About 1 hr ride by ferry from Auckland is the beautiful Waiheke. A day trip to Waiheke is what we needed to console ourselves after disembarking The Pacific Pearl cruise.

Another gorgeous view during our drive in Waiheke

Getting here

There are hourly ferries to Waiheke from Auckland and the tickets cost $35 NZD return as of end of December 2011. The ferry ride is lovely with beautiful sea views.

Going Around

We hired a car to get around this island. There are car hires in the ferry wharf and these guys rent the car on hourly basis too! But I suggest spending atleast a day or two in roaming round the island and enjoying its diversity.

Attractions

Waiheke is popular for its diversity, it is a beautiful island with a great wine trail, lovely beaches and loads of activities to do.

Wineries
It is not called “The island of wine” for no reason! The wine trail is beautiful. The vineyards have beautiful cafes and lovely views and the wines are lovely too! The only thing that I dont really like is the paid tastings here. Especially having come from New South Wales where wine tasting is totally free in Hunter Valley region, this was a bit new and odd to me, but I get the point of people misusing the free tastings.

A lovely winery in Waiheke

The vineyard “Wild on Waiheke” has taken the concept of vineyard to an extra step with Archery there! It is so much of fun with archery, brewery, wines and some awesome Pizza! A must visit over there! We especially loved their vegetarian Pizza, the Syrah and their own “Hauraki Gulf Ginger Beer”. We bought ourselves a case of them to carry on with us for the rest of the trip! So much of fun, this vineyard is a must visit.

Archery at Wild on Waiheke

Lovely Beaches
The lovely beaches here offer distinct water views with beautiful marine blue and sea green colours of the water. You cannot miss the beach here! Either just walking by the beachside or playing in the sand it is a perfect spot to just chill out and unwind.

Bird Reserve
The Onetangi forest and bird reserve provide a perfect feast for the nature and bird lovers.

Activities

Walks and hikes, cycling and sea kayaking are the popular activities in the area. The walks and hikes range from an hour return easy graded walks to more difficult walks. Sea kayaking is pretty popular and we have also see people jet skiing, thought we could not find any jet ski hire places through out our drive.

Kayaking!

Recommendation

Waiheke, being so close to Auckland, still preserves its gorgeous nature, the forests and the birds, beautiful beaches and provides loads of activities catering for people who want to lazy around and just chill to people who are super active and want that little bit more in their holidays!

Just beautiful

Cant believe this amazing place is only an hour away from Auckland and I would definitely recommend either a day or a weekend away!

We wanted to head off snorkeling somewhere closer to Sydney preferably in the city itself. After doing a bit of research we decided to head off to Clovelly beach.

Covelly beach, Sydney

Clovelly beach has two sides, the bay with a concrete platform and the other is a small beach which is much more suitable for kids and for everyone irrespective of their swimming skills. The maximum depth at the entire beach is 5-6 metres and the edges of the bay are pretty shallow.

Snorkeling

As much as this was our purpose, I was utterly disappointed from the colour of the water. It was green in colour due to the weather. The water wasnt clear at all and there were sea weeds. There wasnt so much of fish either and it was really hard to see the colour of the fishes. We were snorkeling only in the beach as we are still noobs and are not very good swimmers. Also having snorkeled in Fiji I think our expectations of Clovelly were set pretty high in our minds. May be I wasn’t just that lucky.

Snorkeling at the Clovelly beach, Sydney

Ocean swimming

This part of the ocean is between Coogee and Bronte and there isn’t any waves hitting into the bay. And also given that the surf rescue is only metres away, literally, it is a much more safer place to learn and practice ocean swimming.

A family outing

The small beach, the BBQ and the family area around the beach makes it a nice family outing. The beach especially is pretty shallow and with no waves it is kids friendly.

The verdict

I would definitely go there again to learn ocean swimming or to just hang out with friends but for snorkeling may be I should try it out again on a much more brighter day.

This time, for a change, we decided to take it on a bit slow, lazy and indulge into affordable luxury before getting the adrenalin hit in New Zealand. So we decided to Cruise the Tasman.

The itinerary

We booked Pacific Pearl with P&O cruises. It is a 4 day cruise from Sydney to Auckland. We booked a cabin with balcony on the upper most passenger deck. The room was spacious enough for 2 people with a dressing mirror, tv and a study table and chair. It was all clean and neat and the staff were super friendly. The highlight, as I was hoping for, is the balcony which is big enough to stargaze in the middle of the night or eagerly wait for the sun to rise in the middle of the ocean. But if you are happy to dress up and walk a 100 metres to the upper most deck then you probably wont need a balcony and you can save yourself a few bucks. All cabin booking charges include meals on board, at specific restaurants only, of course.

The Pacific Pearl

The checkin process

I prepared myself with sunscreen, swimmers, hats, cocktail dress and the day has finally arrived. The checkin process was very straight forward and the staff were super friendly. What I specifically liked about the whole process is checking in your baggage right at the entrance so you dont have to carry it with you in the queues.

The passengers entrance was into “The Atrium” on deck 5 which is superb with great lightings and live music. With bars and cafes already open it was a great ambience and a great start to the trip. We just sat down to sip a “virgin bloody mary” (yeah the virgin version, it was 1pm!) We then checked out our room, dropped our hand baggage and hit the “Plantation restaurant” which is where all the “inclusive” food gets served.

Om Nom Nom Nom

Plantation restaurant offers buffets for all meals. The meals included different kinds of salads, soup, meat dishes, fish and seafood. Throughout the journey, the restaurant maintained asian cuisine for lunch and italian for dinners. Whilst I loved their asian meals, I wasn’t a big fan of their Italian meals, especially given that I am a big fan of authentic Italian cuisine. But then, please note that I am a vegetarian and I had quite a few options in the buffet which was pretty impressive. There are also other restaurants and cafes on-board where you can take your loved one for an evening of fine dining.

Food sculptures

Sailing away

The safety instructions before we set to sail was pretty robust with instructions regarding the emergency processes, how to use your life jacket etc.

Once this was complete it was the sail away party time, with some music, dances, cocktails and a host as we sailed from under the Harbour bridge in Sydney. The party was on Decks 12 and 14 which are the uppermost decks and it was colourful and full on. But it was only for a couple of hours. I wished that it paused a bit after we started cruising and then continued in the night.

Sail Away Party on deck 14

On-board events, facilities and entertainment

The cruise does a “Pacific daily” magazine which gets circulated to every cabin daily and it provides the schedule of the events on the cruise. Everyday there are dance lessons, yoga lessons, sitcoms, movies and themed party nights. There was a cocktail night and a country music party night in the 4 nights we spent. There was country dance lessons before the party and then the  entertainment team danced with us. Apart from other events, there was a spectacular champagne waterfall during the cocktail night made by the chief chef of the cruise.

Zoltina-J, the cruise director for Pacific Pearl presenting the Champagne waterfall

While the evenings were full on I felt  that there should have been more interesting events scheduled in the morning. Well for those of you lazying around in the day time, it will work well. The on-board casino, though is a small one, is a pretty good place to hit to as well. Bingo was on almost every day and had gathered masses to it.

Ronald Storm’s performance was awesome but I felt that the sitcom was a bit boring and unnecessarily rude. The highlight “Circus” was on the last night of the cruise.

The circus

Totally loved it, the performers were great and the “elephants” on-board was hilarious!

Elephant in The circus onboard the Pacific Pearl

There is also a Day spa with gym. Passengers get free access to the gym and the day spa was heavenly!

The gym aboard Pacific Pearl

The laser show on the cocktail night was another highlight. Followed by the laser show and before the champagne waterfall there was also the dance performed by 2 of the Pacific entertainers who wore a couple of hundreds of mirrors on their body that reflected the laser beams. Such a spectacular show it was! A must watch.

Laser show

Of all of the performances and presentations on the cruise, the must attend one is the “bridge tour” where the Third officer of the ship explains everything about the bridge, the equipment used for navigation and also the captain introducing the crew. Its a great place to gain some knowledge of the ship you are on!

On day 2 of our voyage we even caught glimpses of a pod of Dolphins swimming in the ocean.

Shopping on-board

There is plenty of duty free shopping on-board including alcohol, jewellery, perfumes, a professional photographer, swim wear, clothing and did I mention alcohol?

My favourites

Of everything on the cruise, my favourites were the bridge tour, the circus, the champagne waterfall, the laser show, Ronald Storm’s performance, the open screen night cinema on Deck 14, the dance classes and the day spa!

The spa bath on deck 8

The cruise director Zoltina-J, the dancers and entertainers Alex and crew have done a tremendous job keeping all of us entertained and keeping us busy to get the “grape vine to the right” and a “grape vine to the left” correct, oh yeah I am talking abt the dance lessons!

The recommendation

The open air theatre, the dance lessons, the kids pool kept the kiddos busy and the parents happy. So I would definitely recommend it for both couples and families. There are no singles cabins on this cruise. So if you cant find a partner, this is not a place to be in or you can book a 2 person cabin :p

Also do not forget to carry the sea sickness medicines and have some Ginger Ale if you feel sick on-board. One of the staff of the cruise shared this tip with us.

So if you intend to take this cruise be prepared to chill out and lazy around pampering yourself and may be join the entertainers in a hip-hop class or two!

We did a day trip in San Sebastian. Such a lovely and romantic city I must say. They have the best tapas, gorgeous beaches and the best of all, the most awesomely friendly people. Spanish sounds so beautiful too and yeah I am learning it once I am back home. By now you must have realised that I am totally in love with this country.

We started off our trip with the old city. There are no lockers or left luggage in San Sebastian main train station. So we had to walk a couple of kilo metres with our backpacks to the tourist office to enquire. The internet cafes in the old city charge you a minimal 75 cents per bag per hour to keep the luggage. So we finally found a temporary keeper for our luggage.

The old city is full of small streets with cafes, tapas bars, apartments with balconies full of flower pots, Santa María del Coro, and only 5 minutes to the beaches.

We took one of our friend’s advice and hit the tapas bars and tried one at each bar. This culture is different to what you will find in a restaurant. You can eat just one and move on to the next bar, just like a drink in a bar Luv luv luv the food here. I am a vegetarian, so while my hubby says that the chicken tapas were awesome, I had an obsession with spanish omlette, Mushrooms, Patatas Bravas! Yumm.. and its cheap too! Compared to all the other countries we have been so far in Europe, i,e.. France, Belgium, Swiss and Netherlands, Spain is relatively affordable.

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Did I mention Sangriya? It is the most popular Spanish drink and to my surprise everyone makes this drink so different. I tried this in quite a few bars in San Sebastian and also in Barcelona and it tasted different at every place. But I think it is based on red wine, fruit punch and rum. And I just love it! Fruity, a bit sour with the lemon slice in it and very fresh served on ice! My kinda drink

The Church of Saint Mary of Assumption built in the 18th century is a must see with its magnificent altar in the interior and rococo style facade in the exterior.

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The main altar inside the church Basilica of Saint Mary of Assumption has 4 Corinthian style , chamber of Our Lady of the Choir and a magnificient staircase. Definitely a must see.

In just about 5 minutes walk from the Chruch and the old city, lies the beautiful San Sebastian beaches. Lovely sand beaches for families and couples too.

There are surfing schools through out on the beach and also the people dont seem to mind the girls going topless to get a good tan!

You can also spend a couple of hours walking round the city, checking out the traditional constructions and buildings like the city hall. The old city can be exceptionally  beautiful in the night. So dont miss it out.

We also met a couple of locals who offered suggestions and help without us asking them. Such friendly and lovely are the Spanish people.

luv luv luv them and the country.

After our little bike trip from Haarlem to Zandervoolt we headed back to Haarlem and returned our bikes. There are a couple of museums in Haarlem which you can see. But we decided to skip the museums and head off to the world’s biggest tulip gardens, which is open only during April and May, at Keukenhof. You can take a bus to here from Amsterdam or Leiden (the closest station to this place) or Haarlem or Den Haag. The ticket costs 21 Euros which includes the bus ride and the entrance ticket to the gardens. We caught the bus (number 51/57/58) from Haarlem train station.

It is about an hour ride to the gardens. This is a huge dutch garden full of different floral plants and tulip gardens.

We went there in the second week of May which is nearly the end of the season. So there we not so many tulips as I had hoped for. But it is one of the most beautiful and the biggest gardens I have ever seen.

The garden sculptures, a huge organ playing music in the garden, the flower house, the beautiful fountains, the little animal farm with Pony, pigeons and pigs definitely make the garden a worthwhile visit for both elders and kids.

After visiting the gardens we caught a bus to Den Haag Centraal which is about an hour away and then caught a tram (number 9 or 1) to checkout the Haag beach. The shore is quite big here lined up with some amazing (and expensive) restaurants in the sand with beautiful and romantic settings.

Its a gorgeous setting to have a romantic dinner and walk up on the beach during sunset time.

There were sand sculptures of Elton John and of the animals in the animal park.

It is a beautiful romantic beach with excellent fine dining options and a must see if you are visiting Haag.

This year had been a very busy one at work. After 8 months of total exhaustion, we went to Fiji for a short break, a 4 days trip. But I must say, this trip is the most “rejuvenating trip” I have ever done.

Weather

The best time to visit Fiji is between May and November, which is Fijian winter. We went there  at the end of August and the weather was so beautiful; nice, clear warm days and wasn’t humid at all. Summer can be very hot and humid.

Getting there from Sydney

Its about 3.5 hrs flight from Sydney to Nadi. My ongoing flight was Pacific Blue, totally hated it as there was no personal entertainment system and had to buy food and drinks aboard. But the return flight was V Australia and totally loved it. Great friendly service, excellent entertainment system and good food! Din’t have to purchase a thing! Once we landed, there were transfers organised from the airport to the resort.

Accommodation & Food

Fiji is made up of approximately 332 islands. We stayed at  Sonaisali Island Resort.   I have mixed feelings about this one. The staff were friendly, rooms were neat, spacious and clean. But the time of service is ridiculously long. The check-in/check-out time was 30 min on an average, so had to wait for abt an hour to get hold of my room key! We stayed in an Ocean View Bure.

Must specifically mention about the friendly natured staff at the pool bar. Day 1 of my visit, I was alone in the resort and was waiting for my hubby to accompany me. So the bar staff bought me a drink and we had a couple of drinks together! Most weird I thought! The restaurant is great for meat-lovers. I am a vegetarian, so it isn’t the best food I could have got. There were literally no vegetarian options at all. Nadi has quite a few restaurants providing  a variety of options and cuisines.

There are various other islands providing superb accommodation too. There are heaps of popular resorts at Port Denarau. Sheraton, Westin, Radisson, Sofitel are only a few to be mentioned.

The evenings were the best as I tried to come back to Sonaisali to be in the pool, sipping cocktails and watch the amazingly beautiful sunset. I did manage to take a panorama shot too.

PS: Use your mouse to pan

Activities

There are a bunch of activities to be done, for all of the sports lovers, like canoeing, horse riding, sailing, surfing etc. Use of the non-motorised sports equipment was free. There was also jet skiing, a couple of cruises like the Sunset cruise, the day Snorkelling cruise.

We did the snorkelling cruise and I would highly recommend it. We cruised for a couple of hours and then snorkelled at the Mamanuca islands. The beautiful coral reef, pristine waters, beautiful marine life, a stunning experience. It was my first time snorkelling, so I did freak out a bit; but I would definitely do it again. Was an amazing experience I must say.

We did drive and walk into the city of Nadi for some food and shopping. The drive to Port Denarau was great. We did visit all the resorts over there and the beautiful beaches.

Relaxation

Overall I would definitely suggest the trip to the tropical land. A great place to relax, chill out and unwind. The massages, the hair braiding, beauty treatments are an added attraction to the girls. I dint feel like leaving the island, but was revitalised when I came back to Sydney.

All set for the next busiest bit of the year.

So in our attempt to explore rural New South Wales (south coast), we drove past Jervis Bay, Batemans Bay driving through the national park, past some beautiful beaches! The drive was beautiful and there are a plenty of beaches to play at, if you are looking for a break!

We drove to Moruya, NSW which is abt 4 and a half hours drive from Sydney! While we enjoyed the drive thoroughly, we booked a room at Hotel Monarch, which i would say is very cheap! For the stay over the long weekend, it was AUD 89.00 per night for the couple! It was a decent standard room and a bathroom, with a fan and heater, very modest and clean! They even had complimentary breakkie which included cereal, toast, coffee, tea for that price!

So, we checked into the motel, then started driving round the town! Its small town but gorgeous! The people were lovely and very friendly! We drove to the nearby town Narrooma which is a far more bigger town! We drove for about another hour or so to Central Tilba to visit the cheese factory! They had cheese tastings (free) and sales as well! This small place which I can easily call a village is totally gorgeous with different shops! From there we drove to see the “Camel Rock Beach” at Bermagui and I must say I was amazed as to how can sandstone form in such a way that appears exactly like a camel! The beach was gorgeous and for some reason there wasn’t any crowd over there! So we enjoyed to the fullest! About another hour or 2 drive, there is a killer whale museum at Eden! Its definitely worth a stopover with its exhibits and tours!

Camel Rock Beach

We headed back to Moruya after that, but the journey can be continued towards Bega to visit the famous Bega cheese factory! Whenever I say Bega, I cant stop thinking of the ad “But Bega is made in Bega”.

We had our dinner in a nice pizzeria at Moruya (probably the only one in that town)! The place was nicely decorated and the food was good! We did the stopover and the next morning we drove to Canberra to visit the Floraide! Before we started our journey, we had breakkie at Susan’s in Mogo! I must admit, they make the best Mocha in the entire planet! And the breakkie was awesome!

Breakkie @ Susan's in Mogo

They also had a nice shop which sells different kids of home baked bread and also healthy cereals!

The bread shop @ Susan's cafe in Mogo

This past long weekend, we thought we would go somewhere different where we have never been! We have always driven towards south coast but almost never past Kiama! So we decided explore a bit more in south coast!

Whilst Kiama is one of the most beautiful places I have seen, the entire south coast drive was gorgeous and every second of it was picture worthy! It gave me a good chance to practice my photographic skills!

So we started at Homebusy Bay, Sydney and we drove on Princess Highway past Kiama, Nowra heading towards Jervis Bay! drive was nice and I especially liked what I saw over there after I got off! We were heading towards beach, with no pre-decided destination on mind! We saw signs “Cave beach” just before Jervis Bay! So we tured towards it, drove for about another few kilometers when we faced the car park! Parked the car and walked down in the bush! I am so glad now that we decided to go with spontaneous decisions instead of preplanned! What I saw was very different to the usual beaches we see! We were on top of a small hill, a little bit elevated! So to head to the beach, we had to walk down, I could see a few campers there! It was an unpowered campsite (with basic amenities like toilet)! Its not like the normal organised campsites like in national parks! I loved what I saw, they were living in nature (atleast for a day or 2)! Sadly we had no camping gear with us, so we could not stay back for it! But we thought of heading there next time with our gear!

Cave Beach

There is also a lookout which overlooks the bushes, the hills and also the beach! Whilst we did not stay there for sunset and sunrise, I reckon it will be a very beautiful sunrise here! Yeah I will check it out in our next trip there and update.
So we got down the small hill (not many steps, so suitable for elderly people as well) and there was this beautiful beach in the midst of 2 hills and then the vast sea! I could see small caves in those hills on the beach, which is why its aptly names “Cave Beach”. There weren’t huge number of people there, probably because of the bad weather! But it was so beautiful and awesome for pictures!
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Kangaroos in Jervis Bay

For someone who wants to explore the south-coast, it can be an excellent trip to travel towards Kiama , watch the blowhole, explore the town, head towards Jamberro Park, have lots of fun with the water-rides then travel to cave beach, camp there over night and then move on to Jervis Bay!
Apart from camping, there are also other activities you can do here like cycling, dolphin watching, some nice bush walks! We also had an opportunity ti take some amazing shots of the Kangaroos in one of the school grounds in Jervis Bay! Love Mother Nature.

Do lookout for the other posts that I will be putting on soon with the other places that we have seen in this trip!