This was the first time we took a family trip together (all four of us). We flew to Sydney for a short weekend getaway and we picked flying instead of driving because I didn't think I could handle 9 hours of driving with our 2 monsters kids. It was actually a last minute decision (which I will explain later) but it turned out to be a good decision because the weather in Sydney was great, we did some fun stuff and we hanged out with good friends. There were some not so nice things that happened but it kinda worked out in the end and I took away some important lessons which I will also get to later.
So what or who led us to do this trip was Mabel's really good mate Li. Li moved to the States after high school and it has been a while since they both caught up. As she was kinda due to take her work sabbatical leave, she decided to take the opportunity to travel around Asia, visit family in Singapore and also visit a couple of good friends in Melbourne - namely Mabel and another friend Em. Since it was her first time visiting Australia, she thought she should check out Sydney as well; and that's when Li suggested Mabel and Em join her for that trip. Initially it was supposed to be an old gal friends get together trip. Then Mabel threw the idea of making it a family trip which would then involve me and the kiddos. I actually really liked the idea mainly because it has been quite long since we had any sort of a holiday. My only concern was that it's still winter, and the chances of our 2 kids falling sick just before that supposed weekend is quite high.
With that in mind, Mabel told Li that we may or may not join them in Sydney and we will only confirm a few days before hand. At that point, it was about one and a half months before the travel date. Fast forward to a week before the date, we felt more confident and decided to book our flights. Unfortunately, I suddenly felt the onset of a flu just a day after we booked the flights! It got worse the next day where my body was aching and I felt like crap. I even took 2 days sick leave. So we held back on booking anything else and the plan was, if I haven't recovered by Friday morning, we will reschedule our flights and visit Sydney at a later date on our own. Thankfully I actually felt better by Thursday, and so on Friday morning (a day before the trip), we took the plunge. Accommodation was booked and we even managed to still book a spot on the same Day Tour that Li and Em booked in advanced.
So Sydney here we come!
The first Boo Boo
Our flight to Sydney was a 9am flight. We did an online check-in the night before and thought that would save us some time at the airport. We planned to leave home by 7:30am but as always, things happen and by the time we drove off to the airport, it was 7:50am. Arriving there at ~8:20am, we quickly got to where Qantas was to drop our luggage. It was 8:25am. By the time we figured out those self check-in and luggage tag kiosks, it was 8:31am and we were informed that we were too late. We quickly went to the service counter (where we had to wait 10 minutes in line while watching 3 service counter staff closing their counters and walking off) and was told luggage drop off had to be done 30 minutes before flight departure. So we basically missed the flight and had to take the next one. Great... The good news was, we didn't have to pay any extra plus the next flight was just in 30 minutes. The extra time turned out to be really useful because we brought our double pram, that had to be dropped at the oversize luggage counter and that was at the other end of the domestic terminal. Also, that gave us time to grab a bite at Hungry Jacks.
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| Before the plane took off |
Arriving in Sydney, the weather was great. We actually took off our outer jackets when we went out to meet Li and Em for lunch because it was nice and sunny and the temperature was something like 15 degrees. Such a nice change from rainy (and gloomy) Melbourne that had a low of 3 degrees that weekend. We strolled around Paddington Markets for a while before settling for lunch at a Thai place called Chat Thai. I was pleasantly surprised to find Guay Jupd in the menu. Yes that's how its spelled in the menu. It's usually spelled Kway Chap in Singapore. It wasn't exactly the same as how its made in Singapore but it was close enough. Too bad I forgot to take a picture of it. After lunch, we proceeded to walk through China Town and towards Darling Harbour.
Boo boo #2
Darling Harbour was bustling with activity because there was this event called the Cool Yule where there was a fake frozen forest which had fake snow blowing out periodically, and there was an open-air ice rink and a snow pit which apparently had real snow. So we were out there walking about, taking photos and just enjoying the nice weather and harbour scenery. Half the time, because the place was quite crowded (and our 2 monsters kids just cannot stay still), we had to hold on to them to make sure they don't run too far. But there was a point when we strolling along that we decided to turn around and go back to get Gelato from this shop that we walked past. On hearing that we were going to get Gelato, Gideon got excited and ran ahead of us even though I kept calling him (or shouting at him) reminding him to stay close to us, if not he might lose us. 30 secs after I said that, he lost sight of us. Although he was just 3 metres away from me (I know because I could hear him clearly), he could not see me because there were many (taller) people walking around. I called for him but he somehow got disoriented and started running away from us. I felt a bit annoyed at that point and walked in his direction while calling out for him. After walking for 5-10 metres and still not seeing him, I panicked and started to jog ahead. It was possibly another 30 metres ahead where I found him, in tears and surrounded by a group of parents with little kids. I was half annoyed (that he didn't listen to us) and half relieved that we didn't lose him. I carried him back as he was still crying and a bit traumatised. Then while calming him down, I told him in a firm voice - you must always stay close to dad & mum! At the same time, I told myself - I had better keep sight of him and make sure he's not more than a metre away, because I just can't trust a 4 year old to remember instructions. Anyway, no matter how upset Gideon got, after some cuddles and Gelato, it was all good.
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| Gideon and his Strawberry Gelato |
Boo boo #3
After dinner and washing up the kids, I actually went out on my own to meet up with an ex-colleague who moved to Sydney over a year ago. I wasn't expecting to meet him initially because the decision to go to Sydney was so last minute. But we managed to organise a quick catch up. I recall that when he first moved from Melbourne to Sydney, he wasn't very keen but he had to since that was where there was a job for him. Fast forward to today, he has actually taken a liking to Sydney, and to the extent that he thinks Sydney is more exciting than Melbourne. Unbelievable. Oh well. Personally, I find Sydney a tiny bit too chaotic for my liking. Anyway just as I was going to head back, I got a call from Mabel saying that the hotel's fire alarm went off and everyone was evacuated! She had to lug both the kids out of the hotel room while they were half-asleep and take the stairs down the lobby (good thing we were on the second floor) and wait outside the hotel. Fortunately a kind lady who saw that Mabel had her hands full, offered to help her carry Gracie while walking down the stairs. By the time I got back to the hotel, everything had subsided. Apparently the fire brigade came and reset the alarm within 10 minutes. But all the commotion got the kids awake and we then had a hard time trying to get them back to sleep. By the time I settled Gracie, it was almost 2am and we had to get up before 6am for our day trip the next day!
The touristy day tour
The good thing about touristy day tours is that all the activities are organised for us, and all we have to be concerned about are the timings for getting on and off the tour bus, and taking great photos/selfies at the various touristy sites. This particular one that we signed up for was the Blue Mountains tours. Even though it was pretty pricey, it was quite worth the money and we enjoyed every part of it - from the breakfast scones, to the actual blue mountains tour at Scenic world, and the Featherdale Wildlife Park and finally the ferry ride back to Sydney harbour.
I have actually done the blue mountains tour quite some years ago with Mabel and for some reason the first trip wasn't half as fun as it was this time round. Maybe its just more fun travelling as a bigger group or maybe travelling with kids made it more interesting. For one, we took the inclined railway twice simply because Gideon wanted to ride on it again. Also, because Gideon was wearing his Minions beanie, it became the trigger of many funny exchanges. For example, when we were taking the cableway, one of the staff quipped that if anything goes wrong, he will have one of the Minions assist him in fixing the problem. Gideon didn't get the joke though. We also discovered Gideon is quite afraid of heights
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| The Inclined railway ride |
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| Echo point & 3 sisters |
The next highlight was Featherdale Wildlife Park. I have to say that this wildlife park is fantastic. Having been to a number of wildlife parks and zoos in Victoria, I would rank this in the top 3 among all that we have been to. There is just so much to do in there - get up close with a koala, feed the roos, interact with farm animals, see almost all of the local bird life and bush animals. I also like this "passport" thingy where you can collect stamps at various stations in the park. Its probably catered more for kids but I see lots of adults happily getting their wildlife park passport stamped (including Mabel). I think the only downside to this visit was that we had limited time there and because it was the weekend, the park was filled with people. That probably also meant the roos were fed by visitors since morning, so by the time we were there, they weren't that interested in the food anymore.
The trip ended with a ferry ride along the Parramatta river from Cabarita Wharf back to Sydney harbour (or Circular Quay) where we decided that we should also go check out the Sydney Opera House. While we were inside the Opera House, we came across this interesting interactive game where the game controls are huge arrows on the floor, and by stepping on the arrows you control the movements of your game character. The interesting part is that you are playing against another person with the exact same setup on the other end of the room. Gideon had a ball jumping on the arrows and seeing his character move.
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| Inside the Sydney Opera house: an interesting game with a huge floor controller |
I thought that this marked the end of the day's travelling/walking but I was wrong because we still had to go get dinner and there was nothing around the opera house/circular quay area that we were interested in (most of the food places there were too fancy and not child friendly and we were too cheap). So our adventure continued as we walked towards places where the Zomato app recommended while digging out snacks to appease our hungry and grouchy kids. After 2 failed recommendations (1 was closed and the other was not where the app said it is), we ended up at Westfield Sydney which has a huge food court inside. We got in only to find all the stores have closed except one which had a long queue. Not wanting to go anywhere else, we joined the queue which was fortunately just a 15 or 20 minute wait (I can't remember). It was the last meal we had together with Li and Em in Sydney because the next day we would head back to Melbourne while they had other plans. At some point Li suggested that we should visit her in Seattle next time with the kids and we could stay with her and she will play host. How can anyone not take up such an offer?? So we pretty much decided that 5 years later (2020), we will make a trip to the US (maybe for a month or two?) and visit Li.
Leaving Sydney
On our last day in Sydney, we initially hoped to go to the Sydney Fish Market, but we were pretty knackered from the previous day, plus the weather forecast said it would be cloudy/rainy, so we canned the idea. Instead we just went to chinatown (after checking out from the hotel) to grab brekkie at this taiwanese cafe. Then after brekkie, since there was a bit more time before we need to head to the airport, we took a walk to darling harbour again. There, the kiddos had a play at this nice sandy playground while their daddy went to get Starbucks coffee for himself and the mummy. Its a pity I didn't take more pictures of the playground because the designs of the various equipment are really quite innovative. But here's the website of that place: Darling Quarter.
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| At Darling Quarter |
Although it was only a 2 and a half day getaway, LOTS of things happened. It was quite an adventure and the company definitely made a difference. Mabel caught up with her high school mates and they even had a moment of singing old high school songs on the bus during the day trip. Gideon actually got annoyed by their singing and started shushing them! I also got to know Mabel's good friend, Li a bit more when she shared a bit about her experience studying, living and working in US, and how she found support in the church during a difficult time. I am not sure if she still has faith in God now but we will definitely be praying for her and hopefully we will meet again (in 5 years time) and continue that conversation about faith. Until then, I need to start planning for our next getaway!
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| At Central Station catching the train to the airport |
