Daphne

While we were in Sydney, we took a one and a half hour drive up to the Blue Mountains to visit the Three Sisters. It’s basically a pile of rocks caused by land erosion but legend has it that they are actually three sisters (Meehni, Wimlah and Gunnedoo) who were turned into stone in a tragic tribal love story.

I think it’s a sign of age because 10 years ago, I would not have imagined myself wanting to spend a day up in the mountains looking at some rocks. I mean, I’m still not like a huge fan of rock formations and I pretty much looked at it for 3 seconds and thought, “That looks like a pretty decent pile of rocks” before starting to feel a bit bored.

Besides, I wasn’t really paying much attention during Geography class so I couldn’t really give the kids a commentary on the difference between igneous and sedimentary rocks. So instead, I tried to think of some jokes about rocks. Like what are famous rocks called? Rock stars. Or what music do the Three Sisters like to listen to? Soft rock. And so on.

But what I really enjoyed was breathing in the fresh, cool mountain air, looking out across hundreds of acres of wide open spaces, watching the kids run around with the biggest smiles on their faces and feeling like life was truly beautiful.

On the way back, we found this quaint little place called Leura Mall. It’s not really like the massive malls we have back home – just a row of shops and cafes, but good enough for a bit of shopping, some bread pudding, scones and coffee.

It’s probably just me but everything seems to taste better when it’s so ridiculously cold.

Happy times.

This is day 6 of our trip and while we’re having a blast with Truett and Kirsten, I miss baby Finn so terribly. I’ve never been apart from him for more than a few hours since he was born and I can’t function without munching on his juicy rolls multiple times a day. It’s so bad that every time I see a baby over here, I go into full on baby withdrawal overdrive. I almost picked up a few babies for cuddles but so far, I’ve managed to control my urges.

I’m posting on the go so I’ll update stuff on the trip in batches, starting with the Sydney leg.

***

In Sydney, the one thing I was really looking forward to was the Vivid Sydney light show. In particular, the Doctor Who Anniversary celebration light show at Customs House, the sails of the Sydney Opera House and the Vivid Aquatique water + fireworks showcase at Darling Harbour.

The Doctor Who event was a one night only thing, which happened to fall on 1 June, the night right after we arrived. So even though it was raining quite heavily in the evening on Saturday, we bundled up the kids and trudged out to the city in the freezing cold.

It was already crazy packed when we arrived at Circular Quay and after some skillful maneuvering, we managed to find a tiny spot right at the back to catch glimpses of the TARDIS in between rows of bobbing heads. In fact, I spent most of the time watching the back of this dude’s head while trying not to get jabbed in the eye by an umbrella. It was like a game of straining to get a peek at the screen every time the crowd oohed and aahed in unison. Well at least I managed to see the Weeping Angels and lots of Matt Smith.

The next stop was over to the Sydney Opera House to watch the sails all beautifully lit with colorful dancing lights.

At this point, the kids were starting to get a little tired but we’re really crazy hardcore travelers so we decided to round up the night by walking all the way to the Rocks for the flea market and then to Ives Steps Wharf to catch a ferry to Darling Harbour for Aquatique.

To put it into perspective, that’s like a 2km trek. In the rain. With 2 kids. But we were like “no problem, let’s do it.”

By the time we got to Ives Steps Wharf, I had carried Kirsten for almost a while kilometre and I couldn’t feel any of my limbs thanks to a combination of the cold and exhaustion. And then we still had to stand there in the freezing Sydney night air for about 30 minutes to wait for the next ferry to arrive.

The longer we stood there, the colder and wetter we got, until about 25 minutes in, I was almost ready to call it quits and forget about the Aquatique show. But I realized that I would totally be like the bimbo in the joke where she swims halfway and then decides to turn back, except that in this analogy, I’d already swum like 85% of the distance. So persevere on we did until finally, the ferry arrived to take us to Darling Harbour.

Thankfully, we made it to Darling Harbour just in time for the fireworks and it was breathtaking kind of gorgeous. It’s the closest I’ve ever been to a fireworks show – we were right at the edge of the water and we could see the fireworks being launched from several feet away on a platform in the water.

The kids were feeling a little miserable from the night’s grueling activities but they stood there watching the fireworks in absolute awe. And as we turned back for our return 2km trek, we all agreed that it was all quite worth it.