Sydney - Day One

This is going to be the first of four rather picture heavy posts of our adventures over in Sydney. Last Saturday we had to get up so early we really shouldn't have bothered going to bed to catch an early morning flight from Wellington to Sydney - we arrived at Sydney before 9am and headed into the city to our airport. We had a look around Chinatown when we first arrived - however, nothing much was open as it was so early!
After wandering around a bit trying to find our bearings, I spied a ferris wheel! Rich wasn't as keen on the ferris wheel as I was so it was a solo ride - with amazing views of the city.

After my ferris wheel ride we decided to walk to Darling Harbour - I really liked this fancy fountain at Darling Harbour. Although in this photo it doesn't look much like a fountain!A few more photos from around the harbour - including some old warships you can go on board and have a look around.

Another old ship in Darling Harbour is the James Craig, its an old trade ship that spend many years submerged in the waters surrounding Hobart (the owners couldn't sell it and it just wasn't worth anything at the time so they got permission to sink it). Eventually it was "found" and restored. Its a pretty amazing old boat to look around. In its "glory" days it used to take produce from New Zealand and Australia to Europe and America.

After some afternoon tea (yah mini cupcake) we headed back into the city. It was actually our plan to head back to the hotel and have a wee nap before heading out to a show later that night. But on the way we stopped at the Queen Victoria Building. Its a beautiful old building that currently a really fancy shopping centre - I would never shop here but its fun to look around and we did actually have breakfast here one morning.

I don't think I've mentioned that we were lucky enough to be in Sydney during the Vivid Festival - which involves a whole lot of pretty lights and great shows. The show we got to see was Bat for Lashes as she was performing at the Sydney Opera House!
We also got to see a whole bunch of buildings lit up and looking pretty - including the Sydney Opera House. Heres a few night pictures of Sydney - taken from the balcony of the Opera House whilst we were waiting for the show to start.
Here's the view from our seats before the show begins - we were second row from the back. There weren't many seats left by the time we booked but we still had an amazing view.Here's some photos taken at the show itself which was AMAZING! Its one of the best shows I have seen. As well as performing her own songs with her band, she also did some covers with a string quartet - including "Lullaby" by The Cure which is one of my favourite songs by The Cure and the Bat for Lashes version was so delightfully creepy.



Our first day in Sydney is NEARLY over *PHEW* but here's a photo of me with a glow person - there was a whole bunch of them as part of the Vivid Festival.

Fast times in Miramar

Miramar is a suburb in Wellington - it's also a shopping area in Taipei. To be honest, I am not sure if the area is called Miramar or just the big mall we visited.

Either way, here's a couple of photo's I took when we first arrived as you can see there's lots of bright lights in Miramar.


We decided to start our evening out with a quick dinner so we headed to Mos Burger - which I think is a Japanese burger chain. I loved this cup that Rich's drink came in, the little bird is super cute.Here's a few photo's from inside the Miramar Mall - I'm not really one for mall shopping but I have to admit this is an impressive building.

We went to Miramar for two reasons, the first was to go on the Miramar ferris wheel. You catch the ferris wheel from the roof of the Miramar mall. Here's a few photographs from the roof of the mall - including the booth where you buy the tickets for the ferris wheel - it's super cute.

Here's a few photo's we took whilst we were on the ferris wheel - unfortunatly it rained so the views weren't as good as they could have been but it was still a lot of fun.








The rain also kind of ruined the second reason we decided to go to Miramar. We headed out to see some fireworks which the city had arranged that night. Unfortunatly the rain made the fireworks really smoky and difficult to see. So after a while we decided to head back to the mall for some dessert.

Rich had the mega super chocolate with sprinkles and M & M's and an oreo sundae. Mine was a little plainer but it was so good. I thought the little marshmallows were super cute. When we left the mall after dessert it seemed like we had walked onto the set of Blade Runner. All of the smoke from the fireworks had gone everywhere, it was a little surreal.