same time as Jen's mom, so we joined, and celebrated her birthday!  Brandon and Jenn were so wonderful to let us stay with them for the weekend.  We had a great time with them, and learned that Brandon and I actually went to the same elementary school, just a few years apart - isn't that nuts!?

The next morning we woke up nice and early and drove up to the Waitomo glow worm caves.  I've been wanting to make it up there, since it's on all of the "to-do" New Zealand lists.  Anyway, it was really beautiful.  We weren't allowed to take any photos, but it was amazing to see the caves covered in little blue lights from the glow worms.

We rode in these little boats through the cave into the grotto with the glow worms.  I couldn't help but think how creative is our God that would think to create these pretty little worms to live in a cave - maybe never to be seen.

The next day we were intended to fly home bright and early in the morning...but the propeller on our plane wouldn't start!  Not good.  So, we got to stay another day!

The lake in the morning...

And the mountains in the distance.

The sunset that night was so beautiful.

We finally made our flight the next morning, and look at our plane!  It was so tiny.  It felt like a private little tour down the north island.  But we made it safe and sound to windy Wellington :)

**Sorry, I feel like Instagram has hijacked my blog posts, so I apologize if you follow me there :)

Manly Beach

My last post about Australia!  On the last morning we walked through the Botanic Gardens, where we saw bats - ewww, on our way to catch the ferry to Manly Beach.  We were told by a lot of people that we had to take a boat ride through the harbour, and also that we had to get to the beach.  So, this was the day!

We caught the ferry, and it was turning out to be a beautiful day.

We soaked up the sun for a bit at the beach, and it was nice a warm!  A nice change from New Zealand beaches :)

I think I made Ryan do this - get it - Manly Beach?  Sweet tan lines...

That evening we got back to Sydney and enjoyed a nice hot chocolate on the harbour.

Later that night we found a Mexican restaurant!  And by 'found' I mean we walked 30 minutes out of our way to hunt it down :) 

But it was sooooo good!  Chips, salsa, guac, and tacos.  Yum.

And, another night shot, I love cities, they are so beautiful.

Sunday in Sydney

The next morning we started our day by visiting Hillsong church out in one of Sydney's suburbs.  It was nice to be at church, and everyone was super friendly - and gave us free coffees!  And, an older man swore I was his grand daughter, apparently we look, talk, and act the same.  Anyway, it was quite the adventure with the public transport system to get them, but well worth it I think.

After we figured out the train to get back in town, we decided to walk through the CBD and get a better feel for the city.  I liked this little cafe, it reminded me of New York for some reason.

Lot's of shopping.  I love these old buildings that have been transformed into upscale shopping centers - not that we were doing any purchasing, but fun to browse...

I believe this is town hall, or some sort of significant building :)  Either way it was really stunning.

Check out this alleyway!  It was filled with a public art display - tons of bird cages!  They were neat, and a pleasant surprise in a random alley.

Just in case you wanted another view of the harbour :)  This time from the harbour bridge.

And the other side.  What a handsome man!

The bridge is really huge.  At first I kept thinking - what's all the fuss about?  It's just a bridge, isn't the opera house the main attraction in Sydney?  But, over the few days we were in town the bridge really grew on me.  It's really pretty actually, and I think I quite like it!  

A theme park right on the harbour, which we didn't really visit, but we thought the sign was sort of creepy and funny.

The sun set as we began our walk back across the bridge, so we were able to see the city skyline at night.  In case you wanted to see yet another view of the harbour :)

And the opera house all lit up.  What a beautiful city!

Once we reached the other side, we decided it was time for dinner.  So we stopped at the Old Australian Hotel and had kangaroo pizza!

And Ryan gave it his approval.  Kangaroos are cute and yummy!

Sydney

After our time in Melbourne I thought, "surely there's no way we will enjoy Sydney as much as we have enjoyed Melbourne"...  Well, I was wrong.  They are both fantastic cities!  Our first stop in Sydney (after ditching our bag at the hotel) was the opera house.

And she was just as stunning in person as I would have imagined.  You know growing up when you learn all about these famous places and it's almost surreal seeing them in real life.  I remember a game I had growing up where we learned about the Sydney Opera House (yes, I was a nerd), and I loved it.  And here I am seeing it in person.  Crazy!

That evening we took a (free) tour of the Rocks area, which is part of Old Sydney.  It's such a neat area!  It's where the first settlers landed and they've done a great job preserving the area and the history.  Many of the original buildings are still standing including shops, pubs, and hotels.  You can see our tour guide in the bright green shirt.

One of the oldest pubs in Sydney, where they also serve pizzas with unique meat (i.e. kangaroo, crocodile, etc...).  We plan to come back here sometime :)

More of old Sydney, and you can sort of see the Opera House peeking up in the background.

And our last stop was at the oldest pub in Sydney, where they still brew some of their own beers.  The Lord Nelson brewery if you are in the area.  Anyway, it was a fun atmosphere and we were able to catch up on our new favorite sport, footy!