Mr. Wander and I made it back from the Christmas markets to one of the coldest days in December. We stayed with friends and family over the two weeks we had state-side and celebrated Christmas with our immediate families. Minnesota decided to send us off with a very snowy farewell, making us drive through a blizzard and nearly 7 inches of fresh snow to catch our flight on the 29th of December. Then we had the really fun part, over 20 hours of traveling across the Pacific and into our 50th country, Australia! We spent a few days exploring Sydney before meandering down the coast to start the first of what became many road trips this season.
A Very Jetlagged New Years
Thanks to crossing the international date line, we arrived the following morning at 6am but completely lost an entire day! Don’t worry, we’ll get it back again in April. That means we arrived in Sydney, Australia on New Year’s Eve. Once we cleared customs, we hopped on the train that would take us to the main wharf in the harbor, Circular Quay.
Then we found the right ferry and started making our way to our hotel on Watson’s bay. It was a beautiful sunny day but much hotter than we had experienced since leaving Africa! As we left the Quay we saw people already staking their seats for the fireworks, keep in mind this is still only about 10:30 in the morning. We had a nice view of the Opera house and Harbor Bridge as the ferry made its way out into the harbor.
There was only one stop in Rose bay and then we arrived at Watson’s. We tried to check in but our room wasn’t ready yet, so we went to their restaurant and got some snacks for an early lunch. Unfortunately, I was starting to feel a bit ill, I think an unintentional Christmas gift from my nephew. I just got some ginger ale and we tried to split a few smal plates. When I caught a whiff of the shrimp served to the neighboring table my stomach nearly decided to reverse course. I usually love shrimp and crab but this illness had different thoughts. We quickly made our way to check on the room, and thankully it was ready! We dropped our bags, crawled into bed and slept nearly 4 hours.
Mr. Wander woke me up in the afternoon so we could start getting ready for the party that the hotel was putting on. By the time I showered I was feeling a bit better and could eat more of the lunch we packed up from earlier. Then it was time to head into the party! Since we purchased the VIP tickets I had hoped that meant we’d have reserved seating for when we got food and drinks but they had nearly zero tables! They had a few buffets of some very tasty food and the drinks weren’t bad but I definitely felt a bit old for the crowd. There were a few other couples that were staying at the hotel that looked to be feeling the same and had already locked down the few tables.
There was a nice view over the bay, you could just catch the harbor bridge and view of downtown. After we had our fill of food we decided to head back to our room just so we could sit down for awhile. We relaxed watching some YouTube together until 9pm when the early family fireworks were to start. We were lucky enough to have a balcony that while it doesn’t look straight onto the harbor, off the side we could see the fireworks from standing on some stools. It was a really cool show, from that far back it looked like there were 4 or 5 shows that were synchronized along the harbor.
After it was over, we went back to watching the computer but eventually we fell asleep again. I thankfully set an alarm for a few mintues to midnight so we woke up to watch the actual New Year’s fireworks and could hear the countdown from the party. These were a whole different show and we could see a little of the bridge lighting up different colors.
Once this second, excellent show was complete we went right back to bed and managed to sleep another 7 hours! While I am very glad we were able to experience New Years in Sydney I would not recommend arriving on New Year’s Eve. Jet lag and trying to stay up until midnight is a rough combination, especially after having such a busy month prior to our arrival!
We had gotten advice on where to stay from a Sydney couple we had met in Peru last year, and Watson’s was the quieter option, which was nice to be out of the craziness downtown. We did book our hotel about 6 months in advance, several months earlier than we usually book but even that might have been a bit late. They required a 3 night minimum so it’s definitely not the cheapest way to see Sydney but it is a special experience if anyone else is thinking about it!
Cliff Hiking to Bondi
The following day we took it easy, mostly staying in as my stomach was a bit uneasy still and we both needed some social battery recharge with about a month of nonstop friends, family, and celebration. Despite another late night of loud music as the hotel must have had a second party on New Years Day, we managed to get a good night of sleep. Our last full day we decided to do a long walk to Bondi beach, a very popular surf and swim spot in Sydney
The trail was very close to the hotel and after a long hill and some stairs we were looking over the eastern coast onto the pacific ocean. The walk was very beautiful, when we took breaks to watch the waves it was amazing just how powerful they are.
Sometimes there were glimpses of the Sydney downtown and harbor bridge that was so clear, especially from this one park. They were cleaning up fencing from where I am sure there was a crowd watching fireworks. It is probably one of the best viewpoints since you are up much higher than our hotel and so you could see the entirety of the bridge. Here we finally stopped to put on some sunscreen now that the sky was clearing but we may have waited too long. We both had pretty good base tans after Africa but they had faded over the past month.
Mr. Wander found a few birds along the way, tracking with his merlin app and I was enjoying the bright flowers and cool trees. I was hoping to see these aboriginal rock carvings but it seems like some golf course was right on top of that area, it was so tiny I can’t imagine they could have even had nine Par 3 holes in that space! We may have had a route to see it but some of the signs made it seem like we shouldn’t walk there so we stayed along the street.
As we made the way down the hill soon Bondi beach came into view! We rewarded ourselves with a beer and seltzer in a shady balcony. It was some sort of club and I had to register before we could enter, and they didn’t let Mr. Wander keep is hat on to walk to the balcony. A bit fancier than our normal spots but the beer was good!
After cooling off and people watching, we headed down the beach to walk in the water. Most of the way down we started to encounter these tiny bluish jellyfish coming in on the waves and we both started veering more towards the sand. We found a spot to sit as our feet dried and we watched surfers catching waves.
It was crazy busy, there were several schools of people learning how to surf on the beach, I would not have wanted to try it for the first time with so many people, or should I say obstacles, in the water! They had specific areas people could swim because of rip tides and to make sure lifeguards could keep an eye on everyone, but it was still crazy. It was time to get out of the sun so we used the sidewalk on the backside of the beach and cleaned off the sand and headed to a little cafe in a hotel for a quick lunch of salad and chicken sandwich.
Refueled, we headed towards Rose Bay to catch our ferry to Watson’s bay, but it was so busy! People were getting on here since the boats heading to Circular Quay downtown were completely full and not letting people on. We managed to get on board and once arriving at Watson’s bay we walked past the line was at least a few hundred people deep. If they’d walk up the hill they could catch a bus and be back downtown in 35 minutes, instead of waiting probably hours for a ferry.
We relaxed in the afternoon, tired after walking 7 miles in the hot Australian sun! They aren’t kidding when they say the sun is stronger down here. Once our stomachs started growling again we found some takeout Thai for dinner.
On the Road Again
We enjoyed one last breakfast at the hotel and took an Uber to the car rental place to pick up a “mystery car” we would drive along the Southeastern coast to Adelaide. The day before Mr. Wander joked that it would be a Subaru Outback (the same as our car back home). I almost laughed out loud that it actually was a Subaru, a bit smaller though with a crossover. I was nervous to drive on the left again after some of my more stressful experiences in the UK but it was already easier with wide roads and such a small car compared to the campervan. So far, Sydney was fairly easy to navigate the motorways to get out of the city while avoiding tolls.
Once we were an hour outside Sydney before stopping at an IGA for some groceries. We drove on this cool coastal bridge and even managed to find a spot to park and only had to walk a mile to get these pictures. By the time we got back to our car it was so much busier! There weren’t spots to sit really so we drove to a small park down the road with a grassy area overlooking the ocean, we set out a blanket and enjoyed our picnic. I had leftovers from my Thai from the previous night and Mr. Wander made himself a sandwich from our grocery supplies.
Our first hotel was in Norwa, just outside Jarvis bay. We had waited to book most of our trip so there weren’t too many options near Jarvis bay, since it was the Saturday of the New Year’s holiday weekend and the middle of their summer holidays for school. I am a little bummed the timing didn’t worked out for bioluminescent algae as this is one of the spots to see it. It is better later in the summer (February), and we had nearly a full moon, so we’ll just have to come back!
Next Time
It didn’t take too long to get our first taste of some iconic Australian animals, a few kangaroos in the wild! We also had probably the best (savory) hand pie in the whole country as we made our way from Jervis Bay to Melbourne, around the southern tip of Victoria for the next few days of our journey through Southern Australia.
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