Photos: Adventures on the Hawkesbury

In late February I went with some mates up to Wisemans Ferry for a drive and a very short walk. Our original plan was continue along Wisemans Ferry Road through to the M1 but this was thwarted by a lack of time that day. Last Saturday we completed the trip by starting at the other end and travelling into Wisemans Ferry via Mooney Mooney and Peats Ridge.

Below is a set of photos from the two trips.

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Sydney Festival and Australia Day Wrap Up

Over the last few weeks of January was the Sydney Festival. Below are a few photos from the wide variety of events that happened throughout the CBD. Additionally, there are a few photos of the Australia Day celebrations on Sydney Harbour which coincided with the festival.

The finale of the festival was the annual Symphony in the Domain. This year, Gustav Holst’s The Planets was performed, which is one of my favourite pieces of classical music. A short portion of Jupiter is below.

Happy 2014 – fireworks from Sydney

Happy New Year!

Midnight Fireworks

Once again I spent New Years Eve on Sydney Harbour.

This year we didn’t have tickets to any special areas, so we arrived at Bradfield Park, Milsons Point at 1.30pm and spent the afternoon basking in the beautiful sunny Sydney summer afternoon.

Getting to the harbour as early as we did scored us a seat right on the harbour’s edge, which gave great angles for photos.

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Photos: Bathurst 1000

On Sunday, I went to the V8 Supercars Bathurst 1000 at Mt Panorama. Despite living in Sydney for nearly four years and being a crazy V8 Supercars nut, until this year, I had yet to make my way to the mountain for the great race. To just go for the Sunday race, a special train leaves Sydney just after 5am and returns just before 11pm, making for a very long day.

The race itself was an awesome event to attend. I found the atmosphere different to the previous V8 events that I have been to in both Sydney and Auckland, the fans were more passionate but also more friendly. Also despite the 100,000 odd people on the mountain there are so many places around the circuit to watch the race from. Additionally, the view from the top of the mountain is good on TV, but even better in real life.

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Adventures in Bouddi National Park

Yesterday I went with a mate up to Bouddi National Park on the Central Coast. We did two short hikes, Box Point and Gerrin Point Circuit. The road out to Box Point is unsealed, however, we weren’t expecting a full 4wd track, and proceeded to take a small 2wd car down it – fun! The track out to Box Point itself, despite being short, was quite rugged and combined with lots of smoke from the nearby hazard reduction burns was an interesting walk. The Gerrin Point Circuit on the other-hand was much easier than expected, with the exception of the final climb up from Putty Beach to The Scenic Road which took us up an unmarked track.

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Hiking The Coast Track

Over the last day and a half, two mates and I hiked the 26km+ Coast Walk from Bundeena to Otford in the Royal National Park. It is the first overnight hike I have completed in three years (last time involved a helicopter rescue). After calling off the walk a few weeks ago due to forecast heavy rain we walked in absolutely perfect conditions, with little wind, sunshine, and the temperature was neither too hot or cold.

The first day involved hiking from Bundeena to Burning Palms, where we stayed the night in a hut, before completing the track through to Otford this morning. Along the way we saw whales, a dolphin, a wallaby, a large skink, herds of wild deer, and a very large red belly black snake. Additionally, we managed to lose the track a number of times and walked for almost two hours in the dark to make it to the hut.

For the first part of the track we walked the 8k from Bundeena to Watamolla this took just under four hours. During the walk along the coast we lost the track a few times but never by more than a few meters. Crossing the stream at Marley beach one of my mates decided to try and throw their pack across the stream, unfortunately they threw it straight into the stream. Luckily, nothing inside the pack got wet. The remainder of the walk from Marley to Wattamolla was spent spotting whales along the coast.


After lunch at Wattamolla we continued onwards towards Garie Beach. We lost the track again heading down the hill into Curracurrang, but eventually saw a route marker in the distance. From Curracurrang to Garie Beach the track became very muddy and this slowed us down in numerous places as we looked for ways around areas of the track that had turned into mini lakes. Just before we got to Garie Beach a large wallaby decided to bounce along the track in front of us. We made it to Garie Beach in two and a half hours, just as the sun was setting.

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