The Sydney Help Thread

[Zippo]

Right, so I have booked flights from New Zealand to Sydney, arriving on the 3rd of SEPTEMBER and leaving on the 20th of SEPTEMBER . From the 3rd to the 14th SEPTEMBER I will be in Singapore and then coming back to spend the rest of the time in Sydney.

Now, I need help from Sydney people ...

What to do and where to go .. and how to get about doing it
And to ask other questions such as where to find what and is [name] worth going to, or is [name] too far out of the way etc etc

Maybe we could organise a meet or something on the weekend.
Early days yet, but...


So, first question

Toys R Us stores ... seem to be the most limited and the most accesable to trains/boats/buses are those at: Bankstown, Cambelltown, Chatswood and Parramatta. How far from the CDB are we talking here via public transport, how far are those stores from the main public transport hubs (thinking train station here) and are other stores like Toyworld/Toy Kingdom/or whatever they are called, Big W, Kmart, Target in the same area or miles away - ie, all in the same mall, multiple malls or stand alone stops?

My thought is that TRU stores seem to be different based on other trips to Australia, while the other chains all seem to have the same stuff at the same time...

EDIT: Added the key words of SEPTEMBER to my post. Whoops, sorry about that.

[DarkHyren]

Toys R Us in Penrith and Cambelltown are stand alone stores with nothing much nearby for toys and are a bit out of the way.
Campbelltown: 15 minute walk from the station in the complete opposite direction of the shopping center (so about 25-30 minutes if you want to go shopping afterwards.
Penrith: Best to catch a bus from Penrith station.
In the main part of Penrith and Cambelltown have shopping centers with the usual Target/Kmart/BigW/etc (and next to Campbelltown, Macarthur Square, which is better for stores then Campbelltown itself).

Parramatta, Liverpool, Chatswood, Hurstville and Miranda are all in Westfields so they have the usual Target/Kmart/BigW/etc in the same center.
All but Liverpool are about 5 minutes from the train, you have a 15 or so minute walk from Liverpool station to Westfields.

We don't have Toyworld in the Sydney metropolitan area as far as I know, but we do have a few Uncle Pete's Toys

Pity about the dates, the Parramatta Collectables Fair is on February 21th so it looks like you'd miss it.

[Zippo]

There are a few months between Feb and September anyways..

Thanks for the insight so far.
Keep them coming :-)

[DarkHyren]

lol, I wasn't sure what month you were travelling so I just mentioned the fair in case

As far as other stuff to do, you could go to Sydney Aquarium and Sydney Wildlife World next to it. They have a discount pass if you go to both.
If you didn't know, it's in Darling Harbour. You can get there by getting a train to Town Hall station and then riding the monorail to Darling Harbour.
Or you could go to Taronga Zoo. Catch a train to Circular Quay then catch a ferry to Taronga Zoo wharf to get there.
They have a pass that covers zoo entry as well as the ferry which aparently saves you 10%.

You could do the Sydney Harbour Bridge Climb. Catch a train to Circular Quay, then it's a short walk along George Street, then up Argyle Street to Cumberland Street.
And to finish up this post you could also visit the Australian National Maritime Museum or the Powerhouse Museum.
That's about all I can think of off the top of my head, though more might come to me later

[dirge]

From the CBD the two most accessable TRU stores are Hurstville & Chatswood. Both are around 20 minutes (make sure you avoid the trains that terminate at Hurstville) and fairly close to their respective stations. Parramatta is a little further out and tends to run out of TFs fairly quickly, but is still quite accessable. Bankstown TRU is miles from the station. Trust me, you don't want to go there via PT.

[liegeprime]

aaaaw, cant you extend til the 22nd so you can at least come to the Parramatta toy fair on the 21st, and after that attend the mandatory minimeet-up? Shame

[Zippo]

aaaaw, cant you extend til the 22nd so you can at least come to the Parramatta toy fair on the 21st, and after that attend the mandatory minimeet-up? Shame

September people, SEPTEMBER!

Whoops, as I typed this I had not seen that I had failed to mention September in the first post. I thought I had .. but yeah..

Sorry

[i_amtrunks]

The Moore Park TRU is accessible by buses and would take about the same time as getting to Chatswood or Hurstville. TRU's can often be empty, the Parramatta and Chatswood stores in particular can be graveyards for weeks.

There are a few stores in Chinatown that carry Transformers, but they either deal in KO's or over inflate their prices.

[fatbot]

don't forget kinokuyna or whatever the hell it's called does have some statues and TPB's. There's also kings for more statues and comics.

[Zippo]

Well, just spent 3hrs (maybe a bit more) making a custom Google map of Sydney to plot all the TRU, Big W, Kmart, Target, Uncle Pete's, JB Hi Fi, David Jones and Myer stores.

This was in order to see what area had the greatest contribution of stores, and to see exactly where they were and how close to the train stations they are.

Now I need to collate that information into a list of places that I need to go to (timing permitting) and how I get there and what type of bus/train ticket I need to purchase.