Surfing in the rain

It was raining and cool today, and a rather miserable day. If we were going to get wet walking around Sydney, Luke thought he may as well get wet properly and go surfing. Mad dogs and Englishmen comes to mind, but then Brits are more hardy than their southern hemisphere neighbours when it comes to colder weather. I heard that it actually rains more in Sydney than in London, and I can see that this could be true!

We caught the ferry to Manly, and when we arrived it was raining and the thought of surfing suddenly did not seem like a good idea. But after a hot coffee to sustain us, Luke went off to the surf centre for his 1 hour lesson. I tried to take some photos from the beach, but holding the heavy camera backpack, my umbrella, the camera and dealing with the wind and rain was not much fun. However, the sun broke though for about an hour which was very pleasant. Luke had a great time, and being such a good sportsman he did very well surfing as can be seen in my extra photo today.

We had a quick sushi lunch, then got the ferry back to Sydney and headed off to the Opera House for our booked tour. It was completed in 1973 - initial budget was $7 million over 3 years and it ended up costing $102 million and took 14 years to complete! Sadly, its brilliant architect Jorn Utzon (who was Danish) never saw it completed as he was forced to resign over political pressure over costs and deadlines. However, his son has been very much involved in alterations to the building since its completion.

Gavin is now in Melbourne, he left this morning, and is back tomorrow evening.