Thursday, October 19, 2017

Wollongong Day Trip


Wollongong is located in Illawara, New South Wales, about 82 kilometres south of Sydney. Wollongong is easily reached by two hour train journey from Sydney. As a coastal city, Wollongong is famous for its surfing beach. Many tourists who visit Sydney make their way to Wollongong for a day trip. And that's what I did too!

Lake Illawara was first found in the late 1790s and soon people started to flock into this land. In 1830, a military barrack was constructed near the harbour. It was followed by the city planning in 1834. Wollongong then continued to develop with industries. The population increased from 864 in 1856 to 90,852 in 1954. Currently, Wollongong has about 300,000 population.

Welcome to Wollongong mural near the train station

Wollongong Westfield was first opened in 1965

David Jones was recently renovated

The Uniting Church

One part of Crown Street Mall

My brunch in a little cafe called Lee and Me

The cozy interior of the cafe

WIN Sports and Entertainment Centre

The City Beach

The strip of the beach leading to the light house

Some rock formation under the cliff, exposed during low tide

We rock and we wave

The view towards the beach

The view towards the ocean

And here I spent about 1 hour thanking the universe

The view from the top of the cliff

The Wollongong Head Light House was built in 1936

Some memento from war time

The walk towards Wollongong Breakwater Light House

The Breakwater Light House was first built and made redundant after the building of Wollongong Head Light House

There is nothing the water can hide
Fishing points
Wollongong is the only city with two light houses in close proximity

Apart from the city centre, Wollongong has a really magnificent Buddhist temple located in the suburb of Berkeley. It can be reach by 20-minute bus ride from Wollongong city. This largest Buddhist temple in the southern hemisphere was completed in 1995. It is part of the Fo Guang Shan organization which is rooted in Mahayana tradition and founded by Hsing Yun in 1967.

The back of the temple

The first temple

Guan Yin statue

Second temple with Buddha in all five directions

The five Buddha

The second temple

That's how I spent my one day in Wollongong and I'm glad I didn't scratch it out my list. And now, I've crossed it off.

Counting down the day to go home!

Love is in the air,
Little Feet

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