Sydney…Sights, Friends & Errands!
We love spending a few days in Sydney every time we come to Australia. This visit was great as always. A combination of sightseeing, catching up with friends and errands.
It also served as a reminder of the hectic, big city life we are stepping away from on this trip. Sydney is a magnificent city to visit. We never get tired of wandering around the harbor with the bridge and opera house as backdrops. But, we could see the fatigue of many people who live the hectic life in this beautiful city. It made us very grateful for this break.
We arrived in Sydney on Sunday night after flights from Tahiti to Auckland (5.5 hours) and then Auckland to Sydney (3 hours). We knew it was going to make for a few rough transition days and it sure did! We spent 4 nights in Sydney and then travelled on to Adelaide in time for Halloween trick or treating with friends, which was (helpfully!) another late evening. This all meant we finished up our first week in Australia really tired. Plus baby Hazel is sick so that has reduced sleep even further.
To achieve this level of fatigue we have thankfully had a lot of fun times so here are a few highlights:
Catching up with friends: we spent a magic afternoon with friends on Sydney Harbor (see pictures below) followed by after school play time at a favorite playground next to the marina. The following night we had a wonderful catchup with another great friend where we did takeaway chicken and chips at their house and the kids ran wild in the backyard. They had toys, a trampoline and a dog. The girls were in heaven!
Sights!: Whitney and I have been doing layovers in Sydney together for a dozen years so we usually find something new to do and repeat something we love.
The boat ride around Sydney harbor was new for us and was amazing. Our friends own a beautiful boat made in the 1950s and were brave enough to take our crew out for an afternoon sail. It was an amazing way to see the little coves around the Harbor and the beautiful Sydney skyline. The big girls were so exhausted they took a nap in the cabin.
Our second something new was a somewhat accidental walk across the Sydney Harbor Bridge. A decade ago Whitney and I did the bridge climb which was beyond amazing! However, with three little kids and a budget the free walk across the pedestrian path was a fantastic alternative. Like many of our favorite experiences, it happened accidentally. There is a lovely little cafe across the harbor (Ripples cafe) that sits underneath the Sydney Harbor bridge and overlooks the opera house. We decided to catch the ferry over there for an early lunch. Unfortunately we learned as we took our seats on the ferry that the restaurant closes between 10:30am-12pm making our 11:20am arrival useless. Crazy, right! We were hungry, jet lagged and all team members were struggling. We then missed a ferry back to Circular Quay so it was not heading in the right direction. As we stood looking at the bridge amidst a two kid meltdown trying to figure out the best way forward the idea to walk back across the bridge struck us. We figured the kids were already grumpy and Whitney and I would at least enjoy the walk. We loaded the big kids into the stroller, Hazel into the baby carrier and went for it. On the walk up the hill to get to the pedestrian access point we found the Side Part Cafe, bought everyone some lunch and ate it in the awesome playground across the street. That was the turning point! Everyone was now back in good form for at least a while. From there we found the start of the walkway and away we went. As the photos show, it was like kid musical chairs as we moved across the bridge. Ranging from 2 walking kids and Hazel in the stroller to all 3 being carried and pushing an empty stroller! It was great though and will definitely be added to the to-do list next time we are in Sydney.
Bondi Beach. We love this place. AirBnB has made it practical and comfortable to stay there as a family, so we do. We rented a great apartment one street back at the northern end of Bondi Beach. The views are stunning, every amenity is open late into the night and the backdrop is Bondi Beach! We repeated our lunch at the North Bondi RSL Club. It is free entry for non-local visitors (bring your ID if you go). The food is great, as are the prices, and the view is outrageous as you look across Bondi Beach.
Bondi Icebergs. Whitney knocked off a bucket list item! At 6am on our second morning she walked to the Bondi Icebergs swim club to swim in the iconic pool at the south end of Bondi Beach. As the name suggests, the water is worse than cold. But, she crushed a ton of laps then returned to our apartment to find me wrangling our three daughters, and in total awe that someone would do that swim voluntarily!
Errands. We packed the iPads to help us get through the errands. We, for good or bad, did most of the errands the first morning we were in Sydney. Totally jet lagged but everyone was up early because of that so we caught the bus to Bondi Junction and spent about four hours getting local SIM cards for our phones, Halloween costumes, replacing some worn out clothes etc. There were some frayed nerves all around, but we got a lot done!
So we loved our few days in Sydney. We now head to South Australia to start our almost three months with my family. Here are some pictures.
