Our friend Joel picked us up early on Friday morning and rescued us from our room from of eternal sleep deprivation. We were happy to get out of there and what a better way to cheer us up than a day-long beach walk!
We started early in the day at Joel's home town of Coogee. It was a beautiful, sunny, warm day. We took our first little dip in some rock pools located at the corner of the beach. During the great depression there was a major unemployment problem in Australia so the government made up public works projects so that people would have employment. One of the things they did was build these rock walls at several of the beaches so as to create small rock pools or spas. It was kind of neat. The beaches that we went too all looked a bit different but most of them had these rock pools and at all of them the water was COLD! It's not even summer yet so that's to be expected.
So we took a quick dip in the Coogee rock pools before heading on to a small, local "beach" called Gordon's Bay. I skipped out on the swimming this time, as I knew how cold it was going to be! But I got some of John and Joel swimming back toward the rocks.
Our next stop was a different place called Clovelly Beach. The beach was actually quite small, located at the back end of the bay, while both sides were huge cement areas for bathers and others to hang out. Once again, I skipped out on the swimming while John and Joel went around--it was just too warm out!
By the time we got to the next beach, Bronte, it was lunch time! The beach had a big park area behind it with trees and shaded areas, pavilions, bathrooms, and barbecues. It was quite a nice area and a good place to grab some lunch! We stopped in a small fish and chips shop to grab a quick bite.
One thing that had definitely been more noticeable in Australia is the abundance of North American accents. Whether people are Canadian, American, or Americans pretending to be Canadian, there are heaps of them. And French. Didn't get too many of them in New Zealand, which in a way was a good thing. I rather enjoyed having the corner market on American tourists in New Zealand--as we only met like 3 other Americans our whole time there. One being our friend Mark, who was cool, and the others I have forgotten.
Anywho, so we are in this fish n' chips shop and we hear an accent that is distinctly American (plus they had a lacrosse jersey on). Joel strikes up a conversation with the young guy, who tells us he is from outside Philly but he goes to school in North Carolina. My excitement perks up--where did he go to school!?
Turns out he's a Dookie. Blah. First American traveler we run into in a while (besides the first hostel we stayed at in Sydney--but we didn't really talk to the people there, except for one nice guy from Cali) and he's a Dookie. Lovely. At least we will kick their butts this year in basketball--which, hopefully since internet access is better than in NZ, I will be able to watch the games online.
Anywho, we ate our lunch and then headed down to the nice beach where there were signs up for dangerous currents and blue bottle jellyfish. Yup, as we walked along the beach to the edge of the surf, there were heaps of dead (or almost dead) bluebottles all along the beach.
Joel decided to go body surfing and John attempted too, but he came back out rather quickly when he started spotting several in the water. I, once again, declined. Apparently blue bottles can grow really long tentacles and their stings hurt more than your common jellyfish.
Joel also didn't last long in the water, as there were indeed some strong currents, so we made our way to the next beach called Tamarama. It was a smaller beach but the same signs for blue bottles were up so we all skipped a dip this time and just enjoyed a bit of the scenery. We made our away around the coastline heading to our next stop.
Our last beach stop of the day was the famous Bondi Beach--known for it's world renown surfing. There actually weren't too many waves that day, but there were still heaps of people on the beach. We were meant to meet up with Joel's older brother and kids later, so we decided to delay our stop and keep walking up a hill in Bondi to a park at the top where we got a fantastic view of Sydney from across the harbor. Not too many tourists make this slightly strenuous walk, but it was worth the view.
We then headed back down to Bondi beach where, this time, I joined them in some body surfing! Once again, the water was COLD, but there were no blue bottle signs up and it was day light so the danger of sharks was minimal. Eventually my body got so numb that I didn't feel the cold water anymore and enjoyed catching a few waves. Though I also caught a few cups of salt water in my mouth, which was decidedly less enjoyable.
Overall, it was a great way to warm myself up and warm up my feelings towards Australia which had been slightly hostile at worst, hesitant at best. For the first day in a while, I didn't wish that I was back in New Zealand (though I must admit the overall sentiment has yet to disappear).
But it was great way to spend the nice, warm day--with a friend, enjoying the beautiful scenery outside the city.
