Wagga Wagga to Sydney

Day 7:

Before leaving Wagga Wagga we toured Charles Sturt University led by a previous Kansas State professor Peter Chenoweth. This was a fairly new facility with the equine center being in service for just under 4 years. Our first stop was through the beef center where they have been very focused on reproduction in recent years, even stretching to several new experiments with cloning. My most anticipated portion of this stop occurred in the sheep facility where I was able to see a Kelpie herd around a hundred or so sheep. For those of you who don't know what a Kelpie is, it is a very common herding dog here in Australia that is a dingo crossed dog who can utilize "backing" as a way to herd which occurs when they run across the backs of sheep to sort or move through the flock. After a 5 hour drive we arrived in Sydney. Although our time there was short we had a lot of fun. Almost immediately after arriving at centrally located the Grace Hotel, a few of us girls left to go shopping and take a look around the city. As expected this is a huge city with a lot to offer, very similar to New York City, but had much less congestion and placed a great emphasis on a more Victorian style architecture with numerous sculptures and fountains throughout our journey. With little time to spare we purchased a few souvenirs and headed off the the Captain Cook dinner cruise around the harbor. There I got a combination of great food and breathtaking views of the harbor bridge and the world famous Opera house. While on the cruise and after, I marveled at a tremendous light show they put on around the harbor which included several of the larger buildings. This was a very unique experience for me that I greatly appreciated.