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'!
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