Beach and Babes.. Oops

Sorry, no babes, just birds, lots of them. To be exact, lots of seagulls lol.
Today, I brought the girls to Bondi Beach because they wanted to go to the beach. I was actually going to bring them to Bondi on Monday but the weather forecast for the weekend and the next week was rain. Who goes to the beach on a rainy day?!

We walked to our nearest train station, Town Hall (about 7 minutes away) and took a train to Bondi Junction (about 10 minutes' journey). We got the off-peak return family fare (A$$6.60). To save time, we took a taxi to Bondi Beach from Bondi Junction, a ten minutes journey compared to if we took the bus, a thirty minute journey. We arrived at Bondi Beach, close to 11am. We spent almost an hour on the beach and walking a bit of the coastal walk route. :)





The seagulls resting on the beach






We had fish and chips for lunch at Bondi Beach. The girls wanted Mckkies but I vetoed them lol. :P The sky was overcast when we were having our lunch. The weather was turning for the worse. :( After lunch, we took a taxi back to Bondi Junction where we shopped at Westfield Bondi Junction. Haha. I managed to buy my Perfect Portion and Lush products as well as two dresses. :) We took the train back to Town Hall station before 5pm to avoid the peak hour.

It has been a relaxing day. Tomorrow we are off to The Rocks and our Captain Cook's Harnour Explorer cruise.

"Last shop, last shop, I promise!"

I have designated today to be shopping day since it is late night shopping in Sydney. Why waste the extra hours I can get for shopping?! Lol. However, to make it easier and less exhausting for my girls, I have a list of specific shops that I wanted to visit at Pitt Street Mall. :P (A good friend said I was OCD to have a list of shops that I wanted to visit lol!)

After 2 days of waking up at 6.30am, we were able to sleep in for today. :) We arrived at our first stop, Paddy's Market at Haymarket just after 10am. The girls wanted to buy gifts for their friends and Paddy's Market is the place to get souvenirs! :) We spent almost an hour shopping at Paddy's Market. There is a shopping mall linked to Paddy's Market, Market City. We spent another 30-45 minutes browsing at the shops there. :)

At World Square monorail station

Paddy's Market



We went to a Taiwanese cuisine restaurant, The Meeting Point at Market City for lunch. This was one of the restaurants I wanted to eat at. Yes, I have a list of restaurants that I wanted to eat at too lol. :P Juliane had a small Minced Stewed Pork with Rice (A$5.80), Marieann had Stewed Pork Ribs Noodles Soup (A$10.80) and I had Crispy Deep-Fried Pork Tenderloin Noodles Soup (A$10.80). Our dishes were really delicious and portion was huge! We were struggling to finish our lunch. My girls said it reminded them of my mother's cooking lol. Girls, your grandmother is Taiwanese, it is no wonder that you think the dishes tasted like her cooking lol. :P




After lunch around 1.30pm, we took the monorail to Pitt Street Mall. Westfield Sydney, one of the main shopping malls, is spread out over several buildings. As my shops (remember my list of shops? haha) were located in different buildings, we had to navigate our way around lol. :P During the hunt for one particular shop, we accidentally found ourselves at Queen Victoria Building (QVB), another shopping mall! Goodness, all the malls are interlinked with one another! Shoppers' heaven. :) We rested for a while at the QVB basement where the girls had gelato. It was a good break from all the waking lol. :P

Pitt Street Mall

The girls taking a break at Pitt Street

QVB Stained Glass Windows

QVB clocks


By 6pm, we were at Darling Harbour, Harbourside Shopping Centre lol. Travelling around was really easy with the monorail. A family day pass (A$23) allowed us to travel as many times as we want on the monorail. The girls by then were tired and hungry but there was a shop that caught my eye so I told them, "It's the last shop, I promise". As I came out of Temt, I saw yet another shop. The girls were complaining really loudly, "But you said last shop just now!". "Last shop, last shop, I promise!" The saleslady was amused and she helped to keep the girls occupied while I browsed round the shop lol.
After dinner at the Harbourfood Shopping Centre food court, we walked outside in the cold, crisp night to look at the lights of Cockle Bay Wharf and Darling Harbour.





We got back to our hotel close to 8pm. Since the girls were so nice to accompany me on my shopping (actually they had no choice lol), with my Perfect Portion cooling foot and leg lotion, I gave them foot rubs to soothe their aching feet. :)

The monorail back to our hotel home

Juliane pretending to be frozen

Marieann and Juliane (who was making a funny face) at the World Square Shopping Centre that is connected to our hotel, Rydges World Square

Dolphins!

Today we are off to see dolphins in the wild!

Gray Line coach again picked us from our hotel at 7.30am and our journey to Port Stephens began at 8am. On our way to Port Stephens, we saw the Hawkesbury Ranges in the distance (no photo, too far) and crossed the Hawkesbury River which is famous for its oysters. A pity, no chance to taste them. :P

We stopped by at the Australian Reptile Park for a visit from 9.30-10.30am. We got to pat a baby alligator and a koala and we took photos with them. :) We couldn't feed the kangaroos as they were all lying around in their rest area rather than hopping around in the park. At least, emus were walking around the park. We saw a Galapagos tortoise (it is HUGE!), Tasmanian devil, cassowaries and snakes. The girls visited Spider World where they could see the 'milking' of Sydney funnel-web spiders of their incredibly toxic venom and many other spiders. I couldn't bear to stay long in the room because of my fear of spiders.







Candid photo of the girls at the giant croc entrance to the Lost World of Reptiles

By 10.45am, we were on our way to Port Stephens. We arrived at Port Stephens, Nelson Bay just after 12pm and we had until 1.10pm for lunch before we have to board our cruise boat for the dolphin watching. We had a simple lunch of sandwiches as I was worried about the girls being seasick and they might throw up if they had too much to eat for lunch. As we were walking at the marina towards our cruise boat, Moonshadow, my girls and I saw a lone (wild) penguin chasing after a school of fish! It was too swift to be caught on film. It was swimming really fast in and out among the boats at the marina and chasing after its lunch. The sight of the penguin brought smiles to our faces. :)

Port Stephens

The girls and Moonshadow in the background

The cruise boat departed at 1.30pm, going out towards the Tasman Sea. The girls and I stayed on the first deck so that we could easily access the sundeck in order to be closer to the action or dolphins lol. :) I was initially worried about the girls being seasick but they seemed fine. After about 40 minutes into the journey, we went out to the sundeck to wait for the dolphins. It was not easy to spot them because of the sun's reflection on the water and the wind was quite strong as well. I made sure the girls held on to the railings tightly. Suddenly, we heard the captain telling us that there was a dorsal fin appearing out of the sea not far ahead of our boat. Yippee, our first dolphin! It swam quite close to the deck where we were. But it was really fast, swimming in and out among the waves, very hard to catch on film because I don't have those big, powerful cameras lol. Soon, a second dolphin and a third dolphin appeared! Unfortunately, that was all the dolphins that appeared to us for the rest of the cruise. :(







By 3.30pm, we were back at the marina and departing for the next destination, Stockton Beach. One has to be here to see it to believe it. We couldn't hardly believe that we are still in Australia and not some desert country. The Stockton Bight Sand Dunes is amazing, which covers an area of over 2,500 hectares along the 32 kilometre long Stockton Beach. We didn't try the sandboarding as I really didn't fancy having sand in my clothes and in the girls' clothes. But the girls enjoyed themselves playing with the white sand and I was busy taking photos lol. There was a beautiful sunset as we left Stockton Beach. What a wonderful end to the day. :)







Our shadows on the sand




Sun setting behind the sand dune



Sunset at Stockton Beach

We embarked on a 2.5 hours journey back to Sydney, arriving only at 7.30pm. My behind was really sore from sitting without moving for so long lol.

Tomorrow, we are going shopping because Thursdays are late night shopping in Sydney. :)