Sydney, Australia
Thursday, March 17, 2005
Our last day in New Zealand started early, 3.45am (!!), but it was a good flight to Oz and we arrived on a scorching hot day with beautiful blue skies (but that was then, this is now - which is why we are now sat in an internet cafe sheltering from the rain!). We had a lovely first day here getting to know the city (really like it), we took the ferry over to Manly which was great fun watching the surfers and all the dudes wandering across the beach. Had a good mooch around the Rocks and Circular Quay - the home to Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Opera House. Bit sick we left the cameras at home that day cos the opera house looked spectactular against a deep blue sky - much better than the grey sky we have had since! Hopefully get a second chance before we leave! We spent a frustrating day yesterday trying to organise our trip from here - this country is so huge and nothing is easy to arrange. We had a few different ideas but everything we tried to do was booked up or not possible and we were going round in circles. We ended up yesterday feeling a bit fed up for the first time in our trip, having wasted a whole day in and out of travel agencies etc only to go to bed last night back at square one. However, this morning we have managed to book flights to
Alice Springs for tomorrow morning,then planning to join a 3 day tour around Uluru and Kings Canyon before joining the Ghan back to Sydney, which is one of the world's great train journeys (Rob wants to point out that we haven't turned into train spotters, it just seems like a really good thing to do, cutting right through the 'red centre' of Australia). It leaves
Alice Springs 12.45pm Thursday 24th and arrives back in Sydney 10.15am on Saturday 26th(almost 3,000km!). Moved on from dolphin spotting to kangaroo spotting now (but don't think we'll go swimming with them somehow!!). Haven't taken any pictures of Sydney yet because we can't see through the drizzle, however hopefully the blue skies will return before we leave Oz and we can get some to you then.
Have to mention how great (and cheap!) the food is here, our first night we went to one of many food courts where there were loads of asian food stalls to choose from. We had 2 soups, bbq chicken dish and huge bowl of fried rice and drinks all for 6 squid and it was georgeous! Also went to Sydney Fish Market for lunch which was amazing. Dozens of fish stalls selling the morning's catch where you choose what you want and they cook it for you there and then. We stuffed ourselves with half a lobster mornay, 6 huge salt and pepper king prawns, oysters (urghhhh!), a huge portion of whitebait and greek salad and it cost us 14 pounds (cheap as chips!!). We'll probably have to check in our bellies as excess baggage on our next flight!
Back soon,luv Rob & Nicky
