Tuesday, June 10, 2014

Grand Pacific Drive Roadtrip - Part 2


The smell of lemongrass hits you like a splash of water on a hot summer's day - refreshing yet calming. Nan Tien Temple is reputed to be the biggest Buddhist temple in the southern hemisphere, and overlooks Mount Kembla and Mount Keira, it boast numerous temple halls, a Pagoda, a vegetarian restaurant and stone sculptures peppering their vast garden grounds.

We prayed a little in those hallowed halls, made some offerings of a couple dollars, and took a few photos. The temple was our rendezvous point with our two other friends, and honest to Buddha I was just minding my own business meditating when they caught this photo of me unaware and deep in meditation.


We even had a chance to practice Chinese Calligraphy. Mum, dad, those years spent in Chinese tuition has finally paid off.


By the way, for those who finds themselves short on cash for making offerings, I have it on good authority that they accept major forms of credit cards. So light away those candles and joss sticks as long as you are packing plastic.


As the day drew to an end, a little prematurely in my opinion, and as dusk falls, we took off to the coasts of Shellharbour and the small town of Kiama for short we-were-barely-there visits. Admittedly there are many more things that one can do in these suburbs, one of them being the Kiama Blowhole, the other which will probably be more to my taste, canoeing through Minnamura River.

So on we headed to our final stop of the day, dinner at the Gong's Char Char Bar & Grill, which promises to balance the yin to the yang of the vegetarian char siew we ate at the temple by loading us with whole racks of pork ribs.





Was it as good as Hurricane's, the preeminant ribs place in Sydney? Not for a few more ears I believe. They could have also been more generous with their sauce. But judging from the capacity seating that night, this could just be a matter of personal taste.

So for loyal readers of my blog (reader...without the "s"...Hi Mum!) you may remember that I promised Eat, Pray, Love, and the above certainly covers the first two. So where is "Love" then?

~Ta dah!


Love in no words at all.

So there you have it - the condensed version of the Grand Pacific Drive road trip. This trip is best taken in the span of two days, during the summer when the days are longer. I would have loved to spend more time in the Royal National Park, and to visit places like the Symbio Wildlife Gardens near the National Park border, or have coffee at Gerringong, or to visit the Fleet Air Arm Museum in Nowra, but those will have to wait for another day.

For those interested in the full itinerary, please see the following link Grand Pacific Drive

The second one on the list, the Darling River Run (http://www.visitnsw.com/things-to-do/drives-and-road-trips/darling-river-run).

Who's in?

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