Holy moly! It has been a while hasn’t it. Too long. But you can now let out that huge sigh of relief, sit back, relax and enjoy. We’re back online.

So here goes. Since we last spoke we have been all over Sydney. Experiencing the city as well as the awesome beaches scattered along the coastline. We’ve done as much as we possibly could do in the miniscule amount of time available to us, and even though the weather hasn’t been too kind, we’ve still managed to really enjoy ourselves. Though the girls have probably moaned about the weather at least once an hour….every hour.

Being such a long time since I have managed to write about our time here it’s a little more difficult to remember exactly what we did in the order it necessarily happened. But I’ll do my best. If I remember rightly I left you with a picture of the three of us under the harbour bridge on our first night in the city. We walked down George Street that night after grabbing possibly the best steak I’ve ever had for dinner. I can’t put in to words how much I’ve missed a good, perfectly cooked piece of red meat. It was the perfect welcome to the city.

As we neared the end of street we could easily see the bridge over the top of the buildings. Then, as we turned the corner, the opera house. All lit up, reflecting on to the water of Sydney harbour. It was a bit of a surreal moment for all of us really. Something we’d seen in pictures and videos so often was now right in front of us. The bridge to our left, the opera house to our right. We were now standing in the exact spot I had visualised every day since we ever considered the idea of traveling the world. It simply refused to sink in that we were there. Anyone who has also stood on this spot will know a similar feeling I’m sure.

Soph was made aware before we left England that her aunt had once climbed the harbour bridge. She’d walked along the outside of its frame and stood on its tallest peak, staring down at the city below. Upon seeing it in real life, this immediately became a must do for the girls. But realistically we just couldn’t afford it. We’re sharing a speck of dust and glass of water for dinner each day, so justifying over $200 each was simply not feasible. Disappointed we took a walk to darling harbour to see how much it would be to visit the wildlife park and sea life centre located smack bang in the city centre. Very touristy of us.

While there we were all busting for a wee. I was of course in and out in no time at all. Obviously not forgetting to wash my hands. The girls however seem to spend a life time in the toilet. I don’t think I was aware of it before Courtney’s arrival, but since Soph has had a friend to powder her nose with they are in there for ages. I reckon they’re either having a full body and hair wash in there. Or perhaps female toilets are secretly portholes to the Narnia universe where they fight evil villains and lead the Narnians to victory before growing to an old age and coming back to continue their lives where they left off. I’m leaning towards the latter.

The point of all this was that this particular visit to Narnia did actually offer an opportunity for me to flick through some of the leaflets advertising things to do in Sydney. It also gave me enough time to learn Japanese and single handedly solve the meaning of life, but that’s not important for this blog. In one of these leaflets I came across a deal where we could not only visit the sea life centre, the wild life park and Maddam Tussuads. But also go right to the top of Sydney Tower. And all this for less than half the price of the bridge climb. Sold.

It was safe to say Maddam Tussauds wasn’t in anyway up to scratch when compared with the one in London, but it was a  laugh for sure.

The wild life park was also pretty small but definitely worth the visit. Kangaroos, koalas, wombats, Tasmanian devils. The whole Aussie line up were there. And I must say, a very  brave Sophie faced not one but two of her worst fears.

But the highlight really was the Sydney Tower. We chose to go up around 7pm on Saturday night. That way we could see the city in daylight but still have to time to catch the Sun going down and the bright lights be switched on across Sydney. Turns out it was a superb choice. We turned up around half six and made our way through the check in area to the lifts. We all got in, shot to the top, waited for the doors to open and then let our mouths drop. We had a full 360° view of Sydney. The harbour bridge looked like nothing more than a tiny Lego replica. The opera house too.

Not only did our ticket include a trip to the viewing deck, it also had a sky walk for all three of us where we could go outside and walk around the tower amongst the elements. Probably unsurprisingly they were a lot more concerned with health and safety than the Malaysians when we took to the top of Kuala Lumpur’s tower. Instead of being able to roam freely around the tower we were hooked up to the side to stop us from jumping off. Not that I would be jumping off that thing in a million years. But I guess there are some crazy people out there (Soph) who would love to bungee off the side. One awesome difference with the Sydney Tower though was the glass floor. The glass floor that looked directly down on Martin’s Place. The location of the recent Sydney Siege that was all over the news in December. Together with our group was a guide who would talk us through everything we could see as well as take pictures of us up there. Annoyingly they wouldn’t allow us to take our cameras outside so the only pictures available were the ones he took. Which of course were so expensive to buy that we would of had to sell our souls to simply afford one. It was a shame, but when the girls looked at the photos after, there was something they hated about them anyway. Of course.

When we headed back inside the Sun was well and truly on its way down and the city was starting to light up. Unlike Melbourne where everybody is seemingly on a Sun down curfew, Sydney is a bit like Courtney on a weekend. It wakes up and gets out of bed no earlier than late afternoon. The city’s new lease of life was kicked off with a firework show on Darling Harbour. Something we had front row seats to from the top of Sydney Tower. A silent firework display happening below our feet. It really was something else.

That night also happened to be the night when Australia won the Asian Cup in extra time. Although soccer isn’t as popular down under as it is in Europe the pubs were packed to the rafters, and when they scored what turned out to be the winning goal the city went crazy. Almost as crazy as the Korean who ran out the pub in tears after watching his side lose.

Having spent a few days in the city, it was time to hit the beach. A short bus ride and a mini walk later we were standing outside a coffee shop looking down on to the famous Bondi beach. This was a huge ‘tick off the list’ moment for me and Soph. We have spent hours and hours sitting in front of the tv watching Dr Chris Brown fix up the sick animals of his town on Bondi Vet, as well as the lifeguard team on Bondi Rescue save the lives of those stupid enough to swim too far from the shore. But even without those programmes, Bondi is famous all over the world for simply being super nice.

So after chucking our bags down in a our new dorm room and waking up our new room mate (it was 2 pm), we headed straight to the beach. It was sunny. For a bit. But soon enough the clouds appeared and forced everyone back off the beach again. Turns out this became a theme for our time in Bondi. Just like it has for pretty much our entire time in Australia. Apart from Perth of course. Wow that was hot.

A few years back both Soph and Courtney worked down at the Angel Centre in Tonbridge with a lad called Scott Harlow. Scott decided one day that enough was enough and he was going to pack up his stuff and head off for an adventure similar to ours. But Scott got hooked on what we now know to be the Bondi bubble. So once he’d finished travelling the world he returned to Sydney, got himself a job, and settled down in Bondi. So, as I’m sure you’ll have guessed by now,  we went to see old Scotty to see what he’d been up to and get involved in our first East Coast BBQ.

It was a really good evening chatting about our trip and getting the boy’s stories about their adventures. Eating something a little more substantial than thin air was also fantastic. They even had a sea view from their balcony where we were all sitting. And with the big city only 15 minutes away by bus, you can quite easily see why people return to Bondi. Even if the weather isn’t at its best.

As we left Scott’s place they mentioned about a possible night out the following weekend. Seeing as it was only Sunday evening, the chance of us sticking around until then were slim to none. With so much more of Australia to see and so little time to see it in, we really couldn’t be staying for that long in one place. But this was only our first day in Bondi. We had no idea how much we’d love it there.

The following day we attempted another beach session. We got our towels and all that ready and headed down to what was a very quiet Monday beach. We wondered perhaps for 2 minutes as to why it was so empty, when we were whipped in the face with an almighty sand storm. We tried to hold out, but with our faces now feeling like they’d been stabbed by a thousand armed smurfs, we had to retreat to the grass area. Which was actually quite busy. They were probably all laughing at us as we wandered confidently down to the beach. “Suckers”.

As usual I disappeared for a little walk while the girls soaked up the Sun. Only on my return they had decided to wrap up in as many layers as they possibly could. These girls are so sensitive to the cold they could sense a fridge opening from 10 miles away. I thought it was just a Soph thing as she used to take her cardigan with her during the day in Bangkok. But it seems Courtney is just as sensitive. Maybe it’s a girl thing. I, as well as the rest of Bondi, was still walking around sweating one out. For their sake, I hope New Zealand is having some sort if freak heat wave.

The next day we headed to Bondi Juntion. The sort of town centre and shopping district for Bondi. But for once we weren’t there to do any shopping. We were going to tick off the number one must do item on our traveling list. We were going to have our picture taken outside the vets. The Bondi Vets. Of course this would mean diddily squot to most people. In fact almost everyone. But for someone who’s girl friend loves animals so much they could burst and who’s mother does her best to hoard them, this was actually a significant moment. We ran up the steps to the door and had our photo outside as discreetly as possible. Although this was cool for us, it was probably super lame for anyone who actually caught us doing it. But we were spotted. Just as we took the last pic a lady pulled up in her car and smiled at us.

Rumbled.

We quickly turned, took one last look at the place, and took off. But just as we did the woman in the car shouted; “have you been inside yet?”.

Have we been inside yet? Was this even an option. Thinking fast I quickly looked around for the nearest pet cat that I could injure in order to have an excuse to actually go inside. But quickly it became clear that this plan was not necessary. The woman told us that we could by all means go inside and take a look. We needed no second thoughts. We jumped straight inside where we met a lady on reception. She told us that Chris Brown was away, which we knew, but that we could see his office and take a look around. We couldn’t believe our luck. We were introduced to Neil from the show and had a quick chat with him before getting our photo taken and then heading out again. Something that doesn’t mean much, if anything at all to most people, but was really great for Soph and I.

The sun was finally shining as we got back to Bondi beach. We had been told by a few people about a walk along the coast line from Bondi all the way to Coogee. It was going to take 2 hours to do, but with the Sun shining and it being our last day in Bondi, we thought we had to see what all the fuss was about. So we grabbed some water and headed off for an epic journey along the coast.

Sure it was long, exhausting stuff, but it was well worth it. We came across some stunning beaches and scenery that we just wouldn’t have known about without getting stuck in to the walk. By the end we were all struggling to put one foot in front of the other, but we had made it. Oh and if nothing else, the walk offered us the opportunity to capture something on camera that has never been seen before. Never thought to possibly ever happen….

I….Christopher David Eric Ells…have put on weight.

See…I’m verging on morbidly obese in this picture. And I’m not even eating. What’s going on man!

I think that’s probably a good place to take a break. Part two of our Sydney adventure to come up later.

Thanks for following x