Sydney and New Years

Those of you who know me know I spent the hols in Sydney with my sister. She is currently living in a flat on the third floor of an appartment block in Mosman. The city itself is over the harbour bridge from where she is.

As expected it took us two days to get there.
Day one: Tuesday 26 Dec 2006
Left home sometime around 8am and headed up the freeway through Lamaroo and eventually on to Hay (although Im not too sure which towns we went through on the way there), where we stayed the night. Scenery: boreing! I was nearly asleep by about 2:30pm. Had to keep waking myself up. Tried to jot down some notes on our trip but couldn't find anything decent to say except 'straight road with some trees, mainly dead'.
The cabin we were in for the night was small but ok. Mum and Dad had the main bed, I camped on a seriously hard bunk and my sister slept on the couch (although she couldn't be bothered unfolding the sofa bed part so she literally slept on the couch).

Day two: Wednesday 27 Dec 2006
Not so good start to the day. One of our maps showed the road we needed to take as the road the caravan park we were in was on the other showed we needed to go back into Hay and out another road. We chose the first one and added about 40km to our treck.
We decided to head into Sydney by going above it and coming down. Something to do with peek hour traffic. It took about 2 hours to get through the mountains after Bathurst.
We ended up on one of the M tollroads coming into Sydney itself. That's when our car decided not to like us. About 40km out of North Sydney and just after we had gone through the pay by cash toll booth the engine light on the car lit up. So of course dad thinks the worst (as he always does).
We eventually made it to Karen's flat safely, took our stuff inside and went for a walk down (and I mean DOWN) to the end of her street to get her car. She had left it closer to the ferry when she headed off to the airport on christmas eve.

Day three: Thursday 28 December 2006
We were going to visit the Zoo today but because the car was playing up we decided to leave this till tomorrow. Instead we went round the street to the little car service place that we spotted. They were shut for the holidays. Funny thing though, we bumped into someone else that was looking to see if they were open. We talked with these people for a few minutes in which they jokeingly suggested that the people in the area don't get their cars fixed if they break down, they replace them. Shows how upper class the area is.
We ended up calling the NRMA who came very quickly and replaced the alternator, which turned out to be the problem.
Car fixed, we decided to go for a walk to look at the shops along the road at the top of Karen's street. Found a really cool gift shop and a bead shop (unfortunatly their stock was expensive). I bought a book on peyote stitch and some beads that I will eventually make into a necklace for mum.
Karen cut her work day short and took us for a drive to a nearby beach she likes, to see where she works and to her nearest shopping mall. We had dinner at Manly beach and watched the ferry come in and leave again. I got some nice phtos of it in the sunset.

Day four: Friday 29 December 2006
Its really hot and humid today. We are going to the zoo anyway. Despite getting to the gate before 9am (which is when the place opens) we had to park some distance away and walk back.
We were about the10th family in line on the line we chose and there were 2 other lines with similar numbers of people in them. The first stop once we were inside was to find a coffee. Then it was on to this really cool environmentally friendly house they had set up (although im not too sure about having that many creepy crawlies in glass cabinets is a good thing).
There is a massive central food hub in the middle of the zoo that looks like some sort of asian longhouse. I think they made it that way to tie in with the new elephant enclosure they have just recently opened.
There is a huge area blocked off for construction. They are building a new area for all the marine life they have (seals, penguins, dolphin etc). We decided not to go on the skyrail thing.
My cousin Janet, her partner Frank and their 7yo daughter Nelle are travelling down from Jindabyne to see the New Years stuff with us. This means a house reshuffle. Mum and dad in the second bedroom; Karen, Nelle and I in karen's room and Janet and Frank in the loungeroom. That's 7 of us in a small apartment.
Karen went out to dinner with a friend so we all went to a nearby Thai resteraunt. Small and cheep but not too bad.

Day five: Saturday 30 December 2006
Today we took the ferry from Mosman South into Circular Quay then the train to Bondi Junction. From there we caught a bus down to the beach and walked all the way around to Clovelly beach. It might be only 3km but we were all stuffed by the time we got there. At one stage we walked on this really narrow path around a cemetary that was pearched at the top of a cliff. Prime real estate! There were some nice headstones and most were very old.
When we eventually got to Clovelly beach we caught a bus back to Bondi Junction. That was the most terrifying bus ride I have ever been on! It doesn't help that the bus had to go down some very narrow streets where it only just fit between the cars parked on both sides. We worked out why the roundabouts are flat here. Its to allow the busses to go straight over them.
Unfortunatley the bead shop we spotted by Bondi Junction was shut by the time we got back. Time for a coffee, afternoon tea, a look at the shopping centre and back on the train to Circular Quay.
Then back to Karen's where she cooked us dinner (3 versions of the same dish as we all don't like different things) and then we all flaked out. Nelle, Karen and I watched Ice Age 2 and the others just rested.

Day six: Sunday 31 December 2006
Janet, Frank, Nelle and Karen got up early to go for another walk. 6am is too early when you are on holidays! It meant though that we were up, showered and dressed before they returned. We all went down to Balmoral beach (the nearest one to Karen's flat) for breakfast and Nelle went for a swim.
After that we went back on the ferry to Circular Quay (past all the people starting to get their spots to watch the fireworks) then around to Darling Harbour. We wandered up into the Rocks area. Not all of the shops were open (being New Year's Eve and all) but we did find the Ken Duncan gallery. Really cool photography! I bought a calender. There was a nice Irish shop (I love most things Irish). We also saw the cutest teddy bear shop. Not unlike the one on Goodwood Road (in Adelaide) just smaller. We also made our way to the Queen Victoria Building. There is this huge clock showing different scenes from Australian history in the middle of one section of the building. Since it had just been Christmas there was also a tree that was 3 floors high. And covered with Austrian crystal.
Back in Darling Harbour we had dinner and had a look around at a couple of shops.
I didn't realise you could do double exposure photos on a digital camera. But I managed to get my camera to somehow.
We made it back to the last ferry of the evening and headed back to Karen's place for the fireworks. We all went down to the 9pm ones then Janet, Frank and Karen went to the midnight ones. Nelle fell asleep and mum, dad and I had a decent view from the loungeroom window.
Goodbye old year, hello new.

Day seven: 1 January 2007
We headed off today to follow Janet, Frank and Nelle back to Jindabyne. We went over the harbour bridge, then wound our way through a couple of streets (Frank took a wrong exit and we had no choice but to follow) until we got onto the tollroad that would take us out of Sydney towards Canberra. Two tollbooths and a long tunnel later we made it out past the airport. By this time the rain was bucketing down and we could hardly see the road in front of us.
We made it to Jindabyne at about 3pm, had a quick look around at the couple of shops there and then headed out the road to Janet, Frank and Nelle's house. They have a beautiful 2 storey house 20km out of Jindabyne. The scenery is perfect. And so quiet. I camped in Nelle's room with her for the night (on half a single bed - the other half had stuffed toys of varying description on it, including an eewok).

Day eight: 2 January 2007
After a decent coffee for breakfast (mum had taught Janet how to use her coffee machine) we packed up and headed off cross country to Horsham. 9 hours of boreing countryside and a book on Micronations later we eventually arrived at mum's sister and brother-in-law's place in Horsham.
Here we spent a rather enjoyable evening (although I got stuck discussing the share-market with my uncle).

Day nine: 3 January 2007
After breakfast we headed off for home via Bordertown (where dad's sister lives). We made it there just in time for lunch.
Once we got home we unpacked all our gear and headed back to Marion to get a couple of things.

All home safe and sound.

Till next post.