Greetings from Sydney

Where it was 33 degrees yesterday! Although I feel ready for summer in NZ, my body is clearly not ready for 33 degrees just yet. Today it will be a cooler 23 or was it 28, so I'm looking forward to that.

I arrived in via Air NZ around 2pm NZT. After a short stop at customs, I caught the very convenient underground which has a stop only 50 m from my hotel! Great hey! I then went for a wander- and in typical Kelly fashion turned left instead of right totally messing up my initial wandering plans. Anyway, I ended up at Darling Harbour, walking up to the Ferry Terminal and Opera house where I picked up my ticket for the opera last night, headed back to the hotel for a quick shower (ahh, coolness!), and then back to the Opera! The Opera house is amazing... Think sort of like Centre of the Arts- but much bigger, and cooler. I sort of want to do the back stage tour and see more of how the shows get put together, because the show itself was amazing. I was totally blown away by the effectiveness of the lightshow. The orchestra was simply amazing. And the opera itself was pretty cool as well. It was a french one- using Surtitles- called the Pearl Fishers. Although the dress code officially was "shoes are required", everyone dressed up so I'm quite glad I opted for a skirt. There were lots of ladies in fancy dresses. I took the convienient underground back to the hotel.

My early impressions walking around syndey are I don't like the heat/wind combo. We'll see if that is still present today. There are TONS of statues, and lots of high buildings. I'd lose weight if I lived here. After all my walking yesterday all I had the stomach for was a fruit salad and water. Yum... Moisture.

I've checked my bag as I switch hotels today and now I'm going to take the underground to Circular Quay to do some wandering and take some photos, and then probably take a ferry for some water views as well.

A cold is coming on and I shouldn't have chosen this weekend to break in the new hikers. My feet are covered in blisters. Never the less, I'm excited to see what a days exploring will bring. Wish me luck!