Travelling back to Roma! 18/1/2011

The first leg of our journey home is finished. 

It took 8 hours to get to Hong Kong from Sydney, we are now in the Airport Travellers Lounge waiting for our connection flight to Roma.  It is really nice here, for a small payment we have had a nice hot shower and we were able to change our clothes.  There is a  buffet, and we will be having a 15 minute complimentary massage.  After all this our 11 hour flight to come will pass with a nice sleep!

Good Bye everyone!
We hope all of you that followed our adventures enjoyed them as much as we did writing them!

Last day in Australia. 17/1/2011

We managed to see the Blue Mountains!

It was a 2 hour train journey but the ride was worth it when we saw the view!

We did the walk that went from the top of the mountain, along the Three Sisters peaks, down to the Federal Pass.  It was a hard descent of 900 steps just carved out of the rocks, but we made it.  At the bottom we entered the rain forest and it was a 1½ hour hard walk but well worth the effort as the views were always magnificent.

To go back up we took the Scenic Railway which is the steepest railway in the world.  It was once used to carry the coal loads up to the top of the mountain.  A very interesting ride and very fast.

Then a trolley ride back to the Three Sisters for the last pictures. 

Back to the train station and home to Sues for a nice spaghettata!!!!!

A wonderful last day and the weather was perfect.

Our bags are packed and ready to go but we are not L

Sunday 16/1/2011

It was hot, too hot in fact to go to the beach.

When Sue came home from work we took the train into Town Hall and walked around the Queen Victoria Building.  This building dates back to 1898 it was the original Sydney Market with shops, showrooms and warehouses.  In 1930 it became the Sydney City Council.  It faced near demolition but in 1982 it was given the green light for a full restoration to the original Art Decò style. 

 

A beautiful place to visit and shop.

Then we walked down George Street to the Harbour where we ate at the Sydney Cove Oyster Bar, we had a wonderful fish meal al fresco looking at the Harbour Bridge, ferries and a cruise ship which was just departing. 

A nice big ice cream for desert and back on the train to Suzie’s house.

Yes my tummy is better!!

Back on track! 15/1/2011

Today we made up for the lost day of yesterday.

First we took the train into Town Hall and walked to Darling Harbour where there are major attractions and the national maritime museum. 

We took the monorail which did a circle trip around the centre of the city, we were quite disappointed in that as we thought we would have nice views instead it was just going in between buildings and stopping at different attraction sites.  We got off from where we had started.

We then walked to the Chinese gardens which was built for celebrating the friendship between Australia and China.  It was a lovely garden so peaceful.

Next it was a walk to China Town where Pino had his lunch, I was on lemon tea!

Onto Paddy’s Market, which is an in door market but it was so crowded we didn’t stay long.

After we decided to visit once again The Rocks which was quite a long walk away so we took a bus as the weather was quite hot and humid.  The market was there once again and being an open market was much more enjoyable. 

We actually got to do what we had been hoping and that was to walk over the Harbour Bridge, wonderful views. 

So lets not forget the ferry ride.  On the other side of the bridge there was the Luna Park and a ferry quay where we could get back to Circular Quay.

A quick walk around the shops and then the train back home.

A nice steak for our evening meal and Buona Notte!

Wasted Day! 14/1/2011

Nothing to write for today as I have been in bed with an upset tummy.

Tonight Pino is cooking “Spaghetti allo Scoglio” for Suzie and her sister-in-law, guess who will be having boiled rice.

I hope by tomorrow I will feel better as we have very few days left and we still want to see the Blue Mountains.

1st day back in Sydney 13/1/2011

Today we took the ferry over to Parramatta it was quite a long trip but we like being on ferries, as you will have already guessed,  very enjoyable. 

Parramatta is Sydney’s river city, it is the first farming settlement, a very important trading post thanks to the river.

We didn’t get to see to much as when we entered the old government house for a guided tour I became quite sick.  

I really don’t know how I managed to get back to Sue’s home, lucky enough when we got off the bus a  lady offered us a ride, that’s how bad I looked.   We even had to miss an invitation to Suzie’s friends house that evening.

What a way to spend the last part of a wonderful holiday.

Bye Bye Auckland. 12/1/2011

Here we are sitting in the hotel lounge waiting for the shuttle bus to take us to the airport.

New Zealand has been a wonderful experience, such a wonderful country, and the people so friendly and helpful.  We are sad to leave but as we said we can always come back.

The weather has been just wonderful we were expecting to wear our jeans but they stayed in the wardrobe.

We enjoyed the New Zealand wine and the fish, now it’s to enjoy the fish and wine in Sydney.

Bye Bye Auckland!

Boo!Hoo! 11/1/2011

It’s our last day in New Zealand and we’re feeling sad, we wish our trip would never end!

That’s enough, got to look on the bright side, tomorrow we will be in Sydney with Suzie.

Today we went to Howick Historical Village, another bus trip, no more ferries, at least here in NZ.

This village presents life in a Fencible village dated back to the 1840/1880 period.  It is where the government funded early immigration to Auckland.  There were lots of lies told to the immigrants about housing and accommodation.  
It was a very interesting visit seeing the homes that people lived in and the hard life that they had to endure. 

The surrounding area of the village was parkland with all my wonderful trees, I didn’t think I could like trees so much!  We had our lunch at one of the picnic tables that are always available. 

Then it was a walk to Half Moon Bay a mere 45 minutes only to find it was just a boat and ferry harbour.  Lucky enough there were buses we could take to get to Howick Village so that’s where we headed for.  It was a little shopping area, very pretty.  We walked down to the seashore but didn’t get into our swimmers as the time was getting late and it was a little breezy.

The weather was wonderful, and the day everything we thought it would be.

Foot note:

I’m thinking to give up visiting museums I see to many things that I remember HA!

Auckland City Beach. 10/1/2011

Today we went to the beach of Auckland City.  

  

No ferry as we took the bus to Mission Bay.  The only way to describe it is, a park with beach and the sea.  There was a lovely fountain which we saw the children used as a pool, it was so nice.

Everything here is so well organised, always plenty of facilities and well kept.  The views no matter where are fantastic, Pino usually takes well over a hundred photos, he can’t resist the next view of beaches, islands and of course the sky tower of Auckland, we then get back to the hotel and cancel loads HA!

After a nice sunbathe and siesta we packed our bag and headed for Achilles Point, walking I may add. 

We passed lots of different beaches it was difficult not to stop at each for a sunbathe.

At one point we saw a sign saying “Ladies Bay and Gentleman’s Bay” so we walked down the stairs to see what was at the bottom, not only was it a lovely piece of beach but there were nudists as well, that surprised us.  No we didn't strip off and join them!  Back up the stairs, puff, puff and then a hill climb to Achilles Point, well what can I say it was wonderful.

We have decided that there are a lot of very rich people here, also in Australia, the homes one after another are magnificent, we are talking $1,000,000 and $2,000,000 homes.   The amount of private boats also are amazing. 

We ended our day after a shower with a walk to the Parnell Shopping district, that was a hill climb also, only to find everything shut.  Shops tend to open late and close early here apart from the supermarket which is open 24hrs 7 days a week.

Tomorrow is our last day.  We will be sorry to leave but it will be nice to spend more time with Sue before we have to do the long haul back to Italy.