Down Under 2025 - Sydney

Sydney, Australia. 06/09-February-2025.

Table of Contents:

• All posts
• Introduction, 05-February-2025
• Sydney, 06/09-February-2025
• Cromwell, 09/12-February-2025
• Fox Glacier, 12/14-February-2025 
• Christchurch, 14/16-February-2025 
• Blenheim, 16/19-February-2025 
• Wellington, 19/23-February-2025 
• Napier, 23/26-February-2025 
• Taupo, 26/27-February-2025 
• Auckland, 27-February/03-March-2025
• Sydney, 03/05-March-2025

Friday 06: We made it to Sydney! We had a refuelling stop at Singapore where they kicked us off the plane for an hour which gave us a chance to shower and change in the BA Executive lounge. We had a couple of days in Sydney before travelling onto NZ. 

I loved the inflight map with its pilot’s eye view.

We ordered an Uber from the airport and had a short drive to our home exchange apartment between the airport and the city centre. We then went for brunch at Tramsheds, a nearby shopping complex / food hall.

It’s not called Tramsheds for nothing.

Friday 07.

Our apartment was in Forest Lodge, a lovely green suburb with many old, Victorian houses. Despite feeling a bit zombie-like and not used to the heat (29 degrees C), we managed to fit in a lot on our first day: after brunch at Tramsheds, a walk around the river front and back through the streets, a trip into the centre for a sunset concert at the Sydney Observatory and back for dinner at a local Korean restaurant. 

There were lots of typical historic houses in our area with lovely cast iron railings. It was fascinating to see the similarities and the differences between Victorian houses in London, New Orleans, South Africa and Sydney. All the same era and many commonalities in the detail but all subtly different.

Anzac bridge and the continuation of our walk.

We saw all manner of Local wildfowl inhabiting the canal area: wild turkeys, noisy cockatoos, white faced heron and an Australian white ibis.

Just at the bottom of our street, this lovely path along the side of a canal leads to the Tramsheds shopping mall & food hall and brunch.

We booked for a free sunset concert up by the Sydney Observatory. Heading up to the concert, we turned a corner and suddenly this was the view!

It was a lovely setting for the concert with a view of the harbour bridge in the distance.

The two lads played for about 3 hours, modern ambient music. Gentle to listen to whilst watching the river flow.

The obligatory sunset photo from the observatory.

Supper was back at the conveniently close Tramsheds but at a different restaurant from brunch.

Saturday 08. 

Another busy day in Sydney. Morning was, of course, parkrun / parkwalk. We might be jet-lagged and not accustomed to 23 degrees and 67% humidity but it is #parkrunday! 

Today's parkrun choice was actually the second closest to our apartment but chosen in order to give us an N for our second alphabet. A three-lapper round the perimeter of St Leonard's park, the course descriptions led us to expect hills but thankfully only gentle slopes. Big friendly crowd of 460 runners and walkers, almost everyone we spoke to were tourists or expats, Mary had a lovely iced coffee in a local cafe afterwards.

General view of the park.

Mary volunteered as park walker and donned the blue tabard.

After a shower back at the apartment a friend, Peter, picked us up and took us for a drive up to Sydney's lovely northern beaches. We made a stop for lunch at a marina we then headed off to a huge bushland National Park stopping at a couple of viewpoints to enjoy the scenery. 

One of the stops near Dee Why beach.

Some of the birds we saw on our walk and on the tour with Peter: Sea Eagle, Bush Turkey, Pelican & unidentified raptor (possibly hawk or osprey).

At our insistence Peter dropped us off at Manley Quay and we made our way home by public transport: ferry, train and bus. Then a quick change and back to Tramsheds again for a lovely supper and some Australian wine. Mary’s first wine since arriving in Australia!

Sunday 09.

We had an early flight to New Zealand, so rather than rely on Uber we took a recommendation from our host and ordered a local taxi driver. The alarm went off horribly early at 5:30 for a 6 o’clock pick up which meant we were at the airport in good time to do bag drop and get airside for our breakfast. The flight to Queenstown all went very smoothly and thus began our New Zealand adventure.

Next: Cromwell, 09/12-February-2025