Australia - New Years Eve trip to Sydney

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Hey all!

Hope you’re enjoying the new year so far…it must be pretty cold and dark in the UK right about now! It’s an actual heat wave here in Brisbane, so so hot it’s not even enjoyable! I’m looking outside at the blue sky and sunshine and really wanting to go out there, but it’s too hot! Anyway…let me tell you about our New Years Eve road trip to Sydney in the trusty Mildred…would she make it?!!!



Thursday 29th December 2011 - Brisbane to (somewhere onthe way) Sydney

I woke up very dehydrated again! I had the day off so took Drew to work in New Farm and drove Mildred back by myself, was very proud of myself as I didn’t get lost! I spent the day getting ready for our trip to Sydney, Hannah and Anthony were still at the Gold Coast and I wanted to leave the house nice for them so I did all the washing and cleaning etc and popped to the shops for some things. The only TV I watched was Buffy to get my little fix. I wasn’t quite ready in time to go and pick up Drew (he did finish early!) so I had to go out in my joggers and not much else to get him. I got very lost on the way (that’ll serve me right for being so cocky earlier!) and it was a good job that I had sat nav on my phone else I’d never have got back to New Farm (I had never driven myself there before)! Han and Ant’s (had really missed them!) had just arrived in New Farm from the coast, so I gave Han a quick hug (Ant’s was fast asleep) and then drove me and Drew back. We finished getting ready and left for Sydney at about 6.30pm. We thought we’d done really well to get out, until half an hour later we realised we’d left the map at home outside on the table (it wasn’t our map and as it was raining we didn’t want it to get wet!). So we had to go back.

We eventually started out for the second (and final time!) at 7.15pm, the sat nav said there was 925km and 11 hours 50 minutes of driving to go and Mildred had 269262kms on her clock. It was dark by then and the road as far as the Gold Coast (about 1 hour into the journey) was really busy, as we drove along the highway past Surfers Paradise we could see the tall high rise buildings in the distance all lit up. There were still quite a few cars about until we passed the turnoff for Byron Bay, at which point it got very quiet, with just a few cars. We started wondering about kangaroos…we really didn’t want to hit one! And the roads were very dark (I’m sure they’re lit up more at home); they were mostly single carriageway although they sometimes turned into dual carriageway. It felt really remote and I started off feeling a little nervous; what if we broke down and had no phone signal? We did seem to be passing through residential areas (according to the signs that were telling lorries to limit compression braking) and Mildred was flying (although struggling a little uphill) so I felt reassured and I eventually got over it. The presence of the lorries (no road trains, maximum two trailers) were quite comforting and there was usually at least one car or lorry with us at any time. The lorries were traveling sooooooo fast (Dad, they can’t be limited); there were signs along the road saying ‘How fast are you going now?’ and I kept thinking “Not as fast as those lorries!”. Drew was keen to keep overtaking them but I’d rather had stayed behind, they must provide some protection from the kangaroos!

We stopped for our first break in a little town called Woodburn, in a café that the truckers seemed to like so we thought it must be a good choice. We got the biggest portion of chips I’ve ever seen and they were lovely. And I had a chocolate milk (missed you Cazzler!). We started on our way again (Drew still driving) and pulled into a roadhouse, with the Greyhound pulling in right behind us. All the backpackers got out and I looked back on myself in April 2010, when I’d done the same thing with Caryl. Before getting going he needed to look for his glasses; he spent a good few minutes shuffling around in the back. As we got going he didn’t have his glasses on so I said “hadn’t you better get your glasses” and he said “oh yeah, I knew I was looking for something, I got cake instead”. You probably had to be there! I tried to have a little sleep from 11pm to 1am (we were driving through the night) but didn’t get on very well because the road was so bumpy and it felt like we were going so fast when I had the seat pushed back. I kept waking up and having a look about (remember seeing Coff’s Harbour flash by!). We had a little break at 1am then I took over whilst Drew had a sleep. Mildred was flying, I had my iPod on (tried to keep it quiet, but some songs seemed quiet, some loud!) and at first the driving seemed difficult, because a) it was really dark and b) the road markings and layout are slightly different so it took a while to get used to it. The majority of the road was single carriageway (interesting considering the Pacific Highway is such a major road) but every 10 or so kilometres they had a few kilometres of ‘overtaking lanes’ (dual carriageway) where the person not overtaking had to stay on the left (just the same as at home) but at the end they had to merge from the left into the right lane (don’t we merge right to left in the UK?). I eventually got used to it and quite enjoyed the drive! I drove until 3.30am at which point there were 250km to go. I was starting to feel too tired so I pulled over and Drew took over again, he drove from then until about 6.30am (I was asleep the whole time) until he got too tired and as I was still too tired to drive we parked up in a service station and both slept until 9am.



Friday 30^th December 2011 – (Somewhere on the way) to Sydney

I picked up the driving at 9am and drove the final hundred or so kilometres into Sydney. Drew slept the whole time (bless him, he had done most of the driving) so I had to navigate myself! By this time the road was all 3 lane highway which presents a different challenge because everyone undertakes in Australia, so you have to keep your wits about you. Thanks to the sat nav on my phone I managed to find my way to the exit and into North Ryde (the suburb we were staying in) and to the Stamford Grand Hotel; Drew woke up as we were driving into the car park. Mildred was VERY hot under the bonnet when we got there, but she made it!

It was 10am and we weren’t sure if they were going to let us check in but they did which was nice, and they upgraded our room. The room was nice, overlooking the lovely swimming pool! We didn’t waste any time heading to the city. We were about 15kms out because we booked really late and all of the reasonably priced accommodation in the city was gone or required a minimum stay of 10+ nights. We had a 5 minute walk to Macquarie University train station then a 30 minute ride into the city, partly underground, partly overground. It was quite a nice ride really and made a little more exciting because a) it was a double decker train and b) we rode into Sydney over the Sydney Harbour Bridge. Drew got his first view of the Harbour Bridge and the Opera House from the bridge (I’ve been to Sydney before, but it was still very exciting, I think I was more excited than Drew!). We got off at Wynnum station, wandered down Pitt St to Circular Quay where I found the photo spot Jorgen, Mairi (mine and Caryl’s Norwejian friends) found for our Harbour Bridge and Opera House photos. I got some photos for me (not of me!) and then some of Drew in his Swindon shirt! We wandered around The Rocks (nice little area next to the harbour) and had some pizza and bruschetta (lovely!) and then wine and sangria (terrible, they’d so obviously watered down the wine, Drew said to them nicely about it and got us the sangria instead). We then headed out to Bondi Beach which was a little ‘stressful’ for Drew. The bus was packed out, and Drew said it was full of grumpy people and it took AGES! We got some nice pictures of the beach, chilled out on the grass, had a walk along the promenade then stopped for a beer – Drew found not only a pint glass but also a pint glass with a mug – thought of you Dad and tried to send you a picture but I don’t think it worked, so it’s now on Facebook for you to see. As we sat there I said to Drew “We need to get in touch with Ann-Sofie and Victoria” (my Danish friends I met in Fiji who were also in Sydney at the time) and then 10 seconds later who should walk past…Ann-Sofie and Victoria! So Drew ran after them and they came back to say hello! I left Drew at the bar/café to go up to Bondi Fresh, a nice little Deli I’d found last time I was there where they did a really nice sweet potato salad, so I got some for Drew to try and we munched on that whilst waiting for the bus back to the city. It was soooo cold on the bus but not quite as stressful for Drew (!). We were pretty tired by then after our night of driving so we got the train back, had a nice bit of dinner in the hotel bar and then headed for bed.



Saturday 31^st December 2011 – New Years Eve

Today was New Years Eve! In we were in Sydney! We woke up and it looked like it’d be raining!!! Why does it always rain when I go to these big once in a lifetime events?! I’d prepared for sun and a chilly temperature but not rain! I tried to motivate Drew to get a move on as knew we needed to be somewhere to watch the fireworks early to get a good spot, but he couldn’t believe we had to be out at 10am to be there (Maff and Dave G were there at 8am!). We eventually left at 12.30pm, on the way to the train station I realised I’d left my UK phones at the hotel so I had to run back (I needed to be able to call/text on New Years Eve!) and got a phonecall whilst there from Drew saying a train was leaving in 5 minutes! There was no way I’d make it back even if I rang, so I got a taxi from the hotel! Drew thinks I ran and was very proud of me…I got a lot of credit for that all day (sorry Drew if you’re reading this!).

We got off in the city, got a nice coffee and then walked out towards the Sydney Opera House. Drew still didn’t believe we had to get somewhere early but once we arrived at the gate of the Botanical Gardens (where we were heading to watch the fireworks, because Maff watched them there) the guard on the gate told us the line was already an hour long so we’d better get moving. Drew finally conceded and we walked around to the end of the queue (Drew tried to take a shortcut, but I wouldn’t as was sure it’d mean pushing in!) to get into Mrs Macquarie’s Point, one of the free places to go watch the fireworks. The queue was HUGE! All through the ‘Domain’ a long queue looping up and down the grass in a long snake! Drew kept his patience very well, on one of his many toilet breaks he got us some cider so that was quite nice to enjoy whilst waiting. We were in the queue for 2 and a half hours, and eventually got through the gates (after a supposedly very thorough bag search, even though they didn’t even look in one of my bags). It was a little walk to the point, which was already packed by the time we got there. The places with a great view were already gone so we eventually found somewhere (we were only two little ones!) with a view of the bridge and Opera House (albeit through some trees). We figured we could stay there; see what the view was like of the 9pm Family Fireworks and then move closer if we needed to for the midnight fireworks (Maff had said that everyone crowded forward anyway). So we spent the afternoon chilling out, having some wine and food and watching the goings on around us. There was a really good atmosphere, like being at a music festival but with more anticipation because everyone was there for such a big event. There always seemed to be something going on, from police helicopters coming down low to old planes doing stunts and writing stuff in the sky (no idea what they were saying!). And every so often there was a cheer about something.

As the sun went down the bats came out! There are so many in the botanical gardens and I am totally fascinated by them! The sky behind the Opera House had turned orange in the sunset and there were thousands of them backlit by the sky! Drew got us some red wine but I couldn’t drink it, it always makes me feel rough so I was back on the water. And a really drunk English guy (am sorry to say that all the drunk idiots seemed to be English! It made a change for Drew not to be one of them!) knocked a glass over my rucksack so then all I could smell was red wine for the rest of the night. I was lucky it hadn’t got on my Peru jumper, which had come out for New Year’s Eve (good job I had it as it did get a bit chilly! Drew hadn’t taken a jumper so had to make do with my pink sarong!). At 9pm the Family Fireworks started, they were really good and we had a good view. It did seem that some people started leaving then so there was a little more space. I practiced taking some photos!

Just after 11 we packed up and headed down towards the water, the view around the harbour was amazing and the atmosphere was one of excited anticipation; there were boats filling the river in front of the Opera House, all lit up with different types of music pumping. It felt really electrifying! We walked along the path to the optimum viewing point (completely uninterrupted view of the Sydney Harbour Bridge) and somehow managed to slip in so we became part of the crowd. Anyone else who tried to come in next to us were told to move and we were told we were the edge, no one was allowed to come in next to us and there was a guard making that happen (although he was a bit useless, he kept leaving his post and the guy in charge at the front had to keep shouting at him to get back into a position! The anticipation was building, everyone was buzzing and it was a bit nerve-wracking because it was so exciting, and because there were so many people. At 5 to 11 the guy in charge at the front told all of us at the front to “Sit Down, Sit Down” which caused a few problems as there wasn’t much room to sit down but we all squashed in and still had a great view, think they do that so the people behind could see. I got all ready and organised with my camera and waited for it to kick off… With 70 seconds to go the bridge lit up with a silent countdown…70, 69, 68 etc. At 30 seconds to go everyone joined in…29, 28, 27 and at 10 seconds to go it got louder, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 HAPPY NEW YEAR at which point the fireworks set off! It was amazing, I can’t really describe it. I found it incredibly emotional (I usually do at New Year but even more so because I was away from home) and moving; there were 1.6million people there from all over the world, all for a few minutes joined together in celebrating the same event and filled with hope for the future, a few people tried to start Old Lang Syne but it didn’t get going. I felt privileged to be part of such a famous event that people from around the world watch. The fireworks were incredible (I did wonder what the bats thought of them!) and lasted for about 10 minutes, the Harbour Bridge was lit up and there were 4 separate sets of fireworks going off all around us at the same time (I watched later on the TV and everything was timed to go off at the same time to create a spectacular display from the air, and it was timed to go with music). I think overall the fireworks are more impressive on the TV because you can see the whole display (guess they design it to impress the world) but I didn’t mind that because the feeling of being there was so special. I’d make the trip back to Sydney for New Years Eve to see that again.

Once the fireworks were finished everyone exited the park on mass, still excited but leaving very calmly and organised. We didn’t have to queue to get out. We walked to the train station and one entry was closed, so had to walk around to the other at which there was a huge crowd. It was a bit of a struggle to get in and you had to hold your ground (there were little children in there, must have been terrifying for them and their parents), Drew wasn’t happy but what can you do about it? Once in the station we got to the platform, which again was full of people (bit worrying as one shove could have meant you were on the tracks) but luckily we didn’t have to wait long for our train so we hopped on and made it home by about 2am, I was quite impressed with how organised Sydney city were and how quickly they got people out of the centre. It was a good day.



Sunday 1^st January 2012 – New Years Day

We were up a bit late so chilled out, watched the fireworks from around the world on the TV (got a bit emotional watching London, must get there at some point for New Years Eve, the fireworks going off to the dong of Big Ben was impressive!!) and then headed back to the city. We got off at the Town Hall station and headed to Darling Harbour which is so lovely, Drew liked it there. We walked past Base, the hostel where Caryl and I had stayed before. Drew asked me if it felt weird being back and it did a little bit without Cazzler. We had some dinner overlooking the water and did some people watching. The Sydney city skyline looked good from there, not as nice as Brisbane though! We walked through the Chinese Gardens and then to Haymarket to go to Scruffy Murphy’s in honour of Maff and Dave G (they spent a lot of time there when they were in Sydney!). I’d been before with Mairi and Jorgen so thought I’d best take Drew and he loved it, was his kind of place. Maybe a few years before at the same time Maff and Dave had actually been there…the day after New Years Eve. I enjoy it there because there’s a great atmosphere, only problem is that the floor is so so so sticky! My highlight was Drew telling me I looked like some actress…he couldn’t remember her name, then came out with Mila Kunis! Lol. After Scruffys Drew wanted to go and get a pie floater from the same place Billy Connolly got a pie floater. He was adamant it was at the Opera House, Maff had told me it was a place somewhere in Haymarket so we spent some time Googling before we got too close to the Opera House. Eventually Drew realised it’d been in Adelaide, from a place called Harry’s Café de Wheels and Maff had directed us to the Harry Café de Wheels in Sydney. So we headed there, had a nice pie, it wasn’t quite what Drew had expected so now he has to go to Adelaide…! We then headed to Central Station to get on a train back to the hotel. Drew then told me I look like a character from Mr Bomberman (an old computer game) because I have a little head; how can I go from Mila Kunis to that in one day?! Anyway, we had Maccy Ds at the hotel and got an early night ready for out long drive home the next day.



Monday 2^nd January 2012 – Sydney to Brisbane

We checked out at 10ish and started out on the long drive back to Brisbane. Mildred’s clock said 270232kms and my sat nav said 922km and 11hrs 59 mins to go. We were travelling on what must be one of the busiest days of the year and the traffic coming out of Sydney was terrible. For the first hour and a half we were stop start all of the way, which was a concern for Mildred as there wasn’t any cool air going into the engine. As we got out of the city the scenery was really nice, much greener than I remember (I guess I was there right at the end of summer last time), but big rivers winding through deep impressive valleys. We stopped off for fuel (136.5 cents per litre, about 91p, the whole trip cost us $200, about £133 for that far) off the Pacific Highway and couldn’t get back on so had to take a bit of a country route back to the next junction. It was really pretty, lush green with some really nice bright purple and orange flowers and yellowy green leaved trees (Mum, Dad, Maff like the one we have in our garden). We got back onto the Pacific Highway and got a good couple of hours driving in, at one time Greenday “Time of my Life” came on which already reminds me of Maffy J We got into some more slow traffic, and saw lots of newer cars overheated on the side of the road. The fields were prairie like and there were some really nice big white birds in the sky, not sure where they were but they weren’t Cockatoos. We stopped off at a random little town called something like <em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Buledehah where we had to walk a long way to find the toilet and where I spent a long time looking at the frozen food in the IGA’s (supermarkets) freezer (to cool down, Cazzler if you’re reading this you’ll remember we did the same in Tennants Creek!). There were a lot of English people about. We carried on driving, some time spent driving through ‘The Manning Valley’, which I got excited about and especially liked the sign that said ‘The Manning Valley….naturally’. I thought Dave Manning would like that so I took a photo! It was a very pretty valley. We passed over a bridge which was called the Francis Longworth Bridge, right next to a town called Springhill (and a Jericho Road) which I thought was a coincidence! We got a little confused and amused by the distances to Brisbane sign – one sign said it was 730km (we couldn’t believe at that point we’d only done 200km), then 637km (that jumped down a bit quick!) then it was to 618km then back up to 637km?!! The only way we could make sense of it was that they kept building bypasses, so the distances changed, and they hadn’t yet updated the sign. We carried on (at least the signs were still saying to Brisbane!) through such lovely countryside…lush green and big sparkling rivers. I actually fell a little more in love with the East Coast on that trip, hadn’t thought last time that the scenery was that impressive. It felt like a really long drive, I took over in Hempsey so Drew could have a rest (they keep reminding you to take a rest, their slogan is ‘Stop, Revive, Survive’ and they have ‘Driver Reviver’ cafes where the driver can get a free coffee) and drove past a Telegraph Point (reminded me of Guernsey!). The drive was good, although we had some wobba boxes slowing is down! Drew also saw his first kangaroos, loads of them by the side of the road in a little town. As I was driving into Coff’s Harbour I used a strange noise and eventually made a quick decision to pull over. I woke Drew and told him I could hear something so when we looked under the car the exhaust had come a bit loose. It needed fixing back up so we went into the nearby hotel to see if they had any cable ties, they didn’t. When I when back out a local guy with a very drunk man were giving Drew suggestions so we headed for the supermarket (it wasn’t the best evening for it, it was 6.30pm and a public holiday) and got some heavy duty string. Drew tied it back up (he did a great job bless him), we got some chips and pumpkin cakes (from the chip shop, they were very slow, wouldn’t have cut it in the UK) and then headed on our way. It was getting dark; the sunset was really pretty and as we were driving through a forest the inky blue sky framed the hundreds of bats coming out for the night. We drove on but as we came into Grafton I heard the noise again so we pulled over and found that the string had broken. So Drew tied it back up (was it burning through?) and got going again. A little while later we heard it again so at the next garage we got to we pulled over, the string was broken again but luckily at this garage they had heavy duty cable ties so with a couple of those on Mildred was good all the way to Brisbane.

We made it home at 11.30pm, soooo tired but we, and more importantly Mildred, made it!!! The final tally on Mildred’s clock was 271184kms, so in total we’d all done together 1922kms. Bless Mildred, she’s a good un.



So that was Christmas and New Year in Sydney – done. I had a fantastic time, a great experience, I don’t think I’ll be rushing off to experience another Christmas away from home again…home is definitely where the heart is!

Love you all.

Xx

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