What an amazing day we had today! We woke up fairly early to yet another sunny day in NSW and had coffee and breakfast before packing up the van. We were all finished by 930am but didn't want to hit the road to Sydney too early so took one last walk to the lighthouse instead. Within a few minutes of walking the cliff top path we spotted two whales (a mother and calf humpback we think) frolicking in the water. They swam along to the lighthouse as we walked the path taking photos all the way. The mother kept jumping out and making some enormous splashes in the ocean but my photos don't quite do it justice! We could have sat on the cliff top all day waiting to spot more but instead decided we should travel on. It took us just over two hours to travel across Sydney and reach are destination - Lane Cove tourist park, a caravan park within the Lane Cove National Park which is just 10kms from Sydney CBD! The park has a large number of powered sites, the cheapest laundry we've seen in ages and is only $33 a night as kids stay free. We set up the van and had lunch enjoying the peace and quiet until tree loppers came along and chopped a tree down next door to us!! We decided we may as well go and explore the area and walked to our nearest train station, North Ryde, about 800m away. Nick had looked into our cheapest travel options as Sydney has soooo many different types of travel tickets that its mind boggling and we bought a ticket that would cover all trains, buses and ferries for a week - $157.50 in total. Not bad at all and hopefully we wont have to use the car at all - although petrol is under a $1.40 here!!! We had planned on walking back to the park but the multi-riders were too tempting and the kids were keen for a train ride. Half an hour later and 7 stops down the line we were at Circular Quay taking in sights of the Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Opera House. There were workmen everywhere as on the 23rd May Vivid Sydney begins - a festival of lights and music where different landmarks such as the Opera House are all light up with amazing light displays. I'm not sure we will make the festival as travelling around at night with the four kids is not that much fun but we'll see!! We had an ice cream on the Opera House steps and watched the boats come and go and then caught the train home. It was getting dark as we got back around 5pm but Nick and I sat and had a coffee before tackling dinner. All the kids went to lie down on their beds so I think we have finally exhausted them! Dinner took forever, as everyone wanted something slightly different tonight so it was 830pm before the smaller ones were in bed - at least they passed straight out. Tomorrow we are going to hit the zoo - that's if our bank balance can take it!!!