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Published: April 19th 2006
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So what should have been a relaxing time in Christchurch turned into a rapid stressed affair whilst we tried to sell the car and sort things (mainly banking stuff) out for Oz. We managed to visit the Antarctica Centre but that was about all.
So an uneventful flight led to Sydney arriving in the early evening - a dubious shuttle bus to Hotel 59 a nice friendly place although as we were to find out later that evening right in the middle of the red light district! At our first meal out we were greeted by "not even the Australians dare come here!. Anyway a few drinks later and a quality western meal of burger and chips sent us to bed early in anticipation of meeting Rachel and Peter the following morning.
Woke to glorious sunshine and a breakfast called the "Big Breaky" just in time to meet Pete and Rach arriving in another dubious looking shuttle bus (they hadn't slept for over 24 hrs). It was lovely to see them again after many months in the sticks! After Rachel had managed to upset our host within 5mins we quickly took her on a stay-awake walk down to the
botanical gardens and the opera house. A latte and a ferry trip to Manly gave us enough time to see a cricket match (much to Rachel’s disgust) and then allowed Peter and James to strip down to their shorts for a quick swim in the surf - even Rachel agreed that James was looking in top notch form!!
A home prepared salad seemed to send Pete and Rach (who had now been up for over 36 hours) to sleep.
Once again the weather was good so we donned our shades, hats and shorts (James got cross with Anne after she refused to wear a hat) and headed to Sydney's premier beach - Bondi - huge surf made the water difficult for swimming but still exciting - as long as you avoided the surfers!
An ice cream bit of window shopping and a Vietnamese meal with some of Peters friends brought the close of another day.
Tuesday was a "city day" as we tried to find the cheapest car hire for the next 5 weeks. After trailing around shops we decided on a suitable one and went to the Opera House to book tickets for The Importance
of Being Ernest in the playhouse that night.
Pete and Rach were slowly getting over jet lag and were not that impressed by the show - Anne seemed to find it funny - not sure why.
On Wednesday we were off to the Hunter Valley wine growing capital of Oz (although other areas would probably dispute this). A few times driving around Sydney courtesy of Peters map reading eventually we managed to find the harbour bridge - there was no stopping us as we found the freeway and were on our way towards Newcastle.
The Hunter Valley Lodge was very pleasant with kangaroos, parrots and nearby wineries. The girls were getting to their limit with the wine tasting so Pete and I had to drive them home. A barby whilst getting bitten by various insects forced us inside with some cheap bottles of wine and a pack of cards.
Our plan was for a round of golf - to cut a long story short (I will mention the scores in a moment - but I'm sure you can all guess who was going to win?) - 9 holes on a very upmarket course - James even
had to change out of one of his finest T-shirts into a borrowed polo-shirt. We hired two golf buggies and raced off down the course - took 4 hours for 9 holes and lost a few balls into the water (although Anne never lost a ball). Rachel also suffered a problem when attempting to walk over knee deep mud in flip flops!
Final scores - Anne 103, Rachel 100, Peter 77 and oh yes the winner with a total of 63 was James.
A nice evening meal where we were the only ones in the restaurant in the award winning shaky tables was lovely although James felt the portions were small - especially after the exertion of the golf!
A 4 hour drive to the Blue Mountains in an air conditioned car raced past along the winding roads. A nice walk along to view the three sisters. James was desperate to descend (which meant re-ascending) the 1000 stairs of the great staircase - much to Rachel’s disgust. Sweating and tired James cooked pasta bolognaise and a 20 questions game in which the final round James technically won but was cheated from victory by Peters dishonourable play.
Short walks the following morning was followed by sadly having to say our goodbyes to Pete and Rachel who were returning to Sydney for a few days.
We were now on our own again.
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