So, we went to see both. This is a city with not one but 2 lovely sandy beaches. It is a bit strange to see nice beaches with a city behind them...and the beach littered with blue-bottles - a poisonous jelly fish that looks like a small blue plastic bag.
Sydney sprawls for miles in all directions and subsumes towns and villages. Wollongong is saved from this by having the Royal National Park between it and this mega city. We spent two days going up to the park.
On the first day, Nicky and Kara sat on the shore watching hot surfers ride the waves and tame Poseidon. Meanwhile, further down the beach, Kit and Martin were doing their best not to be concussed by their own surf boards or drown in the savage sea. There was a bit of excitement for them when they saw a dark shape swimming in the sea. After a hasty retreat and some observation, the shape revealed itself to be a seal. So concussions could continue.
On the second day, with Kit's lil sis Sarah, we went for a coastal walk on an "easy" route. It was made much harder by the high levels of humidity which meant we were all sweating profusely and barely able to breathe - like walking through a hot damp sponge. Poor Nicky. This walk killed off any desire she had to see the great outdoors close up. It was a killer for what should have been pretty pleasant. To top it all off, for the last 30 mins we were walking through the rain which while vaguely refreshing, just actually made it more humid...Australian weather ain't what we thought it would be.
So, to Sydney. Kit's sister thought she was going to get to have a hip and happening time with us - we desperately tried to explain we were old and dull, but alas, the optimism of youth. We all spent a night there and during the day explored. We got a ferry to the surfing town of Manly and had fish and chips and ice-cream (at Kit's favourite childhood ice-cream store). Disappointingly no-one got eaten by a shark while we were there but we did get to see lifeguards doing their thing (shouting at people over a PA system).
The opera house and the bridge are as impressive as they look, made even more so by their stunning location on the harbour. We took zillions of photos of them both. Desperate for some shade, we went to the botanical gardens. Bats! Millions of them! In trees! Big spiders! Ibis (birds with big beaks)! And some rare plants. We don't know which ones. We're not really plant people.
We then let the Chambers wander homewards and went to the aquarium. Awesome!! Loads to see. Here is some of the cool stuff we saw:
- crocodile
- sea snake
- bright blue star fish
- all the characters from Finding Nemo
- sea turtles (massive!)
- octopus sucking a prawn out of a plastic tube (part of its brain training)
- dugongs (or sea cows) eating lettuce and swimming above us in the tunnels
- sharks! with big teeth! swimming above us! Soooo cool!
- Sting ray the size of a double bed. Amazing!
- massive crabs and lobsters
- and loads of others we can't remember the name of
We did spend ages in front of the platypus tank. Even when they are provided in captivity we still didn't see them. Little duck billed b*stards. These are starting to turn into the Kiwi.
Then back to the Gong on the world's slowest train....sooo sloooow. We've been enjoying the evening meals at Kit's parents, where we all sit round chatting and eating. Great food and great company - what more could you want? Kara is even sharpening up her word skills, taking on the daily quest to figure out the 9 letter word before Kit's dad does...
So, after lunch we head to Jervis Bay.Beaches. Snorkelling. Walking for some of us. Maybe even some kayaking if we're feeling energetic...
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