Sydney

Here are some more photos from the trip to Australia at Christmas.

Sydney Opera House from the water.

Notice that vapour trail?

Here's what the plane spelled out ! Party at Bondi Beach on New Year's Eve!!

View of Sydney from the ferry across to Manley.

Oz surf!

Our daughter Julie lives north of Sydney in Dee Why, within walking distance of this beach. It was summer in Australia but believe me this water was COLD!!!!. Lovely long walks to be had on the beach though!


Actually the weather during our stay wasn't great! We took a trip up to the Blue Mountains in the pouring rain.

We didn't see much!!

Bedgraggled daughter!

We should have seen The Three Sisters - the highlight of the trip ....

3 sisters on a good day
Photo from http://www.bluemts.com.au

The Aboriginal dream-time legend has it that three sisters, 'Meehni', 'Wimlah' and Gunnedoo' lived in the Jamison Valley as members of the Katoomba tribe. These beautiful young ladies had fallen in love with three brothers from the Nepean tribe, yet tribal law forbade them to marry. The brothers were not happy to accept this law and so decided to use force to capture the three sisters causing a major tribal battle. As the lives of the three sisters were seriously in danger, a witchdoctor from the Katoomba tribe took it upon himself to turn the three sisters into stone to protect them from any harm. While he had intended to reverse the spell when the battle was over, the witchdoctor himself was killed. As only he could reverse the spell to return the ladies to their former beauty, the sisters remain in their magnificent rock formation as a reminder of this battle for generations to come.

Ah well, we'll just have to go back another year!

Next stop was the Hunter Valley - wine growing territory. We enjoyed a couple of days here sampling lots of different wines - YUM!!

Elegant bottles with unusual labels made of metal.

!!

And finally, on the way back to Malaysia we overnighted again in Macau and wandered around the old town the next day.






And resisted the temptation to buy more painted boxes - I already have several which I bought in Hong Kong when we lived there!

I spotted these Chinese zodiac animals on a casino ceiling!

And hundreds of tulips were blooming - beautiful!

Macau and Hong Kong

I started this post about our trip to Australia in December, weeks ago! Better late than never, I guess!

I'm starting with some photos of Macau which was our first port of call en route to Sydney at Christmas. We just overnighted here so didn't get a chance to take photos before travelling on to Hong Kong. However, I'm posting some pics I took a couple of years ago when we visited whilst living in Hong Kong. Macau has been undergoing a building boom, with new Casinos and hotels being constructed at a rate of knots - there are some amazing buildings - I had some fun with the reflections!

Macau - Reflections

We took the ferry over to Hong Kong where the skyline is one of the best in the world!

View across to the Hong Kong Harbour from the Peak (good visibility - rare these days!)

More amazing buildings!

I love the colourful markets - always something to snap!

Beads galore!

Pharmacy window

Pretty lanterns

I couldn't resist popping in these two colourful heads from dragonboats - I took these photos on Hong Kong's outlying islands where we used to have wonderful days out hiking.

A finally a beautiful lotus flower.

I'll post photos from Australia next time.