Manly and the North Head

Bob and Pat Snelson, members at the Ontario Racquet Club where Heidi teaches aerobics, are in Australia to visit with their daughter who's going to teachers' college in Melbourne. They had a few days in Sydney so we hooked up with them on Sunday and toured the north head of the Gap and the Manly Beach area. It was very nice to hang out with Canadians for a day (American actually but living in Canada for over 30 years) and Heidi enjoyed getting the ORC update. Bob and Pat are off to Cairns and the Daintree Rainforest next so we were able to give them a bit of advice as we were just their last month!

Checking out the view of the south head of the gap (we were there last weekend) and Sydney Harbour in the background. Heidi, Dave, Pat and Bob enjoyed the many spectacular views of the Gap and Manly while Adam kept active by rock climbing.


Lots of scenery.


Checking out the 150' cliff - yikes!


The surf was rocking at Manly Beach!



The sun sets on Manly as the surfers sqeeze in their last few rides!

Wallabies versus Springboks

Dave, Vic (Oakville) and Phil (Guelph) thought they'd go to the rugby match Saturday night to show these Aussies what we Canadians know about rugby - not much! Australia played South Africa in the rugby union Tri-Nations tournament (the third team being New Zealand). Between the three of us, we pieced together enough rules to figure out the main purpose of the game although we still have a lot of questions. Regardless of our lack of rugby knowledge, we had a great night. There were tons of activities outside Telstra Stadium – food stands galore, promotions with free Wallaby flags, choirs signing Australia’s national anthem “Advance Australia Fair” and Australia’s wannabe national anthem “Waltzing Matilda”, beer tents, etc. The whole event was extremely well organized - fans are even given free transportation via bus or train to the stadium to avoid traffic jams and drink-driving (no, that's not a typo!).




The Three Canadians were able to upgrade their seats at half time as we moved to the plush section with carpeted floor, cushion seats and cup holders at the 50m line (don't think they call is that!).

In the end, Australia won 20-18 so the celebration continued outside!