The Blazers game #4! Yahoooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!

WOW!!!! Our Blazers really came through in this game! Brandon Roy!!!!!!!!! WOOOOOHOOOOOO!!!!

Since we are lucky enough to be able to watch the games with NBA League Pass, we were able to watch the 4th quarter over again later in the day! And it was just as awesome the second time around!!!!!! Oh my goodness. The only bad thing about League Pass is that instead of commercials they run 5 or 6 short clips of great nba moments. And we get pretty tired of seeing the same ones over and over. But I'd watch them all day long for a game like that!!!

The Grand Pacific Drive & Wollongong

On Sunday (Easter) after church we decided to take the car out for a drive south along the coast to Wollongong. First we took the train to Dave's office for a little tour and to pick up the car. A Ford Falcon!!! We headed south on Prince's Highway through the Royal National Park. At Bald Hill, the road begins hugging the coast. It was a beautiful view from Bald Hill.  We had a very difficult time stopping for pictures because all the of turnouts were jam-packed with cars and people. We made it to Wollongong in about 2 hours and had a late lunch there, before heading back to Sydney. The photos are of the beach and cove in Wollongong.

We had to get dessert, of course!!!

And it was GOOD!!!

These last 2 pictures are Dave's "artisitic" shots as the sun was setting...

Wednesday & Thursday, April 20, 21

The weather was still good on Wednesday, so we went on a harbor cruise in the morning. Gorgeous! And good treats, too, along with morning tea. For lunch we decided to get some Yum Cha in Chinatown (it's really dim sum). Then we had to go shop at Paddy's Market until we dropped. We also watched game #2 of the Blazers-Mavericks. Not a good outcome in that game...and Brandon Roy was a whiner afterwards...not good.
On Thursday we took a ferry over to the zoo (on the north side of Sydney Harbour) and then got on a walking track (trail) that went along the harbour.

H.M.A.S. Sydney

The same ferry we were on the day before for the coffee cruise

At one point along the trail, there were stairs that went up into a neighborhood. This picture was taken at the top of those stairs. We had to get up into the neighborhood because, clumbsy me, I managed to trip and fall, twisting my ankle, taking a bunch of skin off my shin and palm.  Luckily, I could put enough weight on my ankle to walk. We were helped by some really nice people along the way, especially two asian couples. The men were trying to get me all fixed up and they were so cute! One of them started putting iodine patches on my leg and said, "Don't worry, these are from the U.S."!!! Then Sandie flagged down a man, who turned out to be a realtor, and he drove us back to the ferry. Poor Sandie...we had plans for another walk that afternoon that we (I mean me) couldn't do. It was such a bummer!!!

Yahoo! Sandie is here!!!

Sandie, tennis buddy and all-around great friend, arrived on Monday morning. We did the usual first day in Sydney activities...Opera House, The Rocks, Three Monkeys for dinner.
Tuesday we went to the beach in the morning and to China Town and the Chinese Garden in the afternoon. check it out...

It was pretty warm and quite humid at the beach

The salt water swimming pool at Bondi Beach...

with the ocean water splashing in!

A great ending to a great day. The garden was beautiful, surrounded by the city as you can see in some of the photos. There were tons of rocks there, all from Australia, some that were balanced on the top of others. It was incredible!!!

Saturday, April16

Our friends Karen, Dan and Erin left today :(   They are flying to New Zealand's north island to visit some friends there before heading back to Oregon. We had a whirlwind 4 days with them here in Sydney. I think I could really open a travel agency here... I'm getting pretty good at it, by gosh!

It is a rainy day here today. A really great day for reading. It actually feels good to be able to do that once in a while, especially to stay off of the streets with all the people. Sometimes you just need to take a break.

Our next visitor is Sandie. Yeah!!! She arrives early Monday morning. The weather forecast looks fantastic for the coming week, so it will be great!!!

Back in Sydney with new visitors!!!

Back "home" in Sydney this week, we have new visitors from Oregon. Karen, Dan and Erin Blythe are here, Yay!!! So we have tried to do all of the major Sydney things. The first day (they arrived at the airport at 6:30 AM), we took off for the waterfront, toured the Opera House, shopped in The Rocks, and had dinner at 3 Monkeys. Wednesday we went out to Bondi Beach and then back to Paddy's Market (flea market). Dinner was at our apartment with the Blazer-Memphis game as our entertainment. Thursday was a harbour cruise followed by more shopping :)   Today (Friday) they are on the Blue Mountains tour, so I am here taking a rest! We will meet tonight for dinner in Darling Harbour. They have been so lucky with the weather this week. I think this has been the best stretch of weather since I have been here. It's been in the low 70's and sunny, a little breeze and just beautiful. Perfect!!!
We found a great spot for taking our "wear in the world" pictures with our Blazer gear on! GO BLAZERS!!!

Of course, we had to do the "THREE GOGGLES"

Hokitika to Christchurch, The Great Alpine Highway

On Monday, April 11, we had a chance to take our time before heading back to Christchurch. We took off at about 10AM and headed for the Great Alpine Highway. This road heads into the Southern Alps through Arthur's Pass and on into Christchurch. Gorgeous scenery!

Cute little place in Arthur's Pass

Who is that hot -looking guy?

We made it back to Christchurch and went straight to the airport to catch our flight back to Sydney. We drove 6 hours on Friday, 7 hours on Sunday and 3 1/2 hours on Monday! A lot of driving! A lot of it was on curvy roads, lots of going up and down hills. And, the South Island is not very heavily populated! There were so many bridges, like in the following picture, that were 1 lane only.

You have to be prepared to "give way"! The following pictures we took just to prove that we actually did drive a car with the steering wheel on the right side, and drove the car on the left side of the road!

We lived to tell the story of our trip to New Zealand's South Island!!!!