Scenes from a New South Wales Sunday

My Australian co-worker and I spent Sunday as tourists. "I love being a tourist in my own country," he said repeatedly. I loved it too; it was fun to watch the looks on other people's faces when he introduced himself in his thick Melbourne accent as an "American."

Here are a few snaps from our day, which started in a bright sunny downtown Sydney morning and wound through the Hunter Valley, the eastern Australia coast's wine country.

Sydneysiders love their city, and they love summer, both with good reason.

The Queen Victoria Building. It was a train station. Now it's a mall. In between, it was almost torn down. Score a big one for the preservationists.

The obligatory kangaroo picture. Saw this one at the Australia Walkabout Wildlife Park near Calga.

In 1830, a bunch of convicts were assigned to build a road from Sydney north to the Hunter Valley. Much of the road remains. Read more about it here.

The vineyards at the Brokenwood Winery.