Today we said goodbye to downtown Sydney and headed for the suburbs. Our friends, Ian & Wendy arrived just after 09:00 a.m. to pick us up from the hotel. They were fantastic tour guides, they whisked us back and forth to a number of places before we stopped for lunch in Manly Bay.

The "club" concept is strong here in Australia, whether it be a sailing club, surf club, sports club or whatever, it was very, very nice. We had to "sign in" to the local yacht club in order to get access to a fantastic seafood lunch in a reserved seat just next to the harbour. From there we walked the "corso", a pedestrian only street/shop way that went from the ferry terminal to the amazing beach on the other side, probably about a 15 minute walk.

I can see why so many of the locals head here on weekends, and if you're young, well it's definitely the right spot to find the girl of your dreams, they're all young surfters in great shape. The size of the waves here are huge with hundreds of kids out there catching the curls. Property values here in Sydney and the surrounding burbs are just like Vancouver, maybe even worse. There are Miami Vice looking condos all along the beach with prices well into the millions - seems like paradise to me.

I'm always amazed when confronted with amazing people. Here we have Ian & Wendy - two fantastic people that we met for just a few days on a cruise ship on the Panama Canal run and six months later, here we are in their home, getting toured all across this beautiful city, sleeping in our room after a sumptuous BBQ steak dinner with all the fixings on a fantastic lanai watching the sun go down. People like Wendy and Ian are few and far between.

Today it's out and about again, apparently lunch on the ocean again at possibly another one of the "beach clubs" which will be great. They've invited a couple of their friends over for dinner tonight, people that we'll be meeting up with again in March next year in Singapore, before they board the Volendam for their 50-day cruise of the west coast of Asia and into Alaska. It's been a little disappointing that we had to cancel our cruise but we'll be there to see them off in Singapore next year.

It's our last day here and we'll be off to the airport tomorrow headed for Hong Kong. So I'll keep you updated once we land in China. Again - to all of you out there reading about our little adventure, thanks for tuning in.

Bob & Deborah