Category: Trip

Beach Cricket

January 14, 2015

I’m extremely tired as I write this, falling asleep mid sentence. Today was a long, hot summer day.

I walked to Coogee beach (above) from Adams place. I knew the coast road to Bondi started there and wanted to (finally!) walk the whole track. I didn’t anticipate the incredibile heat though, and was sweating like a pony not ten steps from his door!

That’s Gordon’s Bay, north of Coogee. Note the ancient boat ramps! There was a sign that it was an underwater nature preserve, with all sorts of fish and invertebrates. A lovely place.

The path continued along the coast past Clovelly and Waverly Cemetary, which is surely one of the highest appraised cemeteries anywhere with its hundreds of metres of pristine seaside views.

It took more than an hour to reach Bronte Beach, at which point I knew there was not much to go before Bondi. But that last twenty minutes or so was agony since I was tired, hot and hungry. When I got to Bondi I ninja’d onto a waiting bus without even taking a photo and was quickly on my way to Bondi mall.

Lunch was the usual Ambrosia, and I spent a good long time at the mall wandering around like an amnesiac. Truth is the exertion of these past weeks is definitely catching up with me…

After an afternoon packing my bags and resting, Adam returned and we shortly set out again for the cricket down at the SCG. A cat on a fence was happy to pose for a snap as we walked past.

The cricket was great! We had excellent seats, the (extremely overpriced) food was delicious, and the teams (Sydney vs Adelaide) put on an exiting game that wasn’t decided until the last over.

We didn’t get back home until about midnight. As I said at the start: a long day. I only have one more full day here, who knows what I’ll get up to?

Back To Sydney

January 13, 2015

Today I left mum and dads and headed down to Sydney. The rains were drying up in Newcastle but the forecast in Sydney remained gloomy.

I headed down to Darling Harbour since I wanted to visit ‘Wildlife: Sydney Zoo’, the new name for what used to be called Australia’s Wildlife World. I’d been here many years ago and wanted to see how it had held up.

That’s a whistling duck, one of the animals on display. The ‘zoo’ is a linear walk through several displays mostly concentrating on the big hitters like koalas and kangaroos.

It took me about 90 minutes to see everything, including the (brief) ‘outback show’ and ‘kangaroo show’, which isn’t much for $40. Also most of the animals enclosures are behind glass, so you don’t feel as close to them as you do in a place like Blackbutt (which is free).

That said, they have some nice reptile, amphibian and insect exhibits. But I think the reduction in size (due to the building of Madame Tussaud’s) had been detrimental to this park, and if you’re interested in seeing Oz animals just take the time and visit Taronga.

That’s a giant octopus attacking a sub berthed at the maritime museum. I was a bit worn out today, but I may visit later this week.

After Wildlife I headed into the CBD for some shopping. At Kinokuniya they have an astonishing display of paper flowers that I hope Bernard got to see before he left.

Yes they’re all made of paper.

The rest of the day was spent with Adam watching TV, laughing and (much later) collaborating on a series of unique postcards…

Wollongong

January 11, 2015

It seems an evil technömancer took the blog down shortly after my arrival, but my righteous brother managed to get things working only milliseconds after arriving home in the USA.

Since I’ve been tweeting like a madman, I’ll summarize the missed days in a few posts, then continue as usual as I move into the last 4 days of my trip.

So, to continue on where I left off…

That’s a view of Wollongong beach. The city is about 90 minutes south of Sydney, and Adam and I visited for two nights. We were very impressed by what we saw, especially the foreshore and Harbour:

The first day we explored the CBD (including a large mall) and the foreshore area. To my great joy, I found a near-perfect replacement for my still-beloved lost black floppy hat:

We also saw some intriguing graffiti murals:

My hotel room was comfy and gargantuan, and I rested well to prepare for the next day which we packed with activities. First we took a short train ride south to visit the Southern Hemispheres largest Buddhist temple:

It’s a sprawling complex with many buildings and was bigger than any I’d seen in Japan. Worth a visit if you’re in the area.

Afterwards we returned to the city, and hopped on a (free) bus which took us – unexpectedly – to the botanical gardens, which were very nice and again, worth visiting.

On our way to Wollongong we didn’t know if there would be any New Years celebrations. As it turns out there was, and around 6pm on the 31st we headed again down to the harbour to partake in the festivities.

As with most everything else we saw in Wollongong we were impressed. There were rides, wonderful food vendors, live music, show bags (!!), many many people and other things to see which all led up to a fantastic fireworks show over the harbour at 9 pm:

I very much enjoyed Wollongong, and am glad we went. If you’re looking for an escape not far from Sydney, I recommend the southern coast!

Robot Claw