Saturday 18th April 2009

We caught the 9.30am bus to Sydney and arrived into the city we fell in love with at New Year at lunchtime! The closest campsite we could find to the centre of the city was about 7 miles north in Lane Cove, right on the edge of the National Park and river. Luckily the Greyhound stopped in a suburb called Chatswood and we were able to hop off there and catch the local bus 2 miles down the road…perfect! From the bus stop the campsite was a little trek down a quiet road opposite a huge crematorium and cemetery…lovely!!!! But the National Park looked out the other way and our tent pitch was right by the edge of the forest! It was very pretty and had plenty of wildlife including possums and some rather friendly kookaburra’s and miner birds!!!

We chilled by the campsite until about 4ish and then caught the train into the city to watch the Super 14’s rugby union match (The Sydney Warratah’s vs. The Western Force, Perth).
Our train crossed over the Harbour bridge, which was a bit of a treat for us as we never went the whole way across the last time we were here. The Opera House came into view and I now remembered what it was like seeing the harbour for the first time back on a really hot suny day in December!

I just love Sydney Harbour and the outlook onto the bridge and opera house, its such an inspirational panoramic view and I think very romantic, no wonder it’s the most photographed image of Australia.

We headed to Moore Park to Sydney Football Stadium and watched the game! A modern arena maybe similar in size to the Liberty Stadium got busier as kick off got closer. Our seats were at the try line and we had a pretty good view. The match was a bit slow to start with only penalties scored in the first half with the home team leading 9-3. After half time it got much more exciting with a Western Force try scored right by us, followed 45 seconds later by a Warratah try up the othher end, which gave them the lead again.

There were hardly any away supporters as I suppose Perth isn’t really a quick drive down the road so it was funny listening to all the crowds support the home team!!! Fifteen minutes before the end The Force scored again and took the lead by one point! And then they won!!!!! We found it really amusing as home team fans left the stadium effing and blinding! But I guess thats what all team supporters do when their team loses!!!! It was good fun!

It was the first time we’ve had to wrap up warm as we’ve noticed the change in temperature coming down the coast. I had all my warmest clothes on and because we were sitting around I did get really cold, goodness knows how I’ll cope in NZ! We do have hot water bottles for the van so that should help, haha!!!

The next day was a déjà vu experience as we just went down town into Sydney and did the sights! Took a few photos and had lunch on the harbours edge with perfect views of the bridge and opera house.

Monday we took the bus to Manly as we were on the north shore there was no need to get the ferry! The weather wasn’t great so we just had a walk round the shops and lunch in a little deli. We caught the ferry back to the city and went to the Queen Victoria Building next to Town Hall. Caught the bus back to the campsite for our last night.

On Tuesday we moved camp sites. We stayed on the north side but headed to the coast and a little bit further north up the peninsula to Narabeen, a suburb about 20 miles from the city. The buses ran often and we wanted to explore the beaches on the north coast so being so far out wasn’t a problem, we’d already done everything in the CBD that we’d wanted to do.

We took a walk over to Narabeen Headland, spotted some wild rabbits and enjoyed the views of the beach. The colour of the sand is so orange, its so different to Manly which is only a few beaches away. Darren thinks it might have something to do with the cliffs, but I don’t know! Still it was all very lovely, I just couldn’t imagine not living by the beach….the air is so fresh and you just feel so much healthier.

Wednesday was a real treat. We caught the bus (which stopped at every stop almost!) to the most northern beach of the peninsula coastline. We’ve noticed coming down the east coast how so many cities have big waterway systems and lots of little peninsulas and lakes that feelway inland. When looking at a map you can see them more easily but we’ve come to understand that these areas were most probably developed by early settlers because of the transport links that could be used on the water (especially Sydney, Newcastle and Port Macquarie and Brisbane). So today travelling north towards Palm Beach was no different. We passed plenty of beautiful beaches, Avalon Beach had a shark attack only a few weeks ago. As we continued north the width of the peninsula got smaller and at the tip there must have been only a width of no more than 100m from the Pacific Ocean to the lake/broad water on the other side.

We came up here to see Palm Beach, also know as Summer Bay (Home and Away). The bus dropped us off at the south end of the beach and at first I was like ‘are we on the right beach?’ We were lucky the weather was better today and the sun was shining so we took a walk along the beach towards the north end and the big headland ahead.

Slowly the beach started to become recognisable from the programme and the surf club came into view perched up higher than the beach. As you can imagine I was quite excited but Darren remained calm and collected, pretending that it wasn’t a big deal! (I bet inside he was as excited as me…..haha……NOT!)
The Surf Club is really called Palm Beach SLC but on the beach side they have the Summer Bay sign which still bears Alf Fishers name as chairman! Hasn’t he been in it like forever!? The surf club has been used in the filming of the soap for more than 20 years. Members only inside but we assume a studio is used for the inside filming.

Darren had an icecream and instead of walking on the beach we walked along the top and the fencing and the pathways down to the beach that are used so often on the programme came into sight!!!! Took a few photos and carried on walking! We stumbled across a lot of people down on the beach and realised that they were filming!!! Perfect timing! We were aloud to stand behind the camera crew and watch the scene take place!

I don’t watch it anymore so I didn’t know the characters but if you look at the photos you will see them! It was a typical soap scene where the boy is walking along the beach upset and the girl runs up behind him and they have a talk/argument……then all of a sudden he kisses her (which he thinks was the wrong thing to do and pulls away),then there’s silence and then she pounces on him and they have a big old acting snog!! Hehe it was so funny!
They must have taken the same scene from all kinds of angles 10 times, we were glad to see it anyways!!!!! Not sure when that episode airs over here or at home!! But we may keep a look out for the characters!

So visiting Summer Bay was fun! We walked to the other side of the coast which didn’t take long at all and then caught the bus home for a yummy bbq dinner!

Thursday we headed over to Bondi to check out the beach one last time and do a tiny bit of NZ shopping (ooops) but you wouldn’t want us to freeze over there would you!!!?

And on Friday we relocated one last time, packed up the tent for 4 weeks and moved to a hotel close to the airport! We had an interesting journey reaching the outskirts of the airport as we didn’t want to pay the extra charge for using the train to the airport station. So we caught the bus as close as we could get and walked!!! Yep…we walked across busy highways and along the fence of the airport, oops! But money is of the essence at the moment so it was worth it to us! Felt like a real achievement once we reached the hotel 45mins later!!!!!

It was nice to have a room to ourselves with a mattress and private bathroom. We’re both starting to miss the creature comforts of home, but no complaining…..NZ is only around the corner and the four weeks will be action packed no doubt!

So this is our last blog from Oz. We are sad to be leaving but looking forward to what lies ahead, new adventures no doubt! I think we both have fallen in love with areas of this huge continent. Its so different to home and its hilarious that they have so many potential creatures that can harm you! We managed to avoid getting bitten by the three ‘S’’s (Sharks, Spiders and Snakes!) which is a good thing so who knows what the future hold.
First things first…lets get to NZ! Whoop whoop!

Bye for now xxxxx