This weekend I travelled down to Papamoa with a friend to catch up with friends we haven’t seen for ages. The drive down was fun and traffic was great, only one quick stop at the BP Papakura Truckstop for petrol and snacks.
Nic #1 greeted us with a glass of wine and we sorted out what we would do first, which turned out to be the Beach Bar on Papamoa Beach – a short walk from Nic’s house.
This is such a cool bar, the view is out over the ocean and has happy hour drinks for two hours which we made the most of and the food was awesome.
After several drinks and dinner we walked home along the beach, dipping just our toes in the very refreshing water, the weather was perfect.
After we got home, we took a quick drive to the supermarket for supplies (beers) and spent the evening watching the big, beautiful orange moon rising and the stars come out.
Next morning we were up relatively early for a walk to a place called “Fashion Island” – the name amused me greatly. We had to walk because there was going to be a Santa Parade down Nic’s street and the road was blocked off, but it wasn’t too far to walk to Fashion Island anyway.
On the way I was seriously impressed with all the Pohutukawa trees (NZ’s native Xmas tree) in full bloom and it was another stunning cloudless blue sky day.
Fashion Island is basically an area filled with outlet stores and amongst it all is a really great cafe called Blackberry and that’s where we met up with Nic #2. What a cool little reunion – the 4 of us all used to work together, so we had loads to catch up on and find out. Afterwards we took a stroll through some of the shops then Nic #2 drove us back to Nic #1’s home, after we got dropped off we basically packed up our stuff and headed home – another fun drive with great traffic. At one point there was a slight concern about which way to drive home coz New Zealand’s first IKEA just opened on Thursday and we were thinking the traffic would be bad at Mt Wellington, however the traffic was actually better than it normally is.
This February has a very big birthday in it. So a friend and I decided to spend a week in Sydney celebrating it.
I booked an Uber to get me to town then we caught the Sky Drive bus to the airport, which was a lovely feeling because from that moment on everything would happen without needing to organise it or stress about it – our holiday had begun.
According to the weather forecast and concerned friends the weather in Sydney was stormy with massive downpours affecting all travel, but about 30 minutes before landing all that cleared up and we arrived in sunshine.
Passport control and immigration was incredibly easy and fast and bag collection was amazing – our bags turned the corner the second we arrived at the carousel. The airport train turned up two minutes after arriving on the platform and the hotel was only a 5-minute walk from Wynyard Station.
After checking in and discovering our rooms we headed out in search of a liquor store so I could buy beer. Strange thing about the Sydney CBD – none of the supermarkets are licensed to sell alcohol, but luckily there was a liquor store not too far from the hotel – turns out everything was not far from the hotel – this hotel is in an awesome location.
Day two – Tuesday 11th of February
Big huge day of shopping. We started out with breakfast in a Martin Place cafe, then straight to the Lego Store. From there we went up to a fancy shoe store and then a wander round David Jones.
Lunch in a cafe up from the Myers food court, clothes shopping in Uniqlo (where they even do fast free alterations), then over to the Apple Store. Lastly Dymocks then back to the hotel to relax.
No idea why WordPress decided the Apple logo should be that huge, and I can’t adjust it.
Day three – Wednesday 12th of February
Today we had a couple of tours booked so we were very excited and up early, but first – breakfast on the landing in the hotel lobby – most fabulous indeed.
First was a backstage tour of the Opera House and this time I even got to sit inside the main concert hall, the tour was awesome, and we learnt so much. After this we wandered around Circular Quay and filled in time till our 12:30 Long Lunch Harbour cruise this was on a large multi storied Captain Cook boat, the food was great and the staff were lovely.
After the cruise we caught a ferry across the harbour to check out Luna Park, but when we got there, we found out it closed at 2:00 so we missed out by about 20 minutes. Instead, we wandered around the waterfront and caught a train across the bridge back to the hotel.
Day four – Thursday 13th of February
The big birthday – this required a special breakfast in the hotel lobby restaurant before setting off for the Rocks area and the Art Gallery.
After enjoying the air-conditioning in the art gallery we headed for the bridge, walked under and around it getting some great shots of the Opera House and harbour.
From there we headed for the QVB building to have lunch and buy a new Penhaligon’s fragrance.
For dinner we had reservations in the O Bar & Dining revolving restaurant, on the 47th floor of Australia Square. Because it was my birthday we received a free glass of bubbles each when we arrived plus they gave me a really lovely birthday card and exquisite dessert.
The views were amazing, the staff we awesome and the food was sensational. We were also incredibly lucky with the weather – it was a beautiful sunny day and after our two-hour time limit they found us a table in the bar so we could watch the sunset and enjoy a cocktail.
Day five – Friday 14th of February
Our last day was all about getting home. My hotel tv had a cool alarm feature, you could pick a time to wake up and what channel you wanted to wake up to, so I chose Channel 7 for the breakfast tv. I woke to the stressful news that the Sydney train staff were on strike and there were hour long queues to get on an airport train and traffic in the city would be gridlocked. So, we decided to check out early and get an Uber around 9:30 – this was a great plan and we got to the airport without incident and in plenty of time.
About 30 minutes after we got inside the terminal it started to rain – the first time since we arrived on Monday and the rain was so heavy there was flooding, however it didn’t affect take off and apart from the screaming babies in rows near us the whole trip home was great.
New Horizons 