Off to Oz

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After saying fond farewells to Linda and family and to New Zealand, I flew over to Sydney and checked into an airport hotel - as Chrissie was arriving early the next morning and it wold be a bit easier. I had heard from Ian who was arriving in Sydney on the same day and in return for the use of the Wellington hotel room, he kipped for free in the Holiday Inn. We decided to go into town for the evening and asked for directions to the train station, neither of us listened as each assumed that the other did, so as a result it took an hour of wandering around in circle and asking in pubs for directions to find the way into town. (as it turned out the station was approximately 100m from the hotel - moral of the story never assume that someone esle is the active listener!!). We eventually arrived at Circular Quay and wandered through the city centre to find something to eat and a cinema. We eat a cheap meal in chinatown and went for a wee drink - which then turned into a bit of a sess...so no cinema....

I still managed to get up and get to the airport to meet Chrissie. The three of us then headed to Manly where Chrissie and I had booked into the Manly Gueat House (sounded a lot posher than it actually was) Ian checked in elsewhere and we met up later to watch the Sydney Beach Volley Ball School (yes, Gordy there is actually such a thing) giving lessons on the beach. Ian decided that he didn't like his hostel and was going to move into ours, but he couldn't find the manager, to get a bed so he just stayed in our room and as no-one else moved in and we never did see the manager during our stay he got away with a couple of nights free accommodation!! We caught the sightseeing bus around the city, getting on and off at various points including Darling Harbour, Sky City and finally at the Observatory to watch the sunset. The next day we managed to catch up with Kelly before she headed home to the States and then it was off to the zoo. I had my first sight of Australia fauna - a baby wombat, kangaroos, wallabies, koalas and emus (which I really don't like - horrible feet!!). Unfortunately, the duck billed playatapus was not in the mood to be on show and was nowhere to be seen. Taht night Chrissie had organised to ride on the back of a Harley Davidson, whilst Ian and I went to the pub to catch up with Laura, Danny and Pat.

Ian headed off the next day to Surfer's Paradise and Chrissie and I picked up a hire car to drive up into the Blue Mountains. Our first stop was the Sydeny Olympic Park and then onto Katoomba. We stayed in the Blue Mountain YHA, which had been twie voted the best hostel in Australia, with good reason. We went down to Echo Point to see the Three Sisters and then onto Scenic World. We rode down on the world's steepest railway, it is more like a fairground ride than a railway and it drops almost vertically - and it was driven by someone who actually knew where Dunfermline is!! After a walk through the forest at the base of the canyon we rode back up in a cable car. The views were spectacular. We had decided to complete the complete tourist loop of the Blue Mountains and drove all the way to Oberon, before stopping in Windsor for the night. We returned to Sydney and Chrissie went off biking again...I think that she might be turning into a bikerette....

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Photos

Close encounters of the avian kind
Ian and a very large turkey...

Blue Mountains
Now, the science part, the bluse haze is apparently caused by the oil from the ecalyptus tree in the valley below.

Comments

[Ian]

Sober
I was totally sober in that picture, I look even worse when I have a drink in me.