Blogs from New South Wales, Australia, Oceania - page 1154

Having seen Sophie off, I proceeded to seek a job to replenish the funds I has spent whilst being a tourist! I spent a few days with my Western Coast travel buddy, Anna, before she went to Thailand for Christmas, which was cool. We went up the Harbour Bridge Pylon and other Sydney stuff! During my unsuccessful job hunt, I stayed with the lovely June, Lauren, Andrew & baby Caitlin. Lauren & Andrew's Irish friends, Ciara and Gabe, also stayed so we had a few group outings. Andrew's Dad dragged me Dragon Boating each Saturday morning (ouch!) and Andrew introduced us to lawn bowls... We also had some family days, intermingled with my odd night out in The Cross with hostel mates. Christmas day was also spent in a lovely homey family environment, which made me ... read more

Have just experienced the best and most physically demanding three days of my life. Started in Sydney and ended up in Byron Bay surfing for on average 4 hours a day, mostly from 8 in the morning which meant getting up at 7am for breakie after having had a reasonably late night round the campfire trying desperately to avoid the niggly mosquitos! Its been incredible and I'm feeling muscles that I didnt even know existed! Even my arms are looking pretty buff after only 3 days! Ooh its been fun!! I've definately caught the bug, but its so bloody hard. Constantly being dunked by big waves whilst trying to keep control of a huge boyant table is not as easy as it looks. And doing that lying down on the board to standing up within one ... read more

The Quarry - full moon celebration of Mother Earth and all she has to offer. Beautiful sounds, gorgeous people with fairy wings and goddess tails - what an environment, a regeneration of an old quarry. A nice way to part with this sacred land. December 16th -17th Festival of the Sun at Port Macquarie. www.fotsun.com.au Not what I hoped. Pretty much a ‘community’ of blokes & chicks hanging around getting pissed - and me volunteering to collect their trash. Commercial tunes, and I use the term loosely. OK different strokes for different folks sure, but the incited anger and negative energy whilst The Mess Hall was preparing to come on stage was sickening. Sarah Blasko was my main motivation for going, although I'm not really up with radio music these days, I'd heard the name in ... read more

Having not managed to get onto an Oz Experience bus as planned Lauren and I decided to take a quick jaunt up to the Blue Mountains. After the minor set back of missing the train from Central station because we were waiting on the wrong platform! We arrived in Katoomba and made our way to Central Backpackers in the pretty old town of Katoomba. The hostel was listed as the newest and best! Although very well equipped and clean it was a shame not to be able to stay in one of the many old origional buildings in the town, but a bed is a bed at the end of the day. Set off for the Blue Mountains towards Echo point. I made lauren close her eyes when we got close so that when she opened ... read more

Some of you have been asking us about the riots that have been occurring lately in and around Sydney. While they have been in beach towns, so far they have been south of us. The closest town experiencing the problems is Maroubra. Though it’s only a few miles south of us, it’s not within walking distance of Bondi and it’s not part of the chain of beaches that we frequent. The problems are racial and primarily driven by young gangs with nothing better to do then text message each other about places to have riots. Schools out, it’s summer, the holidays are here and all these gangs have time on their hands. Add to the mix a lower drinking age and a looser policy on public drinking and you have a recipe for riots. Many of ... read more