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Darling Habour, Sydney
Waiting for the 'concert' to start!Sorry for the delay in writing for you all, we have had a busy week or so and not had chance to get everything down! Last time we wrote we had one more day left in Sydney so we'll take it from there...
On our last day in Sydney we woke up at the Funk House her we had been staying. It had been a decent place to stay and not a bad price for Sydney, plus the staff had been really helpful. We popped down to the city market to but some warmer clothes in the afternoon. Its actually just as cold here as it is back home in England, we can't wait to start getting up the coast. We got some food in Darling Harbour at a food court and then hung out by the habour while it got dark and waited for our treat this evening...U2 in concert. This wasn't live however, we had tickets to U2 3D at the IMAX cinema. The IMAX is 10 times the size of a normal cinema and this one has the biggest screen in the world, and the U2 concert we were going to watch was in 3D.
Megan with the 3D glass on...
Everyone will be wearing them soon! To put it simply it was absolutly amazing. It was crystal clear picture, you couldn't see the sides of the screen and if it was a bit colder you would have been forgiven for getting on your mates shoulders, it really did feel like you were there. We flew over bouncing crowds and got right in Bono's face. It was unbeliveably real and it must only be a matter of time until all films are like this. We would have all happily gone and seen it again at the next showing, but we couln't afford that! We planned to walk back via the Opera House at night but it was cold and late so we walked back home.
Last day in Sydney we got up and checked out by 10am and stored our bags. We got some food and then headed down to the Queen Victoria Building to check out the shops. This building is over 100 years old (old for Australia) and the shops were all far to posh for us! We popped back and got a taxi to the airport for our flight to Melbourne with Jetstar (Australia's easyjet). The flight was over as soon
as we started and only lasted 50 minutes. We landed and Adam's bags were off first once again (5-2). We headed for Kensington just outside the center of town and soon found Megan's sisters house where we would be staying for the next 5 or 6 days. It was quite a nice house despite having no carpets! They have a nice mix of people including Megan's sister Katherine who is English, Nam from Vietnam, JB from France, Andrea and Italy and Shane and Cori from Ireland! They were off for out as it was Saturday so we joined them and headed into town to a club called Revolver on Chapel Street. It was a fun night and the latest we had been out in a while. We all got taxis back and us 3 settled down in the living room on sofas where we would be sleeping!
The next day was similar to a typical hungover day in England, we got up late and went to the shop for some cures for our heads then cleaned up back at home. There was a lot of bottles left from the night before that we got rid of (earning
Crown Casino
So many slot machines in here! our stay!). We went out to a local cafe for food then in the afternoon and evening we played basketball until it was too dark down at a local school.
Next day Katherine was working so us 3 headed down into town on the train. We walked about in the city and saw some cool buildings. We then headed down the river Yarro which had great views of the city and we found the Crown Casino at the end of it. Which happened to have a poker festival on, too much of a coincidence to pass up, we made note of a good tournament and headed home. Megan and her sister went to a Neighbours party in the evening and got to meet Dr Karl, Libby and Rachel (whoever they are!!!), they got photos and had a quiz and apparently had an amazing time. Adam and Nick, not being Nieghbours fans, headed to the casino. Crown Casino is the biggest in the southern hemisphere and was once the biggest in the world. unfortunatly the poker tournament was already full so we couldn't play - maybe a good thing? So we headed upstairs to gamble and at the
Us on Ramsay St
Apparently outside paul's house?!?! end of the night finished up with $120 more and 4 beers - thanks to mostly to the number red 27! We met the girls and listened to how amazing this Dr karl fella is while we walked/trained home.
Next day the 4 of us we headed down to Pin Oak Street. This ment nothing to Adam and Nick at the time. But it turns out they use this road in the filming of Neighbours and its called Ramsey Street. It had some nice houses on it and a security guard on it, but no other tourists! In the afternoon we went bowling and Adam won with a score of 161, not bad at all! We played some pool after and Nick won. We headed back and tried to sort out plans for when we go back to Sydney, still not sure if we will get the bus of campervan, but the campervan certainly seems cheaper.
Next day we headed down to the Aquatic Centre. This was used for the 2006 commonwealth games. The place is massive and has an outdoor 50m pool. an indoor 25m pool, a fun pool, a diving pool, plus
World's biggest pool?
If they move all the dividers its 75 meters! a hugh 75m pool that can be used as 50/25 or 25/25/25m! There was a competition in the 75m and the outdoor was shut, so we made do with a normal pool and had a good swim for most of the morning. In the afternoon we went around some shops then Adam and Nick cooked mexican food in the evening for everyone (again paying our rent!). We popped into town with a few of the housemates for some drinks and caught the last tarm back at midnight to get some sleep.
Next day we hired a car between the 4 of us and planned to drive Great Ocean Road. This runs west from melbourne for about 300km to a rock formation called the 12 Apostels, and was built in rememberance to people killed in WW1. Adam got up before everyone and got the car, which was an automatic, something he had never driven before. Adam was jumping all over the place driving it out the hire place, so much so that the guy put the car park code in for him, Adam smiled at him and whacked the window wipers on - turns out the indicators are
Great Ocean Road
Long and winding along the coast - was great fun to drive on! on the other side here! We started driving to the road and soon found it, we stopped at Angelsea beach and some look out points before getting fish and chips. We saw surfers and some nice beaches along the long winding road. Katherine discovered she had lost her phone somewhere along the way so we had to turn back, about 100km back we found it on the ground in a carpark - lucky girl! We kept on going but by the time we reached the 12 Apostels it was dark! We could just make them out sticking up out the sea (they are big rocks!).
The drive back was hard work and we had to drive slow as the animals come out at night. We just missed a Kuala that was by the side of the road! Only Nick and Katherine saw it properly though! Our first sighting of a Kuala or kangaroo! Adam managed to drive over 600km today! When we got back we decided that we would get a campervan for our trip from Sydney to the north and we booked it online. We packed up our bags once more and enjoyed our last sleep on sofa.
Adam on Angelsea beach
Nice bit of seaweed too! We woke up the next morning and dropped the hire car back at the airport branch (nice planning) and got our flight back to Sydney. We headed stright for the campervan place and filled in lots of forms and read lots of small print. After about 30 minutes our van arrived for us and we checked it over for damage before they gave it to us. Once we got it we did a few laps around the block (more than a few) while we looked for somewhere to park it. Our van is a converted Toyota Hightop, its white, and seems to run quite well! The back has a fridge, microwave, hobs and grill, sink, lots of cupboards and storage, plus lots of seating and a table. At night its like a transformer and we have a double bed on the bottom and Nick sleeps in his own room practically in the top! We got some food for the fridge and went to Bondi beach. We walked up and down here hile deciding where to stay. We headed 40kms south to the Royal national park. We couldn't find the campsite at first but we found a shop who
Surfing class
On Angelsea beach along the Great Ocean Road told us where it was and a place we could hide our van and sleep if we wanted to! Good bloke! The campsite seems deserted of staff so we just parked up, made some pasta and got some sleep. It was suprising spacey and we all got a good first night sleep in the van. We had to decide on a name for our van. Adam and Nick wanted to pay tribute to thier driver in India and call it Jimmy, but Megan wanted Bobby, it was then that Jimbob was born!
The shower at the campsite were good and in the morning we took a walk up and down the beach next to our van spot. We climbed over rocks and saw lots of cool snails and stuff while we looked for crabs. When we got back we had a letter from the park on our van, turns out we needed to pay $11 a day to be in the park and then pay to use the campsite. After a few white lies and some charm we just paid $11 and decided to move to the spot the shop owner told us about. We also forgot
JIMBOB!
Our beautiful van with us looking cool! to tell them about the waterpipe Adam hit when driving out! We made more pasta in the van and went to Hayden beach for more walking about and climbing on rocks - too cold for swimming here. There was some really cool rocks here that we climbed on and took pictures. We headed back to the van under the cover of night and played cards until we went to sleep.
When we got up it was freezing, and outside there was 'soccer' game been played on the grass next to our van with kits, referees and everything! We popped to a shop then decided we would head to the Blue Mountains which are about 80 kms from Sydney. The drive was easy once we got over some map difficulties. It only took about 2 hours and we arrived at a town in the middle of the Blue Mountains called Katoomba. Here we went to a look out point and it was pretty amazing, there was some rocks called the 3 sisters(see pictures). We then headed to a campervan site as we needed some power tonight so we could write this blog! In the afternoon we went to
Top of the World!
Another cool rock we found along the beach in Royal National Park some look out points and saw some breathtaking views, massive waterfalls, scary cliff edges, and some cool caves made by the wind. Our van had to struggle along some crazy bumpy roads along the way but it made it back safe! We got back to the campsite and caught up on washing and power charging (oh and made even more pasta!)
We plan to head up the coast from Sydney tomorrow but we are unsure of our first stop! Now we have 'Jimbob' we can go where ever we please! The van has been running really well so far and we have clocked up 361km!
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Adam Gibson and Nick Burke
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simon
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Jimbob
I thought trubutue to Carter USM but the again realsied you would not have a clue who that is. Sure U2 cincert was not that realistic did you sweat a lot have some idiot hit you in th back of the head and not really see much at all because you where bouncing around with the crowd ? Looks like you are still having a great time. Also Chelsea should stick yo what they are best at flower shows