To Canberra

To Canberra

After a restful evening at River View Garden, the lady of the house gave us a hearty breakfast to prepare us for another long journey. It was great as we again came together to remember God's goodness and abundant love. We gave thanks and asked for God's protection for the day.
Before leaving Stockton and Newcastle, we took a little tour of the place and found it to be quiet and clean , very serene.

The Ferry ride from Stockton to Newcastle City is only 5 minutes.

A shot of Newcastle taken from Stockton across the ferry. Grace added that some of her IMU friends continued their overseas programme in the University of Newcastle. A perfect location for studies but a little dull for the adventurous.

Graffiti which says...
Great place !
Great Lifetime?
Great Future?

On the way out of Newcastle, dad explained to the girls that the machinery shown is to upload grains into ships for export. Australia is well known for exporting wheat and corn and it's no wonder that gadgets are aplenty for the purpose.

We had another joyful ride for 2 odd hours before touching Sydney. Sydney is lively and busy. The first signs of Sydney came as we went across Sydney Harbour Bridge.

Took a short break at the Fish Market before trudging to the bridge

We were advised by a friend to go straight to the Fish Market and park there before proceeding to Darling Harbour and the Opera House. It was almost 12pm when we reached Sydney and we wanted to catch as much of Sydney as possible... a real ambitious feat in 4 hours.
It was expensive to park at the Fish Market cos the parking ticket came up to A27.00!


Sydney is very cosmopolitan as commented and observed by Sara. While waiting for dad to finish his inspection of the bridge both Sara and I saw more Asians than Whites on the bridge. As usual...in my travels I am bound to meet a Seafieldian. This time it was Megan of the SPM 2007 batch.

The girls of the home ...Grace said I was from China.

A quick look around Sydney could only mean taking the Cruise around the city. So we decided that we should be on it to see as much of the place as possible.

On the cruise...dad and the 2 older girls love it. Sara and I sat in the boat, afraid of the sun.

Esther and dad. She gets dark on her arms but her face is white...calls herself a 'pak cham kai'.

We were told that the yellow buildings in the background was the site of the first landing of the convicts of England .

The Sydney Opera House which took many years to build...one of the 7 wonders of the world.

Yachting is contagious here. The houses encircling the lake is no less than A12 million on the average...for the rich and famous. One of it belongs to the state government and Mr. Rudd stays there when in Sydney.

These 2 girls love to be under the sun. The effect came later in the evening when they were red all over.

At the ferry, people gathered for an early Christmas celebration

A final shot in Sydney before leaving for Canberra. We finally got out out Sydney's jam at 5 pm ...a bit too late. Grace was really good at the wheels as she did not seem tired and kept her spirit bright and strong, a real help to dad.
On the way to Canberra, strong drafts which I have never experienced before in my travels caught us unexpectedly. The strong, howling wind seemed obvious with swaying trees along the journey. Sara, noticeably disturbed, kept praying and asking dad if the winds had gone away.

We reached our destination at almost 8 pm.In Canberra, we stayed at a farm house, another B & B feature...Grevillea Lodge, 13 km NW of the city. It was a cosy apartment and had a small kitchenette for our needs.



The stay at Grevillea Lodge was made more memorable with the presence of a friendly Siberian Husky tagging along the girls.

We called it a day after having a Chinese take away dinner from an outlet near the lodge.
Chinese food seemed to taste the best that evening.
It was indeed another good day. Tomorrow we go to Melbourne...7 hours away.