After our time in New Zealand had come to an end, we had one week back in Australia. We were very sad to be leaving New Zealand as we loved it even more than we expected to, but were very excited for the 3 main reasons to go back to the Sydney area 1) we were going to be meeting up with some family in Newcastle 2) we were going to meet up with some friends we met on the East Coast at Magnetic Island and 3) it was NYE in Sydney yay!! All of these events meant that we had a very busy week, which left us pretty exhausted!

Our trip back to Sydney did not start very smoothly. It’s a pretty long story, but we had some issues cancelling our air b and b booking for the first 2 days so that we could go and stay in Newcastle, even though she claimed a flexible cancellation policy. We weren’t happy about it, but decided to keep the booking for the whole week. I was very glad we did as we ended up needing to use it on the first night. On the morning of our flight from Christchurch to Sydney I did the sensible thing and checked our flight on the departures board. guess what? Our flight didn’t exist. I checked it on Emirate’s website… it didn’t exist. I started to get a little worried and we decided the best thing to do would be to go straight to the airport to get it sorted. When we got there the woman at the Emirates desk told us that the flight hadn’t existed since October and we had been put on a flight 4 hours later! Great! It would have been nice if someone had told us.

We waited in the airport and tried to rearrange our plans in Sydney. We were originally being picked up by Dave and Jackie to head up to Sydney, but we would be arriving too late now, so we contacted our air b and b lady and told her we would be using our room from that night. Unfortunately, the room hadn’t been cleaned, but we were happy to dispose of the rubbish and change the bedding. All a bit of a nightmare, but actually it worked out well. The flight over was amazing. It was on the new double decker airbus. There was inflight wifi, the largest selection of entertainment we’d ever seen, loads of room, silver service dinner (in economy) and just an all round good flight. It was such a shame it was only a 3 hour flight this time and also a massive shame that we were in economy. 1st and business class had access to a spa and a bar. Posh!

The next day we jumped on a train from Sydney to Newcastle where we were met by lots of Simon’s family (Dave, Jackie, Auntie Jill and Colin). We had a lovely day catching up with everyone and we were taken to some amazing spots. We went on the memorial ANZAC walk which gave stunning panoramic views of the coast, we were driven along a beautiful sandy beach, we walked around Nelson Bay, which was beautiful and had a very tasty lunch at the surf club. It was a really good day.

We headed back to Dave and Jackie’s house and met their daughter Rachael and had a lovely BBQ and quite a few drinks. Some of the highlights of the evening included holding a 3 day old lamb and drinking Dave’s very tasty honey mead. Yummy!!!

The next day we were lucky enough that Dave showed us his bee hives. We both dressed up in full bee keeping gear and went out to learn how to keep bees. The whole experience was amazing and made us even more likely to keep bees in the future. The morning also involved lots of animals, including some baby ducklings. Maybe we should get a farm? Just a thought.

After this we headed off to Hunter Valley to go to some of the vineyards. Simon and I are now wine connoisseurs as we have been to so many vineyards! Both of the ones we visited in the Hunter Valley were brilliant and we ended up coming home with  5 bottles! Please don’t ask me how this happened, but it did! A bit of a spoiler alert, we only managed to get through 4 before we left Australia and drank the 5th in Bangkok! We had a lovely lunch at an Irish Pub and prepared to say goodbye to everyone. It was a really lovely 28 hours or so, nowhere near long enough, but hopefully we’ll have the opportunity to see everyone again soon. We drank a lot of wine and didn’t get any photos. Whoops.

The next day we had a lie in. The 3 days previous had worn us out and despite only a 2 hour time difference,  we were feeling it. We then headed down to the opera house to meet up with Sophie and Jenny who we had met on Magnetic Island. Before they got there we got to have some up close views of the opera house which was brilliant. I never realised that it was made of 2 different coloured tiles and the opera house itself is in lots of different pieces (5, I think). It was very busy as people were starting to congregate for New Years and they were putting up all the staging, but it was great to see it up close and personal nonetheless.

It was great to meet back up with Jenny and Sophie and we spent the afternoon catching up, drinking wine in the botanical garden and shouting good things at our other friend Sophie as she drove the little red train around the botanical gardens (it’s her job). After this Sophie was hungry and we found a little bar in the CBD and drank more wine. Great!!

Simon and I had plans that evening to go to Hard Rock (remember I didn’t happen last time because of the dreaded stomach bug). We were all having such a good time we changed our booking so that 5 of us (George as well now) could go together. We had lots of tasty food, good laughs and just great times. Simon got his Sydney glass which had been 9 years in the making (he couldn’t find Hard Rock the last time he was in Sydney).

The evening wasn’t quite over yet as we all managed to get together as a group at Sophie’s house and played cards against humanity. All in all, a brilliant day!!!

The next day, Simon and I needed some beach time so we took the ferry over to Manly. I hadn’t thought much about what to expect from Manly but was really pleasantly surprised. The area was buzzing with people, there were lots of places to eat and have a drink, and of course the beach was just perfect! We met Sophie there and had a little bit of a paddle. Nothing too drastic as the water was chilly, but bearable.

Now, it was time for the main event. It was New Years Eve in Sydney. We were going to spend the evening on a boat cruising around the harbour, under the bridge and watching the 9pm and 12am fireworks. Yay!! It was bring your own food so we got a nice picnic spread together and set off to our boat.

We met 2 lovely people onboard, drank lots of wine, watched breath taking fireworks and danced to some seriously cheesy music. It was great!! The fireworks were better than we expected them to be and the cruise despite being one of the cheaper options was just perfect for us. Thank you so much Mom and Dad for this gift. It was so memorable and we are very grateful.

We didn’t make it back to our air b and b until 2am the next day, and we were a little fuzzy when we woke up. It was New Years Day! Of course we were. We didn’t have a whole lot planned for the day as everything was going to be closed anyway so we walked down a Pitt Street Mall, had a coffee, bought toiletries and bits for Asia and went back to our room and rented Pete’s Dragon! ! What a great movie!  We loved it. I cried. But was disappointed they didn’t have the classic Candle on the Water song in it.

The next day was our last full day in Australia and we had one massive tourist spot to tick off our list. The Blue Mountains. Just like Hard Rock. We didn’t make it there last time we were in Sydney and we HAD to go. We had looked at tours last time we were in Sydney, but decided we would go it alone to save money.

We grabbed an early train from central station to Katoomba. This took around 2 hours 15 minutes. The train ride was fine, just a little long. Once we got there we were bombarded by bus companies offering hop on hop off services. Again, we were going it alone so we walked around 20 minutes down to Echo Point where the 3 sisters was, as well as the tourist information centre.  Once in the tourist information centre we bought a walking map for a couple of dollars and started exploring.

Our route was:

Echo Point lookout

Prince Henry Cliff walk to Honeymoon bridge

The Giant Staircase (900 steps straight down or up if you fancy the challenge)

Then circled back through the jungle to Scenic World.

The whole walk took us about 2 hours and wasn’t strenuous at all. We saw lots of people going up the Giant Staircase and we were so glad we didn’t do that.

Once at Scenic World we decided we were going to take the world’s steepest passenger train back up to the top. It was a really fun ride. They let you change the incline of your seat to make it more thrilling. We went for cliff hanger mode. We decided when we got to the top to spend a little bit more money to go on the cable car and the sky train as well. We’re glad we did as the views from both were great.

So we spent about an hour going up and down on all the fun rides and walking around the jungle boardwalk they had at the bottom.  The site used to be used for mining so they have some old mine shafts and equipment you can look at too.

We made one more stop before walking back to the train station. Katoomba falls. This was quite possibly the most disappointing waterfall we had seen. .. maybe in forever. Not good!!! And very touristy.

With that our Blue Mountains trip was over. We had spent a fraction of the cost of an organised tour and done more than we could have with them. Yippee. That evening we went to see Rogue One. Simon was very happy and I enjoyed it too. A great way to end our Australian adventure.  Onwards to Bangkok!!!!