Sydney Trip - Day 7 - @ The Blue Mountain

After we had hot chocolate @ Katoomba, we travelled on to Echo Point to see the famous Three Sisters. The Three Sisters are a rock formation in The Blue Mountains, Katoomba, which is 110km west from Sydney. Their heights range from 906m to 922m.

The Aboriginal dream-time legend has it that three sisters, 'Meehni', 'Wimlah' and Gunnedoo' lived in the Jamison Valley as members of the Katoomba tribe. These beautiful young ladies had fallen in love with three brothers from the Nepean tribe, yet tribal law wouldn't allow them to marry.

The brothers were not happy to accept this law and so decided to use force to capture the three sisters causing a major tribal battle.

As the lives of the three sisters were seriously in danger, one of the tribal elders from the Katoomba tribe took it upon himself to turn the three sisters into stone to protect them from any harm. While he had intended to reverse the spell when the battle was over, he, himself was killed.

As only he could reverse the spell to return the ladies to their former beauty, the sisters remain in their magnificent rock formation as a reminder of this battle for generations to come.

Scenic World

From Echo Point, we drove up to Scenic World to catch a Cable car across the valley to get to Blue Mountain.

Lunch @ Scenic World

We decided to have lunch first @ Scenic World before proceeding to take the different type of transportation to experience the Blue Mountain.

Here's our lunch:



The Cable Way

We decided to take the Cable Car across the valley to the Blue Mountain from Scenic World.

The Railway

Once we reached the other side of the Blue Mountain, we took the Railway downwards.



Then the Walkway

Sydney Trip - Day 7 - To the Blue Mountain

After having a nice omelet breakfast we left for the Blue Mountain expedition.

Took some pictures at the entrance of the Madison Mountain Retreat:

Here's some pictures taken along the way towards Blue Mountain:



First stop is Katoomba! Habsah brought us to a nice Chocolate shop. We had a nice hot chocolate and some cookies and cakes. They sold very very nice and beautiful chocolate and I bought some too.

Steps to make the hot chocolate:

1. Put the chocolate inside the metal container (amount according to your preference).
2. Let them melt
3. Then pour the milk into the container and
4. Stir the milk and the melted chocolate to mix them into hot chocolate.
5. Sip the hot chocolate using the metal straw provided.

Sydney Trip - Day 6 - Madison Mountain Retreat

Habs had made reservation @ the Madison Mountain Retreat so there we went to check-in.

Here's the pictures in the lobby of Madison Mountain Retreat and around the resort:



Inside Cabin 4



Got ourselves settled in Cabin 4, then it was time to go watch the Alpacas eat!



Here's the pictures of Cabin 4 Occupants after watching the Alpacas and chicken had their dinner.

Sydney Trip - Day 6 - In search of apple pies

After looking at all the apples in the two orchards we suddenly craved for apple pie and started to search for a cafe that sells apple pie. We stopped at one cafe but the apple pie was sold out already! Sob..sob..sob...

But they sold some nice things. So took some pictures of them:

We then went on to look for another place that might be selling apple pie. We found The Pines! There was an old man making coffee and tea and he was a grumpy old man! I wonder how he got the job. The place sold a lot of neat fridge magnets and I got quite a few interesting ones.

Time to check in at our resort after having our apple pie! Off we went to Madisons Mountain Retreats.

Sydney Trip - Day 6 - Visits to Orchards in Kurrajong

It was Fri and Habsah has applied leave to bring us to Blue Mountain. She has booked the Resort and ready to play tourist guide this time. I had to make sure I did all my packing because I would be leaving for Malaysia the nite we arrive back from our Weekend @ the Mountain.

We packed our stuff and stuffed the Kimi with our luggages for the weekend and a lot of food stuff.

Here's some pictures of the sceneries along the way to Kurrajong.

Shield Orchards

First destination after identifying the orchard to "serang" was Shield Orchards. When we arrived we were the only customers. At first we thought it was great to have the orchard all to ourselves. Then we found out that there were so few apples left. No wonder!! But manage to still enjoy ourselves picking whatever left and also taking some botany lessons from Habsah who is so knowledgable about the plants. There were so many other types of plants in the orchards that Habsah got to show off her knowledge.

Since we didn't get to see that many apples on the trees, we decided to check out another orchard nearby called Pine Crest Orchard. It was a good decision to stop by that orchard because there were loads and loads of apples and plums and other fruits in that orchard.

Pine Crest Orchard.

Sydney Trip - Day 5 - Kiama

From Wollongong, after performing our solat, we made a move towards Kiama. We must see another lighthouse in Kiama and a Blowhole!

Scenery on the way to Kiama.



The lighthouse in Kiama



The blowhole pictures



The blowhole in action




In Kiama

Sydney Trip - Day 5 - Wollongong

We arrived in Wollongong @ lunch time and decided to stop for lunch. Here's the pictures of our meal in Wollongong.



We saw on the map that there is a Masjid in Wollongong. So we decided to locate it and perform our solat before we move on to our next destination. After having to do a few u-turns we found the Masjid.

Sydney Trip - Day 5 - The Grand Pacific Drive

The Grand Pacific Drive deserves its own page so I'm starting it on a fresh topic so that it will do justice to the beautiful sights we saw... I am so glad Amal has researched well coz this place is definitely a 'must visit'!!

Grand Pacific Drive



Despite of the nice scenery, we had to make a move coz we have a few more places to get to and a few more nice sceneries to see...

Pictures along the way to Wollongong:

Sydney Trip - Day 5 - The Journey to Grand Pacific Drive

Amal has been researching about places to see before we went on our trip and has told me about Grand Pacific Drive. I googled it and saw all the nice pictures and shared the same enthusiasm about taking a leisure drive along the Grand Pacific Drive. We wanted to rent a car but Habsah so kindly had offered us to use her car while she is at work.

We dropped Habsah off to her office and armed with the map for that area and the instructions and advice from Habs, Grand Pacific Drive and Wollongong here we come!

We need to document the pictures of us in Habs Kimi. Here they are:

Some pictures as we were leaving the city:

We took a different route than the one that Habs has suggested. So we ended up going through the Royal National Park which was amazing! Very nice picturesque view that we had to keep on stopping for photo shoot.. This is why it is much better to go with girls coz we understand the needs to stop for photo shoot... which the guys will not understand and would insist on just continuing the journey rather than stopping to smell the flowers. He..he..he..

The Royal National Park views:

Sydney Trip - Day 4 - Dinner @ Camden

The dinner @ Habsah's Mummy's place was just too special to be buried in Day 4 activities. So I thot it is only fitting to have the trip, the sightseeing and the dinner @ Camden to be shared on it's page with it's own title.

We left Lakemba almost 4 pm. It was quite jam and Habsah was quite upset that we were late arriving back from our sightseeing trip to CBD.

Nice weather and nice sceneries along the way to Camden.




Tour of the garden @ Hab's Mum's house:




Look at all the delicious food Hab's Mummy has prepared for us:




Pictures inside the house

Sydney Trip - Day 4

We decided to go to the other side of the Sydney Harbour Bridge by taking the train across the Harbour Bridge. We took the train from Lakemba to Central then change to another line (Hornsby) to get to the other side. Now we get to see Sydney Opera House and the Sydney Harbour Bridge from a different angle. The weather was very windy and a bit gloomy but that didn't stop us from posing at every possible corner to capture the nice scenery.

We saw the Swimming Pool that was used during the Olympic games and the Luna Park - an amusement park that was closed that day.

We decided to try taking the ferry across to the river to the Circular Quay. It was rather fun. Here's the sceneries taken from the ferry.

Sceneries @ Circular Quay



From the Pyrmont Bay, we walked to Fish Market. We were told that it is a "must visit" place in Sydney. So Fish Market here we go!



After having a nice lunch we were just too tired to walk. So we decided to take the tram to go to Central Station area. It was fun to try another type of transportation for the day...



We had to end our sight-seeing trip in Sydney CBD earlier today coz Habsah has organized a dinner @ her Mummy's house.

Here's some pictures of the Train Stations we saw on our way today:

Sydney Trip - Day 3

Since our Hop-on Hop-off ticket is still valid we decided to take the bus to Bondi Beach.

Taken from the bus and in the bus:



Bondi Beach



Masjid Commonwealth Street

From Bondi Beach we went back to Sydney CBD and went looking for the Commonwealth Street to solat so that we could continue sight seeing and didn't have to rush back to Lakemba to solat. We went on a wild goose chase to find the Masjid that totally didn't look like the typical Masjid..



Sydney Tower

Since we already solat, we decided to visit Sydney Tower and wait to see the sunset from up there.



Dinner @ Al-Safa

We told Habsah not to cook for us since we were taking her out for dinner. She suggested we eat at Al-Safa which is in Lakemba so we took the train from Central to Lakemba and met her at Al-Safa.



It was a nice dinner.. We went home from Al-Safa in Habsah's car.. all in all we had a very nice 3rd day in Sydney.

Sydney Trip - Day 2

The whole gang has finally arrived in Sydney and we were ready to do a serious sight-seeing around Sydney. Habs, our gracious hostess has graciously prepare a tentative itinerary for us... but we had our own idea of what we wanted to do. He..he..he.. Thanks, Habs, for your assistance.. but we need to figure out our own itinerary lah..

We had breakfast with Habs and then she dropped us at Lakemba Train station. We took the train to Central station where according to Habs we could catch the Hop-On-Hop-Off Bus to take a tour around Sydney CDB.

We decided to take the Hop On and Hop Off bus. We wanted to make sure we got good shots of the scenery, we sat on the top of the double-decker bus all the time. The following are the pictures taken on the bus and from the bus:



Sydney Harbour Bridge



Sydney Opera House

The day I arrived in Sydney

After 7.5 hours journey where I spent sleeping almost 7 hours of it except during meal time... I landed in Sydney. Thot I would be crying all the way, but Thank God I was fine! After a long queue at the immigration and then had my bag opened after being advised by Habs to declare that I was carrying a bag of Dried Tamarind for her and some medication, I was greeted by Habs at the arrival hall.

We went back to Habs house on Taylor Street. Luckily Habs' hubby was around to help carry my bag up all the way to the 3rd floor. Habs always stays on the top most floor anywhere.. Don't know why, but somehow she always ended up taking the top most floor unit.

Here's the pictures of Habs' house, the outside and inside of it with the cats - Brad and Angelina!

After resting for a while and had lunch and solat at Habs' I told Habs that I would like to go to DFO - a Factory Outlet as according to her itinerary, the trip to DFO will only take place during the 2nd week and I would be home already by then. So I insisted to go to DFO before Amal and gang arrive that night.

Pity Habs with her bad legs.. so she kept sitting down every opportunity she got, while her hubby and I kept on looking at things. My main focus was to get something for my beloved hubby at Polo Ralph Lauren shop in DFO. Found a nice white shirt for my hubby and a nice white shirt for me too! It was a great bargain!

Then we sat down for a while to have coffee and some cakes. See pictures of the trip to DFO.

After the trip to DFO, we went to send Habs' hubby, Wan to the airport. He made sure that he was leaving on the day we arrived so. So sporting of him to give us the space in Habs' house. That night, Habs went by herself to pick up Amal, Hafsah and her niece Anoy, to make sure that there were enough place for their bags. I stayed home and waited for them to arrived. They finally arrived at about 9:30 p.m. The beginning of our trip!! Now that all the gang has arrived.

 

The Goodbye moments @ KL Sentral

It was quite tough to leave ... being the first time I am leaving Iman behind that long (almost 9 days) and the farthest trip (the 2nd farthest trip recently was to Tasik Kenyir!). Iman seemed to be quite upset with me leaving and was holding on tightly. All I was thinking at that time was that I would be crying all the way to Sydney! Missing Iman..  Oh Gosh... It is tough being a mum with itchy feet... the feet wanted to go.. but the heart is feeling guilty leaving behind my little daughter...

The History of How Sydney Trip Was Decided

Amal and I have been talking about going for all-girls trip to Sydney to visit our dear friend Habs. Amal in fact has offered to help me handle Iman if I'm bringing Iman along with us. But the thought of the 7 - 8 hours flight was just so unbearable as Iman's longest flight experience was only 3 hours. That was long enough for me when she kept needing to go to toilet and wanted to walk about in the plane. So, I just dropped the idea and decided that I would wait for Iman to grow older before we go for any long flight trip.

Then one day, Amal called up and told me that she has booked the flight to Sydney with another friend! I'm not supposed to be jealous! Of course I was jealous! .. but what can I do... I was just too busy at that time anyway.. and I don't think bringing Iman along is a good for the trip. It would disturb the girls' trip.

A few days after that announcement from Amal, she smsed and told me that MAS had a good offer that I should look at.  She has cancelled her booking with SIA and was willing to forfeit RM200 because of the great offer.  The offer was just too good to miss out. So I told her that I will look at the website as soon as I reached home. When I saw the offer RM1,620 for a return trip to Sydney and the ticket for the same travel date as Amal, I got so excited. But at that time Izani (my darling husband) was on the way home from outstation trip. I need to check with him whether he allows me to go before I can book the ticket. Was talking on the phone with Amal about my plan to try to persuade Izani to allow me to go when Izani arrived home.

I was trying to think of the best way to persuade him when he saw the MAS website on the monitor and asked "where are you going?" I quickly told him "Sydney!" And without me having to ask or say anything more, he just said "Go lah.." and I said "seriously?!" To which he said "Yes, u can go." Then I asked "should I book for Iman too?" He said "No.. leave Iman with me.. she shouldn't miss school. (Iman is only 4 years old!) You go by yourself lah." I couldn't believe my ears! What a great husband I have! 

So I click the Refresh button before make the booking. To my horror, found that the ticket for the same travel date as Amal's - 1 March 2009, was no longer available! Oh no!! Then I quickly click the Previous Day button to see the flight availability of 28 Feb. There was an available flight on 28 Feb 9:10 p.m! Which was better since I would not have to waste travel time travelling at night while sleeping. I quickly booked the ticket! And excitedly send smses to Amal and Habsah to inform them of my good fortune!

Comments for them: 

Habs - Kau giler ke?! (which I replied - "you are not happy to have a crazy friend?" and Habs replied"actually I am glad I still have friend who does crazy things")

Amal - I think u r so lucky to have Izani as your husband!

The next day I went to work and informed my boss and my Project Manager that I have booked the ticket to Sydney and that I would be on 1 week leave!

That was the history of how the trip to Sydney came about...