It's Winter. So What? We're Going to the Beach

It is technically winter here in Sydney which means two things: average temperatures of about 17-21 degrees Celsius (50-70) and more rain than usual. So you would think that it is not quite beach weather but in our month stay I've been to three different beaches and look forward to making it to my fourth this weekend or next. Australia's beaches are numerous (it is an island) and pretty famous- not just for their beauty but for their surfing. So we've made it a point to travel and check out some of the more popular/most breathtaking ones.

The first weekend we went to Bondi Beach-its a surfers' paradise. There are great waves with several beaches making up the larger Bondi area and the surfers looked like they were having a great time. Seeing as it was before surf camp we just decided to take the scenic 3K walk along the cliffs. All of the views were amazing as the shoreline was dotted with little towns, great vegetation and some astounding views of the ocean. The highlight of the day for me was definitely seeing a small whale just off the beach. I was under a part of the cliff in a little cover probably 60-70 feet above the ocean when this older couple said they saw a whale. At first I didn't believe them but sure enough the 10-15 foot whale came up and submerged a good three or four times before we lost sight of it. The whale had to be within 250-300 feet from shore and it was just amazing to me that this was a beach that was within 30 minutes of town by bus. I got one good photo of the backside of the whale as he's going back beneath the waves. The other cool part of the beach was that they had several swimming pools on the edge of the rocks that were being filled up by the surf. I had never seen anything like it but want to try it while I'm here. Pictures are below:

Bondi Beach

Our second trip was to Surf Camp but we couldn't bring our cameras down to the beach and the photographs taken by one of the surf instructors cost 50 bucks for all of your photos from the weekend. That's fine but I only had 12 where as one of my friends had 54-wasn't quite worth it. I'll delve into the great experience of surf camp this weekend I promise.

Two weekends ago we went to Royal National Park. New South Wales, one of the six states of Australia (where Sydney is located), has a ton of national parks but this is the only one locals recommend. We took the train for an hour and then a ferry another 25 minutes out to what turned out to be a park of 100+KM that was landlocked. As we took the ferry over we noticed how beautiful the water was with lots of extremely clear blue patches that you wouldn't see in the States. We took off on a 10K hike that day that was at times brutal but also ridiculously beautiful. The beaches were really nice and we even went wading a bit, although not on purpose. The trail took us along the coastline and through some trees and shrubs that gave us a very small dose of what the Australian bush is like. In the end we were extremely relieved when we got off the path that we were praying was the right one to see the Sydney skyline far off in the distance. The little town we took the ferry too was pretty cool as there were parrots roosting in a lot of the trees in people's backyards. They also had a WWI monument along the trail-a trend that I'll explain more about when I do a post about my trip to Canberra that I took Monday.

Royal National Park

As for what I'm up to currently and the future: tomorrow I'm going out solo for the first time with a camera crew to do interviews for a story that's airing next week. Everyone in my office now trusts me and constantly are finding more and more things to have me do which is making life a lot easier.

Today was a really unique experience as the Prime Minister (their version of the president) was replaced by his party in favor of his Deputy minister (VP). The new Prime Minister is Julia Gillard the first woman Prime Minister in Australian history (they've only had 22). It was pretty cool to get caught up in the history and I definitely enjoyed being part of such a historical event. It was only the second time in Aussie history a PM had been displaced by his party in favor of another person during their term.

This weekend hopefully I'm going to the horse racetrack, just to say that I've experienced it. We're also planning on visiting a few museums, maybe going to another beach and definitely going to the USA-GHANA game which is at 4:30AM here in Sydney. It's not easy following the World Cup down under but it hasn't stopped me yet.