Sydney Sights

 Arriving in Melbourne | The Great Ocean Road | Melbourne Sightseeing | The Great Barrier Reef

Fraser Island | Australia Zoo + Brisbane | The Blue Mountains

Sydney was our final city before we departed Australia. We landed around lunch time and headed to our hotel. After checking in we headed out to explore the harbour. We took in the sites of the famed Opera House, the Harbour Bridge and the Royal Botanic Gardens. Our hotel served high tea at their club starting at 2pm. We enjoyed our treats, drinks and sights from above. We were getting ready for bed and watching the news and we saw that they had lit up the Opera House with pictures of the dedicated fire fighters that had been working tirelessly to put out the bush fires that had ravaged the country during the summer season (starting in our fall of 2019 for the US and continuing into 2020). So we quickly got dressed and headed back up to the club to see the memorial. 

{views from the hotel rooftop club}

The next day we met our tour that would take us to the Blue Mountains in hopes of seeing the rock formation known as the Three Sisters. Please read about it ---> here!

On our last day in Sydney (and Australia) we were fortunate enough to have clear skies and amazing weather! We took a bus to Coogee Beach and started the 3.5 mile walk to Bondi! This a great and amazing walk and I highly recommend it, especially if you like to watch the waves. We started at Coogee and walked past Gordons Bay, Clovelly Beach, Bronte Beach, Tamarama Beach, the famous Boni Icebergs and finished with a swim at Bondi Beach. After a dip we had a snack and some drinks nearby and took the bus back to the hotel. We were able to freshen up and take part in tea time again! I am loving this afternoon snack situation that is "tea"! 

{Coogee to Bondi Beach walk}

{exploring Sydney and "The Rocks"

We didn't really have any plans for the rest of our afternoon, we debated taking the ferry to Taronga Zoo or Manly Beach but we decided to stay put and walk the other side of the harbour and walk around The Rocks district. We finished the evening with dessert and drinks back at the hotel, with these views where else would we have gone?! And we packed for our mid-morning flight the next day. 

The Blue Mountains, Australia

 Arriving in Melbourne | The Great Ocean Road | Melbourne Sightseeing | The Great Barrier Reef

Fraser Island | Australia Zoo + Brisbane

The only excursion we took while in Sydney was to the UNESCO World Heritage site, The Blue Mountains. Our trip was covered by a thick fog/mist so we didn't get the views that we had hoped for. But our tour guide Jed kept us entertained!   

We started the day at Featherdale Wildlife Park. This was a great, local wildlife park that had all the Australian animals you know and love. This is also where we heard the call of a koala, they don't sound as you would expect!

Then we were off to explore the Blue Mountains. We made a quick stop for lunch before we made our way to enjoy the area's three most popular attractions: the Scenic Cableway, the highest cable car in Australia (and where we got great views of the Three Sisters rock formation), the Scenic Skyway and the Scenic Railway, the steepest passenger railway in the world! 

On our way back we skipped Sydney's rush hour by taking a river cruise! We ended up with amazing views of the Harbour Bridge and the Opera House. The only thing that would have made it better was if we had had a sunny day!

Valentine's Day 2021

Happy Valentine's Day! We do not typically celebrate the holiday in any big way. But ever since having a child I feel like we need to make an effort to celebrate holidays like Valentine's Day, Easter and even the 4th of July. I got both my daughter and husband a card and my daughter some flowers. 

This year I made some cookies and I successfully sold them on my personal Facebook page (which I was really excited about). And we celebrated most of the day by hanging out inside due to the below zero outside temperatures and eating heart shaped pancakes for breakfast! I also went for a run in the sub-zero temperatures!

How did you celebrate Valentine's Day. 

Australia Zoo + Brisbane

 Arriving in Melbourne | The Great Ocean Road | Melbourne Sightseeing | The Great Barrier Reef
Fraser Island

CRIKY! We made it to the Australia Zoo! What an amazing day! We left Hervey Bay early so we could arrive as close as we could to when the zoo opened. I checked off a few bucket list items during our time at the zoo, holding a koala and interacting with some wombats! What an experience! 

We also got pretty luck because the Irwin Family did the croc show that day! So it was like watching their new TV show! The zoo was amazing and I feel like if we had taken our daughter we could have spent two full days there! If we are lucky enough to visit again I would love to do more animal encounters! 

After the zoo we headed back to Brisbane for the next three nights. We stopped for dinner at a relatives house before heading to our AirBnB for the night.

The next few days were pretty relaxing. I had originally wanted to head to Lamington National Park but it was a 2.5 hour drive and driving on the opposite site of the road is no easy task. Matt found it mentally draining since he had to concentrate so much more than if we were driving at home in the US. So we just walked around Brisbane, enjoyed the pool at our apartment rental and relaxed with drinks on the river. 

We also took some time to head down to Surfers Paradise. This area seemed VERY touristy and busy and more of maybe a Miami vibe (which is not our scene).