Sydney

We made it to Sydney safe and sound but didn't arrive until late in the evening. We made our way to the Jackaroo Hostel, in King's Cross and then went to grab a quick bite to eat before bed.

The next day started out pretty nice so we decided to take the ferry over to Manly Beach. On our way to the ferry we stopped by The Rocks, which is a pretty cool historic area near the Harbour Bridge. It was the weekend so they had a market going. We spent a bit of time walking through the stalls and window shopping. Then we got on the ferry to Manly Beach, which has spectacular views of the Harbour Bridge and the Opera House. Once at Manly there was another market, so we had some lunch and walked around that before making our way to the beach. The beach was huge and it was pretty busy, but we found a nice spot and just enjoyed the sun for a little while. Unfortunately, it started to get a little cloudy, but it didn't rain. But once the clouds settled in we decided to make our way back to the ferry. On our way, we came across a hilarious game being played right beside the ferry terminal. It's called SUP Ball. It's basically like basketball being played on Stand Up Paddle (SUP) boards - but full contact. So, all the guys were wearing "budgie smugglers" or speedos and they were throwing themselves at each other and onto each other's boards trying to stop the other team from scoring, which consisted of throwing the ball and hitting a huge buoy in the water at either end of the "court". We watched for probably a good 30 mins, because it was so hilarious! Once back on the mainland we made our way to take a closer look at the Opera House. It really is a very intricate building. There are thousands of tiles on all of it, which surprised both of us! Then it was off to do a little workout, dinner and bed.

Harbour Bridge

 

The next day was a rainy day in Sydney so we decided to make the most of it and do a few errands. We started the day out at the Indian consulate. We decided that on our way home at the end of June we are going to meet some friends in India for a couple of weeks, so we had to get some visas. The process wasn't too hard - it just took a little organizing and a bit of time at the consulate and then they would mail our passports to Woodie's place in Brisbane, where we would pick them up in a week or so when we passed through again. After that was done we went to a travel doctor to get some immunizations and malaria pills for our Asian Adventure. We both left a little poorer and with sore arms, but ready for Asia.


We spent the rest of the afternoon walking around the Darling Harbour, going to see Monuments Men (I didn't really like it) and having sushi for dinner. We walked back to King's Cross and managed to stumble upon Hyde Park, which is a really beautiful piece of green space in the middle of the Sydney CBD. It was really nice.

Our last full day in Sydney we went to Bondi Beach. I mean, you can't go to Sydney and not go to the iconic beach. Unfortunately for us it was a cloudy day again, but we made our way over to the beach and did a little lying out and swimming. It didn't rain, which was nice, but it remained a cloudy day. Once we were all beached out we went back to the hostel to shower and then went into the CBD for some drinks. There is a really nice bar at the foot of the steps to the Opera House, called the Opera Bar. So we went and sat outside and had some drinks with the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge both glowing in the background. It is amazing how beautiful their waterfront is...especially compared to Toronto's!

Just about to head to the Opera Bar

 

The next morning we made our way to Hippie Campers to pick up our last camper van that would see us through to Cairns. We named this one Bam Bam because the first day we had it things were constantly sliding around and it made a lot of noise! But off we went on the last leg of our adventure up the east coast of Australia.

Our first night in the new campervan we spent just outside of the town of Newcastle. It rained most of the night so we just sort of hunkered down in Bam Bam and had a good nights sleep. The next day we made our way to Port Stephens, which is a really nice beach town. On our way into town we saw a sign for a winery cellar door, so we decided to make a stop. The wine was terrible, but it also had a brewery that did beer tasting there and the beer was really good. So good that we had to buy some to take away with us. Then we actually went into the heart of Port Stephens and had some lunch. It was another rainy day so we didn't hit the beach but instead decided to do a little hike. We did a short one that took us to a WWII lookout that used to have these massive machine guns. The infrastructure was still there and it was interesting to see.

Once we left Port Stephens we only drove a little further before setting up shop for the night. Australia is a gorgeous country, but most of the beauty that we were seeing was in the beaches, which aren't as much fun when it's raining :(

Thanks for reading

xo