Blogs from Darling Harbour, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, Oceania

After a grueling flight that was 6 hours late (it was supposed to depart at 10 pm but left at 4:30 am!), we arrive exhausted in Sydney. Made our way to the funky Ibis Barangaroo hotel that was near the ship port (by the Sydney opera house). Barangaroo is around the Darling harbour on the other side of “The Rocks”. This was a perfect location to stay before we boarded our cruise. We love Sydney but only had 1 night! Unfortunately, we arrived on Good Friday, so all the bottle stores were closed. So, we had an expensive dinner along Darling harbor and then drank our beloved chardonnay in our hotel lounge which was only a couple blocks from the harbour. What a fun lounge and great place to stay. The outside featured colorful windows in ... read more

After an abbreviated day the day of arrival in Sydney, we were ready to tackle a somewhat more ambitious agenda, although admittedly with some reservation of energy for attendance at the opera in the Sydney Opera House this evening. Opera is not particularly strenuous, nor was the journey to the SOH, but we were mindful of the fact that our home town is 8 hours ahead of us (actually, technically 16 hours behind us), and that would make staying alert until later at night somewhat more problematic. Just a short walk across a peninsula from Circular Quay is Darling Harbour, but with poor train connections and a need for exercise, we walked there in about 30 minutes from our hotel. One the city side is the Sydney Aquarium, and across a pedestrian bridge over the harbor ... read more

Hello! I'm pooped, busy couple of days. been getting into the swing of life over here; basically it's beach, swings, snack, nap, repeat. Not bad. my favourite place so far we found the other day - it's called Clontarf, Mummy says its one of the innermost inlets of Sydney harbour with a beautiful beach and little marina, lots of sailing boats and boats like Lunasea, and of course a brilliant play place by the sand with climbing and swings. But the best bit was that Olivia and I found hundreds of millions billions of little jellyfish, ones that don't sting, that we could hold and collect in our buckets. They were funny and wobbly and slippery and I loved them, we had competitions for who could collect the most and the biggest, I won all the ... read more

Part II I can't recall how Sydney Kingsford Smith International airport arrival hall looks like from the inside, I can only remember the waves of the ocean at the nearby bay before the plane landed, exiting the immigration gantry and queueing up to get a sim. It was a Wednesday morning, around 10am, Sydney time, and there were 50 over people waiting to get their sim. I saw someone purchasing 3 sim card as he had 2 phones and an iPad. I'd really love to interrupt and suggest to just use tethering so he does not have to take more time in purchasing multiple sim, and save money as well. Among the tourist, who can use 2GB in a single day? Certainly not me as I'd be spending time wandering around appreciating the view and ingest ... read more

So it begins Dad collected us at 2:30 and we dropped the wedding photos off to the in laws then went into town! Got the 3 pm bus that took 35 mins to get to heading ton round about! Joy! We arrived at the airport an hour too early to check in so decided the pub was a good plan!! Until we were told the price!! Finally our check in desk appeared and off we went! Tried for a cheeky upgrade but plane full! Mooches in the airport for a bit then went for lovely meal paid by for corporate traveller at Gordon Ramsey's plane food! Very nice food! I had a butter chicken curry Andy had surprise surprise the burger - we both had the chocolate tart with pistachio ice cream - nom! Managed about ... read more