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Tuesday 19 January 2010

Aussie Maria's Australia

Hi everyone

Congrats to Toni Collette on winning a Golden Globe!!!!!  She is very Aussie and is a wonderful actor.  I still love Muriel's Wedding and Sixth Sense

Now to another little trip we did while Hubby was off work.  We decided to finally drive the "Grand Pacific Drive".  The "drive" basically starts on the southern side of Sydney at the Royal National Park near Waterfall.  Royal National Park is the second oldest park in the WORLD!!!!

It only took us about an hour to get to the start and we were planning on doing the drive to Wollongong and staying the night there.  Instead we had a lovely day out and had a wonderful lunch overlooking the ocean.

Ok, so we started driving through the Park, but decided not to visit the beaches, such as Wattamolla & Garie, as they were off the main road and a long way to the coast.  We did drive through a lot of this though






And then we arrived at Bald Hill which overlooks Stanwell Park


On a windy day this is what your view would be (not my photo)



and there can be lots and lots of them

You can just see in the background the bridge built over the water which is fairly new


We had lunch at the Headlands Hotel.


  It is a very old pub which unfortunately needs lots of money spent on it.  The food was excellent though and as for the views, well they can speak for themselves.


Finished the drive in Wollongong, even though the drive goes further and look what I spotted in the middle of town shopping area



Bye for now

10 comments:

  1. It is such a lovely drive through the National Park, we often ride to stanwell tops it is nice going over the Sea Cliff Bridge. A cocky in town, well Wollongong is very close to country living I guess.

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  2. Oh- thanks for the beautiful photos - so many memories. I grew up in Loftus and lived in Sutherland until 4 years ago so I spent a lot of time in Royal National Park. It's such a beautiful place. I think I will need to plan some time there on my next trip.

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  3. Hi Maria

    It's Kate here from the Team at Tourism Wollongong. It's great to see that you enjoyed your day down here. Some nice pics too!

    If you come back down, another great spot for lunch is the Scarborough Pub - just a little south of the Sea Cliff Bridge. Pub style meals, recently renovated, nice 'cabana' style huts with spectacular views. Just an idea.

    We hope you come back soon...

    Kate
    Tourism Wollongong
    www.grandpacificdrive.com.au

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  4. Hi Maria

    What stunning photos its lovely to see more of Australia thank you! I like Toni Collette too, she was great in About A Boy and the hippy mum and she was also good in the costume drama Emma.

    Take Care Kim x

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  5. Wow!
    What wonderful scenery! A lovely ride out.
    It's great for us here in the UK to see such spectacular views!
    Hugs and Love Suex

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  6. What a nice trip we all had with you. I felt like I was sitting right there in the car. Very cool to send us some sand, sea and sun. Just what we need...

    Hugs,Kate,xoxoxoxox

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  7. Oh you make me miss living in Sydney. We always did the drive about every 6 weeks.

    Mind you we loved going to Kiama also, just for fish and chips.

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  8. I really like your blog which I have just discovered. We had to get the atlas out to find these places, they look GORGEOUS!
    Thank you for your comment on my blog xxx
    Louise

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  9. Beautiful photos! You are so lucky to be having summer right now:>) Wish I were there. Australia is a place I have always wanted to see!

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  10. Ah, Australia - a land of contrasts! My view all day today has been the bush as we drove from Bingara (N of Tamworth) to Penrith via Putty Road.

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