20. Sydney, Australia

WARNING: THIS IS LONG BUT FULL OF PICS AND FUN THINGS...KEEP READING TRUST ME :)

 Day One

We were really sad to leave Uluru (Ayers Rock) as we had come accustomed to the colour of the ground, culture, all the wildlife and most of all looking at this amazing spectacular worldwide icon everyday! We were going across to Sydney, a place full of buildings and CONCRETE! Such a contrast, but we were excited!

 

We jumped on the AAT Kings free airport shuttle and we pulled our sad faces!

And then we latched onto the fact we were going to Sydney!!

We turned up at Connellan Airport and the weather was perfect for flying! We queued up in the check in line and hopped on a place to leave this magical place!!

On the plane we had the most interesting chat with a guy next to us. He has been a tour guide for 16 years and was full of interesting facts! He explained about the spirits, stories and the long history of Aboriginal people. And answered a few questions that we had thought of whilst being at Uluru, he was full of knowledge! Thanks Jamie!

We also saw something we hadn’t seen in years, but we didn’t think it appropriate to take pictures of it, it was the cockpit. We were sat on the front row in the emergency exit seats, of course we hoped we didn’t need to do anything! Before we took off, the door was open to the cockpit which really surprised us! We saw all the hundreds of buttons/knobs and levers used to fly the plane and it has been so long since we got a sight of that. Especially with aeroplane events recently, this really surprised us!

We landed in Sydney, and again we were thankful to see our bags! We are yet to name them yet! We then said our goodbyes to Jamie and another lady we got chatting to, and grabbed some train tickets to Riverwood! When we got down to the platform, we got a surprise, they have double decker trains!! People don’t flinch here, but for us it was a massive shock haha! We are excited by little things!

For the rest of the night, we chatted and caught up with our family. We had our first home cooked meal in over 2 months and I tell you what, after not having cereal for 2 months, I’m excited for morning! ...I’m so weird!!

Day Two

We sadly haven’t got many pictures of our second as it consisted of a little tour around Lugarno, a look at the local shops and having a lovely rest day, first in a while. But anyway we got up about 9, had a great sleep in and got ready.

We had a great adventure around the local area and got dropped off at some local shops (post office, supermarket, and bakery etc.). A really cute essential street. On the way though, Nat grew a moustache!!

We nipped into a deli cafe and was mesmorised by the amazing food. After a while, we chose a Cajun chicken filo. It was delicious!

From here we walked back to the house and had a relax in the garden, was a lovely day and a great rest preparing us for the mayhem of the city tomorrow. 

In the afternoon, we went to a family friends house who we’d wanted to meet, and it was so lovely to meet them both. We had homemade sausage rolls and hot cross buns, were very yummy!
Again, we had a lovely night talking, watching tv all together and having a delicious dinner once again. So relaxed!!

Day Three

Due to staying with family, we weren’t in the main area of Sydney but we were quite pleased as it would give us a break from all the hustle and bustle of Sydney city. We were staying in Lugarno which is a lovely part of Sydney, so homely and quiet. A real rest from it all!! But now it was time to face the main city!

We got a day return to Circular Quay and grabbed the train.

It took approximately 25 minutes to get into the centre of town and straight away we saw the Harbour Bridge and Sydney Opera House. Sadly it was really cloudy at the time so didn’t look at its best but still looks fantastic and was so surreal thinking we were actually there!! We were meeting Claire, a lovely friend we met back in Koh Tao, Thailand and we were so excited to meet her after 2 months!! We had a quick look in the Comtemporary Museum of Art, to have a look and also to use their wifi...50/50 reasons... hehe. It was full of great art, and we managed to get in touch with Claire.

We waited at Circular Quay Wharf number 3 and saw her!! It was so lovely to see her again; she is living here at the moment so she was able to show us the sights of Sydney. We went by the Opera House first and we were so busy talking and catching up, it was great!

The main plan for the day was to visit the Saturday Markets of Glebe. It’s on every Saturday and really is full of ...everything! Clothes, food, bric-a-brac, household things, flower arrangers, lots! Like IKEA but outside!!

 

 

We spotted a yummy looking stall and settled on a sausage sandwich. It wasn’t just a sausage sandwich though it was a dignified monument of tastiness!! Haha, basically it was really nice!

After the market, and all the clothes buying (Claire......ha!), we sat down at a lovely coffee shop to get a drink and to chat some more. You can never chat too much!! Also thank you again Claire for treating us! We had chai tea, English tea and a hot chocolate and shared a warm apple crumble and ice cream. It was soooo tasty! It was such a relaxed atmosphere, would definitely recommend the place if I can remember what the cafe was actually called! :S

 

We were convinced that this was sand!!

Before heading off back to Lugarno, we nipped into Daiso and grabbed some things. I got some pens as mine had ran out, all this diary writing!! And Nat bought a notepad, to write in...!

We got a little present for our relatives for being so fantastic and putting up with us hehe. It was an awkward journey back as we didn’t want to damage the orchid we’d bought! But we managed, and she loved it.

Day Four

We were heading into town again today and had a few things on our list of things to see and adventure. We were planning to grab the ferry to Manly, have a ride on the Taronga Zoo skyride and also grab the tram to Paddy’s Market (a massive market held Wednesday – Sunday) and also have a look at Darling Harbour. ...we had a very successful day!

We grabbed the tram from Central and decided to stop off at Paddy’s Market first. It was so much bigger than we’d expected. Literally hundreds of stalls selling a whole selection of things and a fantastic area just for fruit and vegetables, the smell was amazing. There were also some funny looking bananas, least that proved their organic!

One smell Nat doesn’t like, is fish! Shes hates fish. I myself love it (eating it, not smelling) and Nat gave me such a shock!! The was a whole segregated area for the fish market and Nat said, ‘Shall we have a look?!’. I was in shock haha, we went in and I was really proud. Honestly she hates the stuff!

We then left and caught the tram again across to Darling Harbour. When we got off the tram we saw this!

Obviously they are demolishing it but it was just so strange to see, they must have been on their lunch before they knocked the last bit down!

We went through the shopping centre full of shops and dragged ourselves past chocolate shops (literally a shop OF chocolate!) and out to Darling Harbour. And it was beautiful! The sky was blue, there was no  wind and all the families were out as it was Sunday Funday where families can travel cheaper. We sat down and ate our lunch (sausage roll and Cornish pasty from Woolworths!) whilst seagulls stared and harassed us, just the usual! We did name one Sully as it was hanging around and scaring off all the other birds, just so patient!

In front of us were these ships too, one had some teeth at the front and one was a submarine. Quite random to look at as we were eating!

After lunch we made our way through a park which had a lovely fountain in the middle.

And then...the inner child in me came out!! I saw a spider. A child’s spider not a living one haha.

I of course gave in to my inner child and climbed it!

I waved off the celebrations! As Nat felt overwhelmed with happiness for me!

We got onto a bus, a very empty bus...

...and got to Circular Quay. We then caught a ferry over to Taronga Zoo to go on the skyride. We didn’t need to go to the zoo but just the ride up would be enough for us!

On the journey we caught a fantastic view of the city’s iconic structures, the Harbour Bridge and Opera House. They looked great with the clear blue skies above!

When we arrived, we found out you had to go to the zoo to ride the sky cable car so we just looked at it :(

So we turned around and hopped on the same ferry back to Circular Quay!

 

Our next destination was Manly Beach, we caught the next ferry and arrived there about 30 minutes later!

 

It was a massive place, bigger than we imagined and it had a lovely beach there after walking past all the shops! We got a badge for our backpacks and Nat got a magnet, after trying to decide for 20 minutes...no joke ha!

After a couple of hours it started to get dark, due to us needing to get the train back we decided to head back. It got cold anyway!

Nat then nipped to the loo and found the cleaner there!

After getting the next ferry, we found out we’d picked the perfect one to catch!! We saw the sun go down on it and then saw the city in all its glory at night!

Looking at these pictures though you don’t realise how windy it was at the front. The views were well worth the knotty hair when we got home.

We then were put through the security gates like cattle!

We then got the train back and slotted in abit of diary time, as we passed Bexley North, or actually ...ex...

Day Five

Today was a day we’d organised to meet Claire again. She was in Coogee so we had chatted about meeting there and walking up the coast to Bondi Beach passing all the lovely coves along the way. It was about 6km and would take about 2 hours, more if you include chatting and picture taking! Ha! We caught the train again and headed to Wolli Creek this time, to get a connection over to Bondi Junction. Nat was very smiley!

Coogee is a real high-end area of Sydney, Hugh Jackmon lives there and so the streets and houses were quite nice on the way to the beach.

 We got to the beach and sat where we were planning to meet Claire. There were also seagulls there, of course!! No Sully though!

We met up with Claire and set off walking after a little bite to eat. We went up to coast seeing some really lovely views and Nat took some pretty pictures.

We got to a T-junction though, and decided to go the slightly more dangerous way with the nicer view. We walked along the edge and got to...a swamp Nat called it but I’d say a lovely lake on the side of a cliff! There was also a really random bin there, no bag in it, just sat there!

We then passed a really large cemetery, a lovely place by the coast and got to Bronte Park where the surfing was amazing! The waves were giant and they were really great to watch.

By now the sun was starting to go down so the sky turned a lovely colour. We grabbed some nice pictures on a pinnacle bit and also saw a lady literally half way of the edge. A strong gust of wind could have blown her off! So stupid!

We then reached Bondi Beach, it was getting dark and they were still surfing!! Hardcore surfers here in Australia. We stopped into a fish and chip shop and Claire grabbed her dinner while we watched in ore!! Haha.

We then said our goodbyes for the day and went back to the house on the train. We had a play around with the camera due to boredom and got a couple of weird ones :)

When we got back we heard about an awful accident that had occurred. We left Paddy’s Market and passed Chinatown to go to the tram at about 11am. And at 12pm, a bus had driven into a restaurant next to the Chinatown gate and killed a man. It was awful, being there so close before it happened, such a sad thing to happen. Rest in Peace.
 

Day Six

Today was going to be our last day in Sydney city as we wanted to have our last 2 days relaxing around the local area and sorting things out, like this blog for starters! We got into Central Station instead of Circular Quay and made a plan of where we were going to go. Making sure we didn’t go back on ourselves and hit as many spots as we could due it been our last day.

We had to pass Chinatown and we saw the damage the bus had done and it just made your hair on the back of your neck stand up! Poor man!

We went into Chinatown and saw...this is for you Sian...DIXON STREET!!

We had an adventure around and saw some crabs and lobsters, but giant ones. You can see the size of them being comparing my hand to them!

We then went to the Chinese Gardens, we didn’t have a lot of time to fully see it but grabbed a couple of pictures and what we saw was so beautiful!

We then caught the free 555 bus up George Street up to the top (Circular Quay). We then wandered over to the Botanical Gardens and found a spot to have lunch.

We had bought some cheese and chive puff triangles from ...woolworths of course! They were very yummy indeed!

We found the most amazing spot we could have ever imagined. We could see both the bridge and opera house, the weather beautiful and a couple of Australian White Ibis’ kept us company!

 

 

We then used the timer on the camera to catch some funny shots of us and the background!

We had to finish due to an Ibis trying to steal our bags, it just wasn’t happy with the bits we gave it! I had to go over and have a quiet word.

On our way back we nipped around the corner down the steps and got a great look of the opera house. It was lovely due to the weather showing it off to its full potential. Much nicer than if its raining.

We then saw the Opera Bar, we didn’t even need to look at a menu. We were so thirsty due to not having a drink with us we were desperate to get a drink of water. There were seagulls on each on the parasols though all swapping around, was a sight.

Shangri-La Hotel was next on our hitlist!! We wanted to go to the top to get a view over the city but you had to have a room key in order to do that so unfortunately we only got to the 4^th floor ha! Extremely high!

Nat brought her posh voice out and got us a look around the health and beauty spa. We also picked up a pricelist just to make her think we were going to pay those crazy prices! It even had gold on the top of the letter! The water dispenser was amazing though, it wasn’t just plain water but had fruit in it. Was strange but quite nice. 

Further south was the Harbour Bridge and we wanted to walk all the way across to the other side! At the top of the stairs, once we found them, we had a fantastic view of the nearby area and this continued all the way across. As well, we spotted people doing the bridge climb, we were happy just walking across it but I’m sure it’s a fantastic experience to do!

When we got down our final stop was the 1 Bligh Street skyscraper. I was tour guide leading us to it and when we got there all you could do was ...look up! It was quite cool as we went when it was just getting dark and then went again about 30 minutes later with Claire and it was amazing how much it changed in such little time.

On the walk back to the station, we saw the best sign ever. And we also stumbled across an alleyway with a fantastic design to it. It made the street so inviting and it was probably the reason lots of people were down there. There of course were no birds in the cages but was very arty and extremely attractive to look at :)

When we were in one of the shops on George Street, Nat spotted this magnet which she loved. It is so simple and yet so true.

We made it to the station and this would be the last time we’d see Claire for a while. It was so lovely to see her, catch up and natter about a whole load of things. Have a great time in Sydney Claire and we’ll see you in York!!!

 

Day Seven

Today was a gorgeous day, we couldn’t resist when a coastal walk was suggested to us. It started from Cronella, down through Blackwoods Beach, Shelley Beach, Glaisher Point, Bass and Finders Point, Hungry Point and up the west side back to where we were parked.

It was such a lovely day it was perfect. Here are some nice pictures of the walk we did!

 

 

I also did abit of abseiling too! Only to find out it was the wrong way to go! The fun made it worth it though.  

We then got back and had dinner. We are so thankful that we were able to stay here, we have been spoilt after being used to just toast for breakfast, 2 minute noodles etc. Getting back to hostel life will be very tough indeed!

Day Eight

Today was our last full day in Sydney and it was spent sorting out the blog, also we did washing and relaxed in the garden. We have loved Sydney, especially being able to go in and out of the city as much as we felt and can’t put into words how nice it has been to stay here.

 

 

NOTE: It will be tough to upload blogs in New Zealand as we are moving around a lot so will do a series of New Zealand blogs after we arrive in Fiji. Me and Nat are in New Zealand for a month, but will be uploading pictures and statuses whenever we have wifi and skyping our family and friends as much as possible.

 

Thank you Australia! We love you!!

Rach xx