Throw another shrimp on the barbi, we are still in Australia! Alright, I promise I’m done with the poor clichés. After some recharge time in Melbourne, we flew north to meet up with my Aussie friend from a NASA Internship which feels like yesterday but was actually over a decade ago in 2012, yeesh. Lyle and I were just two optimistic graduate students looking to change the world with our joint startup Lylec Industries (Get it?!? Lyle + Alec = Lylec), but we never made it public. And by that I mean never actually formed it at all. Since those days we’ve matured, slightly, and have careers and families. It was great to reconnect as if no time had passed.
Where Are We?
For the second half of our trip to Australia we flew north to spend 10 days in a combination of Sydney, Canberra and at the coast near Jarvis Bay. I’m dubbing this part of the trip the “New South Wales Triangle”, trademark pending, since it worked out to be about a 2-3 hour drive between each of the destinations. It was a great route to see Australia’s biggest city, capital city and beautiful coastline in an optimized road trip. Music to my ears.
In Sydney we stayed in the trendy Surry Hills area with, you guessed it, great places to eat and parks with playgrounds. It was a fantastic walking area and really easy to grab a bus anywhere in the city, perfect for our short stay. We visited the main harbor and Opera House and were rightly impressed by both. Mae was not a fan of the stairs up to the Opera House, so got half way up and decided to sit while the rest of us continued the final 10 stairs. She was perfectly content sitting there, watching the boats. Security only asked me three times if the brooding 5 year old sitting alone on the steps belonged to us.
Rather than take an expensive harbor tour of Botany Bay, we opted to take the public ferry across the water to Manly, still allowing us to take in the views of Sydney. Manly was an awesome neighborhood with California coastal vibes and even better beaches where the kids loved finding snails. Our other stop in Sydney was at the Bondi-to-Coogee beach coastal walk, a path along the coast over cliffs and through many beautiful strips of sand. My favorite thing we saw along the way was actually a swim club, where they had tamed the sea to create a massive salt water swimming area for people to enjoy.
On to Canberra, the capital city was established as a “compromise” between Melbourne and Sydney and planned as both a city and capital from scratch, with wide streets and beautiful green spaces. My friend, Lyle and his wife, Nadine, grew up in Canberra and are now raising their three kids here. They were kind enough to be our tour guides, hitting up all of the best bites and kid friendly locations in the city. Mae became fast friends with 6 year old Freja and Emmett either chased around omni-patient 9 year old Hathem or played with baby Ayla who, per Emmett, was “soooo cuteeeee!”.
Not tired of us yet, Lyle and his family packed up their car and joined us for the third leg of the New South Wales Triangle (is it catching on yet?) heading to the costal area of Jarvis Bay. We found a great beach house for our two families to share, complete with a kids bunkroom for them all to “help” each other go to sleep at a reasonable hour. Our days were filled with sharing meals, stops for coffee at the singular cafe in town and playing at the beach. Really what more could you want? We spent the majority of the beach time at the white sand Hyam’s Beach but also drove a few minutes up the coast to the town of Huskisson for some much needed fish & chips and gelato. After four relatively relaxed nights we said a hard goodbye to new friendships and drove to the airport to continue on our journey.
Favorite Experiences
Places
Here were some of our favorite activities from the trip! I put these on a map at the end of the blog along with our accommodations if you want links and more information. I used the same map for our entire Australian experience, so there is stuff on there that was in our previous Melbourne Blog, too.
- Day Trip to Manly – I mentioned it above, but it was such a fun day trip I wanted to draw special attention to it. Affordable water ferry with views, calm bays for kid beach play and beach shops, Manly had it all. Like everywhere in Australia we visited, there were tons of fantastic places to eat and the novelty of the boat journey kept the kids entertained.
- Walking around Canberra – I didn’t have one specific place in Canberra that stuck out, just that we enjoyed walking around the many parks and neighborhoods near Telopea Park where we stayed. I went on several morning runs around the Capital Hill and along the nearby lake before all walking together to breakfast for fancy toasts and coffee. The city had a much calmer feel than either Melbourne or Sydney and was worth the stop.
- Hyam’s Beach – Hyam’s Beach holds the Guinness World Record for the whitest sand in the world, thanks to its high quartz content. Aside from being gorgeous, the beach was perfect for sandcastles and turning the kids in to mermaids or, as Emmett prefers, fish. The dads, oh and the kids, enjoyed the boogie boarding in the warm waves.
Food/Coffee
Here were some of our favorite restaurants from our travels. Australia is actually very similar to the United States in the wide variety of food options available and use of regional ingredients.Australian specific items to try are their meat pies and the so called “sausage sanga” which is basically a hot dog but rather then put it on a bun you put it on a regular slice of bread. Nothing Earth shattering but tasty non the less!
- Fonda Mexican, Sydney – In our travels we’ve had a variety of fantastic cuisine but one thing decidedly absent has been good Mexican food, something we take for granted in the USA. Exhausted after our day of traveling from Melbourne, we got takeout from Fonda Mexican and it was everything we had been dreaming of. Maybe it’s because I haven’t had a decent burrito in months, but this place hit the spot for all three of us.
- Capital Brewing Co., Canberra – On our first night in Canberra, we met Lyle’s family at this awesome brewery with great beer, burgers and an expansive outdoor grounds with a stream for the kids to run play in. It was the perfect place to enjoy a warm Australian night with friends.
- Typica, Canberra- Our best brunch in NSW, delicious eggs benedicts, waffles and of course hot drinks. The place is famous for the “Raspberry Candy” which is neither raspberry nor candy but a velvety smooth flat white with the flavor profile of the namesake. If it hadn’t already been my 3rd coffee drink of the day, I would have gotten another.
- Berry Donut Van, Berry – In the small town of Berry along our drive back from Jarvis Bay to Sydney there is a small donut van that has stopped there in the 1970s and decided to stay. They’ve served the same cinnamon sugar donuts for over 55 years and we inhaled the half-dozen of them that we got to share.
Family Moments
- Swim Goggles at Breakfast – All things considered, our kids have fantastic restaurant manners. One of the ways we keep them occupied is by letting them bring toys of their choosing, so long as they fit in the designated pocket of the backpack. On this particular morning, both kids decided swim goggles were the toy-de-jour and spent a breakfast at a cafe wearing them. We were all belly laughing.
- Making Dinner in our Airbnb – Some of our best memories from the trip were simply making dinner at our beach house with Lyle’s family. All four walking children always wanted to help, leading to some controlled chaos in meal prep and only a few fights over how many ears of corn were buttered by which child. Jokes aside, it was fun to all be in the kitchen together and I’m always impressed how capable kids are when given the chance to cook.
- Per Mae (5 Yr Old): Favorite moment was “Coloring with Freja” – Freja brought a ton of art supplies to the coast and Mae loved sitting with her and Hathem at the kitchen table following along with drawing videos or making patterend rainbow works of art.
- Per Emmett (2.5 Yr Old): Favorite moment was “Cars with Hathem” – Emmett loves cars. Emmett loves people who play with cars. Therefore, when Hathem played for literal hours he was on cloud nine.
Tips & Lessons Learned
This is where we put all of the things we learned along the way about traveling in the region as well as traveling with toddlers.
About New South Wales:
- Didn’t Need Cash – Australia is all digital. In the nearly month we were there we never used an ATM or carried any Australian dollars on us. Tap-to-pay was omnipresent.
- Sydney Public Transportation – Similar to Melbourne, it was easy to use Google to navigate the public transportation throughout the city. All systems used tap-to-pay and free for children under 4. Mae was the only “complicated” one in that we had to get an Opal Card for her to tap on at the convenience store.
- Visit the Beaches – We were originally sad our itinerary was going to miss the “good beaches” of the Golden Coast North of Sydney, but it turns out the entire coastline has great sandy spots. Regardless of where you visit in the huge country, the nearest beach should be on your to visit list.
