Days on the trip: 203
The plan was for both of us to take an overnight bus from Melbourne to Canberra, spend a few hours sightseeing and then hop onto a bus to Sydney. Unfortunately we (Martin) only managed to book one of the bus tickets for the right day so we had to split up. Andi took the easier and quicker, albeit significantly more expensive route of flying to Sydney. Martin spent the night on a bus with questionable air conditioning being stuck next to a big(ger) guy desperately trying not to lean on him but still get some sleep.
He finally arrived in Canberra at 6am and first of all needed 3 hours to come to terms with the day. When he eventually decided to be brave and face the sightseeing he went on to visit the war museum, parliament, and the commonwealth park. Canberra isn’t exactly the most impressive Australian town, but with it being the capital it’s still worth a stop for a day, or in Martin’s case, a few hours.
Now on a bus to Sydney we would soon meet up again at our air bnb in the eastern suburn of Maroubra, right next to the beach – a surfer’s heaven. We relaxed a little bit, and then wandered around the beach, along the rocks and to the swimming pool, which was essentially ocean water surrounded by a wall of rocks. And for dinner we were both craving fish ‘n’ chips.
The next day was New Year’s Eve and we’d arranged to meet up with Will, Selene, and a few of their friends to celebrate at Mrs Macquarie’s Point. It’s in the botanic garden and has some beautiful views over Sydney harbour – although with it being in a botanical garden it also has a fair number of trees. It’s a popular venue, so when we turned up at midday there was already a long queue of people trying to get it. Not to worry though, we had plenty of time and after about 2 hours we made it in.
It was pretty full inside so when it came to finding our picnic spot we could only get a patch of grass with no view at all. Never mind, we got our food out, enjoyed some drinks, played some games and generally had a good time in the sun. We walked around the area, checking out the views. People with the top spots had been there many hours before us and all looked pretty tired. And the harbour was packed with boats fighting to get the best view from the water.
Just before 9pm we managed to get an upgrade to our picnic spot. Not sure whether (and if so why) people left but we now saw harbour bridge (through a tree). When the 9pm children’s fireworks started this was our rehearsal to check out how much we could see. It wasn’t bad but also by far not the best. Also by now some people started to stand in the walkway, trying to get the best spot for the midnight fireworks. At the beginning the stewards tried very hard to keep the path clear but they soon realised it was pointless because as they send some people away, others will inevitably take that spot within a few seconds.
Standing for 3 hours wasn’t quite our thing, so we were a bit more relaxed and just before midnight went spot hunting. Sure, the prime spots weren’t available anymore but we still ended up with a decent view of the bridge and the opera house. As the countdown started we were ready to welcome the new year. Happy New Year everyone!!
After midnight we headed back to Maroubra. Going to bed just after 2am isn’t too bad for new years and so the next day wasn’t a complete write off. Andi was slightly more eager though than Martin and so whilst we both did the Maroubra to Bondi (via Coogee) walk, Andi walked right along the coast and Martin took an occasional short cut.
The walk was really nice and a great thing to do on New Year’s day. Nice and gentle, with fresh seaside air, and doesn’t take up too much time. Also, the coast line along it was very nice with a mix of rocks, sand beaches, pools, lagunes, a bit of green and forest with colourful birds and even a cemetery. We ended at Bondi beach which was fairly packed and had a fun atmosphere, and lots of bars. We might be biased, but we preferred Maroubra beach itself, but there are probably more bars and restaurants at Bondi, so it wins in that respect.
We continued our sightseeing the next day by getting a ferry to Manly. It was a lovely, if windy ferry rise with impressive views over Sydney harbour and the surrounding harbour suburbs. In Manly we didn’t have a huge amount of time but certainly enough to check out the local 4 pines brewery, and walk along the beach. It would have been nice to stay longer but we had also planned on having an Aussie BBQ back in Maroubra. Australia is great because they supply free BBQs to use, but you have to finish before sunset, so there was a bit of time pressure. We got there in time though, bought some kangaroo steak and sausages and enjoyed the end of the day in the park.
The following day the plan was to go surfing with Will and Selene. However, the forecast predicted some pretty big waves, too big for them to handle and therefore certainly too big for us. So instead we met for breakfast near the centre. It was a yummy breakfast, followed by amazing ice cream. And location wise it also worked out pretty well because whilst we had now been in Sydney for a while we hadn’t actually explored the city centre. So off we went to walk through the centre, again to the harbour, the rocks and the botanic gardens (including the bits that were cut off for us during New Year).
Originally this was supposed to have been our last day in Sydney, but Martin had really got into the Big Bash League (BBL) – t20 cricket, and we had seen that the Sydney Thunders were playing the Melbourne Stars the following day. So we got some last minute tickets and booked accommodation for another night close to the stadium. The air bnb that night was interesting – the host had set up a tent for us in the middle of her living room. Her parents (from China) were also visiting. The tent did a good job of blocking much of the living room and whenever we were around she and her parents seemed to be too polite to walk in and watch tv or sit on the sofa. She was really friendly though and for one night it was definitely fine and it was close to the match.
The stadium was in the Olympic park and so we walked around there for a bit before going in. As we got in we were given all sorts of fan things: flags, posters and empty KFC buckets to put on your head. In all the excitement we found a nice standing spot with a great view and never actually went to check out our seats.
The match looked like it was going to be pretty one sided. The Stars batted first and got a reasonable score. The Thunders were up second, didn’t score a lot and lost a fair number of early wickets. Martin was pretty much close to calling it a loss when the Thunders needed on average 12 runs per over (2 runs per ball). However, they kept the game alive. The required run rate was large, but it didn’t get any bigger and they kept delivering the 12 runs per over. So maybe all was not lost. But then their run rate went down again. In the last over they needed 16 to win. They started well, got a few boundaries, and in the end it went down to the last ball. They needed 4 to draw (and go into a super over) or 5 to win. And the Thunders hit a six. The entire stadium was celebrating and we very much enjoyed our first live BBL cricket match.
Most of our Australia trip was going to be along the coast, but a couple of hours inland by train from Sydney are the blue mountains. So we decided to stop there for a couple of days. We had a relaxing trip up to Katoomba and then the next day went to Scenic World where they have several ‘rides’. The first was a cable car down into the valley, followed by a board walk in the rain forest and a steep train back up to the top of the mountain. Our last ride was a cable car across to the other side of the mountain. We had lovely views of the rain forest, the valley, cliffs, mountains and waterfalls.
From the other side of the mountain we continued walking along the cliff and to the three sisters, three rocks next to the cliffs. From our walk we once more had lovely views and enjoyed the scenery and saw some weird small animal sculptures. Our plan was to continue along the walk a bit further to the Leura cascades but then the path was closed, it started to rain and it was pretty late already anyway, so we called it a day and went back to our hostel for some tuna and sweet corn pasta dinner. Oh and a hot shower. Unfortunately the hot water was broken, so instead we had a bath with the hot water supplied by the kettle.
Before heading back to Sydney for another overnight bus up the coast we stopped at Wentworth Falls, had a picnic, enjoyed some more views of the blue mountains from a different town and then got the 2h train back into the city where we found a sports bar to hang out and watch more cricket until it was time to catch the bus north.
Road Monkeys 