I had been wanting to visit Australia for quite some time - especially to see the Australian Open.  Also, an orchid grower who lives near Melbourne had been encouraging to visit him and his country; he was one of the first orchid growers to contribute photos to my web site. 

I finally decided to take the plunge and had a whirlwind 16-day tour of Australia and New Zealand with a traveling companion who is, also, an orchid addict.  She and I planned the entire trip using the resources on the Internet and Fodor's travel guide books.  We flew from San Francisco to Sydney and back by the United Airlines, we used Qantas for the flights within Australia and New Zealand.

We visited Sydney, Melbourne, Uluru (Ayers Rock), and Cairns in Australia and mostly the Christchurch region in New Zealand.  We enjoyed interesting train rides as well as snorkeling in Great Barrier Reef and snorkeling with dolphins in Kaikoura, NZ.

Click here to view these photos as slide shows

We arrived at Sydney early in the morning.  Since we had slept very well on the plane on a 14-hour flight - being in the business class helped - we checked the luggage at the hotel near the airport and spent the day sightseeing around the city center.  It was overcast, and it even drizzled on that day.  We took an early morning flight next day to Melbourne.

We spent additional two nights in Sydney on our way back from New Zealand.  We enjoyed a leisurely boat cruise of the harbor as well as the wonderful vistas from the South East Pylon of the Bridge. On the last night here, we had a nice pre-theatre dinner at the Opera House Restaurant and enjoyed Falstaff, a comic opera by Verdi. 

Also, we didn't forget to enjoy a walk through the Royal Botanic Gardens.  Click here to view the photos from the Royal Botanic Garens.