Australia Part I : Sydney

In total, I’m in Sydney for the month of March bar a week in Tasmania. I’m thrilled to be met by my fabulous friend Hilary and after a really busy week in the South Island of NZ I’m looking forward to a bit of downtime and “normal” life.

The flight from Queenstown to Sydney takes me over the Tasman sea and the views coming into Sydney are quite spectacular as we fly over a massive coastline of beautiful beaches. Hilary is at the airport waiting for me and we have loads to catch up on so we get started with that pronto, collect the kids, Daddy home, grub, glass of wine… happy days! I feel right at home!

First family dinner out in Leichhardt with my Hallas family:

Although the main focus of my Sydney visit is to spend time with friends, I do have a list of things I’d like to see and do. We tick one of those off the list straight away as Hilary and I set off to Bondi beach and walk the coast to Coogee beach. We start with a photo and a man offers to take it for us. It just so happens to be Brendan ‘off the tele’ (Coach Trip on Channel 4!). He’s hilarious and keeps us yapping for ages telling us about his Irish mammy.

It’s sunny and the water looks amazing, if not a bit wild for me and we tick off all the beaches along the way – Bondi, Tamarama, Bronte, Clovelly and Coogee.

There’s a number of sea water swimming pools that look amazing. Imagine those waves coming over you doing your laps:

There’s a graveyard between two of the beaches – it’s the one in season two of Top of The Lake (guess what I’m starting to watch!)

A quick dip in Coogee before heading home:

On Saturday morning it’s park run time and there’s a newly opened one in the local park in Leichhardt. We rally a group of the girls together and it’s a beautiful morning to do our 5km along the canal:

Energized and ready for more activity I head off on the “greenway” for a bike ride with one of the lads from my Sri Lanka trip. I expected a straightforward cycle along the train tracks or water but this “greenway” involved getting onto main roads for a bit then getting back on, then getting into elevators to cross platforms and getting back on… it was a bit of a nightmare and I really had no idea where I was going. Plus trying to look at a map on your phone while cycling is not easy!! Eventually a local came to my rescue and took me to where I needed to get to….. there are so many nice people out there. Not sure how many kilometers we covered but the rest of the cycle was on nice paths in glorious sunshine. We ended up at a really cool brewery for lunch and had one or two drinks before cycling back. A brilliant afternoon!

After a few days of relaxing at Hilary’s I made it into the city two days in a row. Well let me clarify relaxing…. we did a gym class or went for a run every day, I just didn’t do any real touristy stuff that I need to tell you about…. just lots of family fun stuff with the kids and plenty of good food and wine and tv!! Lots of this:

And this:

It was lovely to get to see Sydney again and I recalled Darling harbor and some of the streets around Pyrmont. I walked to Hyde park and saw the ANZAC memorial:

Then I visited St Mary’s cathedral which was lovely:

I visited the Opera house and booked the tour and tickets for La Traviata:

Saw the Harbour bridge which I’d climbed last time I was here…

Walking up Macquarie street I saw some lorikeets in the trees. They are really colorful:

There are a number of things including the zoo, botanic gardens and art gallery still on my list, so post Tasmania it’s going to be busy!!!