New Zealand is far away from South Africa and fairly close to Australia. Seeing as we were flying all that way, we thought we may as well spend a day or two in Sydney first. Neither of us had ever been, so it was the perfect opportunity.
We had booked accommodation near Darling Harbour, so that was naturally the first place we explored.
We lasted just long enough to see the fireworks (a regular Saturday night event in summer) and then jetlag took over and sent us to bed.
The next morning, we created a loose agenda that mainly consisted of walking around. We'd have to be careful though; Sydney is apparently a dangerous place where you can easily trip, fall, and land on your bum, even in seemingly innocent-looking parks.
We couldn't visit Sydney without make the pilgrimage to its famed opera house, so that was on our agenda too.
We took a walk through the botanical gardens and welcomed the shady coolness of the trees. Despite being mostly overcast, it was hot and humid that day.
During the final part of our stroll, we heard a cacophony of birdsong (bird screech, actually) and soon discovered the source - a lady feeding birds from the front of her house.
I later learned that they are called rainbow lorikeets. They clearly knew where to go to get a tasty meal, and a guaranteed meal at that, as the lady energetically batted away and scolded any pigeons that attempted to tuck in.
We had to get up early the next morning to catch our flight to Christchurch, so we didn't stay out too late that night. Nonetheless, we enjoyed our short stopover in Sydney, and would definitely visit again if the opportunity arose.