Having left Christchurch and New
Zealand we have now arrived safely in Sydney - no lost luggage this time thank god. Don't believe all
those stories you hear on the TV and in the papers about the temp. over here being in the 40's.
Try halving it. They had a couple of days with high temperatures and that was it. Our first 2 days in
Sydney were cloudy and overcast and it even rained. Our third day was beautiful but we had been out the
night before partying until 6am and we didn't arise until 5:30 the next day. We got caught up playing a
drinking game - very simple to play, but also very effective. Don't want to bore ye now with the details
but we will get it going some night when i get home....only when the action in the Roost/Royal is
slow.
We met up with some friends of Grainnes' and they brought us out to a few bars. Saw the Ireland-France
game. Can't remember 2 much about it though. On the 4th day we got an overnight train up to Brisbane and
from there onto Hervey Bay. We had 2 days there, one of which included a day trip to Fraser Island. Fraser
Island is the world's largest sand island i.e there is no soil as we know it on the island.......only sand,
and that the fascinating thing about this is that all the trees and vegetation etc have still managed to
grow and prosper there. Place is full of dingoes with their mouths full of babies. I sound like that goddamn
guide now !!!
Strangely, people actually live on this
Island, the roads are unbelievable. The beach is something like 75kms long and they all use that as the
motorway. All the cars use that to get from one end to the other. Also all the planes land on the beach, so
ye could be driving along and then this plane overtakes ye on the inside. Interesting.
Left there this morning and we are now in Brisbane. Today it was actually 32 degrees, which is the hottest
yet. We checked in at 2 and went straight down to the pool. Spent the rest of the afternoon there. We leave
Brisbane tomorrow lunchtime and continue on down the Gold Coast to Byron Bay, Port Macquarie and finally on
to Bondi, where we will stay for 3 days before heading to Melbourne for the Grand Prix.
Regards the dolphins, whales and sharks. They all let me down big time. The whales and dolphins were
completely booked out. As for the sharks - when i tried to book it the lady told me that the boat was
out of service - probably because all the crew were savaged. Might give it one more go to try and do this
when we get to Cairns.
We spent our last 3 days in Sydney staying on Bondi beach. Yet again the weather in Sydney was not the
best. One of the mornings we were there Eddie Irvine was performing stunts of some sorts on a rubber dingy
on the beach – we didn’t know this and only saw it on the news that night. We were doing laundry at the
time. Don’t know which would have been more exciting. It was good to see that Eddie was taking the Grand
Prix seriously anyway !!!!
We took a trip out to the Olympic park one of the days also and got a guided tour of the Olympic stadium. The
stadium is unbelievable, actually the whole park is. At the moment there is a lot of construction work
going on as they are reducing the capacity from 110,000 down to 80,000 and are also removing the
athletic track. On the tour they brought us into the athletes changing rooms – I was very tempted to use
the toilet facilities but in the end didn’t. I know someone who would have though. And no, weren’t allowed
on the pitch either Scandy !!!! We also spent some time in the Olympic swimming pool. I tried to swim the
full length and just about managed it. I would have
given Eric the Eel a good run for his money. Next stop Melbourne.
To see a
selection of these photos, click
here or here for Melbourne