Newcastle - Part 2

The forecast for our weekend was not promising. But one thing that we've learned about Australian weather forecasting is that it leans heavily towards the pessimistic. Many times we've been baking in the sun while the forecast is promising rain at that very moment. Saturday was no exception: it was an 80% chance of rain, and in fact raining when we woke up, but I was willing to take the gamble that it would be fine. And it was, except for a couple brief showers!

Our first destination was breakky on the one street in Newcastle described as "trendy." And it WAS trendy: there were a few cute cafes and boutiques along Darby St, even though it wasn't very long or happening. We ate at Depot on Darby, and I documented our food because I felt like we were true-Aussie style: I had a greens bowl and T had a "toastie," which is basically a grilled cheese sandwich. We also ordered coffees because that's how Aussie we are.

After our breakky, we walked for about 25 minutes to get to the coastline and find the Anzac Memorial Walk. I'd read about this coastline walk in my trip planning: the existing coastline walk has recently been redone as a veterans memorial and was supposed to be really lovely. It did not disappoint, both as a memorial and as a coastal walk!

Our walk took us by Bar Beach, where we got see some local color with a surf competition just wrapping up. It is definitely a surf town, so there were lots of surfers around, beachside cafes, and great spots for picnics.

We walked down to Mereweather Beach, which has famously redone its historical baths. "Baths" are basically seaside pools that either are filled naturally from the ocean waves or as in the case at Mereweather, have a pump house to cycle in fresh water.

Mereweather was unique in that it had the typical bath that has the ocean waves coming into it (so the lap swimmers get a really good workout), and it also had a protected one for kiddos. There were a couple kids in there practicing paddling on their surfboards, which was super cute.

One thing that I noticed as soon as we got here 3 years ago and truly love about Australia is the general "don't be an idiot" mantra that rules public areas. There aren't a lot of fences or barriers in general. Even in Sydney, you are free to walk off the edge of the pier and into the water if you are so inclined. At Merewather Beach it was the same: the sidewalk basically ended in massive waves crashing into rocks.

I spent a little bit of time looking at all the shells and sealife washed up on the beach.

But we could see a shower was blowing in our way, so we tried to beat it back to one of the little beachside cafes. We made it without getting too wet and decided that we'd try cocowhip while we waited out the shower. Cocowhip, we learned, is basically frozen yogurt made from coconut water and bio-fermented coconut powder. A friend from work had recommend we try it and she wasn't wrong! We got the "salted caramel" flavor and it was really tasty! We gave it two thumbs up!

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Newcastle - Part 1

We decided last week it was time to recharge a bit from all the work of the past few months.

Being the thrifty (or as some would say "tight") person that I am, I didn't want to spend a lot of money on a getaway. With our public transport cards, we pay for 8 trips a week and then after that the travel is free. I felt like we should take advantage of this policy and go as far as we could with our free Friday trips.

So I looked at a map, studied the south and north train lines, and decided that we would head to the warmer north and check out Newcastle.

Newcastle is a big town compared to the ones around it. It was started as a convict settlement to mine coal, and it was basically a penal colony up until the 1820s. Since then it's basically stayed industrial, and there is a big, busy port along the coast. The steelworks closed in the 90s, and since then Newcastle has been trying to diversify its economy and attract more tourism. It's got lovely beaches and the restaurant scene is coming along, but it's still mainly an industrial city. So while it seemed there was not a ton to do besides being outside and eating, that's really what I wanted to do for a weekend anyway!

Of course, getting our true money's worth meant that we had about a three hour train trip after work on Friday. But I packed up some snacks and entertainment, and we caught the 5:45 train out of Central.

One thing that Newcastle has done to make the city more tourist-friendly is to remove the train line that cut through the city. Which meant that we had to take a bus from the station outside the city, but there was a shuttle waiting when our train arrived and dropped us off right near our hotel. Too easy!

It was pretty late by the time we checked into our cheap hotel in the city. However, I'd done my research and knew that right around the corner was a bar/cafe called The Happy Wombat. So we dropped our bags and headed out for a warm, happy meal at the cutest-themed restaurant ever!

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Bondi kite festival

This Sunday was Festival of the Winds, a kite festival at Bondi. I had tried to go check this out last year, but it was soooo crowded at the bus station so I gave up. This year, I decided I'd catch a bus from the city so I wouldn't have to deal with the Bondi bus. So T and I headed out on Sunday morning and started our day with a walk across the bridge.

We walked across to Circular Quay and took the cool glass lift down to the ground level.

Then we headed over to the bus stop. I took a picture of this funny ad. These are all over the city and they crack me up every time. We learned early on that "budgie smuggler" is the Aussie term for speedos. It's a true sign that summer is here!

Our bus ride from the city rather than Bondi was a good call. This was the line of people waiting for a bus at Bondi.

Down at Bondi Beach was better! We grabbed a spot in the grass and watched some kite flying.

The kite festival was just kicking off while we were there, but it was very fun! There were people with big, serious kites, but mostly it was families out with small, plastic kites just out for fun.

We stayed for a while, just watching the kites, the surfers, and the families hanging out. It was a lovely, sunny day, so it was perfect for sitting at the beach and letting the springtime sun hit us.

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Barangaroo Reserve

A new park opened in Sydney last weekend: Barangaroo Reserve. Barangaroo is a new development near Darling Harbour - there has been major construction there for the last year or so. The developers are putting in housing, offices, and a casino. It's definitely going to change the skyline of Sydney.

However, it's not all buildings! The point of the land that used to be warehousing & storage has been refurbished and turned into a public park. I decided that on our sunny Saturday, it was time to go check out this new spot. First we ferried over to Darling Harbour...

From the ferry, we got a good look at the park as we passed it.

Once we got to Darling Harbour, we walked back along the foreshore to get to the park. It was about a 10 minute walk, most of it along the construction site of the new Barangaroo development.

The reserve is designed to represent how the land looked before the Europeans came to Australia, so there are lots of natural plants. The park designer also added in lots of sandstone along the shore, so you don't feel very separated from the water. I really loved that aspect of the park!

We found ourselves a spot on the rocks and settled in for some snacks and reading. I really wanted to be as close to the water as possible, which was perfect until a couple really big boats came through and we got splashed a bit!

The park takes up the entire hillside, so there is also plenty of grass to sit on. There are also big areas with native Australian plants; when they grown in and provide some shade, it will be a really amazing area!

The back of the park backs up to the hillside along Millers Point. It looks like there is a cool space designed for functions under the overpass and alongside the hill. 

We walked back up through the city to catch the train home after our explorations.

It was a pretty great day! We decided that we'll come back again soon with a proper picnic and spend some time harbour-side. 

Spring fever at Coogee Beach

Last weekend it was a BEAUTIFUL Saturday! And it was warm - 27 degrees! Even though Sydney winters are nothing to complain about, the lovely weather got me so excited for springtime. I decided we should take a little journey out to Coogee beach and spend the day seaside. 

Heading to the beach!

Coogee Beach is out towards Bondi, so when we go there, it's usually as part of the beach walk. But it's a really cute beach with a lovely park nearby and a lots of little cafes, so I was excited to spend some time there. 

We got off the bus at the hill at the top of the beach. We just happened to get off at a stop that was at the entrance to a little nature walk down to the park near the beach. 

Starting on our nature walk

These trees are all in bloom with red flowers. The rainbow lorikeets were going nuts for the flowers. There were tons of them in the trees, all just talking to each other, happy as can be. 

Our impromptu bush walk took us down the hill and out through the park near the beach. It was a very Australian scene: lots of people having barbies (cookouts!) and a surf club meetup - also having a barbie and drinking beer. These people know how to enjoy a sunny day. 

We walked down along the beach and then climbed the hill to the south of the beach and found a spot to let the warm winter sun beat on our backs. We watched the surfers, read books, and maybe even napped for a little minute. 

After a while, we headed over to the little beach cafes in Coogee. This is a pretty common sight on a Sydney weekend: people packed into cafes with their family and friends for a coffee and their weekend breakky. And you can tell by all the people wearing shorts that it was a pretty good day for a coffee outside!

Even though the next day was back to being in the upper teens, the sunny beach day gave me a much needed boost and shot of Vitamin D. Bring it on, springtime!

A KitKat Popup

Something fun and exciting showed up in the shopping center near where I work: a KitKat popup shop! Now to add a bit of context to this, I should say that here in Australia, KitKats are much more varied than they are at home. There are always a few unique flavors of KitKats out, like minto chocolate or peanut butter. They also make big KitKats that are in three connected sections - one section is creamy, one is crunchy, one one has the whafers like a normal KitKat. It's a whole new world!

So when I read there was a popup coming, I wasn't sure what to expect. I went to check it out at lunch one day and realized that you could CRAFT YOUR OWN! Of course there was no way I was letting this slip by me. So I made plans to get there when the stall opened the next day so I could do it.

The little setup was pretty neat: you used an iPad app to pick your chocolate type, three toppings that got layered in and put on top, and then a patterned box with your name to be printed on it. The toppings were fun ones too - like rose petals or meringue pieces. Not your run of the mill KitKat ingredients!

Then the people in the little making station assembled the KitKat.

It took about 45 minutes, so I just got a text message to go pick up my creation a little while later. And it turned out amazing!

They were also selling custom KitKat flavors at the stand too, things like peanut butter creme brûlée. And let me tell you, Sydney went nuts for this! On the third day when I went back, there were probably 30 people waiting in line to make their KitKat. I am such a trendsetter! =D

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