Blogs from Manly, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, Oceania
December 25th 2011
25.12.2011 Christmas day!! Has he been?? Yes! Up early with Charlie to find stockings on the stairs full of presents that Santa had brought. We didn't think we were getting anything as we were in Australia. Me and Sophie got spoilt with very good presents from here and from back home aswell. Charlie had mounds of presents from all the family. We had eggy bread for breakfast that Sophie made for everyone and got ready to go the beach! The sun was shining and very warm which meant I was swimming in the sea on Xmas day! We came home after a couple of hours and got ready to go to Stu and Kate's friends house. We had a BBQ with huge prawns and snapper with a massive salad and rice. Was different from the traditional ... read more
A short hop down under.
Published: December 15th 2011Oceania » Australia » New South Wales » Sydney » Manly
December 1st 2011
We arrived in Sydney slightly confused, by both the loss of time and the fact that everyone spoke English. It took a little while before we stopped saying gracias instead of thank you. We managed to get through customs, even though they questioned why we were only staying for two days. We were soon on our way to our hostel in Collaroy Beach. The next morning we woke up at reasonable time so decided we would go into Sydney and see a couple of the sights. We got a bus to Manly, where we laughed at the names of the shops, such as Manly Mexican. Then got the “World famous Manly ferry” into Sydney, from which we got to see the Sydney Opera House and the Sydney Harbor Bridge. We then visited the Governors house and ... read more
A Weekend in Sydney
Published: November 27th 2011Oceania » Australia » New South Wales » Sydney » Manly
November 27th 2011
Arrived in sydney on Saturday morning to pouring rain... Not quite what we had expected. Good job we had abandoned the idea of camping on cockatoo island in sydney habour.. Wolud have been a great experience but in the rain i might have got some complaints.. We are in a backpackers hostel right on Manly beach. Children think its a bit of a come down from the posh hotel in tokyo but we want to show them all aspects of travel...Its fine and we have been out and about so much it hardly matters that its basic. The rain stopped on saturday and we spent the afternoon on the beach. What a beach. I have not been to sydney before its amazing. Busy day today, church first which was great (thank you nigel for your recomendation) ... read more
Rest of New Zealand and on to Sydney: Part 3
Published: November 12th 2011Oceania » Australia » New South Wales » Sydney » Manly
November 13th 2011
Part 3: Australia A new country! We believe this is the first time both me and Tom have got a plane from a country that isn't England to another country that isn't England (connections aside), which means that we are now officially world travellers. Australia greeted us with the realisation that our lack of planning has once again been a little short of the mark. We knew we were heading to my friend from Camp America two years ago Ash's, but as we emerged from the airport into the glaring 28 degree sunshine mapless and with no idea of where either Dee Why or the airport was located with respect to central Sydney, we knew we had some work left to do. After 20 minutes of walking to the bus stop and consulting the map we ... read more
Rest of New Zealand and on to Sydney: Part 1
Published: November 12th 2011Oceania » Australia » New South Wales » Sydney » ManlyNovember 12th 2011
Hello, and welcome to our blog trilogy. As we haven't blogged for quite a while we bring you our update in 3 parts. First, our travels up to the end in New Zealand, secondly we wanted to talk about New Zealand in a more general light so in part two we have some insights into New Zealand as a country and as a people. Part 3 covers the start of our travels in Australia up to today. So, Part 1: First things first, we travelled to New Zealand for the world cup so we have to mention it! New Zealand won, well done to them. But I think we can all safely agree that France were the better team and that Craig Joubere cost them the game by bottling penalty after penalty that should have gone ... read more
Rest of New Zealand and on to Sydney: Part 2
Published: November 12th 2011Oceania » Australia » New South Wales » Sydney » ManlyNovember 12th 2011
Welcome to part two, general thoughts. Thought 1: Kiwi's can't drive 1. A mile long overtake involves half a mile of sitting half way out of the left lane in order to properly check nothing is coming the other way, 1/4 of a mile slowly drifting up alongside the vehicle in the right hand lane, 1/4 of a mile continuing this pace until the car is just in front, before a mad swerve back into the left hand lane inches in front of your bumper, causing you to heavily brake and wonder from what school for the mentally impaired the driver of the offending UTE* has recently escaped from. *for those unfamilar with the term UTE try to imagine the most pointless waste of pollution possible, add an unused (covered) pick up back coupled with a ... read more
November 12th 2011
Jo woke up feeling less than great this morning after arriving home in the early hours of the morning, so we didn’t really get moving until lunchtime. We had plans to meet a few friends over at Manly Wine, which meant catching a Ferry across to Manly. Jo had to prepare herself for the sea crossing – this wasn’t going to be fun! After lots of water and a spot of lunch we braved the journey, luckily the sea was very calm so the crossing was fine, but we were a little late meeting our friends. We moved on from the wine bar to enjoy some time on the beach instead and watched Hamish (Sarah’s brother) testing out his board in the waves. After an hour or so, we walked back through the high st and ... read more
Manly Beach & Sydney Nightlife
Published: November 21st 2011Oceania » Australia » New South Wales » Sydney » Manly
November 5th 2011
We had a quiet evening on the Friday as Jo had spent some time working, which meant we were up early and ready for action on the Saturday… it actually made a nice change from waking with a hangover! We decided that as the sun was shining it was time to top up our tans and check out some of the famous Sydney beach spots this weekend. Today was Manly Beach. We packed ourselves a picnic, loaded up on Factor 30 and headed down to Darling Harbour, which is about a 10min walk from the flat. We thought we would be able to get a ferry direct from from there to Manly, but it seems all the Ferries direct to Manly leave from Circular Quay so we carried on walking around to Circular Quay. When we ... read more
September 1st 2011
• After 3 days spent taking no less than 5 naps per day, finally felt rested up enough to make my way to larger-than-life Sydney, Australia. • The fabulous folks in Keriong kindly dropped me at the train station in Woy Woy sporting big smiles…likely since the ‘homeless person’ from their spare room was finally gone and didn’t seem to have stolen anything- other than maybe the bedding which may or may not have been in the wash. • Prepared myself to search for some replacement British people since I am apparently on some sort of English foreigner outreach program, seeing as how I go from country to country and largely ignore the locals in favour of the immigrated/travelling Brits in the area. Does Sydney have a Little England? I should find out. • Took 2 ... read more
Manly Adventures & Rugby Match
Published: August 22nd 2011Oceania » Australia » New South Wales » Sydney » Manly
August 21st 2011
On Saturday we made plans to meet up with Brian's cousin Dan and his two kids, Kobi and Ella, at Manly beach. How do I put this....the trip was...interesting! Haha, no, we had fun. I was a little put off by the vehicle that looked like the Scooby Doo van and, as Ella put it, "smelled strongly of petrol," and the fact that Dan took us on a hike that was definitely off the beaten path and started at the sewage dump! BUT the end result was definitely worth it. After essentially hiking through the Australian bush - we found ourselves on a cliff overlooking EVERYTHING. It was gorgeous - we even saw some whales from up there! THEN, we made our way down the cliff face....yes...we scaled a cliff face that had nothing but a ... read more
