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Published: March 13th 2007
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The Money Shot
From the Botanic Gardens Woo-hoo - no more trains!! We got to Sydney mid-morning, put our bags in storage and headed into the city to see a few sights before meeting up with Laura's family friends - Derek, Fiona, Tash and Ross.
Luke's previous memories of Sydney from 6 years ago came flooding back to him as we walked through the city centre, Darling Harbour and all the way up to the Opera House. Our sight seeing was delayed by a pommie street performer who roped Luke into helping him out with his show at Circular Quay for a good hour. Luckily Luke survived the flaming torches and chainsaw juggling! We spent the rest of the day seeing all the obvious sights (Bridge, Opera House, Botanic Gardens, Hyde Park etc) until we headed back to Central Station to meet Derek (slight delay due to no exit signs anywhere in Botanic Gardens!).
We headed out to Wahroonga with Derek and were immediately made to feel very welcome in their lovely home with cold beers, BBQ and excellent company! The whole family had suggestions of things to see and do over the next few days, and we went to bed that night making sure we
Bondi Beach
Plenty of sunburnt Poms about... were refreshed enough to hit Sydney at full might the next day, whatever we decided to do!
After such a good sleep, we eventually opted for a fairly lazy option - Bondi Beach! It hasn't changed too much in 6 years - still full of trendies desperate to be seen being seen and sunburnt poms (there's nothing for your factor 8 here, you know!). It was pretty busy for a week day, although not Mallorca-in-July busy! Apart from beach bumming and body-surfing, we took the coastal path down to Bronte Beach down the coast, seeing some gnarly surfers on the way nearly riding over each other and some overall great views. We spent another great evening in Wahroonga wining and dining!
Friday, we headed back to the city to the Rocks and maybe check out the Bridgeclimb on the family's recommendation! After overcoming Luke's cold feet, we booked a climb for that afternoon and headed off to another Allsop suggestion/institution: Pancakes on the Rocks! The photo basically says more than words ever could! Although, we were very glad we left ourselves a couple of hours between that and the climb, and also that Laura was wearing her elasticated
Bridge Climb
Not us, but we did it! waistband!! The climb takes about 3 and half hours from start to finish and the views at the top were awesome. The weather was a bit dodgy in the morning, but was clear blue skies by the time we started our ascent, better than it was when Gary Barlow of Take That fame climbed a couple of hours beforehand! Safety is number one priority, to the point where no cameras or any loose article can be taken with you, hence the lack of photographic evidence that we actually did it! Although, having already climbed a mountain, we don't need to prove anything to you lot anyway!
After a lazy Saturday morning, we headed off with the F, T and R to the northern beaches and around, to show us why they've only been to Bondi twice this millennium! As well as taking in the amazing views from the West Head and North Head we enjoyed the near empty beach at Mona Vale, and Luke and Ross took a beating from the Pacific swells! After a delicious dinner out in Manly, we headed to Cold Rock for dessert - choose 2 flavours of ice cream and something else to put
Street Performance
Down at Circular Quay in it and watch them smash it together e.g. white chocolate and peanut butter swirl ice cream mashed up with cookie dough! What's not to like?! We headed then to the north shore of the harbour at Kirribilli to see the city/bridge/opera house at night, which looked pretty spectacular over the water.
We realised that we couldn't come to Sydney without going on the water somewhere, so on Sunday we took the Parramatta ferry from down the Olympic stadium to Circular Quay. This takes you into Darling Harbour, under the Bridge and passed the Opera House as well as some very nice looking suburbs along the way. We browsed the Rocks market before completing our Bridge experience by going up the South Pylon, where the view is pretty good and you can see the climbers heading up and down. We planned to finish the day with a quiet stroll in Hyde Park, only to find when we got there that St Patrick's Day had come a week early in Sydney! Next Sunday the bridge is closed to all traffic except pedestrians for the 75th anniversary of it opening, so the Irish had there own celebrations moved forward to this
Street Performance
Down at Circular Quay, although the guy was from Bristol or around! weekend. Just their luck!
And tonight we have to say goodbye to our friends in Wahroonga and head up to Cairns and far north Queensland to begin our final few days in Australia. We can't thank them enough for the last few days - we've had a brilliant time!
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Mum N
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Fab blogs, you both look really well.Enjoy the next stage Love Mum x