Those are not new cities in New Zealand so the title of our blog is a little off now. We flew from Auckland to Melbourne where we spent our first few nights in Australia. It was a bit of a shock to our systems going from a country with a population of 4.5 million to a city with about the same population. Thankfully Melbourne is a beautiful city that does not seem as large as it is. We had fun walking the streets, visiting the Queen Victoria Market and taking in an AFL game at the Melbourne Cricket Grounds. The Queen Victoria Market is a couple of city blocks that have been turned into stalls for selling everything from fruit and vegetables to leather purses and jackets. It was a wonderful place to experience and we spent a couple of mornings there buying fresh fruit, bread and cheeses for breakfast. The Australian Football League (AFL) plays a game that is a cross between rugby and soccer that is very similar to Gaelic Football played in Ireland. It was fun to watch a game and the crowd of around 80,000 was funny to listen to after they had a few beers.
We rented a car in Melbourne and drove to Sydney. Sydney’s urban area only has 500,000 more people than Melbourne’s but it feels like a much larger city. The people are not as friendly and the traffic is worse. There are some wonderful areas in Sydney including Darling Harbor (lots of food and drinks), The Rocks (the old part of town), the botanical garden and domain park and of course the Circular Quay with the Sidney Harbor Bridge on one side and the Sydney Opera House on the other. The other nice thing about Sydney is that you can take a ferry out of town to one of the beach communities quite easily. We spent a day in Manly watching the Australian beach volleyball championships and enjoying the golden sand.
The drive from Sydney to Brisbane was too long for us to do in one day so we stopped overnight in Coffs Harbour, a beautiful beach town. Brisbane seemed like a small town after being in Sydney. The most striking feature of Brisbane is the Brisbane River, which winds its way through the city and its suburbs. It keeps residents on their toes by flooding every few years and also acts as a highway for the water taxis and other boats that service the city. We enjoyed the farmer’s market and a cruise up the river to the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary where Jenni got to cuddle a koala.
Those are not new cities in New Zealand so the title of our blog is a little off now. We flew from Auckland to Melbourne where we spent our first few nights in Australia. It was a bit of a shock to our systems going from a country with a population of 4.5 million to a city with about the same population. Thankfully Melbourne is a beautiful city that does not seem as large as it is. We had fun walking the streets, visiting the Queen Victoria Market and taking in an AFL game at the Melbourne Cricket Grounds. The Queen Victoria Market is a couple of city blocks that have been turned into stalls for selling everything from fruit and vegetables to leather purses and jackets. It was a wonderful place to experience and we spent a couple of mornings there buying fresh fruit, bread and cheeses for breakfast. The Australian Football League (AFL) plays a game that is a cross between rugby and soccer that is very similar to Gaelic Football played in Ireland. It was fun to watch a game and the crowd of around 80,000 was funny to listen to after they had a few beers.
We rented a car in Melbourne and drove to Sydney. Sydney’s urban area only has 500,000 more people than Melbourne’s but it feels like a much larger city. The people are not as friendly and the traffic is worse. There are some wonderful areas in Sydney including Darling Harbor (lots of food and drinks), The Rocks (the old part of town), the botanical garden and domain park and of course the Circular Quay with the Sidney Harbor Bridge on one side and the Sydney Opera House on the other. The other nice thing about Sydney is that you can take a ferry out of town to one of the beach communities quite easily. We spent a day in Manly watching the Australian beach volleyball championships and enjoying the golden sand. 
