OzIntro

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Arriving in Sydney

I was still feeling pretty down about having left my life in Perth when my plane landed in Sydney and it was time for my next adventure. I collected my bag quickly and walked around the domestic arrivals area for several minutes looking for the OzIntro person collecting me. After my disaster in Perth with Travellers forgetting to collect me, I was not too optimistic. And sure enough there was no one there. So I sat down with my backpack and waited but luckily not for two long as a guy soon walked in and flashed me his OzIntro card. His name was Michael, who I was soon to find out was the owner of OzIntro. We jumped into the OzIntro-mobile and headed off towards my future home: Coogee.

We soon arrived at Surfside hostel where I would be spending the week. Michael begrudgingly agreed to carry my backpack up the three flights of stairs to the reception and then rapidly left me to check in. Nice. I soon found my room and met three people already there; Carl, Tasha and Steve. Over the next day or two, more people joined our room and thus were in my OzIntro group. Most of us were from the UK, England more specifically included Lizz, Gerrard, Nathan, Michelle and Emma-Jayne and then the Scots Mhairi and Debs but we also had a South African called Tyrell grace us with his presence as well.

Monday - Seeing the City

After a nice long lie in, we were up, ready and waiting around for something to happen. Suddenly enough, a guy walks in and we are soon introduced to Dan, our OzIntro leader. We jumped into the OzIntro-mobile and met Gary our driver and headed off into the city. Gary dropped us off at possibly the best place to take our first few of Sydney: Macquaries Point in the Botanical Gardens. Here we had our first group photograph with the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge in the background. We then had a beautiful walk through the Botanical Gardens where we saw millions of bats and fed tropical birds. This walk led us round to the Opera House, which I have to say, was rather disappointing, It was a lot smaller than I thought it would be and discolored. We walked around Circular Quay for a while before it was time for our Jet Boat trip around the Harbour. After being given the choice of whether or not to where a waterproof (after being mocked for wearing one by Ty and Gez I decided against one) we boarded the boat and had an amazing 30mins of whizzing around the harbour and getting drenched.

Tuesday - Surfing and the Gaff

It was an early start this morning which was tough after a night of drinking Goon (boxed wine for those not in the know)! But up we got and off we headed in the OzIntro-mobile two hours south of Sydney to go for a surf lesson. We did, however have a pit stop along the way at an off license! We soon arrived at our beach location and met our surf instructors for the day. Straight away though, a minor problem occurred with the truck taking us down to the beach and it not starting! So Dan started a quick game of introducing ourselves, in which naturally I had to go first but was soon followed by a highly entertaining Lizz and her introduction of “hi, my name is Lizz and I like small dogs.” The truck eventually started and the first car load of people were driven down onto the beach. However, when it returned to pick myself and the remaining 4 people up, it broke down half way along the beach. Great! So after a good 20minute walk, we soon arrived at our spot for the surfing day.

Getting changed into our wetsuits was a humiliating experience as the surfer dude gave me the smallest suit (guessing due to my height?) but obviously didn’t realise that there is a huge layer of fat underneath my clothing. So after having the dude yank me into the suit, I complained about the ends of the legs and arm cutting off my circulation but no one believed me. He even zipped it up full way and I almost choked to death but someone kindly undid it for me. We then chose our boards which were all laid out in a semi circle around our instructor and practiced some of the moves we would need in the water. Easy enough on land. However, the water was a different matter. So we ventured out into the unknown, a difficult task for me usually with the sea but this water was incredibly cold (remember it was September and winter in Australia) but luckily the wet suits were pretty efficient. We all started wading, waiting for our first wave, but the whole getting onto your board thing is a lot harder in the water and once on the board, I found it impossible to stand up! And thus Steve and I just rode the waves body boarding instead! Only once did I almost stand up but was knocked cruelly from my board and thrown underneath it which was a terrifying experience and resulted in me rapidly exiting the Ocean. I then got completely stuck trying to get out of my super tight wetsuit and ended up with my arms stuck, crossed over like a strait jacket! I tried calling out for help, however all I got was Ty being really annoying and undoing my bikini top at the back so I really was stuck then. After a good old laugh from everyone else, someone soon did my top up and helped me out of the suit, where I proceeded to show everyone how blue my arms and legs had gone from lack of circulation!!

Eventually everyone came out of the water for lunch and the girls all proceeded to sunbathe though the wind was chilly as. The boys (plus Emma-Jayne) however, all went back in to practice their new found skills, none more enthusiastic as Carl. I think by the end of the day though, Ty was the only one slightly successful, though it was an unanimous thought that that was down to his South African ways. After a few beers, it was time to head back to Coogee and shower up in time to go out that evening. During the day, Dan had organized for us to go to a big backpacker bar in Sydney that night called “The Gaff.” So at 8pm, we were all ready and downstairs when along came the party bus. We sang and danced the whole journey to the Gaff and had a fun and very long night.

Wednesday - Day of Business

Fortunately after Tuesday night we had a lie in this morning. Around 11.30ish we headed down to the OzIntro office, where there was a woman from WestPac bank waiting for us. Everyone else was due to get their bankcards that morning but for some reason, two bank cards of mine had been posted to my address in the UK. So I had to go over to the bank to sort it all out whilst everyone else waited for me! When the mess was eventually sorted out, we headed into town to sort out our Medicare card stuff. We also had a quick wonder around town though I just could not get my bearings. Next was the Travellers at Work office where we listened to yet another woman go on about getting work in Australia. All in all a rather dull start to the day, though all essential I guess.

The afternoon was better with a walk across town to Darling Harbour where we had a nice BBQ lunch and some drinks before heading to the Sydney Aquarium. I was highly unimpressed by this feature, especially in comparison to the amazing one in Bangkok and thus quickly descended through the maze, hastily avoiding the shark tanks much to everyone’s humour. Gary then picked us up and drove us back to Coogee for the evening.

Thursday - The group of alcoholics

Dan and Gary arrived at 10.30am this morning and our group waited inside to avoid the freezing cold (ok, slight exageration) for Gary to drive the other group down to Bondi beach. He then came back for us and we soon arrived at the infamous Bondi Beach. We quickly took a group photo and had a look around before we all came to the unanimous decision that nobody in our group wanted to do the coastal walk back to Coogee in this weather. So Dan soon called Gary back and back into the bus we went, waving goodbye to the other, more healthy group and via the bottlo, headed straight to the beach we would be having a BBQ on. We drunk in the shade from the wind for a bit before the other group arrived and the sun soon came out a bit. After food, we had a few games of Beach Volleyball before heading back to the hostel. That evening, all three OzIntro groups headed down to the office for another Travel and Work in Oz talk by the OzIntro staff which turned into more of a pit stop tour of where to go and what to do down the east coast.

Friday - The Blue Mountains

The 7am start almost killed me this morning. We got ready and headed downstairs to wait for the Oz Experience buses that were to pick us up for our day tour to the blue mountains. We got split up into two groups, with one bus full of both OzIntro groups and the other bus containing myself, Lizz, Mhairi, Ty, Gez, Emma-Jayne, Michelle and Debs and other poor randoms collected from city hostels to join us for the day.

The ride to the Blue Mountains was long and tedious and it started raining cats and dogs along the way. We had a mini pit stop to get some breakfast and then carried on to a little picnic spot where we were able to see some wild Kangeroos. However, we were not outside long as it started to rain again. So we crawled back into the bus and decided to sit out the rain whilst watching an episode of Skippy and seeing our tour leader play the didgeridoo.

Our next stop was our first hiking trail and I joined the group at the back along with Lizz, who was just the funniest person to watch on a hike. The first time we had to go behind a waterfall, everyone else managed to do it by just bending down low and crawling under the rocks. Lizz however, ended up getting stuck flat on her front with her legs twisted around the wrong way. I almost slipped and fell just from laughing at her. We then continued the hike for a short while before heading back to the bus to go to a view point for lunch, however due to all the rain and fog it wasn’t really much of a viewpoint at all! Lunch was a quick and cold affair and it was then time for our second and much longer hike. At least the majority of this hike was downhill but everything was so slippy that on the first long metal stairway, I slipped badly and fell halfway down hill and hurt myself. We carried on the hike down, visiting a waterfall along the way before the weather started to clear up slightly and we took the world steepest railway back up the mountain to Skyworld.

It was then time to finish our day and start the tedious task of getting back to Coogee. It took us about an hour longer to get home than getting there due to a huge traffic jam and having to drop all the random people in the bus off at their various hostels. We soon got back though and headed straight for the showers which were already pack by the other bus load of people who were already back. The night was spent hanging around the hostel, planning our future trips which involved myself, Debs and Gez, who had all planned to stay in Sydney, deciding we would actually head up to Cairns with everyone else.

Saturday - Beach and Pubs

At last, after a few days of bad weather, the sun had come back out. Granted the wind was still cold but at least it was sunny. We had nothing planned for the day so a group of us headed off to Coogee beach to watch Carl attempt to surf but he soon decided the water was too cold for him without a wetsuit. We all then headed up to OzIntro office to book everything we’d planned the night before, all minus Ty and Lizz who were staying in Sydney and Mhairi who was flying to Melbourne.

By 8pm that evening we were ready to start our pub crawl around the city. Our first stop was the palace, a pub in Coogee. Michelle and I disappeared downstairs for a while to have a chat before being found by Tasha and Ty. Eventually it was time to leave for the next stop, so outside we headed to another party bus and on everyone pilled. However, due to not having been with everyone in the palace, I soon found out I didn’t have the required wristband to get on the bus! So I had to wait until everyone else was onboard though I wasn’t alone as Ty was also without a band! Dan eventually got us on board and soon we were off to our first stop, the Cock and Bull in Bondi. All I remember of that pub was comforting Tasha as her and Carl had broken up (though about an hour later got back together).

The next stop was Side Bar in the city where I spent a lot of time drinking with Dan and then ScuBar, where everything descended into Chaos. Nathan wasn’t allowed in even though he had hardly drunk anything, Lizz went outside for a smoke and wasn’t allowed back in, Michelle declared her love for Dan, Tasha kicked Ty and Gez kept hitting on Debs!! This all seemed to happen in a matter of minutes and I soon after headed outside where practically everyone now was. The funniest though was Lizz, who I found slumped against the wall. When I asked her what she was doing, she said she was waiting for the coffee shop to open (I later found out that the bouncers had told her to get some coffee before going back in)!!

Our final stop was back to the Gaff, which was easy for everyone to get into though not sure how long everyone stayed for!! Eventually it was time to head off home, however Ty was hungry so we ended up wandering around Coogee trying to find some food but alas at 4am nothing was open! After watching a film in the common room for a bit, I soon fell asleep and we eventually went to bed.

Sunday - Final goodbye

Naturally this morning was a long hangover morning in bed. The day was spent doing very little until the evening when it was time to go for our final meal at the revolving restaurant tower in the city. Once there, we got separated in the lift up to the top and my group got lost by getting off at the wrong floor! We eventually found the restaurant and had our meal with our complimentary glass of champagne. After the meal, we headed back to Coogee for a few drinks at the Coogee Bay Hotel and the Palace before heading back to the hostel, where I succeeded in waking up Lizz and Mhairi.

On the Monday it was time for us to finally leave our beloved room and we all moved into other rooms. Well, I packed up my stuff and other people moved it for me as Michelle, Ty, Nathan and I had to head off into town to undertake a Responsible Service of Alcohol course, which would last for an entire day. It was quite possibly one of the most boring days of my life and resulted in Michelle and I running out for a quick drink at lunchtime. Eventually we did the test and surprise surprise, we all passed.

In the evening, our group went to laser quest much to Lizz‘s joy. However, I never quite made it due to me and Nathan playing hide and seek with Steve around Darling Harbour. By the time we eventually found the building we couldn’t get inside, so instead the two of us went for a drink in some random bar until they finished the laser quest.

The following day it was time for the majority of us to fly to Cairns. I eventually rolled out of bed and packed my bag before our group headed up to the office to give Dan his present and cake before we split up and had our taxi race to the airport.

We’re all going to Cairns

We arrived at the airport and all checked in easily, though security turned into a nightmare for me and my daypack was sent through four times due to my plastic comb. We slept on the flight up there and soon arrived and checked into Gilligan’s hostel, the nosiest hostel in the Universe. The next few days were spent exploring Cairns.

One day was taken up completely by our group skydiving event. We were picked up early in the morning and driven all the way down to the beautiful mission beach where we would be landing. I was in the second group to go up and luckily the clouds were starting to clear slightly. My instructor was Marcel and after learning our basic techniques, we were harnessed up and put onto the plane (in our ordinary clothes I may add). The plane ride up involved a lot of screeching and soon we reached our 14,000ft and the doors opened. Karen was the first one out the door and before I knew it, I was sitting on the edge of the plane and was being flung head first towards the earth. Once you get over than initial falling out of a plane feeling, the view is incredible. We were above the clouds so it was gloriously sunny and when you reach terminal velocity it feels like your floating. The clouds soon came towards us though and going threw them was an unusual experience! Marcel soon after pulled the parachute and I was almost suffocated by the strap that had started off around my waist sliding up to my throat! I gestured to Marcel to loosen the straps and he did. He then started doing tight G-force spins which made me feel even more light headed. So when we eventually landed on Mission Beach, I was not in the best of conditions. But the freefall part had been amazing.

Another day, Emma Jayne and Michael decided to hire mopeds to travel around the area. I was not confident enough to get one myself so I rode on the back of Michael’s. We travelled up the coastline to Yorkey’s Knob beach and then back down to Cairns exploring some alternative routes along the way. Of course only when I was holding onto the bike did I touch the accelerator and brake at the same time and go flying into a metal fence badly scratching my knee along the way!

After my few days in Cairns though it was time to go back to Sydney to meet the parents. My lift back to the airport was on the back of Michael’s scooter with Gez carrying my backpack on his. Highly amusing ride to the airport especially with the line of traffic behind Gez and his slow scooter.

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Photos

Feed the Birds
In the Botanical Gardens

Bondi
Our quick view of Bondi Beach before we jumped back into the OzIntromobile