Winter in July (Part I, Days 1-4)

2014 is turning out to be a busy year in terms of travels - been to Bali, San Francisco, Kota Kinabalu and now I've just returned from Sydney. I went to Australia when I was in high school, but this is the first time I experience winter in July!

This was also a trip to celebrate my birthday and 10 years with my university friends - so lucky to have two of them in Sydney.

My plan for the trip
Day 1-3: pre-wedding photoshoot for Steve & Teresa
Day 4: City tour with Steve & Teresa
Day 5: Birthday! (Treetop adventures and dinner)
Day 6 & 7: City tour on my own
Day 8: Pastry & Manly
Day 9: Blue Mountains and Jenolan Caves

I flew to Sydney with the photographer from Hong Kong via Ho Chi Minh City on Vietnam Airlines. The ticket was relatively less expensive - the flight to Ho Chi Minh City is about 2 hours and a 3 hour stopover, then an 8 hour flight to Sydney. Not that bad, and you can even extend the stopover and go out and explore Ho Chi Minh City (we made this arrangement for the photographer on his way back to Hong Kong). Ho Chi Minh City is definitely worth a visit if you've never been.

Waiting in Ho Chi Minh for my flight to Sydney

Sunrise as we near Sydney

On Day 1, we arrived in Sydney at 8:15am and immediately went location scouting. I had picked out a bunch of locations prior to the trip and we just needed to go check it out to make sure that it's really worth it, and the photographer can start thinking about what he wants to do in those locations. I tried to find out the times for sunrise and sunset, as I knew those are the "golden times" for photoshoot, and the times around noon when the sun is right overhead are the worse times for photos - but interestingly the photographer also looks at the path of the sun (on the internet) and he found that the sun is never directly overhead in Sydney.... it goes in a wider arc.... so if you were trying to draw the path with your finger from left to right and going over your head, the actual path is more like drawing the arc in front of your face... (hope this kind of makes sense.... )

We had locations that were tourist hotspots and local favourites, in the city and further away at some of the beaches and hills in the suburbs, and we event went on a 3 hour road trip to get out of the city. After seeing the locations (all in one day!) the photographer also had a better idea of the order for each location.

Day 2, we woke up in the morning and got started with hair & makeup, then we made our way to our first location at Balmoral Beach. As soon as people saw Steve and Teresa in their wedding attire all the passer byers kept congratulating and wishing them all the best. I was the camera assistant for the day - holding clothes, changing shoes, blinding Steve and Teresa with the reflector, or beaming them with light with my "Gandalf-like" rod.

After Balmoral Beach, we made our way to Gunner's Barracks which is up on a hill. I think it's a popular place for weddings, because on our location scout we actually saw a small wedding party in the Tea Room's yard.

Next location was La Perouse and to get there we had to traverse across the city to the south... so we stopped by to pick up my uni roommate, Tien, she's been in Sydney doing her Masters degree. She also became a camera assistant - Thank you for helping out!

The location at La Perouse was probably the most extreme, it's right by the water and probably one of the windiest locations. It was like being in the middle of a snow storm there (except there's no snow) - but it was COOOOOOOOLD. Poor Teresa, I was really afraid that she might become really ill and catch a cold over those two days as it's quite cold and she always had to take off her coat for the photos. Gotta give her props!

Sunset by the Opera House

The only good thing about the wind is that that meant the veil shots were all naturally done because the wind was so strong it was always flying up in the air really nicely. We actually tried to put it in Teresa's hair but the wind was so strong that it would have probably dragged her off her feet.

Next location was Sydney Opera House in the city, which was just before the sun completely disappeared. I don't have any spectacular photos.... will have to wait for the photographer to send them to me. But it was just as windy here and Tien and I took some photos, we just look like Medusa with (my) hair dancing in the wind. :D

Then we made our way to Angel Place, which is very close to Steve and Teresa's office and there's an alley with birdcages hanging. This was a place that I found like over a year ago when Tien first told me that she was going to Sydney to study and I was thinking about visiting her during her studies... haha...

As we were leaving Angel Place to go to the Queen Victoria Building, I noticed there was a tower that looked like the Eiffel Tower in the distance between the trees... so we stopped and took a few photos.

 

After we finished at Queen Victoria Building, we decided to go home and get take out from Oporto - we were told the fries were the best there.... hahaha... during my trip I had a lot of french fries (or hot chips as they call it) and it was all really yummy! They are thick cut and the outside is always crispy while the interior potato is soft and fluffy.....

Day 3 was our road trip to Hunter Valley. This is a location that Teresa really wanted for photos, so we squeezed all the previous day's shoot into one day (it was supposed to be over two days) in order to make time for this. The drive there was quite scenic, wide roads with trees on either side and sometimes we would see the sea, sometimes we would see rolling hills. By the time we finally got there it was already about 2:00pm so we just had to find an open field and start shooting!

We were lucky that there was a "pond" where we were shooting and the reflection off the setting sun was golden! At another location we also saw two kangaroos!

Camera Assistants Wingsi & Tien! see the "Gandalf-rod"?

Poor Tien, I asked her to help me get a photo from across the pond, so she had to walk all the way around the pond and climb up on the little hill through all the bushes and tall grass. When I saw her get to the top, it was like a momentous picture - I thought she might have fallen or something it took so long to see her. And when she came back from taking the photos, her jacket and sleeves were covered in thorns! 

Once the sun set, we made our way back to Sydney for a night shoot at Luna Park. Being by the water that late at night, it was FREEZING! Steve described it aptly - it's cold like you've got hypothermia.

At the end of the night, we went for Taiwanese noodles for dinner, and you'll be surprised at how expensive things in Sydney are! (I'll probably mention this again as I write this post.... things are super expensive) We paid AUD 70 for 4 bowls of Taiwanese noodles and some side dishes..... :O

That night at home, we watched a few episodes of The Voice Kids - I saw the ads for this and wanted to see how the kids sang, they are so cute btw! It's an ongoing show, so I'm still watching it now that I returned to Hong Kong, but it's a killer having to wait a week for each episode. And also we had to wake up for 5:00am to watch the world cup finals.

Germany won the 2014 World Cup!

We dropped off the photographer at the airport that morning and then made our way to Surry Hills - this is an area that's undergoing a renaissance I guess.... the houses are small townhouses packed right next to each other and reminds me a bit of San Francisco - actually a lot of things in Sydney remind me of San Franciso.... just that there's no fog.....

This area is becoming more famous for all the different coffee shops and cafes and art galleries that are sprouting up. We walked around the area as I had wanted to visit the Cat Alley (aka McElhone Place) where it's a short street that is filled with cats lazing around. I saw this in a blog for an engagement shoot and thought it would be nice to see the place. Next is Golden Age Cinema, this place shows old movies every day for AUD 6!!!! They were showing E.T. when I visited and there's also a cafe/bar where you can sit and have lunch or dinner (or probably breakfast and brunch as well). If you go inside you'll find the Tokyo Bike shop - these bikes can be rented and you can explore the city and area.

We then made a long walk back to the car and on the way saw a park with a zipline looking equipment, Steve suggested I try but I have never seen one of these in a playground in North America, so didn't have any idea how to get on.  Then a little kid told me that you just sit on it.... hahaha, it was fun - Teresa definitely enjoyed it.

This is Steve giving a demonstration by the way...

Then we made our way to Oxford Street in Paddington's, but there wasn't a lot to see here - I knew it's supposed to be famous for shopping, but none of the shops really caught my eye. There is a photography gallery there, and we passed by a reservoir that looks a bit like the ruins of a Roman Bath. We were looking for a restroom and came across the Chauval Cinema, it shows movies and the interior is quite nice. I think it would be nice to go there for a movie sometime. They show some foreign films and probably not the mainstream Hollywood blockbusters.

Across the road was a post office and I thought I'd get some postcards, but they actually didn't have a big selection and I think you also had to buy their postcard packs so you get 10. Plus the postcards are of different places in Australia or the plants, so not really appropriate for me as I only visited Sydney this time.

We went to the Sydney Fish Market for lunch and to be truthful, I wasn't that impressed.... I read up about it, and it's supposed to be the third largest in the world?!?!?! hmmm, maybe because I didn't go on the behind the scenes tour, but only saw the retail section - and it looks more like a food court. The behind the scenes tour sounds interesting, but you got to be there at 5:30am and it only happens on certain days of the week. If you're interested, be sure to book in advance so that you can plan around it. But I'll probably save that for the one in Japan. :D

Afterwards, we went to a cafe closeby for coffee and then home to talk about their upcoming wedding in November.

That night I met up with Tien for dinner at Pancake on the Rocks - it's kind of like a family-style restaurant that serves up ribs (most famous), and they also have these savoury pancakes/crepes. After dinner, we walked around Darling Harbour for a while catching up. We made a stop at Lindt for hot chocolate - I think we had a mint dark chocolate drink.... it was perfect while we were walking and it started to drizzle so we stopped under a bridge to wait it out.

Prymont Bridge - walking from Darling Harbour to the City with our Lindt Hot Chocolates

Special thanks to Tien for sharing some of her photos seen here in this post.