Sydney Trip Itinerary - Hyam's Beach, Dolphin Watch Cruising from Jervis Bay and the Kiama Blowhole!

For a recap of the entire trip, table of contents and links to other posts, do click here: One Week in Sunny Sydney - Full Trip Itinerary!

We've got another road trip lined up for our third day in Sydney - Southward-bound this time, on the Grand Pacific Drive to Jervis Bay and back! It's pretty much a full day trip, with over six hours of driving in total, so got an early start and hit the road!


We took the Princess Highway southbound as we actually wanted to catch the earlier Dolphin Watching boats out of Jervis Bay. As luck (and traffic) would have it though, we arrived into the town of Huskisson just as the earlier boats were pulling away from the harbor. Sadface. So we had some brunch at the Angels Bayside Cafe on the corner of Owen and Hawke Street. It was okay.


Having some time to spare we took a short drive to the nearby Hyams Beach to dip our feet in the (cold) water and take a stroll on the sands. Apparently the Guinness Book of Records lists the beach here as having the whitest sand in the world; whether that's really true is anyone's guess. What's evident, though, is that it's crazy hot thanks to the summer sun.


There are a number of dolphin and whale-watching boat operators in Huskisson; which only go out if there are sufficient passengers. So do make sure you give them a call and ask. We ended up going with Dolphin Watch Cruises because they were the only operator sending out a boat at our time slot.


Dolphin watching is pretty fun, and within the one-and-a-half hour cruise we saw at least a few dozen of them. Getting good photographs of the dolphins is really, really frustrating, though. They appear for just a fraction of a second at a time, so unless your camera was already pointed at the right spot you'd likely be a little too late. With enough time, skill and/or luck I'm sure you'd get at least a couple of amazing shots, but apparently today we didn't have enough of any of 'em.



We take the leisurely Grand Pacific Drive northwards back to Coogee, and stop at the Kiama Blowhole. A small cave/tunnel starting at the sea wall ends here at this hole, so when the waves come in they've got nowhere to go but up and out, sometimes in spectacular 20-foot high walls of white frothy seawater. Today the seas are tame, though, and all we get are weedy 6-8 foot high sputters. Ah well.


Our final stop before heading home was the University town of Wollongong. While there are a ton of things to do here, we only take a quick pit stop for dinner and drinks before leaving to catch the Sea Cliff Bridge before sunset.


"Sea Cliff Bridge from air" by illawarrashowcase - Sea Cliff Bridge
The bridge itself is a 450m long, balanced cantilever bridge that runs parallel to the coast. We've got a video taken from the car here below, but honestly the video really doesn't do the spectacular view justice.


Once across the bridge we decided to cut through the Royal National Park, which turned out to be a huge mistake. The roads wind through the hills and would undoubtedly be an amazing drive during the day. But at night, all you see are the cats eyes on the road and it was really a waste of time and effort. Anyways, after a long, long day we stop for some pick-me-up meals from one of the nearby Woolworths before heading back to Coogee to eat, shower, and sleep.

Stay tuned for the next post in this series coming up soon!

Oreo Brownies Recipe

It's been 2 years since I tried out Nutella Brownies a.k.a. 3 ingredients Brownies Recipe comments received was it is too sweet.

Diane Gale's Oreo Brownie caught my eyes. It's simple, direct and deliciously good that our colleagues love them.


Square Pan of 9" x 9" sides x 2" height

165g Butter
200g Dark Chocolate Droplets
Pinch of Salt
4 Eggs
165g Light Brown Sugar
3 tablespoons All-Purpose Flour
1 tablespoon Cocoa Powder
Mini Oreos / or Oreos broken into pieces
White Chocolate Chips (Optional)

Melt Butter in a pan over medium heat. Remove and add the chopped chocolate, use a spatula and keep stir until smooth and well combined. Set aside.

Preheat your oven to about 180°C. Prepare your baking pan by lining it with baking paper, or spraying vegetable oil, or lightly buttering the corners.

Whisk the eggs in a large mixing bowl until they triple in volume. Add brown sugar and whisk until incorporated. Whisk the melted chocolate into the eggs quickly until well combined.

Add All-Purpose Flour, Cocoa Powder and fold in until combined. Pour the mix into the baking pan. Scatter the Oreo Cookies over the top of the mixture, pressing some into the batter.

Bake for 30-35 minutes or until the middle is only slightly fudgy and gooey.

Let it cool and store in airtight container. ENJOY!!!!!!

Lesson learnt and honest review:
- Chocolatey and irresistible that you'll pick up a second slice.
- Use the type of chocolate you love, Milk Chocolate, Semi-Sweet Chocolate, Dark Chocolate. If using White Chocolate do not add the Cocoa Powder.
- If you baking a big brownie and slicing up, you can put it back in the oven for 5mins at 150degrees. It will give each brownie a crust.
- If you are planning to give this as a gift to friends you may use small loaf pans. It fills up to 6.


Click here for our blog page Baking Classes for more recipes. Hope you will be inspired~

Sydney Trip Itinerary - Fruit Picking, Terrigal, and Pelican Feeding at the Entrance!

For a recap of the entire trip, table of contents and links to other posts, do click here: One Week in Sunny Sydney - Full Trip Itinerary!

We're on a Northbound road trip today! We had initially planned to go all the way north to Newcastle, but as it turned out that was a bit too ambitious. So instead we did five hours in total of driving covering 300km to the Canoelands for fruit picking followed by a drive northwards to The Entrance, before turning back and heading over to Watson's Bay to catch the sunset before dinner.


The first checkbox on today's agenda was to find an orchard and do some fruit picking. There are dozens of farms all within an hours' drive (or two) from Sydney, many of them with different crop types. Unfortunately as we only visited one orchard we aren't really in a position to give recommendations on which ones are better - you'll have to do your own research on that. We can, however, give you a quick guide as to when each particular crop comes into picking season - so tough luck if you're here in the cold winter months of July-September when nothing is in season.


Anyway we settled for Tangerines at Canoelands Orchard, about a one-and-a-half hours' drive from Coogee. There's a $5 basket rental fee (i.e. entrance fee) and then you're set loose among the fruit trees in the Orchard, free to pluck as many Tangerines as you like. It isn't a fruit buffet, though - after you're done you still need to pay per-kilogram rates for whatever you'd like to take home with you.


While it was quite fun wandering around the orchard hunting for big and ripe fruit - sort of in a go-back-to-your-ancestors'-time-and-forage-for-your-own-food kind of way, to be absolutely honest the actual fruit wasn't that great. Most of what we picked out was either under-ripe or just "meh, okay lah" on the sweetness scale. Probably better to leave it to the experts next time, and just buy our fruit in the markets.

After that's done we head back into the car and continue our road trip North. If you're hoping for grand sweeping vistas and majestic cliffs, you won't quite get it on these roads. Yes there's lots of foliage and the roads have an occasional interesting twist and turn, but by and large the drive is rather uninspiring. Check out the fast-forwarded video below for what we mean (and do disregard the cheesy royalty-free music):


After about an hour-and-a-half we stop to stretch our legs at Terrigal, a quaint little seaside town with a nice, almost-deserted beach, and a row of shops selling food, ice cream and other curios ...


... and a further half hour after that we stop at The Entrance to check out the daily 3.30pm Pelican Feeding!


Taken from the town's Official Website:

"Just over twenty years ago, the pelican feeding started by accident when staff from a local fish and chip shop would throw out scraps. It became such a ritual that whenever the staff were late in throwing their scraps out, the pelicans would cross the road and come up to the shop to be fed.

One of the main objectives of the pelican feed is to keep an eye on the pelican's medical conditions as many have hooks and lines tangles up in their gullets, wings and other parts of their body. The feed is a chance for the co-ordinator to assess their well being. It's certainly an amusing show to come and see."


By the time we're back on the road it's already well after 4pm, so we abandon our original target of Newcastle and turn around to head back to Watson's Bay, making it in time to catch the sun setting majestically over the Sydney CBD skyline:


Sunset means dinnertime, and Watson's Bay has a well known seafood joint called Doyle's on the Beach. It's really expensive though so we settle for salt & pepper shrimp and pork belly sliders at Watson Bay Hotel's Beach Club instead. Sipping coffee and eating sweet sticky sliders while watching the sun set - an awesome end to the day.


After dinner we head back to Coogee for an early night as five hours of driving does get a bit tiring. Plus we hadn't fully recovered from the lack of sleep on the overnight flight from Singapore.

Stay tuned for the next post in this series coming up soon!

Should I redeem KrisFlyer miles for Scoot or TigerAir vouchers?

As you might already know, Singapore Airlines is actually a conglomerate (of sorts) of four different airlines - Singapore Airlines, Silk Air (the regional arm), Scoot (long haul low cost carrier) and a substantial shareholding in Tiger Airways Singapore (short haul low cost carrier). Up until recently however you could only spend KrisFlyer miles for flights on the two main carriers.

Well, a while ago Singapore Airlines announced that they would soon extend KrisFlyer miles spending to the two LCC's, and now that the redemption rates are out for cash-equivalent vouchers, the question is should you redeem your miles on Scoot or TigerAir vouchers?


The short answer is no. With these voucher redemptions, you're geting 0.9 cents per KF mile of value. While you might be tempted to think that's still better than nothing, KrisFlyer miles can be worth a lot more on paper when used for flight redemptions on the two main carriers.

For example, a return flight to Bali costs $210.00 in fare + $152.60 in taxes and surcharges:


With a KrisFlyer miles flight redemption, you need 12,750 miles + $152.60 in taxes and surcharges. This represents 1.6 cents per KF mile of value.


This is just one simple example for a short, two-and-a-half hour flight. In general, award flight values go up as you fly longer distances and/or step upwards in booking class (i.e. premium economy, business, first class). In fact, long haul first class redemptions come close to hitting 9 cents per KF mile.

Now, one caveat here. The "Value per KF mile" figures are all paper/theoretical values. You will need to adjust them for your own personal view of what each particular flight is worth. For example, you can fly to Sydney on Scoot for $509, or on Singapore Airlines for $843. Are the extra perks on the Singapore Airlines flight worth the 60% increase in airfare? In other words, if you are planning to book a Scoot flight, how much extra would you pay to fly Singapore Airlines instead?

Finally, if you only have a minimal amount of KrisFlyer miles and don't accrue them regularly (whether via flights or credit cards), then it may make sense to use up whatever miles you have on some Jetstar/Scoot vouchers to at least get some value out of them.

Let us know in the comments if this write-up was useful for you, and if you'd be interested in reading a longer blogpost on the best sweet spots for KrisFlyer miles redemptions. Happy flying!