Didn't feel too bad today which was good and so had a great time on the Opera House tour. It lasted about an hour and we got to see the inside and also heard the Sydney Symphony Orchestra rehearsing! Apparently they're not always rehearsing when we go into the concert hall as they might go for a tea break or something, so they don't tell you at the beginning. Luckily they were in full rehearsal mode and so we got to listen.
We also got to see a couple of short videos on the building of the SOH and so on. They originally thought it would take 3 years to build and cost about $7 million AUD. 16 years later and $102 million AUD, it was finally built! Utzon was the architect chosen, and it caused great controversy. Apparently he wasn't that well known, was quite young, didn't have that many large projects under his belt, and his design was only sketched without any real plans to it. His design broke a few rules for the competition, but it still won, obviously, seeing as it's standing today! It's also been called the 8th wonder of the world! :D
It seems that his design won because it was the most striking and unique entrants to the competition. All the other designs were fairly conventional and also placed both concert halls one behind the other. Utzon had made both his halls face the front of the harbour so both of them could take in the amazing view.

It's quite fascinating how it was put together, as the roof was the trickiest part. The way Utzon had originally thought it would go together was found to be unworkable. Several thousand man hours from himself and other people, and several different ideas of what could be done, were also unworkable. Utzon had a brainwave one evening though, and deviced a spherical solution. Don't ask me to go into details as I can't fathom it out (I'm sure you can look it up yourself too if you're really interested) but he realised that the four roof panels for each building (there are two buildings which sit side by side) could be cut out of a sphere, rather than being put together from the ground up.

They are making renovations to it at the moment, so in a year's time or so the inside will actually look very different too. They were still installing the floor when we were being led around (the tiles were down but no grouting - good thing I wasn't in my stiletto heels....), and the new ceiling hadn't even gone in yet.

We also saw into a couple of the stages - one where they show ballet or opera, and another smaller stage where they show small plays. The one they're showing in that stage at the moment is Ben Johnson's 'The Alchemist' which I had already thought I wanted to see! It's had pretty good reviews, so I hope to see it in the next few days.

After the tour, I got in touch with my friend Mel who I met in New Zealand. She had been ill with the flu over the weekend, otherwise we would have met up yesterday. In the end, we made plans to meet up for dinner and she knew a great Thai place in the City so she could meet me after she finished her University course.

Then, off I went to the Aquarium. Mel had said it was a really good place to visit, so I was now really looking forward to it. It did sound like a pretty good museum from what I'd read about it, but you never really know until you get to a place, do you?
In the end, it really didn't disappoint at all so I was so glad I went! Equally glad I booked my tickets online too, as the queue was enormous when I got there!!
Got to see lots of different things - platypus, sharks, dugongs, stingrays, manta rays, crocodiles, tons of different fish, jellyfish, seahorses, turtles, lizards, crab, little penguins, and probably a fair few other things that I can't quite remember now!
The little penguins were really cute swimming around and generally being penguin-y....not that they could be anything else I guess! It was nice to be able to get quite close to them (from behind glass obviously) after seeing them on Phillip Island all those months ago!
They also had a Great Barrier Reef bit in the Aquarium, which was absolutely amazing! I got really excited, especially as I'll hopefully be swimming and diving in it in a few weeks time! Haven't ever done snorkelling, let alone scuba diving, so I hope that I can actually get to grips with them! They also had a coral exhibit where you could actually touch the coral and so on, which was pretty cool.
Managed to see the sharks being fed whilst I was there, which wasn't as frenzied as I thought it might be. They are in big enclosures, with a couple of scuba divers feeding them fish. It seemed quite a leisurely affair really, with the divers waving the fish at the sharks and the sharks swimming by and grabbing the fish from them! Fair enough I guess. They seemed to know to wait their turn and that they'd get fed eventually....
Also saw the new dugong exhibit, which was very nice. They have a couple of dugongs there that were transferred from Seaworld. They were apparently two rescue dugongs too, and it seems they like their new home. They're related to manatees, and look quite strange though they're also quite cute. They have tails and bodies like dolphins, but their faces resemble hippos. They're the only herbivorous marine mammal as well apparently! Every day's a school day :D

One of the cool things about the Aquarium too, is that they have these water tunnels that you walk through to see the marine life from below and around! It's pretty cool to see sharks, rays, dugongs, and turtles from below!

After spending many lovely hours in the Aquarium, I went off to meet my friend Mel. She suggested a really nice Thai restaurant in the City, and even paid for my meal :D I did offer to pay for half, but she insisted that she pay. She also had burnt a disc of her Abel Tasman photos for me, which was really nice of her.
We had a nice time catching up, and she's been pretty busy at work and having had the flu over the weekend, she was pretty tired. I doubt very much that we'll meet up again before I leave Sydney as I'm probably going to head off next Monday, but it was really nice to see her again.

Plan for tomorrow is to go to the Art Gallery of NSW as Margaret is attending a lecture in the afternoon there, so we can go to the gallery together. She's also a member, so we can even have lunch in the members lounge - hope it's nice!