On Christmas Eve I spent the day working hard in the office (^^), then pigged out on all the yummy food and played Wii at a high school friend's party. Although I made a fool of myself on the Wii, it was a good time and the party brought back some good old memories. Both she and I had been overseas, so it's been many years since we last met up here in Oz.
Christmas Day was overcast and unusually cool this year. I picked Mum up from the airport early in the morning. The rest of the family was supposed to join us for brekkie, but just as we were arriving at the place they called to say that they were still at home. Grrr.... So it was just Mum and me. We ended up getting take-away and head for home. We had a bbq party with the extended family at my relos place down the road later that afternoon. Guitar Hero kept the guys entertained for hours before and after the feast. I'm hopeless when it comes to video games so I just watched.^^
The warm, sunny weather was back on Boxing Day when I went on a road trip down the South coast with a bunch of friends. Our first stop was supposed to be Minnamurra Rainforest, but we got a bit lost so decided to head for Kiama, a popular tourist destination about 120km south of Sydney, first. We parked the car and walked along the beach towards the "blowhole" before grabbing some gourmet sandwiches for lunch.
We also picked up some tourist maps at Kiama and made our way to Minnamurra Rainforest where we did the Minnamurra Falls walk. The estimated time was 2-2.5 hours but we made it in 1.5 hours! Though there was a rather steep uphill section, it was a pleasant walk. The clean, crisp air was refreshing. There were some beautiful, humongous trees which would likely be marked as sacred if it were in Japan. The waterfall seen from the top of the hill was also a spectacular sight. I wonder how this compares to the more well-known Daintree Rainforest up in Queensland? I will make my way up there one day.
After the bushwalk, we hit the road again and set off for Shellharbour beach. I didn't think this was a particularly special beach, but it was a nice place to sit, relax and enjoy the ocean view after a long day.
On the way home, we stopped by Brighton le Sands (another beach) for a quick dinner. There were lots of Greek and Italian restaurants but we couldn't decide on where to eat so we just settled on the foodcourt where everyone could order the cuisine they liked. I had a laksa which was surprisingly good.
Click here for Kiama photos.
The following day (27th) was a work day, but I took the day off and went sightseeing with my Taiwanese friend and her colleague instead.^^ We drove out to the Blue Mountains and started off the day with the Katoomba Falls - Prince Henry Cliff Walk to Echo Point to see the Three Sisters. Though the recent wet weather made the ground very muddy, it was a nice easy walk with spectacular views of the Blue Mountains and valley. We were lucky the rain held off until we had finished the walk, otherwise we would have been totally drenched as we had left all our wet weather gear in the car.
After a pleasant lunch at the nearby Solitary Kiosk on Mt. Solitary, we set off for Jenolan Caves. The last time I went was on a Year 11 or 12 overnight science excursion, which was a lot of fun. We toured the same cave as we did on the excursion - Lucas, the largest in the Jenolan cave system.
On the way back to Sydney, we drove through a wild thunderstorm. The raindrops suddenly got bigger and heavier. Cars on the road slowed from 80km/h to 10km/h. I could barely see anything besides the lights of the car in front of me. I had not driven in such conditions before and it was quite frightening. Luckily the storm only lasted a few minutes and we all got home safely.^^
Blue Mountains photos here.
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