One of the surprising pleasures of living in Sydney is the local wildlife. If you are from the UK you just won’t be used to the sheer volume of interesting and exotics animals. Which is, of course, one of the reasons that so many of us make the trip over to Oz.

One of the greatest experiences I have had in Sydney has been whale watching. It’s an amazing thing to do and it’s not something I ever thought I would be part of. I actually stumbled across whale watching in Sydney quite by accident.

I was out at Maroubra. This is a quiet seas side suburb of Sydney. It’s like an undeveloped version of Bondi. The houses seem to be a bit more run down and there are noticably fewer nice restaurants and facilities for day trippers and tourists. There’s no railway line in and you are dependant on either a car or the bus.

Having said all that if you do make it out there then you’ll be rewarded with an excellent beach, which looks great for surfing, and some lovely cliff side walks.

It was on one of these cliff side strolls that I literally stumbled upon my first experience of Sydney whale watching. I was walking looking out to see when I almost fell over a guy sitting at the side of the path gazing out to sea through a pair of binoculars.

I followed his path of vision out of curiosity and I could make out some shapes out to sea. I wasn’t quite sure what they were at first. It was only when the very recognisable tail flicked in the air that I realised what I was seeing. I had spotted a whale on it’s migration path along the coast.

I was absolutely flabbergasted as I had absolutely no idea it was possible to see whales this close to land. I spent an enjoyable couples of hours looking out for whales, and a few dolphins, and sure enough they popped up every twenty minutes or so.

If you are interested in whale watching in Sydney then you don’t need to limit yourself to looking on from the coastline. There are lots of companies offering guided whale spotting tours by boat. If you go down to Sydney harbour you’ll see lots of specially equipped boats advertising these whale spotting cruises.

Some of the boats even have glass bottoms so you can peer down and get a glimpse of the whales underwater. If you book up for a cruise they will take you about twenty minutes or so out in to the sea. Then you’ll hear the skippers of different whale spotting boats frantically radioing each other swapping sightings.

Once a whale is sighted that information seems to be shared among the different boats and then they zero in on the location. Of course, the boats stay far enough away so as not to disturb or frighten the whales but they do get close enough to really see the animals and you can take some great pictures. If you are lucky you may even catch a whale leaping out of the water. This makes for an absolutely stunning photograph but it’s pretty rare to see it happen. You are much more likely to see dolphins leaping but it doesn’t quite have the same visual effect.

The whale spotting season only runs through part of the year. You’ll see them from around March to November which is the Sydney Winter to Spring season.

Sydney is a very health conscious city. If you stroll through the city in the early morning or in the evening you’ll find an almost obscene amount of exercise going on. Fit and toned joggers rush by, people are kicking footballs around and fitness bootcamps are taking place in public spaces. It’s almost like everything a city should be. In the UK parks are the home of dog dirt and questionable looking men. Over here they are actually used for the correct purpose.

As you would expect in this kind of fitness oriented environment gyms are very popular. This can be good and bad. There are lots of well equipped modern gyms pretty much everywhere in Sydney. However the city seems to be dominated by one chain – Fitness First.

There are a lot of good things to be said about Fitness First. They have nice, well maintained gyms in many locations. If you sign up to a gym in one location you have the choice of using others as well which is very handy because there are so many of them. It’s practical because if you work in the city centre you’ll usually find that you can use a gym close to work and, depending on where you live, another one close to home.

The downside, as with a lot of things in Sydney, is the cost. At around one hundred dollars a month for membership it’s roughly double what you’d pay in the UK. For double the price you get exactly the same service you would in the UK so it’s a good indicator of the higher costs that anyone considering moving to Sydney should take in to account.

To sign up there is also a notorious negotiation process where you have to sit down with a sales rep and go through your application. They will try to up sell you on other stuff like a book about healthy eating and personal training. There are also rumours that you can negotiate the price down at this stage but I didn’t manage to. I think the way to do it would be to have the meeting then leave it without signing up and tell them you will talk to other gyms before making a decision. I think you’ll probably get a phone call later on offering a reduced price.

Leaving Fitness First is also notoriously difficult. They try to tell you that you have to go in and have a meeting with them face to face. Obviously this is a way to make it difficult to cancel memberships and keep people paying even when they aren’t using the facilities.

I decided to cancel after my twelve month contract had ended. At first I just informed my bank to cancel the direct debit. I was gob smacked when they told me they couldn’t and that they have to have permission from Fitness First or that I would have to fill in some extra forms. So it would have been possible to cancel it that way but it would not be straight forward. I was really shocked that banks in Australia will let someone take money out of my account even when I tell them not to.

Then I went on the Fitness First website and used the contact form to tell them I wanted to cancel. I told them I would not be in the country so I could not have a face to face meeting. They didn’t reply for two weeks then I got a reply saying my membership would be cancelled after a two week period. So it was a little bit easier than I had heard to cancel a Fitness First membership.

In the UK no lazy Sunday morning is complete without a full English breakfast (or full Scottish depending on where you live). A big plate of greasy, fried goodness. Sausages, bacon, fried eggs, fried potatoes, mushrooms, beans, black pudding and various combinations of other things depending on where it is served.

Australia has a similar tradition. The coffee culture of Australia means that there are lots of independent cafes dotted on quiet side streets. Most of them serve the ‘Big Breakfast’. This is sometimes known as the Australian breakfast and it’s on the same lines as the full English.

The big Australian brekkie plate is typically made up of toasted sourdough bread, eggs, bacon, chipolatas, mushrooms, hash brown and fried tomato. As with the full full english you’ll find slight variations of it in different places such as spinach added as a side.

Over the past year I have been on a tireless quest to track down the best australian breakfast in Sydney. It’s not been easy and has involved considerable personal sacrifice but I think I have found a winner.

In third place comes Tigerbakers on Victoria St. It serves exactly what you’d expect from the traditional Ozzie breakfast. A well set out plate with eggs any style, bacon, sausage, tomato, mushrooms, hash brown & toast for a very reasonable $14.50.

The best bit about this cafe though is the view. You can perch yourself on a barstool overlooking the street and watch the world wander up and down Victoria St. it’s always buzzing with life as people come and go from Kings Cross.

In second place Bay 88 in Rushcutters Bay slides in. It’s breakfast menu is a little bit out of the usual. It doesn’t even serve traditional full Aussie breakfast. However it does have gourmet bacon and egg rolls, at non gourmet prices, along with a selection of healthy options such as porridge and museli. Only downside is the the noisy road it is located on.

Finally in first place is Cafe Moreso. I have eaten the best breakfast of my life here bar none. The only downside to this place is that it is so popular you may have to book ahead just to get a table for breakfast. It is located in Pyrmont on a wharf overlooking the water. So a perfect spot for a quiet day. You can sit inside or outside with the latter providing great waterfront views.

The menu contains everything you would want with lots of new breakfast dishes that you would never even think exist. The egg and bacon gnocchi is simply marvelous and the traditional australian breakfast is the best I have ever tasted.

Australia grows bananas. Australia is the most expensive country in the world to buy bananas. Does not compute.

It’s one of the biggest shocks when you first move to Australia. Bananas are just ridiculously expensive. I’ve seen banana prices as high as 15 dollars a kilogram, a more normal price is 10 and I was amazed to see it as low as 5 yesterday as I picked up three large bananas for a shade under 2 dollars.

In the UK I used to pop next door to Tesco metro and buy an individual banana, fair trade and shipped in from the Carribean, for 15p to go with my breakfast. A bunch of bananas could easily be picked up for less than a pound.

So why does a country that produces bananas have ridiculously high prices?

I’ve chatted to locals about this and the answers I got were “We’re paying fair wages and not employing slave labour” and ”Australia is a huge country with a highly dispersed population and it takes a lot to ship goods around.”

Not sure if I really buy either of those explanations. Fair trade bananas in the UK are massively cheaper, sometimes by a factor of ten or more. One of the things Fair trade means is that workers are paid fair living wages.

How much labour goes in to banana cultivation? I appreciate there is a lot of effort involved but I don’t see it as the most labour intensive industry around.

I think the high minimum wage in Australia is great. It really does make the place a more equal and fair country. I don’t see that as a reason to rip off consumers in supermarkets though.

As for high transportation costs. Try shipping bananas across the world with associated fuel costs and import duties. I just can’t believe that transporting goods within the same country, even a large one like Australia, is more expensive than that.

The real reason that bananas are so expensive in Australia seems to be lack of competition. No foreign banana imports are allowed in to the country so there is no price competition.

Tough import restrictions and quarantine laws enforce this.

One of the reasons given for this is to stop potential disease from foreign bananas. Obviously that’s a valid concern but it shouldn’t be used as a bogey man to put an end to all imports. Surely there could be some checks and restrictions only placed when there is good reason to believe a crop may be infected.

The people benefit from artificially high banana prices are the small band of growers and distributors and those who suffer are the mass of Australians who consume the product. It’s like an extra tax except the proceeds go to already rich individuals rather than society.

Australia should open up the doors to free competition and give other banana producing countries a fair go. If people are willing to pay extra for “high quality” Australian bananas then that will be made clear at the tills.

With the Christmas holidays there are lots of interesting organised events in Sydney over December. Here are a list of fun things to do in Sydney in December.

Sunburnt Christmas

Sunburnt Christmas is a music festival happening over christmas at Bondi Beach. The party starts at midday and finishes at 10pm. 4000 revellers are expected. Lunch is including as part of entry so expect to fill up with a barbie on the beach.

It’s primarily an indie and dance music festival so this will mostly attract the young, international backpacker crowd.

Official Sydney Christmas Celebrations

The City of Sydney is putting on plenty of traditional christmas celebrations.

There will be the family village christmas concerts. These will be hosted in four different parks across the city. There will be music, art, Christmas fairs and games for children. These are great family events.

There will also be christmas decoration projections on Sydney Town Hall. This makes a great stop if you are in the CBD for work and want to top up on the christmas spirit.

Sydney doesn’t quite have the reputation of Paris. The parks flooded in sunlight are no match for the foggy moonlight parisian boulevardes when it comes to adding a certain je ne sais quoi to your love life.

However Sydney does have plenty of little spots which are perfect for kindling a bit of romance. This guide will take you through some of the best known ones and give you some ideas on where to hang out with your loved one, or loved one to be, when you feel a little bit foxy.

Darling Harbour at Sunset

During the day you can spend a stroll along Darling harbour trying to avoid packs of school kids visting Sydney Maritime Museum and flocks of tourists queueing up for the new Madame Tussaud’s in Sydney or the aquarium.

Later at night you have to dodge out of the way of drunken revellers as various stag/bucks and hen parties enjoy the bars and clubs that the area is famous for.

Sunset is the sweet spot though. The school kids have long gone, the revellers aren’t out yet. Office workers hurry by but they hardly make a crowd.

The backdrop is stunning. The sky goes from daylight through sundry shades of red to finally end up black. All set with the backdrop on Sydney’s skyline.

You can meet your lover at the harbour side and perch on the edge. Or you can meet up for a drink and just drink in the background as you drink in some wine. It can feel amazing sometimes to get lost in conversation then look up to see the beautiful sunset.

The Opera Bar

If you are meet your amour for a drink then to make the occasion feel special a stunning background is really needed.

In Sydney there are few backdrops more stunning than the Sydney Opera House and Sydney Harbour Bridge combined. The Opera Bar is found at the end of Circular Quay and is a Sydney institution for those who love drinks with a view.

When you’re there take a look around. Try and count how many people look like they are there on dates. The lure of this popular watering hole makes it a common place for first dates. Now that is romantic.

Rushcutters Bay Park on a Sunday

Sometimes when I pass Rushcutters Bay Park it’s like a pastiche of what a park should be. It’s almost comically good. There are people out walking their pedigree dogs, fitness classes bounding up and down, individuals making use of the outdoor sports equipment.

Then, of course, there are the couples walking hand in hand.

The park is a great spot for ten or twenty minutes stroll. You can amble along with your partner taking in the harbour breezes then stop to enjoy a lazy lunch or coffee at the great food hut in the middle.

A great romantic way to spend a weekend afternoon.

I walked home from the CBD to my flat in Potts Point yesterday. I left work a bit early at 4pm. No real reason just felt like it.

It takes me about 45 minutes to walk.

I start off in the CBD. Men in suits, women power dressing. It reaks of rat race and promotions and money.

Then the charity muggers. The bright eyed people trying to catch your eye to sign you up for ten dollars a month for some worthy charity. They rarely bother me. I think I’ve mastered the right look. It says don’t bother me I won’t give you anything. Or perhaps I just look genuinely scary to approach.

I like the idea of giving to charity, and do, but when you walk past a different charity rep every day you have to say no most of the time.

Now we’re past the CBD. Walking through Hyde Park. People are out sunbathing in November. Some look like school kids, some tourists.Some couples linger on the benches. They’ve probably arranged to meet up after work.

Walking down William St things take a turn for the eccentric. There’s a black transvestite prostitute women who has her spot there. She’s usually about int he morning, after looking like being up all night, but her she is in the early afternoon.

She’s extremely ugly for a woman. A large black man wearing a wig, bad makeup and cheap feminine clothes. I wonder who pays her.

Then past the Coke sign on to Kings Cross. Lots of young British voices. Backpackers passing through, or working in casual jobs and staying awhile.

Then there are the haunted faces of the drug users. Easily spottable. Head down. Always seeming in a hurry. An aura of violence around them. Often in couples, often arguing.

Then back home to Potts Point. Lots of joggers. They look like they have finished work, changed and jogged home. Sydney city centre is an absurdly fit city. Part of the joy of living in the big city, and city in particular, is the people.

Sydney human zoo.

Urban walking is a popular past time and Sydney makes a great backdrop for it. More and more city dwellers are foregoing the long drive out to the countryside for some trekking and instead taking advantage of the local walks on their doorstep. So what are the best city walks in Sydney?

Spit Bridge to Manly Walk

This is a 10km walk starting from Spit Bridge in the Mosman/Seaforth area. You can hop on a bus out to Spit Bridge from the CBD and then catch the spectacular ferry ride from Manly back to Circular Quay.This walk will see you take in stunning harbour cliffs, breath taking views over the ocean and fascinating aboriginal rock decorations.

The track has been well developed with signposts so you can be sure you won’t get lost. This fun walk offers quite a few things to do along the way. You can catch a glimpse of some dolphins or even some whales in the May to November season as well as see some of the colonial history of Sydney.

Coogee to Bondi Walk

This is an easy going 6km walk stretching from Bondi in to the Eastern Suburb districts. If you can maintain an average pace it should last about 2 hours even allowing some time to take in the breath taking scenery. There are plenty of place to stop, dawdle and enjoy the view though. It’s also very tempting to sample some of Syndey’s famous coffee houses along the route or go for a dip in the sea.

The view of Sydney from the plane windows as you start to descend is one of the most striking skyscapes on the planet. Once you have landed and settled in you still need to find your feet in this great city. What are the best ways to spend your first days of free time to get a feel for the place?

Ferry to Manly

The ferry to Manly leaves from Circular Quay in the city centre. The green and pale yellow boats are always packed out. The commuters tend to stay on the inside but the tourists, or new in sydney folk, grab one of the outside benches. Once the boat launches they are treated to a beautiful harbour cruise taking in all the sights of the city. It’s a great way to see the outline of the place and get a feel for where everything sits in relation to the city centre and eastern suburbs.

Once you get to Manly you’ll be greeted with an almost English like seaside town with golden sands and a wide beach front strolling area. Many people base themselves in Manly and commute to the CBD via the ferry every day.

Taronga Zoo

Taronga Zoo is also a ferry ride away – a short 20 minute hop from Circular Quay. It’s nestled on the North Shore between Cremorne and Mosman. The zoo itself hosts a variety of animals with a focus on local australian species. So there is plenty of opportunity to educate yourself about the local wildlife. You’ll see kangaroos, wallabies, possums, wombats, koalas, echidna as well as all the snakes and spiders in your nightmares. If you want to see what a Hunstman Spider looks like without any danger of being bitten this is a great place to come.

Bonus points go to all the local birds that hang out here. Most of them aren’t actually part of the zoo, they are just free roaming, but it’s a great place to see how exotic Australian birds are.

Chinatown

Australia sits in a strange position of being geographically close to Asia but culturally distant. While the majority of Sydney remains of white European ancestry there is a thriving Asian sub-culture. You’ll find Chinatown nestled beside the CBD and there is always great, and fairly priced, food to be found there. For Japanse check out Kura and for general awesomeness check out the food courts in the shopping malls. Great chinese restaurant quality foods at food court prices.

Bondi Beach

Bondi is world famous as a surfing beach. The first time I went there I was actually taken aback by how small it was. It has beautiful sand, plenty of waves but it’s actually fairly small. The town around Bondi is famous for being the home of a lot of Brits and there are some great cliff walks starting from here.

Newtown Meandering

Newtown is known as being the location of Sydney University and one of the more bohemian areas. It’s  a great place to wander round enjoying the beautiful old Sydney University buildings, the many green space and the funky little boutique shops and book stores.

Sydney must be one of the most health conscious cities in the world. It’s quite an eye opener for the average Brit arriving pasty faced and flabby in town. I live opposite a local park and I find it almost offensive when I stumble out of bed bleary eyed to be greeted by the sight of various local boot camps where groups of fit people get together to sweat and jump around at a thoroughly stupid time of the morning. I resent even being up at that time so the thought of dragging myself along to one of these groups is something I view with a mixture of bemusement and wonder.

Fitness First

To fit in with this health conscious, workout crazed land of beautiful people Sydney has a thriving gym culture with workout spots scattered liberally around the city. The most ubiquitous by far is Fitness First. They seem to cover about 70% of the market. It’s hard to walk for five minutes in the city centre without spotting someone touting the Fitness First backpack that they give away free for joining. They are fairly pricy at 100 dollars a month but rumour has it that this can be haggled down. The big advantage of Fitness First is that, depending on which plan you choose (and pay for), you can use any of their facilities. So if it will be handy for you to use the gym in different locations they can be a great choice. For instance, they have locations near my flat, my work and my girlfriends place so it’s easy to fit in a workout. Also if you do a lot of travel membership includes access to Fitness First worldwide.

Other Gym Chains

There are also other smaller gym chains in Sydney to consider. Virgin Active is often well talked about – their place in Pitt St mall is renowned as being the best kitted out in the whole of Sydney. Anytime Fitness has a reputation for beingest the cheapest gym in Sydney and is open 24 hours. I have also heard good reviews about the gym in the Ian Thorpe Aquatic centre. If you’re in to celebrity spotting then City Gym on Crown St has been known to be a good place to spot the famous getting sweaty.

Non Gym Options

Crossfit Sydney has a very good reputation for a non-conventional take on getting fit in Sydney and of course you can always sign up for one of the many in park fitness bootcamps which tend to be advertised on the flyers tied to lamposts near the parks.