“Will that be all sir?”

At least someone had a tree up!
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“Yes” I said as I just ordered fish and chips for my Christmas lunch. It was about as British as it was going to get that day. Emma had ordered a pizza and her cousin Robyn had ordered something pasta if I remember correctly. We were on Bondi Beach in Sydney for Christmas Day and the whole experience was a tad weird. As you may recall from my last blog I was saying how it just didn't feel like Christmas in Australia, the lack of hype and especially the lack of cold weather gave it a feeling of a summer Bank Holiday rather than anything else. The other thing that was weird was that all the shops were open, not just the odd petrol station or shop that in the UK would be manned by some poor bugger who got the short straw but consoled by the fact they could at least close at lunchtime and go enjoy their day. In Sydney all the shops were open, you could go rent yourself a lawnmower, get your car serviced or go get a kebab for lunch if you so fancied.

People on Bondi
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So after we ate we sloped of to sit on the beach just like the other 30,000 or so backpackers who had decided to spend Christmas in Sydney too. Drinking alcohol is no longer allowed on the beach but we smuggled some in water and Coca-Cola bottles just like everyone else. The atmosphere was great, just more like a summer Bank Holiday than Christmas however.

During our time in Sydney I must admit we were being quite lazy. We were not going to bed until 1am on most days and not rising until noon the next day. As a result we didn't actually get to see much of the place other than the sights and sounds in the immediate area. Of course we went on the obligatory tour around the harbour to see the bridge and Opera House, we went to the nearby fish market and botanical gardens but we just couldn't be asked to get up early to do any of the tours that require you to do so. It was actually quite relaxing!

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Soon enough it was New Years Eve. We did wander around the city that day but most of it was shut off from early morning due to the large crowds that were fighting for the best views of the bridge for the forthcoming fireworks. Some of them apparently waiting 18 hours in the same spot, kind of like those people that camp outside a department store to get in early for the Boxing Day sales. We couldn't be waiting all day like that so we watched the events from the rooftop of our apartment and had excellent views. Of course we had a few shandy's so we were both suffering from massive hangovers the next day. We were supposed to go out with an old friend of mine Paul who now lives in Sydney. We had a lovely dinner with him and his wife a few days before but my head was just hurting too much to go out that day.

Playing with his didgeridoo
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On the 2nd of January we heading up north to Brisbane by train. We had both read encounters of train travel in Australia and it sounded like a nice way to do things. We had booked a very expensive first class sleeper cabin for the 13 hour trip but I suspect it would have been more comfortable hitching a ride on the back of a kangaroo. I'm not sure what it was about the train but when we arrived in Brisbane at 5am the next morning we were both exhausted like we had severe jet-lag.

We only stayed in Brisbane for a few days but from what we saw it's a very nice place. One of Emma's school friends (Peter) lives there now so we went to visit and were treated to a great lunch with them in the sun.  Another stupid Australian rule was pointed out to us here, Pete wants to put a swimming pool in his garden but can't put it too close to the fence like he wants to just in case a burglar jumps over the fence and drowns in the pool. The Aussies love their stupid rules!

The bridge
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After Brisbane we headed up to Cairns. For those of you that don't know Cairns is in the tropical north of the country. We looked at the weather forecast before arriving and it said it was a hot 32 degrees C with loads of sunshine. Nice! With this in mind we hired a motorbike for a few days with the intent of seeing some of the outback. Our intent was to skip down to the Great Barrier Reef for some sailing and diving after giving the bike back. The first day on the bike was nice enough, the sun was shining and the wind chill from travelling at speed on a bike was keeping us from getting too hot. We visited a couple of lakes up in the mountains where we went swimming etc. The next day we rode for about 4 hours to visit some waterfalls marked on the map but were a bit disappointed that someone had nicked all the water. I'm not joking, some electricity company had just built a hydro plant there and was nicking all the water, 4 hours we rode for this. Anyway, later that day we would get to see some water, lots of it in fact as it started to rain. Of course we were hours from the hotel and anyone who has experienced rain in a tropical climate will know what I mean here, it was torrential. Being on top of a big mountain too didn't help as it was actually very cold once we got wet. At one point on the way back I only just managed to come to a controlled stop without dropping the bike, I couldn't feel any part of my body, we were still 2.5 hours away and the rain wasn't stopping. BTW I did actually drop the bike earlier that day but I'm sure you have  come to expect that kind of behaviour from me by now!

The Opera House
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The rain it turns out was the front end of the newly formed tropical cyclone Charlotte. High winds were expected and some areas had already been flooded and were now under several feet of water. That kind of put a dampener on things as you can imagine. We couldn't ride the bike anymore and all hopes of diving around the reef were out of the window as the high winds meant the boats couldn't go out. Even if they could the visibility on the reef would have been so poor you might as well have tried to dive in the river Thames for all that you would have been able to see. Why does this always happen to us?

Happy New Year
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After 2 more days of rain we decided we couldn't sit in our room anymore and took a flight over to Auckland. I've been to this city a couple of time before through work and have always wanted to explore a little further. We have been in New Zealand for about a week now and have bought ourselves some camping gear and are currently living out of a tent. I'll write a separate blog about New Zealand in a couple of weeks but so far we have experienced great beaches, fantastic scenery, friendly people, good weather and no stupid laws.

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I really don't know why so many millions of people decide to go backpacking in Australia. Don't get me wrong, Oz can be a great place, I especially liked the west coast around Perth. Of course we have only been in New Zealand about a week but if anyone was thinking about travelling to this part of the world then from what I have seen so far NZ is far better.

I'm going to keep this blog fairly short as I want to get out today in the sunshine. We are planning to go soak ourselves in some thermal mud pools around the volcano and throw ourselves down a big hill in a giant hamster ball for an activity known as Zorbing. It should be great fun but I'll let you know next time.

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Until then, have fun campers!