CAPE COCONUT
It’s been a while since I did a new post on my blog because I’ve been so busy planning and making the big move to Australia! But now we’re finally here and I thought I’d give a quick update :)
We started our looooooong journey last Sunday and arrived this Tuesday, after traveling for more than 42 hours straight! Landing early morning (around 6 AM) we zombied our way from the airport all the way up north to Manly, where we’ve booked a little apartment for the first month. We’re planning on working and saving up some money for a couple of months before doing a road trip across this enormous country.
In order to get to Manly we had to take the ferry from Circular Quay, so we could already check off some Australian highlights (Harbour Bridge! Opera House!) while hauling our luggage across the city. The views from the ferry are absolutely spectacular! Even though we were completely dazed from the tiring trip we got overexcited when seeing the icon-filled panoramas.
After settling into our new place and arranging all the administration that comes with moving to another country – we now have an Australian telephone number, so it’s definitely official :) – we took the ferry back to Central Sydney.
We hopped on the mainland at Circular Quay, a lively spot where there seems to be an endless stream of ferries arriving and taking off again, like a giant waterway conveyor belt. We walked up north along the coastline, passing the Museum of Contemporary Art, The Rocks area (known for being Sydney’s first European settlement) and strolling below the towering Harbour Bridge.
We continued our excursion around the beautifully modernized wharves at Dawes Point and stopped for a short lunch at one of the sunny terraces overlooking the Walsh Bay. As soon as our stomachs were filled up again, we headed for the Observatory Hill to enjoy the stunning panoramic views of The Rocks and the Harbour Bridge, nicknamed the “Coat Hanger” :).
We continued further down south until we reached the kids-friendly Darling Harbour area, where you can visit the Sea Life Sydney Aquarium, the Wild Life Sydney Zoo and Madame Tussaud’s. All are conveniently located next to each other.
In order to complete the circle of our first tour across Sydney we walked back up north through the bustling streets of the Central Business District, making stops at the Town Hall and the stately Queen Victoria Building. Make sure you look for the two enormous mechanical clocks in the QVB, depicting historical scenes, and a very mysterious sealed letter written by Queen Elizabeth II that may only be opened in 2085 by the future Mayor of Sydney… weird!
So, this sums up our first Sydney walkabout! I cannot speak from experience yet, but I thought it was a cool tour to start with and see quite a lot of highlights in one day.
I haven’t gone into detail about these places in this post as I’d like to visit them again more thoroughly and do separate posts with more pics and info on what I liked and would recommend when visiting.
So stay tuned :) !