The Sydney Trip - Part One

Thursday

Driving to Sydney

Having planned the route on the SatNav and packed up the cooler bag with drinks and sarnies, we were ready to head off down the Hume highway to Sydney. The TomTom lady had told us it would take 8 hours, so we left at 9.30am with the estimated arrival time of 5.30pm. After getting out of Melbourne the lack of cruise control on the new car became obvious, it would be a very easy drive with it but what could we do about it... suggestions included a variety of different weight bricks which could be placed on the accelerator pedal to enable different cruising speeds (due to Health and Safety hazard of bricks this was never made reality).

The drive was fine, some bits of scenery, plenty of roadkill (big stuff, ew!) and only a few other cars. The obligatory slowing down for road works with no one actually working on them also featured, this was one of the reasons the estimated time of arrival was never met, also the lack of including time to eat and to get petrol so that the car can keep going. We eventually arrived at 7.30pm, and no matter what Andy says he did not drive the whole way.

We were greeted by Naz with our first Aussie BBQ, and the amazing view of the Anzac bridge from their gorgeous apartment. Then bed, considering we had sat down most of the day we were still exhausted and ready to sleep.

Friday

New Years Eve

Brunch breakfast, a walk across Sydney taking in the highlights (Opera House and Harbour Bridge among others) and a few welcome beverages in the local public houses in the Rocks.

This was Friday; a preparation for the evening festivities, one particularly memorable moment of the day was lunch. The Australian Hotel is featured on trip advisor, many people tell you not to stay there, however they do recommend eating there and so do I. The menu provides a range of gourmet pizzas, including crocodile pizza, which was part of the lunch selection along with a chorizo pizza and a prawn pizza. Good tucker!

The evening was rounded off at midnight with fireworks. Sydney Harbour and Bridge were lit up for over 10mins. A fab way to start 2011. Christmas felt odd due to the hot weather, however I think New Years is excellent when warm, it makes you want to go out, whereas often in the UK I would rather have had a cosy seat by a warm fire then venture out into the night.

Saturday

New Year Day

A gentle start with a cooked breakfast and then we were taken (by car) around the North side of Sydney. We visited several nature parks with beautiful views of the harbour, Andy was busy snapping away with the camera so we should be able to put together a 180 degree view (360 degrees once we had also done the south).

We stopped off at a small beach (it is usually fairly empty but as this was a really sunny day and part of the holidays it was a little busy) and paddled our feet in the water, which was really clear and not too chilly. We had ice cream from the ice cream van (I was happy to find out they had them over here, complete with 99’s), the ice cream of choice was a ‘choc top’, a mr whippy ice cream which is then dunked in chocolate topping (the stuff that hardens), tricky to eat but yummy.

Wok station for dinner, and then a final look at the harbour by night, accompanied by a short night photography lesson for Andy.

There is more to come in Part 2 and maybe 3...