Tuesday was a beautiful sunny day and a great one to be out on the water. Wed decided to go ahead with something we'd seen on our first day, Jetboating. It was really good fun and definitely a different way to see the harbour. We went ll the way up the harbour to the entrance and saw all the places and bays that we've been to before. We went to Watsons Bay, Balmoral, Mosman Bay and all a lot quicker than we could have got there any other way! We were going at speeds of up to 80kph doing slides, spins, fishtails and sudden stops. All in all a very fun but wet morning!
Today was another sunny day and we were happy to stick to our plan of going the 7 miles to Manly (7 miles from Sydney, a thousand miles from care apparently!!). We arrived at midday and took a stroll down the main high street, towards the ocean surfing beach. There are lots of surfing shops amongst cool little cafes, nice for a stroll around. The beach itself is huge with good waves all along it. This being the case I thought it would be rude not to hire a board so went along, got one and went surfing for an hour. It was really fun, great exercise and really good to be out on the water again. Megan stayed on shore and read, took photos and acted as timekeeper for me. The beach is lined with really tall pines which look nice but cause massive shadows as soon as the sun drops even a little bit. By 3pm it was pretty chilly with most of the beach in shade so we headed back up to the front and had a cup of tea to warm up. On the way back to the ferry we popped into the surf shops and indulged ourselves on t-shirts! Ended up leaving Manly at about 5pm so we managed to make a good day of our trip.
Wednesday, 30 April 2008
Monday, 28 April 2008
Lots of Beaches and Sydney Tower
ANZAC day morning saw us going round the Wollongong local beaches. These were really nice beaches, long stretches of sand with next to no-one on them. In the UK, a beach like that would be very famous and a tourist attraction. Here it is just the norm! Everyone has heard of Bondi but who has heard of Wollongong North and South beaches?! Not many foreigners, yet they were just as nice as Bondi, with some great surfing waves too. We also took a scenic drive up Mt. Keira to a stunning lookout point from where we could see all of Wollongong and the great mountain surrounds.On Friday night we stayed at Ben and Fahmiyas and in the morning were taken to Paddington Markets. They were great markets with lots of really busy stalls, obviously a local favourite. They were stalls for most things here but the majority were art and clothes. There were also a lot of young designers selling goods here, hoping to be picked up by design companies that look for new talent here. In the afternoon we went to another family meal, this time at Salma's house. We had met everyone the previous week so it was nice to be a bit more relaxed. We also saw Zahra again who is taking us to the Sydney Swans AFL match next Sunday!
Yesterday we caught the first ferry over to the city and met with Ben, Fahmiya and their friends for Yum Cha, a chinese buffet style brunch. This was ok but slightly chaotic first thing in the morning! After leaving here we went on a long drive over to Palm Beach on the far north of Sydney. This is where Home & Away is filmed apparently (Summer Bay??) but I never watched it so I wouldn't know! It was a great beach with some nice waves, we went for a swim which was pretty hard work as there was a strong sideways current.
On the way back we stopped at Balmoral, a nice little beach with a sailing club that I'm sure someone I worked with in Italy said she had worked at! We had fish and chips here as the sun set and it was a really nice end to our third week here (I can't believe how fast it had gone!).
So, Monday, the start of our final week! Today we planned to go and do the Sydney Tower. We could have done this earlier but I wanted to make sure that the BridgeClimb was the first time I saw Sydney from on high! I'm glad we did it that way round too because this was ok but nothing that special. Don't get me wrong there were great views all around but we didn't know what we were looking at really. It's lucky we had been here for 3 weeks and had been to any places, we could pick them out. There was a distinct lack of information up there which was a shame. It was also pretty expensive for what it was, this was just a good view, the BridgeClimb was an experience!
Yesterday we caught the first ferry over to the city and met with Ben, Fahmiya and their friends for Yum Cha, a chinese buffet style brunch. This was ok but slightly chaotic first thing in the morning! After leaving here we went on a long drive over to Palm Beach on the far north of Sydney. This is where Home & Away is filmed apparently (Summer Bay??) but I never watched it so I wouldn't know! It was a great beach with some nice waves, we went for a swim which was pretty hard work as there was a strong sideways current.
On the way back we stopped at Balmoral, a nice little beach with a sailing club that I'm sure someone I worked with in Italy said she had worked at! We had fish and chips here as the sun set and it was a really nice end to our third week here (I can't believe how fast it had gone!).
So, Monday, the start of our final week! Today we planned to go and do the Sydney Tower. We could have done this earlier but I wanted to make sure that the BridgeClimb was the first time I saw Sydney from on high! I'm glad we did it that way round too because this was ok but nothing that special. Don't get me wrong there were great views all around but we didn't know what we were looking at really. It's lucky we had been here for 3 weeks and had been to any places, we could pick them out. There was a distinct lack of information up there which was a shame. It was also pretty expensive for what it was, this was just a good view, the BridgeClimb was an experience!After we came down, we did as Hazel my Godmother suggested (and paid for as a present to us both) and went to Watsons Bay for sunset and fish & chips. The weather cleared up jut enough for the sunset to be really nice. From here you get a great and not typical view of the city in the far distance. It was really nice to see it from a different perspective for once.
The plan for the rest of the week is Jetboating, Manly Beach, a couple of dinners out, a visit to Luna Park and a trip to the SCG to watch the Swans!
The plan for the rest of the week is Jetboating, Manly Beach, a couple of dinners out, a visit to Luna Park and a trip to the SCG to watch the Swans!
Thursday, 24 April 2008
Exploring the 'burbs
For the last few days we've been discovering the areas around Sydney that are off the beaten track, at least off the track usually beaten by English backpackers! This is one of the many benefits of staying with locals, the not so famous places are still just as nice as all those that people across the world know about.
On Tuesday we went back to Newtown to have a proper look around, it was raining first thing in the morning but luckily had stopped for once by the time we wanted to leave. There are so many shops in Newtown that we had plenty to keep us occupied. The area is very vibrant and full of lots of second-hand shops, boutique shops and design-style shops. In amongst all of these, there are also some really cool little cafes and restaurants. As soon as we got off the bus at 11am we started going onto shops and carried on all day until about 4pm. This isn't usually my sort of thing so if I enjoyed it they must have been good! It is just different to the usual 'city shops' that you find all across the world, here you will never find the same 2 things in 5 hours of searching!
On Wednesday we left at about 11am with Zeena to drive down to Wollongong, where her parents live. We went via the Royal National Park (the second oldest national park in the world after Yellowstone in the USA) which was really nice. We went on a short walk (about an hour) along the coast to see the stunning landscape, sheer cliffs, overhangs and big crashing waves. It felt lot more like we were walking in England than Australia, especially with the grey overcast weather. This is one of the awesome things about Australia, the diversity
of the landscape in a short distance is very impressive. After scaring each other silly by taking photos right on the very edge of ridiculously high cliffs we headed on to Wollongong where we dumped our stuff and were given a brief tour. This is the area that Fahmiya and Zeena grew up (from the ages of 5 and 10 respectively) so we saw their old school and old houses etc. That evening we visited Zeenas friends Irene and Keith for dinner which was quite an experience. Their house is amazing, it is built on a slope and designed to fit in with the surrounding landscape, it was huge with a beautiful wooden interior. They had it designed and built to their specifications 40 years ago and it is still fabulous. Irene and Keith were both in their mid-70's and both really nice. Keith was going slightly deaf and by his own admission slightly odd in his old age but he is a professor of maths so it is to be expected! Irene is a prominent figure in local community groups and told us all about the corruption and scandals in the local government. She is also an intrepid explorer and told us tales of how on her 60th birthday she decided to go to Melbourne on the train and cycle back just because she could. Then on her 70th birthday she wanted a holiday so took a train across Russia, Siberia and Northern Europe to see as many countries and cities as she could, all by herself! So obviously she was interested to hear all about our travels and stories. We all had some great conversations over a lovely inner (finished by amazing homemade nougat and ice-cream!!), it's always nice to meet the locals!
Today we went even further afield down into the Southern Highland (sounds like we were in Scotland!). Once again the weather was overcast and drizzly but this was good as from the car we could see the amazing landscape of the mountains with clouds rolling over the edge. Unfortunately when we got further up we couldn't really see a lot but instead got to study the anatomy of a cloud! Late morning, we stopped at a little town called Bowral where it was raining and had the lovely temperature of 12C! We stopped at a small cafe called 'Elephant Boy Cafe' which was really cosy with walls covered in book-cases and comfy chairs. It was here where we had lunch and ate possibly the best pies I have ever eaten (sorry Granny and Jojo!!). From here
we continued on down the coast to Jervis Bay, a beautiful bay which is Zeena favourite place in the world (and she's been to quite a few places!), and she's even put it in her will that her ashes are going to be spread here! The beaches are beautiful with white sands and forests surrounding them. We went on a walk to a lookout point from which you could see the entire bay with waves crashing just below us at the entrance. From here, when we were just about to leave, Megan spotted some dark shapes in the water which then started jumping and turned out to be a pod of dolphins! When we went back to the beach we saw them pretty close up, there must have been at least or 7 all together, jumping around. The sight was made even more beautiful by the rainbow appearing overhead! As we were leaving to go back to the car we had a little wallaby hop alongside us in the brush and have a nibble from some plants, really cool to see!
We arrived back at about 7pm to Fahmiya and Zeenas parents to a dinner of traditional Sri Lankan curry which was awesome. We were also treated to plenty of stories from them both, they are both really nice and very welcoming. All the family is here as it is ANZAC (Australian and New Zealand Armed Corps) day tomorrow which is a public holiday similar to remembrance day in the UK. We are having a big family lunch before heading back to the city.
On Tuesday we went back to Newtown to have a proper look around, it was raining first thing in the morning but luckily had stopped for once by the time we wanted to leave. There are so many shops in Newtown that we had plenty to keep us occupied. The area is very vibrant and full of lots of second-hand shops, boutique shops and design-style shops. In amongst all of these, there are also some really cool little cafes and restaurants. As soon as we got off the bus at 11am we started going onto shops and carried on all day until about 4pm. This isn't usually my sort of thing so if I enjoyed it they must have been good! It is just different to the usual 'city shops' that you find all across the world, here you will never find the same 2 things in 5 hours of searching!
On Wednesday we left at about 11am with Zeena to drive down to Wollongong, where her parents live. We went via the Royal National Park (the second oldest national park in the world after Yellowstone in the USA) which was really nice. We went on a short walk (about an hour) along the coast to see the stunning landscape, sheer cliffs, overhangs and big crashing waves. It felt lot more like we were walking in England than Australia, especially with the grey overcast weather. This is one of the awesome things about Australia, the diversity
of the landscape in a short distance is very impressive. After scaring each other silly by taking photos right on the very edge of ridiculously high cliffs we headed on to Wollongong where we dumped our stuff and were given a brief tour. This is the area that Fahmiya and Zeena grew up (from the ages of 5 and 10 respectively) so we saw their old school and old houses etc. That evening we visited Zeenas friends Irene and Keith for dinner which was quite an experience. Their house is amazing, it is built on a slope and designed to fit in with the surrounding landscape, it was huge with a beautiful wooden interior. They had it designed and built to their specifications 40 years ago and it is still fabulous. Irene and Keith were both in their mid-70's and both really nice. Keith was going slightly deaf and by his own admission slightly odd in his old age but he is a professor of maths so it is to be expected! Irene is a prominent figure in local community groups and told us all about the corruption and scandals in the local government. She is also an intrepid explorer and told us tales of how on her 60th birthday she decided to go to Melbourne on the train and cycle back just because she could. Then on her 70th birthday she wanted a holiday so took a train across Russia, Siberia and Northern Europe to see as many countries and cities as she could, all by herself! So obviously she was interested to hear all about our travels and stories. We all had some great conversations over a lovely inner (finished by amazing homemade nougat and ice-cream!!), it's always nice to meet the locals!Today we went even further afield down into the Southern Highland (sounds like we were in Scotland!). Once again the weather was overcast and drizzly but this was good as from the car we could see the amazing landscape of the mountains with clouds rolling over the edge. Unfortunately when we got further up we couldn't really see a lot but instead got to study the anatomy of a cloud! Late morning, we stopped at a little town called Bowral where it was raining and had the lovely temperature of 12C! We stopped at a small cafe called 'Elephant Boy Cafe' which was really cosy with walls covered in book-cases and comfy chairs. It was here where we had lunch and ate possibly the best pies I have ever eaten (sorry Granny and Jojo!!). From here
we continued on down the coast to Jervis Bay, a beautiful bay which is Zeena favourite place in the world (and she's been to quite a few places!), and she's even put it in her will that her ashes are going to be spread here! The beaches are beautiful with white sands and forests surrounding them. We went on a walk to a lookout point from which you could see the entire bay with waves crashing just below us at the entrance. From here, when we were just about to leave, Megan spotted some dark shapes in the water which then started jumping and turned out to be a pod of dolphins! When we went back to the beach we saw them pretty close up, there must have been at least or 7 all together, jumping around. The sight was made even more beautiful by the rainbow appearing overhead! As we were leaving to go back to the car we had a little wallaby hop alongside us in the brush and have a nibble from some plants, really cool to see!We arrived back at about 7pm to Fahmiya and Zeenas parents to a dinner of traditional Sri Lankan curry which was awesome. We were also treated to plenty of stories from them both, they are both really nice and very welcoming. All the family is here as it is ANZAC (Australian and New Zealand Armed Corps) day tomorrow which is a public holiday similar to remembrance day in the UK. We are having a big family lunch before heading back to the city.
Wednesday, 23 April 2008
Weather
It has been raining for 11 consecutive days, a 15 year record according to the weather tonight. Just our luck!
Monday, 21 April 2008
Birthday Parties + Exploring
Friday evening saw us head out for a night on "The Rocks" as it was the birthday of Megans uni friend, Steve. We started at the Lord Nelson where they brew their own beers (always deadly) at 5.30pm. It was really nice as it wasn't too busy and we were able to chat with Steve who moved out here straight after uni and was getting married on Sunday. We also met lots of his family and friends who took the opportunity to have an Australian holiday. The Lord Nelson is one of few pubs in Sydney that serves pints and I took full advantage of such a rarity, trying many if their different brews! We left here at about 8pm and headed for one of our Sydney favourites, "The Fortune Of War". The plan was just to have one more drink and then head home but there was a musician there who changed our plans, 'Lance Link'. Crap name but the music was great, he was just playing an acoustic guitar and singing whatever song people shouted out. This kept us amused until we were suitably jolly and 11pm and headed home.
Saturday morning was slightly written off what with the recovering from the night before but in the afternoon we headed further up north to 'Cheltenham' (it's sometimes like being back in England driving around over here!) for an afternoon birthday tea. It was Fahmiya's cousin Zara's birthday and it was nice to meet her as she (along with some other friends) is taking us to watch Sydney Swans in the AFL at the end of our stay here. We got to meet a lot of Fahmiya's family and also eat some heart-cloggingly good chocolate cake!
On Sunday we headed for Newtown, a slightly more arty, fashionable area of Sydney to meet Ben and Fahm for breakfast (which ended up being lunch), and a look round a few funky shops. Lots were closed and some were late opening because it was a Sunday so we decided to come back another day and instead went to the Australian Museum, where they had a dinosaur exhibition. This was really good and the girls both seemed to enjoy it. We also looked at some amazing Indigenous artwork and stories, the skeletons of all the typical Australian animals and the largest Gold Nugget ever found!
We had to get back to Zeenas for around 6pm as earlier in the day when I went to check ferry times I found a woman's purse. There were lots of credit and business cards but no phone number. I spent the next little while using my detective skills to get a phone number and let the woman know I had it. It had probably been stolen as she was very surprised where I found it and didn't seem to know the area at all. That was my good deed for the day and she was even nice enough to buy a box of chocolates to say thanks!
Today we went to Darling Harbour for a better look around, it was really nice and there are some lovely bars and cafes on the waterfront. You can tell they'd be great in the summer but it was once again grey and horrible for us! Megan managed to find a shop where they told us all about UGG boots and how the "proper" ones in the UK are actually American (hence why they're so expensive) and how UGG over here is just a style, not a company. We managed to find the original UGGs that the Americans copied and they are possibly even better anyway, plus they were less than half the price. Megan paid $99 (about 45 pounds) for some that she has wanted for ages and would have paid 100 pounds or more for in the UK.
We got the mid-afternoon munchies and found the wonderful 'Lindt Chocolate Cafe' to satiate ourselves. Megan ate some Lindt profiteroles and I gorged myself on a waffle with white chocolate ice cream and hot Lindt sauce. I couldn't help thinking that Mum would be very jealous if she knew! For the next 2 nights we are staying at Ben and Fahmiya's and tonight we're having roast for dinner! Yay!!!
Saturday morning was slightly written off what with the recovering from the night before but in the afternoon we headed further up north to 'Cheltenham' (it's sometimes like being back in England driving around over here!) for an afternoon birthday tea. It was Fahmiya's cousin Zara's birthday and it was nice to meet her as she (along with some other friends) is taking us to watch Sydney Swans in the AFL at the end of our stay here. We got to meet a lot of Fahmiya's family and also eat some heart-cloggingly good chocolate cake!
On Sunday we headed for Newtown, a slightly more arty, fashionable area of Sydney to meet Ben and Fahm for breakfast (which ended up being lunch), and a look round a few funky shops. Lots were closed and some were late opening because it was a Sunday so we decided to come back another day and instead went to the Australian Museum, where they had a dinosaur exhibition. This was really good and the girls both seemed to enjoy it. We also looked at some amazing Indigenous artwork and stories, the skeletons of all the typical Australian animals and the largest Gold Nugget ever found!
We had to get back to Zeenas for around 6pm as earlier in the day when I went to check ferry times I found a woman's purse. There were lots of credit and business cards but no phone number. I spent the next little while using my detective skills to get a phone number and let the woman know I had it. It had probably been stolen as she was very surprised where I found it and didn't seem to know the area at all. That was my good deed for the day and she was even nice enough to buy a box of chocolates to say thanks!
Today we went to Darling Harbour for a better look around, it was really nice and there are some lovely bars and cafes on the waterfront. You can tell they'd be great in the summer but it was once again grey and horrible for us! Megan managed to find a shop where they told us all about UGG boots and how the "proper" ones in the UK are actually American (hence why they're so expensive) and how UGG over here is just a style, not a company. We managed to find the original UGGs that the Americans copied and they are possibly even better anyway, plus they were less than half the price. Megan paid $99 (about 45 pounds) for some that she has wanted for ages and would have paid 100 pounds or more for in the UK.
We got the mid-afternoon munchies and found the wonderful 'Lindt Chocolate Cafe' to satiate ourselves. Megan ate some Lindt profiteroles and I gorged myself on a waffle with white chocolate ice cream and hot Lindt sauce. I couldn't help thinking that Mum would be very jealous if she knew! For the next 2 nights we are staying at Ben and Fahmiya's and tonight we're having roast for dinner! Yay!!!
Friday, 18 April 2008
Babysitting
After the busy weekend we decided to take it easy for a couple of days, but that doesn't mean we didn't do anything. There hasn't been a single day where we've stayed in and done nothing whilst in Sydney!
On Monday we braved the rain (again) and headed for the "Powerhouse Museum" near Darling Harbour. This was a pretty good museum with lots of exhibitions including the Australian Design Awards and some good displays on Space travel. The main attraction, however, was "Diana: A Celebration", a massive exhibition currently touring the world. It was really good and showed lots of things from her life, including her ridiculously long wedding dress (25 feet seems slightly excessive!).
On Tuesday we wandered around 'The Rocks' for a little while again and managed to stumble across a restaurant that we've been looking for since we arrived. It's called Phillips Foote and it is a sort of pub come restaurant come butchers shop, they sell quality steak that you can then cook yourself on one of the massive grills. It looks like a really nice place so we'll be going there hopefully in our last week in Sydney. In the evening we went back to Darling Harbour and met up with Zeena and her friends to go to the Imax cinema to watch the worlds first 3D concert. We watched some of the U2 "Vertigo" tour and I realised that I didn't actually like U2 as much as I thought I did! I appreciated the idea and the technology though, the 3D side of it was great but the music just wasn't really my cup of tea. Luckily, Megan and everyone else really enjoyed it! When we got home we were picked up by Fahmiya as we were going to be looking after Shari and Aaliyah for 2 days.
The girls were really good for us and we didn't have any screaming fits and not too many tantrums (only one actually, about ice-cream . . . . . . understandable really!). On Thursday as a special treat we took Shari to Sydney Aquarium which she really enjoyed. It was an excellent aquarium with great displays of all sorts of marine life. She loved the seals, sharks and obviously the clownfish, she spent most of the time saying: "wanna see nemo, wanna see nemo, wanna see nemo". Luckily there was a big display, if they didn't have any I don't know what we would have done! We ended the day by taking Shari on a couple of ferry trips to get back to Zeena where Fahmiya met us.
Hard work but fun looking after them and that was only 2 days!
On Monday we braved the rain (again) and headed for the "Powerhouse Museum" near Darling Harbour. This was a pretty good museum with lots of exhibitions including the Australian Design Awards and some good displays on Space travel. The main attraction, however, was "Diana: A Celebration", a massive exhibition currently touring the world. It was really good and showed lots of things from her life, including her ridiculously long wedding dress (25 feet seems slightly excessive!).
On Tuesday we wandered around 'The Rocks' for a little while again and managed to stumble across a restaurant that we've been looking for since we arrived. It's called Phillips Foote and it is a sort of pub come restaurant come butchers shop, they sell quality steak that you can then cook yourself on one of the massive grills. It looks like a really nice place so we'll be going there hopefully in our last week in Sydney. In the evening we went back to Darling Harbour and met up with Zeena and her friends to go to the Imax cinema to watch the worlds first 3D concert. We watched some of the U2 "Vertigo" tour and I realised that I didn't actually like U2 as much as I thought I did! I appreciated the idea and the technology though, the 3D side of it was great but the music just wasn't really my cup of tea. Luckily, Megan and everyone else really enjoyed it! When we got home we were picked up by Fahmiya as we were going to be looking after Shari and Aaliyah for 2 days.
The girls were really good for us and we didn't have any screaming fits and not too many tantrums (only one actually, about ice-cream . . . . . . understandable really!). On Thursday as a special treat we took Shari to Sydney Aquarium which she really enjoyed. It was an excellent aquarium with great displays of all sorts of marine life. She loved the seals, sharks and obviously the clownfish, she spent most of the time saying: "wanna see nemo, wanna see nemo, wanna see nemo". Luckily there was a big display, if they didn't have any I don't know what we would have done! We ended the day by taking Shari on a couple of ferry trips to get back to Zeena where Fahmiya met us.Hard work but fun looking after them and that was only 2 days!
Monday, 14 April 2008
Blue Mountains
The Blue Mountains, so called because of the blue haze around them, are about an hour and a half drive from Sydney. To make the most of out first day we left nice & early, 8am on Saturday morning. We arrived at out cottage in "Wentworth Falls", a nice little village sitting at about 900m. Strange to think that in Europe this would be getting up to ski resort level when here it was a relatively warm 21C! After dumping all our stuff in our cosy little cottage we headed off for a bush walk in the mountains. We headed for the "National Pass" walk along the middle of the cliff. To get there we had to go down a lot of steps through "The Valley of the Waters", a series of magnificent waterfalls made even more spectacular due to the fact it has actually been raining recently, filling the rivers & streams. 
After passing through (and around & even under!) the falls we got to the National Pass with some amazing views of the valleys and mountains, covered with dense forests of trees where people have probably never been. After about 90 minutes walking we got to the falls themselves, beautiful high falls made even more magnificent by the sun shining over the top making them sparkle. We stopped at the bottom and had a picnic lunch before heading to the top of the falls. The walk up to the "Overcliff Pass" was quite challenging as it was via a series of steps carved from the rock, over 600 steps in fact! Once at the top we walked along the top of the cliff with even more breathtaking views, eventually arriving back where we started after a great 4 hour trek.Yesterday we got up early again and headed for "Echo Point", the most visited place in the Blue Mountains. The reason being, its the main view point for the
"Three Sisters" rock formation, a pretty strange formation with three pillars of rock standing alone at the end of a cliff when all around them has eroded away. We were planning to meet Ben, Fahmiya, Shari & Aaliyah later on so we didn't have time for a long walk but instead we did the "Giant Stairway" a challenging stairway down the cliff mostly carved from the rock but occasionally with extra metal stairs. We counted the steps and there were 901, and that's just one way! so 1802 steps (and a ridiculously sweaty back) later we got back to the top and went to the little mountain village of Leura to meet up with everyone and have lunch. After lunch Ben & Fahmiya took us to see the place they got married, and what a place it was! The view is amazing, there can't be a more picturesque wedding place! After playing with the girls and pushing them on swings we went to visit Katoomba where there is a scenic railway, skyway and cable car down into the valley. We took the worlds steepest railway down, with it's steepest incline being 52 degrees and the average incline being 43 degrees. It was a lot steeper than it sounded, especially feeling it whilst going through the 80 metre natural tunnel (pitch black!) through the cliff face! After a short walk, we came back up via the scenic skyway which Shari seemed to enjoy! After all the exercise of the last couple of days we were definitely ready for bed after the drive home!Friday, 11 April 2008
I've had the climb of my life!
We checked out the weather forecast for next week and it doesn't sound great (again!) but we heard that Friday (today) was going to be good. We called up the Bridge Climb people and asked about the weather and decided that today was going to be best. Luckily they had space left on the 3.45pm climb which would get us to the top for sunset (3.5hr total trip time). We used the vouchers that Mum & Dad bought for my 21st, a great idea by them!
At the start of the day there was quite a lot of cloud and I was a little nervous that the forecast was wrong but as the day went on the clouds cleared up until it was totally clear. We arrived at Bridge Climb at 3.45pm and began our briefing and kitting up, donning our lovely grey jumpsuits. After about 30-40 minutes we got outside and started the climb itself. I think the worst/scariest part was right at the start when we had to walk above the road and water and could see straight through the walkway to the city below. Once we got onto the archway everything was fine and we had a clear view of the beautiful city below us. We took our time slowly walking up to the height of 134 metres above Sydney, stopping to take photos and take in the amazing views. On the way up a seaplane flew over & our guide encouraged us to wave, we did and the plane gave us a wave back by tipping his wings!
It was great to see the city in the day but when we got to the top we saw the sun setting. This was really amazing as we could see it actually getting lower over the distant Blue Mountains until it was completely gone and all that was left was an amazing orange hue over the horizon. Once the sun had gone the guide pointed out some famous Sydney buildings including the PM's house, a big shiny building used in the Matrix but the best one was the building where the dentists office from "Finding Nemo" would be! We crossed over at the summit and made our way down the western arch as night fell. It was great to see and experience the bridge and city in all three states, day, night and sunset (although in summer you can also watch sunrise.......if you arrived at 3.30am!!) The bridge climb was an absolutely amazing experience, a great birthday present!
P.S. I managed to finish the day off by slicing the end of my finger open. Spent the rest of the evening with my hand up, "put your hand up if you're an idiot!!"
At the start of the day there was quite a lot of cloud and I was a little nervous that the forecast was wrong but as the day went on the clouds cleared up until it was totally clear. We arrived at Bridge Climb at 3.45pm and began our briefing and kitting up, donning our lovely grey jumpsuits. After about 30-40 minutes we got outside and started the climb itself. I think the worst/scariest part was right at the start when we had to walk above the road and water and could see straight through the walkway to the city below. Once we got onto the archway everything was fine and we had a clear view of the beautiful city below us. We took our time slowly walking up to the height of 134 metres above Sydney, stopping to take photos and take in the amazing views. On the way up a seaplane flew over & our guide encouraged us to wave, we did and the plane gave us a wave back by tipping his wings!
It was great to see the city in the day but when we got to the top we saw the sun setting. This was really amazing as we could see it actually getting lower over the distant Blue Mountains until it was completely gone and all that was left was an amazing orange hue over the horizon. Once the sun had gone the guide pointed out some famous Sydney buildings including the PM's house, a big shiny building used in the Matrix but the best one was the building where the dentists office from "Finding Nemo" would be! We crossed over at the summit and made our way down the western arch as night fell. It was great to see and experience the bridge and city in all three states, day, night and sunset (although in summer you can also watch sunrise.......if you arrived at 3.30am!!) The bridge climb was an absolutely amazing experience, a great birthday present!
P.S. I managed to finish the day off by slicing the end of my finger open. Spent the rest of the evening with my hand up, "put your hand up if you're an idiot!!"
Chilled Week
Since the opera house visit, this week has been pretty chilled and relaxed. The weather hasn't been great with occasional showers on most days. We began the week by visiting the Botanical Gardens in the city, they were really pretty and definitely a lot nicer than the last ones we visited.......Bundaberg. It was nice enough weather and really good to wander around and see all the plants and wildlife, including a huge colony of flying foxes (fruit bats). They were all hanging upside down in the trees, chittering away, and they are HUGE! The park was a wonderful place for a picnic so we stopped and ate with a good view of the harbour, the bridge and the opera house. We also walked round to "Mrs Macquaries Point" a perfect place if you were here on new years eve as you get the classic view of the harbour, brilliant to watch the fireworks off the bridge! Just as we left here it started raining so we had to run between trees in between the showers, eventually we gave up and walked in the rain until it stopped. We then went and explored the city a little more.On Wednesday the weather still wasn't great so we took ourselves off to a big shopping centre, Bondi Juction. To get there we went by train, unremarkable usually, but we went on a double-decker train, how novel! Bondi Junction was really nice, loads of shops and restaurants here making for a busy day before finishing it off by visiting the cinema to see Will Ferrells new film "Semi Pro".
On waking up yesterday morning we were very surprised to see it was really nice weather so we decided to make the most of it and headed to the beach down at Bondi. It was really nice weather, not too hot but definitely not cold!
Tuesday, 8 April 2008
Swan Lake
When we were in town on Sunday we popped into the Opera House just out of interest to see what was on and how much it cost. The friendly information person told us that Swan Lake was the major show at the moment but it was currently showing "Sold Out". He did tell us that sometimes tickets become available and also that on Mondays there was a deal for under 27s. We decided that we would call first thing Monday morning on the off-chance of getting something and we were in luck! We managed to buy the last two tickets in the whole theatre and for less than half price, $53 instead of $121!!Having spent so much money so early in the morning we decided to chill out for the rest of the day before heading to the city at around 4pm. We had a bit of an explore around some shopping streets before heading back towards the Opera House at about 6.30pm where we saw the bridge and Opera House lit up at night for the first time, they both looked stunning. We somehow managed to miss out on seeing them at sunset but we'll save that for another day! After picking up our tickets we had a drink in the magnificent surroundings before heading to our seats. I'm not sure why they were the last to be sold as they were brilliant. In the circle, row D and smack bang in the middle. The show itself was amazing, to watch the Australian Ballet, accompanied by the Australian Opera and Ballet Orchestra was one thing but to do so in the Sydney Opera House was something else!
Sunday, 6 April 2008
Arrival in Sydney
So here we are, finally in the big city where we will be making our longest stop in Australia, we are planning to stay here until the beginning of May. We arrived into Central Station late afternoon on Friday and were immediately met by Megans Uncle Ben and his oldest daughter, Shari (who was unfortunately not very well). This being so, we went straight back to their flat in Earlwood, about 7km from the city. We spent the rest of the afternoon chatting with Ben and drawing with Shari until Fahmiya came home with 1 yr old Aaliyah. It was great for me to meet everyone but even better for Megan as she is the first from her family to visit and also the first to meet Aaliyah!
On Saturday we were given a quick driving tour of Sydney and its suburbs after taking our first look at the world famous Bondi Beach. It's really nice with some pretty decent waves, we'll definitely be back for a couple of days there. There are also some other nice (less crowded) beaches on the south coast that we were shown. We were then taken across the Sydney Harbour Bridge (amazing!!) to North Sydney where we would be staying for the month with Zeena, Fahmiya's sister. She lives in Mosman Bay with an apartment overlooking a small marina and surrounded by trees, I'm sure the view could be much worse!! It is pretty difficult to get into the city centre by car or bus from here which could have been pretty annoying but instead there is a ferry service
which takes 2 mins to get to and 18 mins to get over to Circular Quay in the city. It was using this ferry today that we got our first sight of Sydney Harbour (or Port Jackson to use its real name!). As we came round the corner of Cremorne Point we were greeted with the oddly familiar view of the Harbour full of sailing boats with the backdrop of the Sydney Opera House and the magnificent Harbour Bridge (or, The Old Coat Hanger, as it is apparently sometimes known!?!)
The plan was to spend the day watching the "Red Bull Flugtag", which is basically people trying to fly with homemade contraptions and rarely ever doing so. Instead they just fell ungracefully into the waters of the Botanical Gardens. This was very disorganised with lots of big boats getting in everyones way and also the whole thing took SO long. We stayed for about an hour or more and then went and had a picnic on the steps of the picturesque Opera House. The rest of the afternoon was spent walking around the oldest area of Sydney, "The Rocks". There are lots of unique shops , lovely buildings and also a weekend market which was huge and worth a browse. We then went to the information centre and picked up a ton of leaflets for things to do here, as to keep happy I need plans!
We were then lucky enough to happen upon a pub called "Fortune Of War" where we had a drink and listened to some old time, upbeat jazz with a clarinet, double bass and banjo. It just so happens that this pub is also Sydney's oldest licensed establishment, built in 1823. A lucky find really!
We spent the evening sifting through the tons of leaflets deciding what was good to do and see in Sydney. We came up with quite a lot so hopefully we should have a fun and busy month!
On Saturday we were given a quick driving tour of Sydney and its suburbs after taking our first look at the world famous Bondi Beach. It's really nice with some pretty decent waves, we'll definitely be back for a couple of days there. There are also some other nice (less crowded) beaches on the south coast that we were shown. We were then taken across the Sydney Harbour Bridge (amazing!!) to North Sydney where we would be staying for the month with Zeena, Fahmiya's sister. She lives in Mosman Bay with an apartment overlooking a small marina and surrounded by trees, I'm sure the view could be much worse!! It is pretty difficult to get into the city centre by car or bus from here which could have been pretty annoying but instead there is a ferry service
which takes 2 mins to get to and 18 mins to get over to Circular Quay in the city. It was using this ferry today that we got our first sight of Sydney Harbour (or Port Jackson to use its real name!). As we came round the corner of Cremorne Point we were greeted with the oddly familiar view of the Harbour full of sailing boats with the backdrop of the Sydney Opera House and the magnificent Harbour Bridge (or, The Old Coat Hanger, as it is apparently sometimes known!?!)The plan was to spend the day watching the "Red Bull Flugtag", which is basically people trying to fly with homemade contraptions and rarely ever doing so. Instead they just fell ungracefully into the waters of the Botanical Gardens. This was very disorganised with lots of big boats getting in everyones way and also the whole thing took SO long. We stayed for about an hour or more and then went and had a picnic on the steps of the picturesque Opera House. The rest of the afternoon was spent walking around the oldest area of Sydney, "The Rocks". There are lots of unique shops , lovely buildings and also a weekend market which was huge and worth a browse. We then went to the information centre and picked up a ton of leaflets for things to do here, as to keep happy I need plans!
We were then lucky enough to happen upon a pub called "Fortune Of War" where we had a drink and listened to some old time, upbeat jazz with a clarinet, double bass and banjo. It just so happens that this pub is also Sydney's oldest licensed establishment, built in 1823. A lucky find really!
We spent the evening sifting through the tons of leaflets deciding what was good to do and see in Sydney. We came up with quite a lot so hopefully we should have a fun and busy month!
Friday, 4 April 2008
Port Macquarie
The only reason we ever planned to stop in "Port" (as the locals call it) was literally to break up the journey to Sydney. After Byron Bay there wasn't really anywhere we were desperate to see or anything we particularly wanted to do. So instead of a 15hr journey we thought we'd rather do two 7 and a half hour trips and port was a convenient place to stop. We weren't expecting much but we were pleasantly surprised, it's a lovely little seaside town with a few beaches, some nice walks and some great nature surrounding it. We didn't do a lot in our couple of days here, on Wednesday we went and played "Hydro Golf", basically a driving range into water with a few targets to hit to win prizes. Unfortunately, out of 2 buckets of balls, the closest either of us got to winning was Megan hitting the post holding a target up, we weren't too accurate! We then played 27 hole crazy golf where I came from 5 strokes behind to storm into a 3 stroke win. We then finished off the day by taking a stroll down to the town beach to throw a ball about. Port Macquarie is also situated at the mouth of a river so to get to the beach you have to walk along the breakwall of massive rocks. It seems to be quite popular to paint these rocks as every single one has painting and writing from people on holiday, honeymoon and even proposing to people via the rocks. It's pretty cool to walk along and see all the things people have put, it's like the worlds largest visitor book!!
Yesterday we went for a long walk along the coast to see all the beaches and lovely landscape, there were 4 beaches in total ending in the local surf beach, Flynns, where we stopped for lunch. Whilst there we saw something pretty cool, the local school came down to the beach for their PE lesson...........bodyboarding and surfing!! Awesome!! Early afternoon we made our way to one of
Port's prides, the regions only Koala Hospital. Any Koalas found injured or distressed in the area are brought here, cared for and released into the wild again. It is a brilliant operation and a great cause yet they receive no funding. The animals they take in would never survive in the wild, they have been hit by cars, attacked by dogs, caught in bush fires or have contracted diseases. Why the hospital doesn't receive help is beyond me. We were there for the afternoon feed of baby milk and vitamins and the Koalas were loving it, they couldn't get enough! We saw koalas that had been hit by cars, some burnt badly, one who was completely blind (a permanent resident) and 4 little joeys who were orphaned. All the others we saw, somewhat amusingly (for us, not them) were there because they had chlamydia.......odd!
Today we're on our way to Sydney, arriving to meet Ben, Fahmiya and the girls at about 4.30pm (we left at 9am).
Yesterday we went for a long walk along the coast to see all the beaches and lovely landscape, there were 4 beaches in total ending in the local surf beach, Flynns, where we stopped for lunch. Whilst there we saw something pretty cool, the local school came down to the beach for their PE lesson...........bodyboarding and surfing!! Awesome!! Early afternoon we made our way to one of
Port's prides, the regions only Koala Hospital. Any Koalas found injured or distressed in the area are brought here, cared for and released into the wild again. It is a brilliant operation and a great cause yet they receive no funding. The animals they take in would never survive in the wild, they have been hit by cars, attacked by dogs, caught in bush fires or have contracted diseases. Why the hospital doesn't receive help is beyond me. We were there for the afternoon feed of baby milk and vitamins and the Koalas were loving it, they couldn't get enough! We saw koalas that had been hit by cars, some burnt badly, one who was completely blind (a permanent resident) and 4 little joeys who were orphaned. All the others we saw, somewhat amusingly (for us, not them) were there because they had chlamydia.......odd!Today we're on our way to Sydney, arriving to meet Ben, Fahmiya and the girls at about 4.30pm (we left at 9am).
Tuesday, 1 April 2008
Byron Bay
We arrived in Byron Bay on Saturday evening, our first stop in New South Wales and confusingly we found ourselves in a new time zone. Time usually only changes going east or west and considering we'd only gone south that was a bit odd! After checking into our very expensive hostel ($95pn) we took a walk around town and had a quick look at the shops and the beach before crashing out for the evening.
Sunday was a beautiful day, much nicer than the greyness we had at Surfers Paradise, so we went to the beach. There was hardly any surf on the Main Beach but apparently its better along the coast. It was a nice relaxing day finished off (or so we thought) by some drinks and live blues music at a bar and then sitting on the beach star gazing. It's amazing how much darker it is here, no light pollution (or clouds) make it a lot better night sky. We thought our night was over but as it turned out, it was far from it. One of the people we were sharing an apartment with came home a little bit worse for wear after apparently eating some "hash cookies", these did not go down too well and we spent the rest of the night playing nurse to her, i had to carry her to a bed as she had lost the ability to walk, we made her breathe into a paper bag (probably the first time I've been in possession of a paper bag since I was about 9!) and got her to drink water, fun times!
On Monday we decided to hire some bikes and cycle up to the famous lighthouse on Cape Byron and the most easterly point in mainland Australia. Unfortunately the bikes were rubbish and couldn't go into low gear making the climb very difficult. We ended up walking most of the way which took quite a while but was definitely worth it when we finally got to the top. The views were amazing, from here we could see all of Byron Bay and the surrounding coast and beaches. Looking out to sea there was absolutely nothing but blue, blue skies and blue waters as far as the eye could see with no clouds at all. The nearest thing to the most easterly point of Australia is New Zealand and that's not exactly close! From here we could also see turtles poking their heads up for air and a few dolphins coming to the surface and chasing fish. After a picnic in the shade we rode back down. This was a lot easier, a lot faster and a lot more fun! If we had wanted to, we could have got up early and taken a tour up to the lighthouse and been the first in Australia to see the sun rise. Unfortunately, due to the time the sun generally rises in the morning, this was never going to happen. So instead we contented ourselves with being the first in Australia to see in set! After dumping our thing we headed back to the beach and grabbed some fish and chips, listened to the hippies playing the bongos and watched the sun go down.
It was a beautiful sun set, lots of different colours in the sky but just as interesting were the
hippies. Byron Bay is the hippiest (if that's a word) place I've ever been, they all seem to like to dance randomly, play music and use hula-hoops (the big plastic thing, not the snack). There are lots of hippy type shops too, it makes it quite a cool little place to visit but I think I might get a bit weirded out if I stayed too long! On that note, we've now left and are on the train on the way to Port Macquarie, halfway between Byron Bay and Sydney. It's a day trip, we left at 8am and won't be arriving until about 4pm. Once again a short distance on the map but not in reality!!
Sunday was a beautiful day, much nicer than the greyness we had at Surfers Paradise, so we went to the beach. There was hardly any surf on the Main Beach but apparently its better along the coast. It was a nice relaxing day finished off (or so we thought) by some drinks and live blues music at a bar and then sitting on the beach star gazing. It's amazing how much darker it is here, no light pollution (or clouds) make it a lot better night sky. We thought our night was over but as it turned out, it was far from it. One of the people we were sharing an apartment with came home a little bit worse for wear after apparently eating some "hash cookies", these did not go down too well and we spent the rest of the night playing nurse to her, i had to carry her to a bed as she had lost the ability to walk, we made her breathe into a paper bag (probably the first time I've been in possession of a paper bag since I was about 9!) and got her to drink water, fun times!
On Monday we decided to hire some bikes and cycle up to the famous lighthouse on Cape Byron and the most easterly point in mainland Australia. Unfortunately the bikes were rubbish and couldn't go into low gear making the climb very difficult. We ended up walking most of the way which took quite a while but was definitely worth it when we finally got to the top. The views were amazing, from here we could see all of Byron Bay and the surrounding coast and beaches. Looking out to sea there was absolutely nothing but blue, blue skies and blue waters as far as the eye could see with no clouds at all. The nearest thing to the most easterly point of Australia is New Zealand and that's not exactly close! From here we could also see turtles poking their heads up for air and a few dolphins coming to the surface and chasing fish. After a picnic in the shade we rode back down. This was a lot easier, a lot faster and a lot more fun! If we had wanted to, we could have got up early and taken a tour up to the lighthouse and been the first in Australia to see the sun rise. Unfortunately, due to the time the sun generally rises in the morning, this was never going to happen. So instead we contented ourselves with being the first in Australia to see in set! After dumping our thing we headed back to the beach and grabbed some fish and chips, listened to the hippies playing the bongos and watched the sun go down.It was a beautiful sun set, lots of different colours in the sky but just as interesting were the
hippies. Byron Bay is the hippiest (if that's a word) place I've ever been, they all seem to like to dance randomly, play music and use hula-hoops (the big plastic thing, not the snack). There are lots of hippy type shops too, it makes it quite a cool little place to visit but I think I might get a bit weirded out if I stayed too long! On that note, we've now left and are on the train on the way to Port Macquarie, halfway between Byron Bay and Sydney. It's a day trip, we left at 8am and won't be arriving until about 4pm. Once again a short distance on the map but not in reality!!
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