CNY Roadtrip

It felt a little weird and sad, that this is my first CNY away from any family. But it was a day of great fun going on a roadtrip out of Sydney.

Smile! We're off!

First to the Nan Tien Temple at Wollongong which was about an hours drive away from Syd. Nan Tien, meaning "Paradise of the South", is the biggest Buddhist temple of the southern hemisphere. It is a beautiful serene temple with vast open spaced gardens. As it was CNY, the temple was quite crowded with people coming for prayers and tourists. What surprised me was how commercialised it was - like instead of accepting a donation for some prayer joss-sticks, a tiny packet of joss-stick was sold at AUD20 per packet!

Next, we headed to a beach holiday town of Kiama. The local aboriginal meaning of Kiama is "where the sea makes noise". Kiama is famous for the Kiama Blowhole where water is projectiled and sprouted high up with the vigorous movement of the pounding waves beneath it. But there would be no blowing of the hole today. The sea was calm and the waves were mild. Here's my pic of the hole.

the blowhole in action! (as seen in www.kiama.com.au)

We took the scenic coastal route back to Sydney and drove through the Sea Cliff Bridge. This recently completed bridge is 665 metres above sea. Driving through and looking over the water made it feel like driving on water. Spectacular!

Perfect place to be jumping off something!

I didn't take this picture. I wish, tho! It's from totaltravel.com.au

Finally, there's not much worse than being tired and stuck in a horrendous traffic crawl bunched up with all the weekend holiday makers driving back to Syd.