Ebbage Family Australia Trip 2012 - Sydney

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3rd June
We had an easy run into Sydney, it helped it being a Sunday and going around the city instead of through it as I know what Sydney traffic is like. It is still raining while we set up camp in the caravan park, we get through it and are set up in a flash. The park we are staying at is the one that they use for some of the outdoor caravan park scenes in Home And Away.
My mission for the afternoon was to do the washing as I hadn’t done any for a while. We put Chloe down for a sleep, the girls did some more school work. I’m loving the commercial washing machines having done 3 loads in 20 minutes then into the dryer cos of the rain, and all done., well except for trying to find room in the cupboards to find the clean clothes back in. The rest of the day we just relaxed and thought about what we wanted to do for the next 5 days, we had to factor in the weather after seeing as on the news it said that it had been the wettest start to Winter in Sydney in years ! Awesome !! Just like being home really.

4th June
Today we decided to go to the Opera house, the Harbour Bridge and on the ferry to Manly, while the weather was going to be kind. Now I have been to Syndey a couple of times, kids and Trav never been, so it was nothing new to me and I’m not a real fan of Sydney The harbour is pretty but its too claustrophobic for me.
We took all the touristy photos walked into the foyer of the Opera House and walked around a bit, and decided to have lunch right next to the Operah House next to the harbour and looking out towards the bridge, a million dollar view and to accompany the million dollar view we dined on homemade sandwiches washed down with primas for the kids and a can of coke for the adults, as I getting lunch organised I turn around and there is an Asian lady playing with Tayla and Chloe’s hair and speaking in her lingo to her friends, the poor kids had no idea what she was on about. One of the guys said to us that she was a hairdresser back in China (or wherever she was from) and couldn’t believe the blonde hair and curls on the girls . So the girls just sat there casually eating their sandwiches while she played with their hair. I should have asked her if she a photo it would have lasted longer !!
After lunch we wondered down to Circular Quay to get the Manly Ferry after a short wait we jumped aboard the boat a grabbed prime seats at the back of the boat so we could get some photos of the bridge, operah house and other sights from the middle of the harbour, by the time we arrived at Manly we had spent most of the time taking photos and videos and not sat back and enjoyed the ride, so without even getting off the boat we changed seats to the upper deck and sat back basked in the afternoon sun and enjoyed the cruise back to Sydney.
When we got back to Circular Quay we had a gelato each after waiting for 15 minutes for the knob in front of us to choose what he wanted, after tasting every flavour he finally made his mind up, in the end Chloe was shouting “C’mon boy”, we wandered around and had a look at The Rocks area, before heading back to the station and getting the train back to the park, eventhough it had been a long day and we had walked miles the kids still had enough energy to fight, scream and carry-on on the train all the way back to our station Grrrrrr.
We watched the news that night and it said that there was going to be heavy rain and storms go through Sydney late tomorrow afternoon, as we were going to the Sydney Aquarium we decided to go early so that we were hopefully home before the storms hit.



Tuesday 5th June 2012
So it was up early and off by 9:30 so that we could do all we had to do before the weather turned Melbournish, we got the train back into the city and then hopped onto the monorail to Darling Harbour to the Sydney Aquarium.
The aquarium was really good, the kids enjoyed looking at all the different types of fish, they particularly liked walking through the glass tunnel looking at the sharks and rays, also the penguin enclosure, especially Chloe who wanted to take one home.
We had lunch overlooking Darling Harbour, then made our way back to the station and subsequently back to the park, just in time, as not long after we made it home the rain and wind hit.

Wednesday 6th June 2012
We survived the night unscathed our van was still upright, there was some branches and stuff scattered about the park but other than that everything was cool. We had kept what we are going to do today a secret from the kids as we wanted it to be a surprise, they were super exciting when we told them we were driving up to Palm Beach which is where they film some of the scenes for Home and Away, yes I know it’s a bit of a lame show but the Mandy and the two older kids like to watch it. It took about an hour to get there and it was a very pretty town, there were a lot of big homes built on the cliffs overlooking the beaches.
We parked up the car near the beach to get our bearings the surf was pounding the beach due to the storm the previous night, there was a few surfers braving the huge swell. We were not quite sure where or if they were filming today, I had done a bit of research and discovered they do most of the filming Monday thru Wednesday, we decided to go back the way we came and have a look around a park we had passed earlier, we went up there and there were production trucks and some goings on so we thought we might be in luck.
As I was feeding some money into the metre for parking the girls saw Casey (I’ll use their character names, not sure what their real names are) who said Hi and waved to the kids, he had just finished his days filming and was heading home. We walked towards a building that looked like the surf club building, as we walked around the corner we virtually walked into the set, they were not filming but getting ready, we moved to the side to watch, Roo, Alf, and Palmer were filming a surf club scene the girls were very excited about what we were seeing, after they had finished the scene Roo came over and asked the girls if they wanted a photo, she was very nice she asked the girls their names and where they were from etc, they also got a photos with Alf, they went back to film another scene and one of the crew wondered over, I thought to myself here we go he is going to tell us to get out of here, I was wrong he offered me an umbrella for the girls as it had begun to rain, he said were welcome to stay as long as we did not get in the way or annoy the cast members. We watched them for another hour or so film a few different scenes. It was quite interesting to watch.
When the director called lunch I jumped back to the car and went and got some hot chips, we had decided that morning that hot chip sandwiches were the order of the day for lunch. After lunch we watched them film a few more scenes as different cast members came and went, the girls managed to get their photos with Bianca and the Braxton boys (think Mandy enjoyed that one a bit more than the kids). They were all very accommodating. We ended up staying the whole afternoon, and when it started to get dark we decided to call it a day and head home.



Thursday 8th June 2012
Today we had a quite start to the day, we had found out earlier in the week that Sydney were having a festival of light in the city and that at night various landmarks were going to be lit up with laser light shows, so we decided to into the city in the evening to check it out. As we were leaving the next day we started to pack up and get organised as well as do a spot of grocery shopping.
So after an early dinner we rugged up and headed to the station to catch the train back into the city. We watched one of the light shows whereby the projected a cartoon like presentation onto a building, we also watched some entertainoing buskers ply their trade, we finished the night by watching a lazer light show projected onto the sails of the Opera House.

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Photos

Welcome to Sydney
Surprised the sign was not in pink, maybe they change it for mardi gras

The girls and a bridge
Photo of the girls and some random bridge we found in the middle of Sydney

Sydney - Lunch time
Asian ladies playing with the kids har, notice Talya is more interested in her Vegemite sandwich,

Sydney - Lunch time
this is our view during lunch, just a bit better than watching Dr.Phil or Ellen

Manly Ferry
"..as the Manly Ferry cuts its way to Circular Quay....
She don't like that kind of behaviour
So, throw down your guns
Don't be so reckless"

Mandy and Trav on ferry
Had to get some random bloke to take photo and Maddy wasn't tall enough to get the background in the shot

Waiting in line for a gleato
The girls patiently waiting behind the tool that took at least 10 minutes to order.

Sydney Opera House
part of the light show