Project oz blog…..day 7 Sunday 4th April.
What a long flight, we left our house at 6.00pm on Sunday and arrived at Sydney Tuesday morning, by the time we got to our hotel we slept until the next morning. A monster sleep of 18 hours!!!!!!
Declan was amazing during the flight, he never complained and just enjoyed watching back to back films and talking to me about what we were going to be doing.
On our first full day of the trip, day three, it was raining and colder than England when we left, so we took this opportunity to do all the indoor attractions. We started of with Sydney aquarium, which was fantastic, Declan loved seeing all the native fish and going through the glass tunnel where he could see sharks swimming above him. We next visited the wildlife centre, which is home to one of the worlds biggest crocks, although he was sleeping whilst we were there. Declan’s favourite part was seeing the kangaroos, he found it really funny that one was laying on his back with his legs in the air just like our dogs do. My favourite part was the butterfly area, which had butterflies the size of dinner plates flying around, the colours were amazing and they really took to Declan and kept landing on him.
Declan still hadn’t had his daily fill of animals so we went to the world’s biggest Imax cinema to watch a 3D under water film, it was fab but to be honest my sister and I fell asleep, jet lag.
On day four we woke up to the sun, but then realised that I had forgotten to put Declan’s chair on charge so we had to hang around the hotel whilst it charged. Later that day we took a ferry to the Opera House which was amazing, we took plenty of photos and also laughed at the silly people climbing the Sydney bridge!!! Well I say silly only because I’m far too scared of heights to do anything like that.
Day five and with a full battery on Declan’s chair we took a ferry to Manly Beach, it was so beautiful, but very full. We found a ramp to go down and set up camp for the afternoon. We took Declan to sit in the sea, he must have sat there with the support of my sister behind him for well over a hour. I must admit it was a bitter sweet sight as there was a baby crawling on the beach, able to explore and plenty of children swimming and even attempting to surf, yet Declan, aged 11 couldn’t even sit in the water unaided. However he was so happy and never moaned, he just enjoyed the warmth of the sun and sea. He really is a amazing young man, whom I feel very humbled to be his mum.
Day six was our last day in beautiful Sydney so we got up early and ventured to the harbour as Declan wanted to go on a sight seeing speed boat. We booked onto one but then was told if he was unable to walk onto the boat he would not be allowed on, so after getting our money back we tried another one who would allow him on as long as I could lift him on, so my sister and I ate our spinach
and lifted Declan onto the speed boat. I wish I hadn’t as I turned green with sea sickness. Declan on the other hand loved even second of it.
That afternoon we flew to Brisbane and just chilled out in the room and had an early night.
Day seven, Easter Sunday, and we started off the morning by reading lovely Easter cards that our family
had hidden in our suitcase, it was so lovely of them and made it feel like Easter. We then went for our brekki, which was a buffet, so we all ate loads to get our monies worth and left the table feeling like we wouldn’t need to eat again for the rest of the holiday. We then met my best friends mum who lives out here and spent the day in her town, which was so typical ‘home and away’ Australia and a real treat to visit. We sat with the locals and ate fish and chips, it was the first time Declan had actually finished a meal since we arrived, but the good old British fish and chips is one of his favourite meals. After our day by the sea we had an early night ready to travel up to Malloolaba the next day.
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