Good old Sydney town.

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This week finds the whole family in Sydney, we are dragging our kids around some of our old haunts and some new ones. Kicking the trip off at Darling Harbour and the Sydney Sea Life aquarium, and aren’t country kids in the city are a sight to behold! They need to touch absolutely every single thing within reach. Walls they’re walking by, touched, shop mannequins, touched, phone on a reception desk, touched. Every. single. thing. But I digress…

I love Sydney, and spent a lot of my late teens and early twenties mooching around The Rocks. And I was keen to have my children get to the history and art that is to be found in the city.

We tumbled in the door of the aquarium as early as we could, to beat the crowds as our kids often don’t cope with queues and loud talkers. So this meant we got around the place relatively ok. A dugong named Pig stole the heart of our youngest, who made us look it up later that day so he could watch videos of his now most favourite animal in the whole world. Dugong merch was a compulsory purchase upon exit. Upstairs from the aquarium is the Wildlife park, which has Australian critters and there is some massive ones. Have you seen the size of their Crocodile?

Downstairs and around the corner we head to Madam Tussauds. This was so much more fun than I expected it to be. However I must add that I based my expectations on having seen the Country Music Wax Museum at Tamworth, once you’ve seen Chad Morgan missing his wax fingers you won’t forget it. So I was suitably stunned by the realism of Madam Tussauds wax figures, and very surprised (and relived) that you are allowed to touch them! Wow, did we get to meet some celebrities that day! I love a good oddity exhibition and this was really a fun one. I’d go again.

Next on the agenda was Sydney Tower Eye, because thats what you gotta do. See the folks on the street below looking like tiny ants. Then down to Hyde Park, with some stops along the way to go shopping, and over to the Chinese Garden of Friendship. I have always loved spending time in this little oasis in the heart of the city, and as it ages it only looks better. Whenever I had time to kill in Sydney, this garden was my safe space to hang about. As luck would have it, it was also Sydney Festival weekend. We came across an inflatable art installation that you were able to go inside of, it was magic.

Last tourist stop was the Royal National Park to hit the beach at Bundeena, another old favourite place of mine. Very sad to see the old takeaway shop was gone, where you could get a burger as big as your head. But that disappointment was swiftly stifled when I discovered I could get a midori slushy at the local. Yay for gentrification!