Explorations! (Part V)

Final post for my week long explorations!

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DAY 6 (17 NOV)

The 6th Day of explorations was another overcast day. On this day, the journey went further out again, this time southwards by train to Cronulla, and then by bus to the Kurnell Peninsula. On this day, my housemate came along too, since he didn't have anything else to do.

The weather held for part of the morning, but as we wandered further, the rain started, and it was a pretty wet walk,  and a very, very long one too (See image below), though the views were pretty rewarding once again.

Overall, it was another location that needs to be visited once again, and this one more so, as there was a large area yet to be explored.

DAY 7 (18 NOV)

I didn't have much time to go around on the final day of explorations, since I had a plane to catch at 430pm, so I just spent the morning going taking the Mosman Bay ferry around, and stopping by at Cremorne Point. Fortunately, the weather was beautiful, unlike that of the previous two or three mornings.

After the lovely morning out, it was back to Randwick, then off to the airport, thus ending off approximately 7 days of almost non-stop travelling around.

From all that zooming around, I'd say that the $57 that was spent on the MyMulti was well spent, since I'd probably used up more than a hundred dollars worth of transportation in all my travels.

Oh, and I didn't mention before, but more photos of all the explorations can be found on facebook.

Explorations! (Part IV)

DAY 4 (15 NOV)

After three days of great sunshine (which was already better than forcasted, but I wasn't complaining), the weather turned gloomy. I didn't have far-flung plans for this day, but the overcast skies didn't help, in any case.

The morning involved what I termed a "Ferry Run", which was a plan to hop on and off as many ferries possible. So I made stops at McMachons Point, Balmain East, and Milsons Point (at Jeffery's Street Wharf), all places that I've not looked around before. The views, while mostly familiar, were at least from different directions, so the perspectives were slightly different.

Perhaps I would go to some of these areas again on days with better weather.

After hopping off the ferryt at Jefferys Street, I took the train to Waverton, and walked to Balls Head Reserve. The views were once again of the harbour, but further west, and I believe it would have looked much nicer on a clear sunny day.

(Click image for larger size)

After Balls Head, I headed back to Circular Quay, and caught a ferry to Manly. I had planned to try to reach North Head in the afternoon, but while I was still at Manly, it began to rain, and all further explorations had to be postponed (Though I did go out for a short while in the evening, somehow ending up all the way at Macquarie University's train station before going back to the city :P).

DAY 5 (16 NOV)

The 5th day started out as overcast as the day before, but I decided to head for North Head anyway, taking the ferry to Manly once more, and catching a bus from there. Even so, it was still a pretty long walk to the lookout points (The bus stopped near the entrance to Q Station).

The views were great, though the drizzle that started while I was walking and the overcast skies did dampen the mood a little. Didn't spend too long there due to the wet weather, but when I walked back to the bus stop, I realized that I missed the bus (which came once an hour), so I had to walk all the way back to Manly Wharf. And to add on to that, the sky that greeted me back at Manly looked like this:

Yes, the sky cleared up and the sun came out, after I was done walking and exploring North Head...

In any case, I just decided to head on back and continue with my plans, and come back to North Head another time. From Manly, I headed back to Circular Quay, got lunch, and headed right of to Watsons Bay.

After looking around a bit at Greens Point, I headed to South Head once again to visit my favourite lighthouse:

I think it was my 5th visit there, if I'm not mistaken.

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TBC in one final post...

Explorations! (Part III)

DAY 3 (14 NOV)

The third day of explorations took me north once again, this time to Newcastle - and it took a train journey of nearly 3 hours to get there.

The first place I visited was Nobby's Headland and Lighthouse, located where the Hunter River met the Tasman Sea. Walked right to the very end of the breakwater too.

From there, I headed to Fort Scratchley, a WWII fortification located just around the corner.  As the fort was built on a hill overlooking the river mouth, it had great views of the city and surrounding coast.

Looking back at Nobby's Headland and the mouth of the Hunter River, from Fort Scratchley:

Paroramic view of the city and more of the Hunter River:

(Click image for larger size)

From the Fort, it was lunch, then a long-ish walk back along the river to the Stockton Ferry Wharf, where I caught the ferry to cross the Hunter to the other bank (You can actually see the wharf and ferry in the panorama above).

The Stockton side of the river was mostly residential, so there was less to do, but the riverside park still gave pretty nice views of the city.

(Click image for larger size)

After Stockton, it was back to the other shore, then a train ride back towards Sydney. Instead of going all the way back though, I made a stop at Woy Woy, to have a quick look around Brisbane Water, which was an offshoot of the Hawkesbury River (no idea why it's called Brisbane Water though).

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TBC in another post...

Explorations! (Part II)

Continuing on with the second post...

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DAY 2 (13 NOV)

The second day of explorations started out really early (I woke up before 4am), with a sunrise outing to Bondi with the UNSW Photoclub, and that kicked off a really, really, long day of walking.

From Bondi, I went right over by bus to Circular Quay, caught a ferry to Manly, then another bus to Long Reef, where I walked the beach and headland (taking more time than expected too). The view was pretty great, though the day was really hot.

(Click image for larger size, as I couldn't get it to fit)

From Long Reef, I caught a bus (Which came very late and was way too crowded) to Palm Beach, all the way at the Northern edge of Sydney. There I climbed Barrenjoey Headland, which was really steep, but the views from the top were rewarding.

Above - Barrenjoey Lighthouse. Below - panoramic views south and north of the Headland.

(Click image for larger size)

(Click image for larger size)

After the rather exhausting climb up (and down), I took a short break, and caught a bus to the next place.

The next location, Bangalley Headland Reserve, was a location that I had found out about only a week before. Information about the place was a little confusing (some people called it Bangalley Headland, others Careel Headland), and the route to the Reserve, which was through residential areas, wasn't marked out (I had to rely on what I remembered from Google Maps). But I found the place, and it also involved quite a bit of climbing. Views from the few lookout points (not really marked out either) were pretty nice too.

View northwards; Barrenjoey Headland can be seen in the distance.

View southwards, towards Avalon.

Climbing down the other end of the headland, I caught a bus, then made a short unscheduled stop at Newport Beach  to take a look around (Not very much there, unfortunately). From there, it was another bus journey back to Manly, then ferry back to the city, and the end of the day's explorations.

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TBC once again...

Explorations! (Part I)

I'm finally getting round to doing this series of long overdue posts...

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Being a non-local in Australia meant that there were many places that I've never been to; places that I wanted to find out about for photography. And because I'm always dreadfully busy during semester time, the time to do some exploring was either before or after semester. The first time I did this was earlier this year in February, when I bought a weekly pass and went around the eastern beaches and the city. Now at the end of Semester II, 2010, I decided to go exploring once again, but instead of just going around to locations closer to the CBD and where I stayed in Randwick, I decided to go further out.

As such, I got myself a MyMulti 3, the weekly ticket that covered the greatest extent of unlimited travel, and went exploring for a week, from 11 - 18 November.

DAY 0 (11 NOV)

The explorations began earlier than planned when I decided to make a quick trip over to Bondi for a look at the annual Sculptures by the Sea, right after I bought my ticket (and right after my exam ended too).

My eye for art isn't that great though, so I didn't take many interesting photos.

DAY 1 (12 NOV)

For the first day of actual explorations, I decided to go south, towards Wollongong. First stop, however, was at Coalcliff station, just over an hour out from Sydney. From there, I walked the Sea Cliff Bridge, with its great views, all the way to the next train station at Scarborough.

From Scarborough Station, it was about another hour by train before I reached North Wollongong Station, where I stopped to walk to the beach, and to walk along the beach to the main part of Wollongong itself.

I didn't really spend a lot of time in Wollongong however, and it was only mid afternoon when I went to Wollongong station to catch the train back to Sydney (I did consider going further south to Kiama, but was worried that I'd miss the necessary trains back to Sydney, so I didn't go. Plans for next year, perhaps?)

TBC in the next post...

Canberra Roadtrip

I've always liked the idea of going for a road trip, and doing one with friends is even better. It's been a long while since I went on a proper road trip (packaged tours don't count), so I was pretty fired up a day or two before we even got to the Photoclub's Canberra / Floriade road trip on 02 - 03 October.

Overall, the trip was a good one, even though the weather was far from favourable. I did not get as many great photos as I had hoped, but it still felt great to be on a trip with friends. Special thanks to Benny for being such a good driver, and to Clarissa, Alfred, Andrew, Nick, and whoever else who helped planned the trip!

Can't wait for the next one!

(P.S. Hopefully, I'll have practiced enough driving by then :D)

A Trip to Melbourne

Last week was the mid-semester break, and for once, I used it as an actual break, and went somewhere (rather than doing assignments, which I was supposed to). It has already been years since I was last in Melbourne, and I had been thinking of going down at the end of the year. So when a friend pestered me about going down during the mid-semester break, it was quite easy to persuade me to move my plans forward. So down to Melbourne I went, flying there on the 5th and returning on the 8th. The weather was wet half the time, but fortunately, there was enough dry hours for me to get loads of photos.  Most of my time was spent walking around the CBD, with one day spent zooming through the Great Ocean Road on a day trip.

Flinders St Station, next to Federation Square, was pretty much the centre of Melbourne~

I brought my tripod down to Melbourne, and I'm happy to say that that paid off, with the night cityscapes being some of my best shots (In my opinion) from the trip.

The Great Ocean Road was beautiful too, though the weather wasn't at it's best for part of the day. It was also rather rushed, being a day trip after all. Next time, I'm going to spend a few days just at the GOR, to take more time to enjoy the views.

More photos coming soon, to both Facebook and Flickr! (When I have the time to finishing editing them all)

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P.S. Yes, I want to go to Melbourne again : )

Floriade Vistas – A trip down to Canberra

From 11 - 13 September, I went on a trip with a groups of UNSW Photoclub members to Canberra for the Floriade Festival (Among other things).

There were really quite a lot of flowers to be seen and photographed (though not as much as I had imagined).

The three days was pretty fun, and apart from the Floriade, we visited a twilight market, a museum, and Australia's new Parliament House, which was rather impressive looking, I'd have to say.

Day View:

Night View:

Before we left Canberra on the third day, we also visited the Telstra tower, which gave us panoramic views of the city and its surrounds (Click the thumbnails for large images).

Destinations USA 08 - DAY 9 / 10 /11 - The Journey Home

On to the final post for the trip...

At San Francisco's Airport (Day 9):

Our gate:

Our flight was SQ 001, and the first flight of 2009 to boot, flying off at 0005 Hrs on 01 Jan 09 (Day 10).

Cos of that, we got a special gift of chocolates:

From San Francisco, we flew across the Pacific to our transit stop in Hong Kong. Unfortunately for us, flying back across the International Date Line meant that our New Year's Day was approximatly only 4 Hrs long...

We reached Hong Kong on Day 11.

Transiting in Hong Kong:

Our Plane in Hong Kong:

From Hong Kong, we flew back to Singapore, and were home...

Our plane at Changi Airport:

Immigration:

The End.

Finally finished posting the "Photo Journal" of the US Trip... 3 months late...

Destinations USA 08 - DAY 9 - San Francisco

Continuing on again...

Day 9 started out foggy. The view out of the hotel during breakfast:

Sidetracking a little, I would like to "Showcase" the nice hotel that we stayed in:

Why I liked this hotel? Cos it has:

(1) Free internet access

(2) Flat screen TV with quite a number of channels

(3) A very nice toilet :)

Of course, it has a nice bed and such too...

Okay, back to the actual point of the post:

After breakfast, we left our hotel, walking to the nearest tram stop.(Or rather known asSan Francisco's famous cable cars)

Walking along foggy streets:

To take the cable car:

On the cable car (It's very crowded. Squeezy, but quite fun.):

We were taking the cable car to the new fisherman's wharf. Along the way, more foggy streets...

After alighting, we walked a short distance to:

Seagull!

The view on a foggy day?

We then took a cable car back, through still foggy streets...

...and went for a spot of shopping. (No, I didn't manage to buy anything.)

After shopping, we had our San Francisco "city tour".

First, a statue, if I'm not mistaken, of the people who made the city what it was:

Next, a photo of their city hall:

For the central part of the city, the fog had cleared off. But for the next place we went to. The fog remained, thick as ever.

What's the next place?

This:

The Golden Gate Bridge. Or a least, the part which we could see through the fog.

I walked onto the bridge a little to get a closer look...

After that, our tour coach took us across the Bridge and back...

View of the ocean while we were travelling across the bridge:

From the Golden Gate Bridge, we travelled back to Fisherman's Wharf to take a bay cruise around the bay.

The boat:

A seagull on the boat:

Sailing into the bay, one is able to see exactly how foggy the day is:

We sailed under the Golden Gate Bridge:

Made a U-turn back:

Then we sailed past Alcatraz Island...

Looming out from the fog:

Coming closer:

Passing by:

Then we sailed back to the city, which remained shrouded in fog...

Returning to Fisherman's Wharf, we had seafood for dinner.

There was also loads of other fresh seafood around:

After dinner, we had a little time to walked around a bit, but then it was time to head to the airport...

The last bit (mainly the journey back) will be continued in the next post.

Destinations USA 08 - DAY 8 - From Las Vegas to San Francisco

Continuing on...

Waking up before dawn:

We had to wake early on this day, as we had a domestic flight to catch.

We left our hotel in Las Vegas in the morning, and headed for the city's airport, which wasn't far.

Passing by the MGM Grand:

The airport only served one airline: Southwest Airlines.

Talk about absolute monopoly...

As the airport was very close to the city, we could see parts of the strip even when we were sitting in the plane, waiting for take off:

Our flight was just under 2 Hrs, to the city of San Jose, from which we would travel by coach to San Francisco.

When our plane approached San Jose to land, we saw that the entire area was shrouded in a thick layer of fog:

It looks really mysterious from above...

From below, it just looks wet and grey.

From the airport, the coach brought us along the Pacific coast (first sight of the ocean)...

...to Montery Bay (or harbour), where the old fisherman's wharf was located.

We saw some seagulls...

...and had our lunch:

At the restaurant, we had clam chowder, which tasted wonderful.

(Note the fact that I do not like clams, or any other shellfish, for that matter.)

They also had some of the best seafood...

After lunch, we headed to Cannery Row:

...which had more seagulls:

...and chocolate :)

After buying loads of chocolate and taking more photos of seagulls, we headed to the 17 mile drive, which was a scenic drive along the coastline.

We stopped a several points for photos...

(Seal Rock)

(Lone Cypress)

We caught the last bits of sunset at the Lone Cypress, and the colours of the sky were really beautiful.

From the Lone Cypress, we headed to Pebble Bay, which was a world famous golf resort, for a toilet break and souvenirs.

(Night has fallen...)

From Pebble Bay, it was a long drive all the way to San Francisco, where we arrived in the night.

To be continued...