I arrived back in Sydney on Friday 19th October after a 15hr greyhound bus journey from Surfers Paradise. Previously I had planned to go to Byron Bay but decided to bypass it in favour of Sydney. I also wanted to be back for a beer festival on the Saturday, which turned out to be a bit of a disappointment, the beer was too expensive for what you got. The Tandoori Chicken pizza i bought for tea was really nice though and the company was good. Other than that I spent my first Saturday back relaxing. That was my aim for the next 10 days, how I was so wide of my target.
I'd travelled the top half of the East Coast meeting up with a couple of other backpackers, Bethan and Briony, and after about a week or two apart I met up with them again in Sydney. After achieving my aim on Sunday, lazing around and watching TV with the girls, I went out on Monday evening for an easy night of social drinking and then came Tuesday night.
On Tuesday night we went out for a Chinese as it was my last night with the girls before I left OZ, as they were heading further South the following day. The meal was nice that is not the issue. Also at the meal were a few people I'd met briefly coming down the East Coast - Paul, Mette and Rachel - whom Bethan and Briony knew quite well from the Oz bus. Two of those people, Mette and Paul were friends travelling together and hadn't been to Sydney before. The following day I became their unofficial tour guide, and whilst loving the ability to show of my knowledge of Sydney it ended up being an expensive week of drinking, eating out and sight seeing. Such a hard life.
The following day I met up with Mette, Paul and Rachel and did a little sightseeing, bought some fish and then round to a different Paul's flat and had my most civilised meal since Easter Sunday.
On the Thursday, with me counting down the days the four of us then traipsed around Paddy's Market, Darling Harbour and then Paul and I visited the Maritime Museum. In the evening it was cinema time to watch the badder than bad
Good Luck Chuck, I knew it would be pretty awful but I decided to go along with the crowd, never again.
On Friday, with 4 full days left in Oz I was eager not to waste my time so I went out drinking all day. A suitable, if expensive, use of my time whereby I most likely embarrassed myself but no one complained, they all thought I was funny. I just hope they were laughing with me not at me.
With three days left to go I took Paul and Mette around the Botanic Gardens and the excellent Rocks Market. In the afternoon I begged off staying out to long because I needed to return to my bed for a brief afternoon nap. I'd be forced to wake up at a ridiculously early 8.30am to play tour guide and my hangover hadn't gone by 3pm despite 2 litres+ of water a a couple of Panadol. In the evening I experienced my first, but most definitely not my last, taste of tapas. I am learning so much about new foods I've not tried before on my trip around Oz.
[Please note that does not mean I will try old foods I know I don't like!]
On Sunday, 2 days before my Tuesday departure, I undertook the Sydney Harbour Bridge Climb. Originally I wanted to do this on my last day but sharing the experience with friends was much more preferable, especially as I have no photographs. If I needed my love of Sydney reigniting, which I didn't, the Bridge Climb would have done it, if I needed to be reminded of how expensive Sydney could be, the Bridge Climb would have done that to. The views from the top are simply spectacular, I challenge any city in the world to beat that view. I will also disagree with said city if they believe their daytime city view is better, simply because they would be wrong.
I had expected the Bridge Climb to be hard work but I was wrong. Tourists are put on the Bridge like a conveyor belt moving along every 10 minutes so there was a lot of stopping and starting as we waited for photographs to be taken ahead of us, and then we had to wait as we had to be stopped for our photograph. The biggest, nay the only real, criticism I have of the Bridge Climb is, rather predictably, the cost. It cost $200 to do the climb on a weekend (we waited a few days for good weather) and only 4 photos on one CD would have cost $50 and change. The photos were not good enough to even split the cost three ways with Paul and Mette, and I'll always have my memories so I didn't purchase them.
After the climb we headed to Coogee where I had a brief look around to see what had changed and what hadn't before taking my sightseers on the Coogee-Bondi walk. I think it was as I walked down Coogee Bay Road, looking at what used to be my old work place, now transformed into a coffee bar not evening resembling the previous establishment that I knew how much I'd miss Oz. Although that was a fleeting feeling that got suppressed in the usual mix of emotion and the excitement of heading to NZ.
In the evening after a Lasagna for dinner the three of us headed to the tallest building in Sydney, the Skytower rounding of the busy day of sightseeing with some night time views of the city and a high altitude drink of course. Then it was off for more drinks, before a 2am bed time.
I arose early on my last full day in Sydney to go for pancakes. We were supposed to be meeting for breakfast but by the time we were sorted, by '
we' I mean Paul and Mette not I, it was more like brunch. After brunch we headed to the Pylon lookout, the original Harbour Bridge climb (up some stairs) which was included in the Bridge Climb price. The views from the Pylon were impressive but not quite so much as further up on the top of the bridge, but at least I got to take my own photos and had some taken of me
[see below]. In the early afternoon I left Paul and Mette boarding their taxi saying good bye to them and also to Rachel, my Friday drinking partner, who was joining them in their journey South, then I headed to IEP where I used their free Internet for one last time and said goodbye to the staff. My last night in OZ ended up being one of my cheapest. I ate spaghetti on toast for dinner and watched TV all evening, it was a bit of a come down from the past week but I needed a break so didn't mind too much
On Tuesday 30th October 2007 just after 11am I left Australia on Air New Zealand flight 704 for Auckland, leaving behind the sixth largest country in the world and all its deadly creatures. Some things have been excellent, otherwise good, some things so so and yet others (mostly the work) a little bit crappy. If I had the chance to go back in time I wouldn't do much different, otherwise I wouldn't have met the people I met and had the experiences I've had, but if I was repeating my year in the future there is certainly things I would never do again such as work on a vineyard and perhaps I wouldn't staple my thumb again. Perhaps.
Sydney at night from the Skytower, Oct '07
Rotorua Mud Pools, Nov ,07
Waiotap Thermal Wonderland, Nov '07
Gollum's Pool, Nov '07
Pancake Rocks, Nov '07
Lake Matheson, Nov '07
Wanake, Nov' 07
Mirror Lakes, Nov '07
Milford Sound, Nov '07
Stewart Island, NOv '07
The steepest street in the world, Nov '07
Random lake on the way to Christchurch, Nov '07
Balboa Park, San Diego, Dec '07
San Francisco, Dec '07
San Francisco in the rain, Dec '07
Alcatraz, Dec '07
Seattle at night, Dec '07
Vancouver, Dec '07
