Our Trip to Sydney, Australia Part 3: Port Stephens & Sandboarding

Our trip on Day 3 started with a long drive to the north of Sydney for the Port Stephens tour. Port Stephens is regarded as the dolphin capital of Australia. It takes approximately 2½ hours drive to get to the port. Prior to our cruise, we stopped for a short 4WD sand boarding tour of the dunes. We hopped on the 4WD vehicle that took us on a bumpy ride through the dunes heading to the sand boarding start point which is kind of exciting. 

However, in view of us having a baby we weren't able to fully enjoy the sand dunes since we have to cover him up due to the heavy sand flying around. Sand was all over us because of the strong wind which made me worry for my baby as the sand might get into his eyes, ears & nose. So to those people who's planning to take this tour with your baby, I wouldn't recommend it since the tour is not baby friendly. We then proceeded to Nelson Bay to have lunch and take pictures around the port area before we start our Dolphin Watching Cruise. 

As we started the cruise and moved along further away from the shore the sea became very choppy which made it dangerous for us to stay outside of the cabin. The cruise promises that there is 99% chance of viewing the bottle nose dolphins, unfortunately for us, we did not get to see any. How sad. Well I suppose it happens. The cruise went back to port after an hour for our long journey back to Sydney. 

We arrived late evening into Sydney and decided to grab a quick bite at McDonald's and turned in for the night as we were all tired and we have an early Blue Mountains tour tomorrow. 

To be continued....

xoxo,

Arlene

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Our Trip to Sydney, Australia Part 2: City Tour & Bondi Beach

In continuation of my previous post, our second day started early since we had a a Sydney city tour which includes Bondi beach. After our breakfast at the hotel we walked over to the Gray Line Tours pick up point which is just across the hotel. 

The city tour brought us through the Colonial history of Sydney and its stunning architecture. The best part of the city tour for me was when we arrived at the Nurses Walk which was nostalgic as I'm a nurse. We were doing a short walking tour through The Rocks and learned that the original buildings were made mostly of local sandstone, from which the area derives its name.

  

We passed by the most talked about Opera House designed by Danish architect Jørn Utzon. The Sydney Opera House is a multi-venue performing arts center in Sydney, Australia, identified as one of the 20th century's most distinctive buildings. This amazing city has it all with world class iconic landmarks, awesome beaches and a deep blue harbour. Who wouldn't fall in love with this amazing city?

 We then proceeded to the legendary Bondi Beach. Unfortunately, we were only given a very short time to explore the area, as such we decided to head on to one of the restaurants along the beach to grab some snacks.

On the way back from Bondi Beach we were taken to Dudley Page Reserve which offers spectacular view of Sydney and its sky line.

The tour then ended around noon and we had an option to either drop off at Circular Quay or back to the hotel and of course we chose Circular Quay as we wanted to explore more most especially the Opera house. After some exploration we decided to have lunch at one of the many restaurants at the Sydney Harbour. We ordered fish and chips and enjoyed the scenic view of the harbour with seagulls flying around which was interesting for us most especially my baby. Finishing our lunch, we decided to take a leisurely walk back to the hotel even though its quite a distance as we wanted to enjoy the cool weather and explore the city a bit more on our own.

We call it a day and took it easy for the rest of night as we had  a big itinerary planned for the next day which is Port Stephens and sand boarding at the dunes.


Day 3 to be continued.......




xoxo,



Arlene

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Our trip to Sydney, Australia PART 1: Dinner at Darling Harbour

I will share with you our wonderful and memorable trip to Sydney which began with our flight via Malaysia Airlines. Our flight started on the eve of my birthday and boy i didn't know what was coming. As we were taking a late evening flight, halfway through our trip and close to midnight I was so surprised to receive an on air birthday cake which was a wonderful and lovely gesture by my loving husband. I just can't wait to get into Sydney and see what's more in store for us.

Upon arrival in Sydney we were greeted by the beautiful and cool weather of Autumn. What a relief from the heat and humidity of Malaysia. We were greeted by a prearranged shuttle that took us approximately half an hour thru the beautiful streets of Sydney to our accommodation. Location was great which was close to China Town and a short walking distance to Darling Harbour. 

We couldn't wait to explore this beautiful city.

As our prearranged tours starts the next day, after a short rest, we explored the city on foot pushing our baby in his stroller as it was our free day. Walking was a breeze in view of the cool weather which was around 16° C.

As it was my birthday we had a lovely dinner over looking the Darling Harbour which was so romantic. We had steak and ribs which came in generous portions which we enjoyed very much. The best part of the dinner was the panna cotta dessert which was a knock out. With our happy tummies we leisurely walked back to our hotel to call it a night.

To be continued...........

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