We had early lunch at home, and took the bus to the city. We stopped at the Australian Museum, where we learnt about dinosaurs, Australian fauna and the history of reconciliation with aboriginal Australians. The building itself was nice, built in several phases, with recent parts nicely integrated with the old sections of more neo-classicism style.

We then went to a guided tour of the opera house. A million tiles that are off-white – not white, as it would reflect too much light; an elegant concrete structure supporting the sails, and a sad history where the architect, Jørn Utzon, never actually saw the finished building, because of a dispute with the NSW prime minister in the middle of the building process – he left and never came back. Unbelievable, for such an iconic building that symbolises the city.

On our way to the city center, we stopped by the Sydney Museum – we saw a very interesting but somehow sad documentary about the conflictual settlement of europeans west of the Blue Mountains, in the Wiradjuri’s land, and how just a few would ruin what could have been a peaceful cohabitation.

We spent a few hours shopping in the city center, and came back at nightfall for a light show on the Opera house. By that time, the temperature had dropped, so we went home pretty rapidly after.

The evening was about packing everything, planning the day tomorrow.

We took it easy in the morning, after two early days. Late morning, we drove to Clovelly beach, walked to Coogee beach. We had lunch there, before heading north towards Bondi beach.

The weather was fantastic, the two hours walk was amazing, passing nice neighbourhoods and beautiful beaches. We dreamt of having on of these houses right on the waterfront. Again, we’re in the middle of the winter and it’s warm enough to wear shorts.

We arrived at Bondi beach mid-afternoon. The boys played in the waves for 1 1/2 hours, under the careful watch of the world famous lifeguards.

We had udon soup for dinner at home, rewatched the start of the movie Back to the Outback to see whether we would recognise Taronga zoo – we did!

Same procedure as yesterday, we took the ferry to circular quay, then another ferry to Taronga zoo. We knew about this zoo since we had watched Back to the Outback. We took the cableway from the ferry wharf to the zoo entry, and met Tom, his family and Sam, who had literally just arrived.

Taronga zoo is beautifully located, facing Sydney, on the other side of the bay. Sydney’s iconic skyline is always visible in the background, everywhere in the zoo. Just that is fantastic – it’s our third day in Sydney, and I’m still missing no occasion to have a look at or take a picture of the opera and the harbour bridge.

We started with a very entertaining seal show and had lunch. The afternoon was about running after the kids, who were going from station to station at a high pace. By mid-afternoon, we had seen pretty much every single animal in the zoo, including lions, elephants, tigers, snakes, tortoises, pygme hippos, chimpanzees, and of course koalas.

Then came the time to say goodbye to Tom, Nathalie, Alfie and Matilda (and Sam) after more than 3 weeks together. We know we’ll see them this autumn, so we didn’t cry too much – but still… It’s been a very nice three weeks together.

We took the ferries back to the apartment, and went to a nearby pub for diner.

For our last day in Corlette, we were gifted with morning sun, breakfast from Two Bobs that Thomas had picked up, and… a great Tour de France stage, with an epic one vs. one fight for the yellow jersey.

We dropped Matilda and Alfie at daycare and school. We spent the morning packing and preparing our trip to Sydney.

We left after lunch. Nathalie and Thomas were clearly very sad. So were we, but they will join us in Sydney tomorrow, so we’ll see them soon.

We arrived in Sydney late afternoon. We’re staying in Rozelle suburds, at Chris’ flat. It’s a lively neighbourhood with small shops, restaurants, takeaways, quite nice to walk in these streets on a busy Friday afternoon. We ate at an Italian restaurant nearby – pizza & pasta, what else!

For our last full day in Corlette, we decided to go snorkelling. But first, we had to watch the replay of the Tour de France, with a great finish on the runway of Peyragudes airport (16% climb, 1m up every 6m).

Because of the strong currents where we wanting to dive, we had to wait for high tide, mid-afternoon. In the meantime, we went for a walk at Soldiers Point, a town 10min from Corlette. We saw pelicans there, found a pier where we could take “instagram” pictures, and ate pizza at the marina’s takeaway.

We were on time for the high tide at Fly Point, in Nelson Bay. The water was cold, 16 deg, but ok with wetsuits. However… visibility was an issue. The water was muddy because of the bad weather the last few days. We still saw nice fishes in the shallow waters. But we didn’t hang around for too long, and quickly started thinking that we had deserved a warm shower.

We went home, got that warm shower we deserved. The kids spent the evening playing with costumes. We played baby-foot, bananagrams. Mike was here for dinner, and we said goodbye to him. We’re going to Sydney tomorrow, the last part of our trip… and we’ll be saying goodbye to Corlette.

We got up early, jumped in a taxi to get to the airport. We’re saying goodbye to Cairns, after 3 full days of summer temperatures and activities.

At the airport, we watched the highlights of the Tour de France while waiting for boarding – of course!

We landed in Newcastle early afternoon, went for lunch and shopping before coming home. Hugo, Tim, Alfie and Matilda were happy to see each other again, played with costumes the whole evening, and watched a movie.

Mike came for dinner: bbq and homemade apple cake. We planned our next day – we’re hoping for nice weather, so that we can go snorkelling in Nelson Bay.