Week 6

Kiwi Army

As we had booked a trip to go up to the Blue Mountains the next day we thought we’d relax a bit today and not go too mad. Sydney FC were playing the New Zealand Knights so we thought we’d go and watch that in the evening. Plus it was another chance to tick a ground off of the list. We weren’t expecting too much after the last Aussie football match we saw but at least we thought there would be goals as Sydney were current Champions and New Zealand bottom of the league and boasting a line-up including Dean Gordon, Scott Gemmill and Neil Emblem!

As expected the football wasn’t great and New Zealand took a shock lead. Mid way through the first half we noticed a small group gathering behind the goal (opposite Sydney’s end – The Cove) and singing some songs. Seeing as New Zealand is a flight journey away we come to the conclusion that they could only be English. So at half-time we made our way around the ground and joined in.

Are thoughts were correct, obviously a lot of guys out here for the cricket had come to watch the match soon and we all had plenty of fun cheering on the Kiwis and turning many Barmy Army songs into Kiwi Army. In typical English fashion we made took the mickey big time. To our delight the ‘Knights’ managed to hold out for a famous 1-0 victory and we all went mad. Some Kiwi guy had about 100 of us doing the Haka, pure entertainment. All the players come over and clapped us at the end …. they’ve probably never had so many fans away from home.

On the way back we stopped in the Sports Bar as it was Snakebite Sunday, Snakebites for just $3 a schooner, about £1.20! We all made it back staggered the last of us getting in at 4am. So much for taking it easy.

The Blue Mountains

7am start and some very tired eyes. We got on the coach and made our way to the Blue Mountains. First stop was Olympic Park. We didn’t get to tour any of the Stadia but at least got to see the ground where England won the Rugby World Cup.

Our next port of call was Featherdale Park where we got to see lots of wild native Australian animals and others. We all really enjoyed stroking the different animals and feeding them too, although we left feeding the crocodile to one of the workers there!

The most recognisable landmarks of the Blue Mountains were the three sisters which basically look like three big rocks at the end of a cliff. Apparently they were daughters of an Aboriginal witch doctor who turned them to stone so they couldn’t get killed when his tribe went into battle but unfortunately he got killed himself and couldn’t turn them back!

The reason why they’re called the Blue Mountains is because the hazy sky makes the top of the mountains look blue. There is a beautiful view of the range and they’re likened to the Grand Canyon. There’s different ways to look around the mountains, we went on the Skyway, Cableway and the Railway which is the steepest railway in the world.

To finish the day we came back by boat and were dropped of at Sydney Harbour with still plenty of time to go to the restaurant next to our hostel which had $10 steak specials.

I Wouldn’t Let My Dog Sleep There

This was our first day of a week in Bondi but luckily we managed to cut that down just to one night and get a refund on the week’s money we had paid upfront. To say the place was a dive would be a big understatement. The rooms were tiny, smelt of damp, really basic, dead cockroaches it was worse than a prison cell. So we was in and out straight away looking for somewhere else to stay.

We managed to find somewhere in Coogee which is the other main city beach location in Sydney. After spending the day on Bondi Beach we went up to Coogee to have a look first before we made the same mistake again. The hostel was 10 times better so we immediately booked up.# Back at Bondi we made sure we quickly showered and got out so we was in that room for as short as possible. We to the Bondi Hotel and watched the England v Australia 20/20 match. No change in a different form of cricket, the exact same outcome. We spent the night topping up the jukebox before going to listen to the live band and then moving onto the beach. I think we done quite well and cut our stay in the room down to about two hours.

Coogee Beach

The next few days were spent relaxing down the beach and treating ourselves to some nice meals in the evenings, not that we ever cook our own dinner anyway.

There was one mad night though. We had been out for a few drinks in the evening – me and Johno decided to call it a night whilst Jacko, Whitto and Hemmings decided to stay out. It involved snakebites, The Undertaker, a cab ride to Oxford St and a warning of eviction haha.

Oh and I nearly forgot to mentioned about the day Johno spent all day on the booze watching England lose yet again in the cricket, meeting Scooby again also. A good night was cut short when someone had to be escorted home, no prizes for guessing.

Not Exactly Pacha

We were all set for a big night out as it was the weekend and expecting Coogee to come to life. We went to the Beach Palace Hotel which has three floors. Downstairs a bar, restaurant and bookies (a lot of pubs have bookies inside, how good!). Upstairs is a bar with ocean views and on the middle floor the club.

We met Gemma and Lisa again and started off in the bar upstairs before moving onto the club. Don’t get me wrong there was nothing wrong with the crowd or the venue just the cheesy music that they seem to play everywhere and on repeat. If I have to put my hands up for Detroit another time it will be the 363,291st time I’ve done it in 6 weeks! As normal we just got on with it got back on the snakebites, stained all our clothes and broke Hemmings’ camera or someone did??