Oxford Street, Coogee and a Taste of Wildlife

The weekend is upon us and we have agreed to accompany some friends down to Randwick, Sydney for the weekend as it was his birthday.

The phone rings - what's this the organiser is now sick and they're pulling out - stuff it, we'll go anyway, it'll be fun.

So of we go and we saw plenty in our two days there - we didn't need company after all.

What did we do in the two days - well let's see:

- On Saturday morning we went to Darling Harbour to visit the new Australian Wildlife World - excellent.

- For lunch we walked up to the Pit Street Mall, Sydney to the large Myers food mall - so much to pick from and it's all yummy.

- After lunch we caught the bus up to Oxford Street where we shopped for three hours - great shopping but hard on the feet.

- Made our way back to Randwick where we visited the Royal Randwick Hotel hoping to get something to eat. We were out of luck because they were soooo busy, so we went further down the road to a takeaway shop.

- Back to the Perouse Lodge for a quiet good nights sleep.

- On Sunday we woke up and decided to stroll down Coogee Bay Road to have some breakfast and look at the beach.

- After breakfast at a lovely cafe we went for a walk through the beachfront council reserve, past the point where the Virgin Mary vision has been seen, past the Bali bombing memorials, past the old baths and to the top of the cliff tops.

Great weekend - give it a go.

Quick Tips:

If you're planning on going to the Royal Randwick Hotel for dinner on the Saturday Night or, probably, the Friday Night make sure you phone up and book a table - this place is extremely popular.

Don't fear though - if you can't get in a the Royal Randwick Hotel - there's plenty of other restaurants in the area.

If you're planning on a shopping trip to Oxford Street or the city of Sydney make sure you're wearing good walking shoes - you'll need them.

Likewise if you're thinking of walking around the beachfront council reserves and along the cliff tops.

Going to the Australian Wildlife World? Try and wear something red - the butterflies will love you.

Best Way To Get Around:

We drove from the Central Coast to Randwick - that was easy - just follow the Pacific Highway to the Sydney Harbour Tunnel, get on the new motorway leading to the airport and follow the signs pointing to Randwick. So simple - the only time we needed our map book was when we needed to find Perouse Road - the street where our lodge was on.

While we were actually there we found the buses were the most convenient way to get around and you get to have a bit of a look around at the same time.

Buses regularly depart Sydney (there is a bus stop at Elizabeth Street, just by Hyde Park) to go to Randwick and they are just as regular going in the other direction.

Likewise there are plenty of buses going to and from Randwick to places like Coogee, Bondi and Circular Quay.

The Perouse Lodge is one of three lodges that form part of the The Ranwick Lodge group.

The lodge has been newly renovated and each room has been freshly painted with new curtains, new ensuite bathrooms, and new furnishings.

We had booked a double room for the night. Our room was obviously used as either a twin room or a double room as our bed was actually two single beds pushed together. Nothing wrong with that though - we had a great nights sleep and the bed was very comfortable.

The contents of the room consisted of a colour TV, a DVD player, tea and coffee making facilities, a small fridge, a double or two single beds, bed side tables, a writing table and chairs, a new air conditioning unit, a wardrobe and a newly refurbished ensuite. DVD’s were available for hire at the reception area.

Just outside the Lodge’s entry door is a small café that appeared to be very popular as every time we walked past it there were plenty of people sitting in there sipping on hot coffees/teas or eating delicious looking cakes or other yummy goodies.

A two-minute walk down the road you will find the Royal Randwick Hotel. This is an extremely popular pub if the crowds on the Saturday night were anything to go by. It is not just popular for its beverages but also the restaurant area was also overflowing. The meals on the menu sounded delicious but, because we hadn’t booked, there was nowhere to sit and eat so we didn’t bother.

That’s OK though because just another two-minute walk along the main street of Randwick you’ll come across heaps of restaurants with any type of variety you like – there’s Chinese, Asian, European, takeaway joints, Pizza and Italian – just to name a few. So the eating around here is more than good, it’s great, as it is the drinking.

If you enjoy the beach life then Coogee Beach is but a 10 minute walk down Coogee Bay Road (located directly opposite the Royal Randwick Hotel).

Buses, which regularly drive along Perouse Road, can drop you off right on the beachfront promenade – it’ll only cost you $1.90. The bus stop is directly opposite the Perouse Lodge’s front door.

Maybe you’d like a day at the races – get on the bus heading towards the city of Sydney (the bus stop is outside the Royal Randwick Hotel) and it’s only a 10-minute trip. That way you can drink.

If you want to shop for something unusual or just that little bit different then stay on the bus heading to Sydney and go to Oxford Street, Paddington.It’s just a 15-minute trip.

Or if you want to do the BIG shopping trip then stay on the bus until you reach the city of Sydney itself – it’s just another 10 minutes.

If you enjoy the beach life then Coogee Beach is but a 15 minute walk down Coogee Bay Road (located directly opposite the Royal Randwick Hotel), from Randwick town centre.

The Coogee Beach beachfront has a wide pedestrian promenade situated above a wide expanse of sand which fronts the beautiful blue waters of the Pacific Ocean.

If you’re not into lazing on the beach or swimming then there are plenty of water front walkways along the beachfront, through council parks, up over the cliffs to other local beaches. From here you can walk north to Bondi Beach or south to other small bays.

We opted for the northern walkway that took us, through the council reserve, past the site where a vision of the Virgin Mary has been sited, past the old baths and Bali bombing memorials, up the hillside which overlooks Coogee to the top where we diverted of the concrete path to walk along the high sandstone cliff faces. There are fences along the top of the cliffs so you can’t get to close as the sandstone has a tendency to crumb.

Coogee suburb has a main street (Coogee Bay Road) and a couple of small streets lined with interesting shops (boutiques, gift shops and the like), restaurants, cafes, and hotels/pubs.

We stopped and had breakfast at a small café, located in an arcade near the bottom of town, I had a BLT (bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwich) and Dale had a big breakfast (bacon, sausages, eggs, tomato, baked beans, and toast). The meals were reasonably priced - the big breakfast was $15. I can’t remember the name of the Café but if you walk on the left hand side of the main street, towards the beach, and you will come across a small arcade area directly opposite the Coogee Bay Hotel and you will see the arcade has a heap of tables and seats in it – this is the café.

There is one large hotel/pub, The Coogee Bay Hotel, located directly opposite the main promenade, on Coogee Bay Road, that is extremely popular, both during the days and nights, on the weekends.

If you want to shop for something or see something unusual or just that little bit different then get on the bus at Randwick that is heading to Sydney and get off in the vicinity of the corner of Oxford Street and Flinders Street, Paddington (just ask the bus driver). It’s just a 15 minute trip.

This is the area which is very popular with the gay and lesbian and the alternative lifestyle / bohemian populations of Sydney and, on weekends, it is very busy.

There are all sorts of shops along Oxford Street and the smaller side streets. These shops include:

- Fashion clothing stores – some with different fashions and labels than you would get anywhere else in the city – one store (Daley Male) stocked men’s clothing made in Turkey only (jeans, jumpers, tops, etc).

- Shoe shops – these range from sports shoe stores to a store specializing in cowboy boots and biker style boots.

- Vintage clothing shops – there are numerous vintage clothing shops but they are mainly on the side streets.

- Gift shops and novelty shops – stoking cards, souvenirs and the usual array of gifts.

- Adults only shops – I’ll leave this to your imagination – something about fetishes, etc.

- Cafes and restaurants.

- Galleries – we went into one Aboriginal Art Gallery – there were some great pictures in there. It’s just a shame we weren’t that financial.

There are many more. There are so many of them and it took us a good two hours to just do the shops we were interested in going into. God knows how long it would take if you wanted to go into all of them.

You think you might get a bit thirsty walking around the streets – don’t worry about that there a plenty of pubs. One of the better known one’s is the Flinders Street Hotel, located on the corner of Flinders Street and Oxford Street.

Like to party – then try and get to Oxford Street and Flinders Street at the time of the Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras, held in early March every year, then you will see some sights – hundreds of people, of all types, pack the streets on the Saturday afternoon and night of the Mardi Gras to watch the parade going past and hundreds more are actually participating in the parade.

The after Mardi Gras parties can go on for days with people, all of varying levels of intoxication, hanging out in the streets, outside the pubs and cafes, dressed in all sorts of outfits and wigs – they’re mostly harmless and it’s usually always worth a laugh.

The newest attraction to be added to Sydney’s vast array of tourist "things to do" is the Sydney Darling Harbour Aquarium’s Australian Wildlife World and it’s really neat.

The entry to the Australian Wildlife World is located right next door to the Darling Harbour Aquarium, near the water, and at $26 per adult it is a bargain.

Right from the outset we were riveted to the exhibits and the creatures, bugs, and animals in them.

There were fully glass front enclosures that housed Australian nocturnal animals - the quouls, the marsupial mice, the bilbys, the sugar gliders, the opossums and many more – and more enclosures with reptiles, snakes, lizards, etc.

Other enclosures had native Australian bugs - stick insects and beetles - and spiders.

Then there were the usual assortment of kangaroos, wallabies, koalas, emus, wombats, cassowaries, etc. all housed in large, fully glass fronted enclosures. There’s just an inch of glass between you and the animals.

The great thing was that most of the animals were actually active – not the usual lifeless looking things you sometimes see in some zoos – but that may have something to do with the fact that it was feeding time. Feeding time is not for the squeemish of heart, especially around the snake enclosures – thank god those rats are dead when they are thrown in, watching a live rat slowly get the last breathe squeezed out of them would be way to much.

During certain times of the day you can have your photo taken with a koala and a several different times throughout the day the animal keepers and specialists give educational talks about the animals, insects, etc. These times are indicated on the timetable/broacher you receive when you pay your entry fee.

The latest exhibit to be constructed at the Wildlife World is the butterfly house. We entered into an exhibit area full of brightly coloured butterflies fluttering around. Some of them even landed on people, if they were fortunate enough. The most popular people were the people who were wearing something red – so if you want the pretty butterflies to land on you wear red.