After disembarking from our cruiseship in Sydney on December 13th, we patiently (almost) waited for our pre-arranged ride to the airport to pick up our rental car. Then the fun began as we did our best to re-orient ourselves to driving on the left (very wrong) side of the road. Sydney has LOTS of traffic and not such patient drivers so with us on the road, there was a fair amount of horn honking. The good news for us was that our Airbnb apartment was near the airport. Once we unloaded our stuff, we dressed and prepared ourselves for our drive to the Sydney Australia Temple. It took us about an hour to drive there but we made it in time for the early evening session. Hooray! It is a beautiful little temple.
We enjoyed our session and the grounds which were all decorated with a white nativity and lots of Christmas lights in the trees and bushes. We decided to drive back to our apartment directly and stop for dinner on the way or as we got closer so that we could have daylight for driving. A sudden rainstorm arose and it was dark almost immediately. At one point it was raining so hard, we couldn't see anything. We felt very guided and blessed when an exit appeared on the left and we pulled into it. It was closed so we just sat there for about 30 minutes while the storm raged!
When it finally eased up a bit, we edged our way back out onto the highway and inched our way to the apartment not daring to stop anywhere. We were shaken but grateful. The only food in the house was a cup of noodles which we shared and then went directly to bed. Later we saw news reports that the severe storm had left people without power in that area as so many trees and branches were down. We were so grateful that we were safe and we thanked the Lord for that.
The next morning we walked to the grocery store to purchase some food and located the train station a few blocks beyond it. The liquor store next door was bigger than the grocery store. We have confirmed that Aussie's love to drink and party. There are restaurants and bars everywhere and they are usually packed. After grocery shopping, we drove to Congee Beach. There is a hike that connects five of the beaches along the southern end of Sydney. When we started our walk, it was sprinkling lightly. Fortunately the rain stopped and we enjoyed our beautiful hike along the coast. We didn't do the complete thing as we knew that we would have to walk back to our car so we went about an hour and a half each way. Parts of it were rigorous so we felt that we had chosen wisely when to turn around.
When we arrived back at Congee Beach, we ate our lunch that we had brought along and explored that beach and commercial area. Water was chilly but there were still folks willing to swim and play in it.
On Saturday morning, we rode the train into the Circle Quay, which is back in the heart of the city near the port. We had tickets to ride the hop on hop off cruise around the Sydney Harbor and our first stop would be the Taronga Zoo. We wanted to see the native animals and thought this would be a guaranteed way to do that. The view of Sydney from the high point of the zoo was gorgeous.
We saw cute koalas and a platypus. We also saw kangaroos, wallabys, emus and Tasmanian devils. As is often the case, they were doing a major remodel.
They allow you to walk around with the kangaraoos and emus. The zoo workers were busy cleaning their space.
After the zoo, we boarded our boat again which took us to several other drop-off ports including Watson's Bay, Manly Bay, Darling Harbour, etc. Manly Bay is very famous for the surfers so we got off there and walked across to the ocean side of the peninsula. It was fun watching the surfers and fun eating little mince pies from the bakery. There were lots of holiday partiers eating and drinking all around as the restaurants were full to overflowing.
On Manly Beach we watched surfers and the lifeguards patrolling on jet skis.
We saw this group fishing off the pier, and this group of teenage boys jumping and diving right next to a sign that said "jumping and diving not allowed."
This bakeshop had the yummy mince pies. We also walked around a local craft/ sell anything fair which was pretty interesting.
When we arrived in Darling Harbour we walked out onto the famous Pyrmont Bridge which accommodates about 14,000 pedestrians per day. It is a heritage listed swing bridge which was built in 1902.
This well-preserved tall ship is next to the maritime museum and is probably part of their display.
Sunday morning we drove out of the city to attend church in the Campbelltown ward. They were surprised to see us as they rarely have visitors from the city. There were two wards in the building. The other ward's services were in Tongan. There were about a dozen men dressed in Samoan skirts and white shirts and ties. We got a kick out of the koala crossing signs but were disappointed that we didn't see any.
Part of our purpose in attending church in Campbelltown was to explore the Royal National Park and drive along the renown Pacific Drive to see the beautiful Australia coastline and beaches. We changed our clothes in the church bathrooms and then headed towards Wollongong. We took the first exit and saw a sign for the Wollongong Botanic Garden. We followed the signs and ended up in a beautiful garden which we thoroughly enjoyed walking through. It was a beautiful blessing to find this peaceful place and was a nice highlight for us.
We took a lot of pictures but they didn't do it justice at all.
It was a beautiful drive traveling north to the Royal National Park. We saw some beautiful beaches and amazing coastal scenery but it was difficult to get photos and all the parking spots were on the wrong side of the road.
We took a hike on one of the many paths in the Royal National Park. It is characterized by coastal cliffs, secluded beaches and eucalyptus-rich bushland. Thousands of backpackers come and hike through the park and camp at the beaches every year.
On Monday, our last full day in Australia, we took the train for a two hour drive to the Blue Mountains and the resort towns of Katoomba and Leura. We were eager to enjoy the spectacular mountain and valley scenery. At the first stop on our Hop On Hop Off bus tour was a waterfall scenic view. I quickly realized I had left my phone o the bus. A very nice young tourist from Hong Kong used her phone to call the office and report it but the bus driver was unable to find it.
We road back to the office and talked with the staff and gave them our contact information. They were confident that it would be found and turned in as they had never had articles stolen before. I hated being the first victim. We waited around until the original bus came back around and then took the next train back to Sydney so we could report the loss and protect our data.
I was glad we took the train instead of driving since that would have been very stressful on top of the stress of losing my phone. Fortunately Team Mobile was able to turn off the phone and close off the data so we were somewhat relieved. Now we just focus on getting ready to go home. Time to go home.
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