Australia Road Trip: Picnic @ Royal Botanical Gardens

Last day in Sydney. And since we had nothing much to do, we decided to have picnic lunch @ Royal Botanical Gardens. Very sumptuous food prepared! Hehez… 

Big spread

Can see that we enjoyed a lot!

View from our picnic area. So nice… We can never have it in Singapore. Firstly, the weather is already not there. Secondly, I don’t think our Botanical Gardens have such a view. Lastly, we don’t have unique animals that dropped by to steal our food. Pros and cons la…

 

Used Photoshop’s lens distorting to keystone the buildings. But still not pro yet.

Compared to this, Singapore definitely have a better skyscrapers view. I just saw the MBS Skypark trailer in Discovery Channel, Build it Bigger TV programme. Starting 8th July (9pm), they are going to showcase the building if Marina Bay Sands.

Prior to this trip, Wenwei had a dream shot of taking the Opera House and Harbour Bridge in one photo. The place that we searched is at Mrs. Macquarie’s Chair, about 10mins walk into the Garden.

Serious Dong. LOL!

Dong imitating Wenwei. HAHA!

 

Yeah, we got our view!

 

Before we got very happy, rain started to pour. We asked Mr. Poser to give us some emo poses.

Emo pose 1

He seemed very happy doing it.

See the sky. It’s just giving everyone a hard time to take photos. Most of my photos were quite dark. Using a Nikon D40, hmmmm… There’s little that I can salvage.

I don’t understand what’s with Wenwei and his jungle hat.

Trying to pose like Kok. But not very successful. And I think there’s a high chance that I’ll get nagged by Wenwei for taking his side view which has no defined jaw bone. HAHAHA!!!

Whacked high power flash and boosted the brightness in Photoshop.

Royal Botanical Gardens have a lot of scenic places to take photos. This photo was taken in a concave big rock. Cool right!

We reached our destination. Taken before the sun set. And their sun sets very fast! We took a lot of jump shots here. It is right here that Dong got that he needed to jump at the count of between 1 and 2 (which is 1.5) and the rest of us started jumping at 2. The photographer will need to fire shuttles at 3.

The middle pane of the sky showed dark blue. According to Wenwei, the sky was changing its weather which gave the colour gradient.

Nice ~ LOVE IT!

Australia Road Trip: Sydney Bondi Beach

During the period when we were in Sydney, the weather had been very unpredictable. We hit Bondi Beach on a Sunday, which was just nice to shop around the Sunday markets there. That morning was lovely~ We wore berms since we were going to the beach. Before we left Big Hostel, the front desk looked at us and they were slightly flabbergasted. One of them said, “It’s going to be cold outside. Are you sure?” We thought, “Eh… Bright sunny day what~~~”

Our usual mode of transport is either our “ka" or the buses. Green coloured Bus 555 is free and travels around Sydney CBD. Bus 555 alone can get us to most of the attractions. We took Bus 555 to Circular Quay before changing to Bus 380 to Bondi Beach. Their bus routes are very easy to understand and navigate. If you are going to Circular Quay, just find the buses which indicates “… via Circular Quay”.

How do we know which was the Bondi Beach stop? Just look for the beach. They only got 1 famous beach. Then follow the crowd…

When we got to the beach, I was the first to regret. Very windy and chilly.

Whole gang in bermudas and slippers… Very Singaporean!

Lovely beach.

Big crashing waves!

While the air was cool, the water felt warm. Mike (owner of the Port Stephens’ hostel) told us that usually the change in temperature of the ocean is slowly than the change of temperature of the air, by one month. So geography, I LIKE!!!

  

Photo on the right: A big wave was sneaking behind the guys.

And it hit them right up to almost waist level. Poor Kok’s Omnia II got soaked and eventually spoilt. I was busy laughing and taking the shots.

Look down

Look left

And not even looking in my camera. LOL!

Lovely sky before the torrential rain.

Their beautiful art of vandalism. Hand sprayed. So cool!

 

Last photo of the lovely sky. The rain came pouring down very fast. We were hiding between restaurants and cafes. Gelato Bar has very very nice cakes!!!

Great smile!

Australia Road Trip: Taronga Zoo & VIVID Sydney

I left Port Stephens with a heavy heart. Nice people and beautiful coast, not forgetting ample wildlife. There are also many things to do. I wanna visit the lighthouse which have more chances of catching whale migration. A long 3hr+ drive from Port Stephens to Sydney City. Wenwei and Kok had the fastest driving speed till date. 140km/hr. 30km/hr more than the speed limit. Hmmm… When we reached Sydney, traffic was pretty bad in the city as their roads are narrower.

Strolled along Darling Harbour and also to check out Hurricanes Grill.

 

 

  

Peiyun and Mr. Poser

We stayed at Big Hostel, 6 bed family room. Service and amenities were pretty good. Free continental breakfast (cereal / milk / bread / jams) and wifi at the lounge area. There was heater in the room and ensuite bathroom so we did not have to use the common toilet. There was one night when the 2 Tans felt the night was rather hot, they changed the heat mode to aircon. When everyone woke up in the morning, all of us were shivering and started to kaopei who was the culprit.

Before we even reached Australia, we have been putting up with Dong’s smelly farts. There is really something wrong with him lo. There was one night before all of us went to sleep, Kok and Dong shared the same double bed at Big Hostel. He let out a damn smelly fart under the blanket with Kok sleeping inside. Suddenly, we heard Kok screamed and scolded Dong. WTH!!! AHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!! According to Kok, the fart took a long time to drift away. HAHAHA!!!

The next morning, we went to Taronga Zoo despite the unpredictable weather. Taronga Zoo is very interactive. Compared to our Singapore Zoo, it is smaller in area but at Tarong Zoo, visitors can get very close to the wild animals.

Taken on the Ferry to Taronga Zoo.

 

 

I don’t know what is Peiyun doing.

The bird was holding a dead rat. Ewwww….

 

When we got really close to the Falcon, it moved its shoulders forward to protect its food.

Dong’s msn nick is Kira. So we wondered who copy who.

  

Dong had a funny incident with the goat but I don’t know how to write it out in words. HAHAHA!

My favourite animal!

Took the Sky Safari back to the Ferry terminal.

The next day, we headed for the yearly city event…

VIVID SYDNEY

 

 

  

 

After taking these night shots at the distance from the Opera House, we headed there in the next morning. Weather was so nice.

 

 

 

In the interest of safety

DO NOT CLIMB

on angled panels

Mr. Friendly and Mr. Poser