Sydney

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Day 57 - 64

We left Christchurch catching what is called the $5 dollar shuttle however it is now $7! After our time in New Zealand, enjoying mainly small towns, arriving in Sydney was a bit of a shock to the system as we were in the middle of a big city and as it was Easter weekend, it was heaving with people. During our week in the city we did the following:

Wondered around Darling Harbour, enjoying the street performers and envying all the people eating in the posh restaurants that we couldn’t afford
Visited Chinatown, once at night when they had a dragon performance on and it was packed to the point of claustrophobia and once during the day to have lunch with some friends who had been living in the city for the last 4 years and were now moving back to the UK
Visited the Chinese gardens - a sanctuary of calm among the busy city
Walked around the Botanical Gardens and saw some bats flying around and in the trees, which was a bit bizarre. We also saw our first huge Aussie spiders and although they are not dangerous you wouldn’t want to walk into one of their webs.
Walked to Macquarie point to get some good views of the Opera House and Harbour Bridge. We also walked around the Opera House and Harbour Bridge at night when they were all lit up. Seeing these sites always amazed me as to me they are the most iconic symbols of Australia.
Caught the bus to Bondi beach, where unfortunately it was quite overcast and did the coastal walk from Bondi to Coogee. Along the way we passed a charity swim in the sea, which had to be stopped halfway through due to a shark sighting - eek.
Caught the ferry to Manly where we managed to grab a few rays of sun so spent time lying on the beach.
Caught a double decker train to the Blue Mountains and did a few walks in the bush, caught a small train up a very steep hill and walked 900 steps down the Grand Staircase (boy did our legs ache for days after that!). Unfortunately it was a bit drizzly with rain, so the views weren’t as good as we were hoping for. The weird thing we discovered on the train was that you could move the back of the seats so that they were facing forwards or backwards.

The downside of staying in the city centre was that we struggled to find affordable restaurants. It also didn't help that with the current exchange rates things are generally more expensive than they used to be and definitely more expensive than New Zealand.

So after we got over the change in pace of life from NZ we enjoyed our time in Sydney, however the weather could have been better and the prices could have been lower.

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