25 Dec 2016 - Farewell Sydney and Merry Christmas

We decided to sleep late and have breakfast in the hotel room as most of the shops were closed on Christmas Day. After checking out of the Hotel at 12pm, we took a taxi to the airport. We were lucky to be upgraded to business class for our flight home. As our flight back was near evening, we had our lunch at Nandos before boarding the flight.

Our food on board our flight back home.

We thoroughly enjoyed our 2 weeks aussie holidays. Some “FIRST” for the kids, first cruise, first time seeing their names on Christmas tree, first tree top walk, first sky-car ride, and also a not so good first… first time losing iphone.  :-(

Nevertheless, we all had a good 2 weeks break. The greatest takeaway for this trip is the Christmas
carol “Pirate’s twelve days of Christmas”, which the kids are still singing today.  :-)

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24 Dec 2016 - Christmas Eve Fireworks at Cockle Bay

Despite the light drizzle, there was a big crowd at cockle bay waiting for the fireworks to start.  There is fireworks display over the bay every Saturday at 9pm plus a special display on Christmas Eve. We were lucky to get a good view of the spectacular fireworks display, and it went on for a good 10 minutes.

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24 Dec 2016 - Dinner at Pancake on the Rocks, Harbourside

The kids made the decision to have our Christmas eve meal at Pancake on the Rocks after seeing the colorful and attractive looking menu.

The meals served looks instagram-worthy and true to the pictures shown on the menu.

We did not know that this was a very popular restaurant until we saw a super long queue outside the restaurant after we finished our meal. We were glad that the kids made this choice as we thoroughly enjoyed the delightful and “sweet” meal.

After dinner, we walked around Harbourside mall and had coffee and cookies whilst waiting for the fireworks to begin at 8pm.

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24 Dec 2016 - An afternoon of fun at Powerhouse Museum

As we had some time today, we decided to visit the Powerhouse Museum.

As the museum is quite near Chinatown, we decided to go “Yum Cha”, more commonly known as dim sum here. We just walked in to the 1 st yum cha house that appeal to us, and had a very full and delicious meal. After our lunch, we took a short walk to the Powerhouse Museum.

Powerhouse Museum is also known as the Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences. There was the Egyptian Mummies exhibition from the British Museum going on at the Museum but we decided to give that a miss since we had seen it before at MONA (Museum of Old and New Art) in Tasmania.

As it was school holidays in Australia at that time, there were special activities for the kids at the museum. The kids had a good time playing with the other children at the activities stations before embarking on the exploration of the museum.

There was a section on transportation with life-sized model of Space Shuttle, Locomotive and Airplanes.

Powerhouse Museum is indeed the perfect family destination for exploring the interactive side of arts and science.

There was a yellow room where everything, including ourselves, turned "Yellow" inside the room.

 We spent the whole afternoon exploring the museum until we were chased out at 5.00pm.

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24 Dec 2016 - Hotel Mercure Sydney

We arrived in Sydney in about an hour as the traffic was relatively clear on Christmas Eve morning. Since we had to return the rented car at Mercure Sydney, we decided to stay one night at this hotel before heading to the airport on Christmas Day.

The room was pretty clean and comfy.

The swimming pool and gym are on the top floor.

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24 Dec 2016 - Sea Cliff Bridge along Grand Pacific Drive

The Grand Pacific Drive is a 140km scenic coastal driving over the iconic Sea Cliff Bridge the through the Coastal Cities and townships of Wollongong, Shellharbour, Kiama and Shoalhaven. We chose to check out early from the Marketview Hotel so that we can make our way back to Sydney via the Grand Pacific Drive.

We drove over the sea cliff bridge but did not have time to stop and take the bridgewalk as recommended by many travel guides due to time constraint. However we spent some time looking for the lookout point for a photo of the sea cliff bridge. Not picture perfect, but you will be able to spot the bridge if you zoom into the picture.

After the photo, it was drive all the way back to Sydney.

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23 Dec 2016 - Exploring Crown Street Mall

Marketview Hotel is conveniently located in the heard of Wollongong CBD. We chose this place due to the close proximity to Crown Street Mall.

There were lots of Christmas events on Crown Street Mall, but by the time we made our way there, most of the events were over. Since it was not yet dinner time, we spent some time shopping at Crown Street Mall and also took the opportunity to visit all the Christmas-themed locations in the malls.

The kids were glued to the Pirate’s Twelve Days of Christmas Animated Windows at David Jones. After repeating the song for over 10 times, the kids started to complain that they were feeling hungry and we proceeded to find a restaurant for our early dinner.

We decided to have a Vietnamese dinner at a restaurant called Mylan. As it was still not peak dinner hour, we were given a table although we did not have a reservation. Within the next 15 minutes, the entire restaurant was filled and we realized that this was a popular place.

After a hearty dinner, the kids requested to re-visit the Animated Windows at David Jones. They were singing endless repetitions of the twelve days of Christmas till we all remembered the lyrics of the song. We took photos of the lighted up Christmas Tree after sunset and quickly walked back to the hotel as it was turning cold.

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