Trip 1: November 24
- December 5, 2001: Australia!
Trip 2: October 31 - December 3, 2004 Elderhostel to Australia and New Zealand
Dee had the opportunity to go to Sydney, New South
Wales, Australia, with Martha Blodgett. Martha attended a conference at
the
University of New South Wales for three days and the remainder of the time
we enjoyed the beautiful cities of Sydney and Melbourne.
The famous Sydney Opera House and waterfront are shown above as seen from a boat tour of the water. We saw the ballet Coppelia in the opera house.
We stayed
at Coogee Beach
for
the first week and then at a bed and breakfast, Simpsons
of Potts Point near downtown. 
We
walked to the Royal Botanic Garden and Hyde Park, known for it huge fig trees.
We
flew to Melbourne for one night, took a tour where
we viewed spectacular birds
and
flowers. We saw Puccini's opera La
Bohème at
the Melbourne State Theater, Victorian Arts Center.
We took a
tour to the Blue Mountains 
,
stopping along the way at the Featherstone Wildlife Park where we saw many
native animals, including kaolas, 
wallabies 
and
kangaroos, a crocodile
, wombat
and tasmanian devil
.
We were told that the reason that koalas sleep so much is that they eat eucalyptus, which is very difficult to digest.
More Australia (and New Zealand)