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Published: April 23rd 2006
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Hiya, we've just finished our last day in Sydney and although we packed lots in in 4 days it's definitely not enough.
For those of you who've spoken to me recently ignore the Brisbane and Port Macquarie entries I'm just about to write--- it's more for my own record to remember when I get back, as I didn't have time to write last time.
Brisbane
We spent 2 days drawing our aboriginal masterpieces onto canvas in an art studio. Mine is pretty rubiish as expected and I then went and rolled it while it was still wet so it all stuck and peeled. Oops. But we loved doing them and it saved a lot of money having us shut up in the arty basement for all that time.
After that we spent a day at the Koala Sanctuary. The photos are pretty self explanatory. But it was a brilliant part of the trip. The kangaroo enclosures are amazing. They're just hopping round massive fields and you just kneel down and feed any that look like they want feeding. We saw a joey in it's mum's pouch. At first there were just legs sticking out because it jumped
in head first but then it turned around and we saw its little head.
Anyway, we really enjoyed Brisbane but mainly because of what we did and the honely hostel we were in. Brisbane itself is pretty sleepy and the shops close completely on a sunday which we weren't used to.
Byron Bay
We timed it badly because it was a Blues Festival with loadsa of famous people playing that week so all the room prices were double and the place was packed out. It was also Easter weekend. Our hostel was full of 18 year olds discovering alcohol for the first time and throwing up outside our rooms. The staff hosed down the vomit at night though which was nice. We shared our tiny room with 2 very loud Americans who chattered on at 3am every morning.
Apart from that though Byron was good. The beaches had people playing the bongos and guitars and generally trying to show how alternative they were. People were prettymuch constantly stoned and did things like walked through the supermarket barefoot-- perhaps rejecting the way modernisation brought us shoes?! One man... called Sandology Man... makes his living from building sandcastles
on the beach. They're really amazing though.
The biggest thing we did at Byron was learn to surf. I was terrible but Kim was good, which was annoying because I thought we were both rubbish at sport! I needed extra lessons and still didn't really get it but I did surf all the way to the shore doing surf hands and everything a few times. When I first learnt the instructors laughed at me for doing worship hands. Will show the worst photos when get back! We loved it though.
Port Macquarie
We went to another homey hostel like the one in Brisbane and watched a lot of DVDs and read on the veranda. The rooms were all painted primary colours and the building is the oldest in the town. The town itself is pretty quiet--- lots of fishing. But we found enough to do. The main thing was going to the koala hospital-- the poor little things were rescued from dog attacks, bush fires and road traffic accidents. They looked very happy there though.
Sydney
We arrived at night and got very excited to see opera house etc all lit up. The next day
we had tour round Opera House and saw the amazing theatres which are booked out til 2007! We even got to see a ballet dress rehersal which looked so good we wanted to stay and watch it all.
Seconf day we went to Blue Mountains which were incredible. So beautiful. I've never seen so far into the distance at a 360. We went photo crazy. It was really cold though. Will get us used to it for New Zealand.
Third day was botanical gardens and art gallery--- I agreed to go to galleries if Kim would go to rugbey with me. But we did one better and today we went to an Aussie Rules Football Match. It was Sydney Swans vs Melbourne Demons and I loved it. The rules were mad but easy to follow. The pitch is so massive though that it's hard to see the other side of the pitch. It was so close all the way through but ended 97-92 to the Demons. We got really into it though and felt really defeated after 'our team' lost just because we had Sydney caps on hehe!
Off to NZ at silly hour tomorrow so will
go get some sleep now.
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