Welcome to Sydney: Our House Sitting Adventure

Seven Hills House Sit- Western Sydney

 

We were fortunate that we found a house sitting opportunity through Trusted Housesitters, you can sign up through the following link to receive some discount.

Our hosts picked us up from the airport, we didn’t have any contact details for them so were hoping that they would be able to find us and just when we started thinking that we might need to book a hotel last minute, they saw us, phew. We spent the evening with them and the next day as well before they left for their holiday. We had dinner together and they showed us around the surrounding area the next day and we also did a bit of shopping. One of their dogs Sasha had diabetes so we needed to learn how to inject her. Sassi became her nurse for the time that we were house sitting and would give her the injections every day.

This house sitting opportunity was amazing, we had our own private swimming pool and we only had to look after two elderly dogs and they didn’t require much attention, we didn’t even have to take them for walks. We were able to use the hosts car as well. Seven Hills was only about 40 minutes from the centre of Sydney.

Where did we go while house sitting?

 

Sydney

We were only about 40 minutes from Sydney so we travelled in 4 times. Our first experience of Sydney was the Harbour Bridge and Opera house, full of tourists everywhere as this is the iconic landmark of the city, they were setting up for Chinese new yar so there were lots of dog statues and other decorations surrounding the area.

We visited Watsons Bay by ferry, there were some amazing views looking back at the city, we walked up to Bluff Gap National park which was right on the cliffs, with some awesome views  showing the diverse range of terrain the city has to offer.

After leaving Watsons Bay we took the ferry back to Downtown Sydney and had a walk around the park area near to the ferry point before taking  a ferry to Parramatta so that we could see more of Sydney and our house sit was only about 20 mins away from there.

We visited Sydney on Friday night after we fed Sasha and Jesse (the dogs) as it was Chinese New Year and they were advertising fireworks in the harbour so we didn’t want to miss it but to our bad luck the fireworks were cancelled.

We went to China town and wandered into a Greek festival just next to China town, the downside was it wa overpriced, we bought some souvlaki which tasted great although the portion was more or less nothing for the price. We then took the ferry across to Cremorne Point, again amazing views of the opera house and the harbour.

We also visited Manly on our last day, we were planning to visit Manly another day but as it was a Sunday, there were huge crowds to get on the ferry. Visiting Manly was definitely worthwhile especially if you like amazing views. We also saw huge spiders while walking around North Head, we took a bus to get there from the Ferry Terminal.

Outside of Sydney

 

Burragorang Lookout

As Burragorang was only about an hour drive from Seven Hills we decided we should check it out. After about 20 minutes of driving, the roads were completely quiet and there were hardly any houses around. Sassi even spotted two kangaroos playing in the distance. You can’t really walk around here, it’s just a lookout but the view is awesome. On the way back we tried to stop at Warragamba Dam but it was closed unfortunately due to fire risks so instead we stopped at the Prospect Reservoir which was very near where we were staying, it was nice but a bit closed away with fences to ensure that the water stays clean.

Bouddi National Park

Our friend Hannah had just arrived back home to Australia 2 weeks before we got to Australia which meant that we were able to spend time with her. She is from Newcastle which was about 2 and half hours away from us, so we met up half way and then she came and stayed with us and we went to Blue Mountains together and we also visited her as well.

Bouddi National Park was half way through, first we met up with our friend at Marie Byles Lookout, we then went to the beach for a swim (first time swimming in Australia) and we went to another lookout point  and also had some chips with a bay view before heading back to Seven Hills.

 

Blue Mountains National Park

We went to lots of beautiful places but don’t remember the names of the all places as our friend was our tour guide. We went to Lincoln’s rock, Seven Sisters, we wanted to go up the cable car in Scenic world but as it was a weekend and also Chinese New Year, it was full of tourists and it had a very long waiting time so decided to walk to another viewpoint instead. We also stopped at Katoomba where lots of people would be staying if they want to visit the Mountains Range.

Lake Macquarie & Newcastle

Our friend Hannah was house sitting by the Lake Macquarie, as she grew up around here she showed us the house she grew up in and her favourite spot around the lake. We went to a wildlife park called Blakbutt Reserve, it had free entry, we saw lots of Australian animals which was fun especially Koalas. She then took us into the centre of Newcastle where we had fish and chips after walking around for a while and arriving back to the first Cafe that we saw realising that we can eat fish and chips there. She took us to the sea and the Newcastle baths and it was a cold day but we decided that we had to jump in and couldn’t miss the opportunity, that woke us up for sure.

Australia Walkabout Wildlife Park

On our last day house sitting we decided that we had to go and see some more wildlife as we haven’t really had proper encounters with kangaroos in spite of us searching for them. We couldn’t leave Australia without this encounter. After lots of research we found out that most wildlife parks will have the animals caged up just like the Blackbutt Reserve except this Wildlife Park and fortunately it was only an hour away from us. It was so worth the money $25/person. We were able to pat kangaroos, emus and even a cute koala. If you are looking for a wildlife experience, you must visit this park.

Airbnb Cancellation

We booked an Airbnb to stay in for the last 2 nights in Sydney near the Airport. The hosts that we were house sitting for told us that they were arriving back home quite late on the 22nd February so we decided to cancel one night of our Airbnb and stay one more night to make sure that the dogs would be fed and this would also help us with saving a bit of money. At the end our hosts (Ann & Clive)’s plane was cancelled and they had to stay one more night so it was great that we were staying for one more night. On the same evening our Airbnb host has cancelled on us without a notice as he said we could only check in before 8am or after 6pm but on his listing check in time was from 2pm and we did not want to be walking around with suitcases in Sydney for the whole day. It was a stressful evening trying to find another accommodation but everything was so expensive so we asked Ann if we could stay one night longer and she had no problem with that. We were very fortunate that we had this back up option otherwise we would have had to spend a lot of money just for a one night booking although Airbnb gave us some extra credit the next day which we then used for booking accommodation in Auckland.

Sydney Hillsong

Hillsong’s main campus was only 20 minutes drive away from where we were house sitting. It was an amazing experience visiting Hillsong and seeing thousands of people worshipping God and we also heard about what’s going on in the world of Hillsong and how rapidly it’s growing throughout the world.

We loved our stay in Australia and we would love to go back one day. We learnt that not all Australians are surfers or loud although culturally Australia definitely seemed more between England and America. People were a lot more direct which I loved as I struggle with the English culture of not knowing what people think and want. Some of the Australians we came across did seem to be racist and living in their own little bubble. I guess that’s expected if you live so far from every other country in the world. It’s a shame that visas and jobs are a lot harder to get if you are not Australian as if they weren’t, we would consider living there for a while.

Our house sitting opportunity was amazing and it was lovely to see a friend whom we love and spend time with her.