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We arrived into Australia around3pmlocal time. The flight with Qantas was good,despite the air steward offering Mark a nutty ice lolly. He was not impressed! We found our shuttle to take us into the city center without trouble, and having previously planned to meet up with friends from home who were in Melbourne at the same time we headed to their hostel. As they were out at the time we dropped our bags and walked towards the city centre. As Melbourne is such a big place this was a longer walk than we had been use to in NZ.When we arrived into the centre there was quite a busy atmosphere due to a comedy festival that was coming to an end. Next door to the comedy place was the large Cathedral which overlooked Federation Square; a central meeting place with lots of people just sitting around watching the world go by. We eventually continued and followed the river for a short way, watching the rowers sliding past. In the distance was the MCG, the Melbourne Cricket Ground, before heading back to our hostel feeling tired where we bumped into Luke and Jade. We relaxed together in the evening and traded stories
before we went to bed after a long day.
As they had been in Melbourne for a few days they knew the good spots and how to get to them. We therefore walked into town and got on the free circular bus service which did a large loop of the town passing all the major tourist stops en route. We managed to see the Arts centre, Chinatown and the large central park before stopping off in Little Italy in Carlton which had lots of small fashionable shops and ice cream parlors. On the way back home we stopped off in the supermarket to gather our food rations.
We departed Melbourne at midday the next day,with Jade and Luke getting the overnight bus the evening previous, and went to Canberra for an evening. We spent most of the day travelling on the Greyhound bus, which is a great method of getting from A to B, but we missed the friendly atmosphere of the Kiwi buses with the drivers providing insights into their local knowledge and being able to stop off a lot to look at the scenery. Despite this we were and still are happy with the service. Canberra
is Australia's capital and despite being told by most of the locals that there is not a lot going on there we found the stop to be quite interesting. We arrived fairly late and walked to the only hostel in the whole city - a huge YHA and had a brief look round in the approaching darkness before retiring.
As our bus the next day was at 2pm we planned a full bodied morning. We walked over the main bridge after being amazed at our first glimpses of the cockatoos, which we now realise are everywhere, and went towards the old parliament house.The city was planned especially for its coming precidency and is therefore highly organised, clean and strikingly geometric in design. The old parliament building has had a 30 year aboriginal fire burning outside in protest to the pro white government. We waited a few minutes before we began our 3 strong free tour. Mark found this very interesting as our guide was a wealth of knowledge providing links to the commons and lords as well as the US ruling systems. The building was vacated for actual law making etc and moved up the hill to a larger
area as the amount of Australians grew and thus their need for a larger democratic elect. After walking back and headed along the lake, and through the parkland and found a small Bondai tree garden which Suzanna found enlightening and Mark the desire to grow Bondais.
We left for Sydney in the early afternoon and headed further north. We arrived into Central Station at 5 and got on the Northshore line heading northwards to Wahroonga, the location of our nicest ever hostel. We were met by Ian (taxi driver/cinematographer extraordinaire) and shuttled to our home for the next 13 days. We were made to feel at home straight away with a welcome dinner and shown to our dorm, previously inhabited by Luke, which were well equipped and plush. It was great to see some familiar faces and great to be 'off the road' for a while. We had breakfast and were able to make sandwiches before we headed out to the touristy beach destination of the masses, Bondi. We met up with Luke and Jade on the beach, and Mark went paddling for the first time. We returned home to see Ian, Chris and Nick as well as Cyril
(Pop) and Mia (Nick's 'friend') for our greatest meal away from home. Nick stepped up on Steak marinating duty and delivered. For those outside of Suzanna's family, Suzanna's Mum and Christine are cousins. Chris is married to Ian and son's, Luke (working in India at the time) and Nick, along with Cyril, (Chris' dad) make up the rest of the team. This is very hard to explain, but needless to say Mark's relation status was tenuous.
We visited Gemma, Luke's girlfriend who was departing for India to meet Luke, and found her clad in her dressing gown, in packing mode and thus not expecting visitors or grasping who we were. After some embarrassment and Rooibos tea we left with the keys for their unit (apartment) in Manly,a small surf settlement on the northern shore line. We stayed there for a couple of nights, visiting Freshwater beach, a small, pretty surfers beach that offered waves that Mark tested with Ian's old board. Mark was the loser of this battle.
On the weekend we went to watch Nick play rugby with his local team. Several knock-ons later Nick vacated the pitch unsuccessful nursing a corked thigh. Suzanna's reassurance that it
was 'just a game' fell on deaf angry ears. On the way back to Wahroonga we dropped in on Cyril and managed to speak to Glenys and John, Suzanna's Grandparents on the web cam. We stayed the night in Wahroonga and went back to Manly to get ready for the Anzac day celebrations. Anzac, Australia and New Zelands Army Corps, is an annual commemoration of those fighting and fallen in armed conflict. For those in the services it is an excuse to met up with old comrades, and for others the chance to play in the game of 2UP. The game is illegal on any other day in the country and is basically a simple game of guessing the result of a coin toss. We were skeptical that such a game could be such fun, however, after being shown around by Nick and Mia we found that 2up is an enjoyable and dangerous game, involving the exchanging of bets, signalled by the said bid being placed either on one's head to indicate heads or with thumbs pointing down to suggest tails would win. We went to a few different bars and actually found that we were a few dollars up,
Nick was unable to regain his losses and his bids of car and house keys were rejected.
We awoke the next morning in a daze. However, we soon snapped out of it as a picnic was planned bringing together Ian's brother Craig and family as well as Tom and Vicky and Cyril. We all met up at Palm Beach in the north, where the headland is flanked on one side with the ocean and a lagoon on the other. It was really nice to meet everyone, and we spent the day eating fantastic food, including the best potato salad ever created, sitting in the sun generally having a good time. The picnic was fantastic, and when the sun began to set Ian pounced into photographer mode to the dismay of Tom, but resulting in some great photos. We have been told that some have been sent home, thanks for that.
The next two days we decided that we needed to spend some time visiting the city center and we headed into via the Manly - Sydney harbour ferry. The ride in gave us great views of the harbour including the opera house, bridge and the Rocks. We got
on the free bus through to Chinatown and went into Paddys market. We walked to Hyde Park, and the Botanic gardens seeing the Cathedral and war memorial. When we got to the Botanic gardens the sun was setting and huge bats were stirring in the trees. They were wrapped in their wings and hard to photograph. We carried on through past the opera house, which is stunning and back to Manly again via the Ferry.
The rest of Sydney and Blue Moutains to follow. . 632 views, good work team, please add comments, its nice to hear from people at home.
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anonymous
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Loooks amazing, glad you are having a good time. hope that you enjoy more of Australia. the weather is getting warmer here, i've been wearing sandals this week. shame i'm in the library wearing sandals but hey ho, 30 hours then degree done. keep updating your blog :) kate xxxx