The rest of Sydney Pt. 1

Here is a week's work of holiday in one post!

Sunday: Sydney Fish Market day!! Since my first visit to Sydney I've been missing the freshest sashimi I've tasted. We met Fiona and Jarna there and we bought oysters, tuna, salmon and prawns for about $55AUD. The same food at a restaurant would've been easily $300+, what a delicious steal. We ended the fish extravaganza with chocolate covered strawberries (as you do) and I had a sneaky choc covered mango slice. 10/10, definitely recommend the whole experience. 

After a lovely lunch, we walked over to Darling Harbour and missed our ferry to Cockatoo Island, so had a drink and hopped on a later ferry. The views from the island were great. The Island Bar was an experience. A bit night club-ish during the day for me, but an experience nonetheless. Step count: 10,088

Monday: Kylie headed in to work and Jennifer and I headed to Bondi! First stop - Le Paris Cafe. Eggs bene for Jennifer, fruit salad with yoghurt and muesli for me. 

After brekkie we walked along the coast from Bondi to Coogee, taking in the views.

 We headed back toward the CBD and walked through Hyde Park, visited St Mary's Cathedral, had a yum cha snack at Bodhi (a vegan restaurant), walked through the botanical gardens to the Opera house and headed back to Kylie's. Step count: 23,634

Tuesday: Another day of work for Kylie, another day of sight seeing for us! It was raining pretty steadily, so we headed in to the Australian Museum. After the museum we had lunch at Diethnes (a Greek restaurant) and walked through the Queen Victoria Building. We plodded along in the rain to The Rocks for a bit more sight seeing and a drink. After our rainy day, we met up with a few more of Kylie and her flatmate Pete's friends for pub quiz in Neutral Bay. We came in somewhere in the middle of the pack, not our best showing, but could've been worse. Step count: 16,262

Wednesday: Last day of work for Kylie! A day in Manly for Jennifer and me. We caught a very festive bus to Manly and walked from the Wharf to the beach along the Corso. 

We found a cute cafe, Hemingway's, to stop for a coffee and toasted banana bread. 

We walked along the beach and then back toward Shelly Beach where we stopped for lunch - flat breads and wine! 

We continued our walk through Manly to Little Manly Cove and then caught the ferry to Circular Quay for drinks at Opera Bar. Great Sauvignon Blanc find - Praxis, Moorilla Tasmania. Step count: 20,311

Thursday: Christmas Eve! We all headed in to Balmain and had breakfast as Kazbah (a Middle Eastern restaurant). We went back to a few years ago when we spent Christmas in Morocco together and had breakfast tagines! 

Kylie then dropped us off at Yurulbin Park and we walked all through Balmain to the Balmain East ferry. 

Definitely my new fave spot in Sydney. This part of town has amazing character. On the list if I ever move to Sydney! 

After the walk we picked up a carrot cake for Christmas and then headed to Kylie's parents' house in Chatswood for a lovely Christmas Eve dinner. Step count: 13,848

Friday: Christmas!! We woke up Christmas morning and got ready to head out to West Pennant Hills to a family friend of Kylie's for Christmas lunch. We spent the day mostly sitting on the veranda, chatting, snacking on apps. We had a nice lunch of turkey and ham, roast veggies, and salads. I also got the best joke in my Christmas cracker - what did one eye say to the other eye? Between you and me, something smells! 

Then out came the desserts! A fruit plate, carrot cake, trifle, ripple cake, chocolate mousse and truffles. Wow. Step count: 7,540 (food count: lots)

Saturday: Boxing Day - now we're off to Melbourne! 

Oops, I've taken 3.5 weeks off work

So it's been 2 years since the long way home. I decided it was time to take a trip back to Australia...and maybe blog about it! 

I cashed in some United points some months ago and boarded a plane in Newark on December 16, headed to Vancouver - got the third degree from the customs lady on why I was visiting a friend I made in London ...in Sydney - and then boarded the longest flight ever. 16+ hours! December 17th, 2015 was a figment of my imagination as I entirely skipped that day and arrived in Sydney on Dec 18. Kylie (said friend I met in London) and Jennifer were waiting for me when I arrived.

Kylie dropped us off at her flat and headed to work for the afternoon. Jennifer and I did a bit of shopping for some lunch at Woolworth's, did a couple small errands, and then got on with it! We headed to Primrose Park, near Kylie's, to get some vitamin D (which clearly I am deficient in). On the way back we stopped off for a drink at Firefly and then met up with Kylie to get some Thai takeaway and watched The Woman in Gold. They watched, I slept! Per usual.

The next day we were up and off to brunch with some of Kylie's friends in Balmoral Beach. Before brunch Kylie gave Jennifer and me some lovely Christmas presents! We ate at Bather's Pavilion and I had my first coffee of the trip. If you've not had Australian coffee, you're missing out on life. I also had blood sausages. Oops. A bit far off from my generally plant based diet as of late. Word to the wise if you eat at Bather's - don't touch their sign in sheet- they're protective. After brunch we had a bit of a walk and enjoyed the view of the beach. 

We took a walk to Cremorne Point and took in more spectacular views and weather and then headed in to Carols in the Domain with the rest of Sydney apparently! We had a lovely picnic dinner and some of us participated in the caroling.

Yep, I think this trip was a great idea. Looking forward to the next few weeks!

New Zealand

We arrived in Auckland and took the airport bus into the city. After dropping our bags at the Ibis hotel we made our way to the viaduct harbour and had dinner at  Snapdragon. We started with a grilled halloumi salad since neither of us can remember if you can get it in the states. Mo had scallops with mushrooms and I had a white fish with gnocchi. These meals were great! Good first choice for Auckland.

The next morning we slept in for a bit and made our way down to the harbour again for the ferry to Waiheke island at 11. Here is Auckland from the ferry.

We immediately got on to a little bus tour of the island which was nice to be able to learn a bit about the island. 

The driver dropped us off in an area called Oneroa and we had a great seafood lunch with local wines and olives at Vino Vino.

After lunch we caught the local bus back to Stonyridge winery (apparently one of the top 10 wineries in the world for tastings). This was a great tasting - all red wines, we had the tasting in lounge chairs and the views were amazing! There was even a helicopter that took off while we were there. Perhaps some people are too rich for the ferry. The last wine we tasted went for between 260-500NZD depending on the vintage. It was nice, but both Mo and I agreed had they not told us which was the freaking expensive bottle we would not have been able to tell.

We had dinner at Elliot Stables - de niro restaurant, good, but nothing special.

The next morning we picked up our rental car - a little red Mazda 3 - and drove to the Coromandel peninsula for the hot water beach. This is where for 2 hours either side of low tide you rent a spade for 5 dollars and dig your own hot tub. Here I am in the process of digging hole #1. After digging this beast we determined we found the coldest water on the beach.

We set off to find a better spot and managed to find the hottest water..I swear it boiled through the sand. It was like goldilocks...too cold, too hot... But we did manage to sit in it for a while and when a big wave would come, it cooled our boiling pot enough to make I enjoyable for a few minutes.

In a few hours, the whole beach was absolutely covered in people digging holes.

We left the hot water beach and headed toward Rotorua. I took a turn driving on the left side for the first time. Hardest part? Indicators are on the ride side of the wheel. I spent much of that day shouting expletives when accidentally turning the windshield wipers on.

We stayed in a 4 person room at the Base Rotorua hostel, but were the only 2 in the room! We had seafood chowder and lamb dishes for dinner at the Fat Dog Cafe. We decided on this because we had eaten at the Funky Dog in Chiang Mai and the Smiling Dog in Ao Nang. I'd recommend eating anywhere called 'adjective' dog cafe...all three were great!

Te nex morning we went to Hellsgate mud bath and sulphur spa. Stink City. It was fun, hopefully good for the skin and we got to smell nice and sulphurous for the ride to Gisborne.

We stopped for brunch at Fig cafe in Whakatane. I could've eaten my way through the entire menu....but we split eggs benedict and the pesto pile up instead. Very good, but not quite Le Paris Go brunch.

After lunch I gound hokey pokey ice cream! I wa very excited about this - one of the things to try in New Zealand. I wasn't so impressed...but it was much better than the durian ice cream I tried and dumped into the street in Siem Reap.

Once we neared Gisborne we followed the wine map to some of the wineries, but in a very comedy of errors way, we always seemed to end up in someone's driveway or the cellar door was just closing! 

Luckily, we found the Gisborne Wine Centre later that evening where we were able to taste 10 wines from 10 different vineyards. My favourites were of course the reds. I've been on a red kick for a while!

One of the beautiful things about New Zealand is the landscape you see while driving. Here are a couple of the hundreds (??!) of snaps we tried to get in the car. Note they do not do the scenery justice at all! Those little white blobs in the first picture are sheep. Unfortunately, I am severely allergic to this beautiful scenery and have had to keep the tissues, eye drops, and antihistamines close. Mo would also like me to point out that in fact she is not allergic to New Zealand. There's a first, something I'm allergic to tht she's not.

After Gisborne we headed to Taupo and did a 5.6mk hike to Huka falls. Also not doing justice to the power and amount of water flowing here are some photos.

We got back to our hotel and started the pack for the plane home!

In the morning Mo went for a run and I was told that photos of the lke were a must.

All packed up, ready to go!

Of course the drive to the airport was fun - there was an incident on the harbour bridge which closed it and there were "major delays" on the motorway. I attempted to get us into the city without using the motorway and this craptastic map with no names for the yellow roads. Unbelievably we made it in with no wrong turns, stopping only once for assistance!

We got the bus back to the airport and Mo got us into the lounge with her mysterious status that randomly appeared.

Currently sitting in the lounge waiting for our 13 hour flight to LA. Slightly dreading my assigned middle seat on this full flight!

Cheers to a great trip!