Thursday November 5th

Time to get up...we're about to have the experience of a lifetime!.   Well, well, well. Guess who we bumped into at breakfast this morning?  Chris and Denise, our drinking buddies. We exchanged names and addressees and arranged to meet for the evening harbour cruise later.  Soon it was time to set off for our helicopter ride.  The minibus picked us up and soon we were chatting to the people that were picked up from various hotels on the way to the airport.  Just before the last pick up, Keith made a comment that the good things about Australia was there didn't seem to be too many Germans about so your deck chairs and sunbeds should be safe.  Almost immediately, the last two guys got on and Keefy said "You don't happen to be German do you?  The didn't look too amused when everybody chuckled and it wasn't too long before we found out, yes, of course, they were Germans!! Trust Keefys!.  Still no real harm done and before long we were at the heliport and set to take off.

Words cannot really describe the following half hour, so hopefully the photos we took will help.  Of course, one very special moment has to be mentioned! Whilst hovering over the Sydney Opera House, Keefys suddenly tipped Jacqui on the shoulder and handed over a small box.

(Jacqui's thoughts) - I just about managed to hear him shout " Will you marry me?" over the noise of the helicopter.  It totally took me by surprise and for quite a while I was actually speechless. I was already caught up with all the emotion and excitement of flying above Sydney in a helicopter and was desperately trying to take it all in, so Keefys asking me to marry him on top of all that really blew my mind.  I was so happy!  Once I was able to get my head in gear, I was able to mouth the words "yes", but Keefys didn't hear me the first time and so he found himself asking me if I'd actually said yes or not.  Of course, I said "yes" again!.  Wow! What a feeling!

click here for arial views of Sydney

We certainly never thought we would be flying over Sydney in a helicopter when our holiday first started. We told the lady at Heliscenic who's name was Sheila, about our happy news and she seemed over the moon. She asked us for a photo of us getting engaged in one of her helicopters.

We were then taken back to our hotel to enjoy the rest of the day, which we did by catching the ferry to Manley and having a posh slap up meal of lasagne and chips overlooking the main Manley beach.  Afterwards, we strolled through the shops for a while before heading back to the ferry to take us back to Sydney. (It must be said that one of the best cappuccino coffees was had whilst waiting for the ferry).   As we left the ferry we heard the sound of bagpipes and had to investigate. We found a loan piper standing on the Quayside, the Opera House behind him and with an admiring audience.  It was a must for another photo call!.  We then set off back to the hotel taking care not to catch the 443 bus.  We had just enough time to get changed before we met  Chris and Denise for the evening ferry cruise.   What a splendid way to end our visit to Sydney.  After a burger at Hungry Jacks and a couple of beers at the hotel bar, we said our found farewells to our new found friends and went off back to our hotel room for a good nights sleep ready for the next exciting stage of our holiday, when we would set off for the haunting Ayres Rock.