Steaming Queen

4th and 5th June 2011 – Rotorua

When Nadia ended her email the other day with ‘enjoy the sulphur smells in Rotorua’, I had anticipated that she meant at the thermal areas around the town. Heading into Rotorua from the North, we took the scenic road and we’d only just entered the suburbs when Jon started glancing at me accusingly. “It’s not me”, I said, glaring back at him and we wound down the windows to discover the real source of the eggy smell. In fact all I achieved from winding down the window was to flood the car with more of the horrid smell.

I wonder if the sulphur smell is like that every day in Rotorua, or does it get better or worse when it’s warmer or colder or windier even? I’m not sure if I could live there, but maybe you get used to it. I could definitely get used to the hot springs all over the place though. We’ve just come from the local park where there are hot pools and steaming vents intermingled with the sports fields and kids play areas. It’s like nothing we’ve seen before and it’s just bizarre that the earth is warm beneath your feet even on an Autumn day like this.  All the steam felt very magical…

Jonathan, of course, has been commenting on the possibilities of geothermal heat sources as we’ve been walking around. My only concern is that as there are so many steaming areas around town, your house could be burnt to ashes before anyone so much as notices that it is smoke and not steam!

It’s the Queen’s Birthday Weekend this weekend. I can’t believe they have a long weekend here for the Queen’s Birthday and we don’t at home. I guess it would be too near the late May bank holiday. Unfortunately the weather hasn’t been too great for it – it was miserable when we woke up in Hamilton, which didn’t really add to the prison-like hostel we were staying in. On the plus side, I’ve had a splendid 24 hours. When we arrived in Rotorua last night, we found a hostel linked to a climbing wall. You could sit in the bar area and watch the climbers half way up the wall. It felt so much like the UEA sports centre we had a good reminisce. The hostel also felt a bit like University halls of residence. We were discussing this while we made dinner and I don’t think either of us could go back to shared kitchens easily. You get so used to your own space!

After dinner, we decided to go and have a climb which was great but unfortunately meant me having to cut my nails. I was gutted because I was planning to paint them with the French polish miniatures Emma gave me and I’m still carrying around. I know – I clearly haven’t got much to worry about!
Anyway, it was really fun and we had the whole place to ourselves!

My 24 hours worth of enjoyment continued this morning when we headed out to the gondola that goes up the mountain behind Rotorua. We decided to take it to see the view and because there was a luge back down. Seen as we’d not been able to ride the luge at the Great Wall of China because of the snow, we thought that we should make up with this one. We weren’t entirely sure if it would be any good so we just got passes for two rides. We thought it might be a bit tame, a ‘Legoland’ style ride, as Jon describes it. However, luging in New Zealand is far more exciting than those in the UK. So much so that one guy finished the circuit with blood pouring down his leg! The Health and Safety talk was no more than an explanation of how to use the brakes and the fact that we had to go on the ‘scenic’ route first.

Even on that, Jon managed to go around a corner on 2 wheels! The advanced route allowed you to go so fast that we both took off going over a jump and considering how close to the ground we were it was pretty exciting! It was so good in fact that if we have time after touring around we might go back for another go!

I think I might move to New Zealand on the strength of the luging course at Rotorura. Jon says that this is what the Lake District is missing and I have to agree that if there was one we would totally be going for our 30th birthdays!

After all that excitement it was just about time to go back to the car for our picnic lunch – just like being little again and going out for the day with Mum and Dad. Apart from the fact that Jon is so greedy he wanted to eat the drink bottle as well as  all the food!

 

 

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Beasts of the Blue

Blue Mountains, 14th January 2011

It took us for EVER to get back from the area around the Brown Brothers to the Blue Mountains. I mean, I love car journeys: I have all my favourite things with me, books to read, yummy snacks and best of all I’m in a confined space where Jon has no choice but to take notice of me for hours and hours!!! However, even I was bored 5 hours down the road and all you’re seeing is yet more farmland. We stayed in a nice motel overnight in a place where they held prisoners of war during the Second World War and the lady at the tourist information centre (which had a brilliant hologram play) said it was just down the road. Just down the road? Just down the road?! If we’d gone that far ‘just down the road’ at home we’d have hit Scotland 2 hours back and be heading for its northernmost point!

Anyway, we eventually got to the Blue Mountains, which I would recommend not approaching from the west because it just seemed like it was going to be the biggest let down (- there didn’t seem to be any hills in sight!). When we finally got to the main tourist destinations it actually turned out to be pretty cool! We headed to the Jenolan Caves… which again we didn’t go in (way expensive – and Jon has a thing about caves just being caves… yes, I know you could say it about anything!). I was more interested in walking around the Blue Lake in search of a platypus and there were a coupleof other tracks around the site. There is an awesome descent to this place and we kept saying it would be a great hill climb on our bikes, if a little bit of a beast. At the bottom of the hill in the valley is the most Welsh looking building I saw in the whole of Oz. It’s a great big hotel, built by an Englishman I think and its so like the old hotels with waterwheels you see in Wales and Cornwall and even in the Pennines (I suppose a bit like the place we stayed on the last night of the C2C Mum and Dad!). I should have taken a photo but we were too busy with the wildlife. There were loads of skinks all over the path and Jon had great fun creeping up on them – mean boy! There were also some wonderful butterflies and dragonflies near the lake.

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After the Jenolan Caves we managed to get over to the Three Sisters before the sun went down. I really wanted to go on the cableway which takes you down onto the forest floor but it was closing up for the day… I might head back out there when we go back to Sydney as you can get the train to just down the road.

Again the views from the Three Sisters were pretty cool. We took the path down to the rocks (the Sisters) and I was knackered walking back up the steps as we returned – they were so steep!  Jon eyed up the rocks for a bit of bouldering but there was a climbing prohibited sign on there. I guess there’s a good chance of falling to your death if you popped off!

The Three Sisters overlook a massive expanse of forest in the valley below.  There were steps all the way down if you’d wanted to head out on a proper hike – that was pretty cool. I suppose the Three Sisters is a little bit like a mini vegetated Grand Canyon! If we get to the Grand Canyon, I’ll confirm whether I’m correct or not!

It was extortionate to stay in Katoomba (which is the town next to the Three Sisters) so I guilt-tripped Jon into us ‘at least having a proper meal if it was going to be another night in the car’. Picture a whiney voice and you’ve got it. We ate in Cafe Zuppa and I mention it because I had an awesome pasta dish with pumpkin in, which sounds terrible but was yummy!

Anyway, here are the typical tourist photos… enjoy! ; )… oh and if anyone can identify the birds…?

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Getting Blottoed at Brown Brothers

13th January 2011, Victoria

I absolutely LOVE Brown Brothers Orange and Flora Muscat! It’s a dessert wine – and ever since I tried it at my Dad’s birthday meal in the Lake District a few years back I’ve been finding any excuse to drink it. I mean what could be better! Alcohol that you drink with dessert… it’s like they combined my two favourite things in the world! So of course, when I realised we were coming to Oz I was straight on Google finding the directions  to the place! And just by chance ( hmmmmm no planning there then Helen!!!) it was roughly on our route!

After leaving the Grampians, we headed towards Ballarat as that’s where Mum’s cousin lives. When we got there and guess what, I couldn’t find the address anywhere (later found neatly written on a sheet and put somewhere very safe so as not to lose!) so we headed straight out (after a quick visit to Aldi of course!) and on the way to the direction of the winery region.

With the price of accommodation being so expensive Jon persuaded me to spend the night in a truck stop. This was fine apart from the fact I was convinced we were going to get told off all night! Plus it was a really hot night and once the air con had been off for half an hour or so we were absolutely sweating our nuts off – or Jon was! : ) Luckily, we were right next to McDonalds so breakfast was quite a straightforward affair and then we were off to the Brown Brothers – yippee!!!

We were about 2 hours early at the winery. Luckily there was a cheese factory down the road where you could try some samples. They were actually really yummy so it was a shame we couldn’t take any… but it did kill an hour and by the time we returned we had just enough time to try a few different wines before lunch that we’d booked. The restaurant had a system where each course came with a selected wine; so 3 glasses each. However, Jon was driving and he’s not really one for wasting things so I was virtually paralytic by the time we were finished… even with all the food! It was excellent! And what a great idea to have your wine and food matched! If I ever become a restaurant owner I will totally have recommendations to go with each meal! The only downside was that I couldn’t finish the last glass and Jon was so disappointed in me!

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When we headed back to the cellar to buy a couple of bottles of wine that we liked, we mentioned we’d come all the way from England and so this lovely man gave us a tour of the original cellar with some of the original bottles. This was really awesome but all I could do was nod and smile and let Jon do most of the talking! I did get my photo with him at the end though – hurrah!

It was only about 3pm when we left Brown Brothers and in my merry state, I noticed a sign pointing to Glenrowan only a few miles back down the road. Being ‘Miss Daisy’ I demanded my driver take me to see where Ned Kelly’s last stand had taken place and got a couple of nice shots of his statue with grey clouds looming poignantly above.

From Sea to Summit

11th-12th January 2011

We headed to Tower Hill Nature Reserve yesterday morning. This is an ancient volcano crater that now takes the form of a wetland area with hills on what would have been the crater rim. It was a bit overcast and there were lots of insects about so we donned our waterproofs and headed up one of the paths to the crater rim. 10 minutes later, the clouds had parted and we were absolutely roasting as we route marched up the steps. I am so unfit as I was out of breath by half way up! When we got to the top there were supposed to be great views of the wetland area in the crater basin but there was little water there. 

We headed back down and took another route over some boardwalks. There were signs saying not to approach any snakes basking on the boardwalk but there only ones we saw were about a metre away.

We identified them later and they were poisonous – how exciting! We got another great view of a koala – in fact we got a video. I also shouted to the koala in a similar way to the Tree of Temptation in the Big Brother house – “Hey! Koala!” – and he actually turned towards me! I felt like we’d bonded!

 We also had quite an entertaining moment when we were watching an emu near the car park. These are big scary things that you wouldn’t want to get in the way of! However, this 12 year old boy didn’t realise it was there as he came speeding around the corner full sprint and nearly headfirst into the emu. I don’t know who was more surprised and scared, the boy or the emu?!

After the volcano, we headed in land towards the Grampians… we were feeling in need of some mountains! Especially as the weather was so poor on the coast.

I didn’t mention that we went to another site yesterday called the Otway Treetop Walk (click on the link if you like!)… I thought it would be good to walk around at canopy level and there was a Go Ape! thing there too… However, when we got there it was drizzling and the prices we’re extortionate considering it was just a walkway! We’d already done a short walk through the rainforest at Mait’s Rest in the rain and that was pretty wet! Therefore we bought a book on the Mammals of Australia and had a really yummy lunch instead! Seriously – Jon had one of the best burgers I’ve ever tried! I know, I know… eating Jon’s food again!!!

Anyway, we headed to the Grampians which doesn’t look that far on the map… and we’d hoped we’d get to see something of the sites on the way. However, the main place to stay in the Grampians is in the north at Hall’s Gap and therefore we had to go straight there, or risk hitting kangaroos on the road when it got dark!

It was pouring with rain when we arrived at Tim’s Place in Hall’s Gap… and the rain just got worse and worse! We had torrential rain all night!!! We got soaked stepping from our door to the car two metres away! There were even frogs trying to climb up our door to get out of the rain! On the plus side, there were 10 people stuck there with enough alcohol to make a good night and that is precisely what we did… well until an angry Frenchman came out and shouted at us  for being noisy!

The next morning I found myself washing up breakfast dishes, looking out onto the playing field covered in kangaroos! The weather was much brighter so Jon headed out to take come photos before we carried on our way. We couldn’t believe how many insects there were trying desperately to dry themselves off! We headed into the hills by car to see some of the famous viewpoints in the area. The Grampians is actually one of the best bits of Australia that we’ve seen. It’s like what I was expecting it to be like; real bush as opposed to all farmland, and rocks emerging out of the vegetation. It would have been great if we’d  had more time to really explore the area, but time didn’t permit so we made sure we visited Mackenzie Falls and the Balconies…

With the amount of rain that we’d had overnight, Mackenzie Falls was a raging torrent! We headed down the path to the viewpoint at the bottom and the path was under water! We didn’t know at the time that this was all the rain that would cause the flash floods around this area.

The views from the Balconies were gorgeous! Of course I had to make Jon go and climb over the barrier to stand in the ‘Jaws of Death’ so I could take a photo…. and of course I was too chicken-shit to go myself! I would have liked to have gone; I know that you’re supposed to do something every day that scares you… but at the same time I really value my life. : )… and I’m convinced Jon would bounce!

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Great Ocean Road

9th-10th January 2011

Yesterday morning we picked up a car from Europcar in Melbourne city centre and set off to explore the Great Ocean Road. I’d left Jonathan booking the car online the day before and when we went into the parking lot to collect our vehicle it turned out to be a huge great blue thing (Holden) rather than the tiny Vauxhall Astra type hatchback I’d been anticipating! Typical! Any excuse to try out a big fast car… he tried to fob me off with, we needed a big boot for our bags but I was less than convinced!

Anyway – we headed out (accelerating out of every junction at a scary speed) into the country and towards the Great Ocean Road. We passed through a place called Geelong on the way, which has these cool totem pole type sculptures dotted around the foreshore. We didn’t really stop for long but managed to grab ourselves a free ‘Splice’  which is a Wall’s lolly ice, similar to a Solero but without the ice-cream. A little disappointing if you ask me but no doubt healthier, as all the boring things are! Anyway, it was quite cold (about 20 degrees, as it had rained in the night) and the poor young girls promoting it had to wear a red Baywatch swimsuit whilst they were handing out the ices. They looked less than impressed! David Hasselhoff was somewhere launching the ice-cream the other week; we saw him on TV! 

The Great Ocean Road, according to the guidebook, is one of the world’s great scenic drives. However, we managed to hit it on two of the only overcast and drizzly days we’ve had in Oz. It may be spectacular at particular times of day in glorious weather but it was anything better than we’ve seen either at home (say Cornwall) or in New Zealand in our opinion.  There are surfing beaches  dotted along the way which are some of the best in the world (Bell’s Beach for example) because there is a solid rock platform rather than a beach. In fact about half of the beaches seem to have some rock in them. Curio Bay where we saw the penguin in New Zealand was like this. The waves were pretty tame as we passed these areas but I guess it would be pretty scary on a stormy day. Jon and I were wondering how deep the drop is under the waters after this costal shelf. Is it just a few metres or super deep? And if it is –do sharks come right into the coast?! We are now obsessed with sharks, spiders, snakes and jellyfish although we’ve only seen a spider in the Chinese gardens in Sydney! A girl in the hostel we stayed in last night though, said she’d found a large spider on her bed in the morning. Needless to say, neither of us had a full night’s sleep last night!

A nice lady in a tourist information centre yesterday said that some of the highlights of the G.O.R. are the lighthouses and that we should go and see one of them. She said she really loved lighthouses though, whereas I think they’re a sign of danger, peril and lost souls and they give Jon the heebie-jeebies. In fact, the only lighthouse I think I like, is that one that was in the children's’ programme ‘Round the Twist’. Didn’t that have ghosts in it too? And was that filmed in Australia as it certainly wasn’t English… I’d certainly make the effort to go and find that one if it was around here…

Anyway, one of the lighthouses that we passed was quite picturesque up on the rocks as we drove swiftly past. The other one I made Jon drive about 10 miles down a road to was blocked off  by a visitor centre when we got there so we couldn’t even see it. Scandalous. Now if they had a castle, they wouldn’t be so fussed about a lighthouse. I wonder how big a barrier would be erected around  a castle? Hmmmm… lighthouses - the poor man’s castle.

On the plus side however, we did see a huge number of koala’s in the eucalyptus trees as we passed, looking very sad and miserable in the rain! At one point there was one or two in every other tree – wonderful! These weren’t the first we’ve seen either. We were pointed towards another road yesterday where they could be spotted. We’d only driven about 50m up this road when we saw one in a tree. It looked like it was just waking up as it opened one beady eye, looked us up and down and curled back up in a ball. Just 20m more, around a bend, we spotted two people looking at something and as we pulled over we saw a koala crawl up off the floor and hump his way up the trunk and onto a branch. He wasn’t too high meaning that we got a great view as he munched through some leaves. One long leaf extended out of his mouth and waggled up and down as he chewed, like a big green tongue! At one point he jumped from one branch to another and although he made it, he looked pretty heavy. They’re actually a lot bigger and more robust than we’d imagined. We were thrilled to get such a great view.

We also saw kangaroos in the distance and an echidna crossing the road yesterday. Jon is taking great pleasure in calling them enchiladas though. We have clearly spent too much time with just ourselves! Today, we also saw a wallaby (maybe a swamp wallaby – according to a guide I looked in). It was right next to the road but it had disappeared before we had time to get the camera.  The other thing that was really cool was the Superb Fairy Wren, male and female, and the male has a striking blue tail. It even has a cool name. I think I’d like to be referred to as the Superb Helen Greaves from now on… it definitely has a ring to it.

The last thing we did today was drive past the Twelve Apostles. The weather had been so poor this morning that we weren’t even sure we’d see them but luckily it had cleared up enough to get an ok view through the drizzle.

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Whether it’s much more impressive on a good day or sunrise/sunset again I don’t know, but neither of us were blown away by the sight. It was quite impressive though. I think I would have liked to have gone down on the beach and see how tall the rocks felt, with the cliffs trapping you from behind. However, the weather put a bit of a damper on my enthusiasm at the time.

We’ve ended up at Warrnambool Beach Backpackers tonight which is quite a big hostel that looks like it was some kind of community function centre in the past. We’ve met some nice English/Swedish girls in our room who have donated some folding chairs to us as they’re getting a flight back to Sydney. We thought we would take them for Kate and Yuri for when they go to the beach and stuff. In comparison, another couple seem to be having a barney, be it very quietly while I was sat watching TV. Jon had found a Nintendo Wii by that point so I had to become immensely interested in the TV programme that was on. Unfortunately that happened to be an English documentary on the RSPCA where an officer was rescuing 5 toads from down a grid. The french people next to me where asking in astonishment if we really pay people to do that. I was slightly embarrassed to admit that yes we do. I think the owners of the property could have gone down themselves, don’t you? Even worse, the officer had to get out an ID guide to identify them as toads rather than frogs. It’s my guessing that the toads where quite happy down there in the cool for the time being.

Rail, Jail and Glass

Melbourne – 5th-8th January 2011

I am sat in our hotel room in Melbourne, having had a yummy tea; eating Aldi’s dark chocolate butter biscuits and watching Midsommer Murders on TV… life doesn’t get much better than this! Pretty much the highlight of Melbourne… only joking! But it is nice just to chill out once in a while and do something ‘normal’  : )

To be honest we are finding Australia quite tough. With the Australian dollar so strong at the moment everything is really expensive. Jon went out to buy a can of baked beans and a tub of margarine yesterday and it cost him $7… nearly £5. And it wasn’t the most expensive margarine either!!!

So the amount of things we’ve seen and done in Melbourne has been a little limited. There are quite few different attractions in Melbourne that are very similar to those in Sydney. An aquarium, zoo, Maritime Museum and an Immigration Museum for example. There doesn’t seem any point spending money repeating similar activities we’ve done or can do elsewhere.

We’ve also realised that we don’t get a lot of pleasure out of spending money on really posh things. Maybe you could say that most people would say that. But some people enjoy spending money on an expensive hotel or a fancy restaurant whereas there comes a point where from our point of view it’s not worth it. We don’t see the value of it. We went to a Greek Restaurant the other day and had a kind of chicken wrap thing. When it came, there was too much sauce in it, loads of lettuce and about 4 pieces of fatty chicken. This was surprising as I’d made my choice on the basis that it said chicken fillet. Anyway, by the time they’d added drinks and the basket of chips we had with it, the total came to about $40. I’ve never wanted to not pay for food before but I was very temped to walk out the restaurant without paying! Do people do that? I think I would have risked an attempt just to see what would happen – I was so appalled by the food. So that’s why I’d rather go somewhere like McDonalds. Yes, I know it’s the devil in restaurant form but at least you know who you’re off to meet. The food isn’t amazing, or good for you; and yes, no doubt the brand has huge impacts on the environment but I’m not terribly convinced about where the food from a lot of these restaurants comes from. Plus at least the dodgy bits of chicken are mashed up and seasoned to make them edible rather than them being huge chunks of fat that you have to leave on your plate! Furthermore, it’s always a basic price so a good way of getting your necessary calories (and then some!).

Ok, so rant being over… what have we been doing in Melbourne apart from being ripped off by Turkish/Greek restaurants and sitting in our hotel.

We, we arrived by the night train from Sydney and we got in at 7:30am. The night train itself was an experience. Can you believe that they only have two trains from Sydney to Melbourne each day and each takes 11 hours. Now I know Australia is big but its only about 500 miles between the two which meant the train was averaging 50mph. I mean, what on earth?!! Sydney and Melbourne are two of the largest cities in Australia and being relatively close you think they’d improve the link just for the benefit to tourists alone! I was sat next to an elderly lady from Sydney on the train, who was very pleasant and we chatted about a number of different topics during the journey. At one point I asked her why the train didn’t go quicker and she said they weren’t renowned for their train lines… and I was thinking, yes but why is it not going quicker?!! Maybe it’s because of the wildlife on the track etc. I say this because not only did it go no quicker than a local train but the driver seemed to have little control of the speed. Therefore during the night, when the lights were off, seats back and everyone’s trying to sleep, the carriage would slow down when we were climbing and then speed up and roll down the side of a hill. I wish I could have seen outside as I was having visions of the ‘runaway train’. Plus every so often there would be a bang and the carriages would judder. Skippy maybe?

We all awoke at about 6am though, when the sun rose and we had a spectacular view of the bush for a long while before the train started to near Melbourne. It was really beautiful and worth the journey for that. I was also glad that the lady was still alive as I woke a couple of times during the night and wasn’t convinced she was still breathing. Jon was just glad to get off as I’d mugged him off and made him sit next to the 50 year old largish gentleman in front who had shaved his head and left huge patches in various places. *Jon: He had food left round his mouth from the meal before and finger nails that looked like they hadn’t been cut in months. I was not happy about my plight.* Needless to say Jon hadn’t struck up a conversation with him and when we got off he was still muttering about the man having spent most of the journey reading a computer game magazine… “You can imagine he does nothing with his time; no wonder he is overweight…” he said.

Anyway, I’ve digressed again. Having found our hotel (Miami Hotel - which I would definitely recommend as high-class backpacker accommodation), we headed back into town and circled the city on the free tram (hurrah!) to see the sights. We then hopped off and walked through the treasury gardens before finding the perfect grassy patch to settle down for a nap in the shade. As lunch time approached it got quite busy so it seems that we picked a suitable activity to experience the Melbourne lifestyle! The weather wasn’t too hot and I was glad of the opportunity to try and get to the end of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. The Fitzroy Gardens next door are also really nice and in the afternoon we walked through the glasshouse (filled with fuchsias and hydrangeas – so just like home really!) and then were heading to Cook’s parents house which was transported brick by brick from England. However, when we got there, it wasn’t dissimilar to Mr and Mr Holman’s house or any of those in Croston, so we weren’t pulled in by the advert offering us the chance to experience 18th century England!

We’ve been to the Victoria Market twice whilst we have been here. We first visited on the Wednesday evening as it is a night market with food stalls and live music. We also went the next day when it was the much bigger regular market with fruit and veg and just about everything else you get in a market. It was like Ormskirk market but about 1000 times bigger. We spent a couple of hours in there and still had only seen about half of the stalls. Deri would be in absolute heaven! There were wallets galore, reading glasses by the handful and every type of fruit and vegetable imaginable! We passed through again today and what really astounded us was that the stallholders had just thrown away any fruit they didn’t want – like the bits that were damaged or had gone soft. Loads of people were sifting through to see what was left and there was tonnes of stuff wasted! Even when we walked back an hour of so later, we still managed to find a couple of peppers that were perfectly edible. Jon was really upset about it. “There are people starving” he kept saying. “They could at the very least collect it up and feed it to farm animals”.

The previous day we went to see the Old Gaol, where Ned Kelly was hung and  we learnt all about his history. The film produced about it was filmed there and starred Mick Jagger. Is that THE Mick Jagger? Did he really have a go at acting?!! Now THAT I would pay to see! We’ll have to rent it out if we can when we get home. We were also browsing in a second hand bookshop on the same day and noticed a list of the Man Booker Prize had a Ned Kelly story listed on it.  Trouble is books are very expensive here too!

Anyway, the Gaol was very interesting, if a little creepy and disturbing, but at least the climate here wouldn’t have been too cold. It sounds silly for me to be concerned about a prisoners’ wellbeing but a lot of women who came over to Australia looking for a better life ended up in jail because they didn’t find a man to marry and so either had to steal or turn to prostitution. It just seems terribly unfair. No doubt the men were all making themselves a fortune in the gold rush and were finding themselves a wife and as many prostitutes as they fancied! Grrrrr..!

We also got to experience what it would be like to locked up in the holding cells, which only closed in 1994. We were all given sheets with a fake name and offence. Mine said racially aggravated vandalism and I was hoping she wouldn’t ask me to read out my form because there was a Muslim family stood next to me and even though it was completely made up I was even embarrassed to be linked to the idea of it! So of course I was asked to read out the whole form to answer the questions needed for the Sergeant’s book. I was so embarrassed that I giggled my way through it and got told off for not taking my offence seriously! The only thing that wasn’t listed on my form was my age, so when I made up an age of 87 (and everyone laughed) the Sergeant commented that I must use very good face cream. “Yes, Sergeant”, I replied proudly : )
The final part of the Gaol experience was a re-enactment of Ned Kelly’s trial. That also gave us a real insight into the whole Ned Kelly history, plus Jon was chosen to be Ned Kelly – Dad’s always said people from Essex are crooks ; ).

The only other formal experience we’ve taken part in Melbourne is going up the Eureka tower which is the Southern Hemisphere’s tallest skyscaper (tick for Helen’s tick list) and the tallest residential building in the world (double tick!!! Yippee!). It actually isn’t that tall, maybe around the same height as the Eiffel Tower, but it had a boxed glass room that you could go in which extended out of the building by 3m. It’s the only one in the world (TRIPLE TICK!!! Whoop Whoop! Xmas all over again for Helen!). The room was made of obscure glass that turns transparent when you pass a current through it. So as the room goes out, they make it shake and put music on to make it more atmospheric. Then they give you no warning before they flash it to see-through. I have to admit that I let slip a moderate swear word which wasn’t my greatest moment as we were sharing the lift with a lady and 3 children. Hopefully they were also scared enough not to have heard! Anyway, it was pretty cool and wasn’t too bad until you laid on the glass so you couldn’t see the floor. Then there was that whole unnatural feeling rising in your stomach that made you get up after a few seconds!

Other than that we’ve been vegging out in our room the last couple of days, making the most of a 24 hours internet connection that we paid for and keeping out of the 35 degree heat. Madness as it’s still flooding in Queensland! We are going to head out tomorrow on the Great Ocean Road and then we’re trying to get a placement on a farm or homestead for a week before we leave to keep costs down and get an experience of the real Australian life.

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Sydney New Year

Sydney, 28th December –  January 5th

We had a wonderful time staying with Kate and Yuri for New Year in Sydney. With having such a depressing Christmas (minus the exciting rumbles on Boxing Day!) it was lovely to see some family. It was also fantastic to stay in one place for a while after moving around so much – especially with it being such a plush apartment. The dishwasher wasn’t working in the apartment and we were virtually fighting to do the washing up – it was such a novelty to have a lovely washbasin rather than one out the back of a van!

Kate isn’t working yet so she was able to duly dedicate her time to showing us some of Sydney’s beaches : ). We managed to squeeze in a few other sights too but with the three of us all being so laid back and trying to fit into each other’s plans we generally only got out around mid morning!

Yuri had a day off the day we arrived so we managed to walk through the main areas of Sydney including the Botanic Gardens. Some Asian lady was having wedding photos on the front of the gardens with her bridesmaids. Yuri and Kate said this was quite common but I was a bit concerned that there wasn’t a bridegroom in sight! Yuri took us to one of his favourite cafe’s on the Rocks for lunch. He said this was the place where he’d decided that he would ask Kate to marry him. Aaaaawww! There is a romantic in there! : )

Anyway, I can’t really say that we did Sydney justice in terms of seeing all the  sights when we were there. There are some things that we’d like to so when we go there the second time but on the whole it definitely seems like a better place to go and experience living in rather than being a tourist. There are few sights that are comparable in grandness to London and the culture is the same as ours pretty much; the history, our history so there is little to sink your teeth into sightseeing-wise. A lot of the things that we would have liked to have gone to see are things we have at home, like the zoo and the aquarium. They had massive queues  over the holiday period and we’re sooooo expensive because of the strong dollar so we gave them a miss for the meanwhile.

We did go to the Barracks where the convicts lived when they originally arrived in Sydney though. Kate and Jon had looked up Raymen in the Sydney telephone book and there were a handful in there. Therefore I thought we might find one in the electronic list of convicts at the Barracks. Especially as Dad’s always saying the people from Essex are criminals! : ) We looked it up but there was no one. On the other hand, there was a Greaves from Ireland so maybe Dad should consider that before he speaks in future!

Our favourite place in Sydney is definitely Darling Harbour. Yes, possibly a bit touristy, but it has a nice warm feel about it and it’s the perfect place for people watching and a few starter drinks before a night out. The Maritime Museum is at the end of the harbour and we went there twice! What’s hilarious is that I remember going to a couple of different Maritime Museums when I was younger and they were always more my brother’s type of thing. They were full of machines and boats and complicated things I didn’t understand. The one in Sydney is awesome though! Partly because there was a free display on sharks there, but also because they had the yacht that the first women to circumnavigate the globe sailed and a display about a man who’d canoed virtually all the way from Europe  through the sluice canal to Australia.

The second time we went, we paid to go on naval ship, a submarine and an exact replica of Cook’s ship – we were given guided tours of each one so I was in my element! It was really interesting to go on a Naval ship now I’m able to appreciate them. I know my folks took me on a few when I was young but you don’t really get the perspective of things when you’re a child. I just wish my Grandad Bob was still alive so I could ask him about his time in the navy. I remember he used to tell the same few entertaining stories again and again when he starting to lose his memory but I can’t recall the details. Plus, I think I would have liked to ask him what it was like on a day to day basis rather than any dramatic events. I mean, Jon tried out one of the bunk beds and there wasn’t a lot of room! At least it explains why Granddad was so anally tidy! Jon commented that he would do well in the army or navy when he saw the tiny locker and how neatly everything had to be displayed. The sad thing is that he’d probably really enjoy it too! He was absolutely thrilled when he got to go on the submarine. I was looking around thinking, ‘this is hellish – there’s no room and all the pipes are on show..’. Jon’s looking around thinking, ‘this is awesome – there’s no room (I’d HAVE to be really tidy), and look at all the pipes and cables!’

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The thing that struck us about James Cook’s boat was that it was a bit small to be sailing across the ocean in search of new lands. I’d have wanted something a bit larger and more solid I think. There was one area inside the boat where you had to stoop right over to walk – or put your hands down on the floor. This was where the officer level would have been too! If they’d been smarter they would have left that bit for the minions! There were a few cabins where these officers worked and slept. One of them was a naturalist and drew and painted the things he found – what a life! I think that was the same guy who helped fund the trip from some inheritance money he had. He was only in his 20’s!

The most enjoyable thing about Sydney was seeing Kate and Yuri. I’ve only met them both on a few family gatherings and we’ve always had plenty to talk about, being the same age etc. But it was great to really get to know them both and it was also lovely to hear Jon and Kate reminisce about their childhood together. As my brother and I don’t have any cousins it’s interesting to see what that kind of relationship is like. Turns out Jon and Kate’s relationship is pretty near brother and sister and lucky for me, Kate wasn’t shy in putting Jon back in his place when he was teasing me. It was quite entertaining really – and it turns out that Kate and Yuri have a similar relationship to ours as they are both quite opinionated. So Kate and I have developed a kind of ‘Sister in Arms' relationship, sticking up for each other against the boys.

It was also really great to see the Hankster! Hanky was visiting an old Burscough Priory school friend. It was completely random to meet up with Hanky on Manley Beach but really awesome! It turned out that his mate is Suzie Hobb’s big brother, Matt – definite family resemblance – who I used to go to modern dancing lessons with, as well as Adelle. Also, she used to serve on at the Ship years ago and used to call my Dad Uncle Bob! Of course, being the ladies man my Dad can be – he used to love it! Anyway, Matt’s married this lovely Ozzie girl, had the cutest baby together and have child just weeks  away from being born. Yet this didn’t stop them from inviting us over for a BBQ and we had a great evening experiencing life in the Sydney suburbs. The evening finished on a bit of a downer though when we went to get the night bus back into the city. After jogging our way back to the station to make sure we would be there on time, we managed to stand at the wrong stop and miss it! The next one only came an hour later and with an hours ride home we crept into Kate and Yuri’s at about 3 in the morning!

Of course the whole reason for coming to Sydney now was for New Years Eve and it was a really great night. Considering how huge the whole event is – it turned out to be very hassle free… or we just fluked it majorly! As Yuri was only able to finish work at 6pm we didn’t get into the area by the Opera house and bridge – which we were quite grateful for on the basis I think we would have fried if we’d had to wait there all day! So we paid $5 each for a ticket for the docks area at the other side of the bridge, had a nice meal and some wine at home… wandered over to Darling Harbour for the 9pm kids fireworks and then breezed over to the docks for 11pm for a couple of beers and a great view of the New Year’s Fireworks. Seriously – everyone has to do Sydney for New Year’s once – they’re the best organised fireworks I’ve ever seen and so safe too! Kate and I are already planning a reunion in about 10 years time to see the kid’s fireworks show! ; )

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