Blogs from North Rocks, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, Oceania
Leaving Melbourne and heading to Sydney
Published: September 1st 2010Oceania » Australia » New South Wales » Sydney » North Rocks
June 29th 2010
Kate and I returned to Melbourne on a late night flight over from Perth, we checked straight into a hostel in Melbourne city rather than returning to halls. We had organised a farewell day together to mark the end of our 2 month meet up on the other side of the world. For the first evening we went to the IMax theatre to watch Ultimate Wave Tahiti 3D. It was a short 45minute film about Kelly Slater surfing in Tahiti, it was great being able to watch this on a massive screen in 3D as you could see his flawless technique as he rode perfect 10ft barreling waves. Tahiti of course is a beautiful island and you got an insight into their local culture too. Later on we went for dinner at the Colonial Tramcar Restaurant; ... read more
Finally wrapping up NZ...
Published: April 21st 2010Oceania » Australia » New South Wales » Sydney » North Rocks
April 21st 2010
Apologies for being so slow in doing this, at this point I'm out of NZ 2 weeks (and 2 weeks therefore in Australia), and really need to blog as it's beginning to fade from my memory! I think I was at Invercargill in my most recent post, so let's take it from there: Invercargill was pretty bland, but it was near the Catlins. Not long after I arrived in NZ, a local told me I had to check out the Catlins, so 7 weeks later I was finally doing so. I was unlucky in that the weather was not my friend, and I can only imagine what the Catlins must be like on a fine day. That said, it's quite a bleak place anyway, so mist and cloud somehow added to the atmosphere. Gloomy weather was ... read more
Sydney - Opera, Canadians, and a whole WHACK of rain.
Published: February 12th 2010Oceania » Australia » New South Wales » Sydney » North Rocks
February 7th 2010
With an early morning departure from Mark & Leanne’s in Melbourne, we arrived in Sydney around 10 on Monday morning. Finding our hostel in the Rocks (an area right in the heart of Sydney underneath the Sydney Bridge) turned out to be a bit more challenging than we thought, but after some tough stair climbing (I'll let you guess who carried all 4 suitcases!?) we found our destination - Sydney Harbour YHA. After checking in (and being reunited with our luggage that had been shipped from Perth!) we started looking out for the other “Canadian” team who would be arriving: Mike & Rita, along with their friends Andre, Areta, Pierro, Tom and Ying. Upon assembling in the afternoon, we decided the best thing to start our time in Sydney would be to grab some drinks and ... read more
January 15th 2010
Our hostel We arrived on christmas Eve and met with K+R (again!) at our hostel. We stayed at the YHA Harbour bridge hostel. It was brand sparkling new, opening only a month earlier. Situated in the Rocks with a perfect view of the harbour bridge and the opera house from the rooftop. It also held a flatscreen movie room and a bbq on the roof. We stayed in a 4 bed dorm: Ryan, Guy, Heather and me. Christmas eve Wearing santa hats we headed down to darling harbour, where we had prime seats for the xmas fireworks celebration, it made us all jump at the beginning but we were soon umm-ing and ahh-ing. Christmas Christmas began with Ryan and myself exchanging gifts. Firstly I gave him the xmas cards from the boys back home and from ... read more
Birthday and New Year in Sydney (long lost family part 4)
Published: January 10th 2009Oceania » Australia » New South Wales » Sydney » North Rocks
January 6th 2009
It was really good to be back in Oz and this time we were going to 'do' Sydney properly. We stayed with my cousin Ritu and her family ion Mortdale once more but this time felt like we really got to know them well. The day after we landed I turned 29 and for a treat Kelly booked us into a 5 star hotel in the centre of the city for a night. It was nice to have a bit of luxury and we spent most of the day walking around the Rocks, enjoying some drinks in the sunshine and taking in the great harbour views. In the evening we ate at the Sydney Oyster Bar opposite the Harbour Bridge, where I slurped down some of the slimy buggers along with a glass or two of ... read more
December 29th 2008
So we finally arrive in Sydney for Christmas and New Year. Checked into our hotel which was to be our home for the next 10 days. We went up to our room and wow!! amazing views over Sydney Harbour. The room was huge after staying in hostels, a bedroom, sittng room with two day beds and a large bathroom with a jaccuzi. After making use of the fantastic bathroom we head down to the bar to celebrate arriving in Sydney. Bill ordered his favourite Dirty Martini but realised it was a mistake when it turned up looking very greasy. Ugh!. The barman had put cooking olive oil in it instead of oil from crushed olives!! Needless to say Bill wasnt impressed and we moved on somewhere else. We found a good Chinese restaurant along the waters ... read more
Christmas and New Years in Sydney
Published: January 7th 2009Oceania » Australia » New South Wales » Sydney » North Rocks
December 24th 2008
A few weeks before we headed off for Australia, my friend Sunjay happened to mention that he would be there. Small world huh? So Kim and I spent a few days with Sunjay, Bindu, and Maya in Sydney. You may remember that Sunjay is a friend from the USA and we spent a few days with him in southern India at the following link: http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Karnataka/Mysore/blog-294039.html We met Sunjay and family for dinner and a walk around Circular Quay and then the next day we all went to the Blue Mountains together on a tour. The Blue Mountains are west of Sydney, about an hour away. Here is Sunjay and Bindu's blog from that visit (its way better than our): http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/New-South-Wales/Sydney/blog-362248.html We may need to start some blog wars with them. Before Sunjay showed up in Sydney, ... read more
August 30th 2008
Well i made it! I can quite honestly say, that was the longest and hardest flight ive ever done! Absolutely brutal! The first section was fairly ok as the plane was completely empty! about 10 people to 30 seats in my section, Thailand airport was more than interesting, much better than heathrow, apart from getting followed by a scary security man, although i did look really really really rough! After eventually getting back on the plane, i had someone sitting next to me this time, absolutely hilarious australian guy who kept shouting during the safety briefing as he'd had a few to drink, Upon taking off we discovered the cot that is strapped to the wall infront of us can be lowered to make a handy table/drinks cabinet/footrest and we proceeded to get fairly drunk, Luckily ... read more
It isn't always sunny you know!
Published: July 29th 2008Oceania » Australia » New South Wales » Sydney » North Rocks
July 29th 2008
Right, well we do we begin? What a busy six days it's been. Despite the weather being pretty poo we've done loads! All baring Saturday it's rained which has been pretty depressing as we've waited so long to come out and the rain really (pardon the pun) puts a dampener on things. Thursday was just taken up with getting over the worst bit of jet lag and trying to find our barings. We found the bridge climb place and sorted out the details of our Bridge Climb for saturday, found a few top pubs, had a walk along the harbour and a look around the outside of the Opera House (of course typical me needed a wee so had to use their facilities!). We woke up kinda refreshed on Friday to heavy non-stop rain and that's ... read more
