Everybody Needs Good Neighbours!

We decided to go to the Neighbours Trivia Night Extravaganza when it came to Sydney. In the week leading up to it, we were speculating as to which stars would be there.

We joined a table with 3 Brits - Debbie, Becky & Darren. Quite scarily, Debbie knew practically everything about Neighbours including characters that had only been in the programme for a few episodes!

It did mean that when it came to the quiz, we were pretty good! We choose the imaginative team name of 'The ones at the back' - as you can probably guess, we were sitting at the back! It wasn't all Neighbours questions and we came 4th out of 34 teams and were pretty impressed with our efforts!

The we got to meet the stars - Toadie (Ryan Moloney), Steph (Carla Bonner) and more surprisingly, Alf Stewart (Ray Meagher) from Home & Away! They came round to every table and chatted and had photos before leaving.

Turning 27 - Who Said Being Older Was Wiser??!!

To mark my birthday, we decided to do something different (since we jumped off the Auckland Skytower for Kate's)!

We began the day going to Manly beach (definitely a first being able to spend my birthday on the beach when its hot!!!)

Then we headed over to the Manly Oceanworld Aquarium, donned wetsuits and scuba gear and jumped into the shark tank! Yep - we went scuba diving with sharks, and rays, and giant turtles!

We began with a brief lesson on how to scuba dive and the essential signals to communicate under water. Then we entered the shark tunnel.

We crouched down in a circle while our guide pointed out where we'd be walking and a ray appeared and swam just above our heads - it was really amazing to get that close. Then one of the giant turtles swam straight for us - we'd been told to get out of their way as they usually barge straight into people. Not an easy task with an air canister on your back and extra weights on!!

Then we climbed over the walkway and entered the area where most of the sharks were swimming. We stood on the ledge and waited - there were about ten Grey Nurse Sharks there and they gradually swam closer to us. Eventually they were so close that you got a great view of their sharp teeth!! It was really amazing and it was a shame to get out of the tank (no, seriously!!!)

That evening, Kate, Suzanne, Lincoln and I went for dinner at Newtown Thai 2, our favourite Thai restaurant. The food was great and ridiculously cheap and not before long, we were heading back into Sydney to the Minus 5 Ice Bar at Circular Quay. We met up with Skinner and Gav and donned our massive fleece-lined coats, gloves and Ugg boots and entered the small bar made completely of ice!

Even the glasses were made of ice and we'd been warned not to leave them on the surface for any length of time otherwise they'd become part of the furniture! We were only allowed to stay in there for half an hour so we made our way to Jackson's bar to meet up with Luke & Rich before finishing off the night at Scary Canary's.

It was a great birthday and I would recommend swimming with sharks (I'd do it again!). Its not bad being 27! Here's to a few more crazy days!!!!!

Pancakes!

We decided that we should celebrate Pancake Day so arranged to meet up with Suzanne and Lincoln and to utilise the kitchen of Lincoln's hostel.

We'd found a recipe on the Internet that gave us the ingredients in 'cups' rather than actual measurements as we didn't have a scale! Thankfully the pancakes turned out really well and no-one dropped their pancakes on the floor (except Lincoln who's first attempt to toss his pancake almost hit the ceiling and went over his head and onto the floor - it had us in stitches!)

The look of concentration on my face says it all!!

Mardi Gras!

One of the big events in Sydney is Mardi Gras and since it was on while we were here, we had to go along.

It began with the Mardi Gras Fair on 18th February at Victoria Park. Kate and I were joined by Suzanne and Lincoln (who worked with us at Insearch) and Rich (who we randomly met in the Botanical gardens the day before!) After (correctly) guessing our way there, we headed straight for the beer tent and settled ourselves down under a tree to watch events. I felt something brush my hand and when I looked it was a $50 note. No-one seemed to be chasing after it so we claimed it and used it for beer money for the rest of the afternoon!

We wandered around and came across what Rich described as the 'gayest tree ever' - it had silver wind chimes hanging from every branch! They were also offering 'free hugs' under the tree and Kate ran over and took them up on their offer!

People had made a great effort in their outfits (although some were a little too bright) and some even had the perfect accessory - their dog! (poor things!) The best one though was this greyhound that we nicknamed 'the spangly dog'!!! Enough said really!

They were also selling pink Australian flags so we got one for our gay friend, Luke, who'd been unable to make it as he had to work last minute. They also gave us miniature Aussie flag tattoos so the girls wore them with pride!

The day was very enlightening but it was nothing compared with the Mardi Gras Parade that took place on 3rd March.

We met up with Luke & Lincoln on Oxford Street and found a place to stand (& bought $10 stools to stand on so that we could get a better view!).

The parade began with 'Dykes on Bikes' followed by the floats. It seemed that almost everyone wanted to have a float in the parade (including IKEA and ANZ bank!)

Lots of the floats had dancers after them and they were very good (including the Asian Marching Boys and Kylie's Impossible Princesses). It was very bright and colourful and there was a great atmosphere to it!

Rugby at stupid o'clock!

The problem with deciding to watch the 6 Nations games is that they are on at ridiculous times of the night/morning.

Our first weekend in Sydney, we decided to catch the England v Scotland game and see Farrell's debut (why not!) then realised that they were showing the game in Scruffy Murphy's at 3am! We caught up with my Welsh friend Skinner and his roommates Gav & Andy (who are Irish) and the banter began. We managed to stay awake for the whole game and crawled to bed at 5am to get a couple of hours sleep before we met up with Kate's parents!

The next day we were back at Scruffy's to see Wales v Ireland and tensions were so high that Skinner, Gav & Andy were not talking to each other unless it was to wind each other up! Needless to say, Skinner was not too impressed with the result!!

The following weekend we were back at Scruffy's at the earlier time of half midnight so that we could see England beat Italy. We had to stay on and watch the Scotland v Wales game (and then consolidate Skinner for the second week in a row!!)

The next night, we watched the Ireland v France game at another Irish pub - Paddy Maguire's. The whole pub were quiet in the dying moments of the game as the Irish realised that they were about to loose and they were very grumpy!!

We headed home gone 4am, very glad that we didn't have to work on Monday!!

Back To Reality!

Kate & I are staying in Sydney for a couple of months to work and get a bit of extra cash so after our week of sightseeing, we had to become adults again. So we did the boring jobs of setting up a bank account, getting a PO box address and our Tax number, signing up with various agencies and, most importantly of all, getting us a place to live in (hostels are fun, but not for 2 months!)

Anyway, we managed to sort ourselves out within a couple of days - we rented a twin room in a house in Surry Hills (near Central Station), signed up to an agency and got a job within 2 days! The job was working at the local college - Insearch that is part of the University of Technology, Sydney. We had to enroll the students for the new term (it brought back memories)!! It was only for 6 days but it was a start!

The Not-So-Scary Ghost's, A Stadium Tour & A Good Ol' Aussie BBQ!

The Rocks area of Sydney was where the convicts were sent and, because of that, there was a lot of trouble there so when we saw an advert for the Ghost Tour proclaiming tales of murder, suicide, hangings and hunting's, we just had to do it.

We met outside Cadman's Cottage near the bridge just before the sun was setting and met our tour guide complete with cape and lanterns. After brief introductions, he handed out our 'props' to assist with the story telling and we set off.

There were a couple of good stories but the rest of the night we heard more about people dying than ghosts and our guide kept going off topic when we re-enacting stories and we got bored very quickly! The one amusing thing was the fruit bats what were flying overhead - they did add to the spookiness except when then began to go to the toilet mid flight - over some of our group!!

The next day, we headed to the Telstra Stadium which hosted the track & field events of the Sydney Olympics and where Johnny Wilkinson scored that drop goal to secure England the Rugby World Cup in 2003! Kate & I were being especially geeky that day with our interests in stadium and this one was very impressive!

The stadium holds 80,000 (although it held 103,000 for the Olympics but they've removed the outer wings). It plays host to rugby league, union, football and Aussie Rules games and cricket matches (it can be made into a circular pitch for AFL and cricket which is done by moving the seating sections back 15 metres!)

We were taken through the corporate and media areas before going into the home changing room (due to an Australian superstition, they use the away changing room so we were in the room that England used in the RWC!) We had a chance to practise our ball kicking skills and Kate did her Johnny impersonation as her dad lay on the floor holding the ball. Needless to say, it might have looked good but the ball didn't go through the posts!

We then walked down the tunnel to the edge of the pitch and went to the medal podium. Kate & I won gold (not quite sure in which sport though!)

That night, Kate's parents took us out for an early birthday celebration for me - we went for dinner at the Centre Point Tower which has a revolving restaurant giving a 360 degree view of the city. The food was delicious and we got the chance to sample some Aussie cuisine including kangaroo and camel!

We were then supposed to go to the Opera House to see a performance of Music at the Movies hosted by Michael Parkinson but it had been cancelled at the last minute due to Parky's mum being critically ill. Still we'd had a great night.

The next day, we were invited over to Kevin & Julie's place for a typical Aussie BBQ! We began with a few prawns and kangaroo steak before having beef steak and a potato & cheese dish! Dinner was delicious and I'm glad that we had a chance to say 'throw another shrimp on the barbie'!

G'day Sydney

Kate & I arrived in Sydney after a boring flight which only had one TV screen which we couldn't see. We were met by her parents who we'd be spending the week with.

I wasn't able to climb the bridge (due to circumstances beyond my control) so I went and climbed one of the pylons that support the bridge. They don't really support the bridge - they're just to make it look good!! They had an exhibition which detailed the history of the bridge being built and a hundred and one statistics about the bridge (such as 16 people died during its construction and that there are almost 2 million rivets at the bottom of the harbour that got dropped!)

The view at the top was amazing - with the city laid out in front of us with a great view of the Opera House and the Bridge. We then took a ferry round to Darling Harbour just so that we could go under the bridge!

The next day, we met up with friends of Kate's parents - John, Sue, Kevin & Julie - who took us out to the Blue Mountains. On the way, we stopped at Featherdale Wildlife Park where we got our first sightings of Aussie wildlife - we were greeted by a man holding a joey!

We got to see a variety of birds, including a Galah (but not a flaming one!), got to hold a Olive Python, which decided to try and slither away when I was holding it, stroke a Koala called Macca and feed some Kangaroos! We also watched them feed a saltwater crocodile and saw some Dingos and a Tasmanian Devil!

We then headed off into the Blue Mountains for the rest of the day. Our first stop was at Wentworth Falls - which gave us a panoramic view of the area. There was nothing to see for miles! We stopped off at Leura (a picturesque village) for lunch and browsed the shops, including an old fashioned sweet shop with sweets in bottles! It brought me back to my childhood! We carried on to Katoomba.

Later that afternoon, we saw the Three Sisters and strolled down to sit beneath the ledge of one of them. From here, we drove to the Scenic Railway - the world's steepest railway at a 51 degree incline - and strolled around the Jamison Valley before getting the cable car back up to the top.

The next day we were taken out on John and Sue's boat. We left from Killarney Heights and we worked our way slowly round the harbour towards Manly. We spent the day sunbathing and swimming in gorgeous blue waters! We were treated to lunch (of chicken, fresh oysters and prawns) and were then had another view of the Opera House and the Bridge from the water. We moored up at Darling Harbour and were had an afternoon snack before going home. It was a great day and we felt very spoilt!

Leaving New Zealand

Once we arrived back in Christchurch, we went to Lyttleton and got the ferry to Diamond Harbour. For our last few nights, we were staying with my cousin Louise and her new husband Paul, who had just moved in! Thanks for having us as your first house guests!

The view from their balcony was amazing - we sat there for a few hours after dinner watching as the sun went down!

Paul dropped us off at the airport and we checked in our bags (that we just under the 20kg limit!). We boarded the Qantas plane bound for Sydney and left New Zealand behind. It's definitely been one of my favourite places to visit and I have so many great memories from the place!