The Rest Of Australia

Well as we haven’t updated the blog recently here is a quick catch up as to what we have been doing and where we have been. We arrived back to Woodgate Beach to finally carry out the House sit that had tried to do on the pervious 2 visits. After a week of looking after the dogs Rodney and Dee returned, so we took advantage of the chance to head back up the coast to the towns of Agnes Waters, and 1770. The “towns” weren't quite what we were expecting, as the bigger of the 2 ( Agnes Waters ) was about half the size of Bonnybridge, and 1770 was made up of 3 streets. The setting of both though, more than made up for their size, and it wasn't long before the first day had passed, and we were cooking our dinner on the BBQ overlooking the bay, as we sipped on our beer. The next day we went back out the Great Barrier Reef, with the prospect of swimming with turtles. After very rough crossing to the floating pontoon where we would spend the day, we were looking forward to the swimming even more, but when we went in to the water it was full of jellyfish, so the swim was short, and without turtles. On the way to Lady Musgrave Island (another part of the tour) we did see turtles swimming but it would have been good to actually swim with them. Back in 1770, we returned to the same site where we had parked the night before, and enjoyed another BBQ and beer as we watched the sun set. The next day we returned to Woodgate, stopping off at Mon Repos at the turtle sanctuary. This is a 1.6km stretch of beach where on average 250 turtles a night return to lay their eggs on the same beach where they were born. As part of the tour we were taken to watch as a turtle laid her eggs, which was incredible to see. Another function that the conservation group performs is to transfer the eggs which have been laid too low down the beach to a spot further up where they will hatch safely. The turtle that we watched laid 115 eggs, in 15 minutes, and the location that she had chosen was too far down the beach, so once she had returned to the water the eggs were dug up again and we then helped to carry them to a safe nest above the water line. The whole night was magical and something that will live long in our memories. :0)

After looking after the dogs for another 2 weeks, it was time to say farewell to Woodgate, and head south to Sydney were we would spend Xmas and New Year. The drive was 17 hours long, and we needed to complete it in 2 days, so we could sell the car. So we set off at 9 after leaving it as late as we could to check with the post office if our parcels from the UK had arrived. Unfortunately only 1 of the 2 did ( thanks girlies x ), but we needed to be moving on. The drive was ok and Lexy ( our car ) did amazingly well ( for a £600 car ) as we drove until 7pm that night with only 1 break. We parked up for the night in Coffs Harbour in the 3rd spot we had looked at, deciding that it looked to be safer than the 1st two. We settled down to sleep but were woken at 1 in the morning by a loud bang. After looking out of the window we saw a group of boys walking down the street, and then looking at the outside of the car the back window that looked into the boot was smashed. So we drove past the group slowly enough to take a picture of them and went to the police station to report it. The police didn't seem interested, and said that unless we could pinpoint who had actually smashed the window then there was nothing that they could do. After hardly sleeping the rest of the night we then set off to drive the remaining distance to Sydney where we now needed to get the window fixed, so we could sell it. Arriving at 4 in to Sydney we managed to find somewhere to fix the window, and we then found out that GMTV were broadcasting back to the UK at Mrs. Macquarie’s point, so we headed there arriving at 6 for the cameras to be already rolling. The amount of people that were there was less than what we had been expecting so we were hopeful despite our late arrival. The first time that the cameras started shooting we saw a big problem as those near the front all has massive signs which blocked out those at the back. So the next time the cameras went on Arlene was on my shoulders, and was spotted by a few people. After that we managed to get to the front where the next section was going to be shot. They started interviewing people then filmed the crowd along the front where we were, with Arlene being right at the front and on camera for a good few seconds. What we didn't know t that point thought was that back in the UK they had cut the feed, so we weren't shown. :0(

For Xmas day we got up to find that Santa had delivered our presents to us in Sydney ( He's magic ), so after opening them, we headed off to Bondi Beach where crowds of 40,000 were expected. However due to the rain, I’m guessing that there were only 2000 when we were there. After spending a couple of hours there ( considering that it's world famous, the beach was a little disappointing, and we have been on much better beaches in Australia ) we headed back to our digs, to enjoy a cosy night in.

Boxing day we went to Julies house ( keep up here...Arlene's mum's, cousins, daughter, so whatever relation that is... ) where we were made to feel at home, and were soon surrounded by all fellow Scots that have settled down in Australia. The day was spent telling stories, finding out who knew who, and generally just enjoying each others company. In the end up we were the last to leave and had an amazing day with everyone.

Next on the agenda was visiting the opera house, harbour bridge, and the rocks, which we did in the 1 day. We caught the ferry from Manly down the river past the opera house, and into circular quay just before the harbour bridge. The views from the boat were stunning, and before long we were getting a close up view of them both. It was strange to actually be at these places rather than just seeing them on the TV. From there we went to the rock, which just sits under one end of the bridge. David Campese ( Australian Rugby Legend ) has a coffee shop here, so we were soon being served coffee by him and he is such a down to earth guy considering at his peak he was considered to be one of the best players in the world.

The following day we went to Palm beach which is 40 mins up the cost from Sydney, and is better known to us as Summer Bay!!! The weather wasn't brilliant for going to the beach but as we were selling the car to some fellow Scots the following day we have to just go. Once there we enjoyed a stroll along the beach, which looks exactly as it does on the TV. We went to Alf's Surf Club, and the Boat House, but unfortunately we were unable to find any cast members.

New Years Eve was spent at Mrs Macquarie’s Point, along with 20,000 other people. There are 39 different locations around the harbour and a total of 1.5 million people watch the festivities on the harbour. It was an early start as we got the bus into the town at 11am. We arrived at the point and found the queue was already massive, easily 2 miles long, so a little disheartened we joined the back of the queue. 2 hours later and we were in the park, and just needed to find a spot from where we could see the show. The problem was that as it is a park there are a lot of trees, and the best views were taken by the people that had queued through the night. After roaming the park for a while we eventually found a spot to squash our little bums into and settled down for the 10hr wait till the fireworks.
They first had a little firework display at 9pm, more so for any young kids that would be sleeping before midnight, and although this display was pretty good it was nothing compared to the midnight display. It was spectacular, the fireworks were all sequenced and were going off everywhere... the skyscrapers, barges on the water, the opera house and the most amazing ones was off the harbour bridge itself. They only lasted 12mins in total but the 12hr wait to see them was definitely worth it .