It was great to go back to Sydney as we had enjoyed it so much earlier on in January during our trip, after all we had only spent two days there. The main reason for going back was to meet up with my brother Alan who was going to join Bailey's Tours for three weeks. We booked a hotel for four days, which was situated very central to most of the local attractions, Darling Harbour was just around the corner. Sydney is a good place to get around as they also offer a free bus service to get you out and about around the centre of Sydney. We used this service a couple of times but mainly walked everywhere.
The first day the weather was not too good ,infact it was like being in the Lake District and was raining pretty heavily so we decided to walk around Darling Harbour and vist the Sydney Aquariam. This was fairly impressive showing by the local marine life.(Most of it being found around the many bays in Sydney)
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| Cocklebay, part of Darling Harbour |
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| Fancy a swim in the bays around Sydney? |
It was great that you could get a good view of the sharks, stingrays etc, but it made you realise how big they are and how you would not like to meet with any of them while swimming off the Australian beaches!
The next day we visited the usual attractions such as the Sydney Bridge, Opera house, bars by the Rock, whilst enjoying the fantastic sunshine again. We were just as impressed by the attractions as we were the first time. There was a massive cruise ship. The Oceanna in the harbour.(Alan ws very impressed as it had over 1000 rooms!)
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| Steve and Alan Sydney Harbour |
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| Views from the ferry- Sydney Opera House |
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| Darling Harbour-Sydney |
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| Houses overlooking Sydney Harbour |
The following day we decided to go by ferry to Cockatoo Island, the largest island in Sydney Harbour. Cockatoo Island had a good write up about it, however I don't know which part we had read as we all laughed when we arrived on the island. It was not what we expected at all. It was located at the junction of the Parramatta and Lane Cove rivers, so had beautiful views looking at Sydney, but the island itself, I need say no more!!!!
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| Cockatoo Island- Note the large one of many warehouses you can walk around .... |
What we did find out was that Cockatoo Island was a former imperial prison, industrial school, reformatory and jail. It was also the site of one of Australia's biggest shipyards during the twentieth century. The first of its two dry docks was built by convicts and was completed in 1857. The island's maritime industrial activity ceased in 1992, basically we visited an old prison and factory.
Any adventure is not about the destination but the journey!! (Quote by Barry Ross- China trip) We did find a good bar on the island, the only bar so we made the most of our time there 2 hours was enough. We think the bar was the main attraction, people from Sydney obviously dressed up, got the ferry and stayed in the bar for cocktails and pizza, I enjoyed the music
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| Cockatoo Island- Only bar |
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| Ferry at Cockatoo Island - there are still views of Sydney bridge |
We enjoyed the night life, 'The Rock', which is the oldest part of Sydney was especially good for the bars, which mostly had live bands performing, however Darling harbour was good too for the Bistro type bars and restaurants. The harbour itself where the bridge is situated is more of an area to visit during the day.
We really enjoyed a small pub which was situated near our hotel area, we spent most of the night there. There was a live band who played a great variety of music, it was a small bar with a great atmosphere. The singer from the band came to speak to us he had a good sense of humour.(But acording to Steve was Barry Ross with lots of hair !)
Our next part of the journey was to travel up the coast toward the Gold Coast, which was always going to be our final destination in Australia as we had to sell our car in Queensland ,where we bought it.
On our way to Forster we stopped of and visited the Australia Reptie Zoo so that we could check out the local wild life. It was interesting as it contained various species of the deadly wildlife you find in Australia such as the crocodiles, black red snakes, deadly spiders, dingo's etc,etc,etc. It also had kangaroos, various birds of Australia, bats, Owls etc. One of our favourite animals we saw was the Tazmainian Devil as none of us had ever seen one before. It was quite a character, it would not stand still for a minute it just kept walking around in circles, very difficult to get a photograph, but after abour 20 we managed to catch him.
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| Tazmanian devil |
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| Yes ,this is a real one, not plastic from a viewing point often visited by the late Steve Irwin ! |
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| Two peaceful Dingos, fast asleep |
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| Joey with his baby in his pouch |
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| Red bellied black snake |
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| Tarantular |
Our next destinaton we stopped at Forster which was about 3 hours from Sydney. It was a beautiful little town with a lot of accomodation facing the sea, in fact we spotted dolphins from our balcolny playing in the waves. Nightlife was a bit sparse as there was nothing to do(,especially if your a single man like Alan!) there was nobody in the town centre and only one pub, with a rude Australia serving who obviously did not like the English; 'OH,You're from England-horrible place. I would never want to go there !!!' This comment did not go down with all three of us). We managed to get one drink there and then they told us they were closing, 9-30 pm ???? what was that all about. We decided not to stay there long and got up the next day to travel again continuing up the coast.
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| Forster Beach |
Our next port of call was Port Macquarie which is a city on the mid north coast of New South Wales, located about 400 km of Sydney and 570 km south of Brisbane. The city is located on the coast, at the mouth of the Hastings River, we managed to find accomodation on one of the holiday parks, it was good to show Alan some of the typical accomodation we have been staying at during our time in Australia
It was a very attractive resort with a harbour, it had many ammenities with alot to do in the area. We stayed in another holiday park , which was the franchise of the Big 4. We stayed for a couple of nights but the weather was not too good as it rained alot. Infact the most rain fell there in the whole of Australia during the two days we were there. As part of our bespoke Bailey's Tours itinerary, we wanted Alan to get a few sun rays since he only had three weeks in Australia and we knew the further up the coast the weather was better. We met some people who suggested we sample the local Bowls clubs. What we did discover to date was that the pubs, bowls clubs etc always had a pokies, gambling area where you could actually place a bet in the pub.
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| Port Macquarie- (This was in good weather !) |
Outside the local Bowls Club
Our next journey was to travel to Coffs Harbour which is on the North East coast of New South Wales, approx 540Km drive north of Sydney. The region has a sub tropical climate as it is just over half way on the Sydney to Brisbane route via The Pacific Highway, it is an ideal stop over point. We also read that it was a popular holiday destination because of the climate and great beaches. As we were looking for warmer dryer weather this sounded like a good place to stop. We only stopped one night in the suburb about 2km from the town, however the accomodation was nice, but expensive. We actually could not find any accomodation centrally as it was really busy due to it being the weekend and obviously popular with the Aussies as a holiday destination
Our next road trip was to Woolgoolga which was only 20 minutes up the road from Coffs harbour, this place reminded us more of New Zealand than Australia. The beach nearby was rugged like New Zealand with logs washed ashore with the tide. We managed to find a nice location to stay which was on a lagoon, however the cabin was a little bit to be desired. I would probably say the worst one yet as far as being basic goes. We did not want to let Alan rough it too much so Steve and I stayed on the fabricated leather bunk beds and as part of his 'Tour Package ' gave him the double bedroom.
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| Even had to make the bed! |
We visitied the local RSA club and Hoey Moey pub and still did not get a good night sleep on the beds even after visiting the pub . Once again we only stayed the night as it was only meant for a one night stay before we set off to our final destination the Gold Coast, via Byron Bay.
A nice reminder of Woologa was the Lorikeets , colourful parrots coming to visit us at the cabin, we were reminded how very noisey these birds were.
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| Lorikeets on our balcony |
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| Woolgoolga |
Byrons Bay.
Arriving here made us realise that when you go North on the Pacific Highway from Sydney that there are really no lively resorts for 800 km. Byron Bay made up for the quiet coastline we'd experienced on our travels in many ways. Firstly it had that 70s Hippy feel to the place, with lots of backpackers ,surfers and a good mix of tourists from all over Europe and Asia. We stayed out of the town as being a Saturday all the inns were full. However we had a great night, exploring the many bars and pubs, after we'd spent most of the night listening to a great local band at the 'Raily' (The old Railway Station.)
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| Outside our accomodation- very tropical surroundings |
Finally we arrived at the Gold Coast we decided to stay at Broadbeach instead of Surfers Paradise, as you could get accomodaton which was better value for money. We had a choice to still visit Surfers Paradise which was only a short taxi ride away. The accomodation we found was central to all bars, restaurants, a large casino (Jupiters) and also overlooked the beach with fantastic panaromic views of skyscrapers on Surfers paradise. (The penthouse appartment interior was also very plush and again we ensured Alan had a double bedroom and his own bathroom, as we'd planned to stay here until he flew back to England in eight days time )
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| The view of Surfers Paradise from the hallway |
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| The view of Surfers Paradise from our balcony |
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| The view from our balcony |
There was also plenty of nightlife for Alan!. As well as walking about sampling the pubs we found a regular pub, The Envy Hotel which we visited a few times, once again most of the pubs we sampled had live bands, gambling (pokies) areas and a few choices of beers, of which Steve had managed to sample most of them.
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| Alan's favourite ;Tooheys New.Steves favourite ;Pure Blonde ! |
Some of our main observations about Australian bars are they have many rules!
1. Everybody is ID, mostly electronically
2 You are not allowed to wear thongs (flip flops) after 9pm, even if you are in the pub already, we got caught out a few times, very annoying.
3 If you fall asleep /drop a glass /wear a vest you are thrown out instantly (did not happen to us)
4 If you refuse to leave the bar there is an on the spot fine of $500
However we never saw any anti social behaviour or under age drinkers.(Can the UK learn from our cousins?)
During the week in Broadbeach it was fairly quiet but by the weekend the bars were busy. We visitied the Casino one night mid week and realised where most of the population spent there time, it was really busy.
Alan and Steve managed to escape one afternoon to check out the local Golf Club at Palm Meadows it sounded like they had a great time and were very impressed with the Golf course. On the evening we visited Surfers Paradise to check out the night life, once again nice busy with lots of choice of bars and restaurants all with in a short walking distance
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| Surfers Paradise promenade |
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| This view along the beach is amazing . Surfers Paradise |
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| Alan's swing for a hole in One!(which he needed to win against Steve by one hole) |
We visited a winery called Sirromet, nearer Brisbane than the Gold coast, however tranport was provided so there were no worries sampling the local wine. We had an interesting tour finding out how they make the wine and an even better time sampling it. (This was one of Alans favourite days on Bailey's Tours .The biggest problem he had was deciding which bottles he could bring back, as they don't export to the UK yet.)
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| Sirromet Winery |
Sunday the 19th was Alan's final day so we decided to experience the famous extreme jet boat which flew across the water approximatley 80 miles per hour, it was good experience and was very very fast. The organisations ultimate goal was to make sure everyone got wet and they certainley succeeded. We ended up in a bar overlooking the lake, drinking beer and wine, listening to great accoustic singer in the back ground. Quoted by Alan ' What more could he ask for on his last day. ' Good beer, sunshine, music, great company ? and fantatic views overlooking a stunning lake.'
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| Just before we got really wet ! |
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| yes we had to buy the photograph, like tourists do! |
We left Brodbeach the same time Alan headed back to England .We went down the coast by taxi and are now finishing our last week in Palms beach relaxing by the pool, Steve fishing and planning our trip for America. .
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| Our pool at Palm resort |
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| The view outside our studio-nice and relaxing. |
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| Dusk outside our studio -Wow! |
We leave Australia on the 29th February, we will also be arriving in Los Angels on the same day due to time difference. We are looking forward to the next part of our trip and Steve's just told me we are getting an overnight sleeper train from Los Angeles to Seattle !(It sounds interesting ,but it also takes 35 hours !However we feel confident that this train will be nothing like the ones we experienced in China )
1. CHINA -The Great Wall and the Forbidden City
2.The Terracotta Army and the Chengdu Panda Sanctuary
3..Hong Kong and tracing the Mclucas home from the 70's
4. New Zealand, The 2011 Rugby World Cup ,Skiing on Whakapapa , Queenstown and the the Bay of Islands .
5.Australia,Tropical Queensland ,Seventeen Seventy and the Great Barrier Reef, Sydney and its surrounds, Melbourne and the Australian Tennis Open, The Great Ocean Road (Double Wow) Kangaroos, Kolas and the feathered birds amazing .
PLUS our friends in Victoria, Elly and Jandi, New South Wales; Jo, Michael and family and not forgetting Barry Virginia, who were fantastic hosts, Alan and Jeanette, Dave and Kelly from ACT !(Our additional list of things we've done and seen is very extensive and has been the added extras we'd not really considered when we had planned 'Bailey's Tours.'
