Our time in Sydney has come to and end! Sydney is a beautiful and fun city with so much to do. I have loved living in Bondi and exploring all of the cities many suburbs. It has been a nice change to live in a big city, after the very small Byron Bay. Our time have been filled with days going to the beach, heading to the harbors, or exploring the amazing night life the city has to offer. Our last couple of weeks here were filled with fun things to do, including celebrating Dave's rainy 24th birthday in style. We met friends at a Thai restaurant in Glebe, drinking champagne out of the bottle in brown paper bags, before we hit the town for the night. Dave and I also attended a Sydney Swans AFL game. When we first arrived to Australia last September, we watching the Swans win the Grand Final, so it was a great experience to watch them play live, with a Canadian player too! The game ended in a draw, but we had a fantastic time as we became fast friends with Brianna and Ben who sat beside us. They are from West Australia and flew in for the weekend as they were big Fremantle Dockers fans (the competition).
It may be the end of another chapter, but it is the beginning of a new one as well! Dave, Francesca, Helen, Hannah and myself leave tonight for a month long road-trip! No work, no worries, and lots of adventure and new experiences. We will finally get to explore more of this beautiful country!
Phil's last day at work
In case I do not have great Internet access along the way, this is a rough guideline of our amazing trip, and where we will be:
June 2nd: Take an overnight bus from Sydney to Byron Bay
June 3rd-6th: Byron Bay
-Visit old friends, go to the beach, take a trip to Nimbin, and eat at the restaurant I used to work at, One One One.
June 7th: Surfers Paradise
- Visit my friend from university Ashley Hansen! Very excited.
June 8th: Brisbane
June 9th-10th: Noosa
- Visit good friend Morgan, see the sights!
June 11th: Hervey Bay
- Get ready for Fraser Island.
June 12th-14th: Fraser Island
- 4WD on the biggest sand island in the world, camp on the beach, swim in the champagne pools.
June 15th-17th: 1770
- We are spending two days on an island and living off the land in an excursion called Castaway! Lets hope I learn quickly how to fish!
June 18th-19th: Airlie Beach
June 20th-22nd: Whitsunday Islands
- We will be spending three days and two nights living on a catamaran, cruising around the most beautiful and tropical beaches in Australia, including Whitehaven Beach!
June 23rd-25th: Magnetic Island
- Dave and I will be getting our PADI certificate here, to prepare us for living on the Great Barrier Reef!
June 26th: Townsville
- Sail with Fran's friends
June 27th-28th: Mission Beach
- Skydive!
June 29th: Arrive in Cairns!
We celebrated our last two nights in the city by catching the famous Vivid festival in the harbors. On Friday we went down to Darling harbor, to our favorite bar Adria for our last Happy Hour. We got there with only a few minutes to spare and so ordered a table full of beers, champagne and some munchies and sat watching fountain shows and enjoying the atmosphere for the next few hours. Saturday night also started at Darling Harbor, to watch the weekly fireworks display, and then the laser and fountain show. After quickly meeting up with Fran, Helen, and our fifth travel partner Hannah, we headed over to the Sydney Harbor for the end of the night. The entire harbor was lit up for Vivid! The bridge, Opera House, and even most of the buildings down town putting on a light or laser display. Although hectic and crowded it was a very cool experience, capped off with a beer at the Opera House Bar!
Sydney has been a great experience for both of us. Not only have we had a ton of fun and seen new things, but it has also been somewhere that we settled in and felt like home. Time here has not felt so much like a vacation, but time living in a great city, working hard and saving for our month long vacation which starts tonight!
The air is becoming cooler, as the days are getting shorter; Autumn is coming to Sydney! I am enjoying the familiar crunch of the leaves, and crispness in the air, however, it is still very different than Canadian fall weather. Seasons in Australia are much milder, still leaving us with 23C weather in the middle of the day, and dropping to 10C overnight (it is still more reliable weather than Canada’s snow in May). I do get quite chilly at night however, because houses in Australia don't have insulation! Luckily, it is still warm enough to hit the beach every once in a while!
Birthday love!
Helen, Fran, Dave, and I... with a few random people
This year is a year of new experiences. Seeing my first kangaroo, hang-gliding, Christmas in the heat, and now my birthday in Autumn! Normally I am waiting for the Spring birds to be chirping and the buds on the trees to be filling the streets on the arrival of my birthday, but this year it is the opposite. Even though the cool air greeted me on the morning of May 7th, I had a great birthday as usual! I arrived home from work as Dave surprised me with pink bubbly, and we later went to the Darling Harbour for Happy Hour drinks with a few friends from my work. Dave and I later moved locations and met up with Fran and Helen at a 1920’s themed whisky bar called The Baxter Inn. I was surprised as I rounded the corner outside of the bar, and saw the girls wearing party hats and jumping around with sparklers! It is great to act young, as you are getting older. Next week is another milestone, as it is Dave’s birthday as well! We will see what small surprises I have in store for him...
Bondi at night
North Bondi
Dave at Art After Hours
On our days off of work, we usually find a way to explore more of Sydney. We have found ourselves wandering over to Coogee, North Bondi, and Rose Bay in the past few weeks, giving our legs a good work out. I also convinced Dave to attend a The Art Gallery of New South Whales with me, enjoying art by twilight! I ran into my friend Will (who I worked with in Byron Bay), who has also moved to Sydney, and was able to catch his band’s metal show the other night which was great fun. Dave and I have both been spending a lot more time with our work friends, outside of the work place recently. Dave attended a Sydney Waratahs vs. Stormers of Cape Town, rugby union game with his South African friend Badih. He was not sure to cheer for the home team, or support the opposition with Badih, so decided just to enjoy the game and the atmosphere. The Waratahs won in the end, making it a very entertaining game!
Kings Cross
I have been going to a lot of post-Sunday shift pub drinks with work friends, as well as a night out in Kings Cross. Today I even went out for lunch with a few girls from work, and enjoyed a delicious Italian meal; which only made me want to go to Italy! We have been challenging ourselves in the kitchen to make new food as well, which led us to a home-made perogie dinner (not as good as my aunt Marti, Lizzie and Ellie’s I am sure) and home made sushi! The past few weeks we have been enjoying our time in Sydney as much as possible, as it is coming to an end shortly!
In just two weeks time, we will be back in backpacks and on the road! I am so excited for all of the amazing things to come, and all the friends we are going to visit as we head North. It will also be very nice to get out of our current living situation as we moved in with four people, and now we live with 11 as their family from the Philippines has been living here for the past two months! Our trip will lead us back to Byron Bay for a few nights, visit the famous Fraser Island, and the jaw-dropping Whitsunday Islands. We will also be getting our PADI dive certification so that we can dive the Great Barrier Reef. In between all these adventures we also hope to skydive in Mission Beach, and enjoy all the excitement the coast has to offer! It will be an action packed month of travel, all leading us to hotter weather as we go North. I don’t want to get too ahead of myself though, as the next couple of weeks have many exciting moments to come including Dave’s birthday and an AFL Sydney Swans game! All in all, life is great down under :)
Flowers for my birthday!
View of Tamarama, Bronte, and Coogee on the Coastal Walk
Six months down, six more to go! I don’t know if six months in Australia feels more like a
lifetime, or whether we have just arrived. Either way, I am getting used to life Down Under! I am still Canadian through and through, but am used to a very different lifestyle here in OZ.
With all the heat in Australia, I ‘reckon’ my cold tolerance has been burnt out of me. In the mornings on my way to work you will see me wearing a ‘jumper’ when it is 18C outside. I no longer get a ‘take out double-double’ from Timmies, but get a ‘take-away strong-skinny-latte’ from a cafe. When it is wine time, I don’t have the monopolized ‘LCBO’ to visit, but ‘bottle-shops’ on every street corner selling bags of 4L ‘goon’ for $11. Even though wine may be practically free, I no longer blink when I am out at a bar and order a ‘schooner’ (smaller than a pint) and am charged $8 for it. I no longer go to the ‘washroom’, but here I go to the ‘toilet’. Canada may have had one of the coldest winters in years, but Sydney has had one of the hottest summers. On my days off I am still heading to the beach nuzzled into the sand reading a good book, instead of cuddled up under the blanket at home. On my way home from the beach, I no longer have to think about which direction to look before crossing the street, it has become very natural to look ‘right-left-right’. There are many small and big differences between life in Canada and Australia, and I am learning to appreciate all of them. I have had such an amazing time over the past six months, and I can’t even imagine the adventures Dave and I will have in the remaining six!
As a way to show all of our friends and family at home what we have been up to the last few months, instead of photos, we will upload videos of many highlights of our trip. All of these videos were made for personal memories, and not very well shot. They just capture some awesome memories for us. That being said, Enjoy!
1) Kangaroos at the Koala Sanctuary
- September 2012, Brisbane QLD
- Dave and I spent the day in the pen with the kangaroos feeding them and watching the walk very funny!
2) Captain Cook’s Lookout
- September 29th 2012, Byron Bay NSW
- We arrived in Byron Bay the day before, and already knew we had fallen in love and found our new home. This is Captain Cook’s Lookout on the Lighthouse Walk.
3) Hang-Gliding
- November 2012, Lennox Head NSW
- Went hang-gliding over Seven Mile Beach in Lennox Head (short drive from Byron) with our instructor Neil. Here is a view from above!
4) Holiday Village
- November 2012, Byron Bay, NSW
- This is a short video I took before we moved out of our home at the Holiday Village. We later moved back in for a couple of weeks, but here is a look at the home we lived at and loved for 2 months! You can see our awesome bikes we had, the van Dave used to drive, the epic Cheeky Monkeys across the road, and One One One where I worked down the street!
5) Waves at Clarkes Beach
- December 2012, Byron Bay NSW
- Just an average day jumping in the waves. Dave and I had just done the Lighthouse Walk with our good friend Josephine, and were cooling off in the waves after! May have also been almost run over by one of the rookie kayakers while we were out there!
6) Australia Day Fireworks
- January 26th 2013, Melbourne VIC
- Dave and I spent Australia Day in Federation Square in Melbourne watching the fireworks and the Australian Open on the big screen. Since the match was being played live at the arena right beside us, they had to stop the game until the fireworks were over so that it wouldn’t distract the players! At the end you can see the game on the big screen.
7) Penguins
- January 29th 2013, Melbourne VIC
- On the St. Kilda Pier at dusk you can wait patiently for penguins to swim back home to the pier! It was hard to see them in the dark, but definitely worth it! The theme of the night was ‘No Flashes!’ yelled by all the volunteers.
8) Swedish House Mafia
- January 31st 2013, Melbourne VIC
- Dave and I saw Swedish House Mafia’s last tour in Melbourne. It was an amazing night, despite the freezing cold rain, the energy of the crowd kept us warm. As you can see in the video, Dave and or I were jumping a lot during the filming. Very jumpy, but a great video!
10) Of Monsters and Men
- February 5th 2013, Melbourne VIC
- This was such an amazing show! Here is a clip of one of Dave and my favorite bands. They were so great live!
11) Perch Creek Family Jugband
- February 2013, Sydney NSW
- We became quick friends with Jarrah from Sydney, and he invited us to go see an awesome folk show with him one night! We ended up getting in for free to their sold-out show, because Jarrah was friends with the band, and hung out with them after the show! Fantastic night, and now I think folk music is AMAZING!
12) Wild Kangaroos
- February 2013, Blue Mountains NSW
- This is a short clip of kangaroos we saw on our hike up in the Blue Mountains. At this point we were quite far off the hiking trail, and surrounded by lots of wildlife. Later I was able to actually get much closer to some kangaroos than this.
14) The Grand Canyon Walk
- February 2013, Blue Mountains NSW
- A short video of our hike in the Grand Canyon walk. It was so breath-taking, the pictures and videos do not do the place justice. In the video you can hear Dave and Chris chatting about whether or not they should walk on the slippery log (which they later did), and Chris’ response is “Yolo!”
15) Mardi Gras
- March 2013, Sydney NSW
- The Mardi Gras celebrations in Sydney are some of the biggest in the world. Dave and I attended the Mardi Gras parade, and taped the finale dance routine from the jumbo-tron. It is a bit choppy quality, but a fantastic performance!
16) The Coastal Walk
- March 2013, Bondi NSW
- This is a small panoramic clip of one of Dave and my favorite places in the city, the Coastal Walk in Bondi. We love being close to the beach, and on all of our days off we head in this direction to hang out. Just wanted to share some of the beauty with you!
17) Sydney Harbor
- March 2013, Sydney NSW
- A quick panoramic video of the Sydney Harbor! Such a beautiful spot in the city with a view of the Harbor Bridge, Opera House, downtown, and the Harbor!
That is all the video clips we have for now! In the past few weeks since we have settled in Sydney, Dave and I have been having lots of fun discovering the city. We have spent lots of time at the beach trying to enjoy the last few days of summer, picnicing in the Botanical Gardens, and lots of Happy Hour hopping around the hot spots in the city with friends. We also recently discovered a Canadian bar very close to our house in Bondi called The Beaver! It plays American sports on TV, has hockey equipment and a deer head on the wall, and of course serves poutine! At work Dave and I have both done a bit of celebrity spotting as well! Dave met Greg Inglis who plays rugby on the South Sydney Rabbitohs. I worked a function a couple of weeks back that Miranda Kerr attended as well! Sydney seems to have a lot to offer, and we have many more adventures to come.
On our return to the big city, we had two goals: find a house, and a job. For the meantime we settled in at Easy Go Backpackers right downtown on George Street, in the heart of the city. We instantly loved the hostel as we met so many friendly people from all over the world. We spent a lot of time getting to know our new roommates, and exploring the city together. Our days were spent searching on Gumtree.com for jobs and apartments. We toured a couple of apartments in the city, but were not happy with the price or quality of the homes. We remembered how much we loved our visit to Bondi, and decided to focus our search there. Finally we toured a beautiful apartment half way between Bondi Beach and Bondi Junction (shops and the bus terminal), that suited our price point and lifestyle. After only living in the hostel for a week, we moved out and into our new home for a few months! We now have four very friendly roommates from the Philippines, and a room to ourselves. Dave was called back for many job interviews in the city, but eventually chose the opportunity to work close to home in the Westfield mall selling cellphone accessories full-time at Platinum Communications. I also found full-time work a short bus ride away serving breakfast and lunch at Centennial Parklands Dining. We hope to work as much as we can over the next few months to boost our income before we continue to travel the rest of Australia. The past few weeks haven’t only be work though, as we have met up with many familiar faces along the way. One evening Dave and I were in a bottle shop, and as I was looking at the refrigerated section of goon, I hear a man ask Dave, “excuse me, do you know Becki Charles?”, I turn around and see my friend Devon from high school who I haven’t seen for six years! He recognized Dave through my photos online, and we couldn’t believe we ran into each other so randomly in the biggest city in Australia. We went out together that night, and met up the next day at Bondi Beach to have more time to catch up. It is amazing to think of how small the world really is, and we promised that it wouldn’t be another six years before we see each other again.
Byron Holiday Village Family
Nathalie and I
Now that we have been on the road for more than five months,
Becki, Alanna, Noel, and Dave
Fran and Helen
we keep running into people we have met along the way. We were able to meet up with many members of our Byron Holiday Village family this past week. Our good German friend Nathalie came to visit Sydney, so we naturally went to Bondi Beach and chilled on the cliffs overlooking the water. We later all went out together to meet up with more Byron friends Morgan, Roman, and Carla (who just returned to Australia from her home in Chile)! It was so good to spend a night out with our Byron family in Sydney. Nathalie has since moved on to Melbourne, and the trio has gone North to Noosa. We can only hope to run into them again in the next six and a half months! A couple of days ago we were lucky enough to meet up with an Irish couple Alanna and Noel, we met in Surfers Paradise our second week we came to Australia. They spent a couple of days in Sydney, after spending four months working on a cotton farm in Northern inland Queensland, and looked us up during their visit! We met up with them on a night out, and again at Bondi Beach the next day. Dave and I both were silly enough to get our first true Australian sunburn on this visit to the beach, and have learned our lesson to apply sunscreen before hitting the beach! It was fun to meet up with friends that we met months before, and only knew for a few days. When you travel you make friends very quickly, and tend to keep in touch well. Another friend came to town that Dave worked with at Wicked Travel in Byron Bay, our British friend Fran. We spent the night out at the Darling Harbor watching the Saturday night weekly fireworks, with her friends from home. We went out that night and visited some amazing bars, and tried to convince her to move from Byron to Sydney. It seemed to have worked! The other day she arrived back in Sydney to work at the chain of Wicked Travel here. We met up once again to have drinks by the harbor with her friend Helen, and spent the rest of our night acting like kids climbing on the jungle gym. We are so happy to have more friends that have moved to the city that we get to spend more time with!
Mardi Gras
Easy Go Backpackers at Mardi Gars
Last weekend was the very famous Gay Lesbian Mardi Gras in Sydney! The streets filled with millions of people all dressed up in costumes, or dressed down, to watch the parade. The energy in the city was very high, as everyone was celebrating, and being who they wanted to be that day. The parade was very well done and finished with a choreographed dance routine to Lady Gaga and some fireworks! We went out that night with friends we met back at our Sydney hostel, and all the men embraced their feminine side, cross-dressing for the evening. We have the best of both worlds, as we are a short train or bus ride away from the heart of the city, and a fifteen minute walk from the famous Bondi Beach. The last few weeks have been great introduction to the city, and we are excited to spend the next few months living in Bondi.
Our GIANT friend that lives outside our apartment!!
Our time in the Blue Mountains was nothing short of an adventure. The wildlife, sights, and stories will last a lifetime. When we arrived to Katoomba (an Aboriginal term meaning tumbling shining water), we were able to see the misty mountain tops even from the centre of the city. It was chilly, and seemed so far away from sunny Sydney. Dave and I arrived at our hostel, a beautiful wood cottage with a warm fire, and waited the arrival of our good friends Chris and Emma. It was a nice reunion, once again, and we spent the evening chatting about the adventures we had had since we saw each other earlier that week. After our morning English tea with our English friends, we set out to do some hiking around the Jenolan Caves. The drive to the caves was exciting enough, as we were driving right in the cloud line, on very small dirt roads winding up the mountains. Once we arrived we saw beautiful cave structures, grabbed a map and set off to hike some trails. We began by walking through the entrance of the cave which
Boar with her babies
Kangaroos!
led us to a turquoise limestone river, and down the trail into the woods. As we followed the map, we realized that it was not very well drawn, to scale, was quite vague, and the paths were not well marked... at all. We did not let this discourage us, as all four of us loved the outdoors and hiking. We continued on the rough path and noticed long black blades of grass, standing on their own and moving... leeches! They were covering the ground, and eventually our feet. Emma and I did not feel very tough anymore, as we yelled for the boys to help us get them off, even though their feet had just as many. We ended up jogging through the moist riverbanks to avoid the leeches, but would still find them on our feet from time to time.
Wallabie
The leeches did not spoil our adventure though, as we saw so much wild life along the way. We spotted wild boars (a mom and three babies) running up the mountains, and shortly after many many wild kangaroos! Dave and I had seen them in the zoo before, however seeing them in their own habitat was so much cooler. They didn’t seem too bothered by us, but wouldn’t let us get very close either. On our hike we also ran into a few wallabies, many large colourful birds, and an echidna (looks like a porcupine with a long nose, and is a mammal that lays eggs)! We also ran into an old broken down dwelling that looked like it was a couple of hundred years old, that no one had visited in a while.
Echidna
After two and a half hours of hiking, we realized that our path did not look much like a path anymore. We searched for signs, or any land marks that were described on the path, and there were none to be found. Instead of continuing through the wilderness the wrong direction, we decided to turn back the same way we came and look for the path once again. We ran back through the leech infested river banks, trying to prevent too many from attaching to us, becoming a little more successful this time. However, Chris at this point felt something inside his shoe, and saw a leech the size of my thumb that had been feeding on his more the past hour! Once we found our way back to the last sign, we realized we had walked off the path for the past hour and a half. The map was poorly drawn and lad led us the wrong direction. We did not regret this though, because we saw such untouched wildlife, and have funny leech stories that will last forever. We then continued on the correct path, up the mountain, to come to a breathtaking view of the treetops and the cave, making the whole journey worth while.
At The Three Sisters
The next morning our legs were tired after walking for six hours the day before, but we decided to continue and hike some more! We went to see the famous Three Sisters rock formation, where we found a large crowd of tourists. The legend goes, there were three sisters in the Katoomba Tribe that fell in love with three brothers from the Nepean Tribe, and were forbidden to marry. They ran off together which started a tribal war, and a with doctor turned the sisters into stone to protect them. He however does during the war, and was never able to reverse the spell. We spent a few minutes taking in the beautiful scenery and decided to go to head to less well known areas to get away from the crowd. We then drove a few kilometers away to and reached a deserted area called Anvil Rock. We wondered why it was called that until we walked the path up to a large rock on the top of the mountain, with and anvil on it; simply named. We felt like the only people in the world, as we stood on the mountain ledge over thousands of trees, rivers, overlooking the other mountain tops to the sound of the Bell Birds. There was much more to see that day, so we set off once again to do the Grand Canyon Walk (not to be mistaken for THE Grand Canyon, Nevada). We reached another fantastic look out, down to the trees and across to other great mountains with waterfalls. We soon found that the path that we were following went all the way down the mountain, into the sub-tropical canyon. The further down we traveled, the more beautiful the scenery became. High rock walls, waterfalls, canopies of trees, and caves surrounded us. The walk was breath-taking and felt like a different world from the top of the mountain. Our walk lasted about an hour and a half, until the treacherous walk back up the mountain, reminding us how far down we came. When we finally reached the top, the four of us decided no more stairs for a while! On the walk back to the car, more wild life greeted us, as we saw a baby black snake slithering away, hoping that it didn’t have a red belly. We did not check or get too close in case it was going back to mommy!
That evening was our last night together, so we decided to make a feast. Home-made lasagna and garlic bread with red wine was on the menu, and somehow the four of us demolished all of it in one sitting. We had not been eating like backpackers all week as Dave, Emma, Chris, and I were all quite good cooks. The other backpackers’ jaws fell open as the watched us cook steak with mash, home-made burgers, and lasagna for dinner over our nights together in Katoomba. We went to bed with full bellies, and tired legs. Valentines Day was spent with our British friends walking around Katoomba together visiting bakeries, and warming up with soup back in our cabin over good conversation. The day led to s teary goodbye (on my part), as Chris and Emma left for Sydney to head to Auckland the next morning to start their next adventure. Dave and I headed back on the train to Sydney the next morning with hope of finding work and a home soon enough. The Blue Mountains is an easy $8 train ride away from Sydney, and I hope to do it again soon.
Our time in Sydney has come to and end! Sydney is a beautiful and fun city with so much to do. I have loved living in Bondi and exploring all of the cities many suburbs. It has been a nice change to live in a big city, after the very small Byron Bay. Our time have been filled with days going to the beach, heading to the harbors, or exploring the amazing night life the city has to offer. Our last couple of weeks here were filled with fun things to do, including celebrating Dave's rainy 24th birthday in style. We met friends at a Thai restaurant in Glebe, drinking champagne out of the bottle in brown paper bags
, before we hit the town for the night. Dave and I also attended a Sydney Swans AFL game. When we first arrived to Australia last September, we watching the Swans win the Grand Final, so it was a great experience to watch them play live, with a Canadian player too! The game ended in a draw, but we had a 
fantastic time as we became fast friends with Brianna and Ben who sat beside us. They are from West Australia and flew in for the weekend as they were big Fremantle Dockers fans (the competition). 
We celebrated our last two nights in the city by catching the famous Vivid festival in the harbors. On Friday we went down to Darling harbor, to our favorite bar Adria for our last Happy Hour. We got there with only a few minutes to spare and so ordered a table full of beers, champagne and some munchies and sat watching fountain shows and enjoying the atmosphere for the next few hours. Saturday night also started at Darling Harbor, to watch the weekly fireworks display, and then the laser and fountain show. After quickly meeting up with Fran, Helen, and our fifth travel partner Hannah, we headed over to the Sydney Harbor for the end of the night. The entire harbor was lit up for Vivid! The bridge, Opera House, and even most of the buildings down town putting on a light or laser display. Although hectic and crowded it was a very cool experience, capped off with a beer at the Opera House Bar!
