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?

Our Grand Pacific Drive Roadtrip - Part 1

You might think that this is a post about an awesome weekend road trip, but in actual fact this is a post about aging and the loss of memory one suffers as the corrosive effect of time happens to our cerebrum (which is the part of the brain that contains memory - a fact I bet I would forget as soon as I finish this post). The crux of the matter is that if I do not write this down, I will soon forget the events of the weekend; the respite from the rainy days of before and after; the perfect driving conditions through the Royal National Park; the treasured company of friends we take for granted on other days; hot coffee from a flask against the cold sea breeze.

This was a trip that was perfect not for its impeccable planning, but despite the lack of one. We essentially just googled the best drives in New South Wales the night before, picked the first one on the list, and headed of the next morning, armed with hot beverage, a couple of sandwiches and a printout of the aforementioned webpage.

Our first point of destination was the Royal National Park, a journey that took us 40 minutes out from the city. It cost $11 a day if you intend to park your car anywhere within the Royal National Park, a small price to pay if the plan is to picnic at the beach or to hike through the forest - any activities that will take you away from your car. Do not plan on skipping out on this fee, 'cos they will find and fine you - a grand total of $11. We know as we saw a ticket on one of the cars when we made a quick stop at Garie Beach.

Ah...Garie Beach, this is a small stretch of beach which is by far one of the most scenic and relaxing I've seen since I moved to Sydney. There were families picnicking there, not a big crowd, for sure, which made the whole experience more serene. This is one beach where I would love to drive to one sunny weekend and just lie there until the sun sets beyond the horizon of the seas.

Alas, we had a lot more road to cover and we left after a good fifteen minutes of photo-taking and toilet break-taking.

The roads weaving through the national park is also one of the main highlights of the trip, with tall straight trees lining the road, sturdy and green, with the sun peeking through the foliage. If the Sea Cliff Bridge is the road in NSW most used for car advertisements, I dare suggest this winding road of pure tranquility be a worthy successor.

We left the park and climbed higher and higher until we reached Stanwell Park - Bald Hill, to be exact, one of the most popular lookout point in the whole world (I am exaggerating, of course, but not by much as you can judge from the photo).

While there, we took hang-gliding...

...photographs. That is not me, but that will be me one day when the weather is warmer and you don't risk contracting pneumonia while surfing the air currents in one of those bad boys.

We left the breath-taking view of Bald Hill to the main event of the day - the short drive on the 500 meters Sea Cliff Bridge, a bridge officially opened only in 2005 and which projects itself out towards the sea. There is a walkway right next to the driving lanes, and one can easily park your cars after the bridge for this walk. There were some talk in the car (okay, it was I who alone suggested it - the ladies just ignored my nonsense) of driving by the road a couple of times just to take a photo of our new ride on the road like those car ads. Instead, we ended up with shots where we looked short due to our over-sized coats and those huge suicide-preventing rails.

Now that the sun was well and truly above us, it was time to search for lunch. We drove the short drive to Wollongong, or affectionately known as "The Gong" among the locals. We found this small little sandwich cafe from Urbanspoon called Sandygoodwich, which had pretty good sandwiches. The kitchen was closing soon, and my pork sandwich was probably one of the last thing they cooked - which was probably why they were quite generous with the portion of the meat (Urbanspoon - Sandygoodwich).

Our next stop was the lighthouses of the Gong, where opportunities were aplenty to strike ridiculous poses...

...and some pretty darn good ones.

After much persuasion, we managed to coax June from clinging on to the cannons and spread her arms!

Coming up in Part 2 - Eat (Char Char Bar & Grill), Pray (Nan Tien Temple), and a whole lotta love.