Blue Mountains

Blue Mountains in winter is seriously no joke but if you have been following my Facebook lately, you would have realised that with the presence of sun, it will remain pleasant. And that was how the weather was like for Saturday - chilly but pleasant.


I suppose, it also depends on the company you are with. We went with the group of crazy Nutrition Club people so you could imagine how abuzz with chatter, laughter and 'quick, take a photo!' it was.


The first stop after a quick nap in the coach was Wentworth Falls. I have to admit that despite having been to the Blue Mountains several times, this is my first time at Wentworth Falls. I have a feeling I would return, as I would want to go for the trek to the falls. Who would not want to, when the falls look like this?

To get to where I took this photo from, we had to climb down this flight of steps, which reminded me of my glacier climb in NZ:

Haha, ice-cream, anyone? It is a different experience to having ice-cream in summer because in winter, your ice-cream stays frozen for longer. And wah, not to mention the cold you would feel!

After half an hour of 'bushwalking', we proceeded to Leura, my favourite stop! Why? Because of this place:

They house the world's largest private collection of teapots. The entire house is filled to the brim with pots, bric-a-brac, antiques, pottery, jewellery, collectibles and cards:

Look at this pot! How cute!

I absolutely adore this place not only for the enormous teapot collection that it holds, but also for what they serve:

Scones with strawberry jam and Devonshire tea! Yum! I give you the Chrys guarantee that you will fall in love with the jam. For the price that you pay, I would think it is worth the taste and ambiance.


It was during this visit that I found out that they not only run the museum and tea house. Bygone Beautys also has accommodation should you, your family and friends want a place to put up for a night or two. Judging from the pictures and the museum itself, I would imagine that their cottages would be anything short of charming. How can they not be charming when even the washrooms look like this:

Having fueled up, we had strolled the mall. I have this thing for pretty stationery and was impressed with what I saw in one shop. I was introduced to yet another brand - Elizabeth Rosa Fine Stationery, that is actually based in Double Bay here in the city. When they say fine stationery, they mean fine. They are the sole Australian authorised distributors of Vera Wang's Wedding papers. I fell in love with the leather journals and diaries but they were a tad pricey for me. Otherwise, I would have gotten myself a refillable diary.


Before long, we were at Echo Point Lookout, a must stop for all visitors to Blue Mountains. This is where you would get the best view of what everyone around the world comes to look at - The Three Sisters rock formation...

... and the blueness of the ranges...

Can you see that layer of blue? That is supposedly created by the emission of eucalyptus gas of the trees. You know those aromatherapy stuff that you could get that creates a calming effect? Yea, the same thing. Haha, I guess that explains why koalas are a little slow in movement and are always sleepy - they are mabuk with the thing!


And, like the last time I was up here, there was a cute cat!

Our final stop was Scenic World, where we had the options of trying the Skyway, Railway and Cableway. We opted the Valley Return, which allowed us to take the Scenic Railway, go on the Walkway and the Cableway.

Certified as the steepest railway in the world, it was quite an exhilarating ride! It was almost like standing and we were moving rather fast!

The view from the platform at the bottom of the railway looked like this:

I thought we were very lucky to have the blue sky as a backdrop. The Walkway, again, reminded me of my NZ trip, especially with the tall ferns that line the boardwalk:

As the sunshine could not pierce through the canopy, it was freezing cold walking to the Cableway. But, I enjoyed the cooling fresh air and anticipated the ride back up the cliff...

The sky was changing from blue to a grayish shade, which made me feel relieved as it was already nearing the end of our trip. Thankfully, we still managed to capture the contrasting colours of nature:

And to give you a perspective of how high up we were (and how far below the railway took us), have a look at this:

Talk about my fear of heights! Haha... another good trip in the books!

Audrey's Sydney Weekend Getaway!

I can already see a few heads shaking and thinking, "Wah, she came in April leh, now only you blog about it ar?"

I can only say one word: SORRY.

But, haha, better late than never right?? =P

So, due to my poor memory, I will not go into every single tiny detail of her weekend here with us, other than the fact that it was wet when she arrived when it was sunny the week before. I can also disclose that she arrived late on a Thursday night, as I remember going to the airport with Shaun after work. Oh, and be warned: this is going to be a long post as I'm squeezing the entire trip in.

Let's start with breakfast on Friday, the last meal we had with Justin before we had to drop him at the airport for his flight back to KL. I ordered pancakes with banana and a mug of my usual mocha:

Shaun and Justin ordered the same dish. I think it was poached egg on toast with bacon and smoked salmon:

After saying goodbye to Justin, we took Auds on a walk to let her soak in the cityscape of Sydney. And she went shutterbugging away! As this is her second time in Sydney, we only needed to cover the few landmarks that she missed the last time. We went to Hyde Park, which also covered the Archibold Fountain and St. Mary's Cathedral:

She couldn't resist the temptation to snap shots of what goes on in the park as well, for example a yoga (or pilates) class, and a bout of chess:

Oh, and I think we had people staring at us when she took shots of these:

After Jona finished working, he joined us for dinner at Newtown, with other Sydneysiders the girl knows. More 'crazy' people. After having Thai for dinner, we headed over to Mickey (I think its' called) for dessert. Jona was flirting with the waiter. Don't deny it Jon, you were... We only took pictures of two of the best slices of cakes we ordered, which were the lemon meringue and the Mars Bar cheesecake:

And of course, a picture with the two sweeties we introduced to her in Melbourne two years ago:

The next day, we made a trip to the place that's at the bottom of this signboard:

Jona insisted on a group picture in the car so here it is:

And Auds insisted I include this picture in this post so here it is:

Pictures paint a thousand word, right? What do the following pictures tell you about the temperature up there?

And it wasn't even winter yet! Geez! Luckily, the sun came out from behind the clouds after we parked the car and walked to the lookout at Echo Point. That allowed us to quickly snap a few better lit shots of the valley and why the place is called Blue Mountains:

As we were feeling hungry, we headed back down to town in search for food. We returned to Echo Point after lunch. While Jona paid for parking, he spotted a furry friend:

There were many walking trails but we decided to take the shortest one, which was to one of block of the Three Sisters. It was seriously no joke going down the flight of stairs as they were so steep! Jona took slightly longer to get down to the rock as he was doing this...

... that captured this:

While we were walking back to the car, Shaun and Auds took turns to experiment with Jona's DSLR, taking opportunity of the beautiful autumn colours. Here are some of the shots they took, including the Korean-poster-looking/wannabe one of myself:

The last stop was Leura, where we took Auds to the teahouse for scones and of course, tea. Oh, and there's always time for goofing around... haha...

After much deliberation, we finally decided to have homecooked food for dinner. So, we headed over to Coles to get some groceries and came home to prepare the food. Shaun let Auds have a go at the stove. It was something Shaun adapted from a recipe he learnt from Justin and it was yummylicious! There will be a video in my next post regarding this so do keep yourselves posted.

Auds left on Sunday night with a heavy heart but hey, all fine now, eh?