Maggies Beach from Norries Headland, Cabarita, New South Wales, Australia

Photo’s are here or you can just click on the photograph above.

Our 6 weeks in Australia started with a turbulent trans-Pacific crossing from Los Angeles, California to Sydney, New South Wales on an American Airlines Dreamliner. We decided to travel in style in First Class because we were celebrating our joint retirements and it is a very long journey from Florida to LA and then from LA to Australia. For most of the 15½ hour flight from LA we were bounced and bashed about … the turbulence was really quite invigorating! Jolted awake several times – for much of the journey it felt like I was being shaken through a colander, while Geoff slept for about 10 hours all the way through it 😉 Still, we made it to Sydney without the wings dropping off which is all that matters. After an unnecessarily chaotic immigration and customs process (which seemed to baffle even local Aussies returning to their homeland) we located our Uber driver and made it to our home for 36 hours – the Langham Hotel in downtown Sydney. The Langham is on Kent Street in Millers Point close to The Rocks. It is the epitome of romance – art deco in style and decorated in a selection of tranquil creams, pale green and cotton candy pinks. We had showers, got changed and set off in search of coffee in an attempt to stay awake for the day. Brix and Beans Coffee House in Milers Point was pretty good in a caffeine-related emergency. We strolled on through The Rocks towards Circular Quay for the traditional iconic views of Harbour Bridge and across to the Sydney Opera House glinting in the morning sun. We continued into the peaceful Royal Botanic Garden. It was late spring in the last days of October with bright blue skies and gorgeous blooming purple jacaranda trees and a fabulous welcome back to one of our favorite cities.

For lunch we headed to Social Brew Cafe in Pyrmont via Hyde Park which was a half hour walk from Circular Quay. We passed by the historic Queen Victoria Building with its designers shops, stained glass windows and huge centerpiece clock. We crossed over Pyrmont Bridge at Darling Harbour and then into the back streets of Pyrmont. Even though we were barely conscious it was worth the cross-city walk for Social Brew Cafe’s apple, kale, ginger and turmeric fresh juice and mushroom and truffle pasta. We returned there for breakfast the following day because it was so good – the Avocado toast and beet puree with poached egg and the smoked salmon, avocado and salad with buttermilk dressing and zatar on flatbread were also fantastic. It is a popular place – low key, trendy and a long walk from anywhere convenient!

We made it back to the Queen Victoria Building but with jet lag and fatigue dulling our desire to stumble any further we decided to catch the tram back to Circular Quay. We’ve been to Sydney 3 or 4 times in the past but this trip was our first in-depth experience of public transport in the city and it wasn’t entirely successful! I’d read about setting up an Opal card for the buses and trams but my jet-lagged brain couldn’t remember any useful details. A quick Google search and we learned we could pay by credit card instead without registering for an Opal card account. Should be simple enough – just “Tap On” and “Tap Off”. What that actually meant in practice we didn’t have time to read before our tram arrived so we hopped on with credit cards in hand and searched around for a machine inside the tram where we could “Tap On” to purchase our fares. Nothing in sight on board. The doors closed and the tram left the stop. When in doubt ask a local! Oops – it transpired that you have to “Tap On before you Get On” at one of the colored circular Opal reader points at the tram stops. When you get off again you “Tap Off” at the reader at your destination. If you don’t “Tap On” before you board and you’re caught by an inspector it’s a $200 fine each which would have been pricey for a 2 stop tram ride. Luckily we evaded discovery and our bank balances escaped unscathed. At least now we knew how to use it …

The following day we had almost another full day to explore before catching our late afternoon plane to Perth, Western Australia so we returned to the Royal Botanic Garden for some peace and quiet and walked along the water front towards Mrs Macquarie’s Chair. It was coffee time but it was too far to walk to the renowned bakery and cafe “Flour and Stone” in the suburb of Woolloomoolloo. Conveniently, there was a bus stop close to Mrs Macquarie’s Chair with a bus to Woollomoolloo. With very little time (again!) to google how the bus payment system worked, we asked an elderly local lady who explained we could use either Opal card or credit card – but this time you’re charged after you get on the bus. Should be easy enough! We boarded with cards in hand but it was our lucky day … the Opal reader onboard was broken and it was free rides all day!

So far, public transport had been pretty cheap 😉

Flour and Stone in Woolloomoolloo suburb was absolutely excellent (the cheese and leek tart with asparagus salad followed by passionfruit tart were all delicious) and it was definitely worth the free bus ride!

Later that day, we took the early evening flight from Sydney to Perth – the most westerly point and the most spectacular region we’ve visited in Australia. You can see the blog post for Western Australia here.

After our month out west we returned to Sydney from Perth, stayed overnight at a Quest hotel near the airport and caught the 90 minute morning flight from Sydney to Ballina airport – the closest airport to Byron Bay. We were booked to stay at an Airbnb property for a week in the Byron Bay hinterlands – the rustic hill region just inland from Byron Bay and a 40 minute drive from Ballina airport. We were staying at Gan Eden Retreat in Wilsons Creek – a luxury high-ceilinged modern chalet with huge picture windows, a fantastic bathroom and sweeping views across the rainforest and hills of the hinterland from the bedroom and the spacious living room. Gan Eden bills itself as a romantic, peaceful retreat but it is a strange place to build such a modern retreat. It is literally in the middle of nowhere.

Wilsons Creek is a collection of remote properties accessed by a narrow, winding country road with steep sharp twists, turns and hairpin bends as you climb uphill from the valley. Eventually, you turn onto a wildly overgrown dirt track pitted with deep, stony, uneven potholes at the end of which you will find Gan Eden. During our stay it rained heavily over a couple of nights and days … heavy enough for the dirt track access road to all but completely wash away downhill. The rain pouring off the surrounding hillsides ran in rivers around us even long after the rain stopped. The runoff flooded our patio and turned the surrounding grass fields into an emerald swamp. Clearly, Byron Bay and its hinterland is a region with an awful lot of rain! Down at the valley floor the following day the fields and streams had flooded over the roads, making some impassable, and the fields glistened with water. They looked more like Southeast Asian paddy fields than Australian farmland!

We had very mixed feelings about Byron Bay. Our week didn’t start well. When we arrived it was a sunny afternoon so we checked in to Gan Eden and drove 30 minutes down to Byron Bay to buy supplies and take a look at the town. I had high hopes of Byron Bay but they weren’t immediately met. I had read that Byron Bay is a chilled out, boho-chic hippie-cool kinda place with beautiful beaches and constantly rolling surf (one of the reasons that it is a famous surfing destination).

Apart from the famous waves it didn’t appear to be any of those things. Main Beach is notoriously overrun and busy so we didn’t bother to stop there. Wategos Beach, however, is considered one of the prettiest of Byron Bay’s beaches but the waters were dark, murky and churned up. There weren’t any available parking spaces anyway, so Geoff pulled over and I ran over to the beach to check it out. Even if he had found a parking space it was $5 AUD per hour – a lot just for a quick look. We continued around the headland up to the famous Byron Bay Lighthouse. We wanted to take a couple of photos and stroll a few minutes to the panoramic viewpoint over the expansive sweep of Tallow Beach. Even though the lighthouse was closed for the day, a parking attendant leapt out of the shadows as soon as we parked up and charged us $10 AUD. To make our $10 investment worthwhile we followed a path through the rainforest just after the Tallow Beach viewpoint as we wondered if we could make it down to the beach. The peninsular is very high and there was no way down so we got back into the car and drove a few minutes down to sea level to the Cosy Corner car park at Tallow Beach close to the rocky headland. The car park was jammed solid. There weren’t any parking spaces free and as more cars and scruffy oversized surfers vans arrived everyone got more and more wedged in without any way out. The parking lot was totally blocked. Surfer dudes are supposed to be chilled out but everyone around us was getting more and more agitated. We almost witnessed a punch up over one space! Surfers were shouting at other surfers to move their butts and their cars and others were attempting to squeeze into impossibly tiny gaps. Tempers were fraying and horns were honking. There was absolutely nothing chilled out or laid back about these beach goers and surfers. Whilst Geoff was stuck in the traffic jam I darted out to check out the beach and take a quick snap, Again it would have cost $5 AUD per hour even if we’d have found a space … which again is quite pricey for a short stroll to stretch your legs.

Giving up on a beach walk altogether, we battled the chaotic traffic back into the centre of town aiming for the Woolworths supermarket to buy supplies for the week. There were no more spaces in town to park the car than there had been down at the beach and the streets and sidewalks were a seething mass of teenagers. Thankfully, there was an underground car park beneath Woolworths … we’ve no idea what the accompanying fee would have been because it’s free to park with a validated ticket. Street parking would have been another $5 AUD to park which isn’t insignificant if you’re just running in for a $3 pint of milk. To clarify – we’re hardly short of the money for a few parking charges but the whole essence of the place reeked of extracting as much money from its visitors as possible.

It was a world away from Western Australia, which was infinitely more relaxed, chilled out and user-friendly!

So, the town was not relaxing, nor was it boho chic or in any way a chilled-out hippie-vibe destination. The only hippies we saw were a couple of unwashed, shoeless teenage girls picking up lentils from Fundie’s Organic grocery store.

It seemed on the surface to be a town for 2 kinds of people; the very wealthy weekenders from the city (presumably Sydney) with many millions to blow on their holiday homes perched in the back streets overlooking the ocean; and tens of thousands of teenagers and 20-somethings looking for cheap booze and a party. Wandering the streets of the centre you don’t see many of the wealthy weekenders … but you certainly see a lot of the latter. I’m not used to doing the weekly shop in a busy town centre supermarket overrun by shoeless teens dressed in nothing more than teeny-weeny bikinis … it was all very odd! 😂

I don’t think Byron Bay was really for us 😉 Mercifully, we only passed through the town twice for supplies and once in an emergency when we were starving after a long beach hike and ill-advisedly went into town for some distinctly unmemorable fish and chips at Fishheads cafe where we perched in their outdoor seating area at sticky, grubby wood tables overlooking Main Beach.

The surrounding countryside (the hinterland) outside of the town is much prettier. The villages and towns of the hinterland are famous for their scenic rolling hills, farmland and rainforest. Our first excursion into the surrounding region was into the Northern Rivers Region of NSW to the actually authentic hippie town of Nimbin, 90 minutes away. It is famous as the birthplace of the hippie movement in Australia and for its Aquarius Festival of 1973 – the Aussie version of the USA’s 1969 Woodstock Festival. The 10 day counter-cultural arts and music festival was organized back in the day by the Australian Union of Students. It is now a bi-annual event. A few minutes strolling along the main street with its colorful shops and multi-colored psychedelic facades and murals and it was clear that neither the hippies nor the counterculture movement had ever left town. There are street signs when entering the small town declaring that it is an alcohol free zone. It was, however, definitely not a drug free zone! We were approached by 4 separate and undoubtedly very stoned people all offering to sell us dodgy homemade brownies or joints. This place is most definitely laid back! The scent of marijuana wafts and lingers in the air here and unsurprisingly it was far more chilled and friendly than back in Byron Bay … even if it was hemp induced 😉

It was steaming hot and humid in very early December as you might expect of a rainforest region. It was more akin to Florida in August than the beautiful dry, sunny late-spring weather we had just left back in Perth. 95°F (35°C) and 99% humidity is not great to wander about in outdoors for long but it was worth a visit for its quirky uniqueness.

The highlight of the day trip was, however, a brief visit to Friends of the Koala in East Lismore (a koala rescue centre and hospital). We discovered that it was closed due to understaffing and too many koalas in need of medical attention. We were disappointed but stood in their car park staring up at the tall, willowy eucalyptus trees surrounding the hospital in search of koalas when a volunteer approached us. She pointed to a wild koala high up in the trees almost hidden by branches. Fabulous but not quite close enough! She could sense we were disappointed not to be able to see any koalas up close and she relented and agreed to let us visit an enclosure with 3 of their permanent rescues. They were all suffering from congenital hip dysplasia which would be a death-sentence for a wild koala. They were absolutely gorgeous! We learnt that whilst koalas often appear to be stoned on eucalyptus leaves that is not quite true. They sleep up to 18 hours a day because eucalyptus leaves are so low in nutrients and so tough to digest that they just don’t gain much energy from their food in the first place. Apparently, when they do wake up they can really shift … which is quite difficult to imagine since you mainly see them looking comatose, dangling between branches or very slowly chewing on a eucalyptus leaf. They were very soft … we had a quick stroke but we didn’t want to disturb them from their semi-slumber. Understandably, it is illegal to hold or cuddle them in NSW but we were just very happy to see them up close especially since they are now endangered.

We made a quick stop en-route back to Wilsons Creek at the tiny one-street hinterland village of Federal appealing for its historic architecture. The Federal General Store and Post Office is worth a photo stop at least. It is sandwiched between an attractive coffee shop with outdoor seating called Moonshine and Federal Doma Cafe with a shaded courtyard patio famous for its Japanese food … which was somewhat unexpected for a one horse town in the middle of the boonies …

Much of the scenic drive through the hinterland villages passes through macadamia nut farms, rolling hills with pretty dairy and arable farms where swathes of white and blue agapanthus grow wild in the hedgerows. The following day we decided to visit the other famous villages in the hinterland region. First stop, Bangalow, a historic town with a charming main street, cute upmarket boutiques and a great range of coffee shops and cafes (notably Butcher Baker), restaurants and bakeries (Bangalow Bread Co). It was drizzling so we drove on another 10 minutes towards Newrybar which was very much smaller but infinitely more beautiful. It has a sedate, upmarket feel which brought to mind small town Northern California. We stopped in at well-known Harvest (a bakery and restaurant). Back in the car we continued our day trip towards Ballina to run some errands.

Errands ran, so we then took the coast road heading north back towards Byron Bay. We pulled in at Angels Beach in East Ballina and within minutes were cooling off paddling in the Pacific Ocean. We far preferred the more chilled and more peaceful beaches in this area than around frenetic Byron Bay. It was pretty and wild and unstressed and we ended up paddling for 4½ miles from Angels Beach to Flat Rock, to Sharpes Beach and on towards Whites Head and back again. There were a few surfers at the Sharpes Beach end but otherwise we were pretty much alone.

Back in Byron Bay I was determined to walk on Tallow Beach (the surfers beach mentioned above which is nestled under the headland dominated by Byron Lighthouse). We weren’t feeling inclined to tackle the awful people fighting for a parking space at Cosy Corner again nor to pay the elevated parking fee for a walk on the beach. We found an alternative entry point to Tallow Beach via a short walk through a fragrant eucalyptus grove and scrubland at the end of Ironbank Avenue. We parked alongside a couple of other cars in a patch of overgrown scrubland and walked 15 minutes to the beach through a section of the Arakwal National Park. Our eyes were glued to the tops of the eucalyptus trees in search of koalas. No such luck but the beach walk was great from this far quieter section of Tallow all the way to the surfers end at Cosy Corner. Another 4½ miles without paying for parking … we really had a bee in our bonnets about the parking fees in Byron Bay 😂

The weather was setting in for a few very stormy days so we had to take advantage of any breaks in the rain clouds to stretch our legs. The 7 mile hike I had planned to Minyon Falls in the hinterland had to go on a (permanent) back burner for fear of us being washed away in the deluge of the storm. It really comes down hard here – much like a tropical storm in summer in Florida. So I looked at the map and picked another beach south of Byron Bay so we could walk and at least stay cool with our feet in the water since it was another hot, steamy day despite the rain. We drove 40 minutes south to Lennox Head and parked (for free!) at Seven Mile Beach. I promptly trod with the ball of my foot (and with my full weight) onto a bee. He probably wasn’t much happier about it than I was. I hopped around shrieking at Geoff to disengage the bee and its sting which was pumping venom into my foot at an alarming rate. I darted into the sea to wash it out and limped for much of the next mile until the throbbing started to subside. 3 miles later I had forgotten all about it … which is more than can be said for the weird, freakish and somewhat worrisome insect bite I had sustained during our last day in Western Australia.

Who knows what it was that took a chunk out of my arm … a spider … a particularly aggressive ant … I have literally no idea …. but given that we were walking through a tunnel of matted spider webs above our heads only a few hours earlier I’m guessing it was a spider. I neither saw nor felt anything until we had arrived in Perth at the airport hotel and I realized my arm was itching and a strange white head had popped up. This followed a day later by the worst itching I’ve ever endured, a huge red rash and some equally unpleasant swelling. We made a trip to the pharmacy for some SOOV bite ointment and I took daily antihistamines for the next 10 days. I had an ice pack all but glued to my arm for hours on end and at roughly 3.30am every night for the following week. It is not something I wish to repeat but presumably if it had been more toxic I would have been dead by now. So I didn’t have the greatest of luck with the Aussie wildlife 😉

We didn’t eat out much in Byron Bay because we’re self-catering during this 4½ month trip and also because the thought of eating out in the city with the noisy, over-privileged vacationing teens didn’t appeal one iota. Having said that, we made several trips to The Farm on the outskirts of Byron which was much more our kind of place … a farm-to-table restaurant and bakery set in pretty fields with sunflowers, good food and a slightly more relaxed and upmarket ambience.

Finally, a full day of sunshine! Unfortunately it came with an accompanying heat index of 100°F (38°C) so we set off early to our local hinterland town of Mullumbimby which was only a 15 minute drive. It is a popular stop en-route into the hinterland rainforest region and is notable for its palm tree lined main street and tropical architecture. There are cafes, a hippie subculture and a well-known bakery (Baker and Daughters – I highly recommend the orange blossom almond croissant). We drove on towards Brunswick Heads which is a small village on the Brunswick River estuary with timber bridges, surf shops and a marina with yachts and fishing boats. We didn’t linger long … it is very small and we were keen to get to the beach for a paddle at Cabarita Beach further north.

The most beautiful town and beach we visited whilst in the Byron Bay region was Cabarita Beach. The route was a little hairy due to extensive flooding on the roads following the storms over the previous day or so. Much of the journey passed agricultural fields and small holdings with streams which had flooded right over the thoroughfares. We drove slowly through the inundated roads following the locals who were obviously more used to it. At the coast we parked at Lions Park and walked the short boardwalk trail up onto Norries Headland. There were spectacular views through the exotic Screw Pine trees with their large palm-like fronds over Norries Beach and Cabarita Beach to the north. Further around the headland there is a panoramic of the even more spectacular Maggies Beach to the south. We chose to walk the sand and paddle at Maggies Beach for a couple of miles before the heat beat us and we retreated to the AC. Cabarita is almost in the farthest reaches of NSW – just before you reach Southern Queensland. If we ever consider returning to this region we wouldn’t bother with Byron Bay but we’d base ourselves somewhere a lot less touristy and a lot more laidback like Cabarita … you live and learn!

We took the mid-morning flight from Ballina back to Sydney for our final 8 nights in Australia before heading to New Zealand for 3 months.

We’ve stayed in the city several times over the years so we thought we’d play at being Sydneysiders for a week and booked an Airbnb between the upmarket suburb of Mosman and posh Balmoral Beach – where the average house prices start at $4,000,000 AUD … the area is very nice, obviously!

Given the public transport system throughout the city is reasonably clean, reliable and popular we canceled the rental car and chose the stress free go-slow option of public transport which worked pretty well. That’s not to say the buses actually arrived on time … and sometimes they didn’t arrive at all … but it is easy to plan your route in detail online with the Opal travel planner. Pretty useful for a couple of Floridians who have no option back home but to travel everywhere by car. Normally we rarely use public transport … but when in Sydney … do what a Sydneysider does …

We’ve not visited quite this early in summer before and unfortunately we timed our arrival the day before the kids were out for school holidays so everywhere was packed. The weather in early December was also very confusing … the weather apps were as confused as we were, which didn’t help! We were surprised by how much sea fog drifts in from the ocean at this time of year and how much rain falls in early summer. We’ve only visited late December, February and March in previous years so I’m not sure we’d recommend early December. The days were hot and humid and the sun generally shone but often way up above the fog … fog drifted in and drifted out and the sun shone and then it disappeared and then it was chilly …and then it got hot! Because it was so unpredictable we passed on some of the coastal/headland hikes we had planned and stuck to beach walking where we could, at least, cool off in the sea.

On our first day we walked down to Balmoral Beach, past Bathers Pavilion (a 1920’s heritage building on the sand which now serves as a restaurant), over Rocky Point Island with its views north and south over the beaches, past the well-known Boathouse restaurant perched out over the water and we followed the boardwalk up and over the headland to George’s Head and down to Chowder Bay beach. I can’t say we particularly enjoyed the walk! It was 90°F (32°C) and at least the same again in humidity and much of the trail was through forest where the air was thick & stagnant, Still, in the interests of getting some exercise, and as we were already dripping in sweat, we persevered on over Bradley’s Head towards Taylors Bay and finally to Taronga Zoo where we caught the bus back to Mosman. If we hadn’t forgotten to pack swimsuits it might have been more bearable. As it was, it consolidated our decision to avoid walking and hang out on the beaches as much as possible instead … which is exactly what the locals were doing.

The following day it was Geoff’s birthday. We caught the bus directly to Manly and walked the store-lined pedestrian thoroughfare, The Corso, to the beach where the waves were rolling in with perfect regularity across the golden sand. We continued via Marine Parade along Cabbage Tree Bay Aquatic Reserve passing Fairy Bower enclosed sea pool with its elegant sweeping “Oceanides” sculpture known to locals as the “Sea Nymphs”. Our destination was the petite but pretty Shelly Beach wedged under a small rocky, forested headland. We strolled the short trail on the headland, paddled at the beach and went for lunch and cocktails at the iconic Boathouse restaurant which has a great location and a good atmosphere but serves pretty average food. I braved the chilly waters for a swim to cool down – the beach was crowded with locals so if it was good enough for them then the icy water was good enough for me!

By the time we had wandered back to Manly Beach Geoff had a change of heart (having refused to go in at Shelly Beach). He had been watching the smooth incoming rolling waves and the allure was too great so birthday boy stripped down to his swimming trunks and ran into the waves to body surf … apparently the water at Manly was “so much warmer” than 10 minutes away at Shelly! 😉

The following day we took the bus into downtown Sydney, disembarked at Wynyard station and walked down towards Circular Quay. Since the sun was shining we stopped for coffee at a sidewalk cafe, Cabrito Coffee Traders. It looked like a beautiful day and the sun was still shining as we boarded the ferry to Watsons Bay but by the time we left the quay and motored a few hundred yards past Sydney Opera House the fog was like pea soup. By the time we docked in Watsons Bay the fog was thick and damp, and it had drenched us. Even so, the school kids were out in their hundreds packing the small, narrow beaches sunbathing in the fog!

I’ve always loved Watsons Bay – probably because I’ve never seen it smothered in thick, damp fog nor the small beaches heaving under the weight of several hundred school kids. The path towards the headland passes Watsons Bay Beach (the location of the famous, and heavily overpriced, Doyle’s On The Beach seafood restaurant), it continues via Pacific Street, past the grassy slopes at Green Point Reserve and over rocks down onto Camp Cove Beach where we had to step over one sprawled teen after another to reach the short loop headland track. The trail passes Lady Bay Beach (a nudist beach) which was far more appealing than the hugely overcrowded Camp Cove Beach. But, unlike the locals, we weren’t tempted to swim in the fog! Giving up on Watsons Bay, we caught the ferry back to Circular Quay in the city where we hopped onto the ferry to Manly in the hope that the fog would be less all-encompassing than at Watsons Bay.

It wasn’t – and the lifeguards had closed Manly Beach due to rough surf so I convinced Geoff to head to Shelly Beach again where the water is protected by the headland and is usually calm for swimming. The sun was beating down through the fog enough for skin to fry to a crisp but it was eerily white all around us at ground level. It took him 10 minutes of dithering and wincing like a 5 year old before he actually plunged head first into the water. Strolling back along Marine Parade to Manly we stopped for happy hour cocktails at The Bower where we sat on the bay front watching surfers in the distance surfing the waves around the headland at Shelly Beach and snorkelers in the calmer protected waters of the aquatic reserve.

On our quiet days we hung out at the beach in Balmoral; we took an occasional dip, sipped coffee on the rocks overlooking the bay at Rocky Point Island between Edwards Beach and Balmoral Beach and booked the Winter Wonderland 100 minute massage at La Massage in Mosman (which was top notch). Back home in the States we’re big fans of Chinese massages even though they frequently redefine the concept of brutal. Since we’ve been in Australia we haven’t found many Chinese massage spas but they’re not short of Thai spas. Anyway, if you find yourself in Mosman on a rainy day with nothing else to do, we can highly recommend La Massage – there’s nothing quite like having a Thai masseuse clamber onto the bed on top of you and kneel with her full weight into your butt cheeks 😉

So, in Sydney we’ve had sunshine and blue skies and pea soup thick fog; it’s been warm and breezy, and blowing a gale; it’s been cold and damp and boiling hot and humid … that’s just about every combination of weather you could possibly experience other than snow … not bad for a brief 8 day visit! We’ve hung out on the beaches … sat on the rocky headlands watching the world go by … chucked ourselves about in the rolling waves … criss-crossed the city and its many peninsulas by bus, tram, metro and ferry (I think we qualify as locals now we’ve mastered the public transport system!) and we’ve done a few coastal hikes – the absolute best of which is the Bondi to Coogee walk.

It’s a long way from Mosman to get to Bondi Beach to do the 8 mile round trip walk to Coogee – buses, trains and more buses – but this iconic walk is unmissable on a warm, sunny, blue sky day when the sunshine enhances the beautiful shades of blues and greens in the Pacific Ocean. The grassy banks and headlands are covered in swathes of wild flowers in early December – lilies and daisies in shades of white, orange and yellow and blue agapanthus. The prettiest part of the famous walk between Bondi Beach and Coogee Beach is undoubtedly between Bondi and Bronte Beach (in case you’re short on time and don’t want to walk the entire 8 mile round trip). Highlights along the route, if you walk the whole route, are the huge iconic Bondi Icebergs Pool jutting out over the sea, chilling and sunbathing on the super relaxing beanbags on the grass overlooking the ocean at Tamarama Beach, beautiful Bronte Beach with its Rockpool Baths and the Waverley Cemetery with expansive views over the surrounding rocky headlands. Clovelley Beach is not particularly notable but the superb 25 meter long mural of sealife and life guards painted on the side of the Surf Life Saving Club is well worth seeing. Further around, Gordons Bay was murky and rough but by the time you get to Coogee things have improved again and Coogee Beach is beautiful. For us it was a fabulous way to spend a sunny warm and breezy morning on our last day in Sydney!

After 6 weeks of chillin’ and exploring in sunny Australia, it was finally time to say goodbye and fly to Auckland, New Zealand for the night before catching a puddle jumper to off-the-grid Great Barrier Island (just off the coast of Auckland)!

Australia … you’ve been awesome! We love you 😊