I am the Burgerfan!

A friend of mine that I went to school form Kindergarten through to Grade 12 with, Jolene Ninness (Bond), had moved to Australia, and we had the good fortune to meet up and visit!  So, the last few days were spent a little more in-land and getting a good firsthand look at the countryside, Hunter Valley region.

It was a rather busy set of days, with various sightseeing events jammed in together.  Here were some of them:

• Maitland Gaol (Jail) — a Jail tour led by an ex-inmate.  We were given a firsthand account of prison life and conditions as of his 1976-78 term in the slammer.  Some of the rooms are haunted!  This was a pretty interesting tour, and we went on the evening tour, which was a BYO Flashlight.
• Dolphin Cruise — An afternoon cruise out on the waters to look at dolphins.  There were quite a few to see, so that was pretty lucky!
• Day at the beach!  Everyone loves a day at the beach, even if its "almost winter" here (20°C isnt cold!)  Out at Crowdy Head Beach was a calm bay with constant and manageable waves that were loads of fun diving into.  Uh oh, someone forgot to let the sunscreen set in and got a small sun burn!!!

We have now flown up to Brisbane on JetStar, (a discount carrier that even puts WestJet to shame!) and have taken a train down to the City of Surfers Paradise, which is Australia’s theme park answer to Orlando and LA.  More details when time permits…

Sydney hosted the 2000 Summer Olympic Games.  The Olympic Park is to the west of Sydney, and has a collection of stadiums and fields all within walking distance.  Unfortunately, the cauldron was locked away, as it was located in a recently closed exhibition.  Apparently the main stadium (Telstra Stadium) is now only used about 20 times a year.  We played Olympic Park mini golf, for the ultimate mini golf bragging rights… and tied. [ www.sydneyolympicpark.com.au ]

Further west of Sydney (maybe 100 km) is the well known Blue Mountains.  In all truth, its not blue, and its not a mountain. It is actually a plateau that water has carved canyons out of over time.  And its collection of over 100 eucalyptus plants all emit oily vapours into the air, which create a blue haze when struck by sunlight.  On our particular 6km hike through some of the area, it was rainy/misty, so it was more grey than anything, but still scenic.  While I didn’t get a good photo illustrating the Blue Mountains, here is the [ Google Image Search ] of some other photo on the internet.

After a week of relaxing in Sydney, we said goodbye to its overwhelming army of surly bus drivers, and headed north to Newcastle, Australia’s second oldest city.  This city is famous for its beaches and surfing, and believe it or not, exports sand to Hawaii!  Here is an excerpt from my journal:

[On April 7]… we went on the Sand Safaris Quad Adventure in the sand dunes.  This was the greatest thing we have done in Australia so far!  This was a two hour quad ride through sand dunes, which was very surreal.  Whats interesting is that the tracks from the quad in front of you can disappear quite rapidly, so there isn’t much reliance on a well-used path.  These sand dunes tend to move inland at a rate of 2-5 metres per year, so they don’t stay the same for very long.  We got to drive around at speeds of 40 km/h, and sometimes up to 67!  In total, we drove about 30 km.  [ www.sandsafaris.com.au ]

Its been a busy last few days in and around Sydney… we are staying in a beachside suburb to the east, meaning that while we are busy checking out Sydney, we are actually more relaxing outside of town, since we aren’t right in the thick of things.

The transit system here gets two thumbs down from me.  It is far reaching and can get you from here to there very well, but is inconvenient in the sense that there is no ‘hop on/hop off’ access.  The bus fare is a little high, and once you leave the bus, thats it for that ticket.

We saw the Broadway Production of the Lion King [ http://www.disney.com.au/lionking/indexSydney.shtml ] which was playing in Sydney.  This was very cool, and has a distinctly unique artistic style — they merged human and animal for all the characters, and so you could intentionally see the human figure as part of each costume.  Only a few actors carried mild Australian accents, so it wasn’t too over the top in that regard.

The weather has been fantastic this last few days, and has warmed up to mid-twenties, which is good timing for being near the beach.  We spent an afternoon in the sun and watching the surfers trying their luck with the waves.

Today was the day to see the Sydney showpiece, the Sydney Opera House.  Walking through the Royal Botanical Gardens, the first glimpse was afforded at the water’s edge, and in combination with the Sydney Harbour Bridge, it was an excellent sight!

Finally, the afternoon/evening was spent at the Sydney Aquarium [ http://www.sydneyaquarium.com.au/ ] which is a fantastic place to see much aquatic life.  I got to check the platypus from my ‘to view’ list, as they have a tank with a few of them in there.  They swim all over they place like they are drunk, and its funny to watch.  They cannot see in the water.

Hopefully some of the photos turned out from these last few days…

Wow I only have about 5 minutes to rattle something off, so this will be pretty brief… we spent a few days in Melbourne.  It was a nice city, but there was nothing spectacular about it.  No major attractions either, so I cannot say that there was awesome things we did there.  They do have the Queen Victoria Market, which is over 100 years old, and that is very neat.  It is full of people selling souvenirs, produce, and meats.  And there is swarms of people.  The city also has a very well run tram system for public transport.

We are now in Sydney (as of yesterday), and will start exploring in the coming days.  Today we saw the Lord of the Rings exhibition that is wrapping up at the local museum, and it has some cool articles about how some of the movie was made, and how they carved up the New Zealand landscape to fit the movie scenes (and then restored it back after).  Believe it or not I actually haven’t seen the famous Opera House yet!  Other than in the postcards that are all over the place.

Got to run.

Once upon a time Chris went to a chocolate factory and bought chocolate cream eggs in the factory store.  Two days later, he got up at 3:45 am and flew to Australia.  Then at two in the afternoon he sat on his bed to rest his weary feet.  "Maybe I’ll eat a cream egg and then have a nap," he thought.  But sleep overcame him, and he awoke to find that he slept on the egg, which was now mushy and barely retaning its egg shape. 

The end.

In other words, there are not really any impressions to write about yet (but the egg might tell you otherwise).

  Tomorrow we head out for Australia at the ripe time of 6:45am.  Don’t forget to check in two hours beforehand too.  Why bother sleeping tonight???

   New Zealand has been a fantastic place.  The buildings are a neat blend of old and new, with many splashes of colour, that make the buildings at home look boring.  The people are good humoured, and very friendly.  This actually suprised me, but makes sense as the country of this size is pretty tight knit.

   We logged about 1900 km (and 36 hours) of bus time, and the 100 km ferry across the Cook Strait.  Getting around is very easy, and can be done at decent prices once you are here, whether you want to bus, rent a car/van, or even buy a car for a short while.  As for accommodations, we mostly were in YHA Hostels across the country, which are very clean, and are used by young and old travellers alike.  Getting a Hostilling International membership (or something equivalent) is a good idea.

   The only thing is convenience food (snacks) were fairly pricey.  For what they are, their dollar is a little high on the currency conversion.  A 600 mL bottle of pop will be about $2.50NZ, and a chocolate bar or something like a small chips will be $1.50 to $2NZ.  But supermarket groceries have been comparable.

   So here’s the Australian checklist of what I hope to see, more or less:

• koala
• kangaroo
• rugby (didnt see it here, but there is still hope)
• boomerang
• platypus
• Sydney Opera House
• Great Barrier Reef

   Oh and also, at work Chris M and Jon T are locked at 99 foosball wins each.  Who will walk away with 100 wins bragging rights?  I’ll be the last to know!