Blogs from Hyde Park, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, Oceania

The rain continued on into the night but was starting to show signs of clearing in the morning. We had a bit of a lie-in and spent the morning updating the blog (it had been neglected for 10 days or so). In the afternoon we jumped on the ferry from Manly to the Circular Quay and headed off to the Hyde Park Barracks Museum. As most people will know, the first people sent from England to the Australian colony were in fact mostly convicts; these people had their sentences changed from death to transportation for 7, 14 years or life. The Hyde Park Barracks Musuem provides insight into the daily lives of the convicts arriving in NSW and their route to freedom. It allows you to do a surname search using the historical database to find ... read more

Today the Sydney Festival kicked off and runs throughout January – it involves a whole host of free music, art and culture events across the city. Today was Norman Jay dj’ing from his party bus in Hyde Park. We headed down to Hyde Park in the early evening with Andy and Jess and met Wendy and Anthea & Dave. We soon realised that although the event was advertised as no BYO, pretty much everyone was ignoring it, so Andy and Jess headed over to the off licence to pick up some supplies whilst we kept a spot on the grass. When Andy & Jess returned to the park with the supplies the Police had got a bit more strict, and were wandering through the crowds taking any alcohol they found, so we launched a cunning plan ... read more

Den 21. ankom vi til Noosa by. Vi havde ikke de store forventninger til stedet, da folk kun havde nævnt byen pga. Australien Zoo. Derfor havde vi også kun rejst dertil, fordi vi ville se den berømte Steve Irwin zoo med alle krokodillerne. Men byen var betydeligt større end forventet. Vi havde regnet med et par tusind indbyggere og en ellers ret kedelig by. Men vi blev glædeligt overrasket da byen var stor og var fyldt med unge mennesker og turister. Det var åbenbart en af de steder, australiere selv tog til når de ville på ferie og vi forstod dem godt. Efter en lille omrokering af hostels, fandt vi et som passede til vores budget og behov for ro. YHA Halse Lodge hostel var en gammel træbeklædt bygning med hyggelige facilliteter og en rigtig god ... read more

First off, our apologies in not keeping up with our travel blog for the remainder of our trip – needless to say, Internet difficulties made our “blog-keeping” quite difficult. However, we do plan to finish the blog, despite the fact that we are currently back in Steamboat Springs. We will likely write the blog in present tense from time to time, but don’t be fooled because we are not still off gallivanting around the world, as much as we both wish that we were! So, without much more to say, here starts the continuation of our blog, a few months late… From New Zealand, we caught a flight to Sydney to begin our ventures in Australia. For a time reference, this was in mid-January. You may remember hearing about the devastating floods in Australia earlier this ... read more

It seems that everything amazing about Australia isn't just located in Sydney. Barely one hundred kilometres out of the city is an area known as the "Blue Mountains". Cascading waterfalls, dramatic cliffs and an incredible diversity of flora and fauna can be found just outside this city's doorsteps. The Blue Mountains get their name from the microscopic droplets of blue eucalyptus oil that is in the air surrounding these majestic structures that tends to give them a bluish hue from a distance. Many of the small towns surrounding these mountains use Aboriginal names and co-exist with the people and share the land...how can anyone not be charmed by a name like "Leura", "Katoomba" or even the old dodgy sounding "Wentworth Falls" When we first arrived out of the city our guide was determined to show us ... read more