Sydney day 5 - Shopping then Manly Beach

A little more shopping... actually an excuse to have breakfast at our favourite cafe in the Strand Arcade. "Sydney's best coffee" and they were right. We've been back 3 times during our stay now. I was keen to go over to the North Shore and visit Manly Beach. Apart from a little trouble finding the on-ramp to the harbour bridge we got there fine and it was well worth it. We dined at a cure little cafe on the beach. The NY times said it was "the most romantic restaurant in Australia", and we agree.

The photos...

Sydney day 3 - Harbour cruise in the sun

This morning it was sunny... yay! We decided to take a harbour cruise to see Sydney from the water. We took a 2.5 hour harbour cruise that took us out to the entrance, past all the $10-20m pads of the rich and famous, then up the "middel harbour" (boring name!) then back under the bridge and back to the main downtown Quay by the Rocks. We explored the Opera House - an amazing building and I took a few photos.

We lazed in the sun on the waterfront over a late lunch, then to Paddington for some shopping/browsing and now we're blobbing out back in out apartment.

More photos...

Sydney day 2 - exploring Bouble Bay and Bondi

Today the weather was finer, high overcast with some sun sneaking through. We went to Double Bay and browsed the shops... very expensive and exclusive stuff. We ogled at a new Aston Martin while we had brunch only to find another just around the corner and a third later in the day at Paddington. Took photos of Jan in front of them for the boys.

Bondi Beach is really nice... lots of lovely golden sand, crystal clear water, surf and lots of cafe's and restaurants.

More photos...

Sydney day 1 - cruising the CBD

Spotted this shoe shiner in The Strand, a quaint old building filled with tiny boutique shops. We sampled the "best coffee in Sydney" here and haven't had a better coffee since so they must be right.

More photos...

Kickboxing tournament at Te Awamutu

Today a bunch of us from Impact and Nibun Orewa headed down to Te Awamutu to the 2007 WAKO Top Fighter kickboxing tournament.

It was a lot of fun and you can check out all the pictures here...