Posts Tagged With: Sydney

Sydney weekend drive: day 2

After a sleep in this morning we headed off for our picnic adventure to Wendy’s Secret Garden in Lavender Bay (website: https://www.wendyssecretgarden.org.au) near the harbour.

Our picnic was ordered through Pop Up Picnics in Sydney and it was DELICIOUS! They delivered it to the picnic location (we supplied the bubbly) and were very accommodating about my shellfish allergy. It came with a rug and in a handy carry box that converts to a table if needed

The gardens were amazing. I strongly recommend anyone who hasn’t visited them, should! At the moment there aren’t any sign posts which show directions to the garden – partly to keep it a bit of a secret and partly because it’s that weird combo of private property with public access. We found the best thing to do was track Wendy’s Secret Garden Lavender Bay using google maps – it was very accurate. You can enter down the bottom at Railway Ave or up the top at Lavendar Crescent.

We were super lucky and scored what I think was the best seat in the whole park! It came with a bench and a stunning view. It was directly under the very old, very well known Moreton Bay Fig Tree which is a very identifiable part of the garden.

After lunch, we explored the gardens in more depth. Lots of beautiful walkways, shady spots and little nooks to sit in.

After resting back at the apartment for awhile, we headed over to ANZ Stadium for the Foo Fighters concert. Security stuff is a lot more full on these days and I’m glad of two things:

1. I read the pre-concert info so knew not to bring a bag. People were being told no entry with backpacks

2. We didn’t stay in the city centre and rely on the train. The lines were insane st Olympic Park Station!

The opening act Weezer were a great throwback to my adolescence (say it ain’t so, your love is a heartbreaker) and as always….the FF rocked! Favourite song last time we saw them live was Generator (which is 18 years old this year) and this time around it was definitely listening to 50 000 people sing along to My Hero – see the video below.

Oh, and Dave Grohl played the drums which was something I never thought I’d see live! I’m a bit too young to have been concert-attending age when Nirvana were around.

Tomorrow – home time! 3hrs 15 mins back to Canberra and my beloved doggo.

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Sydney weekend drive: Day 1

This weekend we drove to Sydney for the first time. Usually we fly as we are staying in the city centre (hotels) and a car is not much use + expensive to park. This time we are staying out in Olympic Park as we are going to see the Foo Fighters tomorrow night! Eeeeee!!

Canberra to Sydney is about a 3hr 15min drive down a dual carriageway. It’s not a hard drive but it’s booooooring. We stopped in Moss Vale (the halfway point) for a very tasty and cheerful lunch at Bernie’s Diner.

As we are staying in Olympic Park, we opted to go for an apartment booked through Stayz.com instead of the hotels nearby. The apartment we are in is one of the “Australia Tower” ones and it’s about halfway up the 25 storey building with a very nice view of ANZ Stadium and Homebush.

After arriving, we wandered over to Cathy Freeman Park (5 min walk) and had a look at the olympic cauldron from the 2000 games, then had dinner and cocktails at Mexica Bar. We returned to the apartment and settled in to wait for fireworks. Unfortunately our view wasn’t great but we still saw a bit!

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Moreton Island Bridesmaids Cruise: Day 1 arriving in Sydney

Lana had been in Sydney for a few days already, with Jess and I arriving around 3pm today from Perth and Canberra. We met up at the airport and split an Uber to the hotel, Napoleon on Kent. Tracey is spending the the night with family friends so we had arranged to meet up with her tomorrow.

The hotel is a cute little thing directly under a motorway, I will definitely have a bit of trouble with sleep (very light sleeper) but it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. It is actually road noise more than mororway noise that you can hear in the bedroom. Noise cancelling head phones and a white noise app will be enough.

It’s reasonably priced (about $160 a night) and really close to where our cruise leaves from. It’s also near a main train station and an easy walk to circular quay, darling harbour and the main shopping areas of Sydney.

After sorting out check in, we headed over to Hard Rock Cafe in Darling Harbour for happy hour 2-for-1 cocktails!

After cocktails and food we went to check out sydney harbour at night time.

We accidentally took the long way back to the hotel so it was a long walk….but we made it around 11:20pm. I have done 12000 steps since landing in Sydney at 4pm! Yikes.

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Moreton Island Bridesmaids Cruise: The background

At this time last year, B and I went on a P&O cruise to Fraser Island. It was a lovely experience (although he said never again as he felt mildly nauseous for a lot of it) but was very much a “couples” experience. We had couples massages, read in the lounge, slept in, ate in the nice (pricey) restaurants and avoided any party/dancing stuff as that’s not really his vibe. It was really nice, but the focus was definitely on spending quality couple time together.

This time around it’s my bridesmaid cruise!

The backstory: When we do eventually settle on a wedding date and location it’s likely to be a private, personal thing. We are both pretty private people when it comes to all that romantic stuff. We both also have family drama we want to avoid. But I still wanted a way to celebrate with my awesome girlfriends and say “hey, you would totes have been my BMs if we were having a big-ass wedding because you are wonderful” Once I started looking into visiting them all in Perth (I’m in Canberra), airfares in the school holidays, finding dates that worked for us all, ensuring babysitters or partners were available….well, it got complicated fast.

So I said fuck it, let’s go on a cruise! I paid the cruise cost, they paid their airfares to Sydney + spending money. The cruise cost for a 4 person mid range cabin was $3k which is not far off what I would have spent going to Perth! As a bonus, I was also able to pay it off slowly between January and October after putting down a $1 deposit.

Our cruise group consists of myself, Jess, Lana and Tracey. I’ve known Tracey and Jess for around 15 years (yikes!!) and Lana I’ve known for about 8 years now – she also happens to be my nephew’s mama. I’m child-free while the others have children ranging in age from 3 to 22 so they are REALLY looking forward to this!

So – can you guess what our vibe is going to be?

PAAAAAARTY!!! With some relaxation thrown in.

We all have outfits purchased and packed for Gatsby night, the White Party night and another party night. We also have dolphin feeding and wreck snorkelling booked as shore tours on Moreton Island. It’s going to be epic!

After suggestions from supporters and a final participant vote, the official cruise hashtag will be #nomorechoosingmelsgonecruising with #bridesmaidsgonecruising coming in a close second.

Let the celebrations begin!

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