Australia - Sydney & New South Wales

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Sydney

The journey to Sydney is fairly uneventful. We get to see Leatherheads, a George Clooney & Renee Zellwegger film about American football - very rubbish - & we pass into a new time zone - New South Wales is one hour ahead of Queensland (11 ahead of the UK); in fact in one street in one of the towns it’s possible to celebrate New Year twice! The sunrise at 5 am on the way in is spectacular (apparently, says C who slept through it all). We stop for a break soon after near The Lake District in NSW. It’s then into Sydney, across the Harbour Bridge, with the weather overcast which is a slight disappointment.

We get into the Central Station terminal on time & the hostel is a few minutes away. 790 on George is on George street - the main road into the centre of the city including Circular Quay & The Rocks area (touristy Camden town really). The hostel is ok; the rooms are good & comfortable with air con, but the rest of the facilities for a new establishment charging $100 per night are not up to par. The central location though is a big help.

We venture into the “big smoke” to check out our memories of a great city, though many places are still shut. The transport system still seems to be well run & regular - with the flexibility between buses, the ferries, the monorail & the rail network which gives wide coverage. There are some good deals for weekly or monthly travel. (Though while we’re there they close the Fast Cat service from Circular Quay to Manly which causes uproar due to the number of people that use it; no replacement is in place). It has however changed in a few ways - it’s much busier at this time compared to our last trip. Also, the people are more diverse than we can recall from our visit 10 years ago - we are staying near China Town & we are amazed by the number of folk from SE Asia - Indian, Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Vietnamese, Turkish, etc. Apart from all the English, Welsh, Scottish, German & Dutch travellers who have come for the NYE party - so we think, where are the Aussies? Then again, a more appropriate question would be who is an Aussie? We also discover that there are many South Africans who have now moved to Oz, & in particular, Sydney.

The shopping area downtown is full of global and many Oz designer names which makes window shopping more interesting - it’s not just Oxford Street in London. The centre of Sydney is really small & walk able but the city as very is sprawling & goes on forever - mind you they have the space for it. There are also trendy areas such as Paddington for local designer wear. Parts of the city are looking tired though, dirty & run down - Circular Quays for one needs a full regeneration project. Paddington looks a lot better. Lower George Street - near the city is better than upper George street. They have Westfield malls all over - in most neighbourhoods, & every one has a huge food hall - this is in addition to the many independent food places on the main & side streets - we’re not sure how they all make money given that the free BBQ places all over mean folks have a lot of picnics. Sydney seems to have so many Food Halls - they could compete with Singapore - and they will win. China Town is the one area where the food is pretty reasonably priced. We overheard a young person enlightening another saying we don’t cook at home!

The media coverage now is a bit more global - even the UK & US gets the odd mention these days - previously we felt we could have been on another planet as everything was focussed on local or Asia Pacific news.

We walk into the city to check things out. It’s busier for the same period when we were last here. This may be explained by the fact that the cosmopolitan nature of the locals is such that Christmas is not such a big deal as before. This is confirmed later when we return from the NY fireworks at 1 am & are amazed at the number of bars & eateries etc that are open with hardly any customers but hanging in there for passing trade till 2am.

We try a Japanese meal for dinner on our first night here - Fujiya - near the hostel - it’s fab & very reasonable. C has a Tempura plate & M a Chicken Teriyaki & Vegetable & Japanese Chilli fried rice. The meal in London would have cost us a fortune. We do a BYO & it costs us £22 including $6 corkage.

We meet up with Elizabeth, a traveller we met in Mexico at Spanish school. She’s a Sydneysider born & bred, now retired & having a fun time. We have kept in touch. She takes us out to Darling harbour where we had a light lunch - it’s a great spot but the area is very touristy - a regenerated harbour side with eateries & bars galore. Next it’s Cockles Bay & Kings Street Wharf - they are all connected & the main attractions other than boat trips are the Aquarium, Oz Wildlife area & a new Outback experience centre. There’s the Nautical Museum with decommissioned battle ships, a submarine & a Tall ship. We make our way to Circular Quay & The Rocks area where the Sunday market is full swing. An interesting attraction is a city tour on a Harley - quite tempting including one on a 3 wheeler - Billy Connolly style for $65. The driver/guide almost looks like him. We decide to give the climb up the Bridge a miss as it’s pretty dam, expensive at $120 each. After a sunny start it’s now cloudy & then it starts spitting rain - so we go our separate ways. It’s lovely of Elizabeth to take the time out to show us around. However, ½ hour later - it’s blistering sunshine again. Fickle weather or what?!

We also meet up with Chris & Michelle - our friends from London, who have now settled here. We are to stay with them for 4 days - which is great & very generous of them. Chris is a VP (Vice President for the uninitiated) with Morgan Stanley & Michelle works for Lendlease Aus a global Construction company. They seem to love it here. We meet Chris on the 39th floor where his offices are & the views of the harbour are fantastic. Surprise, surprise, when we meet Michelle we discover that she is 5 months pregnant. They both look really well. We go for a light lunch around the corner & catch up on life. They are off to a wedding in Newcastle or we might have been able to access the 39th floor to watch the fireworks on NYE.

We decide to go to see Frost/Nixon, the new film nominated for 5 Golden Globes. It’s been a while since we have been to the cinema. Given our travels in Vietnam & interest in American politics of the time - it seemed like a good idea. The film was ok - the guy who played Nixon was good. The David Frost character looked more like Tony Blair (he played Blair in The Queen!), and what it showed was how naïve, stupid, inept & unprofessional Frost was, & eventually how extremely lucky he was - as it (the interviews with Nixon) was the making of him. The BBC producer doesn’t come out of it too well either - he’s a big shot now in the media world. We go to the pictures again - this time it’s Vicky, Cristina, Barcelona - another film with 5 nominations for the Golden Globes. It’s produced & directed by Woody Allen. It’s unusual but entertaining & we suddenly realise in Sydney how beautiful Spain is. Penelope Cruz is good as a neurotic artist, Scarlett Johansson ok as a sexually adventurous woman.

We do some shopping in the sales - some new shirts to look decent for the wedding & stuff in NZ. We were to go to a local club but as the logistics of getting to an from the fireworks were going to be a challenge & that’s what we came here for - we decided to give the party there a miss - a shame as we were looking forward to it.

We decide after lots of advice & deliberation to go to the Mrs Macquarie’s Chair site for the fireworks. The whole event is now more commercialised & big business where tickets for a good view range from $280 per person to $1000 upwards!! This was unheard of 10 years ago. On NYE we decide to make a day of it with picnic & all. We get there at 9am - doors open at 10 but it took us 4 hours to get in - not helped by the lack of any control or Marshalling as various oiks’ kept queue jumping.

As per usual we have bought tooooo much for the picnic. The facilities once you get into the grounds are fine. The toilets are clean & plentiful - no long queues, same can be said for the bars & food stalls. However, the event could have done with some music in the park - this was NYE - party time!! We met 2 German students from NZ doing an MBA there. They had also had a working spell in India for 3 months - so we got on pretty well. The weather was pretty sunny & hot & the young folks came dressed accordingly - so plenty of flesh on show - but all good humoured & friendly. In the queue, we met another Sarah, who is also 25 from Enfield now in Broxbourne who was born in Chase Farm Hospital like Sarah & Louise - small world or what??? It was strange but she was born in Sept. She’s on a year’s visa & hopes to stay if she plays her cards right at the Hilton where she works.

We work our way through our picnic and the odd bottle of wine or two, then join the scrummage for the best views of the fireworks from the bridge and the river. There are now two lots of fireworks; the family show at 9pm which lasts 15 minutes and is pretty good and of course the big one at midnight. This was, as expected, fantastic - though despite having read all about the theme for the event it still looked like lots of pretty lights and bangs to us! M took loads of pics and C recorded some on her camera on video setting. (To follow when we’ve worked out how to add them to the blog).

We spend NY’s day on a walk - a trendy thing to do in Sydney as they have lots of trails around the place - Bondi Beach to Coogee. 5 kms of sun, sand & sea breeze! We arrive by bus & find that Bondi looks like a seaside town that could do with some TLC - surprisingly it’s not too bad. The beach is packed. There are surfers, sunbathers & swimmers - it caters for all. We pass a champagne reception & learn later it was for Paris Hilton who is in town. We have a picnic lunch (left over’s from last night really) and then start the walk. We pass some amazing cliffs with multi coloured seams - quite picturesque. On the way there is Bronte Beach & Clovelly Beach which are smaller & some consider nicer, and Gordon’s Bay which is the place to snorkel & dive - the water is crystal clear. It can however, remind you of how unfit you are - but it’s a great start to the NY. We catch the bus back & see different parts of Sydney including the horse racing track where it’s busy with punters, and get off at the Central Railway station.

We move to stay with Chris & Michelle in Mosman on the North Shore. They have been friends since we did the Inca Trail trek in Peru some 8 years ago. They lived in Clapham in London & emigrated to Oz over 2 year’s ago. They have a fab 2 bed apartment rented @ $650 per week (the most affordable option for young professionals in Sydney as property prices are ridiculously high). We go to enjoy the delights of Manly & Shelley beaches. Unfortunately, the weather is overcast & with a strong wind it becomes too cold for swimming so it’s off to dinner at the nearby Buena Vista Pub in Mosman where we try our first Oz real ale - it’s cold and lovely. It’s packed out and they do largely pastas, fish & chips & BBQ food. The unusual think here is that you can do your own BBQ of the various steaks etc on the menu at a lower cost than if they cooked it for you. The BBQ area is pretty big in the main restaurant section & it’s a great social spot for folks to chat while the food gets done. What a fantastic idea! We enjoy linguine with pesto sauce & steak with wedges & sour cream. One thing of note is that the size of the mains in Sydney are enormous - easily feed 2.

As C & M are also on holiday they drive us to Palm Beach at the weekend. It’s where they film “Home & Away”. It’s a lovely area & the views from the lighthouse great, which would be even better had the sun appeared. However we made the most of it & had a great lunch at Dune’s by the beach. We enjoy a terrific octopus & squid salad. Back at Mosman we have a lovely BBQ evening at the apartment - Chris rustling up some large NZ steaks that he gets from a private source & Michelle knocks up the salad & accompaniments. We also enjoy some amazing Oz wines while with them - from Margaret river and another from Hunter Valley. Unfortunately we didn’t quite make the wine trip locally. We also didn’t quite make the Blue Mountains partly because when we went to book it was full for days ahead & we met someone who had done it & said it was very touristy. The best thing to do is to go for 2/3 days & hike the area to enjoy it.

One of the more interesting things (if you are a cricket fan) has been the 3 Test Series between Oz & South Africa (SA). We watched parts of the game in Brisbane live - especially the run chase last day where SA made 414 for 4 to win. Chris has got us tickets to go to the Sydney cricket Ground (SCG) with C & M & some of their friends - Paul (from the UK & an accountant with Westpac bank) & Jen (his Oz wife who was heavily pregnant & could have given birth at the match), Rory (from the UK) , Stu (an Ozzie) & Nicky his partner - a primary school teacher in a private girl’s school. (They have both travelled a lot - Stu had just returned from a quick trip to South America). We enjoy VB beers - the only things they do at matches & had taken our own food hampers which was fun. The SCG is the best cricket ground M has seen. It has a great historic main stand, intimate seating close to the action - we were in row 5, Oz batted most of the day on a good batting wicket (it was the 2nd day & Oz had resumed at 6 for 267 overnight). They were all out for 445 after some good tail order batting (& with some luck). SA didn’t do as well, especially after Graham Smith their skipper broke his hand off a vicious delivery, but survived the day losing only 1 wicket. After getting home by cab we walk to Balmoral Beach near Mosman for a Fish & Chip supper which is fabulous. The Oz folks definitely make a good fish & chips. The fish batter is so light - it’s a delight to eat.

One of the benefits of mixing with the locals is getting an insider view of life here. Sydneysiders seem generally happy with life in the City, however, they do mention the weather a lot - which surprised us. The 3 tier system of National, State & City government seems to be a political problem to be resolved as no one here or in Queensland seem happy with the arrangement. It seems confusing to us as they all seem to have Prime Ministers & various other ministers with portfolios similar to the national government. Oz is desperately trying to establish it’s environmental credentials having been criticised for the level of it’s CO2 emissions. Economically, we were surprised also to hear of the power of the unions in industries. It‘s very much a pre Thatcher scenario as in the UK in the 1980s.There appears to be a lot of bureaucracy, less efficiency, & an anti competitive environment. The relatively small market of 20m in the whole country means that new products & services are expensive with less competitors entering the market place - for example mobile phones are expensive, which might explain why young people aren’t glued to them 24/7 as in the UK. Texting is cheaper. This might also explain the level of dissatisfaction by consumers at the poor customer service they get from monopoly suppliers inc banks. TV rentals are in vogue but every little extra must be paid for re channels etc. Sydney seems to have become very expensive. Locals say that prices went mad after the Olympics - particularly property prices which are on a par with London even though folks generally don’t earn as much. C & M, feel that the Aussies are in denial about the impact of the Global financial crisis & potential economic downturn for the coming year - we agree as we have noticed that people have been on a spending spree, the bars are always full as well as the eateries

There is a Welfare state and the new Labour government has gone about cutting benefits for the better off (the ousted Howard Liberals - read Tories or Conservative party - were into universal benefits for all) to redistributing scare resources towards the less well off which seems to have gone down well. The Howard years were apparently internally tense in the Liberal party because of the rivalry between him & his heir apparent - shades of Blair/Brown mark 2. The economy seems relatively buoyant but with nervousness about how 2009 will play out. Oz has had a good ride on commodity prices which has sustained it’s growth however, big purchasers (like China) have said they will not pay above a certain price - take it or leave it & they have had to listen - similar to OPEC & the huge oil prices increases which have now slumped because consumers have said enough is enough! The housing market has had a boom since the Olympics & if the house can see the harbour/sea - it seems to add OZ $ 200K onto the price which is even more nuts than London. The rental market is big & rents compared to London cheaper, this seems to be because of tax breaks the government provide for landlords. The National Government provides grants for first time buyers & has increased the grant to stimulate the first time buyer market of late. Interest rates are about 5% having been cut from 7 or 8 %.

On our last day in Sydney - it’s back to work for C & M. It’s hot & we go to Mosman Bay to catch the Ferry into the centre. Which is good fun. We then take a Ferry to Darling Harbour as we have time to kill before we meet Louise’s friend Liz who’s doing her RTW trip in the opposite direction to us and as had to deal with an emergency - Hanna, one of her travel companions has had to go to hospital & needs medication. We meet Liz eventually at about 5pm & have a quick catch up & drink at the Oldest Pub in Sydney in the Rocks. It was great to see her even if it was for an hour as we had promised to take C & M for dinner as a thank you. In the evening we go to the Mosman Hotel just at the back of our apartment & have a lovely steak & bangers & mash.

It’s up very early to say thank you & good bye to C & M & Sydney. We get a cab - booked online . The company is the Silver Service Cab company & it sends a text when the driver is near the house. Very impressive. The cabs are comfortable, the drivers wear uniforms, they have a Customer Charter stuck on the window with roles, responsibilities, complaints details etc.(London note). It’s been good to do the East Coast again, however, on reflection if we are to return to Oz we must take in Western Australia, South Australia, the Northern Territories (Kakadu NP) Cape Tribulation & Daintree in North Queensland. It takes about 25 mins & we check in for our Qantas Flight to Christchurch in New Zealand …………………….. So see you there.

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