Miata Road Trip South Pacific: Sydney, Australia

This post was originally published on February 23, 2016 on Grand Prix Road Trip blog at MyRoadTrip.net // under the title:

MAZDA MX-5: FISH & CHIPS RUN WITH THE MX-5 CLUB OF NSW – SYDNEY CHAPTER FROM KIRRIBILLI TO BALMORAL BEACH

South Pacific Miata Road Trip Overview

The highlight of my visit to Sydney by far was the Fish & Chips run organized by Guy Coles through the MX-5 Club of NSW, Sydney Chapter. Guy scheduled a 6pm meetup under the Sydney Hourbour Bridge on the North Sydney side in Kirribilli to drive along the northern suburbs to Balmoral Beach for a light dinner.

I was pretty amazed with the turnout… the parking was a bit scattered but looking back at all my pictures I counted at least 20 cars! For a weekday, after work meeting that’s incredible turnout. All those people wanted to meet me? Really? Probably not… As naive as I would be for thinking that, the MX-5 Club of NSW does these fish and chips runs pretty frequently. But to show my appreciation I certainly thanked every person whose hand I shook for coming. And then proceeded to take a million pictures of their cars:

Every generation of the MX-5 was well represented. I was super happy to see all those NC’s! But there were certainly a number of beautiful NA’s in attendance. As well as a bunch of NB’s including the rare factory turbo SE models that were badged as Mazdaspeed in the US. Plenty of NC’s including the NC1, NC2 and NC3’s. Several special editions among them, including a few 25th Anniversary models as well as some cool colour options like the twin Yellow ones. I was surprised to see that Copper Red Mica (like mine) was such a rare option in Australia while there were plenty of brighter red ones. Someone joked at the start of the event that Black NC’s were the most common option in the club, but soon after that statement was made a bunch of variety rolled in. Some MX-5 owners even brought their “other” car, including a beautiful RX-7.

We started to roll-out towards Balmoral as some people were still rolling in to Kirribilli to join the cruise. It was fantastic! I was very lucky to catch a ride for the cruise with the only ND in attendance. Chris (originally from Queensland) was a recent transplant to NSW and happy to share the ride with me. And while it didn’t seem like it until it happened, that ride was actually my first time being in an ND, it turns out I haven’t had a chance to drive one yet… Hmm!

While we cruised to Balmoral Beach it was incredible to see other MX-5’s along the way. Including this red PRHT and another blue that passed us going into the opposite direction. Sydney seems to be a Roadster heaven! They certainly got the perfect weather for it.

Upon arrival in Balmoral Beach the parking lot was well and truly dominated by the MX-5 club. It was quite a sight to see, especially if you’re into this sort of car, which a few beach goers, especially the younger ones seemed to be. I wasn’t the only one taking pictures of the cars with my phone there.

The Fish & Chips were great! But the company was even better. I’m so happy Guy organized this event and even happier with the amazing turnout. I certainly wouldn’t be able to put anything remotely like that in New Jersey if an Aussie came for a visit. So thanks to Guy… and to the MX-5 Club of NSW/Sydney for being so awesome. Someone even handed me a hat with the club logo on it. I shall wear it proudly!

The drive back to the train station was pretty neat also as all the MX-5’s scattered into different directions. We got a beautiful glance of Sydney skyline from one of the hills which made me really miss living in Sydney. If only I had started this hobby a little earlier, I would have enjoyed the company of these awesome people back in 2009 when I lived in Australia on a working holiday.

Before coming to the big event in Kirribilli I had to pay a visit to Bondi Beach, my favorite place in Sydney. And sure enough I spotted an MX-5 there which I wanted to share in this post. As tempted as I was to have Fish & Chips for lunch at Bondi, I’m glad I found a place serving Kangaroo Burgers instead… between the scenery, the food and the MX-5 community meetup this was one awesome day for me!