The Rest of Sydney

We started our downtown tour at Government House next to the Botanic Gardens, the seat of the NSW State Governor. It was built in the mid 1840s and contains a large art collection.  It is only open to visitors by appointment at weekends, but we were allowed to stroll around the immaculately manicured grounds and ornamental gardens.

Government House

Ornamental Garden

Views to Sydney Harbour

The Veranda

From Government House we strolled along Elizabeth Street to St James and site of the impressive St Mary's Cathedral.

Impressive

We wandered through the shops in the Queen Victoria Building. The QVB was built in 1898 as a monument to the reigning monarch. Today it is an upscale shopping precinct.

QVB

 After spending a little cash, we headed over to Darling Harbour. This area is full of restaurants and cafes, so we did what we do best; ate! 

My Darling

This was one of the funniest things we have seen all holiday! 

OMG!!

Our final day in Sydney, Friday 30 March 2012, started with a walk around the Botanical Gardens; the best example of a botanic garden we have seen on our tour.

Bird of Paradise

Water Lilly

The only part of the gardens we didn't spend too much time in was where the spiders were hanging out.  The one below was literally the size of a hand. 

HUGE!

The gardens are also home to a large population of Flying Foxes, a type of bat. Flying Foxes only feed on nectar, blossom, pollen, and fruit. Their senses of smell and eyesight are very well-developed to locate food. When feeding they crash into foliage and grab hold of it, then swing upside down before drawing food into its mouth with one of its hind feet or with the clawed thumbs at the top of its wings.

Batfink

Hanging out with friends

Odd fruit

We wandered back to Circular Quay and listened to the Aborigine didgeridoo player for a bit before heading up to the Observatory for a great view of the Harbour Bridge. 

Bob won second place in the fancy dress competition as a skeleton

Circular Quay

View from Observation Park 

The final Sydney landmark from our week was Harry's. His 'kitchen' has been serving pies, coffees and other snacks for over 60 years, and the hundreds of photos of famous folk who have eaten there seem to endorse his grub. We just took a picture!

World Famous in Woolloomooloo

Next stop Hawaii! 

Coogee to Bondi Beach trek

The sun was out so we caught a bus from Circular Quay to Coogee and started the fabled walk to Bondi. 

Coogee (pronounced Coo G) Beach is a fairly small suburb with loads of cafes and drinking establishments, but as it was only 11am so we resisted a beer and wandered along the sandy beach.  Coogee has a gentle surf and so is very popular with families and swimmers at weekends and during holidays. It was fairly quiet (but still busy for midweek!) 

Coogee Beach

Coogee & Coogee Beach

From Coogee the path winds up a hill and through a Dunningham Reserve to Gordon's Bay and round the headland to Clovelly, a popular spot for snorkeling and swimming.

Gordons Bay

From lovelly Clovelly, the path winds along the clifftops passed the Waverley Cemetery, where the residents have views to die for.

Waverley Cemetery

Bronte is a small family beach with an ocean pool.

Bronte

Tamarama Beach, also know as “Glamarama” attracts the beautiful crowd and surfers that can't be bothered with the crowds at Bondi. The surf is the only rough thing here.

Glamorama

8kms from the start, Bondi came into view! The surf was up, the sun was up and we were happy! Then a few minutes later the clouds rolled in and the sun disappeared so it was time for food and wine. Damn!

Bondi - Exciting or what?

Its a rock

Bondi

The most famous beach in the world?

Flying Lifeguards!

The Blue Mountains

We left the apartment at 7am, walked up to The Cross, stepped over the drunks and boarded the train with people still heading home from the night before and a few school kids. We changed at Central and 2 hours and 24 stops later we were in Katoomba, gateway to the Blue Mountains National Park.

This year, New South Wales has seen huge amounts of rainfall.  This rainfall has caused huge amounts of landslides and slips which has closed many of the hiking trails and paths. We wanted to walk down into the valley, around the three sisters and back up at Scenic World, but couldn't as the Giant Stairway had been half washed away in February!

Ready, willing but not able to tackle the Giant Stairway

So instead, we walked the Prince Henry Clifftop Path from the 3 Sisters to Leura. The path was very wet and in places we had to wade through ankle deep water. The clouds were very low too so visibility was pretty poor!

3 Sisters

The commonly told legend of the Three Sisters is that three sisters (Meehni', 'Wimlah' and Gunnedoo') lived in the Jamison Valley as members of the Katoomba tribe. They fell in love with three men from a neighbouring tribe but marriage was forbidden by tribal law. The brothers were not happy to accept this law and so decided to use force to capture the three sisters. A major tribal battle ensued, and the sisters were turned to stone by an elder to protect them, but he was killed in the fighting and no one else could turn them back.

The 4 sisters

You can almost see the trees in the background

The 2 hour hike had plenty of lookouts - and these lookouts had plenty of cloud!

Almost clear!

Very scenic. Apparently.

Echo Point

3 Sisters & Echo Point

View from Katoomba Falls

We walked a few miles around the clifftop to Scenic World, but the 5000 Japanese tourists (many in matching his and hers outfits!!) put us off riding the world's steepest train to the world's longest boardwalk. So we played statues again!

LMAO!

Pout!

Oh dear

G'day Sydney!

Our flight was just not long enough. Usually we get board of flying, but the A380 was so comfortable and had so many onboard choices, we didn't want to get off! The only complaint we had was that we had a wing seat, and the wings were so big that we couldn't really see anything else!

Woolloomooloo Wharf & Boy Charlton Pool

We arrived late in the evening and met the owner of the apartment in Woolloomooloo before unpacking and crashing out.

We woke up to blue skies and warmth! 15 minutes after the leaving the apartment and just about the time we got to the middle of an open area with only a few trees for cover, the grey clouds rolled in and a heavy shower stopped us in our tracks for 30 minutes!

Once the rain had blown over, we walked to Mrs MacQuarrie's chair and had a great view of Sydney Harbour.

Sydney Harbour (in case you didn't know!!)

We wandered through the Botanic Gardens to the Opera House. It was designed by Danish architect Jørn Utzon and opened, 16 years after it was initially designed, in 1973, and in 2007 it became a UNESCO World Heritage site.

From a distance the roof looks white, but up close it is actually a pale cream colour.

Beige!

The building is mostly pre-cast concrete, but the roof is made of ceramic tile.

Ceramic tiles

Roof detail

Although it was 10 years behind schedule and cost 14 times more than the original budget, the SOH has become the symbol for Sydney and for Australia as a whole, as it is the most recognisable of structures and is the most photographed building in the southern hemisphere.

As the clouds gathered again, we headed around circular quay and into The Rocks, one of the oldest areas of Sydney, it became established shortly after the colony's formation in 1788. The original buildings were made of sandstone, from which the area gets its name. It was a rough area, full of sailors and sailors 'entertainment' but fell into decay when the plague broke out in the late 19th century. Most of the buildings were demolished, but World War 1 stalled the destruction.

In the early 1970s the area was redeveloped into a tourist destination, and today is one of the busiest areas of central Sydney.  It is home to many artisans and independent cafes and houses a craft and farmers market each weekend.

The Rocks

The other world famous vista is the Sydney Harbour Bridge. The southern bridge end is located at Millers Point in The Rocks area, and the northern end at Milsons Point in the lower North Shore area. It carries six lanes of road traffic on its main roadway, a footpath, two railway tracks and a bicycle path.

The Sydney Harbour Bridge, known to some as the 'Coathanger', was opened on March 19th 1932 after six years of construction. Made of steel the bridge contains 6 million hand driven rivets.

Sydney Harbour Bridge is the world's largest (but not longest) steel arch bridge at 1149m and its arch span is 503m. The top of the arch is 134m above sea level and the clearance for shipping under the deck is 49m. The total steelwork weighs 52,800 tonnes, including 39,000 tonnes in the arch. 

It is possible to climb to the top of the arch

We wandered back to Woolloomooloo and headed off to Kings Cross in search of a supermarket. What a place 'The Cross' is; from luxury apartments and swanky restaurants, to peep shows, down and outs and adult shops, it has it all and everything in between!!

Woolloomooloo Wharf

The next morning brought warm, clear skies and we made the most of it by jumping on a harbour cruise.  We cruised around the harbours before getting off in Manly for a stroll.  The beach was fairly quiet as it was windy but the surf was up which makes a nice photo!

Manly!

 From Manly, we walked along the beach promenade, around the headland and along a path to Shelly Beach, a nice secluded beach with a nice cafe where we had a coffee and watched the world go by!

Shelly Beach

 Walking back to Manly, a Water Dragon popped out to say hello and didn't seem too bothered by us!

Hello!

We walked back down through Manly town centre and walked the trail to the Spit. The bay was beautiful and deserted!

Not a soul in sight!

We boarded our boat and sailed back to Sydney. The views of the Opera House from the water (with a blue sky!) were awesome!

We rounded off day two with a huge Greek feast - thanks for a great day out Kelly, Maddie & Doug!