a little Sydney loving......

morning mist at circular quay

All I can think of today is "bummer this time last week I was in Sydney, at the beach".

I am going to put it out there, in my youth I was a major Sydney-hater. It wasn't anything particular about Sydney, it just never seemed as 'cool and grungy' as Melbourne. Luckily over the last 2 years I have learned a little bit about sight-seeing in the biggest city in Aus.

1. find some friends in Sydney, they give you directions, help you to understand the amazing yet confusing public transport system and usually lend you important equipment such as surfboards, climbing gear and wetsuits. (oH and they might have a car)!

2. Have a reason to be there- like the Liberty Skis 2011 Launch Party

3. Take the ferry

4. Don't bring too many clothes that you won't wear and will give you back problems because your bag is not designed to carry long distances.

5. Find some fairy godmothers to drive you to the airport at 6am.

6. Have fun- get out of the city, go to the beach and check out the wicked cliffs!

My NSW adventures started on Friday morning after landing in Sydney early in the morning and meeting up with the one and only Lorraine Lock, PR maestro, who has been supporting Chicks with Stix over the last year with her amazing talents. A coffee, a Vietnamese roll and then I took the ferry to Manly and had a nice little surf with Hanna Fisher and her mum Peggy (or as I like to call her, SuperPeg).

hanna & superPeg

yay i'm at the beach!

Following, a splash in the baby waves at Freshwater beach, Hanna (now my appointed guide) took me up to meet up with mr Blondel in Narrabeen for a afternoon surf. Avoiding Nth Narabeen (a local spot where I definitely wouldn't fit in) we checked out Mona Vale, where I earned the nickname 'nose-dive queen'.

Sydney cliffs guide book

In an awesome twist of fate, Hanna, superPeg and I found ourselves all free on Saturday to go adventuring up and around Palm Beach, the top-most part of the Sydney Northern Beaches and the filming location of 'Home & Away'. Unlike many other sightseers, my intentions for visiting Palm Beach had nothing to do with catching a glimpse of one of the local soap-opera stars.

Instead I had my first taste of rock-climbing by the seaside at Barrenjoey, right around the corner from Palm Beach. Just above the water-line is a beautiful sandstone crag hidden in the scrub. We did 2 routes of crimpy slab climbing that made you get your balance-on!

barrenjoey

rock-babe

sandstone baby

superPeg top-roping the climb

superPeg rappelling

lunch!

looking for hand-holds

getting technical

After a quick dip in thee water at Palm Beach Hanna and I headed back to Freshwater to the Liberty Skis 2011 Launch.

We were hungry after adventuring, so we made sure we got some food into us before sipping on some yummy white wine.

hungry-hanna

Amongst other things, Liberty Australia was launching some new additions to their team (including me), a new website, http://www.libertyskis.com.au/ and some pretty sick new skis. Check it all out online!

Liberty Skis 'Anzac Team': Anthony Symonds, Simon Dawes Blondel, Dre Berchtold, The Flying Muzz, Boen Ferguseon

me and my date hanna, we were both boy-less so why not hang out?

Liberty Team: Mitch Reeves down the front (grom-ripper)!

i'm famous: photo slideshow@ the bamboo bash

Despite staying fairly responsible, I still needed a sleep-in and a delicious egg breakfast to get me going on Sunday morning. For my last adventure of the weekend, Hanna and I battled through the Sunday lunch crowd to the Exhibition Centre for the Sydney Snow Expo. It was CRAZY! but we managed to check out some of the happening booths such as the candy colours of the POC headwear and the fresh new pages of the Chillfactor 2011 issue.....many surprises inside!

After all the excitement I needed food. I kicked back and relaxed for the first time all weekend at Darling Harbor for some delicious seafood.

Darling Harbour at twilight

hostess with the mostest

Thank-you Sydney, you made me happy and then sent me back to Melbourne exhausted and wishing for sun. I am still not 100% sure about how I feel about you but maybe we can be friends.