In a Land Down Under

---

Hello Everyone!

Hope you're all doing well, we have finally got round to sitting in an internet cafe long enough to write this. This will be one of our last few blogs, as our travels are already nearly over. we have less than two weeks remaining, 6 months have already passed! We're in New Zealand, but we're leaving for Fiji tomorrow, for our last 11 nights!

Here is the Ausralia instalment, as promised.....

We arrived at Sydney airport bleary eyed and slightly confused, after watching too many films on the flight over and having almost no sleep at all. We felt we had to catch up on 5 months of missed cinema opportunities!

We were particularly excited about landing in Sydney as it was our first time outside of Asia for 5 months, and My Dad was there waiting for us at the Airport! Dad had been over in Tasmania and Australia having a holiday with his partner Fran, and we had managed to time it all so that we had about a week together in Sydney.

I had not seen Dad for the duration of the trip so far, and it was great to see him waiting for us, ready to carry our bags and buy us cups of tea ;-)

After a quick cuppa and catch up we headed to our accommodation in New Town, so me and Jem could get a few hours sleep before exploring the area.

Almost refreshed a few hours later we headed out for a walk. It felt a bit strange being in an area where everybody spoke English, taxi's took you where you asked them and prices on labels were the official fixed price, no haggling involved. But it was nice to be somewhere that felt so familiar and where we knew travelling was going to feel like a completely different experience again.

I think we only survived a few hours that day and had an early night to catch up on our sleep. The following day we headed to the Quay in Sydney and had our first glimpse of the Opera house and the famous Harbour bridge. We took lots of photos before heading off on a boat tour around the surrounding bays.

The boat took us to several different islands and bays around the area and gave us some historical information about each place, including some information on where Nicole Kidman had once bought a house. We stopped off at one bay for some lunch and enjoyed fish and chips in the sunshine whilst being hassled by lots of seagulls. After a few hours we were heading back to Sydney harbour, the skipper on the boat must have thought me and Jem were looking particularly enthusiastic about sailing as he singled us out of the crowds and asked if we wanted to go upstairs and meet the Captain, so we did. His name was Dave and he told us some nice places to visit on our trip then posed for a photo, what a nice chap.


After our boat tour we headed to an area called Darling Harbour, quite a new place in Town with lots of restaurants and bars, exhibitions and base for the big Sydney aquarium and Wildlife World.
After some dinner and a browse around we headed to the Imax cinema to watch 'Sea Monsters', which was all very impressive in 3D. Im sure most of you have been to a 3D cinema before so I wont bore you, but it really was impressive with all the animals coming out swimming towards you. A highlight for me was when Dad attempted to swat an approaching dolphin away! (Sorry Dad, it made me laugh so much I had to tell!)

We spent the next few days in Sydney having lovely meals with Dad, sightseeing and doing lots of walking. Sydney is a great City with loads to do. There is a nice area near the harbour bridge called the Rocks with lots of shops, and old sandstone buildings to wander around on the cobbled lanes.

We all headed to Sydney Aquarium for the day, which is pretty big, it has all the usual sealife, including sealions, and some massive walk through glass tunnels with big old teethy sharks. We also headed to Wildlife World next door where Jem and I had our photos taken with some koalas, there fur felt like sheeps wool and they were all sleepy and dopey, very cute.
There was also a kangaroo which regurgitated its food in front of us, and it was quite a display! it kept kind of doing this dance thing, where it pumped its little paws against it stomach and spat up, then sat chewing with an expression on its whiskers like it was in pure bliss...it was amusing, guess you had to be there. In fits of laughter, none of us actually thought to film or photograph the said kangaroo, Im sure your all gutted about that!

Anyway, after the joys of Wildlife World we all started off on a bus tour one day, which took us all around Sydney and the surrounding area. We visited some nice harbour areas and headed for the famous Bondi beach, to do the Coastal walk up to Bronte. The weather took a turn for the worse when we arrived and rained on us most of the way, but it was great to see anyway. The waves were massive and half of the beach was closed off as it was too dangerous to swim or surf, there were still some crazy gala's out there giving it a go though.

After a week of fine dining, great company and lots of walking around Sydney, sadly Dad and Fran had to leave us and head back to the UK. After a farewell down by the harbour, me and Jem walked up to Sydney Observatory for some great views and dining al fresco in the park.

The following day we had a good wander around the City and visited the Botanic Gradens and opera house. We had a slight incident when I realised I had lost my camera, having placed it on the toilet roll holder whilst using the facilities in the gardens, then wandering off after natures call.
There was quite a panic, as upon realising it was gone, and running back to the toilet it was no longer there. Luckily some lady had handed it in to one of the garden wardens who found us tearful in the souvenir shop, we then got to ride on the garden golf buggy thing through the park, so it wasn't all bad, and we got the camera back! You nearly all lost out on the 6 months worth of travelling photos - slide show, we'll be doing when we return.

Our original plans for travelling in Oz, were to spend some time in Sydney, then head up the East Coast and make our way to Cairns where we were due to fly from. After over a week in Sydney we realised that it would be really rushed trying to make our way up to Cairns in so little time, plus weather reports were bad for the majority of the East Coast (floods in Cairns), so we changed our plan and booked a flight to Melbourne.

Which turned out to be a good decision as it was hot in Melbourne, and we had friends to visit there to. We had booked ourselves into a nice little hostel above a pub in a 'trendy' part of town near somewhere called Pahran, South of the City. It was only a short train ride into the City, or a walk up to the botanic gardens where you could jump on the free tourist bus which took you into the Centre, what a great idea! (obviously we utilised this facility alot).

Melbourne is a nice City, it's easy just to spend ages wandering around, which we have become very good at. We visited the massive library which is also a museum and gallery, we shopped around Victoria's oldest market, walked around the Docklands area, and spent our evenings hanging out at the hostel chatting to other travellers, sharing our stories and wisdom.

I was lucky enough to turn 25 whilst in Melbourne, a nice change from the usual snow we get in the UK around March. We headed for St Kilda's beach, it was great to be on the beach on my birthday, in March! We basked in the sun, drank tea and ate birthday cake.
Then in the evening we headed to the big outdoor screening of 'Withnail and I' in the Botanic Gardens, where we took loads of picnic food and wine. A girl form our hostel joined us, and our friend from good old Norfolk, who is currently living and working in Melbourne came along too.
Walking through a park on the way to the film screening, we happened to find a wallet on a bench. We had a quick look about, but nobody was near us, so we decided to be good citizens and return the wallet to its owner the following day once we had finished with all the birthday shenanigans.

It was a really good birthday, and it made such a change spending the whole day outside, just because we could, the box of goon (wine) was good too!

The following day, we investigated the wallet further, only to find it contained nearly 1000 dollars! cor blimey we thought! this will fund the rest of our travels....However being the honest girlies we are we tracked the owner down, a man from China who's name we couldn't pronounce. We visited his partment twice and called him several times, but eventually we met up with his wife at the train station just before we left Melbourne for New Zealand.
China mans wifey, was really grateful and she offered us money, food, drink etc, all of which we declined, being very British and polite. The money in the wallet was to pay for their rent, so being right chuffed they gave us both a card and some chocolates to say thanks. Imagine finding someones purse in the UK, and it having almost 500 hundred pounds in it! after the camera incident we figured it could be karma, so we had no choice but to hand it back...not that we ever considered otherwise....

We spent a couple of nights of our Melbourne trip, in the lovely Town of Williamstown, staying with a friend Jem used to work with, and his wife ( thanks again Darren and Em:-)
It was really nice to be in somebodys house, in an actual proper home with home cooking, after six months of hostels, it was a little luxury we really enjoyed, sofas, television, comfy beds!

We had a day trip out from Willaimstown on a steam train called Puffing Billy, yes he probably is aimed slightly more at kids, but its kind of for everyone, as it takes you out into the bush and you get to see some lovely parts of Australia which we hadn't had the chance to see, as we had only really been in big City's, both Sydney and Melbourne.

It wasn't long before we were heading back to the Airport ready to fly out to New Zealand, where we are at the moment, but not for much longer. New Zealand is stunning, but alas, we have to leave. I'm sure we'll get over it, as tomorrow we will be sunning ourselves on the beaches of Fiji! the last Country we're visiting on our whistle stop tour around the globe.

We will try to drag ourselves away from the crystal clear waters and white sandy shores of Fiji, to sit in an internet cafe and tell you all about New Zealand, as thats the kind of nice gals we are ;-)

Update you all again very soon!

And hopefully see you all very soon too!

Love from the travelling Animals, on the final leg of their journey x x x x x x

---

Comments

[badger cantrell]

Hi Girls,thanks for the great blog,what a time you two are having, and we are all so happy that you are enjoying it so much, bye bye to lovely oz( sure you will go back there again some time) enjoy Fiji as I am certain that its beautiful,and safe journey . Lots of love Badger and Tassie xxxxxxxxxx

[Zanne]

G'day!
Another cracking installment of travellage! You both look very healthy and glowing. But Blighty will soon knock that out of you... Did you bring me back a koala? Please say you did! I have a feeling that I have seen that crazy pigeon lady before... although I don't remember her being so GINGER! Hehe :P Love you loads xxx