Part 5: Arrival in Sydney - November 6, 2016

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This flight would have us traveling across the Tasman Sea on another Boeing 787, this time with LATAM Airlines. I did find it odd that we were flying with a South American Airline from New Zealand to Australia, but with a price under $100, who am I to really complain.​

After a three-hour flight, we met up with our friend Luke, who came up from Canberra to visit us. We then went underground to hop onto the train to get to the apartment Phillip and I would be staying at (another Airbnb reservation) so that we could drop off our belongings. Once we did that, it was time to go and explore! It would be back to the train at Museum Station where we had hopped of, and continuing down to get to Circular Quay Station.

One of the best features of Sydney's public transportation is that they have a cap of $2.50 AUD on the fare charged on Sundays. This means once you have paid that amount with the OPAL card, all subsequent rides are essentially free. As the train come out from underground for Circular Quay Station, you're greeted by one of Syndey's most recognizable landmarks, the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

Circular Quay is the area on the Southside of Sydney Harbour, which is where you find the bridge, along with the world famous Sydney Opera House.

As you will find out in this update, along with other updates based on Sydney, I took a TON of pictures of the Opera House. It's not only such an awesome, unique and beautiful building, but because of it's location there are many different angle of which to get pictures for it. These up-close shots were from the West side of the building. While it may not make for the best angle for pictures, you can at least appreciate the unique style of the building when viewing it from here.

It's also really hard to ignore the Sydney Harbour Bridge when in the area. One of the things that you can do on it is the Bridge Walk, where you get to climb the arches to the top. While we didn't do it ourselves, it was fascinating to see people doing it while we were in Circular Quay.

At this point, we decided to hop aboard the ferry to the town of Manly, so we could visit Manly Beach for lunch. It was also covered by the max charge for the day, so it didn't cost anything extra for us this day.

The ferry is a passenger only boat, and it was about a 30-minute excursion to Manly. The ride along the way offered some incredible views of the city, including the ability to add to the Opera House photo collection.

We happened to see a few Australian Naval Ships along the way, and also passed by Fort Denison, a small fortification in the middle of the harbor.

Along the way, we also had some great views of the nearby coastline with some awesome rock formations. This day was also quite nice for some sailing as there were many sailboats on the water.

Upon arrival to Manly, we wonder through a nice town that was quite popular as you could see by the number of people around.

It seems that the main draw for Manly is the beach, which was quite nice. Had we been better prepared, we may have gone for a swim ourselves, but we would have the opportunity to enjoy some beach time later.

On the way back to Circular Quay, there were all kinds of boats that we saw out on the water.​

Right before arriving back to Circular Quay, we would pass by one of the residences of the Australian Prime Minister.

After returning from Manly, we would hop back aboard the train, and head over to the Sydney Olympic Park, home of the 2000 Olympic Games.

As you visit the Olympic Park, many of their facilities used in the 2000 Olympics are still standing, including ANZ Stadium, which was the main stadium where they hosted track and field as well as the opening ceremonies.

But what I thought was the coolest feature of the park was that they still had the main Olympic torch. Underneath it in the pavement there were these small gold, silver and bronze plaques that had the name of the athlete, the nation they represented, and the sport in which they won that medal.

And that will end our first day in Sydney. A big thank you to Luke for coming up to Sydney to meet up with us and to show us around. Up next, we will make our way to Mrs. Macquarie's Point for some great views.

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