61. Things to do in AUSTRALIA - Sydney and The Blue Mountains

WEBVTT

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I'm Johnny MC and Travel is back
this week. Let's take a look at

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Sydney, Australia, a place that
I absolutely loved and I think about all

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the time. I'm going to jump
around here. The order here is not

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necessarily best to worst, and I'm
going to talk about the beaches towards the

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end of the Also specific to Sydney, I'm assuming if you go there,

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you'll have a handful of days.
Like when I went. I think I

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was there for three days and not
weeks. If you have weeks, there's

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a lot more to do than I'm
going to tell you here. Let's start

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with the iconic Sydney Harbor Bridge.
Now, as an aside, if you're

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from New York City, you know
the bridge in Hell's Gates right next to

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the Triboro Slash RFK Bridge, that
one that is a squin of the Sydney

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Harbor Bridge. Now that I've pointed
out, you'd be like, oh wow,

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the one in Queens is a little
smaller. But the Sydney Harbor Bridge

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a good looking bridge, known for
beauty as well as function. But one

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thing you want to do is the
bridge climb. I did this. It

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was fantastic, we had flown from
the barrier reef down the Sydney and I

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took my two eldest kids out at
about nine o'clock at night, in the

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middle of the summer, so that
it was daylight, pretty late out,

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and it's not scary at all.
You put on like this jumpsuit thing and

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it comes with some sort of like
metal belt hook thing that is part of

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your jumpsuit, and you're always clipped
in. They have like a steel rope

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i'll call it, all along the
bridge, so you clip in you're not

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gonna fall. Also, the ladders
are ladder shape, but you're mostly walking

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on walkways and stairs that are pretty
darn wide, like really wide. So

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there's nothing scary about this at all
unless you just have like a natural fear

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of heights. But it's not like
you're walking on this thing that's like a

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foot wide. These are very wide
stairs, and you're clipped in, and

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you're walking the circular top of the
bridge, and you get all the way

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to the top and you cross over
and then you come down the other side.

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Now, when I was up there, the sun had set and the

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moon was coming up over Sydney Harbor. Oh my goodness, absolutely beautiful.

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Now at some point I'm going to
talk about my pictures from the Australia trip,

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and I'll tell you a story about
a guy I met on the Sydney

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Harbor Bridge climb. It's not cheap, but one do this. It is

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a lifetime experience and like many things
in Australia, one of my favorite things

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that I have done in my entire
life. Something else I did on day

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one in Sydney was the Royal Botanic
Garden. Opened in eighteen sixteen. The

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garden is the oldest scientific institution Australia
and one of the most important historic botanical

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institutions in the world. I personally
thought the Melbourne one was even more awesome,

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But if I hadn't been to the
Melbourne one, I'd be like,

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the Sydney one is amazing. It's
all over there by the waterfronts and the

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Harbor Bridge and the Opera House.
It's all in the same kind of era,

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very walkable, but you definitely want
to do the Botanic Garden. One

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place I did not make is Tarrongga
Zoo, home to kangaroos, Kowala's.

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It is Australia wombats. It's across
the Harbor from downtown Sydney. That's part

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of the town. I didn't make
it too, but we can do is

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you can combine an all day entrance
to the zoo with round trip ferry tickets.

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The ferry is a really cool way
to see the harbor as well.

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I will circle back to that later
in this episode. So that's called the

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Toronto Zoo. But I didn't make
it. They have a lot of walking

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tours of downtown. The quote I'm
free. Walking tours are a great way

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to get to know Sydney. I
did one guided by passionate volunteering locals who

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want to share their love of Sidney
with you. Three tours a day.

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They'll walk you around downtown, they'll
show you the sites. You throw some

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money in the tip jar because you're
a decent human being. Walking tours of

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the way to go. I stayed
over at Darling Harbor. Now I imagine

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that if I grew up in Sydney, I would hate Darling Harbor and would

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say things like why would you ever
go to Darling Harbor? That's for tourists.

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That is my suspicion as an actual
tourist. But since I was a

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tourist. It was cool. Darling
Harbor a popular recreational complex adjacent to the

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city center. Breath taking river views, plenty to keep you well fed and

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entertained, yet plenty of restaurants.
There's a movie there. I remember says

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there in twenty fifteen, so that
would have been The Force Awakens playing at

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the movie theaters there when I was
down there. There's a massive variety of

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attractions in the harbor. Check out
the Chinese Garden of Friendship, the Tea

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House, the carousel, the National
Maritime Museum, and the beautiful dock Side

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Pavilion. Over at the shopping center
Harbor Side you'll find Laser tag at Aquarium,

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Madame Tissou's, and much more.
Another place in that general area over

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by Darling Harbor is Patty's Market.
There are one thousand stalls between the Haymarket

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and Flemington locations, so this is
like an indoor flea market kind of deal.

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They had so many sports jerseys there
I was salivating. One thing I

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like to do is I like to
get obscure ish sports material, and Australia

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was great for that. I bought
a hoodie for the Saint Killed a Saints

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that's an AFL football team, and
when I wear it and I run into

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somebody who knows what it is,
they always think it's way cool. It's

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completely random. If I had more
room in the suitcases, I would have

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gone to town at Patty's Market.
It's not just sports stuff, it's anything

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you can find in a flea market. But I always remember salivation overall the

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sports material. Heading back towards the
water. Another cool area are the Rocks.

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That's the oldest part of Sydney,
with narrow lanes, colonial buildings,

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sandstone churches and Australia's oldest pubs.
I remember I stopped and got ice cream

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there as well. This was the
first neighborhood to be settled when the British

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first landed in Australian seventeen eighty eight. It used to be a lot bigger,

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but like a lot of cities,
messed up in the seventies they tore

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down the cool old stuff and put
modern high rises and ugly buildings. Somewhere

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along the way. Somebody called time
out and said what are we doing and

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they were able to save part of
it. It's a really cool area.

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The Rocks weekend markets, art museums, street and entertainment, and beautiful views

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of the Harbor Opera House and the
bridge make it one of the coolest areas

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in the city. Yeah, I
remember there. People were drinking outside.

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I kind of remember live music.
It was a good time. I did

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not make it to Luna Park,
that is an amusement park. From what

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I can tell, is like the
old Coney Island Luna Park Australia. Luna

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Park has a Coney Island area inspired
by the actual Coney Island in the US.

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It's an old school funhouse with sideshow
games, a mirror maze, and

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traditional retro fun you can even enjoy
first class dining inside of Ferris Wheel Sundays

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only. The other thing I did
when I was there, it was New

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Year's Eve and I wanted to see
the fireworks and I did some research into

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it, and I'm like, oh, I'm gonna have to get their god

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offul early and the crowds are going
to be crazy. I'm like, I

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don know. And I talk to
my friend Mark Francis, who's the host

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of Palace Intrigue, a show about
the royal family, and Mark grew up

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in Australia, and I'm like,
what should I do here, and he's

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like, absolutely, throw money at
it. There'll be a party somewhere.

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So I spent five hundred dollars that
night, and my eldest daughter and I

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we spent New Year's Eve on one
of the ferries. They had converted the

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ferry into a party boat for the
night and it cruised up and down the

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harbor, which was a great way
to see the harbor at night. I

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had a seat, and then a
little before midnight they parked the ferry really

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close to the harbor bridge and men, when the fireworks went off at midnight

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was like the greatest thing ever.
It was like anything Disney could do,

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but a million times better. And
I'll remind you New Year's Eve in the

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Southern Hemisphere is at the peak of
summer, so I wasn't freezing. I

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was very comfortable. It's like eighty
degrees out at night. Oh my goodness.

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If you're ever in Sydney on New
Year's Eve and somebody wants to sell

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you a ticket to see the fireworks
from the ferry, absolutely do it.

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Let's take a look at some of
the beaches. Bondai Beach, an iconic

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stretch of fine sand and curling waves. One of the world's most famous beach

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destinations, Bondai Beach is thirty minutes
from town Hall Station by train and bus.

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I did not rent a car in
Sydney. I took the city bus

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from downtown to Bondai Beach, super
easy and along the way. You know,

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I was an eye level, ground
level of Sydney and I got to

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see the city while I did it. So definitely a good way to go.

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In one of these episodes in the
feed, I have ranked my beaches

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number one in the world San Sebastian, and before that, before I made

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it to San Sebastian, Bondai was
sitting at number one. I have Bondai

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Beach at my number two worldwide beach. Bondai is great, nice, gentle

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cove, plenty of sand, plenty
of amenities in the town. Water was

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a little cold, so I was
there. It was actually New Year's Eve

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day. It was there December thirty
first, twenty fifteen. That's the exact

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day I was there. Water was
a little cold there at the beginning of

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summer. A lot of waves,
so it's not the kind of water where

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you just go in and you stand
there. You had to bob up and

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down a little bit and work it, but it was a lot of fun.

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They also have helicopters looking out for
sharks. Welcome to Australia, so

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that's something to keep in mind.
You have some time you want to hang

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out in Bondai itself, there's a
Discover Bondai walking tour. You can grab

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fish and chips on the beach,
dine out at one of the vibrant cafes

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and bars overlooking the beach. Over
there on Campbell Parade and in nearby streets

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you can shop for beach fashion and
swimwear. You can learn to surf,

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and on the weekend there's a Bondai
farmers Market. Absolutely make your way to

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bond and there's good amenities too,
changing rooms, showers, actual bathrooms.

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They've got the water figured out.
They've divided up sections for swimmers, surfers,

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body boarders and body surfers so we
don't crash into each other. On

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commer days, there's kayaking and stand
up paddle boarding another thing you can do

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that I didn't have time to do
again. There's so much to do in

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Australia. I was in Australia for
two full weeks, so I had three

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days. I think. In Sydney
you can do the Bondai to Koojee Walk,

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a popular coastal walk offering beautiful coastline
vistas, cozy beaches and cafe strips

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for refueling. Six kilometers long,
takes about two hours to complete, and

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another beach to check out, Manly
Beach. Take a ferry ride too Manly

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seven Australian dollars and sixty five Australian
cents one way at the time of this

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recording. That ferry ride will offer
sweeping views of the Harbor, Sydney Harbor

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Bridge and the Opera House's thirty minute
ride at the other end of it,

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Manly Beach, one of Australia's most
famous surfing beaches. At the northern end

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of the beach is Queen's Lift Headland, where an often submerged reef creates the

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kind of waves prized by chop surfers. At a little south and you'll wind

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up at Shelly Beach, a sheltered
area popular for snorkeling, diving, barbecues

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and picnics. Another thing you can
do is explore the coastline on a bicycle

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from Manly Bike tour as I'm always
a big fan of the bike tour,

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and of course you've come this far, you've got to visit the Opera House.

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I did the tour. The Sydney
Opera House tour shares unforgettable moments from

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past concert hall performances. You'll learn
about the history and future of the world

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famous hall and an immersive digital experience. The main tour takes travelers on a

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one hour walk through of the iconic
structure. There's another option to do a

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backstage tour. It includes breakfast and
a two hour behind the scenes look at

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the various venues. I did the
one hour tour, really enjoyed it.

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Got to see the big theater space. The whole thing's beautiful. I would

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absolutely recommend that you do that.
And you've come this far, you might

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as well head up to the Blue
Mountains. Make it easy on yourself.

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Book at tour. It's about an
hour away via the M four. It

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has hopped on a bus then I
enough to think The Blue Mountains best known

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for its soaring sandstone ridges, blanked
in native bushland nestled within the wilderness.

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Expect to be enchanted by the natural
beauty when you set out to explore the

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walking tracks that loop around the Verton
Valleys and craggy cliffs. You want to

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visit the Three Sisters, the area's
most famous rock formation. You can easily

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see that from Echo Point Lookout,
which is also the starting point for many

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great walks. Fall the Easy Path, or to send almost a thousand stairs

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to the valley floor for a different
perspective. Scenic World is a great base

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for enjoying the mountains best views.
The Beyond Skyway experience allows you to climb

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through the hatch that's a cable card
and you go up on top like you're

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in a James Bond movie. If
that's not scary enough, why you scale

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some canyons. Take a tour with
the Blue Mountains Adventure Company. Descend into

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hidden canyons marvel at an epic underground
world. If you want to go at

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night, you can check out the
glow Worms. Blue Mountain glow Worm tours

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enter a dark cave and gaze and
oz as thousands of glow worms appear at

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like a starry sky. Also at
night, wander the Night Lit Walk,

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An illuminated walkway gives you the chance
to see limestone peaks and gushing waterfalls against

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a star studded sky. You'll even
spot the iconic Three Sisters along the way,

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and you can always do with the
Blue Mountains biking adventures. Once again,

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I'm going to suggest you get on
a bike. The rugged mountain biking

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trails of the area are now more
accessible than ever thanks to you an e

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bike. Yeah, I get some
help on your biking. So that's a

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quick overview of Sydney. So much
to do. We'll come back next week

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and we'll take one more look at
my trip to Australia. Travel is back