Sydney

The last week of our vacation was in Sydney. Rohit and family were back from attending a vacation in India and we had aligned our time here to be able to overlap with them. Murali thaatha and Banu Patti had also made the trip to Sydney, so it was a nice occasion to be able to see them after such a long time.

Purni was also working this week, so our schedules were more relaxed to accommodate her availability as well as to give the kids a slower pace for this week.

Day 1: Exploring Sydney by foot: Opera house, Botanical gardens

As a post-transit day, we didn’t have much scheduled. We decided to go see the opera house, since that was something we had all been looking forward to.

As we do sometimes, we realized after getting there that there are guided tours of the inside, and decided that we would come back for one. So after just a brief visit of the outside, we continued our walk through the botanical gardens, before heading to Ippudo ramen for yummy lunch, and discovering the joy of Yomie’s Rice x Yoghurt and enjoying a delicious Jujube Purple rice Yoghurt, and wondering why some Tamil person didn’t come up with this idea 😂.

Day 2: Harbor Cruise, Sydney opera house guided tour.

We managed to get tickets to both a Harbor cruise, as well as to a guided tour of the opera house for this day.

The cruise took us from Circular quay downtown, all the way to Manly, and back, making a few stops along the way. The sun was out and we all enjoyed the breeze and the views on the top deck of the boat.

The Guide tour of the Opera house was lovely, and the tour guide shared with us lots of historical information about the events that surrounded the construction of this famous landmark.

Day 3: Taronga Zoo, Meeting Charanya, Rohit and family

With Purni having some un-skippable meetings, the boys and I decided to check out the famous Taronga Zoo. The Zoo had some construction ongoing, so a fair number of exhibits were unfortunately closed.

Highlights:

• We got to see a couple of Tasmanian devils.
• We did not get to see a platypus, despite circling back a couple of times. A huge miss.
• The sea lion show, and the bird show were both super fun.
• Lots of bird enclosures that we could walk through; one with a lot of colorful Koi as well.
• A bunch of middle school kids were on a field trip, and were having a blast eating pure snacks for lunch 😂
• We saw zoo visitors feed giraffes some carrots. Their tongues are really long.

In the evening, we drove to Asquith to visit Rohit and Family for dinner. Parth was way too excited to see us, and could not contain his energy. Aarav and I got to go with Rohit to pick up Sanath from his school, and he was quite stunned to see me and Aarav. We also caught up with Murali thaatha, and Banu paati after a very long time. Charanya made yummy dinner, and we had a lovely catchup with them all.

Day 4: Bondi beach, Black star cake in Hyde Park

Another half-day outing, we visited Bondi beach to cross that off our Sydney bingo card. The kids wanted to play in the sand and the water, and I wanted to got for a walk along the trail, so we split up.

That afternoon, pursuing a hot tip from Rohit, we visited Black star cake downtown, and acquired some tasty treats, which we took with us and enjoyed outdoors at Hyde park (under the watchful supervision of an Ibis, of course)

Day 5: Blue Mountains

Rohit and Charanya highly recommended a visit to the Blue mountains near Sydney. We rented a car and spent the day driving through them, with stops at Katoomba for the three sisters, at Blackheath to have a small hike down to a stream and watering hole, and the Blue mountains botanical gardens in Mount Tomah. The views were lovely, the day was super pleasant and we had fun hanging out on the drive. We capped off a day with dinner at A2B and some yummy south indian food.

Day 6: Bobbin Head park with Rohit and Family

We drove to Asquith again, and drove with Rohit and family to the nearby Bobbin head picnic area inside the Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park. Purni, the kids and I took a pedal boat out for a turn. The boat was not the most efficient, and it took all our muster to paddle against the tide, and make our return time.

After a paddle, we got lunch from a restaurant at the marina, and had a nice picnic lunch under the trees with the whole family. Rohit had brought along some outdoor sports equipment, so post lunch, we set up a badminton net, and had fun playing with each other.

It was quite fun to hang out and catch up with everyone, and Parth really took to me, and really wanted me to take pictures of him. We all had a great time.

Day 7: Meeting Amudhan, Rohit once more and Goodbye Sydney

We met Purni’s college friend Amudhan for lunch on our last full day in Sydney. It was a nice catch up for her, and a pleasure to meet their lovely family.

Wanting more time with each other, Rohit and family came over to our apartment in Sydney for a last minute hangout, and we all had pizza together for dinner.

And that brings us to the end of our lovely Aussie vacation. One for the books :)