I know it's been a little longer than usual since our last blog (several of you have separately made this point to both us!) but when you see what we've been up to you'll realise why we just forgot about you... I mean, haven't found the time to write it!
Iconic Sydney in New South Wales -our 3rd state in Oz (technically 2nd as the Northern Territory isn't a state) - didn't let us down.
As we boarded the double decker train to Riverstone, a suburb about an hour North West of the city, we were looking forward to catching up with Pete, my best man and the Collins clan. No sooner had we arrived at Hotel Collins but we were on our way to Windsor for a good old pub lunch in Australia's oldest hotel, a beer and the biggest one scoop ice cream money can buy!
Riverstone (or Rivo as its affectionately known by the locals) - is close to the Blue Mountains so on Wednesday we thought it would be rude not to see them while we were in the neighbourhood. To say these are vast and beautiful is a bit of an understatement, and luckily the weather wasn't too bad to spoil the view. And having descended a staircase steep enough to cause another heart attack, we marvelled at Wentworth falls as it slowly soaked us from above.
You might be asking, why are they called the Blue mountains? I asked the same question, but to our shock our guide for the day (Pete) didn't know! So Pete (and anyone else who doesn't know), are they Blue because;
A) The water reflects off the mountains making them Blue
B) There are multiple colonies of Blue Jays (birds) in the mountains
C) When heated by the sun, the resin from Eucalyptus trees creates a blue haze
D) The mountains look Blue from space?
Answer at the end!
(Sorry... you pick up a lot of interesting but useless information on these tours- I thought I'd have some fun with it!)
Anyway, as if to make up for his lack of knowledge, Pete decided that it wasn't enough just to see the falls from below, but also from above - so he treated us to tickets to Scenic World - a park dedicated to seeing the best the mountains have to offer. A cable car took us over Katoomba falls and another took us back down in to the valley to see the rainforest and an old coal mine. On the way back the weather had better ideas and we were encased in fog, which made the sky cable car interesting as we couldn't see for 5m in front, behind, above and below us. Luckily a couple of days later we got to stop at Echo Point lookout for the view we'd been waiting for; of the mountains and the 3 sisters, which I nicknamed Joanna, Jennifer and Rachel!
Thursday was our Tourist-day, and our first trip was our first of two wedding presents for the day - a tour around the Sydney Opera House! The minute you see it up close, the first thing you notice is that it's not actually white! It's covered in hundreds of thousands of cream coloured bath tiles! Then you realise it's right in the middle of the harbour and it's tiny compared to the Harbour Bridge. Finally you realise that you're standing staring at one of the most iconic buildings in the world! Inside doesn't disappoint - (stay with me with this one) imagine what an armoured armadillo might look like... then imagine what it looks like inside, add seats, purple carpet and a few shoe boxes on the walls and that's what the main opera theatre looks like! Thank you Becky and Simon!
Anyway, another question for you...
The design for the Opera House was the winning submission of an international competition that the Australians concocted in the 60s. The design nearly didn't win it because it was so radical and the designer didn't even see the finished product. But what nationality was the chap who designed the Sydney Opera House?
A) Spanish
B) Danish
C) American
D) Australian?
So from one icon to another... just round the corner - you can't go many places in Sydney without also seeing the Harbour Bridge. Before climbing we donned even more sexy suits, shed anything that could fall off and attached everything that we needed to our suits including harnesses and radios.
The gods must have been looking down on us because when we got up to the top we had an uninterrupted view of the whole harbour. It was a fairly safe walk, we were attached to a cable the whole way up - so much so that even Fiz said she wished it was more challenging! All in all, in the words of Steve Coogan (who had a signed photo in the foyer) it is 'another excellent example of British engineering'!
More interesting but pointless knowledge... how many people died during the construction of the bridge? Bear in mind no-one had harnesses or any safety straps.
A) 6
B) 16
C) 96
Having dipped our heads in the clouds (thank you to the McAllisters and Mikey P) we raced home for a Collins Birthday BBQ.
On Friday we thought we'd learn more about the convicts and why the Brits thought it would be a good idea to send the naughty folk to the sun and sand of Australia, with a visit to the Hyde Park Barracks Museum. We arrived just in time for a free very well-guided tour by Diana and also got to check whether any of our ancestors managed to get themselves in to trouble and then sent to paradise! I didn't find any Loudens but there were plenty of Jones', Bishops and Collins' - I'm not saying any more!
The three of us then got to explore the rest of Sydney in the rain (we thought it was supposed to be sunny 24/7/365 over here - what's going on?!), got to feel at 'home' by eating at an asian food court, dropped by Darling Harbour, and also stopped off for a few bevoirs at the local pubs. One of which was called the Fortune of War, which claimed to be the oldest pub in Sydney - there seems to be quite a lot of claiming the oldest establishment in town in general in Oz.
Saturday was time for wedding present number 3 in Sydney - and one I'd been looking forward to for some time - a trip to Bathurst race track, a legendary track in Australia and globally. This is probably one of the only racetracks that I know of that stays as a track year round and which is also essentially a public road. Though it serves little purpose as a public road and there's a 60kmh limit all the way round, it is still possible to get the adrenaline flowing through some of the tighter corners. Thank you Pete and Rach!
So who won the last Bathurst race held just a few weeks ago you might be asking?
A) Ford
B) Nissan
C) Holden (this is what they call Vauxhalls over here for some reason!)?
As luck would have it, BBQ number 2 was waiting for us when we got back to Hotel Collins - I think we lucked in with this accomodation!
The fun continued on Sunday, arriving at and departing from THE Circular Quay (the one between the opera house and the big bridge you see on TV whenever the fireworks kick off at NYE) on ferries, with our eventual destination being Manly (not Manky) beach.
Wedding present number 4 in Sydney was cocktails up the 360 bar in the Westfield tower in the centre of Sydney. This was a bit swish for us as by now any smart clothes we had have well and truly been worn out, but we carried on regardless of the looks the suits gave us as I walked in in trainers. Again the gods were looking down on us and we had yet more uninterrupted cloudless views of the whole city and the sun setting - and we didn't even have to move out of our seat because the whole bar rotated 360 degrees. A thank you is due to Nan Jones and Vicky and James!
Finally, we spent Monday getting acquainted with Sydney's other famous beach - Bondi beach, which just about pips Manky as our fave. The beach itself is nothing like you think it would be - there were actually very few surfer bums (unless they actually work for a living!) and a short walk round the corner there are some excellent coves. It wouldn't be hard to live there!
We've loved Sydney and Hotel Collins (thanks again Wayne and Sally) and have been truly spoilt whilst being here - this definitely makes up for staying in hostels!
But before you folks at home get worried (as if) about us leaving the UK permanently to move out here - we still have so much to see, starting with Melbs (Melbourne for the uninitiated) and we'll be staying at Chez Ella and Sam.
Now, do you also want the power of interesting but useless information? If so read on for your answers.
- The Blue Mountains are blue because of Eucalyptus resin! Go figure!
- The designer of the Opera House was Danish - and not a hint of bacon about!
- Only 16 people died making the Sydney Harbour Bridge - and only 3 of those fell off it!
- Vauxhall, sorry Holden, won the Bathurst race in 2012, much to Mr Collins' annoyance! Nissan haven't been allowed to enter for the last few years because they had better cars!
If you scored full points... you're a loser because either you know this information already or you googled the answers! Or, you live in Sydney, in which case you're not a loser unless you got one wrong!
Pete, how many did you get?!
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