D65 -- Goodbye NZ, Hello Oz

We said goodbye to New Zealand and jumped on a plane to Sydney, where we were met by our friendly B&B hosts, Declan and Peter. The B&B is called Ardmore House, and Elva found it through a search on Tripadvisor. For those of you who are not familiar with this site, we can't recommend it enough. It contains user reviews for accommodations in particular cities, and ranks them based on the number of good reviews they receive. We find the reviews to be quite reliable, and there are often good tips for neightborhood restaurants and transportation. In fact, we've relied on Tripadvisor so much that we've decided to contribute a few reviews ourselves, starting with the place we stayed at in Buenos Aires.

Elva discovered the Ardmore House because the people on Tripadvisor were just raving about it, making it one of the highest ranked accommodation choices in Sydney. There was uniform praise for Declan & Peter, and so we were excited to finally meet them. They were very welcoming, and Peter in particular is quite the character. He retired 9 years ago from life as an opera signer, and he shared great stories about his many adventures, including performing for Queen Elizabeth six different times. Declan is originally from Ireland and recently retired from a career in the travel industry. They have a wonderful dog, Tara, who of course made us miss our own dog. Peter took us on short walk about the neighborhood to help us get our bearings, and we are looking forward to spending more time with them during our 5 days in Sydney.

-Tom