Sydney to Byron Bay

G'day,

Sorry for the lack of communication this last week. I haven't had much time to get on the internet I am afraid but I have managed to find free internet access and so thought I should up-date you all. Unfortunately I cannot upload photos here so photos will be added at some point in the future.

Tuesday 23rd Jan was my last day in Sydney. That evening Jo and I went to check our emails and on the way back to the hostel I bumped into Ben Abraham who was in my maths class at uni! What a small world it is. He was passing on a bus, saw me and jumped off to say hi.

On Wednesday 24th Jan I left Sydney on the 7am bus to go to Newcastle. The weather was horrible and so I spent the afternoon wandering around Newcastle's shops and along the foreshore. I also popped in past the museum and art gallery. Can't say I was too impressed with Newcastle, especially in the rain. The hostel was lovely and friendly though which made up for it. I met 2 girls there from London, Eli and Helen. We had a good laugh in the pub that night and have met up at numerous places since! On the Thursday I went on a wine tour in the Hunter Valley. It was great fun and I tasted a lot of lovely wine and liquers. There are so many vineyards there, I think the number 140 was mentioned at some point! After the wine tour I got dropped off at the bus stop to get the 5pm bus to Port MacQuarie.

Friday 26th Jan: AUSTRALIA DAY!!
On Friday I got up early and went to the Koala Hospital. The Koalas were so cute and I was so tempted to adopt one called Henry. He was so adorable. Will def be adding a photo of him on here soon. Henry:

I then went down to the Town Green to see what was all on for Australia Day. There were a number of lovely stalls at the market and there was entertainment on as well. The entertainment included belly dancing and some bands. After wandering round there I went for a walk round the Creek. It was a lovely walk. I didn't see any koalas but I did see lots of bats. They are huge out here. I headed back into town and met Eli and Helen in the pub. We went for a wander around and found a company doing a dolphin, sunset and BBQ cruise so we signed up for that. After a quick shower we headed down to the shore and got on board out cruise boat. It was a great evening, too cloudy to see sunset but we saw lots of dolphins and they came right up to the boat! The champagne and the BBQ were good too! On Saturday morning I had my second surf lesson. It wasn't as good as the first but I still managed to stand a couple of times. I just kept getting frustrated! I loved Port MacQuarie. It is a lovely little coastal town. Wish I was staying there longer. I got the midday bus to Coffs Harbour. That night I had the BBQ that the hostel put on for us and then played Monopoly with the rest of the people in my room! I had injured my foot while surfing and could hardly walk so was glad to spend a night in the hostel.

Sunday was a very lazy day. After talking to Murray on the phone I headed down to the beach and stayed there until mid afternoon. I then went for a walk to Muttonbird Island. The views of Coffs Harbour were great.

In the evening we had pizza at the hostel and then I watched the Mens final of the Australian Open.

Monday 29th Jan: in the morning I walked the 3km trip to the Big Banana. They had a lookout there which also gave great views of the coast. They also have a sweet factory where they do demonstrations of how they make their sweets. It was really interesting as we got shown how they make the writing and shapes in their sweets - similar to rock. The afternoon was spent on the beach with Helen, Elli and their friend Amanda. In the evening we went to the pub for a pub quiz with lots of people from the hostel. Tuesday 30th Jan: I got the 8am bus to Byron Bay, we stopped off at the Big Prawn!

In the afternoon I spent it planning my next month of travelling. I have been given a good deal on my Fraser Island and Whitsunday Islands trips and had to give dates for them. So I now have everything planned up until about the 3rd March when I will hopefully start working in the outback! In my moment of madness when planning my trip I decided to book a skydive for today!

Wednesday 31st Jan: Early start this morning as I was picked up at 7.30am to go and do my 14,000ft skydive. It was fantastic. I absolutely loved it. When I came down I wanted to go up again! It was a lovely clear morning and the views were fantastic. The strange thing is that I was never scared! The Bridge Climb was more scary than the skydive. If I have the money I can see me doing it again nearer the end of my trip!

The freefall:

Landed safely:

This afternoon I am planning to laze around on the beach and top up my tan a bit more - not that it really needs it lol.

There we go, up-to-date now! Will put photos up at the first possible opportunity. Hope you are all well. Speak to you soon.

xxxx

My first surf lesson

Yesterday has to have been one of my most fun, and tiring, days this last week. I had my first attempt at surfing and then stayed up till 1.45am to watch Murray v Nadal!

To be honest yesterday morning I could not understand why people love surfing so much. The first beach we went to didn't have any waves big enough and then the second one (the one we stayed at) had rather big and strong waves! The morning session was a struggle. I was constantly being swept back to shore and never getting far enough out to attempt anything. After lunch though, this all changed. The waves got smaller and the current calmed down. However by this stage my arms were so tired from the morning session that when I tried to push myself up, I just didn't have the strength in my arms! After a while, one of the instructors came over to help me and I managed to stand up twice. I was rather pleased with myself and then I managed to do it myself just before we had to pack up and go home. When I was standing I could then see why everyone loves it so much. It felt so good. Andrew - I can see why you go surfing so often now. :) However, today I did wake up and my muscles, especially in my arms, are feeling rather stiff but that isn't going to put me off. It was a great day out.

After tea last night I sat and watched the tennis in the hostel. What a match. I really wish I had gone to Melbourne to see it. I thought it would be close but I never expected it to be that close. It was good fun watching it as I think nearly every Scot in the hostel was watching it.

Today I have been busy planning my next 10 days of travelling up the coast. To find out what that all involves you are going to have to come back and find out once I have done it!!

Hope everything is good back home. Has it snowed in the NE yet? I heard there was slush the other day but has there been any proper snow yet? It's hard to imagine snow when it is so warm out here!

OK, I better go. Speak to you soon.
xxx

I jumped off Sydney Harbour Bridge and survived!!

Hi guys,

Well on Friday night I eventually got round to doing the Sydney Harbour Bridge Climb. It was amazing. I did the night time climb and it was great fun. I wasn't as scared as I thought I would be but the ladders up and down were the scariest part and then I was rather frightened when standing at the top getting my photo taken as the wind was rather strong. Unfortunately the photo below isn't great quality as there is not a scanner here so it is a photo of the photo!

It was a great experience though and the views were amazing. We saw a bride and groom down by the harbour, a comet passed over us, a fireworks display out at Olympic Park and of course Sydney all lit up. Right at the end we jumped of the last step just so that we could say we jumped off the bridge and survived. Although I think I might have scared one or two people by sending them that message and they hadn't realised I was climbing the bridge - sorry! Thanks so much Jo for selling me your gift voucher and thank you so much Mum for buying Jo's voucher for my Christmas.

Yesterday (Saturday) morning, Jo and I did a day tour of the Blue Mountains but got dropped off in Katoomba on the way back so that we could spend a night there. The first place we stopped was at Echo Point to see The Three Sisters:

The views were amazing. We then went onto Scenic World were you can go on the World's steepest train, however Jo and I decided to leave that for today so that we didn't have to rush the walks at the bottom of the valley. We then went to the Jenolan Caves for a cave tour. At the entrance of the caves there was a lovely lake with duck swimming in it:

The lake was so clear and the colours were amazing. The tour of the caves was very interesting and again the colours and shapes were a great sight. On the way back we stopped at one of the valleys to see the damage caused by fires in the last few months. All the brown patches are the areas that were burnt.

Jo and I then spent the evening in Katoomba. We went out for a meal and then had a quiet time in the hostel.

Today, we went on the World's steepest railway. It is 450m in length, 250m vertical drop and the steepest incline was 52 degrees!

We then went for a walk through the rainforest and got the scenic cableway (a cable car) back up. The views were amazing and I think, along with the bridge climb, it helped overcome my fear of heights!

We then got the train back to Sydney and have checked into out hostel. I am going surfing tomorrow and then sorting everything out on Tuesday so that I can leave to go up the coast on Wednesday. I have decided to go and travel now so that I can work in the outback for a few months.

Hope you are all well,

xxx

The Truck Experience!!!

Hi again,

I just thought I would let you know about my Truck experience on Monday night. On Monday night Wayde kindly let me go with him to work - driving steel to Dubbo which is over the Blue Mountains. We left Sydney about 10.45pm and drove to Dubbo arriving there about 3.30am. We weren't due to unload until 6.30am and so we had time for about 3hrs sleep. Unfortunately I did not find it so easy to sleep as Wayde did and so I probably got a total of about 1-2hrs sleep!! After unloading we drove back to Sydney arriving into Sydney about 1.30pm. I was even allowed to have a shot steering - not as easy as driving a car lol. The drive back was lovely over the Blue Mountains although there were a lot of Sunday Drivers out and holding us up! Here are some photos:

I must say that I did feel very high up when I was in the cab!

That afternoon Wayde went back to work again at 3.30pm after dropping me off at the train station. I fell asleep as soon as I got to the hostel, I really do not know how these drivers cope with so little sleep! It was a good experience but I could not do it as a full time job. Back at the Hostel in Sydney I met up with Jo and her friend Liz from home. We went out for tea at Darling Harbour and had our free glass of champagne in the hostel bar.

Yesterday I went job hunting as I might stay here for a while to earn some money. I am still a bit undecided as to what to do so watch this space over the next week.

Not much else to report over here. Keep the news coming from home please.

Lots of love,

xxxx

Canberra

Hi everyone,

Sorry for the lack of news lately. I have just had an amazing week visiting Canberra and a number of towns and tourist attractions between Sydney and Canberra with Wayde. We left Sydney last Sunday morning and took the tourist route to Canberra. The drive would normally take about 3hrs I think, but we took 6hrs door to door!! On the way we stopped in past the Wombeyan Caves:

They were really interesting, unfortunately not many of the photos have come out as my camera isn't great in the dark!! There were a number of signs on the road to and from the caves reminding us to toot our car horn on blind corners. Being the mature adults that we are, we thought this was great fun and continued this for the rest of the week - oh the simple things entertained us! We then stopped to see yet another of Australia's Big Things:

On Monday morning we went to Parliament House and joined one of the tours there. It was very interesting. We then went on a tour round the Australian Institute of Sport. The first half hour was spent practising our basketball shooting, penalty kicks, and a number of other sports. We then got shown round all the halls and just for you Laura here is part of the gymnastics hall:

It was really interesting hearing about all the athletes training programmes. We then spent the afternoon relaxing in the Botanic Gardens before going up to the top of Telstra Tower, unfortunately it wasn't that clear and so the photos have not come out too well.

Tuesday morning we went to Cockington Green which is a display of miniature buildings and gardens of Great Britain - I felt right at home!! There was even Braemar Castle:

We then went back to the war memorial and spent a good few hours there.

In the evening after our meal we went up to one of the lookouts. It made Canberra look so big!!

On Wednesday we left Canberra and took our time coming up the coast. We went to the beach in the afternoon and stayed the night in Batemans Bay I think - I will have to confirm place names with Wayde as we visited so many places I can't remember them all!!

On Thursday we headed up to Berry where we stayed on Thursday and Friday night. On Friday morning we went riding in Kangaroo Valley. It was great to get back on a horse even though it was one of our hottest days away! On Friday afternoon we visited a winery and sampled a number of lovely wines. However the Crooked River Winery that we visited on our way home yesterday was so much nicer. Every wine we tasted we liked and of course we bought a few bottles to take home with us! We also stopped in past Kiama to see the Blowhole but unfortunately it wasn't blowing yesterday. However we still had fun climbing over the rocks .

We got back to Sydney last night and I am staying with Wayde and his family until Tuesday. There might be the chance of going with Wayde in his truck tonight/tomorrow but will have to wait and see what happens. On Tuesday I am meeting up with Jo to plan our Blue Mountains trip at the end of the week.

Wayde, thank you so much for being my personal tour guide for the week. I had a great time and I hope you enjoyed it too. And remember.............blind corner = beep beep, hehe!! :)

Take care everyone and thanks for all your emails.

xxx

Olympic PArk

Hi everyone,

I thought I would put up some photos from the Olympic Park, as I forgot to mention it in my last post! Ryan, Bobby, Keith and I visited there on 29th December. We went on the tour of the Stadium and then wondered around other areas of the park. The tour was great fun. We started up on the 6th floor to see what the view is like from the back of the stadium:

We then worked our way down the floors and got to see the Platinum Members area, the Gold members area and the media boxes:

We then went down to see the changing rooms and got to throw some balls around the warm-up room:After this we headed out through the players tunnel to load music and cheers and had the chance to get our photos taken on the Olypmpic Podium:

The tour was really interseting and it is difficult to imagine the whole place being so busy at the time of the olypmics. We also went up to the top of the Novotel where there is a 360 degrees observation point. It wasn't the clearest of days but we still got a good view of the park and quite a good view of Sydney and beyond. Before getting the train back we went in to see what the Olympic Pool was like. Unfortunatly we did not have time for a swim. The place was huge though. It had the 50m pool shown below and it also had another large pool for warm-up and a fun pool with a flume and rapids as well.

The last two days I have spent walking for miles round Sydney. I will up-date you with all of that another time!

I hope the weather has calmed down for you all.

Lots of love,

Louise

HAPPY NEW YEAR

Happy New Year everybody. Sounds like the places to spend New Year this year was either in Sydney or Aberdeen! Sorry to hear the fireworks everywhere else were cancelled!! The forecast over here was for rain but thankfully it held off! Ryan, Bobby, Keith and I headed down to Mrs Macquaries Point at 10.30am to get our spot. We arrived to a queue about 1km long and so it took us 2hours 20mins to get it - well worth it though! We got a spot looking onto the opera house and harbour which was amazing. We met an Irish couple and had some good banter with them. The fireworks were awsome although none of our cameras does it justice! Below is a photo which was taken just after midnight!

On New Years day, Keith had a friend who took us out on his boat in the harbour:

It was a great experience and we all got a chance of sailing it! Thankfully the weather held for the whole afternoon too! Thanks Keith for sorting that out.

Today, I have walked round Sydney and seen more of the sights: Hyde park, the Anzac memorial, Botanic Gardens, walked along part of the bridge, the observatory, Parliament House and quite a few more attractions. Also popped down to Bondi but it was raining so I didn't stay too long!

Before New Year I spent a day and a half with my cousins. We went to the park, I watched them play tennis and we had a barbeque. It was great to catch up with them.

I would write more but my credit is running out. Will try and get on again soon.

Take care

xx