Travel Log: Australia Road Trip, Sydney

I hope you have been enjoying following my recent Australia road trip adventures here on the blog! We spent almost three weeks traveling through South Australia, Victoria, New South Wales, and a bit into Queensland around the Christmas and New Year holidays with a group of dear friends (you can see my other Australia road trip posts here, here, and here). I am so lucky to travel the world with friends who consider each other family, and we have spent the last four years celebrating New Year's together. This year, our destination was born out of a desire to experience New Year's Eve in Australia's largest city--we wanted to not only be some of the first people to celebrate the New Year, but also to see the legendary fireworks show over Sydney Harbor. Today's post is the linchpin of sorts, the central point that the rest of the trip was anchored around, not to mention super exciting for me to finally have the opportunity to visit Sydney! Please read on for more photos and details of our brief visit to this beautiful harbor city.

 Jumpsuit: exact here

Watch: exact here

You may have seen my last post on our visit to Australia's capital city Canberra, after which we spent a day at a beautiful beach in Jervis Bay and then continued on to Sydney. Upon our arrival the morning of December 31st, we immediately headed to Sydney's iconic Bondi Beach to check out the beautiful white sand beach, surfers, and overall gorgeous views. Bondi has been a public beach since 1882 and roughly 3 million visitors each year visit this beautiful place. Some people come here to surf, some to sunbathe, and some just to walk through--no matter which bucket you fall into, you need to visit Bondi Beach when you are in Sydney.

While at Bondi Beach, you will probably see and walk by the Bondi Icebergs. This is a swimming club that is open to both locals and visitors, as well as a very popular social media photo spot. You definitely cannot visit this area without taking a photo of these striking pools. If you want to capture photos of these pools without massive crowds of people, I would recommend visiting before they open at 6am for some perfect early morning shots.

We absolutely love meeting up with friends during our travels, and this time we were able to meet up for lunch in the Bondi area with one of our friends who grew up in Seattle and is currently in Sydney. It was a perfect opportunity to catch up over a delicious meal.

You have seen this outfit already, but it was such a good one for a warm weather location. A pair of lightweight wide-leg pants and a simple tank are a foolproof combo to dress up with wedges, like I did here, or down with flat sandals. Packing light and re-wearing outfits is something I try to do for all of our longer trips, and I was very proud of myself for squeezing 18 days' worth of outfits into one 19" carry-on suitcase! It does mean you need to think ahead as to when and wear you can do laundry, but that was easy enough at the places we stayed.

Pants: similar here, here, or here

Wrap Tank: similar here

Wedge Sandals: same brand similar style here

Clutch: similar here or here

Sunglasses: exact here

Watch: exact here

Since we had a large group, we rented a boat all to ourselves for the evening in order to have the best possible views of the fireworks over the harbor. This option is expensive on New Year's Eve, as you can imagine, but we had 20 people to split the cost and make it more reasonable. We met the boat around 5pm, brought all of our own drinks and food, and despite a short downpour right when we were boarding the boat everything worked out perfectly. The skies cleared up, and we had front row seats to Sydney's largest New Year's Eve show yet, with 12 minutes and 8.5 tons of fireworks! It was incredible to see in person, and for the occasion I chose a white strapless jumpsuit that is still available and linked below.

 Jumpsuit: exact here

Watch: exact here

Ringing in 2019 on a boat in Sydney Harbor was incredible! I don't know how my short self ended up in the back of our group pic--apparently I need to pay better attention when the cameras come out. Haha! Check out some of the shots I captured of the fireworks during the show.

 On New Year's Day, we had a leisurely morning to visit the iconic Sydney Opera House, have lunch, and walk through the Royal Botanic Garden before continuing on our road trip adventure. It was a HOT day, so we didn't stay out in the sun too long, but I really enjoyed walking around to the viewpoint known as "Mrs. Macquarie's Chair" to check out the gorgeous views of the Opera House and bridge.

We also drove to a second viewpoint, Blue's Point Reserve, on our way out of the city for another fabulous view of the bridge before jumping back in our cars and continuing on to our next destination.

Photocred: Deborah Wang Jelen (check out her Instagram for more travel inspo!)

That's it for Sydney--I hope to return soon to spend more time in this beautiful city! I hope you enjoyed these photos and a few tips on things to do and see if you only have a short time here. After spending New Year's Eve and New Year's Day in Sydney, it was time to move on to our next big destination: Byron Bay. Please stay tuned for another travel log soon, and I hope you have a wonderful week!

Linking up with Curly Crafty Mom, Nancy's Fashion Style, Not Dead Yet Style, Style Nudge