Jan 2007

After a terrible night's sleep in Rockhampton we set off early towards Mackay to try to avoid a little of the heat.

Goodbye and good riddance

Our car was air conditioned but even with this it was still pretty uncomfortable in the heat of the day. The journey was pretty uneventful, more empty roads for mile upon mile, looking exactly the same.....and on, and on and on.....

We're on a road to nowhere

Eventually we arrived in Mackay, officially the 11th largest city in Australia. You could have fooled me! It may be a city geographically, but yet again we came across another deserted urban area. To be fair, it was Sunday, but even so, there was barely anything open and nobody was around. Thankfully there was a little Italian cafe open where we were able to get some lunch, as by this point we were starving. We both had fettuccine carbonara and it was very good.

We had originally planned to spend a night in Mackay, but as it was only midday and there was nothing to do, we decided that we would be better off carrying on the extra two hours to Airlie Beach.
Back on the road again...

Airlie Beach is really only a single main street full of tour agents selling sailing trips around the Whitsunday Islands. As this was what we wanted to do we had obviously come to the right place. We made the unusual decision of starting to look for somewhere to stay fairly early in the day and managed to get ourselves into a very pleasant little cabin in a caravan park only 2kms outside Airlie. It didn't have it's own bathroom, but most importantly it did have air conditioning and after our experience in the Rockhampton Hovel this was very important. It also had a proper mattress not a horrible foam one!

We didn't even have to go into town to book our sailing trip, we spoke to the lady in reception at the caravan park, told her what we wanted and the next thing we were booked on a two day, two night trip aboard a 14 metre sloop called Prima, leaving the next day (14 metres is about 46ft and no, I don't know what a sloop is either).

The boat trips have a rather funny policy of not allowing anyone to bring bags that have zips onto their boats. Apparently the zips can harbour bed bugs and it is to stop them being spread around the boats. What everybody does instead is take their belongings onboard in canvas shopping bags. It's quite funny walking around Airlie, because everybody is carrying shopping bags full of clothes around looking like tramps!

We had chosen our boat on the basis that it takes only a small group, maximum twelve passengers and it's not a party boat. We were very lucky because the boat wasn't full and there were only eight passengers plus four crew. I think that there were only supposed to be two crew, but the deckhand had brought his brother along and the skipper had brought his girlfriend along too, claiming that they were 'volunteers', chancers would have been more accurate, but what can you say when you're already out at sea and don't have a 'driver's' licence. It wasn't really a problem, but I did think it was a bit cheeky.

We were very fortunate with the rest of our group on the boat, everybody got on well, there were a Dutch couple, two girls from Scotland and a couple from Dublin and we had some good fun together.

The boat had four double 'rooms' - three of which had their own bathroom and one of which had a bathroom that was shared by the crew. Can you guess which one we had? Thought so!

The bedroom was rather cramped, but there was more room than I had expected, because the boat was fairly wide. Having said this it was significantly smaller than our train compartment in Thailand, so there wasn't much room to move around.

The basic plan appeared to be to sail around a couple of the islands, do some snorkelling, visit Whitehaven beach and come back to Airlie. First stop was for some snorkelling just off Hook Island, where we all hopped in the water and had a look around. Around the Whitsundays you have to wear stinger suits at this time of year, to avoid being stung by Box Jellyfish and Irukandji, which are small but extremely venomous. The stinger suits make you look a bit daft, but not as daft as you'd look if you were laying in the sea dying!

No reason to feel nervous then

We pulled up at a deserted beach to watch the sunset, which was pretty special - then back on board for some dinner, where mayonnaise featured heavily. It was a theme that would carry on for the rest of the trip....

Next morning we set sail for Tongue Cove on Whitsunday Island, which is the drop off point for the famous Whitehaven beach, the one that you see in all the brochures and on the postcards. Unfortunately the sun wasn't out and the tide was quite high, so it wasn't really showing off to it's full potential, but still looked pretty good. From the lookout you could see stingrays in the shallows, and when we got down to the beach there were quite a few young sharks in the shallows too, only about two to three foot long, but perfectly formed ready to grow into something a little more scary! My main concern was that Mummy shark may be waiting around only a little bit further out, so we didn't venture too far. Note from SR: Since this event I have read about a shark attack in this very place where we were paddling!

Next stop was Manta Ray Bay, where we had the best snorkelling I have ever seen. The visibility was very good, the coral reef was alive with vibrant colours and the fish were amazing. We were surrounded by all sorts of fish, but the ones that stood out were the Maori Wrasses. One in particular was huge, over a metre long and probably two and a half feet high, it came right up to you as you snorkelled, it was amazing. Note from SR: This is a typical fish story as told by a man - the fish gets bigger every time the story is repeated - it started life as a pilchard.

That night we anchored in a bay off Hook Island, where we were sheltered by the wind - unfortunately during the night the wind direction changed and the wind strength picked up. At about 2.30a.m. the crew got up to move the boat as the anchor was slipping and we were heading for the reef. Thankfully when we moved the boat the anchor got a decent hold and we were able to stay where we were for the rest of the night. We had another snorkel the next morning, but after Manta Ray Bay it was a bit of a letdown. We were back in port for lunchtime and Sarah and I were both shattered, neither of us had slept very well on either night as our cabin was so cramped and hot. Two nights at sea was more than enough for both of us and we were quite glad to get back to our little cabin at the caravan park.

We were up quite early on Thursday to head north again towards Townsville, but as always our plans were 'subject to change without prior notification'.

Looks promising, doesn't it?

It was a long drive up to Townsville, we went through several towns that looked significant on the map, but turned out to be a single street with a pub and a bottle shop! The drive was again pretty monotonous and we were glad to get to Townsville, which is the second largest city in Queensland. We headed straight for the centre and shortly afterwards were ready to leave. It was very similar to Mackay and Rockhampton in the way that there is nothing much at all in the town centre, everything is in out of town complexes, so the towns themselves seem dead and totally unappealing. It is totally reliant on people driving out to places to shop for anything, so there are very few, if any, decent places to get a cup of coffee or some lunch.

After a great deal of searching we eventually found somewhere to get a drink (and lift my severly depressed blood sugar levels) before we headed off again to Cairns.

For a moment we thought we were on the M4 in Bridgend

We had actually chosen a good day to travel, because the weather was pretty poor, raining on and off all day, so we weren't wasting a nice day that we could have been doing something else.

Is it a mirage or have we finally arrived?

After travelling through a succession of forgettable towns, it was quite a relief to get to Cairns, which is quite a lively place. It's obviously very popular with backpackers, but there are also a lot of nice (expensive) places to stay and eat, because the city is very popular with Japanese tourists. Many of the shops have signs and label in Japanese, and there are quite a few places offering Japanese food.

We headed into Cairns city centre that evening to see if we could get ourselves booked onto a diving boat in the next couple of days, and had a boat called Aristocat recommended to us. It was actually departing from Port Douglas, an hour north of Cairns, on Saturday, giving us a day to spare.

We decided that we'd head up to Port Douglas the following afternoon and stay there on Friday night so that we wouldn't have to drive too far on Saturday morning. Unfortunately Port Douglas is a lot like Noosa and we soon realised that staying there was going to cost us a fortune, so we called the motel that we had stayed in the night before and booked ourselves in for the night, then got a bag of chips and an ice cream before heading back to Cairns.

We were up early the next morning to get to the boat and we were very pleasantly surprised when we got there, it was very new and flash and only about one third full, so there was plenty of room to move about. The sea was like a millpond, so we had a very nice crossing to the Agincourt Reef, where we were to do our dives.

The first dive was quite good, but visibility wasn't great, particularly for Sarah, as her mask kept filling up with water! I think that we really need to get our own masks, the ones that you hire can be a bit unreliable.

"I'm ok ... I'm ok ... I'm ok ..."

The second dive was much better, and we saw a small shark, it swam around a bit, but wasn't very interested in us, so it wasn't very scary.

Spot the real shark

Had I been bleeding I may have been a little more concerned. We had one more dive, but again the visibility was a bit poor, but overall it was worth doing the dives, although not as great as I had hoped the Barrier Reef would be.

We still had one more day in Cairns before flying back down to Brisbane, so we decided to go inland to the Atherton Tablelands. First stop was a place called Coffeeworks where we were given a tour and were able to sample up to 21 different coffees. I think I only managed about twelve, I was a bit concerned that if I had anymore I wouldn't sleep for weeks. We then did a circuit of the waterfalls in the area and decided that we would visit the tea house in Millaa Millaa, which is highly recommended in the Lonely Planet, for afternoon tea (very civilised). We were both really looking forward to this as it was Sunday afternoon and we had been thinking about what we might have been doing back home on a Sunday afternoon - (bread, cheese, jam, Bob the Builder cakes and a nice pot of tea perhaps). Unfortunately when we got there at three o'clock in the afternoon, in true Australian business tradition, it was closed!

So that was it for our trip up north, we left tropical Queensland on Monday afternoon, just as the heavens opened for another downpour and headed south back to Brisbane and then on to Coolangatta to stay with Di and Dai again until we fly out to New Zealand.

A week into the new year it was time to leave the lap of luxury and get used to living in hovels, sorry, hostels, again, so Monday morning we picked up our car and headed north - destination Cairns - eventually.

We've only just begun...

The original plan had been to do the journey in a campervan but finding one that was air-conditioned, available and within our budget seemed impossible so we hired a car again. This time Gareth tried a new company which he told me had a 'super duper deal' that meant a double upgrade for free. I have my suspicions that this upgrade might actually have been paid for from our travel cocktails fund, since Gareth ended up with a Toyota Camry, which made him very happy, and I have ended up with no daiquiris or margaritas, which has left me very thirsty.

Not that we needed any alcohol since as predicted in the last blog entry, we both started the journey with white wine induced monster hangovers. Our first stop was Caloundra, on the Sunshine Coast, only an hour north of Brisbane - less to do with planning and more to do with needing some greasy food. Caloundra was hot, sticky and busy so we avoided the heat and the crowds for most of the day by staying in coffee shops, internet cafes and the post office. Being a bit out of practice it was nearing 5pm when we realised we still didn't have anywhere to stay. Luckily the visitor centre helped us out and found us a motel in Maleny, in the mountains just outside Caloundra. I was bitten to bits by mossies after stepping out of our room for five minutes but it was a small price to pay for a roof over our heads.

Tuesday morning we had a couple of things to do before we carried on north. First we searched out the village of Reesville, definitely labelled on the Sunshine Coast map but not so easy to find in reality.

It's definitely around here somewhere!

We saw a few signs for it and drove past some Welsh-sounding homes - plus it was raining and hilly - so it looked like Wales - we think that must have been it.

Next stop was the Big Pineapple - there are lots of 'Big' things around Australia but this was the first thing we'd seen. It was just a big hollow pineapple that you could climb up inside and have your photo taken outside of, but I liked it!

Would make a lot of ham and pineapple toasties

Our next major stop was Noosa. We had visited Noosa before, almost exactly three years to the day, and my recollection was of an eight hour round trip to get there, broken in the middle for an hour, during which time I had an expensive coffee and Gareth discovered there was no surf. Luckily this time Noosa was only a thirty minute drive from the Big Pineapple but there was still no surf for Gareth. Some things never change ...

We spent the afternoon having a wander around, jumping into air-conditioned shops (it was hotter than Caloundra) then we walked to Tea Tree Bay - spotting our first couple of wild koalas on the way - and watched the spot where the surf was supposed to be. It never did turn up for us.

After a night in the Royal Mail Hotel - a room above a pub in a place that Gareth described as Hotel California - next day it was back on the road - this time for Hervey Bay on the Fraser Coast. We were desperate for a bit of long-term air-con so we went to the cinema to see Happy Feet. Well that's how I sold it to Gareth and it worked. The film could probably have been renamed Smelly Feet as every now and again there was a waft of something cheesy - (in defence of Gareth's feet I must admit that this was similar to the smell in the cinema in Coolangatta when we saw Casino Royale - so I think it must be an Oz cinema thing - although of course Gareth and his feet were present on both occasions so I can't be sure).

The Friendly Hostel in Hervey Bay was the cheapest we'd stayed in so far in Oz and was pretty decent. There were only four rooms in the unit so it was nice and quiet and the owner was helpful - making only one request - that we didn't leave our rucksacks on the bed as this transferred bed bugs from hostel to hostel. Bed bugs? This was something I hadn't even considered until now! How was I supposed to fit worrying about bed bugs in around worrying about snakes, sharks, jellyfish, crocs, rampaging kangaroos, evil mosquitoes and smelly feet?

It was a (rare) early start for us on Thursday - we were booked onto a one day trip across the Great Sandy Straits to Fraser Island. This is the world's largest sand island, apparently containing more sand than the Sahara desert and famous for its beautiful (croc-less) freshwater lakes, rainforest and white sandy beaches. It took nearly an hour to reach Moon Bay by ferry and along the way our Captain kept telling us to look over the edge for 'marine creatures'. I think most people were looking for rays and turtles but I was mindful of what I had read in the guidebook - don't swim off the beaches of Fraser Island - they are full of man-eating sharks. I would be happier when we reached Fraser Island. In fact, I would really be happier when we had been to Fraser Island and come back safe again.

Moments later the man-eating sharks took her...

Our guide for the day was Richard - or Richo as he liked to be called. Originally from Hertfordshire, he did a great job of driving our four wheel drive off-road bus through the deep sandy tracks around the island and definitely knew his stuff, but as Gareth said, he could have talked a glass eye to sleep. Our tour included visits to Lake Garawongera(completely clear but the colour of tea from the tannin in the nearby trees), Eli Creek (pouring up to four million litres of clear, fresh water into the sea every hour) , the Lidney rainforest and the wreck of the Maheno.

Aye, aye cap'n

Best of all though was driving 18km down seventy five mile beach, with the tide lapping at the wheels of the bus. Sadly we saw no dingoes on the island - since there are no domestic dogs allowed on Fraser Island the dingoes are said to be some of the purest in Oz. They also have a reputation for being aggressive as a result of having got used to human interaction - and in particular - being fed by humans who come to visit. Maybe it's better we didn't see them...

After another night at the Friendly Hostel with no bed bug attacks thanks to Mrs Friendly's rucksack policy, it was north again to Bundaberg.

Bundaberg seems to be famous for one thing - its rum. I got a bit confused here between the Bundaberg bear - he's white and says 'Follow your nose' and the Hofmeister bear, who if I recall correctly, used to wear a bomber jacket and said 'Follow the bear' or something like that.

Gareth hits the bottle again

Anyway, we took a quick tour of the distillery, which was nothing special and pretty hard work in the searing heat - but the bonus was the free tasters you got at the end. Seeing as he was driving, Gareth stuck to the soft stuff but I tried out Bundaberg Royal Liqueur - a delicious mix of coffee, chocolate, caramel, sugar and rum - our tour guide described it as the five major food groups! It was very nice but unfortunately you can only buy it at the distillery and there is no room in my rucksack for anything, not even alcohol, at the moment.

It was a long drive on to Rockhampton that afternoon - and of course I dodged it all because of my drinking.

Are we there yet?

At 7pm we rolled up at our accommodation for the night. To pass the time and save our precious dollars, Gareth and I play this game called 'Drive the price of the room down'. This worked particularly well in Sri Lanka and helped us get used to a rapid downwards spiral in accommodation quality. We'd forgotten the game once we got to Oz since there didn't seem to be much variation in price BUT the East Coast was different with lots to play for. In the spirit of that game Gareth had booked us in, for TWO nights, at the Ascot Stonegrill Backpackers. Walking into our room, I realised that in this game, you get all you deserve. It looked more like a prison cell, with a bed covered by a thick, nasty looking and well-stained rug and an electric fan, covered by an even thicker of dust. It got even worse at bedtime. By now, the temperature was still safely in the 30s so the room was roasting - and when I lay down on the bed I discovered it was a foam mattress with no spring in it whatsoever - plus on one side of us there was the lounge where the TV was blaring and on the other side was the main road, with racer boys zooming up and down the road all night long. Eventually I think I must have passed out...

Next day it was time for an education session. You'll remember that as soon as we arrived in Australia we visited the Aquarium of Western Australia to get to grips with all the things we needed to avoid in the sea. Now that we were getting into North Queensland we were in crocodile country and we needed a bit of background info - so we headed to Koorana Crocodile Farm for a tour. The tour started with our guide handing out a piece of crocodile leather and a massive croc skin with all the knobbly armour plating down the back - telling everyone to have a good feel. Well I decided not to just in case I ever find myself face-to-face with a crocodile - at least I'll know I'm not being punished for holding the remains of one of his beloved relatives. After the introduction we got out into the farm and started meeting the crocs - and they were pretty scary.

Would make a lovely pair of shoes and matching handbag

What I understand now is that crocodiles can be very grumpy. We heard lots of stories about how some of the male crocs had been moved to different enclosures after beating up or sometimes eating up their girlfriends and we met Shah, a croc who drowned his keeper in Townsville Zoo back in the fifties because he didn't like the noise of the lawnmower. We were also told to look out for the three signs of crocodile territory - the nest, the wallow (a puddle of water) and the slide - where the croc moves into the water. After a quick cuddle with Harley, a young croc whose jaws where safely taped up, we left the farm, suitably terrified of going anywhere near water for the rest of our time in Australia. Job done then.

Really, it was bigger in real life!

We drove the 45 kms back to Rockhampton, hoping to have a wander around what is supposed to be one of the major cities of Queensland - but at 3pm on a Saturday afternoon everything was closed, so we turned the car around and headed to Yeppoon, a small seaside town where we managed to find some signs of life and a fish and chips supper. After delaying as long as possible we had no choice to go back to the Ascot Stonegrill Backpackers and our hot little cell. We set the alarm for an early getaway ready for the journey onto Mackay next day ...

So it was back to the Gold Coast for a few more days before we were due to head north to Cairns and there was quite a bit that we wanted to fit in.

Dai had secretly arranged a tour for us of Queensland's wineries, so he had us up early on Wednesday morning to be picked up by Peter of Cork 'n' Fork Wine and Food Tours to take us into the hills of the Gold Coast Hinterland.

The basic plan appeared to be to do a tour of four wineries and a distillery. Now that's what I call a day out!

First stop was a winery whose office and reception area was actually the former governor's residence in Brisbane. Apparently a few years ago it was put up for auction and the winery's owners bought it. As it was a wooden building they were able to cut it into sections, put them on lorries and then transport them the 60 odd miles into the hills to be rebuilt on their land. Proper recycling.

The wine was pretty good, particularly a slightly sweet red wine called Poinciana that is served chilled, so we bought a bottle. It was here that the art of 'trilling' was explained to us. What you do is hold some wine in the front of your mouth, then breathe air in over the top of it, this is supposed to speed up the alcoholic effect, apparently this is something that wine experts do to assess quality. Sounds more like something a drunken bum would do to get howling quicker to me!!

Early morning drinker

After a quick stop at Witches Falls winery we went to Tamborine Mountain Distillery, where a mad old chap who looked like Uncle Albert from Only Fools and Horses was making alcohol out of anything he could get his hands on. He was handing out shots to try like it was nobody's business, it was a good job nobody was driving!

We had a very nice lunch and more wine tasting, then another wine tour before we were returned to Coolangatta. We decided that we'd give the Mexican restaurant downstairs a try that evening before going out for our music night and when we arrived the waitress took us out to the balcony. It was then that the Christmas beetle struck! This beetle which was about the size of a Cadbury's Creme Egg (Sarah's description) decided to attach itself to the bottom of the waitress' trousers. It kept hissing at us as we tried to remove it - apparently they bite - in the end she managed to remove it with the aid of a menu. We chose to eat inside.

When Sarah and I were in Melbourne we saw a poster advertising a Matt Costa concert in Coolangatta. Neither of us knew who he was or what his music was like, so we bought his CD then got some tickets so that we could all go along and see! Rather fortunately the venue for the concert was the Coolangatta Hotel, which is directly below Di and Dai's apartment block.

They knew we were coming

It wasn't very full and they were offering 2 for 1 tickets on the door, which wasn't a good sign. The support act turned out to be a surfer that I had heard of called Timmy Curran and he and his small band were very good, I would definitely go and see them again. Matt Costa had a much larger band and was OK, but when he said how pleased he and his band were to be there, it wasn't very convincing. Certainly his bassist didn't seem to know where he was!

My one's bigger than yours

We just relaxed and went to the beach on Thursday, but as this was a bit boring we decided that we'd go to Byron Bay on Friday. We got up early and headed down there, it's only about an hour from Coolangatta, so we were there quite early, but as we'd crossed the border into New South Wales we jumped forward an hour.

I had been looking forward to going to Byron Bay for some time as there is a surfboard shaper based there called Bob McTavish and he is a bit of a legend in the surfing world. I had also seen on his website that they hire some of their surfboards and we thought it would be good to hire a couple from there as they would be nicer than the usual hire boards. As we came to the outskirts of Byron Bay I spotted the shop and we pulled in. We walked into the showroom and were greeted by a young Australian guy who was looking after the shop. Hhe asked us where we were from - when we said Wales he proceeded to speak to us like we had never seen a surfboard before and didn't really belong in his shop! I was tempted to ask him which side the wax goes on and whether the fins were hand grips. Instead I asked about hiring some boards and he clearly didn't want to hire them to us, he said they were expensive ones and we'd be better off getting some in town, what a great salesman! One thing is for sure, he's made sure that I'll never buy a Bob McTavish surfboard. It's a strange attitude when you consider that Byron Bay is a real holiday place and 80% of the people that go into their shop must be tourists.

We then headed off to Byron Bay Longboards, where the guy was only too pleased to hire us a couple of boards and some bodyboards for the girls and we went off for a fun surf on the main beach.

That evening after dinner we were enjoying one of the bottles of wine we had picked up on our tour when Dai produced the quote of the trip so far, he said 'It's amazing what you can do with a grape'!! How right he was, although I think he may have consumed a few glasses of the grape product by this point.

Di was getting really fed up of telling Sarah to put the toilet seat down

Saturday was time to go to the Wet'n'Wild Theme Park, where we had a fantastic time on various rides. We went on the Mammoth Falls ride six times! Some things you never grow out of.

On Sunday night we had a farewell barbecue on the headland between Coolangatta and Kirra, it has a great view and free electric barbecues. We took a couple of bottles of wine and by the end of the evening Sarah, Diane and I had managed to empty more than a couple more. We were definitely going to have a hangover to start our journey north!

We decided before we came away that it would be a great experience to spend New Year's Eve in Sydney, or to be more specific, in Sydney Harbour. Urban myth has it that there are more sharks inside Sydney Harbour than outside. Now I'm not a marine biologist, but I am aware that outside the harbour is the whole of the Pacific Ocean, so I have my doubts that this is accurate. Despite this we decided that we wouldn't take any risks and booked ourselves onto the plushest looking boat that we could find doing the rounds of the harbour on New Year's Eve.

First we had to get there, so it was up early on the 30th to catch a flight back to Sydney, which was an hour ahead, so we lost a little bit of 2006. When we were booking the whole trip to Sydney, the only place that we could get to stay in Sydney was a hotel in Parramatta, a suburb of Sydney, it didn't look very far on the pop-out map of Sydney, but turned out to be half an hour by train. (Our friend Lee Ann had told Sarah that staying in Parramatta is a bit like staying in Reading for a night out in London - there were certainly similarities.)

As it turned out this wasn't much of a problem as you can get a ferry down the Parramatta River to Circular Quay (next to the Opera House), so that's exactly what we did. (More public transport for Sarah.)

The ferry wasn't the only plus for Sarah. On the way down the river we spotted that there was a funfair in the shadow of the Harbour Bridge, and there's nothing that Sarah likes more in the world than funfairs (well, maybe tails). So that was Saturday night sorted out, they had quite a few entertaining rides, but only one that I will remember for the rest of my life....

We had just come off a strange spinning ride that made me feel a little queasy, when Diane spotted a ride on the map called Rotor. As you went up the steps you were given the option of going into the ride or going to the viewing platform first, well obviously we weren't going to do the sensible thing and we headed straight in to have a go.

Rotor consists of a cylinder where the riders stand against the outside wall as it is spun around at about 70km/h (so I was told), so that you stick to the wall, then the floor drops away and you just hang there. I remember doing the whole centrifugal force thing in GCSE Science and I know why this works, but I'm still not happy about it. The force holding you against the wall was so strong that you couldn't move a muscle and it actually made it quite difficult to breathe, so I was very glad when it stopped, although for some strange reason as they slowed the ride down, they allowed us to slide down the wall, rather than bringing the floor back up to meet us! If anybody has ever seen the film 'Spies Like Us' with Chevy Chase and Dan Ackroyd, then we looked very similar to them after going through astronaut training, with faces contorted from the G forces.

Geddit?

This was quite enough excitement for one night, so after a leisurely ride on the ferris wheel we hopped back over to the other side of the harbour to find someting to eat. Unfortunately it was now 10.30pm and most places were shut, so we headed to the one place we knew would be open....an Indian restaurant!

After a hard night's work we had a lay in the following day, followed by a very nice lunch by the river in Parramatta, where Dai managed to polish off a giant bowl of wedges as well as a fillet steak. Then it was off into Sydney for New Year's Eve.

We expected it to be quite busy getting into Sydney, but it wasn't actually too bad, there were very regular trains and we got in in no time. On our way to the wharf to catch the boat there was a bit of excitement as sirens were going off all over the place - it turned out that a flat above the Wagamama restaurant on Darling Harbour was on fire, so obviously Dai had to get in the way and start taking pictures. Anyone who didn't know him would think he was a paparazzi photographer.

Thankfully our boat wasn't on fire, but it was very full - considering how much we'd paid for the trip we had expected something with a little more space, although as a bonus they did have a DJ who looked like Freddie Starr, thankfully his language was a little cleaner!

Happy New Year!

There were two firework displays that night and the first one was at nine o'clock. This was better than any other firework display that I have ever seen, and that was just the warm up! There was non-stop tail food being dished out, so we didn't go hungry, or thirsty for that matter. Everybody onboard was getting rapidly more drunk ready for the big moment and it came rather suddenly. We were standing on the bow looking at the Harbour Bridge when suddenly they started counting down from ten. As the new year came in a mass of fireworks exploded in every direction and continued for what seemed an age. Apparently the cost of the fireworks was AU$4m.

The next thing we knew they were heading back to Darling Harbour to boot us off and that was New Year's Eve for us. As the authorities in Sydney had called it 'A diamond night in the emerald city'.

As you would expect, we weren't awake too early the following day and weren't really in the mood for anything too energetic, so we had lunch in a pub down the road and then decided to watch a film in the hotel. Dai and Di had decided that they would like to watch 'Snakes on a Plane'. If anybody reading this is considering watching this monstrosity then please take my advice and don't bother, I would normally explain the plot at this point, but there wasn't really one, the title tells you all you need to know!

We decided that as we had made the effort to come to Sydney, we should really try to go and have something to eat somewhere nice around the harbour and we found a lovely place right on the the water near the Opera House. Sarah, Diane and I all decided to go for the king prawns and we were presented with a giant bucket of them.

Seefood diet!

The food was great, but unfortunately we were seated outside when the heavens opened and we had to try to fit under the tiniest umbrella to keep ourselves and our dinner dry.

On our last day we had decided that it would be fun to climb Sydney Harbour Bridge, so we pitched up at the Bridgeclimb office to be kitted out in grey overalls and shown how to use our harnesses, then we were off onto the bridge. It wasn't as scary as you might expect, the paths that you climb up are quite wide most of the way, but the views are spectacular. The whole thing takes about three hours, which would be quicker if they didn't keep stopping to take photos of everybody, but it's definitely worthwhile and I would recommend it to anybody visiting Sydney.

Don't look down!

We learnt quite a lot about the bridge during the climb - it weighs 38,000 tonnes and is actually held up by the metal framework. The stone pylons on either side serve no structural purpose, they just look nice! The metalwork transfers all of the weight of the bridge onto 8 metal pins, 4 on either side of the bridge, which are known as King Pins. The King Pins are capable of holding up to 80,000 tonnes in weight. I don't know if there is supposed to be an apostrophe at the start of King Pin or not.....

So that was it for our return trip to Sydney, a short but very enjoyable few days.