Tag: backpacking

North Island – New Zealand

by Sophie, posted in New Zealand

We flew from mainland Fiji and arrived in Auckland on the North island of New Zealand. Getting from the airport to our apartment was nice and straight forward and we were greeted by our other NZ party who’d already checked in. Dave’s sister Rachel and her husband James flew out to join us for 3 weeks, though we’ll be staying in New Zealand for an extra 12 days afterwards. We were very excited to have company that we knew! We didn’t do much in Auckland, James and Rachel recovered from jet lag and Dave and I recovered from our Fijian food poisoning. We just had a potter around the city centre and down to the port though the best view we had of the city was just from our high rise balcony!

We got a car for the three weeks with James as our main driver. Our first stop on the road trip was further North to the Bay of Islands where we spent a couple of nights in Paihai, a picturesque beachside town where we skimmed stones on the waters. We had a great cultural start to New Zealand visiting Waitangi where the treaty between Maoris and Brits was signed. The tour guide was great and really educational. The treaty was signed in 1840 and the problems from the treaty arose predominantly due to two versions of it being circulated; one in English and one in Maori which were worded differently. I couldn’t help but feel ashamed to have a British passport when their treatment towards the indigenous population was so clearly underhanded. The tour ended with a traditional Maori cultural performance at the meeting house. Both the men and women were amazing singers and we even got to watch an intense Haka. We then headed just outside Paihai to Kerikeri where we visited the Rainbow falls. Whilst it was quite a beautiful, tall waterfall, it absolutely pissed it down and we got soaked. Funnily enough no one else was at the falls due to the rain, but it made it nice for us to have the falls to ourselves. We stopped off at the town chocolate factory to warm up with a hot drink/ scoff free samples.

Our next drive was to Matamata, a tiny town of little interest but centrally located for the next few places we wanted to visit. The afternoon we arrived, we headed to the Waitomo caves, underground caves illuminated by glow worms! I was a little apprehensive as I don’t like caves and the first part of the tour was less than enjoyable for me personally. We descended in to a tall cave lined with stalagtites and stalagmites and spotted our first few glow worms. The tour guide explained how they eat, shining a torch on these minute dangling thin threads, similar to that of a spider’s web, from their nests that they use to attract insects. We went down further to a lake and boarded a small boat. We saw hundreds of thousands of glow worms radiating a blue-ish hue, it was like gazing up at the most intensely star studded sky you’ve ever seen. It was quite spectacular though unfortunately, no photography was allowed – I did buy a post card though, see below! The next day, the other three headed to the Coromandel peninsula whilst I had a relaxing day staying in and video calling my family. They visited the hot water beach where you dig your own small pool in the sand and the water is heated geothermically by underlaying hot springs. They also stopped off at cathedral cove, a rock formation that looks like a cathedral overlooking the beach, though they said the grey skies made it less picturesque than anticipated.

We’d had some unfortunate rainy weather but thankfully, the skies cleared for our day trip to Hobbiton. This was perhaps the ‘tourist attraction’ I was most excited for being a big fan of the Lord of the Rings. My sister and I have done multiple LOTR marathons and even went to a Hobbit Q&A with Sir Ian McKellen. Anyway, we arrived at Hobbiton and were instantly captivated by the landscape of rolling green hills unhampered by any telephone wires or signs of modern day life. The tour took us round all the Hobbit holes, though you could only actually enter one of them, and we were shown the difference between those built to scale of 60% and 90% to aid the perspective on film with the respective actors. The tour ended at the Green Dragon where I broke my alcohol ban for a cider in Merry and Pippin’s regular [LOTR reference, duh].

Our next day took us to nearby Rotorua to visit the Redwood forest. The trees are not native to New Zealand but were first planted in 1901. As the name would suggest, Redwoods have a reddish trunk and are massive, towering trees reaching around 100 metres tall.  You can do different walking tracks through the forest, but we chose only a short 1.5 hour walk. The forest also had a sulphur lake that smelt absolutely vile but was beautiful to look at the electric blue water and how anything living, wilted and died around it. We drove on to Taupo lake that afternoon where our hostel had a gorgeous little bull dog.  We went to see the Huka rapids, a different kind of water fall than what we’ve seen on our travels so far. This was just huge volumes of water plummeting through at a crazy pace. We also came back the next day to a different viewpoint along the river for the opening of the dam that happens at 10am. It wasn’t perhaps as immediate as we were all anticipating, but the river filled up very quickly and was soon cascading very fast.

Our final stop of New Zealand’s North Island was the capital, Wellington. Rachel and James went to the Weta Caves film studio whilst Dave and I did some shopping around the town centre buying thrilling things such as water proof trousers and a rucksack… We all went together to the Te Papa museum which has something for everyone; a rugby 7’s exhibition for Dave and a refugees in New Zealand stories exhibition for me. They also had an earthquake simulator which intrigued us all but was very anticlimactic in the end. Our last place was Mount Victoria where you can either walk or drive up to the top view point to overlook the city, mountains and surrounding waters, a beautiful end to the North Island!

Thanks for reading, join us next time as we get the ferry across to the South Island.

Sophie & Dave

Auckland docks
Sunset from our balcony in Auckland
Paihai free library
Paihai, Bay of islands
Paihai beach
War canoes, Waitangi
Maori canoe
Maori meeting house
Maori cultural performance
Rainbow falls in the rain
Rainbow falls, Kerikeri
Hobbiton!!
Excitement for Hobbiton
The shire
Hobbit holes
Actually a fake tree!
Dream home
Rachel, James, Dave, Sophie
Hobbit laundry
Overly excited
Redwood forest
Sulphur lake
Sulphur lake
Redwood trees
Sulphur rising
Huka rapids
Huka river
Huka dam
Car views
Scenic driving
Wellington
View from Mount Victoria
4 of us in Wellington
Waitomo glow worm caves
Hot water beach
Cathedral cove
Geothermal bath
Maori cultural performers
Biggie

Ep.15 – Fiji

by Sophie, posted in Fiji, Videos

Hello!

Here’s our video from the laid back islands of Fiji. We hope you enjoy just a few of the postcard-perfect Fijian islands! Don’t forget to watch in 1080p, spoiler alert, we snorkelled with reef sharks!

Sophie & Dave

 

Nadi & the Yasawas – Fiji

by Sophie, posted in Fiji

Hello!

We arrived in Fiji airport and were serenaded by 3 ukulele playing men as we queued for passport control. We hadn’t planned our Fiji trip (obviously) and only booked a couple of nights in Nadi Bay on the mainland. We just spent the day sunbathing by the beach next to our resort and planning how we were going to spend our 7 nights around the islands. I’m so glad we didn’t try booking anything online because the Fijian islands are a totally different ballgame to any other place we’ve ever been. There’s one company called ‘Awesome adventures’ who essentially have a monopoly on the islands. It’s their boat (the Yasawa flyer) that takes you between resorts and them alone who offer island hopping packages. Fiji has two groups of islands; the Mamanucas located only half an hour from Denarau marina and then the Yasawa islands which are up to 5 hours out in the South Pacific. The accommodation options are unconventionally rated too with only 1 or 2 coconuts (the more coconuts the fancier it is). Every resort on the Fijian islands has a compulsory meal plan, there’s no way around it. 1 coconut rating places have meals included in the price, 2 coconut places have meals on top (around 100 Fijian dollars a day). Safe to say, we couldn’t afford the two coconuts properties and began to narrow our planning by 1 coconut resorts. This was undeniably the most planning we’ve had to do since we left in February and it was so stressful trying to research and choose which islands to go (I know, we are prats, biggest concern being which island to stay on in Fiji). Initially, we were looking at a 7 day package called the Coconut cruise where you stay on 4 different islands but after reading reviews of the individual properties and seeing how many people said their belongings and money was stolen, had food poisoning etc, we only found 2 that we liked the sound of. We also didn’t think we’d want to pack up our bags ready for another 2 hour boat ride every other day. So we opted for 3 nights at Gold Coast resort on Nanuya Lailai island which is the last stop the Yasawa flyer does and 3 nights at Naqaila lodge on Wayalailai island (mid way down the Yasawa island group). Turns out, we are absolute geniuses and picked the two best places in Fiji (according to all fellow island hoppers we met).

First stop was Gold Coast, we got picked up from Nadi Bay at 7am and taken to Denarau port where we boarded the infamous yellow catamaran. Fijian waters seemed to be pretty smooth and it was a pleasant ride with beautiful island views. We clambered down into our resort’s long boat and drove 15 minutes to the island where we were greeted by Romeo, the island dog, bounding through the shallows. The island wasn’t as small as some of the Mamanucas, apparently you can walk around Bounty island in 5 minutes, but it was still fairly small, or at least very sparsely populated. In our resort, there were only 5 other guests and a handful of staff. We had a little ‘Bule’ or traditional hut right near the beach. When we went to sleep, we could hear the gentle crashing of the waves. It was definitely the most remote place either of us had ever been. It really felt like we where in the middle of absolutely nowhere, I suppose we actually were. The accommodation was very basic and the showers and tap didn’t really work, so we didn’t have access to running water apart from around 6-7am. Thankfully we brought hand sanitizer with us! The food they served was actually really good! Most nights we’d have whatever the catch of the day was. It was great that it was local food, as opposed to imported and poorly stored. We tried some new things like cassava, a local root vegetable and bread fruit which literally tastes like bread?!

In the evenings, it was run very much like a ‘home’ setting with only one dinner table to eat with other travellers. Every night the men who worked there would play the ukulele and guitar and sing whilst we ate. I’m sure its a generalisation but I swear, all Fijians are so musically talented! One of the guys also did lots of card tricks in the evening which were very entertaining. He invited the 6 of us guests back to his house one evening and everyone (apart from me because I’m sensible and didn’t want to go blind) drank Fijian moonshine that they’d made, they said it had only been brewed for 24 hours so it wasn’t harmful….though it was being mixed with 60% Fijian rum. They did traditional dancing and even a fire dancing show. In the evenings, we also had an amazing view of the moon. It was like a super moon every night and completely different to how we’d ever seen it before. It was so low over the ocean and absolutely massive. I suppose that’s why the tide around the island was so insane. It was madness how much the tide changed and with no apparent rhyme or reason.

We walked to the other side of the island towards the Blue lagoon, notorious for its snorkelling. The walk itself was about half an hour and though it is quite a jungle-esque walk, we still managed fine in flip flops (apart from on the way back when a piece of glass pierced through my flip flop and stabbed my foot!) The walk gave us spectacular views of surrounding islands, crystal waters and exotic trees. The snorkelling was amazing too. The water was so clear, we saw loads of beautiful fish and coral. We saw our first ever starfish which we were thrilled about and I saw an octopus though unfortunately I didn’t get that on the GoPro.

The other main activity to do is kayaking which our resort provided for free which was a nice bonus. We went quite a bit round the side of the island and came to a different beach. I have never seen so many crabs in my life as we did in Fiji! There were loads of different types and they were absolutely everywhere. I also found the biggest shell washed up on the beach. I think it must have been a sea snail but it was about the size of a melon! Dave also went kayaking by himself one afternoon whilst I lazed on the beach. He saw one of the local women spear an octopus just from lying face down on the water with a snorkel mask! He also saw her rip its’ brains out with her hands, graphic. When they both came back to shore, the lady held out the octopus for me to see as well and told us to feel how heavy it was, we’d guess it was about 10kg! We had octopus for dinner that night, it was my first time trying it and I wasn’t a huge fan though Dave said it was delicious.

On our last day, we did the walk to the other side of the island again but with a tour guide this time; Romeo the dog! He was literally the best dog in the world and it was so fun watching him so happily charging off in all different directions but check back to see his guests were okay and going the right way. After our little photo walk and a final lunch on the island, it was back in the long boat to meet the Yasawa flyer catamaran to take us to our next island; Wayalailai. When we dismounted in to our long boat and pulled up to Naquila lodge, we were greeted by all the staff serenading us on the beach! It was quite a surreal sight but also very touching (you can see them singing on our Fiji video). They were so welcoming and kept hugging us and saying ‘welcome to the family’. We had another beach Bule and could hear the waves again when we went to sleep. Wayalailai didn’t seem as remote as the last island and all the other guests seem to have running water working properly but unfortunately, we seemed to have drawn the short straw and it didn’t work for us. The evening we arrived, they had their weekly ‘Gay night’ where men dressed as women and vice versa. Though it was arguably poorly executed, you could tell there was an honest sentiment behind it and one of the staff gave a great speech about how they embrace the LGBTQ community there whereas it isn’t the case in the rest of Fiji as well as some of their personal experiences.

The next day, we went…SNORKELLING WITH REEF SHARKS! Dave and I were so excited by this as neither of us had ever seen a shark in the wild. We got in the long boat and charged through swells getting thrown up violently in the air. I’ll just add that this little boat had no life jackets, no seats and no ladder to get in or out. It was the bumpiest boat ride ever and even the anchor was getting some air it was so bumpy – not enjoyable. We finally pulled up in the middle of the ocean where there was a reef. We just had to jump in off the side of the boat – ungraceful would be the understatement of the year. But, we were in! As soon as we got our masks on, we could see the sharks. There were about 5, differing in lengths and they were absolutely magnificent. There was another resort out there too so there were annoyingly quite a handful of people. The guide kept hassling and bringing the sharks up to the surface with bait and letting people touch the sharks. He kept beckoning to me and I refused to come closer because I just wanted to watch them from above swimming around naturally rather than being groped by annoying tourists. The guide asked me later on back at the resort why I didn’t want to come closer and I tried to explain my reasoning though unfortunately he seemed surprised and I don’t think many people are particularly respectful to the sharks. It was still a fantastic experience and they are just so fascinating, I’d recommend it to anyone! Oh and in terms of getting back on the boat, the guide just said be limp and he hoisted us up by the armpits haha!

After we got back and lazed in the hammock for a while, disaster struck for me. I got the worst food poisoning I’ve had yet – both ends, simultaneously. My fever was so high, I shook uncontrollably for about 5 hours and I couldn’t see or hear at one point, definitely the most scared I’ve been since we’ve been travelling in the last 6 months! I didn’t eat for pretty much the rest of the time we were on the island and barely left the bed. As I said before, there wasn’t always access to running water and we noticed the staff bathroom didn’t have hand soap either so I’m not surprised I got so sick. There was also no way of seeing a doctor and we just had to ride it out for 3 days. Dave didn’t do too much without me other than the island’s summit hike where he said there were some pretty spectacular views! The disaster was not yet over however, the boat due to pick us up and take us back to the mainland was 2 and a half hours late because one of its two engines broke! So the sun was setting when it finally arrived, apparently it isn’t meant to operate in the dark – reassuring. We had to take the long boat out to meet it but we got caught in huge swells getting absolutely soaked and thrown around. It was so choppy, we couldn’t pull up to the catamaran for ages and it had to turn a different direction for our boat to try again. We finally managed to get on, looking like drowned rats, and had a further 3 hour journey to get us back. The journey was horrific, I’d say about 40% of the people on the boat were throwing up. The staff were handing out sick bags like sweets! I’ve never understood the literary expression of a smell ‘burning’ one’s nostrils until that day. The stench was unparalleled. Imagine that, still being ill and having not eaten for days. Needless to say we were so grateful when we got back and happy that we had a couple of days on the mainland to recover before flying on! An unfortunate end to a brilliant start in Fiji, oh well! At least we didn’t have a flight to catch (and miss) like many other passengers.

Thanks for reading and join us next time when we’re in New Zealand!

Sophie & Dave

Romeo bored of paparazzi
Nanuya Lailai
Snorkelling
Green crab
Nanuya Lailai
Blue lagoon
Nanuya Lailai
Nadi waters
Yasawa Islands, Fiji
Fire dancing
Our Bule
Log bridges
Snorkelling the Blue Lagoon
Orange sky and sailing boats
Giant snail shell
Resort guide and reef shark
Crab
Jellyfish!
Reef Shark
View from the Yasawa Flyer
Fire dancing at Gold Coast
Nanuya Lailai
Nadi sunset
Giant shell
Fiery super moon
Sunset in Nadi
Nanuya Lailai beach
Fijian ritual guard
Blue Lagoon
Evening entertainment
The walk to the Blue Lagoon
Romeo the tour guide
Dave and Romeo swim
DCIM100GOPRO

Melbourne – Australia

by Sophie, posted in Australia

Hello!

Melbourne was so cold! Apparently it has one of the most unpredictable weather patterns in the world, but we successfully predicted every day we were there to wear a shit load of layers because otherwise we’d freeze. We were staying at a hostel called The Nunnery, we were unsure whether it was a past or current nunnery because our email confirmation was signed ‘The nuns’. When we arrived, we soon realised it most certainly was not a current nunnery and I’m pretty sure any actual nun would be royally offended with the imagery and nun puns throughout the hostel. The hostel was in Fitzroy, an edgy suburb of Melbourne with lots of cafes and street art.

The number one thing to do in Melbourne is eat good food and lounge in cafes, definitely no complaints with that. We went to quite a few cafes, all with great coffee, chilled music and comfy sofas. The Black Cat was my fave because I had an amazing hot chocolate with marshmallows (because I’m an adult) and Dave’s fave was Newton Speciality Coffee for the best coffee he’d had in Australia!

In terms of more cultural things, our first visit was to the Melbourne Museum, right opposite where we were staying. The museum is huge and we probably could have done with allowing ourselves a whole day rather than just the afternoon. They had some really fascinating exhibits, we both really enjoyed their ‘Human mind’ section where they gave a lot of information about the historic to current treatment of mental illness, I don’t think I’ve ever seen much information about mental health in a museum before, really interesting. We also had a look round the dinosaur bones and the evolution section with loads of creepy taxidermy specimens. I think there’s something for everyone in that museum, its quite like the natural history museum in London, worth a visit.

We also did a city walking tour of Melbourne. This was my first ‘company’ walking tour (I’m free tours), free but based on tips, as opposed to just hostel run walking tours. It was definitely the best walking tour I’d done in terms of actual historic information but the delivery was perhaps a bit too cheesy and pantomime-esque for my liking. The tour starts at the State Library and then goes on to the Melbourne jail, infamous for where Ned Kelly was hung. We also visited Parliament Square, China Town, the Royal arcade (posh shopping centre), Carlton Gardens and a myriad of street art lanes (personal fave was children fighting back against a Trump tank – see below). Throughout the tour, the guide pointed out landmarks and buildings and talked about the Melbourne gold rush in the 1850s. The most interesting thing I learnt was that Melbourne was the first place in the world to start (and win) the 8 hour movement (8 hours work, recreation and rest) in 1856. The tour ended near the Arts centre (supposedly shaped like a tutu, but sort of resembles a crap Eiffel Tower) where we got a nice view of the city skyline.

We also visited the Ian Porter Gallery (free), but were perhaps a little underwhelmed after seeing it had glowing reviews. Maybe we weren’t in an art appreciative mindset when we went. We much preferred going to the State library to read about Ned Kelly. They hold the suit of arms he came out in to confront police in 1880. The last totally touristy thing we did was ride the number 35 city tram. Trams run all over Melbourne but this line is circular, has a basic audio guide and is most importantly, free! Most trams look fairly modern apart from the number 35 which reminds me of the American original San Francisco style trams; very quaint!

Melbourne has concluded our 5 weeks in Australia, but join us next time for our trip to Fiji!

Thanks for reading,
Sophie & Dave

Melbourne Jail
888 Monument
888 Monument
Carlton Gardens
Melbourne City Tram
China Town
Street Art
Street Art
Trump Street Art
Melbourne Arts Centre
City Skyline
Melbourne!

Blue Mountains – Australia

by Sophie, posted in Australia

Hello!

We checked out early from our hostel in Sydney central, went to the station and headed for the Blue Mountains. There’s only one train an hour and by fluke we arrived in perfect time, 3 minutes before departure, winning! I’m still amazed how ridiculously easy and convenient it is to get right in to the heart of the blue mountains, in 2 hours, on a direct train from Sydney central!  We arrived in Katoomba, the main mountain town and were quite surprised by how big it was. There were quite a few coffee shops, 3 of the main big supermarkets and awesome street art. We weren’t able to check in till 1 so we just did a quick food shop and cooked lunch at the hostel, chilling in the lounge until we could put our stuff safely in the dorm. The hostel was honestly amazing, one of our favourites of all time I think. It was Blue Mountains YHA if you’re wondering, it was so relaxed and had a huge communal area with cosy sofas and real log fires which was so nice and homey in the cold mountain environment.

We went out in the afternoon for our first exploration of the Blue Mountains (apparently named because of the way we see them on the light spectrum, making them appear blue in the distance). We started by walking to Echo Point, the main viewing platform to get a good look at the area and specifically the Three Sisters (3 iconic rock structures). Legend has it that the three stones are actually 3 beautiful women who were turned to stone by the aboriginal village elder because they wanted to marry outside their tribe. Anyway, I digress, the view was absolutely spectacular. I mean really, put the Blue Mountains on your bucket list. It was already well into the afternoon so we didn’t want to risk getting caught in the dark on a hike so we just did a gentle one called the Prince Henry Cliff walk. This one goes from Echo point along the top of the cliffs towards a cable car that you can get up and down the valley. All along this path, you get to see the valley lined with what looks like a billion trees and the surrounding mountain landscape, one of the most scenic walks we’ve ever done.

The next day we got up and made a packed lunch for what would be the most intense hike either of us had ever done! Intense because it was marked as a “hard” level hike, there were a lot of parts where it was just a cliff drop edge, the walk was sandwiched by two waterfalls and though we only walked about 10 miles, it took us about 5 hours with all the ups and downs (and photo stops). We got the train down 2 stops to Wentworth falls where we started. We actually technically did two separate trails, the first was called the Charles Darwin walk (named because he visited in 1836). It was a beautiful walk following a stream that ran through a forest with little waterfalls dotted along the way. We also got to see some amazing wild Yellow-tailed black cockatoos. We could hear them squabbling well before we could spot any but we saw quite a few swooping over a steep hill covered in shrub land. Unfortunately, they were too far away for a good photo but they were beautiful! We came out of the forest at the picnic area for Wentworth falls. We followed the trail and came to the top of this huge 100 metre cascade. There’s a ridiculously steep stone staircase carved in to the side of the cliff to take you down to the bottom. Each stair was absolutely huge and both of our knees were so painful going down. Mine felt like they were going to pop or something! About 40% of the way down, I had a little panic and debated turning back because though the views of the valley and the mountains were spectacular, the steps were really terrifying! I mean there’s a flimsy railing and then you’re over a cliff. In the end, we persevered and got to the bottom. Wentworth falls looked a hundred times more impressive from the bottom up, rather than the top down. It was a spectacular site made even more impressive by the fact we could see the staircase we’d just come down on the side of the cliff.

We then began the proper hiking trail called the Scenic pass, established in 1908. This is basically a pathway cut out in the middle of the cliff for miles, you look down and you’re still hanging over a massive cliff, you look up and there are towering cliffs above and all around you. It was very surreal and a mountainous landscape neither of us had come close to seeing before. The trail itself varied quite a lot. Sometimes it was flat with railings, other times it was steep without any barriers, or we were ducking under rock paths and other times it was jumping across stepping stones under a waterfall! The entire walk was indisputably one of the most amazing things either of us had ever seen/done. We ended our walk at the Empress falls, another incredible site, but this time we had to walk up to get back to the top of the cliffs (less fun). I was absolutely shattered by the end of it and we still had to walk a few kilometres to the train station to get back. Overall, an amazing day that we will certainly remember forever! This is the route we did that day:

Scenic Pass Route

Sadly, we had to leave the Blue Mountains the next day but we decided to get up at 6am and walk to Echo Point again to watch the sunrise. It was bloody freezing and I ended up using my travel towel as a make shift scarf. When we got there, though it was still beautiful with a pale pink sky, we realised the sun probably wouldn’t rise directly over that specific view. So instead, we decided to squeeze in one more little trail called the Three Sisters walk that we hadn’t had the chance to do yet. You can actually walk onto one of the Three Sisters rocks I mentioned earlier. There were better sunrise viewing points along the way as the pathway curved us more towards the East, we could see all the trees starting to turn to life as the shade edged further away and the sunlight covered the valley. By the time we climbed down the staircase and crossed what’s called ‘The honeymoon bridge’ we were standing on one of the three sisters and we saw the sun just peek over the mountains. We sat down to watch and a little bird came and sat on my foot which completed the morning! So glad we did this at sunrise as we were the only ones on the rock and the walk at all really, I think it’s usually quite a squeeze with tourists. Not a bad accomplishment before breakfast!

Thanks for reading, join us next time for our last stop in Australia; Melbourne!

Sophie & Dave

Echo Point
The Three Sisters
Stairway down the cliff
Top of Wentworth falls
Wentworth Falls
Empress Falls
The Three Sisters walk
Standing on one of the three sisters

Sydney – Australia

by Sophie, posted in Australia

Hello!

We left Byron Bay on our last Greyhound, an overnighter to Sydney. Neither of us got much sleep at all on the 13 hour journey so we were shattered when we arrived at 6.30am in Sydney Central. Fortunately, all the trains were running and it was surprisingly not busy at all. We got Opal cards (like London’s Oyster cards) to use whilst we were in the city, they are free, you just have to top up and its apparently cheaper than buying individual tickets. Though to be honest, even though we’ve left Sydney now, we genuinely haven’t a clue how the train fares work, they seemed to vary a lot, though on the whole, very reasonably priced! Anyway, it was easy jumping on the train a couple of stops to Parramatta where we would be staying for two nights. It was Dave’s 26th birthday on the 24th of June so we were a bit spendy and stayed at Meriton serviced apartments. It was definitely a good time to pick a fancy place because even though we arrived at 8am, they let us check in straight away and we went up to the 28th floor to the most beautiful apartment either of us had ever seen, yet alone STAYED in, it also had a balcony with a city scape view of Parramatta. We decided that we would have a couple of “homey” days. We just went straight to do a food shop, ready to haul up in the apartment for the next 48 hours. We bought all the bits to cook a roast chicken extravaganza as Dave’s birthday treat. This was the first time we’ve had access to an oven, so we may have got overexcited and went all out with food we could just throw in the oven; sausage rolls, baked camembert, chips etc (don’t judge us, okay?) The apartments also had a pool and steam room, so we went for a little dip there too. Overall, Dave said he had a good 26th and was happy to stay in and get to watch the Lions v New Zealand rugby in peace!

After our bubbled 2 nights, we caught the train back in to central and went back to backpacker reality and into a 6 bed dorm. We dropped our bags and went straight back out to meet my friend Flavia from university and her boyfriend, Alex. It was so great to see a friendly face! We got the train to Bondi junction where Alex and Flavia picked us up and we drove closer to the beach ready for the Bronte to Bondi beach coastal walk. We had a lovely time chatting with them both as we strolled along Sydney’s beautiful ocean backdrop. Though we only saw the spray, we technically had our first ever whale sighting! So this was our first proper impression of Sydney. How ludicrously amazing is it to get the train 15 minutes from the bustling city centre to a row of glorious beaches! What other city has that?!

The next day we did a free walking tour with the hostel around the city. The guide was very sassy and not particularly informative though it was still a nice way to get to grips with the centre. We started off by walking to the Anzac memorial situated in Hyde Park. We walked through to the large central fountain that stands in front of St.Mary’s Cathedral, the oldest in Australia. Next stop was the Botanical gardens, not too much there in terms of plant species but it does have a viewpoint which gave us our first glimpse of the Sydney Opera house and Harbour bridge. Though undoubtedly iconic, it wasn’t as impressive as we’d imagined, perhaps it was smaller than expected or we were expecting too much of what essentially is a functioning arts building. We still did our typical tourist snaps and learned a few things, like it was originally meant to take 6 years but took 16 to build and it ended up being 1,457% over budget. We stopped for lunch with the group just past circular quay and then bailed when we got to the shopping area. The tour was basically finished anyway and they were heading back so we decided to have a look around for some warmer clothes and got a couple of thermals socks from uniqlo, riveting, I know.

Our next day in Sydney took us to an area that we had not yet been, Darling Harbour and we walked through China Town to get there. We went to the Maritime museum specifically to see the Wildlife photographer of the year exhibition. It’s the exhibit that’s borrowed from the Natural History Museum in London and I’ve been three years in a row (often multiple times) because I love it so much! It was a smaller exhibit than I’d seen previously but still so inspiring and makes me excited to see even more different species over the next 7 months of our trip. In the evening, I was thrilled yet again to see another friendly face, Olivia who I met working in London and her boyfriend Jay. They literally only moved a few days before (having never been to Australia!) and had already started working, sorted a place to live, opened bank accounts etc amazing humans! It was lovely chatting to them whilst simultaneously stuffing our faces with hummus at a Lebanese restaurant.

We decided to head to the Blue Mountains for a few days before coming back to Sydney for just one night before our internal flight to Melbourne. We just had a chilled last day in Sydney having a potter around the city and meeting up with Flavia again for lunch and an afternoon chat. We absolute loved the Blue Mountains and it deserves its own post, so join us next time for our time in the Bluies!

Sophie & Dave

Bronte to Bondi walk
Alex & Flavia
Coastal beach walk
Bondi
St.Mary’s Cathedral
Spiders in the park
Opera house and harbour bridge
The Sydney tourist
Sydney cityscape
Sydney Opera House
Darling Harbour
Flavia!
Cathedral bubbles
Sydney harbour
Anzac memorial
Paramatta

 

 

Ep.12 – North Queensland

by Sophie, posted in Australia, Videos

Hello!

The start of our Australian adventure! We had such an amazing time in Cairns and Magnetic Island, we hope you enjoy all the amazing wildlife as much as we did! I know our clips in Cairns are quite shaky, especially when we were on the river boat watching the wild crocs, but it levels out a bit once you get to Magnetic island!

Thanks for watching and don’t forget to watch in 1080p!

Sophie & Dave