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Published: January 18th 2008
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Sydney
In front of the Opera House Yey Im finally here and its so hot im excited already and cant wait to get working on this tan! My flight was great, about 3-4 hours from Christchurch. It was a beautiful sunny day so had fantastic views over the harbour bridge and Opera House as I was flying in. No matter how many times you have seen this great city in pictures it still takes your breath away when you get that first glimpse.
My first day was spent trying to find my way around Sydney which is so huge I think its going to take a bit of time. The first place I headed for was the Opera House, an obvious place to start I guess. The Opera House is beautiful and not what it seems like from a distance. Its actually 3 seperate buildings on top although they all join up underneath. There was a group wedding having their photos taken on the steps. The poor cameraman had has work cut out I tell you, trying to organise 8 brides and all the other wedding guests. It all looked like fun though which is the main thing.
From the Opera House there is great views
Sydney
at the pub in Leeton of the Harbour Bridge which im looking forward to climbing across when Raymond comes. If you look closely you can see the tiny dots which are people walking across it, it looks a bit scary. There are loads of things that I want to do here but im going to wait and split them up between Raymond and my cousin Samantha who is also coming for a visit soon.
The city is so alive and vibrant, just teeming with people, a bit like New York. It takes a bit of getting used to again coming from the relatively quieter cities of New Zealand.
I met up with Irene ( who i met in NZ) and her friends Aoife and Connor for a few drinks down at the Rocks. The Rocks is a cool area of the city to have a few drinks and hang out. Its great to meet up with Irene again as I was missing having her around as she is really good company. We are staying at the YHA whcih has a swimming pool on the roof which is great for these hot days. We went to the Surrey Hills festival the next day which
Sydney
with my fly net on, an absolute must! was fun to stroll about at. There were a couple of bands playing, lots of food and clothes stalls. Connors friend Kian has a flat at Bondi Beach so we ended up there for the day on Sunday. He is leaving to go back home to Ireland so he was havinga BBQ with a few friends round ( about 20!). It was good to catch my first glimpse of Bondi Beach, im looking forward to Xmas there - Raymond and I have an apartment booked for 2 weeks over Xmas and New Year.
Some of the photographs which are on here are from my fruit picking experience in Leeton, about 8hrs on the train outside of Sydney. I decided that as I have 3 weeks to kill until Samantha comes over I may aswell try make some money rather than spending it all the time! Im staying at a place called the Fruitshack which is run by a farmer who provides accommodation for backpackers who are fruitpicking. I left Irene looking for a job. It was sad to be parting again so soon but its only for a few weeks :-)
Well what can I say about the Fruitshack? I
Sydney
Irene and I at the Harbour Bridge dont even know where to start. I honestly dont know!The place probably defies description. However, I will do my best to describe it. The shack consists of a boys container and a girls container ( yes we slept in industrial containers!). 6 people in each. We have foam mattresses to sleep on, no-one tidies up their stuff so the place is an absolute riot. I went into shock when I saw where i was going to spend the next 3 weeks but apparently everyones reaction is the same at the start. There is graffiti all over the walls. There is a small and disgusting kitchen with ants and beasties all over it as "cleaning day" is only on a Sunday. There is a tiny TV room with a TV without an aerial. A few people have said if you stare really hard at it you can make out the picture but mostly they just listen! The couch has holes everywhere but you cant get a seat anyway for the 3 pregnant cats that use it as their bed. The toilets are shared, there is 2 toilets and 2 showers between 26 of us at the moment. If you are wondering
Sydney
Irene and I at the Opera House where the rest of them sleep, people sleep in their cars and campervans. They just want to use the facilities so they pay for the privilege of sleeping in their cars. I wasnt going to put any photos on of the shack because my parents will probably have a heart attack when they see where ive been sleeping but I thought I may aswell put them on since Im telling you all about it anyway!
So I am sharing my hut with a lovely Scottish lass , Kat from Perth, 3 English girls and a German girl. Everyone is nice but now that I have been here a while you can feel the tension starting to build between some of the girls. The English girls at the moment are refusing to speak to any of the German folk as they say they are messy, untidy and rude to them. I really like Martin and co as they are so funny and entertaining. However I was pretty grossed out myself when one night after dinner Martin gave the pot that he had been eating out of to the cats to finish off. We need to cook in it so I wasnt
Sydney
Sydney skyline at Circular Quay happy! Relations are somewhat smoothed over on a Thursday as thats pub night! yey! We usually get lifts from the farmers straight to the pub after work, its only $2 a drink so everyone is happy. We stay till about 9ish then home to bed as we are all up between 5-7am depending on what your job is. I have been working with the same farmer for about 2 weeks. I am desuckering ( yes, what a name) grape trees. The idea is to remove all the weeds (or suckers as they are known) which attach themselves to the trees as they suck out all the essential moisture which is needed for the grapes to grow. There is not enough water to go round as it is. The work is really hard especially when its so hot. The good thing about the job is that on most days you can finish when you want, so I tend to start at 6am and knock off about lunchtime before it gets unbearably hot. I feel somewhat lucky as Im doing this fruit-picking in order to obtain my 2nd-year visa, however some people are absolutely skint and dont have any choice but to
Sydney
On the steps of the Opera House work from 6am-5pm. Some of them cant pay their rent and so hand over their passports as security. Its crazy!! There is one guy who Im working with who is going home soon to Ireland. He is dreading going to the airport as he came on 1-year working holiday visa and has overstayed by 3 years! He thinks he will probably get a fine and ban from entering Australia again for about 5 years.
So the only other thing to mention here is probably my scary encounter with a snake! The grass was so tall, above my kness, I had my Ipod in and didnt here the terrible noise it was making, obviously to warn me it was near. I leaned over to the right to cut down the grass and it jabbed my left foot. I felt like I had been punched and screamed so loud! I took out my earphones and froze, I couldnt believe the noise it was making. The other girl who was with me was petrified too but we backed away and didnt see it because of the long grass. I hot-footed it right out of there and refused to go back so I finished
Sydney
After a BBQ at Bondi Beach, Sarah, Connor, Irene, Kian and Me work early that day. I have also came in close contact with Red-back spiders Huntsman spiders and blue-tongue lizards too mention but a few.
Anyway im real excited about getting back to civilisation as im starting to go crazy like the rest of the folk round here. See you back in Sydney!!
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Linz
non-member comment
OH MY GOD!!!!!
Hi Sis, Oh my god how on this earth could you possibly put your backside on that toilet in there never mind sleep in those beds!!! The guy would have to pay me to go in there not the other way round! You will certainly have lots of stories to tell. Please watch out for the snakes and spiders! Tell Raymbow me and Robert said Hi. Speak to you soon Miss you and love you loads Linz x x x x x