Well what better way to spend your New Years Eve than on Circular Quay in Sydney Harbour watching the fireworks. Well, seeing as you cannot take drinks onto the Quay and you have to sit there all day to get a space for the evening, before they stop letting people in, it doesn't sound brilliant does it?
Well that is when you need relatives who hired out an appartment, right on circular Quay looking right onto the Bridge. With special passes to get onto the Quay itself and the most perfect view of the Bridge, we had our own private party, with our own stash of beer (well courtesy of Tim). It was Part 2 of the wedding and it was magnificent. This was definitely a once in a life time opportunity and I will never forget it.
Tim and Suzie's original plan was to have the wedding on the boat on New Years Eve. When they found out how much it would be, which I won't tell you (around AUS $20000), they decided to have the wedding the day before on the boat and the view of the fireworks on New Years Eve, with all the family.
So my uncle Terry, Auntie Jill, Betty, Lizzy and Harry all came from Rochdale to involve themselves in the antics. We had a fabulous night and that is before you count the fireworks, which were amazing. I have never seen anything like it. It was the 75th Aniversary of the bridge so the fireworks were even more spectacular than normal.
Fireworks were set off from the bridge, boats in front of the bridge, somewhere in the far distance and even from the hotel roof tops which surrouned the harbour. Stunning, and to top it all off, you could tune to a particular frequency on the radio and the music and fireworks were in sync.
Although it took us a while getting back to the hostel, it was definitely worth it.
Thank You Suzy & Tim
Well after much ado, the wedding was on the 30th Dec. We all arrived at the ferry point in Rosebay with the groom Tim, and piled onto the boat which was waiting for us. It took us over to Shark Island where we trundelled to the top of the hill and watched as the bride, Suzie, got off her boat and walked to the top of the hill, where the lovely couple got married outside. It was a beautiful wedding and the place was stunning, although everyone was taking photos of the opera house and the bridge as it was unique to see it from this angle!!!
After the wedding we got back on the boat and got on with eating the grub and drinking the free grog. Although it wasn't pies and butties but lovely fresh prawns and sushi type things. We then sailed around the harbour for four hours, while having a party on the boat. It was fantastic, we watched the sun go down and then the city light up. It was brilliant, and I would recommend this to anyone as a must do... a harbour cruise at night. The Opera house is lit up and the Bridge as well as lunar park's ferris wheel. What a delight. We even got to sail under the bridge a few times. What an experience, it was magical!!!
At the end of the four hour boat ride, we docked right outside the Opera House... how cool is that... and then proceeded to have drinks in a bar on Circular Quay looking out over the harbour. What a special night!!!!
Wow is all I can say.
Well after chilling out on the beach for a few weeks and playing bingo, and getting over the fact that you can go to drive though beer shops and buy take away beers from pubs, we decided it was time to go to the big city and start looking for a job and somewhere to live.
We got to our hostel and it was like a prison cell. It was really tiny, like being back in Bolivia... It is ok, we don't need to stay there for long, hopefully...
Well, it was hot and we were able to go to the beach on Christmas day... it was very strange and I don't know ho Santa went on with his sledge as there was definitely no snow!!! We still enjoyed a proper roast dinner but it didn't feel very Christmassy at all.
It is fairly boring here now. There is not a lot to do. I looked thorugh my nan's video collection and the only remotely interesting thing I found was a video called, "Blackpool Illuminations!!"
We went out with Zoe to a 'nightclub'. Ok, Bateman's Bay doesn't have a nightclub but the bowling club has a night every Friday night for the youngens.... We thought we would give it a go.
It was like a scholl disco, in this big hall with everyone sat around the outside. We were bored and gobsmacked such places existed. The best thing we could do was get drunk and maybe forget we were sat in a bowling club.
"Are you going to the bar, get me a tequilla," said Tony. I trundelled to the bar and returned promptly.
"You are not going to believe this... they don't sell shots.... or doubles!!" We left....
It is quiet and peacful here even if there isn't very much to do, but at least I get to listen to my nan's stories. One sticks in mind in particular....
"I met this Liverpudlian when I was in hospital and he was saying that when he was younger they were short of nothing as everything was stolen or fell off the back of a lorry (for those of you who are not farmiliar with Liverpool, think along the same lines as the TV program Shameless). He said they never had to pay for anythign and always found ways around things, including free gas and electric, although after a while they were usually caught out. This one woman though, the gas company new she was fiddling her meter, as the meter would go up but there was never any money in the box. They never figured it out how she was doing it. She had made a mould of the coin for the meter, put water in it and then froze it. When frozen she could put it in the meter and it would register. It would then melt in the box and drip through a tiny hole she had drilled in the bottom, so there was never any evidence... genius!!!!!!
I have decided to stop writing my blog from day to day and just write to you all when something interesting happens. We are now in Bateman's Bay, staying with my nan and just chilling out for a bit. My Uncle Terry, Jill and Olivia were here for a week visiting from Rochdale but have now gone down to see Uncle Colin in Portland.
In Australia at Christmas, every town has Carols by Candlelight (or in some cases carols by bushfire!!). Everyone sits in a field with a candle and sings carols. It is very pretty and it made me chuckle when they sung the Aussie version of Jungle bells:
Dashing through the bush
In a rusty Holden Ute
Kicking up the dust
Esky in the boot
Kelpie by my side
Singing Christmas songs
It's summer time and I am in
My singlet, shorts & thongs
CHORUS:
OH, JINGLE BELLS, JINGLE BELLS
JINGLE ALL THE WAY
CHRISTMAS IN AUSTRALIA
ON A SCORCHING SUMMER'S DAY
JINGLE BELLS, JINGLE BELLS
CHRISTMAS TIME IS BEAUT
OH WHAT FUN IT IS TO RIDE
IN A RUSTY HOLDEN UTEEngine's getting hot
Dodge the kangaroos
Swaggy climbs aboard
He is welcome too
All the family is there
Sitting by the pool
Christmas day, the Aussie way
By the barbecue!CHORUS
Come the afternoon
Grandpa has a doze
The kids and uncle Bruce
Are swimming in their clothes
The time comes round to go
We take a family snap
Then pack the car and all shoot through
Before the washing upCHORUS
Great stuff!!!!!!
Well it is a hard life here, I tell you. There is nothing to do here but it is good as we are just relaxing. We walk along the beach, sit by the pool in the sun, go for a swim or go to Bingo with my gran. We are running out of money but it's ok because we win money at Bingo!!!
Well after sleeping in the airport (we are still backpackers remember), we awoke at stupid o'clock in the morning to get a flight out to Sydney. We checked in at 6.00am and the woman at the desk informed us that Tony did not have a visa for Australia.
When he booked over the phone, he asked about a six month visa, and the guy at STA travel said he had done it electronically and added an extra 60 quid to the price of the ticket which Tony paid for, over the phone.
Obviously we were angry so decided to phone up STA travel from the airport. We got through to them and the woman said she would see what she could do. She put us on hold for ages... and then our phone card ran out, so we put some more credit on it and rang back two minutes later and an answer phone message answered stating the offices had now closed....
Ok, not to worry, we can just buy another six month visa. It turns out you cannot buy a six month visa from the sirport, you have to go to the Australian embassy and get one there, but it is not guarenteed that it will come back the same day, and also we would have to delay our flight to Sydney.
Ok, next option, buy a three month visa and get it extended while we are in Australia.... not an option, you cannot extend your visa while in the country. You have to leave Australia and then come back in again, the nearest country being New Zealand, which isn't cheap to fly to or Papa New Guinea which you really don't wnat to go to.
The only option was to get a three month visa and then for Tony to fly back early, but he has nowhere to live when he gets back!!!
We are going to be having words with STA travel as they have totally messed up our plans.... grrr
Well we arrived in Sydney and met up with John (from work) and his wifey Rachel. We had lunch, discussed our adventures and then got the bus down to my nans. What a long day.
Well today we left Christchurch, waved goodbye to Sam Neil (he lived on the same street where we were staying!!!), and caught the plane to Auckland ready for our departure...
We are chilling out at the minute, with our next stop Australia, we need some rest before our next big adventure. So went went Christmas shopping, to buy things for each other. It is not feeling like Christmas at all... Everyone is wearing flip floips and shorts... its weird.
We then wathced Borat at the cinema and veged in fron of the TV, something you can't do all that often while travellling...aaahhh
Well, since we haven't got any transprt, Nicky dropped us off in towen and we had a look at the art markets and went for a wander round the center and looked in the shops. We went for a lovely meal, treating ourselves from the money we got for the van. We walked back through the park and got very lost, but its ok as the walk was nice.
Back at the backpackers car market, we had people interested in the van. We toook it for a WOF (similar to an MOT) and eventually negotiated a price for sale. We had to say goodbye to the van. It was quite sad but at the same time a weight off our minds. I was quite amazed it only took 1 and a half days to sell. We said goodbye and went back to Nickys for a BBQ and then went to the cinema to watch Casion Royal.
