Travel
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But do the F&C at the Mangonui fish shop.
It's an ok fish and chip shop but it's more Aussie style than NZ. It wasn't until we got down to Hastings and went to a local fish and chip shop that my Palestinian and Aussie mate's realised the difference.
I just recall having the best f&c I had for over 10years when I stopped there with Mum ... but that's not surprising when you think about it.
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Sydney...
Had some thought that I'd try and link up with Sydney Ferners while here ... but of course that didn't happen ... unless we do absolutely nothing tomorrow...
Anyway...
... some Sydney highlights ...
Saturday: Arrived late morning. How the fuck do you spend $300 on lunch? Fuck you Barangaroo. Nice afternoon though.
Pissed watching ABs.
Sunday: hungunder. Walking tour of The Rocks. Very recommended.
Beer at nice beer place in Rocks.
Weather spectacularly awesome.
Dinner at Bavarian pub just down the road.
Monday: Morning walk through Barangaroo to SHB by self.
Shopping at David Jones. Spent far too much money. Bought new blazer for self. Went halves with Ms Boo Jr for small scrap of black fabric to wear under her recently purchased blazer. Blazer cost less than 20% of said rag. Mortgage renegotiated to cover cost.
Evening: night time dinner cruise on Sydney Harbour. Fucking awesome. Glass walled boat. Nice food. Again: Recommended.
Tuesday: Madame Tussauds. Way better than I expected. Really enjoyable.
Then on to Sea Life Aquarium. Was not bad. Lots of peeps. Decent value for money as took a while. Mrs Boo over it toward end as too many peeps, and too long on feets.
Lunch at pub next door. Hit spot.
Evening... highlight of trip.
Moulin Rouge.
Booked after we booked trip to Sydders.
Was a case of "we're going to Sydney, what's on?".
What a whole lot Iof of fun!
Have vague recollection of the movie that I was not too fussed about.
This show has updated the music. Sampled all the songs. Made lots jokes.
Any Sydney Ferners who have not seen it do yourselves a favour and go.
Massive fun: little more angsty after the intermission but the finale(s) make up for it.
Wednesday: Taronga Zoo. Ferry over. Thought we'd be back just after lunch (I.e., 1pm return ferry), but barely made the 4:10pm. Again recommended.
Tomorrow (Thursday): nothing planned. Buying cheap tacky souvenirs for work peeps. Weather meant to be crap. So nothing too much planned except maybe lunch down Barangaroo.
On the subject of weather... been awesome. Forecast has been shit. Managed to avoid most of it though. Mrs Boo convinced today would be a write off after storms and thunder all night. But cleared up with perfect timing for cruise and zoo.
Storms tonight not yet happened but radar shows bearing down.
Otherwise weather has been awesome.
Sydney CBD shit though. Melbourne and Brisbane much nicer CBDs to move around.
Summary: Sydney definitely worth vist and will be back ro explore more.
Mate, we're not synching on anything today.
I thought that Moulin Rouge was pretty average - I had seen Mary Poppins a few weeks before which was much better. Moulin Rouge just felt like worse versions of pop songs to me.
Assume you're staying in Barangaroo by your frequenting of the restaurants and attractions around there? As a suggestion, rather than eat there again you could walk down to Chinatown via Darling Harbour and eat some good marginally less expensive food. It's a pleasant walk with the (relatively) newly developed conference centre and Darling Square. Let me know if you want any restaurant suggestions down that end.
Yeah, Sydney has no proper central city focus as it's just one long street in kind of four separate areas.
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@Nepia
Yeah just next to Barangaroo: The York. Only a couple of blocks up the hill. Very average and not value for money, but adequate.First time in Sydney really. So just getting the lay of the land.
If you gave me a choice of Mary Poppins and Moulin Rouge I'd have probably picked Poppins.
Mrs Boo picked Moulin Rouge.
So perhaps case of exceeding expectations, but really enjoyed it.
Also first show I can recall going to since South Pacific in the early 90s at the Mercury...
Forgot to mention we made it to Paddy's Market on Sunday a.m. Bought a knock off tee shirt. But was expecting Victoria Market so was disappointed.
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@Nepia
Yeah just next to Barangaroo: The York. Only a couple of blocks up the hill. Very average and not value for money, but adequate.First time in Sydney really. So just getting the lay of the land.
If you gave me a choice of Mary Poppins and Moulin Rouge I'd have probably picked Poppins.
Mrs Boo picked Moulin Rouge.
So perhaps case of exceeding expectations, but really enjoyed it.
Also first show I can recall going to since South Pacific in the early 90s at the Mercury...
Forgot to mention we made it to Paddy's Market on Sunday a.m. Bought a knock off tee shirt. But was expecting Victoria Market so was disappointed.
Yeah, Paddyβs is average, especially compared with Victoria Market. I live just up the tram line from it.
I saw Book of Mormon, Hamilton (twice), Mary Poppins, then Moulin Rouge so it was pushing shit up hill compared to those.
Bummer about The York, but good intel so I can warn people.
Did you go to the Sea Museum? Or outvoted? They have a sub you can wander through.
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On the subject of shows ... Ms Boo Jr got right into Hamilton through the songs on-line.
We've booked to see with her in Brissy in March. (Call me woke
She is now worried that Hamilton will be as good (I interpret that as "as much fun ") as Moulin Rouge.
Itβs great, made even better by the fact I saw it for $10 both times. You should see if they have the $10 lottery in Brisbane.
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On the subject of shows ... Ms Boo Jr got right into Hamilton through the songs on-line.
We've booked to see with her in Brissy in March. (Call me woke
She is now worried that Hamilton will be as good (I interpret that as "as much fun ") as Moulin Rouge.
Itβs great, made even better by the fact I saw it for $10 both times. You should see if they have the $10 lottery in Brisbane.
Hah $10 ...
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@booboo glad you've had a good trip. Me and Neps have been waiting for you to reach out to catch up, but assume you're saving us for next time.
Chur
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Yeah not quite sure how to explain to Mrs Boo that i want to meet these random blokes I "know" on the Internet ...
Unless you're around tomorrow (Thursday evening) up the northern end of the CBD?
We have nothing planned ...
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Road across Mangamukas is closed after successive winter storms.
BOI to Cape Reinga is a very long day which is why I recommended Doubtless Bay as a base. Carrington is OK but nothing special. There is a motor camp on the peninsula that has a few cabins.
Mangonui Fish and Chip shop is massively over-rated.
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Mangonui Fish and Chip shop is massively over-rated.
And even more expensive now than it was when I had it a couple of years ago.
We based ourselves in MangΕnui and drove to Cape Reinga for a day trip, stopping at the Giant sand dunes and Ninety Mile beach on the way back. A long day but OK if you break up the driving.
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As we are seemingly doing 'what I did during the holidays'; Just got back from a fortnight in New Caledonia.
Cannot recommend, despite
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Fantastic weather: 27-30 cloudless days without the burn factor you get in NZ. Could sit around in the sun for hours with no ill effects
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Really lovely, friendly people. Helpful all with a Bonjour. Patient with my franglais
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Some stunningly beautiful scenery, particularly on north east coast of Grand Terre (hired a car for a week) and Isle of Pines
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Really good infrastructure (for a South Pacific island nation), safe, comfortable vibe. Clean well managed etc
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A very relaxing chill out time, some great activities plenty of sun, snorkelling, great food, fantastic accommodation
So why no recommendation? We could have flown to mainland France and hired a super yacht for less than the cost of 2 weeks in NC. I knew it would be expensive but fuck sake.
Using the internationally recognised exchange rate benchmark. A glass of insipid local lager NZ$19 in a bar in Noumea - more, much more at the resorts.
Accommodation ranged from $160 / night for a small shithole with no internet and dodgy aircon to $650 night at Le Meridien Isle of Pines. Four nights at the later - meals and a few drinks 5.5K
It was a very pleasant, well overdue chance to get out of NZ but the prices are eye wateringly expensive. If that isn't an issue for you then definitely worth a look see but for the average person WHOAH. NO!
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@canefan Yep. There were very few foreign tourists about and most seemed to stay in Noumea or else were flying in and out of one of the resorts. Cruise visits are just about to resume and it seems a lot of the tourist infrastructure is geared to those.
Got the impression that otherwise the market concentrates on the budget traveller or the wealthy retiree's and we fell in the middle, which was not that well catered for.
I think they are also doing what Queenstown has and ramping up the prices to try and claw back the losses of the last couple of years.
One weird thing when you return your hire car, not only do you have to fill up the tank you have to clean it....
We were dropping car off at Noumea's domestic airport and fortunately found a car wash, otherwise who knows what I would have been sprung for le valet! We had driven two and a half hours already and had three hours before our 20 minute flight to Isle of Pines only to find the sodding airport didn't open till noon!
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Road across Mangamukas is closed after successive winter storms.
BOI to Cape Reinga is a very long day which is why I recommended Doubtless Bay as a base. Carrington is OK but nothing special. There is a motor camp on the peninsula that has a few cabins.
Mangonui Fish and Chip shop is massively over-rated.
It was a long time ago now. Found the last couple of times I was there the North had seriously regressed. More than likely dived further. So yeah, definitely take @dogmeat 's advice over mine. Rose tinted glasses.
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@booboo glad you've had a good trip. Me and Neps have been waiting for you to reach out to catch up, but assume you're saving us for next time.
Chur
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Yeah not quite sure how to explain to Mrs Boo that i want to meet these random blokes I "know" on the Internet ...
Unless you're around tomorrow (Thursday evening) up the northern end of the CBD?
We have nothing planned ...
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Not this evening, leaving the cbd early to do the school holiday taxi run
Hope you had a good trip mate
Edit - Paddy's Markets are a debacle. I wouldn't eat anything from there and the stalls are just a rabble of junk. Shame really.
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@dogmeat If you were going to dump that much money on a Pacific Island you could have gone to the Cooks. At least spend it on "our" Pacific Island instead of France's (also things aren't going so well in Oz for Rennie so he might need to retire to Raro soon).
Just looked at January flights to Auckland. Coming in around AUD$880 return if you want to fly at stupid times of day.
Think I might look domestically until the airlines sort their shit out.
That's actually pretty reasonable for January. I don't usually travel at that time but have flown my niece over pre-Covid and it cost similar.
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