The rocks

There is a free shuttle bus from Central to The Rocks, the old city centre which has recently undergone a lot of renovation. It reminded us a bit of London's South Bank. We had a picnic, saw the Opera House (from afar), walked around the back streets and ended up by the Observatory with beautiful views of Sydney North.

Normally the shuttle bus stops at 15:30 so we just missed the last one. We were lucky someone overheard us and old us or we could have been waiting for an hour. Somebody else overheard that and offered us his bus ticket with 5 rides (he must have been just leaving Sydney and didn't need it anymore). Result!

Stopped at our playground again for a bit more frolicking. This time it was much emptier so Lucas and Aisha had a few goes on the zipline.

Just finished booking everything in New Zealand. Feels good to have it all sorted. As Peppa Pig famously sang, "we're going on holiday... in a campervan".

So what's it like being back in "civilisation"? On the on hand it's good to be a bit more independent. Speaking the language and having proper services and a kitchen means we are a lot more independent. No more middlemen to help us get stuff done. It's also nice to be able to walk on a pavement, not worry about illnesses, and brush teeth with tap instead of bottled water. On the other hand it's a lot less exotic and different, and a heck of a lot more expensive. No doubt we'll miss Southeast Asia and it's quirky ways.