Chinese Garden of Friendship

Hidden away from view as you pass by this area is a beautiful secret garden that is like stepping into another world. Using the Sydney Hop on Hop Off Bus service we made our way we reached the stop the the Chinese garden of Friendship.



The amazing garden was so much more than I expected. The garden was built as a symbol of friendship between Sydney and Guangzhou in the province of Guangdong, China to mark Australia's bicentenary.

From the moment you first walk there are lovely little twists and turns and paths that take you off to a secluded part of the garden. One of these hideaways was the bamboo garden, This was a little forest of bamboo of different varieties. The black bamboo seemed to be the place to write messages ..maybe the Chinese version of graffiti.


It was incredible how much they could fit it the walled garden with beautiful walkways and surprising vistas from every part of the garden. The entire garden is centred around a peaceful pond filled huge koi and turtles The whole place seemed to filled with life!

The garden is a place to easily lose all sense of time and we spent a few hours just wandering around or just sitting and taking it all in. If you love gardens (and even if you don't) this is a wonderful place to visit as you walk out with a lovely sense of calm.


So, if you are visiting Sydney and would like to escape the hustle and bustle of the city for a few hours...this is a must see.

To find out more about this wonderful garden click the link below

Chinese Garden of Friendship _ Darling Harbour

Sunny Cronulla

We're off again...this time to Sydney. We thought it was time to make good on our promise to visit Julie and Steve (friends we made on our UK trip) in their home town. They very generously offered us a bed on Saturday night and also picked us up from the airport. Far more than we expected...we just thought it would be lovely to catch up with them for a meal.

We arrived around midday and, as promised, Julie and Steve were waiting for us. So nice not to have the hassle of finding a taxi, although poor Steve was a bit annoyed that the lifts weren't working at the parking lot. We didn't mind because we thought it was good exercise as we knew that our recent new diet would probably go out the window this weekend.

We got to the car in no time at all and headed to the Cronulla RSL Club for lunch. Views from the club were lovely and lunch was delicious. After lunch we enjoyed stroll along the Cronulla shoreline. It is a beautiful area and I can see why Julie and Steve were keen to show it off.

There were lots surfers out in the water as they waves looked pretty good...this coming from a person has no idea was constitutes good surfing conditions. 

There were also lots of yachts out on the water. Must have been perfect day to set sail.


The beaches are beautiful and the housing along the shoreline is mostly modern, but even the older unrenovated homes and the ugly seventies additions have a certain charm in this setting. 

Had we walked a little further we could have called in to visit Ricky Ponting (former Australian Cricket Captain) but we decided that we didn't have time. I'm sure Ricky would have been disappointed.
.After admiring the sand and water we headed back to where we started. 

Along the way there were beautiful parks and you realise the whole place is surrounded by water. Through this park is Port Hacking

Cronulla boasts a lovely shopping area with lots of cafes to enjoy. How lucky is Julie to work here with a short stroll to the beachfront during her lunch break if she chooses!


We headed back to Julie and Steve's place for a traditional Aussie BBQ and enjoyed a lovely evening catching up reminiscing about our UK trip and discussing what would be next on the travel agenda.