30 Years of Sixty Five Thousand

Last full day of Alex being with us, so we thought we would hop on a ferry and go over to Manly Beach, rather than Bondi Beach, for no other reason than we had heard it was less 'touristy'. There is a ferry every 15 minutes and within half an hour we had reached our destination. On the way we get great views of the bridge and opera house, but more unusually, moored pretty much next to the opera house, is an Australian aircraft carrier. From the jetty, we walk down Manly's less than enthralling high street to reach the beachfront. It is pleasant enough and there are some beachfront cafes, but it is not worth the journey - Port Douglas was head and shoulders above this place. So we have a quick beer and decide to go back to the city, although not before bumping into the Dutch mum and her daughter who were both on our bike ride the day before. What are the chances of that? They were heading home the next day, home being Sulawesi, an Indonesian island we have thought about going to and one the lady strongly said we should!

Back in Sydney, Alex finishes his trinket purchases and we have a mid afternoon lunch at the hotel. It's steaks all round at the Meat & Wine restaurant and they were absolutely delicious. Then off to the Sydney Opera House to watch the Bangarra Dance Theatre who were doing a 30th Anniversary Tour and highlighting some of the dances they had performed over that time. All the performers have some Aboriginal heritage. The dances they did reflected and told stories of the culture over the thousands of years that the Aboriginal and Torres Strait islander people had lived in the region. It was a packed audience and at the end, there was a standing ovation. All 3 of us thought it was fantastic, from the music, performance, lighting and costumes. On that high point, we headed back to the hotel for a final drink as the next day, Alex was heading back to the UK and we were off to New Zealand.