Oz Adventure

Now usually you can’t get Lyd out of bed until the double figures (10am) but here it is a new world, and she is awake as the sun comes up, 5am! This also helped as we had more revising to do on our first 3 modules for today’s theory lessons, in school we used to call it ‘cramming’! We were picked up at 7.45 by Katrina, a Scottish lady who has lived here for 4 years, and taken to the training school where we met our instructor for the course, Jeremy Bleach, whose parents are from Portsmouth (and looks eerily like the character Matt Parkman from Heroes), it’s a small world and Matt wouldn’t like to hoover it.

The first day consisted of classroom theory, of which we passed with flying colours, the afternoon was then proceeded with a 200 meter swim test and treading water for 10 minutes, Matt said that he was imagining holding two pints of lager and not trying to get them wet. We finally finished at 5pm, and went off to a restaurant for dinner (big ribs and pasta) then back to the room to do homework and crash, it was a very tiring day…

The morning shower was a different experience; Lyd said it felt like showering in an Army camp as the screens were rattling with the vibrations of a helicopter! Said chopper was just outside moving building site materials from street level to a high rise building next to ours! On to the airport via minibus listening to the English Premier League football results, and we managed to get checked in on time. Thai food again for lunch because its so yummy, and only a 2 hour flight later we arrived in Hamilton Island (one of the most beautiful places we have ever seen) where the pilot almost ran out of runway. The heat was scorching getting off the plane, and as the airport was so small it was such a nice feeling to just walk off the plane, to the bags, and on to the boat.

Transfer from the airport to Able Point, Airlee Beach took over an hour so we made great use of the time lapping up the sun ensuring that we had sun block protection applied correctly. The sun was hot but the Ozone layer is almost non-existent here and can be very dangerous. We arrived at our location and grabbed a taxi to our new digs. Our new self-contained apartment is fantastic in comparison to our digs in Sydney, this place had two double beds, proper air con, TV, Balcony, Pool, Fridge, Microwave, BBQ, Washer, Dryer – all for a great price! We collected our Diving Packs and navigated to the first pub (Aussie Pub) for a few refreshing beers and prepped for a big 3 days ahead of us…

Bought shopping, cooler bag, beer for the cooler bag and then met Jen at the town hall station and jumped on train to Waitara for the barbie (we ended up being there for 10 hours ☺). Met Shane, Jill, Zoe and Shanes mum. BBQ was shrimps and octopus for starter, and main meal was Chicken, Sausages and Corn. Beers were consumed in vast quantities as well as a bottle of bubbly. Adam and another fella turned up for a swim, the other fella was an ex London copper, so we were surprised that he did not recognize Matt! After an hour Lyd’s face was getting very red and about to blow up from the heat so a quick dive in the pool was required. Zoe enjoyed all the attention, and made a new friend in Lyd.

Night time soon approached and all the cascadas started singing VERY loudly, and the rest of the bugs woke up too, leading to Matt flinching a lot and being attacked, and Lyd covering up with a hoodie to protect herself (whinging poms). For better protection we all moved on to the pub at the end of the road where Matt was enthralled by the Keno screen, taking part in a few games, he won all of 2 Bucks! After all the fun we got on the train back to Town Hall and stopped off at the Thai Restaurant next door to our hostel for take away, then sat and ate Red and Green Curry whilst watching The Boat That Rocked in the hostel community room. Upon walking out of the lift on our floor Lyd gasped and covered her eyes as there was a nutter standing naked holding a towel at the end of the corridor. He looked a little lost, very drunk and a bit wet, and then we realised he had broken into our bathroom and wrecked our shower! Words were had, and then we reported him to security (we’re not paying for the fecking shower he broke!). All was sorted in the end, and tomorrow we are flying to the Whitsunday’s…

We stopped for brekky in an old Fire Station café before heading off to Taronga Zoo by ferry from Circular Quays, which gave us great views of the Opera House and Bridge. At the Zoo we saw kangas, wallabys, tons of birds, Lions and Tiger, but most importantly Matt conquered his fear of snakes and we got a photo together of an Olive Python wrapped around us! On the way out of the Zoo, we used the sky lift (cable car) and Lyd tried to get over her fear of heights, but still no luck! Weather was scorching, well in to 30’s and due to get warmer in the next few days. Matt did a bit of shopping and with good timing made it back to the hostel as the thunder rolled.

After a short siesta we were back out, this time to the Sydney Tower where you get great views of Sydney, and Lydia crawling on the floor! The queues were long to get back down because of safety features built into the lifts where they cut off when the wind reaches 60mph, so in other words the people on the ground were not aloud to go up because of safety reasons, which in turn meant the people upstairs cannot get down and are therefore f***ed … guess where we were! Due to this, dizziness and jelly legs we decided not to eat at the restaurant in the tower but to go elsewhere. So off we went to Darling Harbour for some seafood, but not before we found a great little bar called Blackbird, which at first we dismissed but after tasting the cocktails stayed for another, and another!! Matt asked the bartender to make up anything and it was so good, he got 3 for the price of 1! Quite a bit of alcohol later we made it downstairs to Nicks Seafood Restaurant were we saw food and eat it! The fresh fish was divine, Lyd had snapper fillets on a bed of mashed potatoes and Matt a whole small snapper, and start playing dentist with its teeth!! After all the lovely food and alcohol we managed to stumble back to the hostel via a 7/11 for lots of chocolate…

So we set off for our search for Nemo at the Aquarium where we found lots of other marine life. We walked down the tunnels with Sharks, Stingrays, Turtles, Dugong, Barramundi oh and more sharks, swimming over and around us, but still no Nemo! Where did we find him? In his own tank with all his cast members around him of course! The Aquarium was a fantastic experience and would recommend it as a must do.

Afterwards we walked around Circular Quays checking out the largest Imax screen in the world, Lyd found her favourite noodles at Wok On in the Harbourside Shopping Centre and then we caught the monorail back to World Square. After a brief stop at the hostel, we went on to the Botanical Gardens via Hyde Park. In the Rose Gardens Lyd sat and had a chat with a bird hiding in the shade, we saw some fantastic views including the Governors House and ultimately had very tired feet, so back to hostel we went, passing through St James Station in Hyde Park, one of the eldest stations in Sydney which was maintained in its original design, and reminded us very much of the London Underground. We stopped at the Chamberlain Hotel Pub a few doors down from us for a beer and a burger, which tasted great until Matt bit into the beetroot EUGH! (sorry Jen!) Lyd got the laptop from our room and we sat in the pub writing up our blog…

The Sydney Fish Market has exactly what it says on the tin, “Fish” and lots of it. As we walked around the market it became apparent that there were many species of fish that we had not seen before, let alone eaten. There were crabs, lobsters, barramundi, salmon, prawns, octopus, and snapper to name a few. We found a place to eat the baby octopus and Lydia stepped up to the plate and chomped on a few of those, albeit with a scowl on her face!

We kept to an appointment with Jen at Bondi Junction (ADM Australia pty) where we also met the operations director, a lovely man called Bill Fitzgibbon, whom himself is from Cork, Ireland! After we unloaded ice creams for the whole office we then went to lunch with Jen, where I had my first Aussie pie which I have been led to believe are better than the Cornish pasties/pies. Whilst the Chicken and Mushroom pie was indeed very nice, I still think the old Cornish pasties are the best in the world (sorry Jen).

After lunch shopping took the main role, supported by a nice Victoria Bitter in Bondi Junction. I have to point out here that the sky was a perfect blue and the sun was beating down as I drained my scooner of VB. We noticed that there were a few nutters hanging around Bondi and wondered if they had followed us from Amsterdam.

On our way back to the city we stopped off at the Queen Victoria building which is an extremely nice shopping centre. I couldn’t say the same about the prices of items in the shops as they did not display any prices, which meant only one thing!!!!

Later that evening, and after a light power nap, we met up with Jen to go for dinner at a restaurant called Kingsleys – this was an excellent choice, thanks Jen! I had 400g of steak, of which the cow had been grain fed and supplied by Cargills, although I was not going to let that stop me enjoying my meal! I had a light blond beer, which was very nice, and an even nicer bottle of full-bodied red wine, the steak was fantastic and the overall price was very reasonable. http://kingsleyssteak.com.au

G'day mateys,

Another weekend dashes by.. Let's see what went on.

Friday night: dinner with Bav at Hurricanes (http://www.hurricanesgrill.com.au/) Again the 1kg steak made an appearance on the menu, (what is it with this country and the ridiculously large amounts of meat? ;) but I went for the ribs (pork, and at Bav's prompting, the full rack).. almost finished them.. Delicious! Headed back to west Sydney (weekend lodgings courtesy of Mr & Mrs Reddy - fabulous hosts).

Saturday: caught up with Matt and Lyd in town and headed to Waitara to meet some of Jonesy's mates for a barbie. Weather was warm and the Runcis have a pool (woo!), so it was drinks, snacks, swim, more food, more drinks, lots of stories, and Lyd definitely made a new friend (19 month old cutie pie Zoe). Shane and Jill were great hosts and an excellent day was had. Ended up at the local with Shane and Adam. Matt's losses on the Keno ended when we stumbled off into the night to the train station.

Sunday: sleep in. :) Temperature is 40+!! Shopping at Parramatta (crazy Christmas sales on, also: air conditioned). After lunch (home made curry - lekker!), headed to Sydney footy stadium with Bav to see Pearl Jam. Hot, sweaty, knackering, bloody marvellous. There's just something about a field full of fans singing along to the end of Porch, or a cover of Crazy Mary that overwhelms me. Whatever your taste in music - if it makes you feel something that for the moment is so consuming, well I think that's really incredible. If you don't get those goosebumps then you're probably rolling your eyes and going 'yeah, yeah, get on with it already!'. ;)
Did I mention it was very, very warm? Like being inside an oven. Not great when you're standing for about four hours without a drink. But I'd do it again. :) The heat - I tell you, it melts your brain......

Today: *much* cooler (about 20 degrees less!). Work. Bleah.

Hooroo,
Jen.

We woke up at 5am when the sun was coming up, so with the extra time we decided what to do with the day. By 9am we were on the hop-on/hop-off tourist bus, which took us around a part of the city and then all the way to Bondi Beach. Kings Cross and beyond looks very funky and quieter than the bustling city. When we got to Bondi Beach our first impressions were “is this it?” don’t get us wrong, it’s a fantastic place but we thought the beach would be longer! We walked in the sand, drew our names in the sand, paddled in the wade, and bought souvenirs at the beach shop! We took some video, had a refreshing fruit juice and then ran for the bus back to town.

On our arrival back into Sydney we went to the Chinese Garden of Friendship which is absolutely stunning, a piece of calm tranquillity in the midst of the bustling city. We then walked around Darling Harbour looking at Captain Cooks “Endeavour” and jumped back on the hop-on/hop-off bus for the second tour that took us more around the city, where we saw for the first time the Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Sydney Opera House in all their glory! For Lyd this was the moment when it all sunk in that we were indeed in Sydney f**king Australia, on the other side of the world! The bus took us to The Rocks where we wandered around and found an Irish souvenir shop and the oldest licensed bar in Sydney “Fortune of War” so photos and beer were taken! A little walk up the hill we saw a view of the Opera House so we stopped and asked a dude with lunch in his hand to take a photo of us with the Opera House in the background, little did we know how much we would see of this monument in the following week! As tourists do, we walked around a little more then got back on the bus to finish the city tour and went back to the hostel to crash before our night out.

As we were staying in Chinatown we absolutely had to have some Oriental food for dinner, so around the corner from our hostel was the BBQ King restaurant, where Lyd ordered her usual Sweet and Sour Pork balls – her verdict: truly scrumptious! In the restaurant we met an Australian couple who liked to chat and they educated us to the terms ‘Schoolie’ and ‘Toolie’: Schoolie being the teenager who has just finished High School and goes on holiday to places such as the Gold Coast with a group of 15 plus friends, and Toolies are the parents who are not allowed to go with them / near them / try to stop their fun for the duration of the vacation. Interesting concept, and we are glad we didn’t book to go to the Gold Coast for our second week! After the meal we were running late for the theatre so we jumped in a cab that took us right to the Opera House. By night this monument sparkles! We went to see a modern day adaptation of the Taming of the Shrew by Bill Shakey, and it was certainly different, an all female cast being overly dramatic with their gestures and speaking the original Shakespearean language. Even though Lyd can understand it she still had trouble due to the jet lag settling in! After the show we sat outside the Opera House looking at the Harbour Bridge all lit up just taking it all in…

G'day again and welcome to the second instalment.

...as the wheels touched ground we were officially in the southern hemisphere, its dizzy down here! We managed to collect our rucksacks easily enough, and then going through customs was a different experience, where even 1 small apple could land you in trouble ;) In reality we got the express route out of the airport, just say no to all questions asked at customs.

Arrivals...mmm Doughnuts...and lots of them! But no time for those, we had to find a cash machine and get on a train into the CBD (Sydney’s Central Business District). DISASTER: Dutch card not working in Aussie ATM!!! After we changed our pants, we found another ATM that liked the card and henceforth our journey began!

Double decker train into town...it was 9am, the sun was shining, we sat in a park looked at the sky and phoned home to gloat. The rest of the day was spent finding our hostel and getting our bearings around the city, oh and crashing at 4pm due to extreme jet lag! Even with the locals screaming obscenities out of their windows, we still managed to sleep all the way through to 5am...

So we set off for our sunfest adventures in the land down under knowing that it was going to take us 24 hours of travelling to get there, but first things first we had to fly to London TERMINAL 5!!!

Weather related delays from Schipol = late into T5 = running / sprinting for T3 only to be told upon arrival we should be at T4. Lyd almost hit him, but fortunately we were only 100 meters away from the correct gate. Phew!!

On the plane, we sit down in the back row - the very last row - behind 2 fat old people who thought their seats where their front room recliners....that's the negative bits over, the rest of the flight to Singapore went rather well with plenty of entertainment choices.

We managed to see all of a conveyor walkway in Singapore, then the fabulous tarmac view from our better seats and then off to Sydney. You really get an appreciation of how vast Australia is whilst traveling above it by plane at 990km an hour!! Also managed to catch the Australian sunrise from the plane, absolutely stunning (photos to come), and then the pilot announced our descent in Sydney (baby!) you should have seen the grins on our faces.....

G'day, and welcome to the Oz Adventure blog.

Anyone who's never been on a long haul flight, look away now..

Long haul flights are, as the name implies, long. Long and boring. And unless you can afford something other than cattle class, pretty uncomfortable. Still, I got fed and watched a few films and it passed the time.

Arrived in lovely warm Sydney on Sunday night. Got a lift to the hostel (thanks Bav!) followed by a couple of drinks (thanks Bav!!) followed by 5.5 hours sleep.

Up at 6 for a run along the coastal track. Well I was already awake, and what else am I going to do when the sun is streaming in through the window? There was a storm out over the water. It was very warm and muggy. Sighted loads of noisy rainbow lorikeets about and walls drenched in jasmine.. Also the Sculptures By The Sea.. err.. sculptures. Art, eh?

Work was pretty unproductive until I figured out 'someone' had changed the subnet mask since the last time I was here. Why? Anyway..

Brilliant storm after work. Stood underneath an awning along Campbell Parade and watched an unusual cloud formation roll over Bondi. Lighting and thunder keeping the mob at the pub across the road cheering. Rained a bit too.

Discovered there is mango flavoured ice tea here. Don't like mangoes myself (I know, how un-Australian), but if anyone wants to put in an order, let me know.

This morning. Woke up around 5:30. Received text from Matt: "did some orientation yesterday, fell asleep around 3/4 pm, up just now..." Jetlag, brilliant. What time is three quarters pm? (answers on a postcard please)

Went for another jaunt along the beach. Sculptures still out. Easily my favourite is the giant straw. I'd upload a photo, but as you all well know, people in Orstraylya don't understand technology and tend to run screaming when someone takes out a camera. Ok, I forgot the cable. Photos will have to wait a bit.

Weather is not as good as expected. Guess that will learn me to expect anything much from NSW, eh cockroaches??

That's all for now.
Hooroo.