OZ (Mel-Syd)

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After and intense schedule in NZ, we arrived in St Kilda, Melbourne, Australia in need of some time out. Our intentions were to stay here for 6 days, however we ended up staying 10. This was partly due to our lazyness and partly down to the fact it was proving impossible to get accomodation and transport to Sydney for new years eve!

On our first day in St Kilda we spent the day checking out the area of this trendy, vibrant town. We took a stroll down to the beach and to our suprise there was a volley ball competition in full flow, with some of Australias top olympic players involved. That night we headed to bed early in preparation for the highlight of the whole trip; a tour of the 'Neighbours' set! Nick and Paul were especially excited about the posibility of walking down ramsey st (which is actually pin oak rd in real life). The morning began with a trip to the actual street where neighbours is set (ramsey st), in a way it felt quite surreal that these were actually houses where people lived and no.24 was not actually Harold Bishops house! However, we still enjoyed posing in these peoples gardens and photographing there houses! Next we took a trip to the 'Lassiters complex', where the legendary Harlods cafe, charlies bar and Lous garage are located. The tour then came to a finale with being introduced to Stephanie McIntosh- better known as Sky Mangle. To say Paul fell in love is an understatement!

After 2 days spent in St Kilda, we felt that it was probably about time to explore into Melbourne centre. On arrival to the centre we took a short walk along the river side to the MCG. The ground was first built in 1853 and is one of the worlds most famous cricket and ozy rules football club. The stadium was recently renovated and the capacity is now 100,000. The guided tour was highly interesting and informative and we also got to check out the sports museum, located within the stadium. With cricket on the mind we got in touch with AJ (from brookland cc back home) who was playing cricket in oz. The next day we headed to the beach and met up with AJ and his girlfriend Lizzie. We chilled out in a bar with sea views and then headed back to the hostel for pizza and goon, before a brief night out to a few bars.

We got a job! well not really; we got 30 mins work! It was now the 24th of dec and felt far from being christmas. As a result we spotted an add, rang this guy and he picked us up and took us to lift carpet tiles up 2 flights of stairs. It worked out perfect for us, as we got a free lift into town and got paid $20 each for 30 mins work; sweet. Nick decided to put his money towards buying 2 new tees, to replace the ones he shrunk in NZ. It was now the night of christmas eve, so we headed out with a few people from the hostel, hoping it would get us into the christmas spirit.

Christmas morning soon arrived, the sun was shining, flip-flops were on and BBQ was sizzling. Although no-one could believe it was actually christmas, everyone seemed to just join together and make into one big summer party. The day kicked off with a BBQ and free wine, once this had all gone we then headed down to the beach, for beer and football. For dinner we then treated our selves to yet another traditional christmas meal; fish and chips in the park!

It was now the day after christmas day and the day we had really been waiting for- The Boxing Day Test- Australia vs South Africa. We arrived at the MCG early to get good seats and absorb the atmosphere. Australia were first to bat, which we were happy about beacuse it got the home fans hyped up. This was an awesome day sat in the sun with a few beers, pies and the 2 best teams in the world battling it out on the cricket pitch. Again we met up with AJ, Lizzie and Danny and to our delight we got to see Ricky Ponting knock a century! For the rest of our stay in Melbourne (26th-30th), we pretty much wasted our days watching the cricket and football on tv and using the internet with free credit we had managed to swipe from the receptionists. We also ventured out to the MCG one last time, to watch the third days play. The highlight being when Mike Hussey missed a high lobbed catch by at least 6ft; the South African crowd went wild and summed up Australia performance. It was great to see the auzzies loose and it was for the first time in 19 years on home soil!

On the night of the 30th we jumped on an overnight Greyhound bus to Sydney, meaning that we would arrive on the day of new yrs eve. Luckily we had managed to get the last 2 seats on one bus and Nick got the last seat on the very last bus, it would have been an absolute disaster if this hadn't worked out. We arrived in Sydney at 10am new yrs eve, still with nowhere to store our lugage. As there was no accomodation available in Sydney we had already prepared ourselves for an all day/ night session, with accomodation booked in the Blue Mountains the following night. Kindly Oli Coates (a mate from school days) was staying in an appartement in the centre of town and to our delight offered to let us drop our bags there for the day. Free from the burden of our lugage we hit the streets and met up with Mike, Jo and Gerwyn from the Kiwi X. It was still reasonably early however we were aware that every backpacker from around the globe had decended on Sydney; for this reason we needed to get a good spot early for a good viewing spot of the world renowned fireworks. We chose our spot- Balls Head on the north side of the river. This appeared to be a got choice as it provided the city scene as the backdrop to the fireworks and allowed BYO drinks. What we didn't realise when purchasing approx 5 tons of alchol was that it was a 2hr walk and not in the near proximity of any food or water sources! The green was already quite busy on our arrival, this was not a problem though as we simply stepped over the 'no access' string barrier and got ourselves the best seats in the house. The day itself was actually alot more chilled out than we expected and was a great chance to catch up with the Kiwi X crew. Gerwyn was his usual self, comming out with the comment (when discussing a recent shark spotting)- " yeah but you'd be alright if you went in the sea with a blow up animal, because it would go for that over you". Prior to the kids firework display we watched the sun set over Sydney Harbour. Then round 9ish it all kicked off and what a phenomenal display it truly was. Watching the impressive fireworks with Sydney city scape lit up in the backround, what can compare? It was then a bit of a wait till the new yrs grand finale but when they came, Sydneys largest ever pyrotechnics fireworks display lived up to all expectations! The proceedings following the fireworks past quite quick, Gerwyn got bit by a possum, we then jumped on a train to the town centre and collected our bags from Oli's. At 4am we got a train to the Blue Mountains, 2hrs past, we arrived at our hostel room, and then a further 11hrs past till we woke up. After a day of rest and with great weather it was time to get active again. Another crowd of from the Kiwi X met us and we talk a walk down the 'Giant Staircase'. This was a perfect route as it past the Three Sisters ( a famous rock formation) and ran down into the Jamison Valley. We then took the scenic cablecar back upto the start. After 2 nights in the Blue Mountains we headed back to Sydney, where there was now accomodation available. We stayed in Kings Cross which worked out for the best, as we randomly kept bumping into people we knew. During our stay in Sydney we visited the beautifully designed Opera House, colourfull botanical gardens, yet more importantly the world famous 'Harrys Pies' van. We all had steak pie, loaded with mash potato, a dollop on mushy peas and a scooping of thick gravy. To Mikes deleight, another great 2hrs spent was at the cinema watching 'Yes Man', a brilliant feel good film, but apparently an even better book. On various days we also used our travel pass to visit Bondi beach and Manly beach. These are both great beaches in near proximity of Sydney. After a great time spent in Sydney it was now time to leave the city and the remaining Kiwi X crew. Although both Melbourne and Sydney were brilliant cities it was time to hit the endless stretch of east coast beaches.

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