Australia Travel: Family Fun and Sun in Sydney

Now I've just about recovered from the flights there and back, which really weren't that bad in the end as discussed in this post about tips for flying long-haul with an 18-month-old, and after I've banged on about what we did to deal with the jetlag, I suppose I should share some pics from our trip to Australia itself. 

My partner (who I call NewMan - don't ask!) is from Sydney and his brother who still lives there has recently welcomed twins to the world. That was our main reason for going, and we timed it with their mother also visiting (she now lives in Iceland - another don't ask!) so it was something of a family reunion. We stayed with NewMan's brother, his partner and their beautiful boy-girl twins on the North Shore of Sydney and we spent most of our days hanging out and seeing the family and friends that we hadn't since our last trip to Australia in 2012. It's so hard to think we'd not returned in five years but we're happy to say that it didn't feel strange or weird or even like much had changed, though of course SO MUCH had changed. We have a kid now. We have huge bags under our eyes now. We have to be in bed by 10pm now. But we still brunched and BBQ-ed and sank a few beers which was really all I wanted to do in Aussie anyway...

So, these are our pictures. As you'll see we didn't really do much sightseeing at all, other than a day at Taronga Zoo. I'm very embarrassed to say we only spent one day at the beach and we only went swimming once, but ten days just wasn't long enough to see everyone we wanted to AND hit up all the landmarks and museums... Next time... Meanwhile, if you want to do more and see more here are some tips for spending a special day in Sydney. and if you want to leave the city, here are some great suggestions for the best weekend trips from Sydney.

All that said, these photos do remind me that actually the things I enjoyed most were the most normal things; going for a coffee with Baby Bird and a sticker book, watching Baby Bird walking ahead of me with his dad, seeing him dip his toes in the sea for the first time, leaving the kids at home and going for trail walks in a small jungle ravine near where we were staying, spotting a cackling Kookaburra sitting on the balustrade of our balcony...