A week in Sydney 2023

We spent several weeks in Sydney last year, so on this trip we just revisited a few favourite places and sights.

We arrived in Australia the 24th July and spent a week in Melbourne, then flew to Proserpine to spend a week in the Whitsundays for a week where we visited the Great Barrier Reef, then onto Sydney for a week, 2 days in the Hunter Valley, 3 nights in Nelson Bay followed by our last 3 nights on Bondi Beach. We fly home via 4 nights in Kuala Lumpur.

Our son, Jamie, often referred to as child 3, collected us from the airport and took us to the accommodation near his home.

There was good access into the city

and despite being under the flight path, it was relatively quiet.

Our first port of call with Sydney Harbour, followed by coffee, lunch then back home

The local supermarket was a short walk away, with this wonderful graffiti commissioned on the front of shops/businessess

We spent a whole day in Sydney. Peter went to watch Oppenheimer and I wandered around the shops

The Queen Victoria building is stunning inside. I didn't buy anything, just browsed the high end stores

There are also several shopping arcades in the city that are well worth a visit.

 

I love how they light all the buildings up as night falls

We took a walk over the Sydney Harbour Bridge. operation Malabar was in full swing, with representative ships from Japan, The USA and India joining forces with Australia for a training exercise.

We found some lovely parks, coffee shops and explored harbours as we walked around Kirribilli.

Lovely to see the Magnolia in blossom, strange having seen it already in the UK in Spring.

There were fabulous views of Sydney.

Lovely little picnic areas

Strange looking trees

and random birds.

I'm not sure I'd find the entrance to Luna Park inviting as a small child, quite frightening

The streets of Sydney are full of these Ibis which the locals refer to a 'Bin Chickens' and are considered a nuisance 

We went to the Alianz stadium on Saturday to watch The Roosters play The Dolphins

And caught the train back.

I love these trains they're double deckers and you can adjust the seats for either front or rear facing.

We're back in Sydney next week in Bondi Beach and will be exploring the coast line around there.

We walked from Bondi to Watson Bay and caught the ferry back into Sydney, the views were gorgeous and we saw whales and dolphins from our walk.

The area was full of these rainbow lorikeets.

There's so much more to see and do in Sydney than we've done on this trip but I'm not here as a travel guide, just merely to share my travels with you.

Whale Watching from Richard's Bay to St Lucia

This was my 3rd Whale watching experience in South Africa and all 3 in 1 year. My 1st trip was to Hermanus in August this year with my youngest son, where we watched the Whales from the shore line out in the bay.
The 2nd trip was with Advantage Tours based in St Lucia, again in August and with youngest son and hubby.
The 3rd trip was again with Advantage with my eldest son and his girlfriend in September.

This trip was by far the best. We left Richard's Bay at 5.30am, expecting to only be out for 2 hours, but they requested we join them for the trip to St Lucia, where they had arranged a lift back for us and we would be out at sea for nearly 4 hours.

We saw around 15 hump backed whales, we saw babies, we saw them breach where they leap out the water, lots of sky hopping, head first out the water, tail flips and waves.

We were also accompanied for around 30 minutes by a pod of dolphins and we were encouraged to clamber up on the front of the boat to watch them more closely.

After a beach landing, the owner treated us to a hippo and crocodile boat cruise in the estuary with drinks and snacks, before driving us back to Richard's Bay.

This post was originally published in September 2014.