It’s times like this that we REALLY appreciate living in this amazing city, and being able to see the harbour.  When Queen Mary 2 cruised into the harbour we really couldn’t believe how absolutely huge she is!!  Our buddies Debbie and Charlie who live above us were even kind enough to invite us up onto their balcony so that we got a better view.  Wow, we were so glad we got out of bed in the wee hours to see this, it was so impressive and a wonderful start to the day.

When the Queen Elizabeth 2 cruised in, it was kind of an anti-climax, after seeing the Queen Mary 2, which is about double it’s size.  And the fireworks display in the evening to celebrate the 2 ships meeting in Sydney Harbour were amazing, we thought maybe even better than the New Years Eve fireworks (except not as many fireworks going at once).

To view all of our ship and fireworks photos click here.  There are some beautiful very early morning (ie, total darkness) ones of the Queen Mary 2 so have a look if you are interested.

Dale and Karen had a great time hitting the shops in Pitt Street and QVB, and even went to the mall a couple of days later to stock up :-) .  Dale managed to pick the best days of summer to come over for a South Island inhabitant, as it was a bit rainy and not too hot, (note the ‘rainy’ day in Sydney above) and then the day she left it was scorching again – good work Dale!  Hopefully Dale and her fiance Dick will come over again this year.

Dre’s dad and family came over for around a week in January.  We did all the usual Manly touristy things and had a few bbq’s and many walks.  We spent most of the week walking all over the place and seeing the sights.  We were lucky enough to see some more amazing sunsets over the harbour while they were here like this one:

The spare room is certainly getting a workout of late, which won’t be letting up until we come to NZ in April, so we’ll probably have lots of adventures over the coming weeks.  Stay tuned…..