Winter in July (Part III, Days 8 & 9)

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


Originally on day 8, Tien and I were supposed to go out for whale watching but due to the swells being too high that day it was canceled. Good thing they told us ahead of time and we were able to get a refund and plan other things.

Tien and I met up for brunch on Friday and we took the bus from Central Station to an area called Newtown. The streets in Sydney as you make your way away from the city reminds me of old American towns where the main street is lined with little one-level shops tightly packed together. That's kind of like how Newtown is. The main campus of the University of Sydney is also in the area, and at the little pastry shop that we had brunch at seems like there are lots of uni students who visit.

Apparently pies are a big thing in Australia.... and I saw a Pie Face bakeshop on almost every street in the city.... but I didn't try any of them. Tien told me the one that she'll take me to is the best!

We visited the Black Star Pastry in Newtown on Australia Street (so easy to remember the name of the street!). It's a tiny shop and there are no tables, just a bench inside the shop window and one just outside.... that morning they had a couple selection of pies (a lamb one, a beef brisket....) and some quiches (a lorraine, a shirley, and one other name that I can't remember...) - we went with the beef brisket pie and a quiche shirley (that's mushroom and five herbs). Both were superb! hot and fresh! all I can say is YUMMMMMMMM!

 above left: slice of strawberry & watermelon cake; above right: quiche shirley & beef brisket pie

 below right: orange cake with fig

We also got a slice of their Strawberry & Watermelon cake! I think it's a signature cake as every person who went in to the shop came out with a slice. How cool is this cake? Who would have ever thought to put sliced watermelon in a cake!?!??! But it's sooooo good! Light and sweet, perfect to eat under the sun. After the cake we were still a little hungry so we got a piece of the orange cake with fig - YUM! All of these sweets were accompanied by a cup of tea - Tien got the Japanese Blossoms and I got a tea that was called Honey---- (I can't remember it, but I picked it cuz the name was funny sounding.... :D). Tien's Japanese Blossom tea smelled really good, mine didn't smell as sweet, but it was perfect with the sweet cakes we had.

After our fulfilling brunch we decided to walk along the main street of Newtown and check out some of the stores. There are actually a lot of independent clothing stores (some of the clothes had really nice patterned fabric! I wanted to just buy the dress/shirt cuz of the fabric!) and some had nice stationery and cards, or interesting items for the home.... Tien and I could have easily spent the whole day just going in and out of the shops.

After less than an hour, we had to start making our way to the harbour to catch the ferry to Manly. The ride out to Manly was quite pleasant, we sat outside on the ferry and got a great view of the Opera House and the cityline of Sydney. We also saw the Gap - the only way into Sydney Harbour from the sea..... and after about 45 mins we arrived in Manly.

Photo of the Gap: Before coming to Sydney, I always heard Teresa say "how can the sky be so blue here?"; once I arrived in Sydney, I heard the photographer say every day "how can the sky be so blue and perfect here?"; as I traveled though Sydney, I wondered "wow! How can the sky be so perfect everyday? even when it's gloomy in the morning the sun and blue sky always show up sometime during the day..."

Manly is really just another beach area..... nothing particularly interesting, most people just like to take the ferry - that's the highlight. We walked out to the tip of Manly with a cup of Max Brenner hot chocolate. We also got an order of fish and chips - both were quite good!

We reached Sydney near the end of the sunset and then made our way to Hog's Breath Cafe for steak and ribs. Afterwards we walked across Darling Harbour and went to Guylian for more hot chocolate and chocolate desserts!

Day 9 - I'm so excited for the last day in Sydney! We're going to Blue Mountain and Jenolan Caves for abseiling and caving!!!!!

If you have time for road trips when in Sydney, going to Blue Mountain can be an option. Lots of scenery to see and there are different things to do - like visiting a petting zoo, picking fruits in orchards, getting immersed in a bit of Aboriginal culture etc. Blue Mountain is an area of mountain ranges and canyons - looks a bit like the Grand Canyon in the States, but Blue Mountain has a lot of eucalyptus trees which give off a kind of oil and when it mixes with the air it creates a blue-ish haze that makes the mountain look blue.

We made our first stop at the most famous lookout point to see the Three Sisters rocks. Aboriginal folklore says the three sisters fell in love with three men from another tribe and to prevent them running off with these three men, the witch of the tribe turned them into stone. However, the two tribes got into a war and the witch either died or forgot about the three sisters, so they remain as rocks till now. ~ poor girls!

I love your hair in this photo Teresa! Haha, I didn't know that it was standing straight up!

Background: The Three Sisters rocks; Foreground: three sisters from UofT

 above: walking out to the three sisters rocks

Teresa told me about Blue Mountain while I was planning my Sydney trip, and so I did a bit of research.... I wanted to see the place too, but also wanted to DO something while there. There's a cable car ride and an aboriginal village close by. There are also lots of amazing waterfalls along the route to Blue Mountain. But I found that if we drove another 1.5 hours we would reach Jenolan Caves which has karst rocks and caves (similar to the ones that I saw on my trip in Hanoi and Halong Bay), what's even more cool is that you can go caving and do abseiling!

Luckily Teresa, Steve and Tien were all up for it - especially Tien she was also excited and very much looking forward to abseiling! This was our "no fears" trip as we fearlessly approach the next decade of our lives. Hehe....  I quickly booked us for the Plughole adventure which is great for beginners to caving.

above left: we passed by lots of farms and saw cows and sheep all sleeping or running on the big fields

above right: an arch showcasing the limestone features of the caves - there are bats in the caves FYI...

When we arrived at Jenolan caves we had to go through a big cave that was like the tunnel entrance, that was already jaw-dropping amazing! But we went through it so fast I couldn't take any photos! There's one hotel and restaurant there for those who want to spend a night exploring the caves that's an option! I'm sure that will be really cool too and you'll probably get to see lots of stars.

The hotel is built into the side of the caves/mountain and from above it looks like a house that you might find in Switzerland or something.... take a look at the map and the board of caves/self-guided tours and you'll see that there are LOADS of caves to explore! I think it would be really nice to go on a self-guided tour as well - compared to the caves we visited in Hanoi and Halong Bay (which were also very impressive), the good thing about Jenolan Caves is that you will never feel like it's packed full of tourists. You actually have time and space to admire the weird shapes and formations you'll see.

After a quick lunch - everyone ate lots because we're going to need energy to go caving! we went to the meeting point for our Plughole Adventure and got prepped for abseiling and caving. We couldn't take in anything with us as we'll need to use our whole body and we'll be getting very dirty slipping through cracks and crevices.

Our gear consisted of blue workmen overalls to protect our body and clothes, helmets with a head lamp, harness for abseiling and our own sturdy shoes. We didn't need our windbreakers and scarves because once we get into the caves it's about 15-17 degrees celcius (whereas outside where we gathered it's more about 7-8 degrees celcius)! We then proceeded to the entry point to abseil our way down into the cave entrance. Of the four of us, Tien went first - she was so brave and didn't hesitate at all! After going down about two meters we could no longer see her.... but heard that the whole thing wasn't that long just about seven meters.... next up was me... I was a little nervous because I was afraid that my right arm wouldn't be able to support me going down and I would dislocate my shoulder - I should have probably used my left arm instead.....

This is what we looked like.... nah! that's a photo I found on the internet cuz I didn't have a camera with me so no photos of us in our gear! :(

We really did abseil down into this hole

Teresa followed and I can understand how scary it must be for those who have not tried abseiling before, and you're not familiar with what's below and what's your next step.... plus you're thinking about so many different things - keeping your feet flat agains the rock face, sitting back into your harness, holding your arm behind you, and "what's going to happen" or "where do I step" or "what are they yelling at me to do?"

Steve was last, but he came down super fast! Maybe it's his long legs, or that he slipped a few times.... yikes! There was even one time when it looked like he was going to come down head first instead! :P

Oh how I wish I had my iPhone with me during this experience! There could have been so many cool photo opportunities! As you'll see in the hand drawn map, we made our way into the caves and came to the root chamber. We see the roots of an old pine tree in this chamber because usually cavers will plant a pine tree next to the entrance to a cave so that from far they know where the entrance is. the chamber we were in was an old entrance that is now sealed as it fell in on itself, so we had to go through the plughole entrance.

The following photos were taken by our guide while caving, thankfully they were able to do this for us! Don't we all look like the despicable me minions? So cute!

Teresa coming through "the window"

Tien looks like she easily drilled her way through "the window"

Steve, barely, squeezing through "the window"

Me, coming out of the s-bend

Not to give too much away about this tour, but we had to squeeze through cracks which most people would think "can I fit through that????", and it was almost like being a kid again and going through those playgrounds that have tunnels and slides. We went through cracks like small cottage windows, a mailbox slit (I don't know how we all managed to fit through but we did!), an s-bend (which is much more difficult to get through than a u-bend) and climb over rocks and boulders.

I found a photo of one of our guides - Geoff, he and the other guide (Stephen) were always scaring us with stories about how we won't make it out of the caves alive! They didn't fool us one bit!

At the end of it, we arrived in one part of the Imperial Caves and saw another guided tour - theirs was a lot more easy where they walk on man-made paths and didn't have to crawl through cracks, but we were all proud of the dirt all over our bodies and faces! We did it! And it was so much fun!

Wish we could have stayed overnight and gone to explore more caves! Teresa, Steve, Tien, you guys should definitely visit again when you get a chance.

There are day trips from Sydney with tour groups to Blue Mountain and Jenolan caves in case those of you who visit Sydney and don't have access to a car - don't despair!

That night we got back to Sydney and then went to for dinner at a Karaoke place - they have loads of English songs and are quite up to date, and the food there was really good! Sorry I don't have any photos but I think the place is called Lantern.

The following day, we had to wake up early as I had a 10am flight to Ho Chi Minh City..... thankfully on the 9 hour flight I had a free seat to myself, so I got to take some naps while stretching out my legs. And when I got to Ho Chi Minh City, I treated myself to a big bowl of beef noodle!

Now that I've been back in Hong Kong for a little over a week, I'm still reminiscing about my trip - it was definitely memorable and I am so glad that Steve and Teresa invited me over to help them with their photo shoot. Tien also did a fabulous job showing me around Sydney. I can't wait till the next time I visit Steve, Teresa and Tien in Australia - it's bound to be another adventure.


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