Australia - Sydney Part 2

The harbour at night
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Hello again from Sydney! It's Teresa writing! We've been all over the city in the past couple of weeks and photographed the Opera House and Harbour Bridge from every possible angle!

On Wednesday the 7th we headed to Mrs Macquaries Point to have a look at the harbour views at night time (this time minus the new year crowds!) The views were amazing and it was great to see everything lit up, we then headed around to Circular Quay and had a drink at the bar near the Opera House with a fantastic view of the Harbour Bridge.

Drinks at the Opera Bar!
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The next day we got the train, then the bus to Bondi for a day at the beach. Bondi was packed but we found a good spot and had a good day sunbathing and swimming in the sea...it's a hard life! After our lazy day at Bondi, the next day we got the train to Milsons Point on the other side of the harbour and had a day walking around taking way too many photos followed by a walk back over the Harbour Bridge to Circular Quay. The bridge really is huge with a walkway, 8 lanes of traffic and 2 train lines.

Bondi Beach
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On Saturday we got up early (6am - argh!) for a trip to the Blue Mountains which are located a 2 hour train journey west of the city. We arrived in a place called Katoomba and jumped on the hop-on-hop-off bus to a viewpoint where we commenced a half hour walk along the Prince Henry Cliff Walk, past the Katoomba Cascades to Scenic World. The cascades and scenery were amazing with views extending right out over the Blue Mountains which really do appear Blue! This we learnt is due to a Blue haze that hovers above the mountains produced by the oil from the Eucalyptus trees. After reaching scenic world we began a walk that would eventually take us to Echo Point near the Three Sisters rock formation. The walk took about 3 hours taking us along the Furber steps to Federal Pass before ending with a climb up the 900+ steps of the Giant Stairway...I really have never been so knackered! The views along the way and once we reached Echo Point really were spectacular and well worth all the exercise! To end our trip to the Blue Mountains we got the bus to another look out and had another half hour walk along the cliff to various look outs, all with amazing views!

View from the north shore
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On Sunday we have a more relaxed day (my calves needed it) so we headed to the Opera House to have a guided tour. The tour was really interesting and we learnt all about the history of the building and the future plans. Here's a fact for you all...apparently there is four times more steel in the Opera House than in Sydney Harbour Bridge!

We also spent Sunday organising Fiji - or not as the case turned out to be! After looking into it we learnt a Cyclone had hit Fiji and caused the worst floods in living memory. The boat service we would have used to get out to the islands was suspended due to rough seas, the main tourist town is under waist high water, 9000 people have been displaced and several have died. On top of all that another cyclone is due to hit next Wednesday so we thought it best to give it a miss! However we have managed to rearrange our flights and will be flying to Auckland on Friday instead and having an extra 2 weeks in new Zealand - the airline didn't charge us a penny either due to the 'state of natural disaster' being declared in Fiji.

Blue Mountains
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With out travel plans suitably rearranged and sorted, on Monday we took the ferry across from Circular Quay to Manly. The ferry journey was good and gave great views of the harbour (plus much cheaper than doing a sightseeing tour!) Manly was really nice, we had a walk around the shops and went to the beach for a few hours which was nice and much less packed than Bondi...though the waves were a bit more scary!

On Tuesday we had a chilled out day before setting off to do the tourist thing and climb Sydney Harbour Bridge...at night! We arrived at the climb centre and had to do a breath test before then putting on a climb suit (think a baby grow for grown ups) and lots of other accessories including a belt with radio and headset and a head torch! After passing the 'climb simulator' - proving we could in fact climb a ladder, we were off! We were in a group of about 14 with a guide called Belinda who gave us loads of information on the way. The views were incredible and enhanced by a huge, orange, full moon. It wasn't too tiring as there were loads of stops on the way and we got a couple of pictures taken. It was really windy at the top but the view was amazing and it was quite surreal to be stood right on top of the Harbour Bridge!

Blue Mountains
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On Wednesday we did some more walking and went along the coast from Bondi to Coogee. The walk was really nice and very picturesque, if a bit hot! It took us a couple of hours to walk the 5km with a few photo stops on the way before we headed back to the hostel to get ready to go out for a meal by the harbour. We went to a restaurant called The Waterfront and had a table right at the front so we could see the Opera House and the Bridge which was awesome. The food was fantastic and we had a really nice evening spending our christmas money!

Blue Mountains
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Today we will be doing some washing and packing ready to go to New Zealand tomorrow!!

Until next time,

Teresa and Barney xx