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Published: December 14th 2007
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Our first stop in Australia was supposed to be Cairns in Queensland, from where we'd make our way 3500kms or so down the coast to Sydney, and eventually Melbourne. When we checked in for our flight from NZ, however, and found out that we not only had to change planes in Sydney, but collect our bags as well, we started to have other ideas. We'd spent months planning this trip, and there were plenty of reasons why we'd decided to start our Australian leg in Cairns, so we probably shouldn't have just decided on a whim to get off in Sydney instead. But, as much as we absolutely loved New Zealand, the novelty of things like being able to speak the language was beginning to wear off (a statement I'm sure I'll come to regret in the very near future, heading as we are next to a continent which doesn't even use the same alphabet as us!) and we were really starting to miss the adventure of travelling in South America. Keen to get to Asia asap, getting off at Sydney would allow us to cut our stay in Australia short and, sure, being able to be spontaneous should be one
of the benefits of this trip. (Not that any of the airline staff seemed to get this at all, and were utterly baffled when we tried to explain that we weren't going to take our connecting flight and were just going to get off in Sydney, like it was a bus or something.)
Now we just had to find a place to stay!! I'd love to be able to say that our difficulty in finding somewhere was due to our last minute change of plans, but we've not exactly been organised on this trip, so it just wouldn't have been true. And so the nightmare began ... Having no luck with the first 15 or 20 places we called ourselves, we headed to the Airport's Tourist Info desk, only to find they'd been trying unsuccessfully to find somewhere for another couple for almost an hour, trying everything from hostels to 5 star hotels. We eventually found an Irish hotel that could squeeze us in, and although it was their "last resort" room above the bar, it was quite nice really and we reckoned that after a month of the rustic life camping in NZ, we were due a big
night on the town, and could just come home to sleep when the bar was shut. And then we found out it didn't shut until 6am, and I am sure I don't need to tell you just how crazy an Irish bar in the middle of Sydney's most notorious nightlife/red-light district is. And not in a good way!
Sydney must have a serious shortage of hotels and we ended up having to stay in 3 different places in our 4 nights here (you didn't think we stayed on in the Irish place, did you?!). All in all, we weren't blown away. The small harbour area with the bridge and Opera house was the only bit that was how we'd imagined it to be, and while I thought that area was admittedly pretty gorgeous, Neil actually thought the Opera House was pretty ugly up close. There were some fabulous restaurants, and we ate really well, but the nightlife didn't seem to be up to much - no bar scene at all, from what we could tell, and we really tried! Bondi beach isn't a patch on any of Rio's beaches, and the flies...well, the flies have been the bane of
our lives in Australia this past few weeks, and it's hard to get past that at times. I was prepared for more exotic creepy crawlies, but there are just hundreds of disgusting flies everywhere, on your face, your ears, your eyes, your mouth, trying to get into your food if you eat outside...too gross.
We were missing our NZ van desperately, so we hired another one in Sydney, and hit the road for a few weeks, heading north first of all, to see just a little bit of what we'd missed in not travelling down from Cairns, then back South towards Melbourne and a little bit beyond. I don't want to sound like we're having a miserable time here, because we're not at all (we're now 6 months into a holiday! How could that ever be bad?!) but unfortunately we've continued to find Australia a wee bit underwhelming - for us it pales in comparison to New Zealand. But there have been lots of highlights - Byron Bay, a lovely surf resort just south of Brisbane (we didn't venture any further north than here due to the curse that is "schoolies" - something like 35,000 school leavers descend on
the Gold Coast for a few weeks in November and, from what we saw on the news, completely wreck the place), and Nimbin just inland from Byron, a slightly crazy hippy village with completely open buying, selling and smoking of cannabis. Further south, the Great Ocean Road is gorgeous, and we also had a great couple of days on Phillip Island, where we spent our second wedding anniversary wrapped in a sleeping bag on the beach watching the "Penguin Parade", where over 1000 of the cutest little penguins waddle across the beach at sunset every evening after a hard day out at sea.
Of course, there's also Melbourne, far and away our favourite place in Australia, where we got to see Ramsey Street, and almost as importantly, I got to introduce Neil to some long lost relatives, as well as meeting some new ones myself! Although the relatives were all horrified to find out that we'd spent $80 dollars on the "Neighbours" tour on our first afternoon in the city (to be fair, we probably didn't have our priorities straight there, Neighbours tour before family!), as unfortunately the tour doesn't consist of much more than being driven to the
Sydney
Looking back from the harbour street itself, which they could have done for free... An actress was wheeled out to meet us as well, but not having seen the show for about 12 years, neither of us had ever heard of her and it was one of the most excruciating experiences of our lives.
And now here we are in Perth, where we'll say goodbye to this continent, and head on to the next - Christmas in Japan!! I hope you all think of us when you're eating dinner on the 25th, I'm not sure they do a turkey and stuffing sushi roll...
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Michelle
non-member comment
Hi
Hi guys, Gerard and I have loved reading the blog, looks like you guys are having an absolute ball over there, lucky ducks. I will join bebo when I get a chance and catch up proper. Hope you have a brill xmas in Japan Love Michelle