Fri 1st Jan 2010 – New Years Day! Today we got the ferry into the city and went to the Sydney Aquarium, which was good fun, lots of fish and sharks as well as Dugongs (sea cows) which were huge and apparently what fisherman used to confuse with mermaids (they must have been very short sighted fishermen that’s all I can say!) We then walked to The Rocks, which is a pretty cool area of Sydney and had dinner at Phillips foote, where you choose your meat and then cook it yourself on the BBQ (actually a great idea because you can hardly complain to the chef if your steak is overdone! We then went for drinks in the Glenmore Hotel, which has a roof terrace which overlooks Sydney and you get a beautiful view of the Opera house from there. We then thought about going up the Shangri-la hotel which is a very tall tower with a bar on the top floor with beautiful views. Unfortunately as we had only been planning on coming into Sydney to go the Aquarium we all looked a bit scruffy and therefore we couldn’t get in!
Sat 2nd Jan – This morning James and I were supposed to be doing the trapeze class I won in Byron Bay, however as we drove their it decided to absolutely pelt it down with rain and as it is outdoors the trapeze was therefore cancelled so we had to turn around again! It cleared up within a couple of hours and so we drove into Sydney with Ian and Amandine to go to the Rocks market, which is a huge tourist market in the Rocks. We then decided to have another attempt at getting up the Shangri-la hotel as we all looked smarter than yesterday, and this time we were successful! The views were great and its definitely a very posh bar and worth going to!
Rocks Market
View from the Shangrila Hotel
After that we stopped on the way back at a Japanese restaurant. We couldn’t decide which type of restaurant to go for as we all wanted different things, so we ended up closing our eyes and voting with hand signals – as Ian and I voted for Japanese we ended up there! It was great to try something different and we had Sushi rolls and Sashimi (raw fish) as well as more normal things like Tempura prawns! Definitely an experience we will both remember although I am not sure Japanese is something we will start eating regularly!
Sun 3rd Jan – Today we got up early to drive to Pittwater for a days sailing on Ians boat. We had planned it as the weather was supposed to be great for sailing – a little cloudy with good winds. Unfortunately when we got there it was tipping it down and there was no wind, another example of Sydney weather doing the exact opposite of what we wanted! We decided there was no point sailing with such terrible weather and so we headed back and went for a spot of Mini-golf instead (pirate mini-golf to be exact!). The bad weather held for most of the day and so we ended up sitting in Ians flat playing Mario-kart and relaxing. I decided to try out Ians homemade bread recipe for myself and actually managed to produce pretty good edible bread which was very exciting! We had Spaghetti Bolognese with my freshly made bread for dinner sitting out on the balcony again. It’s great to eat outside all the time and that’s definitely something we will miss back in England.
Mon 4th Jan – This morning we had an early start and took the Ferry into the city to do a bit of last shopping for ugg boots, which I wanted to get as they are much cheaper over here than in England! We seemed to end up walking miles though and visiting numerous shops, however eventually we did find some, and dropped the off at Ians office in the city as he was at work. We then headed to Circular Quay and caught the ferry to Manly to meet a load of our friends for a day out for one of them (Jeff) as it was his birthday. We were very late to the beach and Jeff, whose birthday it was, was left sitting on the beach on his own for about an hour as everyone else was also late, which was pretty impressive as there were about 20 people coming and only 1 was on time (that’s backpackers for you I guess!) We had just got there and the guys had just been to hire boards and were in the process of putting their wetsuits on when an announcement came over the tannoy system on the beach that a shark had been spotted and everyone must evacuate the water. This was closely followed by the shark alarm (like a smoke alarm sound, only for sharks not smoke!). The lifeguards then a boat out to try and spot the shark again and scare it off. We went and asked the lifeguard and he told us that it was a 5 metre shark spotted about 15-20 metres off shore. Apparently they have special watchers on the beach who look for the sharks (which I suppose is reassuring or scary depending on which way you look at it)! Still I decided to be official photographer/shark spotter for the group for the day as it was a little chilly to surf as far as I was concerned and I didn’t fancy getting my toes nibbled by a 5 metre shark!
After surfing we headed back with Jeff to the place where he was staying and had pizza before heading back into the city to the Glenmore hotel (where we had been two nights before). That closed at 11.30 so we basically wandered around until we found a pub that was still open. We found somewhere called the Orient which turned out to be a great choice as it was free jukebox night and $1 pool! We stayed there until about 2am when we headed home and tried not to think about the fact that we had to be up in 4 hours to go to the blue mountains!
Tue 5th Jan – This morning we got up at 6.30am very tired and slightly hungover. Ian decided to take the day off work to go with us to the Blue mountains, which was really great as we were a bit worried we would get lost! We drove for about 2 hours to get to the mountains and stopped as some beautiful lookouts before getting to the most famous place in the blue mountains, Echo point, which is where the 3 sisters are. These are three pillars of rock. The aboriginal story tells that there were three beautiful young girls who were transformed into rock by their father with his magic bone. He did this to protect them from an evil in the valley. However he lost his bone and has been searching for it ever since to turn them back. After stopping at the lookout we headed to Scenic world where we went on the worlds steepest railway line. This is a replica of an old railway used by coal miners. We walked in the valley and saw lots of the old coal mining tools etc and lots of beautiful rainforest! We then got a cablecar back up to the top which was very high and scary (for me!).
We then headed back into Sydney to the Olympic Park Sports complex (where the Sydney Olympics were) as we were booked in for the Trapeze class I won in Byron Bay which had been cancelled because of rain on Saturday. Luckily the rain held and before I knew it we were both harnessed up and throwing ourselves off platforms on a swinging trapeze and performing tricks before dropping onto the net below. James did the whole thing without a hitch, getting each trick right first time and barely breaking into a sweat, he even managed to perform a catch followed by a backwards somersault at the end! I on the other hand, was a nervous wreck standing at the top of the platform, and had to have my hand prised off the bar in order to do the first swing! I then proceeded to scream for the duration of my first go, although I did manage the trick I was supposed to be doing on my second go. The video really has to be seen to appreciate the full hilarity of my attempts and how awesome James was!
After the class it was back to the flat for a quick shower and change before heading into the centre of Sydney to go to the Centerpoint Tower buffet in the rotating restaurant. We had an absolutely brilliant view of Sydney from the tower and as we went up just before sunset we were able to see the city in both light and dark. We played spot the tennis courts and swimming pools on the roofs of building and all stuffed ourselves with food and wine! It was a really great end to our trip to see the city laid out before us.
When we got back to the flat (absolutely shattered) we then had to start the mammoth task of packing 4 bags worth of stuff into 2 bags! How we ever made it fit I do not know but around 1am we did eventually roll into bed with just two bags of stuff neatly packed. Now we just have to wait for the airport to see how much they weigh!
Wed 6th Jan – Today we got up at 6.30am and headed off with Ian and Amandine to see Sydney’s fish market, where all the fresh fish is sold and bought. We got some scallops and when we got back had scallops on toast for breakfast – yummy! It’s great to be able to have all this fresh seafood right on your doorstep and at a fraction of the English prices – we will really miss that back in England! This afternoon we leave for our flight to Hong Kong at 3pm. We are both very sad to leave Australia and can’t believe our trip has come to an end already, 3 months has gone so fast! We do however have a day in Hong Kong to look forward to before our final flight home arriving at 5am on Friday 8th (that is if we can get in with all the snow!)
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