Day Trips to Sydney & Nan Tien Temple

               Well, since our last blog we have managed to go on a couple of outings! We decided to finally venture back to Sydney and check out the sites since we had only spent one night in Sydney when we first flew in. After a fairly quick hour and thirty-five minute train ride from Wollongong into Sydney, we hopped off and marched right into Chinatown. This particular weekend was when the Chinese New Year celebrations were going on and so we had anticipated lots of hussle and bussle but to our surprise, we found neither hussle nor bussle! :P It was fairly quiet and the only real proof we saw that it was in fact the Chinese NY was the flags waving on the street lamps. Regardless, we decided to take a little tour through Chinatown and ended up finding a Chinese flee market (very reminiscent of the 400 Flee market). As a little girl, I can remember countless trips to the 400 Flee Market with my Oma and Opa, heading there to buy German salami…my favourite! After looking around at all the little trinkets, and trying to draw Jordan away from checking out all the didgeridoos (an Australian wind instrument), we kept on trekking.

After picking up a map of central Sydney at the train station, we decided to make our way to the harbour to check out the bridge and the opera house. It was actually a blistering hot day and so after walking for a few hours and checking out the waterfront, we decided to have a pint and ended up scoring fantastic seats on the patio right on the water!

 Our view was a massive cruise ship and the Sydney bridge…if I stuck my head out a little bit over the side I could see the famous Sydney opera house too! On our way to the bridge and opera house we walked on the waterfront boardwalk which had all sorts of restaurants and little souvenir shops. There was one section of the boardwalk that had beautiful apartments and right in front of these apartments were slips for the owner’s million dollar yachts. Despite the fact that neither of us have been to Italy we both thought that the old part of Sydney (where the bridge and opera house are- called The Rocks) had a large Italian feel to it. The city itself was nothing like I expected…very European-like. The part of Sydney that we saw was absolutely beautiful and of course seeing the famous bridge and opera house up close was an experience in itself! We ate the lunch we brought with us sitting across the harbour looking at the opera house and just took in the magnificent views around us! 

A little smooch for my love

At the end of the day- you can tell by our glazed-over look!

 After checking out the opera house, it started to rain and so we made our way to Castlereigh Street which is the Fifth Ave of New York. Since we weren’t dressed overly fancy and had a backpack equipped with two soaking umbrellas, we (I) didn’t think it would be appropriate to go into the stores (Chanel, Tiffany’s, Miu Miu, etc). However, we found a “Bay-like” store called David Jones that had 6 floors and wasted some time in there.

Jordan’s Insert:

 Allow me to set the scene haha. It’s a beautiful sunny day (one of our few as it has been super rainy here) so of course Kirsten and I waste no time getting to the beach. As we round the corner and get our first glimpse of the surf our jaws drop. To our astonishment we see some of the biggest waves we have seen yet. No joke pushing 10-12 feet and people are getting crushed! So we set up our beach tent and lay around for all of 5 minutes when we say let’s try our luck in these waves. As we walk into the water I instantly feel the power of the rip that day as it is pulling my out to deep water. I look at Kirsten and say “there is no way you are going to get me past my waist in this rip” she agrees. As we start to catch a few of the smaller waves and bodysurf around we both begin to get a little more confident and go out into the deeper water. I catch a real beauty and end up almost on shore, as I turn around I see Kirsten eyeing up a massive wave which I later nicknamed “The Widow maker”...an example is seen below haha.

She looks at me with a huge grin on her face like “watch this”, I am shaking my head and yelling No go under! Knowing Kirsten she goes for it. As the wave begins to break Kirsten is riding it perfectly, then she disappears. I see her legs come flying out of the top of the wave and then she disappears a second time. I get smashed by the white wash of the wave and end up about 15 feet away. As I gather myself I instantly begin to run back towards her thinking she must be seriously hurt. Thankfully she finally surfaces and catches her breath and instantly bursts into a fit of laughter saying “did you see how big that wave was!” I laugh and call her crazy. A little later on we are in closer to shore and are both seriously fighting the rip to stay standing. We turn around and see a small girl being swept away and without skipping a beat Kirsten runs over and grabs the girl. The little girl tells Kirsten that she needs to find her friend. We look over and here is a small girl also being pulled out by the rip. Kirsten runs over and grabs her too. Kirsten is seriously struggling at this point to stand with both of these little girls under her arms. She digs her feet into the sand and holds her ground. They get smashed by multiple massive waves. I look at her and ask if she needs a hand which seemed obvious. I grab one of the little girls and help her to shore and like kids they thank us and run back into the waves. I look at Kirsten and say “that’s enough; we are getting out of the water it is getting way to unsafe”. Not 30 minutes goes by and I look out into the waves and spot a guy way outside of the safe swimming area. I point him out to Kirsten and we both agree he is in serious trouble. Seconds later the lifeguards go running into the water to save him and they are struggling against the waves. Eventually both lifeguards get out to him with the surfboard and begin to bring him in. Twenty minutes goes by and they are still battling the waves to get to shore. Eventually they safely get in and minutes later the flags are taken down and the beach is shut down and no longer safe to swim. For the next two days the beach was closed due to unsafe rips and MASSIVE waves.

 When the beach finally did open up, although it was raining we decided to go for a body board. When we get to the beach we are literally the only people there other than two lifeguards and a few surfers down the coast at the reef. As eerie as it was it the waves were awesome and we were able to ride a ton without the interruption of other swimmers.  

Our second outing was suggested to us by Sarah (Kirsten’s sister) to visit the Buddhist temple in Unanderra. We really had no idea what to expect but it was a beautiful day and we were in the mood for a little adventure. So we hoped on the train and were on our way to Unanderra. When we arrived we started walking to the temple which is oddly located on the outskirts of the industrial sector, about 20 minutes by foot from the train station. As we rounded the hill the temple and pagoda were finally in sight.

 We were both expecting the temple to be a very quiet peaceful place. It was indeed peaceful but nowhere near quiet. It was packed. There were hundreds of worshipers going in and out of the temple paying their respects. We were both shocked and intrigued to say the least. Not speaking the language of the majority of the people at the temple we really didn’t know what the procedure was upon entering the temple. We climbed the never ending stairs into the pagoda and removed our shoes to enter the first room of worship. It is strictly forbidden to talk in this room, and as neither of us are Buddhist we sat back and observed respectfully as many people came and went.

We then hiked up a massive hill to a gazebo like structure where there was a huge bell. When you ring the bell you are said to be sending good wishes to your family. We both rang the bell and made a wish as instructed. The view from the top of the hill was beautiful, looking over the entire grounds of the temple.

 We then hiked down the hill and wandered through the forest of blue trees and checked out all of the Buddha shrines scattered throughout the grounds. Majority of these shrines where not your typical fat guy sitting cross legged that comes to mind when you think of the Buddha, they were everything but. From an old man with ankle length eyebrows to a guy riding a lion.

 We finally make our way into the temple which houses the two main shrines and a beautiful courtyard. We go into the first shrine and remove our shoes as usual and have a look around and observe the worshipers. When we enter the second shrine we decide to break the rules a little and snap a few photos secretly of the shrines. Not being able to look through the view finder we had no clue if the pictures worked out or not but when we left we had managed to get one good picture.

At this point we had been exploring the temple for about 3 hours now and we are both super tired. We decide to call it a day and hike back to the train and head home.

Another blog should be up shortly about our trip to Manly Beach to see the Australian Open Surfing and Skating Competition in Sydney.

Lot's of love,
Jordan & Kirsten