Hanging with Wilf

After the wedding festivities were concluded, we planned to spend some time travelling with Wilf, my boss's husband. I know it probably sounds a little unusual, but we've known Wilf for some time; he's an interesting guy to spend time with (he's working on some interesting projects) and he's very active. To be honest, the only thing we were worried about was whether we would be able to keep up with him!

Our first and only time at Starbucks on the trip so far.
Wilf made us ... we swear!
We headed back to Sydney (the wedding had taken place in Narrabeen), and explored there for a couple of days. We did a tour of the Sydney Opera House, and visited both the Sydney Aquarium and the Sydney Wildlife World. The Opera House was impressive; I had no idea how ahead if his time the designer (a Dane!) was. And both the aquarium and the wildlife place were cool ... but I wasn't able to hold a koala at either.

Next up was the Blue Mountains. This area is really beautiful. We did two short walks and one longer day walk. During our day walk, we headed to Ruined Castle, a rock formation that from afar looks like ... you guessed it, a ruined castle. With the exception of a section called the Golden Staircase, the walk wasn't very difficult. (The Golden Staircase, on the other hand, was literally stone stairs that just went up and up; fortunately, they didn't last too long.) The walk terminates at the Ruined Castle rocks, and you can climb up to the top for an amazing 360 degree view of the Blue Mountains. We stopped there to enjoy the view and a bite of lunch.

Our picnic spot was the top of the rock
in the upper right corner.
After a few days in the Blue Mountains enjoying the views and more than a few tasty dinners (thanks Wilf!), it was time to head back to Sydney. Wilf was heading back to Canada, and Ulrik and I were trying to decide how we wanted to get to Melbourne (car? train?). While in Sydney we were able to hook up with the newlyweds one last time before they, too, headed back to Canada. And we were able to check out this animal sanctuary called Featherdale, where I was finally able to pet a koala! And just as we were leaving I got to hold a joey (a baby kangaroo). Score!

For more photos, see our Australia photo album, our Blue Mountain photo album, and/or our Featherdale photo album.