Madame Butterfly and The Rocks District

Last night, we went to see Madame Butterfly at the Sydney Opera House. Aside from Puccini's ignorance with regards to actual Japanese culture (which is appropriate to the times in which the Opera was written), it was really amazing! The set design was positively beautiful and the music and voices were wonderful.








Today, we went to find Dallas a suit case to carry the extra things she has acquired on the trip:


Then, we walked around the Rocks District (where our hotel is located). There was some kind of an outdoor market going on, which had a lot of really cool artsy stuff... and we had to make a few extra purchases, including chocolate-covered strawberries. Actually, our first strawberries were so yummy that we had to go back for more! We also walked about a third of the way out onto the Sydney Harbour Bridge, and visited Cadman's Cottage, the oldest building in Sydney.








Now we are sitting in Starbucks, again, killing time until we leave for the airport at 6pm (our flight to Oahu departs at 9:20pm).

Today, we did something REALLY different...

We went to a ZOO!

Well, and we also went to the Powerhouse Museum to look at the Star Wars exhibit. Sooo, animals + nerdy outing = incredibly out of the ordinary for Dallas and Cameron. Right? OK, maybe not.

Anyway, Hi Everyone! This is going to be a brief and photo-dominant post because we need to go get ready for Madame Butterfly at the Sydney Opera house.

Today we walked down George Street and around Darling Harbour to get to the Powerhouse Museum, where they have a Star Wars Exhibit (which turned out to be the very same one Cameron saw in LA not too long ago).










After going through the Star Wars exhibit, we checked out the rest of the museum:




When we were done at the Powerhouse Museum, we headed down to Darling Harbour for lunch and then to Sydney Wildlife World to get our daily animal fix.


















Currently, we are sitting in a Starbucks down the street from our hotel, because there is no WiFi in our room and the prices in the lobby are ridiculously pricey... And now, as I said, we need to go get ready for the Opera. Hope everyone is well!

Return to Sydney

Today we left Queenstown, had a layover in Auckland, and are finally back in Sydney. Thus, there weren't too many interesting photos taken today, but some interesting lessons were learned.

Lesson the First: If you're feeling peckish, you should have a yummy bikkie.

Lesson the Second: The Holy Bible is #15 on the airport booklist. Lord of the Rings was #1.

Lesson the Third: No spitting in trashcans. But toilets are okay.

Lesson the Fourth: In the Auckland Airport, you only find out your gate number 25 minutes before boarding.

Lesson the Fifth: It is officially Mardi Gras in Sydney.

Lesson the Sixth: The Wiggles are TERRIFYING.

Lesson the Seventh: DigE Players rented to you on the plane for $20 AUD are really not worth it because they freeze constantly.


So, that's all for today. Our hotel does NOT have internet, so we're at Starbucks down the street right now. Tomorrow, our last full day abroad, will be an epic, action-packed day of adventure and intrigue!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY COLTON!

Hi everyone! It is March 4th in the States (the 5th here), which means it's my younger brother's 12th birthday! The video is unfortunately a bit late because I'm off my game due to the difference in dates, so he won't get to see it until tomorrow. :( Excuse my singing - it's a tradition in my family to call and sing to each other on our birthdays. :)

Colton, I love you! I hope you had an amazing birthday! Here is the video Dallas and I made for you! To all of my Maui family, I CAN'T WAIT TO SEE YOU IN 4 DAYS!

The River Wild

Today we finally had our horse ride! We were picked up by the stables at 8:30am and driven 45 minutes to Glenorchy, the same town at the north side of Lake Wakatipu that we went to yesterday. Dart Stables has 62 horses, all geldings, and eight of them were used for filming Lord of the Rings. There were two other people on our particular horse ride, both young men from Ethiopia.

We actually don't have as many photos today because even though Dallas brought two cameras on the ride, it was difficult getting them out for photographs. She has also learned to not bring the big camera next time because it ended up cutting her hands bouncing during the running parts of the trail.

Besides the beautiful scenery, the best part of the ride were the river crossings. The Rees river is the result of glacial runoff from a mountain that remains snow-covered all year long, which gives the river it's icy blue color. The river was about 2.5 feet at its deepest, so it didn't even reach our boots.

Cameron's horse Jackie was sort of a brat -- he kept kicking at Dallas's horse Harry.

So we tried to keep them separated.

While we had multiple river crossings, we also spent some time riding through fields and small groves of willow trees.

When we got back to the stables and dismounted, we could barely walk! We're sure to be sore tomorrow!

After we got back to Queenstown, we ate at Fergburger, a very popular local burger joint. Dallas's burger was huge!

After lunch and some last minute souvenir shopping, we headed back to our hotel to take it easy for the rest of they day. Tonight is our last night in Queenstown, and in New Zealand. Tomorrow we fly all day back to Sydney, where we then have one more full day abroad. We will miss the wonderful Kiwis here.