Monday 30 June 2014

Luna Park

Luna Park is a fair ground/carnival across the harbour opposite the  Sydney Opera House. Its easy to get to, you can get the Eco hopper across the water, walk across the bridge or like we did get the train and your there in minutes. You have to walk through a mouth to get into the park and you instantly felt young again.

I have to say we were a little disappointed, its not very big and its not all that. Yes its a tick off the bucket list and we can say we have done it but i wanted to enjoy and experience it. Its about a one minute walk through it all and there isn't not much to go on. Its mainly for kids but i thought there would be more, we were hoping to go on lots of rides but the only ride that looked suitable for us was the Ferris wheel and that was $16 each. A little pricey for a 2 minute ride but i totally understand when you have a family it keeps   everyone happy. I think if we had our niece's and nephew with us we would of gone on them all and enjoyed it. 

One thing that was good about going was another great view of the bridge and the opera house. I would say we wouldn't go back in a heart beat but we got some cool pictures of the entrance. 


Danielle & Bobby xx
  

Saturday 28 June 2014

Bondi Beach

The first words out of our mouths were WOW, we couldn't believe our eyes that we were actually at the iconic Bondi Beach!

It was and is beautiful, the sand was white and the sea was so many different colours of blue that we didn't know where to look first. We stood at the top watching surfers going out to catch a wave and looking over the empty icebergs pool, there was a photo shoot going on inside the pool.



Firstly, its quite small about a 10-15 minute walk across the sand, the TV show 'Bondi rescue' make it look huge but its really not!
We walked along the pavilion and as its winter here, they have an ice rink for a short while for people to enjoy and also there was a show going on whilst we walked past.

We decided to have lunch at The Bucket List (Link) and sit outside as the weather gorgeous. Everyone was relaxed and happy, the vibe was so good. 
Blue skies, Bondi beach, fish and chips and a corona not a bad day in my eyes!

After lunch we took a stroll along the beach and we sat in the sand hoping one of the lifeguards would come out but no one did :( I was very disappointed but as were going to spend Christmas there i knew we had good chances we were going to see them in action!

We both agreed that our day at Bondi Beach was our best day since we had arrived! 


 It was such a good day!

 Danielle & Bobby xx






Friday 27 June 2014

The Disappointing Fish Market


We didn't know what to expect of the fish market but we thought seeing as it was in the Sydney guide book it must be good. I was expecting a scene from Free Willy, where they throw the fish over your head and all of the fish are in polystyrene boxes or the scene from Coyote Ugly where Violet helps Kevin with his job. Maybe the market out in the open? Our expectations where only from the things we see in the movies but in realty we didn't know what to think as neither of us have never been to a fish market before. 

It was in a ware house and there were few restaurants one side, fresh fish the other side in glass and the fresh vegetables at the end. That was it, we had walked through it in a matter of seconds.

We had walked for about an hour for smelly fishy air and restaurants .. I was gutted that we wasn't getting the full movie experience!


Danielle & Bobby xx

  

Wednesday 25 June 2014

Sydney Tower Restaurant

Im in love with food! Any thing with food, I'm there! So when it come to picking what food related activity to do this week we thought it was time to see Sydney from up top! 

There was two dining choices to choose from, the 360 Bar and dining or the Sydney Tower Restaurant. The 360 bar and dining was basically a sit down meal with a set menu and the Tower restaurant was a buffet. As we didn't like the menu for the 360, we thought buffet then we got more for our money as we could go up as many times as we wanted! 

It was pretty high up so your in the elevator for about 5 minutes and you can hear your ears pop as you reach the top. We was greeted by a man that called us Mr & Mrs Cornwall, threw me back a bit but i could get use to it its better then getting called Mrs Turtle because they can't pronounce my last name! 

Our seats where pretty amazing, we had a booth. Because we booked for 6pm it wasn't too busy and we had had the buffet to ourselves for a little while. I got a jug... of lemonade, rock star that i am and Bobby got a jog of toohey new. 


Food
We have to admit, it was a little disappointing. I was so excited for the seafood but when you see a man go in with his hands it kinda puts you off it. But i did get to try salt and chili squid and boy oh boy it was good, a bit spicy (by little i mean a lot) for my likings but with a jug of lemonade i knew i would be fine. Bobby tried Kangaroo, crocodile and emu. He verdict was emu was alright nothing amazing, he wouldn't rush to have it again. He wasn't a fan of crocodile but kangaroo was nice. We tried a few other things but we didn't go back for seconds. The food was alright but we thought we would be taking 2 or 3 plates back to the table with us but there weren't much on the plate.

Desserts destroyed us! We had a lot of desserts, ice cream, water melon, orange's, melon, jelly, lemon tart, chocolate mud cake, profiteroles, apple and cinnamon tart and a lavender & honey mouse. I'm not kidding between us that's what we had! 

The View 
Your pretty much paying for the view and we was OK with that because  it was AMAZING! I don't think we looked at each other much in the evening, our heads were constantly looking out the window. the time we was there it had done a full 360 around Sydney. It really was breathtaking and i said WOW every 5 seconds. It was such a good night and definitely worth every penny!

Excuse the blurriness, it was the only picture i had that didn't have a reflection in it.


If you want to have a look on there websites at the menu and pictures Click here

Danielle & Bobby xx


Flying with Etihad- Review


Picking the airline
When we first decided to do this trip, knowing we were going to be on a plane for quite a while we wanted a little comfort. But comfort comes at a price! Prices started from £450 with china airlines up to the thousands. We started with the airlines we knew. Virgin AU was giving us £900 upwards and British airways £3000 for a one way ticket, that was out of the question. We knew we needed a cheap flight but didn't want to be miserable and uncomfortable for that long amount of time. I took to the Internet daily to check for the best prices, comparing all sites and reading many reviews. Personally I like reading reviews, it's a little insight into the things your going to spend money on.  

Finally after looking for a few weeks, Bobby had found a flight in our price range with Etihad. I had never heard of the airline, the only thing i knew at the time was that it was on a Man city's football shirt. 
One of my friends, who i use to work with is a air hostess for Etihad so i sent her an email and she said nothing but good words about it. For the price it was giving us and the comments from people we had asked we thought why not and booked it!


Heathrow to Abu Dhabi

Being eager beavers we decided to board the plane as soon as they opened the gate. As we are travellers the cheapest option was of course Coral economy but we booked 2 seats together at the back of the plane, that meant having to walk through premium economy.
Seeing people sip on champagne and stretching their legs out in their own pods was when i turned to Bobby and demanded that we at least experience it once in our life. Jealously had definitely set in. But saying that the seats we had chosen were actually quite nice. They were spacious and on them was a blanket and headphones. A mini TV and game console in front of you and the usual magazines. We had no annoying people around us so far so good.

Our flight was 6 hours and 55 minutes to Abu Dhabi, so we checked out the inflight movies and there was a good selection that we hadn't seen. To name a few: American hustle, Anchorman 1 & 2, The Hobbit, The Hunger games: Catching fire, Grudge match, Delivery man, 12 years a slave and Robo-cop. There were also a good selection of TV shows. I was hoping there was going to be the film Frozen but sadly i was disappointed but Bobby was happy for me not to be singing every 5 minutes! Little did he know i had the album on my phone!

About an hour into the flight we were handed menus. Peanuts and a drink was the first thing we received and not long after was lunch. As we were at the back of the plane we thought yes were going to get served food first... we were wrong. By the time they had got to us they had run out of chicken, so i had the pesto pasta and Bobby had fish. My eyes went straight to the lemon crumble dessert. It was nice, i do wish i had the chicken or the fish as bobby's did look good but i left half of it as i couldn't stop dribbling over the dessert. It was goooooooooood! Drinks were continuous which was lovely. About an hour after food we were given a hot wipe to wash our hands with, i had never been given this on a flight before so it was a nice touch. After a nap I was woken up by the smell of a chicken pizza, i have to admit i wasn't a fan of it and neither was bobby. 

I always think the air hostesses look immaculate, their make-up and uniform were pretty much perfect! They were all nice, polite and welcoming. Through out the whole flight we had one lady in particular that took care of us and her name was 'Jane' She had a chat with us and asked about our selves, how long we were going for and our plans. We was near the end of our flight and she came over to us and gave us some playing cards for our next flight and a card with her name on and a website where we can leave comments. She wished us all the best of luck in Australia and reassured us that even though its hard starting over, it will all be worth it. We have never had such good service on a flight before. It was a a nice end to a good flight!

We were only in Abu Dhabi airport a few hours, enough time to get a burger king and a £4 small bottle of water. Yes i said 4 pound for a bottle of water, such a rip off but you have to pay it because you need it! We had gone through security and sat in the gate departure area and was then told our flight was delayed for an hour. So for an hour we had to sit there staring at seats.


Abu Dhabi to Sydney

This paragraph will be small, as we slept for the majority of the 13 hour and a half flight. I popped on the eye masks and took a few travel pills to knock me out and i was out for the count. We only woke up few times during the flight for food and each time we had food it was chicken. Chicken and rice, chicken roll, chicken and mash. I'm glad i didn't have chicken on the first flight. We were quite lucky with our flights, as the Abu Dhabi flight was in the day and the Flight to Sydney was at night so we finally got to catch up on sleep. When we did wake up we only had 1 hour left. Time to brush our teeth and get ourselves all sorted for landing.

Overall 

Very good and better than what we thought our flight would be. We will probably fly home with Etihad (hopefully in premium economy)
I would recommend this airline to anyone flying, definitely on a long haul flight.

Danielle & Bobby xx

Sunday 22 June 2014

Rushcutters Bay


When we look out of our balcony we can see boats going past a hidden edge and we keep thinking whats behind there?
So we grabbed our sunglasses and camera and we were out the door!

We didn't know exactly where we were going but sometimes the best places you find are when you get lost and not stick to a map.

There was these steep hidden stairs covered with exotic plants either side but at the bottom we found ourselves in Rushcutters bay.

Where ever you looked was something different. There were tennis courts, cafes, bays for fishing, endless amounts of boats, out door gyms, football and rugby pitches and so many benches or grass to park you butt on!

It was actually quite nice to see a different side of Sydney rather than the hustle and bustle city life. People just seemed chilled and happy at going at their own pace.

We made a few friends, if you count dogs as friends then yeah we did!

It was a relaxing afternoon spent with runners and dog walkers!




Danielle & Bobby xx


Friday 20 June 2014

Taronga Zoo


This was near the top of the our bucket list, it's one of the top 10 things to do in Sydney so of course we had to do it!

I love like LOVE zoo's, i don't know anyone that doesn't like them and if i did we just couldn't be friends.

We didn't quite prepare ourselves for how big and amazingly cool it actually is!

Firstly you have to get the ferry across, which was only a few minutes and i got some more pictures of the Opera house and bridge from straight onwards. Then once you have docked there you have to get the sky cable cart up to the zoo.

 The view from the cart was just breath taking, you got a full view  of the city, then you look down and you got to see the animals, it was a good start to the day.    

If you know me at all you know that i was shaking with excitement when we entered the gates! 
There was arrows pointing which way you want to start, i stood there for at least 5 minutes debating what animals i wanted to gawk at first.
Of course it had to the Kangaroos, Koala's and Tasmanian devils. 

We got to walk in the kangaroo Penn, where you have to stick to the path and they can just walk around in front of you and there was no gate or fence between us and them. We spent at least half an hour in there just smiling and hoping one would hop about, but they didn't they just laid there lapping up the sun! 

Then it was the koala sanctuary, we got to have a picture with 'Tucker' the 14 month old Koala and then met 'Sydney' i can only presume was his girlfriend as they were cuddling for the whole time we were in there. We only got to spend 10 minutes with them, we wanted to ask if we could hold them but your not allowed at this zoo anymore. They looked so happy and mellow, they were just adorable!  

They had a penguin that looked exactly like Lovelace from Happy feet   and his amigos. They also had seals that worked the camera so well!

We moved onto the African trail, where we saw Elephants, Giraffes, Lions, Tigers, Bears, Monkeys, snakes, Komodo etc. The list was endless.

All the animals were just too pretty to look at and they look like there treated so well. 
We ended our day with time spent in the shop where i debated what stuffed animal i wanted to buy, after a while Bobby had to drag me out. I couldn't help it the tourist came out in me!









This Anaconda is not fully grown yet.


I took a lot of pictures, if you would like some more just leave a comment below.

Danielle & Bobby xx



       

  

Wednesday 18 June 2014

The view will do!


We were VERY lucky to find our apartment when we did. 
We were getting slightly worried not finding anything on gumtree but a day before we were about to be kicked out of our hotel we finally found something.

Out of respect for the privacy of the owner, we aren't going to post any pictures of the inside just the amazing views that may make you slightly jealous... Sorry! 





Danielle & Bobby xx

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Tuesday 17 June 2014

Sydney Sea Life Aquarium


As you could imagine my excitement levels were on top form for when we entered the aquarium. 
We was greeted by a nice big shark and the usual pictures taken where you act scared that you have seen a shark or pointing at a penguin overly happy. 

We had high expectations as most people we spoke to had raved about how good it was but we have to say we was pretty disappointed. 
Don't get me wrong there were some cool sea life in there but other than that it was your every day animals you would see at Great Yarmouth.

I was expecting animals we had never seen before, like rare species that you only get to see in the wild but there was only a few we see that got the 'owwwww, ahhhhhhh, wow!'

OK so on to the good stuff.
My little heart melted when we see a lonely penguin just floating in the water, for a second i did wonder if it was dead but thankfully  it was alive and just enjoying the cool breeze and catching some U-V rays! 
It had two eggs in a nest on the side so it was going to be a mama soon, that's cute but then made me think where was the other penguin that she tangoed with?

We saw a sword shark, grouper, reef sharks, platypus (Bobby's favourite) a HUGE stingray, clown fish- Nemo, glow in the dark coral, big jellyfish etc. The list is endless, but those are the cool ones.

We got to touch a star fish and a sea cucumber.

It says you can spend all day there, i think we were done within 30 minutes, so overall not a bad half an hour!





 The teeth on this bad boy!


Danielle & Bobby xx

Monday 16 June 2014

Royal Botanic Garden


We were getting bored of going into the city and just looking at shops, we wanted to do a little exploring.
(We was not prepared mentally, physically or clothes wise for what bobby was about to take us on.)

We first tried to walk across the harbour bridge, going up countless amount of stairs to then figure out we went up the wrong entrance.... back down the stairs we went!
Then we wandered around the Sydney Opera house thinking there might be some hidden sites but instead we photo bombed someones wedding pictures.
There are surprisingly a lot of weddings here, the first week we see 3 in one day and a couple had their pictures taken outside Starbucks with me and Bobby stuffing our faces in the background.

At the back of the Opera house there there was an entrance to the Royal Botanic gardens.
It is like they have taken something out of the rain forest and popped it in the middle of Sydney. The views are breathtaking! Its peaceful, relaxing and beautiful. Each way you turn there is something different, one second I'm looking at palm trees and hammocks the next I'm looking at loads statues.

I could sit here and tell you how big it is or you can just look at this map and see for yourself. Click Here  

It has everything for all ages: nature walks, parks, ponds to feed the many birds, restaurants, quiet lounge areas, swimming pool, herb gardens, oh countless amounts of different gardens... the list is endless.

We were probably in there for about 2 hours and only covered half of it! 

A little fun fact i learnt it has 8,900 plants in there but with the domain it is 67,100!

 This was taken from the Harbour bridge.



I only got two pictures but we are going to go back into the gardens to see more so i will do another blog post on it.

Danielle & Bobby xx

Sunday 15 June 2014

Hyde Park


It pretty much says it in the title, its a park!

There are many ways to get into the city, where we are staying its about a 20 minute walk. 
We have found 2 routes so far, the many traffic lights and constantly stopping waiting for the green man to light up or the scenic route that leads you right to the shops.

It's a pretty route and at the end of it there's always a man blowing big bubbles. (So much fun)








Danielle & Bobby xx