A good night had by all I think! We went into town to a restaurant called Malayah in Darling Harbour...good food, lots to drink and then Jaeger bombs! These are shots of Jaegermeister in Red Bull and were quite lethal. We got back in about 3:00 and are all feeling a little worse for wear...
We spent breakfast in Crows Nest, a small suburb in Northern Sydney - surprise, surprise, Eggs Benedict again! SJ had arranged to have her hair done at her old hairdressers later today so we headed down into Sydney for a look at the opera house, bridge etc. We drove down to the Rocks which is right on the waterfront to have a mooch around. Whilst we were there we popped into Ken Duncan's shop - he's a photographer who sells some high quality prints. We bought one of his prints entitled Sapphire Pool. Its magnificent! Included in the price was the cost to ship it to the UK and it arrives in February.
Whilst SJ had her hair done, I did a spot of shopping in George Street, the main shopping area in Sydney. I also popped into the QVB building where they had a fantastic Xmas tree decorated with Swarovski crystals.
I then caught a cab over to Newtown where SJ was having her hair done. We then headed back to V's to get ready for a meal out in Darling Harbour.
So we drove back up to Sydney today...we had a seafood medley at Nick's...it was good but not as good as it could have been I reckon. Anyway, we then met up with V for our last residence of the trip. We had a quick look around Sydney, planning to make more of a trip the next day...
Arrived safe and sound at V & L's down in Nowra. Had a reasonably quiet night - lots of wine and a BBQ anyway! This morning we woke up nice and early and headed for a day at the beach. on SJ's wall is a picture of a beach called Hole In The Wall Beach. This was originally because there was a hole in the wall...latterly the "roof" of the hole has collapsed, this leaving the "gap" in the wall. Anyway, its a very picturesque spot and we spent a good portion of the day there. Afterwards we headed into Huskisson, aka Husky in Jervis Bay for fish & chips and a scout round. This is actually where SJ had originally bought the picture from.
Tonight we went into Nowra town for...wait for it...an Indian! It was actually very, very good, just a bit strange!
Today we had brekkie at Bather's and then left G & M's and headed South to a little place called Nowra. It was about a 100km's or so drive and took a good couple of hours to get down there. On the way, we headed into the Royal National Park for a brief look at the local scenery - its very different to Sydney, almost suprisingly so. Its pretty much all gum trees and very, very dry. You can see where there have been bush fires and to be honest its no surprise that they start in the first place - the whole place is like a tinder box...
As we approached Nowra, we stopped off at a town called Berry. This is quite a cute town but not really my cup of tea. There's not a great deal there aside from a fantastic wine shop!
New Years Day is always a little strange but spending it on a beach in 30 degree heat is absolutely bizzare! We got up pretty early and walked down to Balmoral beach where we spent the day just lazing around. Its a very pretty place and very expensive. Bathers Pavillion (a building on the beach) is one of the most expensive places to eat in Sydney apparently!
It was interesting to see the old shark nets in a state of disrepair. They are not now maintained, the feeling being that they're not much use anyway!
The night was spent eating pizza and kebab's...not a bad start to the New Year!
New Year in Sydney is something everyone should do in their lifetime! IT WAS BRILLIANT! We headed over to meet up with G & M in Balmoral. They also had some other friends, A & M staying with them from Phoenix, Arizona. A wasn't feeling too good so he decided to drive into town. We'd arranged to go to a girl's apartment that overlooked the harbour etc. She was a friend of M's. Anyway, the venue was superb - we had a great view of the city and the fireworks were amazing!
Started off this morning badly...car wouldn't start, took us all day to realise that you needed to depress the clutch before you tried to turn the engine over...anyway, we used C's car to take us over to Bondi Beach where we met up with some more friends for brekkie. Eggs Benedict were the order of the day (again) and very nice it was too! We then had some free time before we met up with G & M in Balmoral. We drove over to Manly, Dee Why & Curl Curl where the surf was really high! Apparently, Sydney and New South Wales are experiencing some really freaky weather conditions with a typhoon being just off shore.
Well, we touched down in OZ around 19:00 following our (delayed) flight from Auckland. Met up with SJ's friend C who guided us from the airport through the streets of Erskineville to her apartment where we were staying the night. We dropped off our stuff and headed for a tour around the city followed by a drink in Darling Harbour. One bottle of champagne later and back to C's for a a BBQ and bed. I was knackered and fell asleep by 22:00!
