Ben & Hannah got engaged!!

The last few days have been torture, I've been desperate to tell the whole world that 'MY SISTER GOT ENGAGED'!!!!! So today I got to shout it off the harbour bridge! I'm soooo happy for Ben and Hannah and so excited for the wedding planning.

It's been hard being here when I desperately want to share with them their excitement. We've been calling and messaging but with the time difference I have to wait all day before I can talk to them. So now I spend half my time exploring the city whilst the other half thinking about weddings and hen dos!
Today we did a three hour walking tour with a fantastic guide, Edd reckons one of the best we've ever had. He walked us through the city explaining sections of their relatively short history. I actually enjoyed it being so recent, it's easier to imagine things from the 1800's. A few bits we learnt were:

The Sydney council spent $20million on fireworks every year for nye! They easily recoop this through parking tickets!

In the city the roads that run east to west are descriptive names such as market street or park road. The ones that run north to south are after important figures of Australian society.

Captain cook never came to 'Sydney', when he arrived he explored Botany Bay and then left. The reason the city was built where it is was because when the British arrived they realised there was no fresh water and the land was infertile in Botany Bay and they had to travel up to find somewhere they could live. Sydney had a small fresh water river and so they settled here. The harbour was naturally created during the ice age and is deepest in the world, full of fish which made it perfect for starting a community.

Early settlers bought camels over to Australia as they rightly assumed they would enjoy the climate in the outback. Once they were finished with the animals they released five camels into the desert to die. They didn't, and there are more camels in Australia than is Saudi Arabia.

Australia's coat of arms has a kangaroo and emu on it, these animals are chosen because they can't walk backwards and it represents Oz always moving forward. Advance Australia Fair. Australians seem proud to be able to say they eat both their animals on their coat of arms, the only country who can claim to do this!

There are about 50 million kangaroos in Australia, almost double the population of humans.

The Opera house was designed as part of a global competition and the architect became one of only two architects to have his work listed as a world heritage site in his lifetime. He was given a budget of $70million and of course it went way over that. They raised the rest of the money and more with a lottery set up to fund the construction. It ended up costing $102million.

In 2003 two protestors climbed the opera house in protest against the war in Iraq and painted NO WAR on the top in red. They were caught and fined $150,000, the amount it cost to clean the building. They raised the money by selling souvenir opera houses with 'no war' outside the building to tourists.

The bridge began construction in 1923 and the design was chosen because it needed less steel than the traditional suspension bridge design and would therefore be cheaper to build. The steel all came from Newcastle upon Tyne in England. It was paid for by British business men who only got paid back in 1988. The archway was considered a very strong structure once made but is difficult to maintain during the construction. They used big cables running back to the mainland to hold the arch until it was joined together in 1929. It was finally completed in 1932 and is sometimes referred to as the iron lung of Sydney because it was considered a life support, providing jobs to people during the Great Depression.

We also saw a number interesting statues, monuments and buildings along the way. Our guide Josh told us about the history of his family and where they had come from and about the First World War when they sent 200,000 men to France to fight. He also gave us in depth detail around the history of Australia and its native ancestors. The Australian history is not one they are completely proud of and despite being so short is very interesting!

We visited a street full of bird cages which is called the forgotten songs art memorial. There were recordings of birds chirping. The artist had been to the rainforest and recorded the sound of birds through the day and they are played in the street at the corresponding time to remind people of the species that would have been then when it was still forest.

We finished the tour with a spot of lunch at a sandwich bar which was highly recommended and didn't disappoint. We then walked the length of the harbour bridge which I loved but Edd got a bit jittery being so high up and above shark infested waters!! I got to shout about Hannah and Ben's engagement too which was fun!!

We tried to continue our explorations but after 7 hours of walking was decided we needed a rest. As it started to spit we made it back to our apartment for some rest, a shower and a sort out.

After a nap we headed back out to find a bar and a bite to eat but the bar we planned to go looked dead! After lots of walking around our local area (red light district) we found a cool pizza place and sat at the bar to share a pizza and add a few beers to the 'untapped' app.

We fly off to Brisbane tomorrow, we're very excited!

Coogee to Bondi (with extra Burrata!)

We enjoyed a slower start than usual this morning, Carly had a long lie in and I was up at the usual time to edit some of the bookings for the future trips. Travelling with smart phones does make things a lot easier, with a few well chosen apps you can modify the coming months while lying in bed with a cup of tea! We've been told by a number of people that Port Douglas has a lot more to offer than Cairns so I've moved our accommodation there as well as booking up our accommodation out of Brisbane when we drive to Noosa and Fraser Island.

There may have also been a small issue with booking our campervan for New Zealand a month earlier than planned. We've lost a bit of money on that one but have been offered a generous discount on the next one so it's not too bad! 

It seems weird booking ahead for other parts of the trip in America but with Booking.com and TripAdvisor it's so easy to get done while Carly sleeps! Gone are the days of hours in internet cafes, lonely planet guides and calling estate agents back in England! There has been something lost of not just turning up in a town and finding a room but it does make it a lot harder for people to scam you and poor restaurants are less likely to remain busy!After we'd had a simple breakfast and showers we wandered out and took the bus to Coogee Bay to start our walk along the coastline. It's rated as the number one attraction in Sydney on tripadvisor and you can see why. Starting at Coogee Bay where I had a lovely coffee, flat white of course, we headed around the bay and over the next headland.


The scenery reminded me of Cornwall, fairly harsh coastline with small glass fronted houses overlooking the sea. It was beautiful and although very up and down the paths were well made and it was a lovely walk along the coast. 

We dipped in and out of about 6 small coves and beaches, each one with slightly more surfers than the next, as we approached Bondi. We stopped to watch the surfers and see how it was really done after our attempt in Bali. The weather was perfect for walking in shorts and a t-shirt. Again similar to Cornwall with a slight breeze, but this is their winter!

Bondi Beach is one of the most famous in the world for being a stunning, big, white, beach with lots of good waves for surfers. It's also known as being one of the most overrated! Carly and I were impressed, the town is nothing much but the beach lived up to expectations, large and white, clean and the sand even squeaked as you walked on it. It's about half the size of what I'd expected but a beautiful sandy beach none the less.

From our professional opinion (now that we've had a surf lesson!!) the waves didn't seem right for surfing today but people were trying. The tide was going out while we were there so the waves were being flattened by currents heading back out into the ocean. It's also not particularly hot at the moment so the beach wasn't too full.

We found a lovely Italian that Liz's sister had recommended and it did not disappoint, the food was simple but amazing! We had eggplant (aubergine) Caponata with a whole Burrata to start, we agreed to share it but I'm not sure we ended up with half and half! The main was pasta for myself (a simple dish with snapper, huge prawns and some chilli and capers) and a Parma pizza for Carly. We were both in our my element, it's so nice when we find a restaurant we both love and Italian cuisine tends to work best for both our tastes!

We rounded off the meal with a couple of pots of gelato and wandered down to the beach for another look at the surf. On our way back to town we spoke to Hannah and Fraser to wish them both Happy Birthday. It's weird speaking to them as we've had a full days activities and they're just heading off to work. Well Hannah was, Fraser was just about waking up!


We'd decided on a night in tonight to save a bit of money and catch up with some pictures and chill out time. First though we headed to the viewpoint at Mrs Macqaurie's Chair for the sun setting over the Harbour Bridge and Opera House. Sadly the weather had clouded over but it was still lovely see the views over the Harbour and get some good pictures. I spoke to my Mum who again was just starting her day and collecting the eggs from the chickens!

We wandered home and am enjoying a few craft beers and some Pringles while Carly is catching up on some more sleep! A lie-in coastline walking and good food can certainly take it out of you!

Blue Mountains

An early morning pickup this morning as we joined our coach tour for a trip out to the Blue Mountains. Classic Australian ditty's (think Rolf Harris with slightly less cheese) were drifting through the coach's music system as we made our way through Sydney City Centre to pick up other tourists.

Our tour guide/driver was very Australian, with a lot of banter! He talked about the city and some of the short history of 'Modern' Australia. The Harbour Bridge opened 1932 and has 8 traffic lanes and 2 train lines. When built there were only 16 cars registered in Sydney so they were building for the future! It's not been updated at all since the original build.

The Opera house opened in 1973 and was designed by a Dutch architect who won a worldwide competition to get the job. He took inspiration from the view of Sydney Harbour with all the boat spinnakers. In 1996 it was declared a UNESCO world heritage site.

As we drove through the business districts it was interesting to see people go about their daily commutes. Sydney definitely has its similarities to London but an improved climate and much less busy. There was a busyness about town today as people headed to work but London would be already heaving by 8am on a Monday morning.

First stop on the tour was at Fetherdale wildlife centre. In NSW you're not allowed to pickup a Koala without being an official handler but we got to have our pictures taken with them. I wasn't overly fussed about koalas but loved them as soon as I'd seen them up close, they're very small cuddly bears!

We then continued throughout the centre, wandering around with kangaroos and wallabies and looking at the emus, dingos and hundreds of species of birds. There was a huge parrot and some even larger eagles, all of the animals we saw can be found wild in this incredible country.

A female wallaby is pregnant throughout her entire life. Once the Joey has left her pouch she will become pregnant again within 24hours and give birth 6-9 months later. Due to this they are over populated throughout the country and need culling every few years. Therefore it is legal to eat the meat and use the hides which are exported around the world.

We arrived for our first view point in the small town of Leura. The town is known for its beautiful sping colours and we had our first view of the beautiful spring cherry blossoms. The weather's lovely and crisp in this part of the mountains, perfect wandering temperature! The Blue Mountains are so named because from a distance there appears to be a blue haze coming from them. This is really light being refracted through eucalyptus oil which evaporated off the trees covering the mountains. 

We'd pre-ordered lunch and both enjoyed a huge hunk if lasagne followed by chocolate brownie! Much needed after skipping breakfast this morning. The town feels very American with the houses and small shops. There appear to be very few chains and a number of small boutique family run stores.

After lunch we headed to our main viewing area with a view of the Three Sisters rock formations. The aboriginal story goes that the three sisters were turned to stone by a witch doctor to protect them during war because they had been having relations with men from the opposition. I'm not convinced by the story but there were stunning views over the valley and across to other mountain ranges.

After a short wander we headed over to Scenic World via the Scenic Skyway. We then went down to the rainforest via the Scenic Railway, the steepest railway in the world. This was formerly used by the miners who worked in the Jamison Valley and has now been updated as a tourist attraction.

We had a lovely wander through the trees on the wooden walkways taking in the rain forest with glimpsed views of the distant mountains. It was nice to go on a slightly lon
ger route and get away from the majority of tourists. We headed back up via the Scenic Cableway and back on the bus towards Sydney.

On the way to our ferry back to the city we drove through the Olympic Village. They're still using the stadium for sport events and the athletes village has been turned into expensive riverside apartments. Interestingly they had to move the original site of the stadium as they found two green and blue bullfrogs which were considered extinct when digging the foundations. They're now left with an $85 million hole!

The bus dropped us off at the wharf by the Olympic village and the ferry back into the city was a really lovely journey through the west side of the city under the harbour bridge and through into circular quay. We passed a number of islands, one where the early prisoners from England were infamously held captive and set to work quarrying stone to build the city. There were no walls needed on the island as the criminals had ball and chains and were all terrified of the shark infested waters!

When we arrived back in the city we found another craft beer bar in the Darlinghurst area. While undoubtedly our expeditions to craft beer breweries and bars is for my benefit Carly has started to enjoy these little outings! Tonight was no exception, the food was really good as we shared a scotch egg, corn, zucchini and feta fritters, mini beef and ale pies & pea arancini.

We also had a Monday night trivia evening (a quiz night!) which was very well run and very entertaining. The best round was when each team had to send a member of their team up for silent karaoke. This was basically each player listening to their chosen song on their phones with headphones in and then sing (without music) to the whole pub. The winning act put in a stunning performance of 'A whole new world'.

A very fun and tiring day so looking forward to no alarm tomorrow and heading down to Bondi Beach mid morning for a wander along the coast.

Darling Harbour & Ferry to Manly

This morning we woke up to a phone call from my family on loud speaker, they were all having dinner together and it was SO lovely the hear from them. We then wandered over to Darling Harbour to meet friends Trish and Gary, we met them three years ago on our Sri Lanka holiday. They live in Canberra but stayed over in Sydney last night after the AFL game and met us for breakfast. 

It was so so lovely to catch up with them, we had an amazing breakfast in the harbour overlooking the sparkling water with boats coming and going as we sat out in the morning sun. Having not seen them for 18 months they didn't even know that we had got engaged, let alone got married, moved house and started three months travelling! I can't believe this is their spring, it feels like a perfect summers day for us, we picked a good time to visit!

They recommended us catching the boat from Darling harbour to Sydney harbour and then off to manly which was brilliant as we went under Sydney harbour bridge and got a brilliant view of the Opera House. We then transferred on to the ferry to Manly which was about half an hour and a lovely trip across the water. We again got stunning views back over the City of high rise buildings and the iconic Opera House and Harbour Bridge.

Manly is lovely, it has a small town feel that opens up to a big white beach with a small market alongside it. We wandered the coast line along to a more secluded beach and then up to a view point on the cliff and through some costal woodland. 

We spent the afternoon looking out to sea and enjoying the sun whilst booking a few trips for the coming days. Lots of people were out but not too many were braving the sea yet, the weather is due to get warmer and people still have jumpers on here most of the time.

We picked up our first ice creams of the trip (we didn't have them in Asia as they are a know cause for food poisoning if they are melted and re frozen a few times) and 'stumbled across' a micro brewery. Edd sampled a few of the beers from the bars own brewery and we had a lovely dinner.

Being a Sunday Edd opted for the Lamb Roast and I went for the burger. The food was really lovely and as the evening progressed a live musician started up. He was very talented with a loop pedal and guitar and a lovely way to spend the evening in Manly.

We have just travelled back by boat in the dark and Sydney is stunning all lit up. Big thanks to Adam and Liz who have given us lots of tips on where to go including recommending boats as much as possible to see the city. 

We got the tube home and couldn't believe how empty and quiet it was for a Sunday evening, absolutely no one on the platform, London would never be this quiet in the centre! 7am wakeup tomorrow for out day tour out to the Blue Mountains with another crisp Sunny day forecasted!