Sydney day 4 - City adventure

Good morning Sydney!!! It's day 4. How time flies. Today we r on our own. William is working and Joshua Angeline are schooling. Syasya and Aril were so preoccupied with everything around the house and it's quite a challenge to actually get them to be ready. Finally we get to leave for the city at 11am (the original plan to leave at 9am!)

 

We took a train from Pennant Hills to Town Hall - A$6.8 return for an adult. Children should get cheaper but I can't remember exactly. We paid around A$20 for 2A and 1C tickets return. There are so many things u can do around Town Hall. We went first to see the Sydney tower, then walk to Darling Harbour. Several attractions lined up here at Darling Harbour - the Aquarium,  Wild Life, Madame Tussauds etc. And several options for the ticket entries. U can even do a mix and match.. i.e. buy 2, 3, or 4 entries at discounted price. Or just a single entry at A$38 (A) and A$22 (C).

Since we've got a BUY 1 FREE 1 coupon from Ai Ling, we bought entries to the aquarium.

Somehow, I really feels that it's not worth it to buy too many tickets if u r going with small kids. You wont have enough time to cover too many places in a day. Like us, we spent I think about 3 hours just at the aquarium!!



Me at Darling Harbour

Sydney Sealife Aquarium

Next we went to the Harborside Shopping Center to get our Hard Rock Merchandises. Unfortunately they don't have shotglass. Aww.. but we still bought few stuff :) There are also souvenir shops on sale in the center. Tshirt are from $6 each. We bought few - in case we didn't have time for the Paddy Market.



Pyrmont bridge.. pathay from the Darling Harbour to Harbourside Center

 

Poor baby.. surrounded by HRC plush..

Later we took a monorail back to Victoria, walk a bit to Town Hall station to take a train to Circular Quay. Monorail trip are always A$5/adult - to whichever station that you want.

When we arrived CQ its was already dark.  I was a bit frustrated but it's ok. I can come back later. From the station, I can still see a spectacular view of the Harbour Bridge and the Opera House at night. It was magnificent. Subhanallah...



View of Sydney from the monorail station

We went back to PH at about 930pm. Ends another great day. Alhamdulillah...





  

The Opera House. That ends the great city adventure :}}



Sydney day 3 - Blue Mountain adventure

Blue mountain.. this is a very touristy area. Many people comes here on a package.  Else, u can take a train to Katoomba station and walk your way to the Three Sisters.. or take hop on bus from there. But I'm not sure wether the ticket office is near the station.

 

For us, we drove from Pennant hills and it took us 1.5hours to reach there. It's about 100km++. Sorry to say, in Australia the highway only limits a maximum of 100km/h driving. And they have traffic camera quite frequently. So be carefull. Breach of traffic rule may cause a very heavy penally such as loss of license. And not forgetting, everyone board MUST wear seatbelt. Children below 5 yrs must be on a child seat!! Safety first Ok. Hihuu...

 

Just after arriving, we had our picnic near the Blue Mountain cafe (NOT inside the cafe. Hahah). It was fun. With a very good weather we just spread out lunch boxes under the tree and kids having fun chasing this and that. They even saw a wild cat. Wait, Wild cat?!!!...

 

Then we went to the observation area to see the scenuc view of the blue mountain. Ma Shaa Allah. Magnificent! !! And of course the view of the '3 sister rocks' (there was a legend) amazes us. We then head downwards the prince Henry trails about 100m+ to the rock. Then the giant steps. It was amazing! A must see and visit for everyone.

 

Got to see a real life search and rescue. Behind are the Three Sisters

Rescuer going down

Us at the Blue Mountain

After a merely 200m walk to the Three Sister, so here we are!

At about 3pm, we drove to the other side of the blue mountain to the scenic cable car. Unfortunately the most adventurous red car was out of order. So we only get to ride the yellow and green car. Also we had a magnificent walk through the jungle trails. The children were so excited I couldn't find them going to which route.  So me, syahril and baby just waited at the storm shelter deck after few minutes of walk. It was calm and relaxing too.

 

Kids waiting for the bottom glass panel to clear

View of Katoomba Falls from the Cable Car

The yellow car went cross the valley,  oversee the Katoomba fall - which was MAGNIFICENT! !! It took inly few minutes and we get to see the 3 sisters from another view. The station closed at 5pm.

After prayer, we head back to Parramatta for dinner. We found a Halal Chinese Noodle restaurant there by luck. So we ordered prawn, lamb, seafood fried rice and other stuff. The restaurant owner named Aisha and Micheal Ma. They were nice people and greets us with the best welcome.  William spoke kantonese with them as some does no speak english. That was the best dinner I've ever had :) Alhamdulillah..

 

Our dinner for the night. A Halal Chinese noodle bar at Parramatta

So that ends day 3. Wait for our City adventure tomorrow. C Ya Mate!! 

Sydney day 2 - Sports and play adventure

So much to write..too little time.. but I'll write anyway before I forget.

 

We should have woke up earlier today for our first outdoor adventure. Somehow kids (and parent..) still keeping up and fighting with the jet lag. We woke up quite late and left for kayaking at about 930am. William have a 3 seating kayak so it fits him, syahril and syasya. Syasya did well as a first timer and she had fun. 

 

Syasya and Abah kayaking..

Later at noon, about 2pm..we went downtown (almost) to see the harbour bridge and opera house - my long awaited MUST SEE list. We went to the Lavander bay and enjoyed the great view. The place is famous for bride taking their  wedding pictures and picnic.

 

Kids ready to jump!!

 

Then we went to Luna park for the kids to have an unlimited fun. The entrance fee for an adult is $45 (yellow), bigger child is $35 (green) and small child is $25 (red). If I am not mistaken, there are 25% discount for green and yellow ticket. Otherwise we can take single entry tickets at $10 each. But for this park, taking a full day pass is really worth it as you dont have to queue so long to play a game. . Which is good!!

 

Luna Park Clowns..

 

Sydney Opera House and the Harbour Bridge

Sydney day 1 - Wildlife adventure

After arriving at our friend's house. Had a chit chat and catching up, we went to Pennant Hills Koala Park. There are not many people there so we had plenty of chances to be close to the animals.

The entrance fee are:
Adult $26 and
Child $16 (4-12y.o)

Koala feeding time is at 3pm so it was just nice for us when we arrived. They live on eucalyptus and gum tree and eat many types of leaves.

The kids enjoy patting the koala and kangaroo. Other animals are penguins and sheeps. But we missed the sheep shearing demonstration which has started at 230pm earlier.

At night we went to have dinner at Auburn - a middle easter and muslim area. Here we didnt feel like we were in Sydney. Live we were in egypt or something. Suprising!

Sydney here we come

Syukur alhamdulillah. . After a smooth check in, we finally board the aircraft at 1130pm. After a long 8 hours flight, we have landed at kingford sydney airport. All 3 kids sleep well except few times for 'refuelling' ;)

 



Checking in at LCCT



Upon arriving, we took a city train to the central station. Change to red line at platform 16 heading to hornsby. The train was from the airport, couple of minutes to the Central station, change at platform 16 to Pennant Hills.  An adult cost about A$17 and a child is A$?. Below 4y.o is free.

We arrived Pennant Hills at about 1pm local time. Ai ling is waiting for us at Pennant Hills.

Train system in Sydney is very convenient and safe.  Well that's a good start...

Arrived after a long 8 hrs flight. Yet my super-baby can still give a wide smile :)