Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
On New Years Eve we used our attraction ticket to go up to the Sydney Tower. We'd been up there in the evening to the bar but wanted to see the views in the day. Again it was lucky we had the ticket as the queue was really long and once you'd bought a ticket you had to queue again. We still had to wait for about 40 minutes but it went quite quickly. They were really tight on security there, checking bags and walking through metal detectors. It felt a bit like being back an airport - which are becoming like a second home to us now! Once we were through that we were put into a small lift and taken up to the viewing deck, and yes, our ears did pop. The actual circumference of the tower isn't that big and you could walk around the whole thing in about 5 minutes. But taking photos and stopping to look at the amazing views, we were obviously up there for a bit longer. After we came back down, we were asked if we wanted to go on the. It was free so we thought we'd try it, having no idea what it actually was. Turned out it was a simulator ride that took you through various must see places in Australia. The seats we were in shook and moved rather violently, so much so that the attendant said at the start asked if anyone suffered from motion sickness! But we survived and it was actually quite good, if not a little over the top with the rattling around.
That evening we all got dressed up for our New Years Eve in Sydney. We had our visitors passes to get onto Sydney Harbour but the prices of the drinks down there would be extortionate so we decided to do a bar crawl from our hostel down to the harbour, it's basically one big straight road so wouldn't be too difficult if we had too much wine! We stopped at various places, some better than others but all nice, but none of them were really busy. This suprised us, if it had been in London on New Years Eve the bars would be heaving. We assumed it meant everyone was already down at the harbour or elsewhere, alot of people had gone to parks and viewpoints across Sydney where you had to queue from 6am that morning! We got to the harbour entrance around 11.30pm and got straight through with the tickets. We were soon right by the Sydney Opera House and Sydney Bridge, the fireworks started soon after. They were amazing! And the atmosphere there was brilliant aswell, everyone was so excited to be there and be watching the display. It was very surreal to realise you were in Sydney on New Years Eve - something you always see on the news but never think you'll experience. We are very lucky!
New Years Day we bought some food and drink, then headed to Coogi Beach. It was only a short bus ride away and there were free barbeques there where you could cook your own food. We had a bit of a wait for the barbeque as it was so busy, but after Jo stepped in and told the guys using it that they had to share with us (thanks Jo you saved us a lot of time!) then we were on our way barbequeing away! It took a while, there were 7 of us altogether and we'd bought some chicken cutlets which we discovered take some time to cook, but overall it was a successful day. We stayed there until early evening, it was really nice weather and good just to hang out by the beach for the day.
The next day we decided we had to start planning our routes and decided where we were going around Australia. We'd heard around about the flooding in Queensland but the bus ticket we'd bought back in the UK was letting us travel through there so we assumed it wasn't going to affect us. We were wrong. We overheard at the internet place we were in that a road was closed, a road that we would need to travel on. We asked the person who worked there and she showed us on the map where was flooded, we definately could not get up there. We know the flooding has devastated so many people and so many are being evacuated so we don't want to sound insensitive but this news stressed us out. We had pre-booked a tour in the Northern Territory so our plans were centered around that, the plan being to travel up the east coast to Cairns and then fly from there to Alice Springs where our trip was starting. So we couldn't really completely change our plans as the flight and tour were paid for. So after a few days of sitting at a computer and re-looking at everything, we came up with a new way of getting there. It meant we had to pay out for a flight we couldn't really afford as that was the only accessible way of getting where we needed to. It was a stressful few days and we ended up having to extend our stay in Sydney by 3 days just so we could sort stuff our and because buses running weren't as regular as we were lead to believe. But thats just one more issue with STA that we won't bore you about! We were so wrapped it up in sorting everything out we didn't really get to say a proper goodbye to Lydia or Jo. Sorry girls we hope you understand! It was really good to see you both and we hope you had a great Christmas and New Year!
After the plans, we had decided on Byron Bay as our next destination. Getting accommodation was a joke, everywhere was booked! The manager at our hostel in Sydney spent ages calling round for us. Eventually she got somewhere with a room, but it was expensive. At the point though we were desperate so we had to do it. It was well over budget but it was only for 2 nights and we've booked 2 overnight bus journeys further on to save on accommodation, so really we've split that price over 4 nights, making it a bit less painful. Thats what we're telling ourselves anyway!
So after over 2 weeks in Sydney we started out on our journey to Byron Bay. We met up with the gingers to say a final farewell as this would be the last time we'd see them until we're all back in the UK. We'd gotten used to seeing them every few weeks or so, it's going to be strange not doing that now. Good luck on your travels gingers!
Sydney was really good - it was good being in a city again. We'd had a little a taste in Bangkok but after all the islands, it was nice to be in the hustle and bustle again! We saw some really good things at the museums and wildlife centres, the beaches were lovely and we had some really good weather too. Really pleased to be able to say we've seen Sydney and seen such iconic places like the Opera House (especially Emma the architecture geek!) So even though towards the end was a bit of a panic, we thoroughly enjoyed it!
- comments