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!

Swimming with Dolphins..and Orcas!!

We checked back into Base Backpackers in Christchurch and caught up with Sam that night. Next morning we were rudely awakened by the fire alarm at 5:45am!!! It seems to be a running theme throughout our trip!!! We were not impressed. Still, we had to get the 7am bus to Kaikora so it didn't really affect us!

We checked into the Adelphi Lodge and borrowed the hostel's bikes and rode along up the coast. My bike didn't seem capable of getting out of first gear but it was a great ride anyway! We stopped at the end of the beach and went for a walk where we saw some sea lions in the sea and took a brief stroll up the cliffs to see the amazing view of the place.

The next morning we were up early to walk to Dolphin Encounter - the company who are taking us out to sea to swim with the dolphins. We watched a video and got dressed in our wetsuits (and hats), flippers and goggles and headed out.

There were 12 of us on a small boat, along with the guide and the captain. Within 10 minutes of being out on the water, the sea became very choppy and we bounced over large waves. We'd been told to keep an eye out for any sign of the dolphins. It didn't take long for them to be spotted - a group of about 20 Dusky Dolphins. We cut the engine and were instructed to slide off the back of the boat into the sea!

The video had told us that, as we were in the dolphins environment, we had to try and entertain them so we had to make noises or sing, swim in circles and keep eye contact with them. If we were brave enough, we could dive down. So we began making noises at the dolphins which is quite a task when you're trying to breathe through a snorkel!

We became surrounded by them. Everywhere you looked you could see dolphins - it was really amazing! Kate & I had bought a disposable camera but the dolphins were too fast to be able to get a decent photo. In the end, we gave up and just concentrated on watching them!

After about 15 minutes, they all disappeared so we'd assumed that they'd given up playing with us so we got back into the boat. Then we realised why they had gone - to the left of the boat was a pack of Orca Whales!!! We couldn't believe it. We stood and watched each time they came to the surface - one of them swam right under the boat! We were so lucky to see them, especially this close to shore!

Once the Whales left, the dolphins returned and we watched them

swim around the boat, leaping into the air and doing somersaults before we headed back to shore.

It was such an amazing experience. We couldn't believe that the dolphins had come to close to us and the Orca Whales had just made a brilliant day even better!

We dried off and got the coach back to Christchurch.

Bar Bungy, Proposals and Hair Dye!

We left Dunedin early the following morning for our drive to Queenstown. We stopped on the way at little villages including Lawrence, Alexandra (with its 10 foot tall clock on the mountain side) and Clyde, where we had lunch in a place that looked like it had come straight from a western movie! We arrived in Wanaka by mid afternoon and stopped by the lake (which we'd not got to see last time due to us going to Illusion World!)

Just before arriving into Queenstown, we stopped off at the Kawarua Bridge Bungy site but could not persuade Ben & Helen to throw themselves off the top!

That night we met up with Fiona and went to the Altitude Bar for drinks. We also caught up with Bridget (who we'd met in the Bay of Islands). The bar did a competition to win a jump at the Nevis Bungy Jump (which is 134m tall) which needed 4 girls to participate so Kate, Fiona, Bridget and I volunteered! We then found out what we had to do - it was a Bar Bungy! Basically, we had a bungy rope tied to our waists and had to run the length of the bar, grab a half yard of beer, fly back across the bar without spilling the drink and then drink it and the person with the quickest time one! It sounded pretty simple!!!

I was 2nd to go and ended up flying backwards across the bar on my rear end, spilling half of the drink all over the place!!! Needless to say I didn't win!! Fiona decided that this would hurt her cracked sternum too much and pulled out at the last minute and Bridget broke the record (19 seconds!) and won the prize!! Kate came second with a better effort than me - I won't publish the photo of her doing it to save embarrassment as you can see how hard she was trying!!

The next evening, Helen & Ben came back from exploring the little villages around Queenstown with Helen sporting a very sparkly ring on her engagement finger (Ben had finally popped the question!) To celebrate, we went out for teapots (as you do!) Congratulations guys!

On our final day Ben and Jimmy (our English room mate who has spent most of his life in Dubai) decided that they wanted to dye their hair - blonde! They took ages going around the pharmacy deciding which colour they wanted (after we persuaded them that bleach wasn't a good idea!!). It was left to me to play hairdresser! The results weren't too bad - Jimmy was already a dark shade of blonde so his didn't show to much but Ben was brunette and ended up going a shade of ginger (but he liked it)!!! It made us laugh though!

The next morning Kate & I are up early to catch the Stray bus back to Christchurch.

Cadburys, a Steep Street & Albatroi!

We arrived in Dunedin and our first stop was the Cadbury's factory! We decided to do the tour, which began with a self guided tour of the history of the cocoa bean and the development of chocolate. We went to see a short film about the Dunedin plant and were given a Cadburys Chocolate Fish to eat (chocolate covered marsh mellows).

We then went around the factory. We saw how they make chocolate buttons (like the opening scene from the original Charlie & the Chocolate Factory film), Moro bars (the Cadbury equivalent of Mars Bars) and Easter eggs. We were given some samples along the way which included a Pokenana (banana flavoured chocolate).

At the end of the tour, we got to see a tonne of Cadburys chocolate drop into a container which we could test to make sure it was chocolate! Then we went into the shop - Kate got a bit carried away with the Cadbury Dessert range (which they should import to the UK, especially the Fudge Brownie one!)

We dropped Helen & Ben off at their hostel and Kate & I went to St Leonards to stay with Ron & Nicky (who are friends with one of Kate's brothers) and their children Daniel & Abigail. It was great to be in a 'home' environment again and we were made to feel like part of the family. Daniel spent ages teaching me & Kate how to play his 'monsters in my pocket' game.

Once the children were in bed, Kate & I were taken on a tour of Dunedin, which included Baldwin Street - the steepest street in the world! Kate & I walked down a bit to try and get photos that do it justice and the walk back up was a good as a workout in the gym!

We then went to Signal Hill and got a great view of the city. We stayed there watching the sun go down before home (the temperature had also dropped and it was a little cold!)

The next day we met up with Helen & Ben and drove to the Royal Albatross Centre. Kate & I had been discussing what the plural of Albatross was and we'd decided that it should be Albatroi - it sounded better that Albatross! We had a brief lesson about Albatross and their life before heading out to see them. Currently they were nesting and we go to see 3 of them sitting on their nests.

We then drove around the headland to Allans Bay and saw some seals on the beach and some sea lions in the sea.

That afternoon, Kate & I went to the beach with Ron, Daniel, his mate Lennox and their neighbour Ted and their dog, Odd. The boys decided to play in the waves so we threw the Frisbee for Odd and kicked around a football. The fun part was trying to get the Frisbee back from Odd who was determined not to let go of it! The boys ended up totally soaked and decided to get themselves covered in sand as well! It was a fun afternoon!

That night the adults played a hard-fought game of Risk!, which carried on well into the night. It became very competitive and it was probably a good thing that a draw was called!

Big Balls

The next day we left Oamaru and headed further south towards Dunedin.

We stopped on the way at the Moeraki Boulders - a group of large rocks on the beach. The Maori's believe that the rocks were gourds from their ancestor's canoes (Woka's) which crashed and the gourds and food supplies were washed ashore and turned into stone.

We took some sensible photos of them before taking a few 'silly' ones!

We stayed a while before carrying on to Dunedin.

Road Trip & Penguins

We set off at lunchtime towards Oamaru. To keep the child in Ben occupied for the journey, we played various games including 'I spy', 'Who am I' and, newly invented for the trip, 'Guess the Population'! The aim of the game was to (as you can probably guess) correctly guess the population of the small towns that we were driving through before checking the answer in a Lonely Planet guide. Some towns, however, were too small to be in the book!

We checked into our hostel (after Kate had successfully managed to do a 3-point turn in the smallest of spaces while we tried to park the car!)

That night we boarded the Penguin Express and went to see some rare Yellow Eyed Penguins. We paid extra and got taken on a 'close up' tour. We certainly weren't expecting how close we got! We were walking along a path and came across a family of penguins (2 adults and 2 juveniles). We stood there for about 20 minutes watching the penguins. They didn't seem bothered that we were watching them. They then walked off down the cliff. It was amazing that we managed to get so close to them!

We then walked up to the cliff and joined the rest of the bus who had only seen them from a distance.

We carried on the trip and drove to a spot to see some Little Blue Penguins. It was dark by the time we arrived at the spot and we had to sit on a wooden stand and wait for them to come in from the water, re-waterproof their feathers and walk up the cliff in front of us. It was funny to see them pause at the road before one or two brave ones would lead the walk across!

We went back to the hostel extremely happy that we'd been so close to the penguins!

Christchurch

Kate & I got back onto the Stray Bus with Fido, our driver (don't they have 'normal' names?!) and headed north to Christchurch.

We were due to pass by Mount Cook and were very excited about it until we realised that the weather was not on our side and all we saw were clouds! We stopped at Lake Tekapo for lunch. In the nearby fields were lots of Mountain Lupins in all colours of pink and purple and Kate spent ages trying to get the perfect shot of them - I ended up getting a picture of her lying in them trying to get her shot!!

From here, we travelled across the Canterbury Plains through to Christchurch. Fido decided to make an impromptu stop at the Cookie Time factory and we all piled out into the shop to stock up! They were yummy!!!

We checked into Base Backpackers, shattered from our trip, but decided to catch up with our friends Helen & Ben from home (who were holidaying in the South Island) and went out for dinner.

The next day we explored the city. The World Buskers Convention was taking place while we were there and we spent ages watching the various acts which included a man who climbed up a lamppost and pretended to be a flag and some mime artists.

We then decided to jump on the tram and do the city tour (which only covered about 2 streets of the city!) We went past the museum and across the River Avon, where we saw punts going along - it was all very English! We also took a walk through the Botanical Gardens and their rose garden, saw the main Cathedral and their art piece that had been designed for the Millennium.

In the afternoon, we caught the bus to the bottom of the gondola and took the cable car to the top of it (with Ben worrying the whole journey that the cable was going to break and that we were going to fall!!) The view at the top was great but the weather was against us yet again and, to begin with, all we saw was cloud! It cleared a bit and we got to see the city.

They also had an exhibition ride about the history of New Zealand which we went on. We discovered that Ben is also very jumpy in the dark!

The next day, we picked up our hire car (which had to seat 4 people and carry 4 backpacks and 4 day bags). We expected the car to be a medium sized car (it looked like it in the photos!) but we ended up with a small car and we had to cram ourselves into, surrounded by the luggage that didn't fit into the boot!!

We drove to the nearby Antarctic Centre, which told of Scott's fatal trip there and we got to experience a blizzard and Ben went on the ice slide! We also got to see some penguins up close that had been rescued and were being cared for at the centre.

We then left for our road trip!

Milford Sound and the Dolphins

We got up early this morning as we were doing a day trip to Milford Sound with Kiwi Experience. We said our goodbyes to the rest of the group and walked outside to see the Kiwi Experience bus about to pull off so we ran down the street and managed to flag it down!!!

As we'd been partying the night before, I spent the first part of the journey asleep (also my eye was hurting and it was difficult to keep it open!) before waking up at Te Anau for a mid-morning stop at a cafe while Jase, our driver, went to the petrol station. After re-fuelling ourselves (and waking up a bit), we carried on passing some amazing scenery!

We stopped at some mirror lakes and managed to get a couple of great shots before the rain came in! At least it was better than at Lake Matheson! The drive continued on through the Eglington Valley and interestingly named places like Knob's Flat and the Divide! We had to stop at the traffic lights at Homer Tunnel so used this as a great opportunity to get out and stretch our legs, marvel at the snow-capped mountains around us and watch the Kea (alpine parrots) try and dismantle unsuspecting tourists' cars - they have a thing for the rubber around car windows! Through the tunnel, we hit a wall of mist and couldn't see anything! Glad I wasn't driving!

We stopped at the Chasm, a waterfall which had eroded the surrounding rocks and created giant holes. We'd walked through the surrounding forest with the noise of the waterfall getting louder and louder and it was worth the walk!

We then raced to the docks to catch the Spirit of Milford as we were running a little late! We were given a free cup of tea and a chance to warm up a little bit as the boat began its 2 hour journey around the sound. It began to rain very lightly (the type that gets you soaking wet!) and Kate & I were unprepared for this, only wearing hoodies and not waterproof jackets so spent our time between standing on the top deck and standing next to to driver of the boat looking out the front window!

We got to see seals on the rocks and plenty of waterfalls and then along came a group of dolphins who decided that they wanted to swim around by the front of the boat. We got to watch them for a bit before they got bored with us and moved on!

We stopped off briefly at the Underwater Observatory to see the mixture of sea creatures in that survive here before going back to shore and onto the bus for the trip back to Queenstown (which I fell asleep during and woke up half way through the Family Guy movie!)