Welcome to the A to Z challenge, a blog post everyday of April apart from Sundays, covering every letter of the alphabet. My theme is travel, that thing that we haven’t been able to do over the last 12 months, so it seemed appropriate to reminisce about past travels we’ve taken, looking forward to when we can travel freely again.
Today we’re visiting the city I once called home, my favourite town in Australia, and the town my husband didn’t get to see because of my clumsiness.
I lived in Sydney for three years before moving to the UK, so whenever we go home for a holiday we try to have some time there even if it’s just a couple of days. When I lived there I always used to pinch myself whenever the Harbour Bridge or the Opera House came into view as they’re such iconic buildings.
One of the fabulous things about stopping in Sydney is getting to spend time with my wonderful friend Kierstan and her family.
What would I recommend you see in this incredibly diverse city? The northern beaches are beautiful and if you’re a fan of Home and Away then you want to visit Palm Beach. You can do a behind the scenes tour of the opera house and of course if you’re feeling energetic you can climb the harbour bridge.
The Sydney Tower gives amazing 360 degree views of the city and harbour. Since we were up there in 1999, they have built an outside walkway for people that don’t mind heights. For those that want a more sedate experience there are also two revolving restaurants to enjoy.
Another great thing to do is get a tour of the harbour at dusk in a water taxi – we were the only ones on board so we got a very personalised tour and chat with the driver (I’m not sure that’s what you call the person in charge of a boat).
For great food, bars, sea world, and shopping, then Darling Harbour is the place to be. It’s such a beautiful space and there’s always events going on such as live music, and festivals. The picture in the middle below was taken in the Lindt Chocolate café which was absolutely fabulous.
Stanley is a small town on the northwest coast of Tasmania that is dominated by the nut – a volcanic plug that rises dramatically up from the sea. You can walk up to the top of the nut, or get the chairlift up for incredible views of the coast.
One of the things I love about the town is all the old buildings that have been retained, and it’s for this reason that it was used in 2014 for scenes in the film The Light Between Oceans. The main street of the town is very recognisable in the film.
One of the things Stanley is famous for is that it was where the only Tasmanian Prime minister of Australia was born, in this very house. It’s now a museum about Joseph Lyon’s life.
Our final S is Strahan, a small town on the west coast of Tasmania. This is the gateway to the UNESCO World Heritage wilderness site. There are river cruises into the wilderness and also to Sarah Island to explore the ruins of the extremely remote convict settlement. We were there in winter so the cruises weren’t running but we were still going to explore as much as we could.
We arrived in Strahan, got out of the car, and I preceded to trip over a bollard and slide along the asphalt on my hands and knees. So the main place we experienced was the tourist information centre so that my beloved could patch me up with their first aid kit.
Once I was sufficiently patched up we did manage to go for a walk on Ocean Beach which at 30 km long is the longest beach in Tasmania. It is the southern ocean that washes onto these sands, and the next landmass west of this point is South America.
All three of these places are well worth a visit, but remember if you are travelling to Australia it is a very big continent, so don’t try to see too much in a short time.
Thanks for stopping by and make sure you visit other bloggers who are crazy enough to be doing the challenge with me – Click Here to visit the master list of participants.
Stay safe and have a lovely day.
Previous A to Z posts:
2018 – S is for Surprises, Selfies, and Silliness
2017 – S is for Skye
2016 – S is for Statues
Tasmanian Abroad 
I feel traveling to Australia would be similar to traveling to the US. You would need to take multiple different trips, or stay an incredibly long time, to truly see everything. Each area is also unique and different. Weekends In Maine
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The more I see of Tasmania the more beautiful it looks. I want to visit one day 🙂
The Multicolored Diary
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The one time we visited Sydney I was definitely pinching myself too when we saw the Opera and the Harbour Bridge!!!
We spent almost a week in Sydney and felt we hadn’t even seen it all yet.
If / when we make it back, I’ll do some repeat pinching. Why didn’t Ken get to see Sydney???
Stanley and Strahan look nice, too.
https://thethreegerbers.blogspot.com/2021/04/a-z-2021-swim-with-sharks.html
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And Sunday! ☀️
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I’ve always wanted to go to Sydney! We almost made it there in 2018… even purchased our airline tickets, but then my husband started a new job a week prior to our trip and we ended up canceling our plans! Maybe one of these days we’ll get there.
The Light Between Oceans is on my list of books I want to read. I didn’t realize they made a movie of it, too! So, I’ll add that to my movies to see list, too.
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