What Shall We Do In Manly?

Well, we're probably not going to be STAYING in Manly, but we will probably still spend a lot of time there. So, I've been doing research about what we might want to do while we're there. Well, you know....besides eat ice-cream at Royal Copenhagen. (Free toppings, people!)

First of all, I finally found out the name of the shopping area we kept going to. It's called the Corso. The beach we went to is called simply....Manly Beach. I still don't know the name of the park where we walked. I guess we'll figure that out eventually. Here are some clues: 1. It's behind or beyond Oceanworld. 2. It has a sign about Fairy Penguins--asking you not to use flash photography. 3. There is a sign explaining the history of the name Manly.

Okay. Anyway. Here are places I might want to go to in 2009.

1. North Head Manly. This is where the haunted Quarantine Station is. It sounds fun--well, in a very dark kind of way. The only problem is I'm not sure how to get there. So far, I can't find encouraging news about public transportation. It says the walk is 3 km from the wharf. That's a long way to go alone in the dark--after being with ghosts.

Oh! Major side note here. When I was about six, my family went to Disney World in Florida. We went into the haunted house and I was absolutely terrified. I remember thinking it was all totally real. I had no idea that it was pretend. At the end, you see ghosts sitting in the car with you. And then this wicked deep voice says something like "We'll always be with you!" I pretty much thought my world was ending. The term "special effects" was not in my vocabulary yet. And then later, my parents and sister wanted to go on again. I thought they were completely cruel and insane. Why the hell do we need to return to the haunted house. The damn ghosts we met in the first place were still with us! Here I was trying to figure out how the hell we get rid of these ghosts, and my family wanted to go back for more.

And now I want to go to a REAL haunted place. Hopefully not alone though. Which one of you will come with me????

2. Little Manly Point-This place sounds pretty okay. Well, I like it because they say it has toilets. I'm a big fan of toilets. I wish I was a pee-in-the-woods girl, but I'm not. It's also about a km away from the wharf. Short walks are always nice--especially when Jack is in the picture.

3. Fairlight Beach in Manly-This one is also about a km away from the wharf. I heard it's known for lovely little tide pools. Tide Pools are lovely? Did someone miss the memo on the Blue Ringed Octopus? Hello? If any of us go in a tide pool, I'm going to sit there holding my CPR instructions.

4. Spit Bridge to Manly walk- This sounds very intriguing. It starts somewhere in Sydney and then you end up in Manly.

The walk is a bit long. 3-4 hours. Jack would not be a happy camper so it's probably something I have to do alone while Tim babysits. I am a bit worried that I'll get too hot. I have an intolerance to heat lately. Maybe I'll do it very early in the morning. Leave the hotel before six and that way I can be back by around 10.

I'm wondering how hard it is to do this walk. Will I need to carry a map? Is it easy to get lost? Is there some kind of path you follow? Should I do it alone, or kidnap an Australian and make them come with me?


5. Dee Why-When we get tired of the Corso, we can come here. It has cafe and shops too.

6. Manly Arts and Crafts Market-This sounds fun. I prefer FOOD markets, but this sounds good too.

7. Manly Waterworks If Jack is tall enough by February, he'll love this. He's totally into water slides. I had vague memories of seeing water slides in Manly and asked Jack about it. He remembered seeing it, but said it was closed. That was in December. Maybe it's opened only on weekends? Okay, just checked the website. It's open only on weekends. That makes sense.

12 comments:

  1. Hi Dina! My name is Ruthie and im from Dominican Republic (The Caribbean) and OMG while i was reading ur blog is like i was writing them. Cuz im crazy in love with Australia, like goggling around to learn more about it/them.

    I have not been lucky enough like u to be there, but one day i will move there and have some Aussie kids myself!!!

    Keep up the blogging!

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  2. Hi Ruthie!

    It's so great to meet someone else who is not Australian and wants to be Australian ; )

    It's funny. I guess there are a few of us out there--or at least non-Australians who love Australia. I've seen some blogs and then some people comment on this blog. I also got an email from someone in California who loves Australia.

    It's pretty cool. We should start a club or something.

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  3. Wow Dina ... thanks for your visit, so sad about Alan ;( I am thrilled to read you want to be an Aussie, sensible girl you are ;) Hope you're not planning to spend too much time in Manly - most of us Sydneysiders on the other side of the bridge rarely travel across it ... are you aware of the "rivalry"?
    Excellent to have found you ;)
    Start the club - I could be your Sydney correspondent;)

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  4. The walk round North Head is really nice to do in the daytime too, fantastic views over the harbour.

    The Manly Council website has a whole bunch of information about stuff to do in Manly, go to the "Attractions" section.

    You can do Ghost Tours in The Rocks too which is much easier to get to by public transport than the Quarantine Station.

    This site might give you a better idea of what's involved with the Manly to Spit Bridge walk. I have to admit it's not something I'd tackle in January weather.

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  5. Redness: Yeah. I'm sad about Alan : (
    I think that was my favorite Australian website. Some of it made me laugh so hard. I haven't looked at it in a long time. I need to go and see it again.

    LOL about Manly. I didn't know about the rivalry. BUT everytime I mentioned Manly to my friend in Sydney, she'd give me this look of distaste--like she totally disapproved of my love of that place.

    You can definitely be the Sydney Correspondent.

    Mim: Thanks for the links! Maybe the Rocks tour would be better. I'll look into it. Have you done it before?

    Yeah, I'm not sure if I'll be able to do the walk in February. I've become very sensitive to the heat. Last year we went in December. The weather was actually fairly mild (well, if you don't include huge thunderstorms) on most days. I have a feeling February might be worse. ????

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  6. D'oh! February not January. Not that there's much difference between the two. It's all rather unpredictable really, we went on holidays in the last week of January this year and it rained all week and we needed long sleeves. But when it's hot it's humid heat, which is horrible.

    I haven't done The Rocks ghost tour but I want to one day. The only ghost tour I've done was down at Port Arthur in Tasmania on our honeymoon, it was fun.

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  7. There's a night food/ noodle market at I think it's Kirrabilli, there's weekend organic markets at Orange Grove, (the Best) then you can hop on the bus up to Rozelle markets, there's markets in Chinatown, Bondi Beach and more why not Google Sydney markets ... what about the ocean headland walk starting from Bondi ... the stunning growers market at Pyrmont ... enough said about Manly it's too far away from everything if you're in Sydney. Hope this helps ;)

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  8. Redness: Awesome about the markets. Thanks. The night food market thing sounds really intriguing.

    Mim: I can barely keep up with when I'm doing what so I don't expect you to ; )

    I've never done any ghost tour before. It sounds kind of fun. I do think the Manly tour looks a little more authentic--well, in that the ghosts seem more real. Or maybe the website is just more persuasive. And do I really want to see real ghosts? I don't know.

    One tour seems more spooky/eerie and the other tour looks more fun/gruesome.

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  9. Sorry, don't know much about Sydney or the transport but I know about the ghost tours in Melb, if that helps :P

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  10. Jayne,

    I'm sure you could probably write books about Melbourne. You know so much!

    I know! You can move to Sydney for the next couple of months and then provide me with all the answers ; )

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  11. There's a small colony of fairy penguins at Manly too.

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  12. Bettina,

    I saw the sign about fairy penguins when I was there. But I never saw the actual penguins.

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