Sydney, Australia
I've just spent the last 8 days staying with my aunt, uncle and cousins in Sydney. This leg of my trip has coincided with friends Dan, Dan and Chris who have been travelling all over Asia and New Zealand for the last three and a half months or so. A few years ago, my aunt and uncle decided to upsize from the house that they had, which is situated next door to a house on the block corner, to the house on the other side of that corner house, so they kept the old one as a guest house and joined up the properties, which meant there was room for us all to stay with them, in our own separate house.
We've spent the week mostly relaxing and looking around the city. Inevitably, we went around the harbour area in the centre to see the Bridge and the Opera House, and also went into Marrickville, the local area. We went up Sydney Tower, who have panoramic windows to rival the Wellington-Auckland train and cake with the highest altitude-yumminess product I've encountered, and into Newtown to a club where my cousin Jom was playing in a battle of the bands event (her band went through to the next round too!).
After the weekend, we picked up a campervan from these guys, which the other guys plan to take right down the east coast. It's just about the most clapped out rustbucket that you could ever hire out commercially, but that's what makes it so brilliant, and I'm regretting having to miss out on that open road experience.
At the end of my stay we drove up north out of Sydney to an visit an old school friend of my mum's and family, who live in the semi-rural suburb of Maraylya. We stayed there overnight and ventured into the country both days; first into the Blue Mountains, which were great for what we could see of them on what was a thoroughly grey day, and then to Wiseman's Ferry. In the evening in between, we also went to Cattai National Park, where hoards of wild roos came out at twilight for us to watch from the camper. I hope photos won't be long.
August 27th, 2007 at 10:56 am
Remember me? Im using the last5 minutes of poweron my laptop to deliver my regards so be honoured. And also to mark the fact that I would still be working at QinetiQ right now if i had stayed until the end of my contract. Theres a scary thought.
August 29th, 2007 at 10:43 pm
Hey! I was in the wonderful land of Tesco today and bumped into your dad and sis who updated me on what youre up to and pointed me to your blog. It sounds like you're doing absolutely tonnes and having a wonderful time. See you soon!