Sydney Aquarium: Day Five
Chris drove us to Balmoral Beach on his way to work which is a beach to the west from Manly along the North shore. Interestingly we were able to travel in the fast lane as there were more than 3 people in the car. This is the local authority's incentive to get people to car share. Balmoral seems to be Sydney's equivalent of Beverly Hills. It is awash with 'ladies who lunch' towing tiny lap dogs with clips in their hair.
The real reson for our visit though was The Bather's Pavillion, a restaurant and cafe on the beach. You can see the beach in the background behind the picture of Hero above. I have always wanted to visit since I bought the cookbook years ago. Amongst other things it is famous for its breakfasts. I had a fantastic smoke salmon brioche and Katy had a frittata. The kids munched on pain au chocolat, washed down with hot chocolate.
After breakfast we spent the morning on the beach. Although the morning was very windy the beach is quite secluded. There are lots of rock pools to explore so Cass and I went dinosaur hunting.
The big thing over here at the moment is something called 'Boot Camp' which is a bit like ITV's 'Fat Camp'. The idea is that you turn up at the beach and have someone shout at you as you run along, do press-ups and star jumps. People get up at 5:30 to get an hour's boot camp in before going off to work. The ladies-who-lunch version in Balmoral is hilarious. It is a bit like Desperate Housewives meets French and Saunders.
Given that it was a bit windy we decided we'd head into the City which involved a bus and ferry ride. Our destination was the Aquarium which is in Darling Harbour, an area that was developed in the 80s. It is a bit like St Katherine's docks in London but on a bigger scale. To get there we walked through the financial district and headed for the mono-rail which does a 4km loop around the City but about 20 metres above ground level. Cass obviously loved it.
We got off at the aquarium, had lunch by the harbour while Hero slept before walking around the aquarium. It is a great way to spend an afternoon. As well as having an incredible array of fish they also have complementary animals in the tanks such as ducks, a platypus (!) and an incredible seal sanctuary where you can walk under tunnels while they swim overhead. You see the sharks in exactly the same way. Seeing Great Whites so close up was a fine balance between excitement and terror. Well that's what I saw on the kids faces! (p.s the picture below is a model shark!)
We got the ferry back to Manly. Katy and the kids went home for supper while I had all my hair shaved off and picked up some food for the evening. I got 6 big tuna steaks from the fish market in Manly & got a taxi home. As well as C&S , Robin and Jane came over for some food. We sampled more of the local wine and went to bed with a tired, woozy feeling - must have been the sun!
The real reson for our visit though was The Bather's Pavillion, a restaurant and cafe on the beach. You can see the beach in the background behind the picture of Hero above. I have always wanted to visit since I bought the cookbook years ago. Amongst other things it is famous for its breakfasts. I had a fantastic smoke salmon brioche and Katy had a frittata. The kids munched on pain au chocolat, washed down with hot chocolate.
After breakfast we spent the morning on the beach. Although the morning was very windy the beach is quite secluded. There are lots of rock pools to explore so Cass and I went dinosaur hunting.
The big thing over here at the moment is something called 'Boot Camp' which is a bit like ITV's 'Fat Camp'. The idea is that you turn up at the beach and have someone shout at you as you run along, do press-ups and star jumps. People get up at 5:30 to get an hour's boot camp in before going off to work. The ladies-who-lunch version in Balmoral is hilarious. It is a bit like Desperate Housewives meets French and Saunders.
Given that it was a bit windy we decided we'd head into the City which involved a bus and ferry ride. Our destination was the Aquarium which is in Darling Harbour, an area that was developed in the 80s. It is a bit like St Katherine's docks in London but on a bigger scale. To get there we walked through the financial district and headed for the mono-rail which does a 4km loop around the City but about 20 metres above ground level. Cass obviously loved it.
We got off at the aquarium, had lunch by the harbour while Hero slept before walking around the aquarium. It is a great way to spend an afternoon. As well as having an incredible array of fish they also have complementary animals in the tanks such as ducks, a platypus (!) and an incredible seal sanctuary where you can walk under tunnels while they swim overhead. You see the sharks in exactly the same way. Seeing Great Whites so close up was a fine balance between excitement and terror. Well that's what I saw on the kids faces! (p.s the picture below is a model shark!)
We got the ferry back to Manly. Katy and the kids went home for supper while I had all my hair shaved off and picked up some food for the evening. I got 6 big tuna steaks from the fish market in Manly & got a taxi home. As well as C&S , Robin and Jane came over for some food. We sampled more of the local wine and went to bed with a tired, woozy feeling - must have been the sun!
posted by Rob at 10:08 pm
1 Comments:
we have had a look and posted a comment.
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