Sydney and New South Wales Holiday Review
Submitted by: David - Leeds
Date: May 2002
It was a long flight from Heathrow to Sydney. I didn't manage any sleep and we had stopped off at Singapore for a few hours on the way. So, when me and a group of friends arrived in Sydney at 5 am we went straight to the Travelodge hotel on Wentworth Avenue where we had day rooms booked. But this was not be a restful holiday as you will soon discover if you carry on reading! After an hours sleep we were all picked up by an AAT Kings coach at 10 am for a day tour of Sydney. I don't know how we kept our eyes open but it must have been the thrill of seeing the Sydney skyline for the first time that kept us awake!
We were dropped off at our hotel at 3pm to freshen up and then we were picked up by taxi an hour later for the short drive to Dawes Point in Sydney Harbour. For the next 2 nights we would be cruising Sydney Harbour on board the MV Captain Cook Explorer. The 60 air- conditioned cabins are basic but comfortable. After our first Australian dinner as guests of the Captain there was a live band but we weren't in the mood for much dancing, we needed sleep. I had not slept for 2 days and nights and I had volunteered to go on a walk, led by the Captain, around the Sydney Opera House and the Sydney Botanic Gardens, and the walk started at 6 am! We watched the sun rise over Sydney Harbour and that was definitely worth getting up at 5.30 am! After breakfast our boat set off up the Parramatta River and Lane Cove Rivers. This was the relaxing bit and we just watched the ever changing shoreline and got a good view of Nicole Kidman's house and other well known celebrities.
After another night of good food, live music and dancing we were all up again at 5.30 am the next morning to do another walk around a scenic part of Sydney Harbour before sailing up to Watsons Bay close to where the first settlers arrived in Australia. After an afternoon barbeque on the deck of our boat it was time to move on to our next adventure. And what an adventure it proved to be!
At 3pm we were picked up by our luxury minibus driver, Don, of Australian Eco Adventures where we had over a 3 hour drive to Port Stephens, which is about 150 miles north of Sydney. Our hotel for the night was Peppers Anchorage, a very stylish hotel on the waters edge. Monday morning dawned and after a proper breakfast we set off for Nelson Bay where we went on the Moonshadow Dolphin Cruise. We had lunch on board followed by a wander around the Port Stephens waterfront.
We all boarded our minibus and drove to Anna Bay where we went on a 4WD trip of the largest sand dunes in the Southern Hemisphere. This was exiting stuff, especially when we pulled up at the top of a gigantic sand dune and out came the sand surf boards. I volunteered to be the first to go over the top and down a near vertical slope. It was terrifying but I ended up doing it 3 times!
It was time to set off on our travels again. We were on our way to the town of Vacy and to a place, which must be unique in the whole of Australia. This place was the Eaglereach Wilderness Resort. Eaglereach is a unique nature based resort. There are 40 custom built lodges which I can only describe as truly luxurious. Our 6 bedroomed lodge had everything we needed including our own giant 12 seater outdoor Jacuzzi which we all managed to squeeze into whilst drinking our Australian wine! We only had 2 nights here but a week would have been perfect. But we did have time to explore, do some horse riding and walk through the resorts very own rainforest.
This was our 6 bedroomed lodge at
The Eaglereach Resort.
Wednesday morning arrived and we again boarded our minibus to be entertained by the non-stop talking of Don, our driver! We had set off to drive to the Hunter Valley where we were going to stay at the Hunter Resort, a working winery!
On the way we stopped off at Cypress Lakes Resort, which is built around a championship golf course and we all had a golf lesson. It was then on to Elizabeth's Café at the McWilliams Mt Pleasant Winery where we had a wine tasting and lunch. On the menu….. Crocodile, Emu and Kangaroo! We then went to the Calais Estate for more wine tasting. This estate says it offers one of the largest collections of boutique wines in the Hunter Valley. We tried our best to taste most of them but eventually we ran out of time!
It was then onto the Hunter Resort where we were all met by the owner Phillip Hele. The Hunter Resort has a wine school and at dinner that night Phillip presented a shortened version of his wine school, which involved drinking a lot more wine!
We were now 6 days into our Australia holiday and we had hardly had chance to stop to think. This was an action packed holiday and we were now on our travels to the Blue Mountains. On the long drive we stopped in the Wollemi National Park and at a sheep farm for morning tea. It was then onto the famous Carrington Hotel for lunch. This is one of the oldest hotels in Australia. After lunch we enjoyed the fantastic views at Govetts Leap, Narrowneck Peninsula and then to the famous Three Sisters. Our hotel for the night was the very upmarket Lilianfels Hotel in the blue Mountains. A quick way of seeing the Blue Mountains is to go to the cinema. So that's what we did! The Edge cinema has a giant Imax screen, so we were able to experience the wonders of the waterfalls, canyons and mist filled valleys of the Blue Mountains and see the worlds oldest living tree - the Wollemi Pine, all from the comfort of our cinema armchair!
The next day started with a visit to Scenic World where we rode the steepest incline railway in the World. The railway runs down to the rainforest boardwalk in the valley below. There was a short walk through the rainforest and then it was back to the top on board the Sceniscender cable car. After lunch we had a Cultural Bushwalk with Tread Lightly Eco Tours.
I'm the one in the blue shirt at the back!
That afternoon we set off again for our journey from the Blue Mountains back to Sydney. We stopped off at a place called Euroka Clearing where we could see kangaroos in their natural environment whilst we also enjoyed a glass of champagne! On our way back to Sydney we stopped off at the Sydney Olympic site.
That night we checked into the Southern Cross Hotel in Sydney and we went into China Town, which is about 20 minutes walk away from the hotel, for dinner. There are some great bars in Sydney and on the way back we found this great Irish bar, the name I can't remember, but there was a live band and great music and we left there at about 3am. Saturday, arrived sooner that it should have done and we all bought a SeeSydneyCard which meant that we had unlimited access to most of Sydney's tourist attractions.
Our last day arrived. Our flight was not leaving Sydney until 10.15 pm so that meant we still had one full day left. So, it was on the bus to the famous Bondi Beach. The weather was poor. It was raining heavily and of course there was nobody on the beach! But we did have a lifeguard demonstration! We went into the lifeguard station and out came real lifeguards. There was no shortage of girl volunteers when the lifeguards wanted someone to practice on!
After lunch there was time for what turned out to be the best part of our trip. We were all going to climb the Sydney Harbour bridge! The climb takes about 3 hours in total including the preparation and I can only describe it as a fantastic experience. Its not that hard to do although two of our group turned back when we got to one of the high bits about 10 minutes into the climb. Buts it’s not as difficult or as scary as you might think, and of course, the views from the top are incredible!
We had done all this in 10 nights. So, as we all flew home via a 10-hour delay in Singapore, we all knew that we had had a holiday that we will never forget. Many thanks to Global Holidays for organising such a memorable and exiting trip for us.
Note from Global Holidays:
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For more travel information on Australia click any of the following links:
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