We woke up early as the other three were off to mass at the Cathedral for 8am….except there was no 8am mass so they were back at 8.15. Ooops! We had breakfast at the amazing hotel buffet (waffles, poached eggs, all the things you would want!) and then they went after.

The three of them were booked on the Sydney Bridge Climb! 1332 steps! Think it was pretty exhausting but they did it and had a good time!

Meanwhile I decided to take a trip to 2 Penkivil Street for old times’ sake. It was bucketing down so I got soaked, but it was amazing to see it again. So many good times there!

I stopped in Bondi Junction and did a bit of shopping then got back to town and went to meet the others off the bridge.

We stopped at a little food market under the bridge and had crepes and pizza. There were a lot of bin chickens! Then back to the hotel.

We had dinner at a little Teppanyaki place, which was great fun! We had to catch an egg in a bowl, but Paul’s was only a partial catch. We also had to catch a bowl of rice in another bowl!

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09:42

We woke up and went for an early morning swim in the pool at 8am – it was a much better temperature then.

We played around for a bit then Sadie and I went to see a talk at the town centre about the aboriginal ways -we learned how they made their tools and bowls, and what some of their art meant.
There was a huge lizard that appeared – all the birds were after it!

After that we got the bus to the plane and had a bumpy ride to Sydney. It was nice to be a bit cooler!

We went for a walk to the Rocks for dinner and ate at Pia Zina – a great little Italian. Then gelato on the way home and to bed!

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08:38

A lazy day today – we just hung out by the pool, had a pool lunch and chilled.

We had a drink at the gecko bar and played some poohead.

Dinner at the hotel as we were too late to get to the Outback BBQ.

Sooo hot!!

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08:35

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05:38

We woke up VERY early! The bus took us to the viewpoint to see the sunrise over Uluru. We got hot chocolate and coffee to get us going – it was quite chilly!

The sunrise was amazing and we stayed there for about half an hour before making our way to Kata Tjuṯa, or the Olgas as they are also known.

They are named because they look like heads sticking out of the ground. kata means head. Tjuta means ‘many’.

Paul, Sadie and Ronan went for the walk along the valley but I stayed behind.

After that we were happy to have some free time to hang out in the pool. It was high 30s by now so we were boiling!

We went to the viewing spot near the hotel to see the sunset again, then We had dinner in town at the Gecko cafe and posted a postcard to Santa, Gran and Pop and Grandma and Grandad!

Early start again (5.30!) as we had an 8.20am flight to Melbourne and then on to Uluru.

It was chucking it down in Sydney, so probably a good day to travel.

We arrived in Uluru about 2pm and it was amazing to be so far away from civilisation! The red earth was so striking .

We got the bus to our hotel and needed to wait a little bit for the room so had a wander around town. Sadie spotted a boomerang she was going to buy later!

We had an early dinner in the hotel – Sadie and I had barramundi and Ronan had a massive burger. Paul had an Asian dish. We needed to be ready for our trip to the field of lights at 7pm.

We got there in time to see the sunset – Uluru looked amazing as it turned a deeper red. We had got the star pass so we got drinks and canapés as we watched. After a while it was dark and we went down to see the field of lights – 50,000 lights beneath Uluru that looks flowers. It was beautiful! We got home around 9pm and got to bed as we had a 4am start the next day!

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08:00

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09:29

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08:00

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22:59

Off to uluru

It was so good to be back! And it was warm!
We got a cab to our hotel – the Intercontinental just by Circular Quay. It was a fantastic location and the rooms were good and spacious (especially compared to Tokyo!).

We walked through the Botanic Gardens and had an ice cream. There were lots of long billed birds (later found to be called bin chickens!) that were very interested in Ronan!

We checked into our room and had a quick shower before heading for Manly on the ferry. The views were amazing of the Opera House and the harbour bridge.

It was great walking down the Corso – I remembered it from all those years ago! Sadly Le Kiosk wasn’t there anymore at the little bay. It was buzzing with groups of teenagers all heading for the beach.

We went to Wahlburger for some lunch and took in the vibes. We picked up some surf clothes from Rip Curl and a new sim for Ronan ($12!) and then got the fast ferry back.

My ankle was pretty swollen so Sadie and I chilled in the room and the boys went for a walk round town. They came back with some Subways to share and then an early night as off to Uluru the next day!

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08:00

Last day in Tokyo! We went for breakfast in Starbucks across the road and then decided to go the imperial palace before catching the Sky Hop bus to the south of the city.

You can only enter the palace on 23rd Dec (the Emperor’s birthday) and 2nd Jan, but you can walk around the gardens. It was an interesting juxtaposition of the old and the new, with the skyscrapers sitting next to the centuries-old palace!

We realised we had 10 mins until the bus departed, so hot-footed it and just made it.

The route was really interesting and went down to Ginza and around the port area. Coming across the river was amazing and you could see the whole city! We were lucky with the weather as it was high teens and blue skies.

After that we got off at Ginza for ramen. The ramen got spot had a queue so we settled on Costa Coffee for the boys and a ramen spot for the girls (after some negotiations 🙄). It was £8.50 for 10 gyoza and 2 massive bowls of delicious ramen!

We were pretty tired so went back to the hotel and got a cab to the airport – 6 hours early! Lucky we were early though as there was a mix up with our seats and Sadie’s visa – eventually sorted, although we weren’t all together.

Then we were off on the next leg of our adventure. Sydney- here we come!

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08:00

We got up early – about 8 – and decided to go and see the Meiji shrine as it was a couple of stops south on the metro.

It was in a beautiful big park and there was a forest walk through to get to the shrine.

Sadie and I paid our respects with 2 bows, 2 claps and another bow!

We saw 2 wedding ceremonies passing through and bought a good luck blessing.

After that it was time for mass so I got the metro and the others walked. It was boiling hot!

After that we decided to go on an open bus tour of the city – covering the east and north of Tokyo through Asakusa and Ueno. They looked like cool districts with lots of buzz and museums and shrines, so we decided to go back in the evening.

After a lot of walking we went home and had some food near our hotel. It was a weird little place with sort of Japanese snack. Pork rectum and heart were on the menu! We went for some chicken. Dad had a strange omelette thing and ate all of our hard boiled eggs – this turned out to be a bit of a mistake later 😀.

We went back to the room to chill (and do some washing 🤣) and then got a taxi to the shrine at Asakusa.

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07:13

We arrived in Tokyo around 9am and got a cab to our hotel. We had to wait 5 hours to get into our room so we went for a walk around the Shinjuku Gjoen park. It was massive and beautiful. Lots of manicured lawns and lovely trees and plants. We had a Starbucks to keep us going. I had a matcha latte but I wasn’t keen!

After that we walked to the Tokyo Metropolitan Government building to the 45th floor for some amazing views of the city. It was too foggy to see Mt Fuji.

After that we went back to the hotel and checked in for a shower and to get sorted.

For dinner we walked a few minutes in Shinjuku to Sushi Zanmai. we ordered a load of stuff from the iPad but realised it wasn’t actually that much! So we ordered extra fried fish and hand rolls.

After that it was about 8pm and we were exhausted so went home to bed!

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07:21

Early start for us – our flight was 5.50am so we got up at 3am to make the most of the lounge.
It all went very smoothly as we’d got all bags ready in advance to save the stress. The only question was what to do with 5 hard boiled eggs?

We got to the airport – lounge closed! Went to the other one and had a quick sausage sandwich before boarding.

The first flight was just a short one to Frankfurt, but the thrill of being at the front and getting our food and drinks was still there.

The big excitement came when we got on the big ANA plane and settled into our business class seats!

We all watched a few films and had the food – the Japanese menu was ok but Sadie and Ronan had a lovely beef and gnocchi meal which looked better. Mum got a few hours sleep but the rest were too wired to get much!