This weekend I was blessed to be able to return to Sydney, my favorite place in the world (that I’ve been to so far). My family was coming over to this side of the world to visit me for the next few weeks, not wanting to travel so far without seeing Australia, so they planned to fly into there. My dad and I secretly booked a flight for me to meet up with them in Sydney for the weekend, and they are joining me in Auckland for the remainder of their trip. The intention was for me to surprise my mom and my little sister Autumn in the Sydney airport since our flights were landing around the same time. Unfortunately, like I’ve learned many occasions in my time abroad, things do not always go according to plan. Their flight path was Harrisburg to Chicago, Chicago to LA, LA to Sydney, all with about an hour in between for gate switches. When their flight out of Chicago was delayed, it meant they were missing their flight to Sydney and couldn’t get out of LA until the next flight, 24 hours later. As much as I wished they were able to be with me, I selfishly did not mind the prospect of having an entire day in Sydney to myself. 

A Saturday alone in Sydney

I arrived at about 8am and was greeted with the most perfect weather. I was able to check in to the hotel my parents had booked right when I got there, and was flooded by all the feels when I realized it was the Four Points directly across from UTS Building 10, which my fellow Bucknellians know we spent a lot of time at as it’s where we took classes. I found myself literally choking back tears taking my exact walk to class from Central station, instantly transported back to when I was with all of my amazing friends during the best two months of my entire life. I am probably the most nostalgic person you’ll ever meet, and I had that rising feeling in my chest pretty much this entire weekend as I reflected on all the memories. Even the simplest things like the fact that I had to take the 440 bus as part of my route to Bondi (the bus we took to and from class every day) had me welling up. I spent the entire day by myself at Bondi enjoying the glistening sun on the water and soaking up the ultimate vibe.

My first stop in Bondi was Harry’s for matcha, and it’s like they knew I was coming because they were doing a pop-up; free matcha!!! I relaxed for a while before going to another favorite spot for lunch, S’wich. Ariana and I went there the very first time I ever went to Bondi, so you already know that had me on the floor sobbing. I ate my sandwich on the beach and listened to podcast after podcast before grabbing salted caramel gelato from Mapo. I caught the 333 bus and decided to get off at Bondi Junction just to put me in my feels even more. I grabbed a pair of shoes (adidas Tokyos) that I had been eyeing the whole time while in Sydney before getting the T4 train. Of course I stopped to take in the scene of where I spent nearly all my time for two months and of course I stared at my old room on the 14th floor of the Meriton Suites from down below. I finished my perfect day alone in Sydney with a walk to Darling Harbour and grabbed Betty’s Burgers takeaway for dinner. I was so exhausted from waking up at 1am Sydney time for my flight over that I crashed at 8pm!

Sunday

Sunday morning I woke up for the day at 4am since I had gone to bed so early, and I couldn’t fall back asleep because I was so excited: I was about to see my family for the first time in three months!!!! I decided to hide in the hotel lobby and pop out to surprise my mom and Autumn. I was frantically texting my dad instructions all morning for how to navigate the trains and then get out of the massive Central station. 

The surprise was a success!!! They were completely exhausted from their travel day being extended by a day but still so happy to see me. These three months were the longest I have ever gone without seeing them so it was such a nice reunion. I gave them no time to rest. There was simply too much to see and do. I got them around and we went to Coogee for breakfast at Lox in a Box. There was some sort of swimming race going on which made the beach insanely crowded but it was actually super fun to watch! I was so impressed by the swimmers’ ability to go so fast through the waves. I can barely doggy paddle!

Then, we embarked on the Coogee-Bondi coastal walk, because I thought that was the best way to optimize seeing all the beautiful beaches. They were in pretty rough shape from travel but we made it through all six km!!! However, it was not without some drama. At Clovelly, I was running over to get in a picture with my dad when I slipped and kicked my toe into the massive rocks he was sitting on. I lost half a toenail and spent some time in first aid getting it cleaned out and bandaged up. At the time, it didn’t hurt at all but writing this today I cannot say the same. Once at Bondi, we got Yo-Chi, which you will know if you read my other blogs is one of my favorite things to eat in Sydney. My parents don’t really eat sweets so I was really pleasantly surprised at how much they loved it. Autumn and I are the same person so both of our bowls were basically half cookie dough. It was super fun to take the always crowded 333 bus back and watch them struggle to stay on their feet. We stopped at Bondi Junction so I could show them my old stomping grounds on our way back to get ready for dinner.

We ended up heading to Circular Quay so they could see the Opera House. It’s so crazy with daylight savings ending and moving into fall that the sun sets around 5:30pm there now, when it used to be after 8 when we first arrived in January. Even though it was dark, they loved being so close to such an iconic landmark. Then, we had dinner on the harbor and headed home for an early bedtime because everyone was exhausted!!

Monday

Thankfully, I got the day off work to be able to spend more time with them in Sydney. On Monday, we took the ferry to Manly because my dad loves boats and they hadn’t seen enough beaches yet LOL. It wasn’t a surprise that they absolutely loved the town and beach, even more than the five beaches we had seen the day before. They said it reminded them of their trip to SoCal, and I haven’t been there but I see the vision. We devoured sandwiches and foccacia from Norma’s deli and gigantic warm cookies from Butterboy. From the food we had this weekend alone I would say the trip was a massive success. We managed to hit almost all of the best spots (sorry Blackwood I promise I don’t forget about you).

Back at Circular Quay, I said my goodbyes and made my way back to the hotel to catch my flight back to Auckland as I was leaving a day before them to make it to work on Tuesday. I left them in the Circular Quay area so they could explore the Rocks and check out the Botanic Gardens, which they said they really enjoyed. I was all packed up, nearly at my train stop at the airport, when I got a text from my dad that my flight was delayed FOUR HOURS! This is probably the only time that seeing that text was an exciting relief; it meant I got to have dinner with them in Sydney! We ended up going to Spice Alley since it’s right by the hotel and it was definitely the right choice. Everyone got to try whatever Asian cuisine they wanted and the atmosphere was awesome. I had dumplings, my dad had noodles, my mom had chicken and rice, and Autumn had pho. Finally I headed back to the airport for round two and luckily made it through without a hitch this time (cue my mental breakdown the last time I flew from Sydney to Auckland and missed my flight).

Overall it was an incredible weekend and so lovely to spend more time in Sydney, both alone and with my family! As I write this they’re on their way from the Auckland airport so I’m looking forward to see what adventures are in store over the next few weeks with them in Aotearoa! Ngā mihi!