December 2019

We normally bug out of Sydney over Christmas – making the most of our time off to explore other parts of Australia or on a pilgrimage back to our families in Europe. The main reason we get away is due to the crowds – in the run up to New Years Eve Sydney becomes swollen with a legion of additional tourists and this combined with the schools being on their summer holidays just makes the whole town feel ‘busy’.

Every so often we have a good enough reason to stick around. This year we had Karen’s sister Laura and her partner Dan visiting so a Sydney Christmas was back on the menu.

Christmas in the City

Martin Place, The Rocks and Circular Quay precinct have the best Christmas feel. The army of Christmas trees, Nutcracker prince statues and wreaths attempt to distract from the 30 degree heat. The Christmas Markets at the Rocks are also fairly decent. We then walked along Circular Quay, past the Sydney Opera House and into the Botanic Gardens and all the way around to Mrs Macquarie’s Chair.

Walk on by

As the weather is great this time of year its a good excuse to get in a few of Sydney’s Coastal Walks. The Cremorne point walk is easy and you are rewarded with some amazing harbour views while the ‘Old Reliable’ Spit Bridge to Manly is a little bit harder going – you are rewarded with a drink (or three) in Manly when you finish. George’s Head is another good option too. We did all three with our visitors.

Closer Each Day…

Going further afield we went as far as Palm Beach and the Barrenjoey lighthouse. Or should we say Summer Bay. The majority of the Aussie Soap ‘Home and Away’ is filmed with real-life buildings doubling up for iconic show icons such as the Boathouse Palm Beach for Alf’s Shop, the diner and pier and the Surf Life Saving Club. Barrenjoey lighthouse itself features prominently in every wedding on the show.

Christmas Eve / Day

Christmas Eve is the last best time to collect your ham and seafood in Sydney. We went to Penny’s in Mosman for the ham and got some scallops and prawns as well. Ham and BBQ along with salad is what you have on a hot Christmas Day. We also got some ice-cream from Messina as well.

While the ham was cooking we spent Christmas morning down at the beach at Balmoral drinking champagne, meeting up with friends and getting group shots with our Christmas shirts (it is too hot for jumpers). There was even time for a visit from Santa Claus himself!

Twixmas

After Christmas and Boxing Day we spent some more time exploring Sydney – including the breweries up in Brookvale, going to some of our favourite restaurants such as Cafe Sydney and Burnt Orange and making some time to play barefoot bowls in Neutral Bay.

We’ll drink a cup of kindness yet

For NYE you need to get a place with a view of the harbour so that you can see the fireworks display and we managed to luck out and get an invite to a party at our friends place in Kirribilli.

On NYE, Sydney puts on two fireworks displays – at 9:30 and again at Midnight. As the first of the major worldwide cities to ring in the New Year the fireworks show is big and broadcast around the world. If you cant get to a dwelling with a view you have to shell out hundreds of dollars for a ticketed event or get up close and personal with nearly 1 million people in the public areas. You also have to spend all day defending your turf.

The next day we jumped on a flight up to Queensland. Our destination would be K’gari (Fraser Island).