neighbours, sydney harbour bridge and a surf lesson..a great way to begin oz

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so after a tearfulgoodbye with farmer i then had to wait for my delayed flight to melbourne, at 4 in the morning in new aukland,and having lost a day on my way to australia and therefore having no idea whatday date or day it was it wasall a bit much for and so i fell asleepin the waiting room only to woken by the most annoying accent telling me the plane was waiting for me...apparently i cant travell by myself!!! somehow managed to get to st kilda and had the horrifying shock of how expensive australia actually is and the stark contrast to south america..it hurt!! met up with my next travelling companions mel and roz the next day and organised 4 days of fun, the first just wandering around melbourne and the second going on...brammy you'll be sooooooo jealous!!! a neighbours tour after a visit to the melbourne aquariam... well neighbours definitely took the biscuit though...we got to see the street, which by the way is tiny and real people live on it so very annoying for the residents!! and the set...not inside but got to see grease monkeys and the garage...all very exciting but not as exciting as meeting carmella..we were told it might be susan..so we hadnt dressed up as much as we should have done!! got to wander around the school as well and see all the places where epic story lines (yes there are such things in neighbours!!) all started!! we had to get seperate flights to sydney...and i arrived first - waited in the terminal for ages..suddenly thoguht after about an hour of waiting that maybe there'll be more than one airport in sydney as there are in london...oh god am i the same as gatwick and standstead are from each other...minor freak out asked at the information desk to a particularly unhelpful lady who luckily said it was just a cross the road...phew!!! well after checking into yet another expensive hostel-you will find this is a running theme! mel decided she needed some sleep and me and roz went for a little wander which turned into a shopping trip..whoops!!! it happens! we then decided that as we were in sydney we should definitely have a wander around and see the famous sights...well after much delibration we decided that mel would be 'spewing' (oz slang) if we went without her...amzing the first time you see the bridge and the opera house...it was also a beautiful day and to get to opera house we went through the botanical gardens which are lush..and what a way to see the them both..cant tell you how amazing it looked...now most people prefer melbourne to sydney but i think for visiting purposes (neighbours tour excluded!!) sydney is better...

well we took one look at the bridge and were like, we are most definitely climbing that...booked that day up the next..and god was definitely with us that day..it rained before we went up and rained literally just as we got down again, but for the 3 hours we were up there it was sunny...amazing-apparently on really clear days you can see the blue mountains in the distance! our guide was really enthusiastic and very informative and was asking about the tyne bridge in newcastle and if you could climb it..they all want to come over to england and start it up!!! apparantley only 16 people died making the bridge and only 4 of them were from falling from the bridge..suprising considering there were no safety ropes or harnesses and they just through burning bolts at each other and had to catch them and then hammer them in...and out the 6 million in the bridge not one has had to be replaced because they were so meticulous with the sizing and placement in the first place...good hey?!! had a wee wander around bondi beach..one must if one is sydney but i have to say it is really not worths one time..its quite small and not particularly beautiful..not entirely sure why its soo famous..especially as everyone says that manly beach on the otherside is nicer..cant vouch for this though as we didnt see it... we also got to see the first showing of the redbull flughafen events in sydney...that when ridiculous people make ridiculous flying (sometimes not even this) contraptions and then run them of a ramp into the river or sea...was very funny and we viewed it from the spectacular surroundings of the botanical gardens and had a picnic..well you can take the girls out of england!!!

our first bus journey on the oz experience was from sydney to byron bay via surf camp...we had a 6am start..never the best impression of a bus service - im definitely not going to be getting drunk, or being happy, or making wise cracks at that time in the morning!!! surf camp though..was a great way to start our oz experience...another early start but not that bothered..we were all given wetsuits (looking good!) and a surf board and of we trotted to the beach..apparently the bigger one are better to learn on because you get better balance so when i was given a smaller one but pink (everyones elses was blue) i couldnt let it go..but also was able to blame the equipment!!! did manage to ride a few waves though..standing up..which is incredible considering..a)it was peeing down with rain, b) our surf lesson consisted of this...right lie on you board (this was on the beach by the way) pretend to paddle, paddle, paddle, paddle, right stand up...right foot up first and jump..ok practice it again..and one more time ok get in the water....now this is probably the best way to learn but really you ahve no idea how to do anything and being in the water makes everything so much more complicated especially as i couldnt even stand up when practising on the beach!!! was really fun though...but we only ahd a few hours at it so we thought we'd give it a go when we got byron bay...a very popular destination with surfers..we reckoned we were professional by this time!!! apparently it doesnt work like that..we got smaller harder boards from the hostel and they dont work as well!! that is what happpened by the way..it was definitely the boards fault!!!we gave up in the end..i would say go sunbathing but as it was still raining (torrential) we just played in the sea and ran around on the beach...no aussies-just brits..of course!!! after our surf lesson our bus driver told us of this 16 yr old boy who had been eaten by a shark a few miles down from where we were..he said he knew about it before but didnt think any of us would have gone on the surf lesson if we'd known..a lot of the bus were like 'oh no we would have gone'...there would have been no hope in hell of me going had i had that knowledge before!!! and yes then the realisation that we were in australia where everything is toxic, poisinous, or will definitely kill you kicked in...new found fear of sharks..especially as that is the only creature that all aussies are scared of and considering the rest of their animal population i feel it is entirely justified to get on the bandwagon...

went out on our first night in byron bay to the worst club in the world..kind of on a par with donnies..so the worst but also excellent!!and we somehow managed to persuade mel to get involved with the babe nation competetion...basically the babes in the club get their tops of and the rbeats painted with their nations flag and then get judged on it...obvioulsy on the wuality of their flags!! which maybe why mel didnt win..there was a lot of union jacks going on so we said she should get the european flag..the artist didnt know what that looked like (as informed as the americans!) and so she asked for the vietnamese flag...but siad it was red with a gold star-she should have said yellow because she actually got gold..so she was on stage, with her chest out, with the wrong flag...i think maybe one of her worst nights but one of mine and roz' best nights!!!! she got them out again at a later stage in our trip but thats a different story...next stop noosa and some sun...

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