sydney.

final australian destination. we've been couchsurfing with john, who has been great. he has a quaint little apartment in a beautiful area of the city. saturday night he took us out to bondi beach for food and a view of the water and skyline. on sunday stacy and i caught up with gerard; we met four couples down by the harbour for lunch [referred to as "the suspects"] absolutely fabulous company, lots of laughs.. wined and dined with sydney's elite. walked along the harbour to the opera house which is just a beautiful building, very impressive. apparently they have recently been granted 600 million dollars for an interior facelift! uncanny amount of money. monday was warm and sunny. dropped off the rental car, then that afternoon stacy and i took the ferry out to manly. saw the beach and just enjoyed the boat ride through the harbour and surrounding views. today was our last day in sydney. we walked into town a bit, picked up a few last items. wanted to eat something 'aussie' for lunch, and then went for pad thai.. (oops)

the last six months have been a whirlwind, that's for sure. i can still remember the initial shock of leaving asia and settling in melbourne.. then uprooting again for two months on the road. when we said goodbye to the car - which although she was hideous, served us well - the finality of getting on another plane really hit, but it wasn't sad. life is just constantly moving forward whether anyone likes it or not, so this chapters on it's last page. newzealand is next. walking back to john's this evening we were talking about leaving and how long we've been travelling together.. both baffled by how much we still enjoy each other's company(!) and how strange life will be when it's time to part.. still unreal that that will happen any time soon.