Sydney Whirlwind!

7 days in Sydney and it felt like it never stopped! There was no time for jet lag as we arrived just two days before New Years and only stayed for a few days ( New Years is a whole other story…!)

Within an hour of landing in Sydney we had already taken the train to Circular Quay and walked to the Sydney Opera House. Whilst in Sydney we walked through Sydney markets where we had the best chocolate covered strawberries and fresh squeezed lemonade ever! Walked by the Harbour Bridge, explored George Street on numerous occasions as we walked up and down it to get to Darling Harbour to go to the huge aquarium and visit the Chinese garden of Friendship, had cocktails and found a restaurant right on budget with yummy $5 burgers!

We took the ferry across the harbour to Manly Wharf for the day where I applied half a bottle of sunscreen but still managed to turn an attractive shade of red… That was just made worse by a trip to the Botanical gardens later in the week- possibly the most beautiful surroundings I have ever been in, but 18 bug bites in just 2 hours! Evidently would have been a good idea to wear insect repellant that day… :L

A visit to Hyde Park was pleasant but had nothing on the great London version. Queen Victoria Building was beautiful as the Christmas decorations were all still up inside and a visit to the iconic Bondi Beach just before sunset was a definite highlight! Lots of surfers making me very jealous that the extent of my surfing abilities max out at almost being able to stand up on a board… Sunset at Bondi followed by a walk into the rocks around it to over look Bondi and the neighbouring beach in darkness was magical.

Now the Sydney leg is over and we took a bus to Melbourne overnight. It was surprisingly comfy with almost fully reclinable chairs and air conditioning I can only dream of now in Melbourne with temperatures breaking 100 year old records at 43 degrees!

Melbourne update to come :)