Awesome CNY "holidays"

CNY celebrations in Sydney...

My whole family flew down to Sydney on the 16th Feb to spend their first CNY in a foreign land with me and Haz. And since they had made such a huge effort to come all the way here to spend quality time with us, how can we let them down with a bad, uninteresting itinerary during their stay here? Haha.. Planning of where to bring them, what to do, where to eat had started since both Haz and I were back in Sydney in early Jan 07. Had been looking forward to their arrival and in a flash, they are here!

Let's recap what we had done during their short 6 days trip to Syd (lots of pict as promised!). They reached on the Friday and all thanks to my uncle, he fetched my family from the office while I was at work. Haz and I picked up the SUV (8 seaters) that we rented after work and we met them at my uncle's house in Glenwood. We had a pre-reunion dinner at a Chinese restaurant at Blacktown (with Bernard and his wife Maggie too!)

It is really a great get-together as Bernard has been away in Wuhan/Guangzhou for work (teaching English) for the past 1-2 years and it has been such a long since all of us had met! It's back to my place after that and let's look at the photos!

Breakfast @ Pancakes

Believe it or not, my dear sis ended up feeling disgusted upon the sight of pancakes after the very sumptuous breakfast! haha.. it was sooo funny as the sight / mention of pancakes just made my sis' face turn pale.. Haha..

Shopping at the Rocks Flea market/Nike/Addidas factory outlet & DFO

It is shop galore after breakfast. A very hectic day of shopping and more shopping as the next 2 days would be spent in Port Stephens and Hunter Valley. We shopped at the Rocks Flea market, Nike & Addidas factory outlets and the massive DFO. DFO is such a huge shopping centre with so many brands and it required at least a day to really go into each shop and try out the clothes. We had only abt 3 hours on the Saturday and it was not enough for them obviously! They went back on the Tuesday (before they flew back on the Wed).. haha..

Reunion dinner @ Lotus Pond restaurant

All of us wore red.. haha.. but the service there suxs.. Enough said.. but it was really a memorable experience having reunion dinner at a foreign land though.. =)

REAL FUN STARTS... Sydney - Port Stephens - Hunter Valley - Sydney

The trip to Port Stephens and Hunter Valley was planned specially for my family to see the other side of Sydney. From the photos below you would know that everyone had lots of fun! Did Quad biking, sand boarding, camel riding and a sumptuous Indian cusine dinner. Great fun at Port Stephens...

Quad biking.. great fun for my dad, uncle, bro, sis and me.. as you can see from the photos, I'm the photographer.. capturing more than 50 shots of them all having a wild ride up and down the sand dunes.... Awesome and fun experience!

Sand boarding - an added bonus (FOC!).. We were lucky enuff to get this activity free of charge! Bro, sis, dad and uncle had the opportunity of trying out their skiing cum skating skills on sand! Cool ya.. Great fun!

Last but not least, the fun-filled day at Port Stephens is capped by the camel ride - aka Egypt style.. haha.. Great great fun once again! A first for both Haz and me AND all that tried.. Haz nearly regretted her decision to want to try this ride as she was scared stiff when the camel was standing up and she nearly freaked out! haha.. she was gripping the rope and her legs were squeezing the camel sooo tightly.. haha.. but she got used to it after a while.. luckily.. haha..
But one thing to note: The camels do smell abit.. =)

Last activity for the night... a delicious and very authentic Indian cusine for dinner... Nice! We tried basically all the types of curry (abt 7 types in all..) and naan (something like roti prata). A very filling dinner.. Thumbs up!

The next morning, we set off for Hunter Valley.. an hr's drive. Wine were tasted and bottles bought! But not many pictures taken.. After slightly 4 hrs there, it was back to Sydney city. My family's trip to Sydney was coming to an end and very quickly, they boarded the plane on Wed (21 Feb) and it was once again a relatively emotional farewell to them for another period of time. Hope to be back in Singapore soon.. planning my schedule as I would be taking 3 CA papers this year and work is hectic with me being promoting to Senior.. and thus, you will see that blog updates will be less regular.. but remember that i will not short-change you guys in terms of updating my life over here in Down Under!

Till my next update, take care! and stay tuned to this blog for updates.. haha... cheers!