Christchurch to Sydney - December 6 - 14th

There is a lot to tell you so I'll do my best to be crisp (yeah, right!!!).

We had a gorgeous morning to depart Christchurch and after a lovely breakfast on the patio of our garden suite, we were driven to the airport by our landlady.

The 3 hour flight over the Tasman was beautiful and we landed in Sydney late afternoon and having gained 2 hours over N.Z. time.

Our hotel, which we booked online was pretty bad although expensive. Very old, tired and not very clean. We couldn't get the lights to work and asked the management to come and check out the problem. After an hour when no one showed up and we were about to find another hotel, we spoke with the front desk clerk and he suggested that we put our door card key into a slot inside the room to activate the lights, tv etc. Of course they had neglected to do that initially so we had quite a laugh. Smart way to conserve energy!

The next morning we picked up WALUT II at Maui, the same company as we hired our van from in N.Z. They were all over us and we couldn't figure it out until the young man serving us told us that because we were renting for so long, they were going to be throwing in a bunch of extra's.

This van is 4 feet longer, an almost brand new Mercedes with 48,000 km (in Australia that is nothing!), a great layout and china dishes and real glasses. The old Britz we had in N.Z. had 250,000 km (we put on over 5000 of those) and was probably 1990's vintage. We thought we'd died and gone to heaven!

Drove to the campground at Botany Bay, did all our provisioning and familiarized ourselves with maps of the city.

The camp is filled with the most wonderful birds! Cockatoo's that act as if they are loaded, parrots of every colour and pigeons that have little plumes on the tops of their heads. So cute and sooooo noisy!!!

Next morning (Dec 8) we set out very early with a bus/rail/ferry pass that gave us unlimited travel for a week. We took the bus from outside our camp to the train station a few km's away. What a rail system! There must be 50 or more platforms to choose from and it was all confusing to us so we did the "woman thing" and asked other travellers. Everyone was very helpful and we made it to Circular Quay....right down in Sydney Harbour.

We walked around the harbour to the Opera House, then to The Rocks which used to be the rough part of the harbour and is now trendy shops, restaurants and markets, then to the Financial District. Yes, it is just like Bay Street, Wall Street and any other big city financial district. Suits racing around with cells (called mobiles here) to their ears and briefcases glued to their fists...all looking wildly feral. It was funny to be back in that environment.

We had lunch at the oldest pub in Australia, Fortune of War....very old and quaint. The Guinness was superb and the pie and chips was great and the place was filled with laughter.

Dec 9th we visited Darling Harbour (more shops and restaurants), The Rocks Saturday Market then hopped on a ferry to Manley.

Sidney, we pray that we took photo's of the right hospital. This is where I believe you were born. It was very neat to be standing there and thinking of you and your Mom inside the maternity ward.

Off we went to Manley Beach which is on the Pacific Ocean. Gorgeous beach rimmed with tall trees.

Dec 10 - We drove to Merryne and Dave's (Jenn's friends) for a bbq and although we got a bit lost and due to that and a lot of traffic, we made it albeit over an hour late. What a lovely couple! Their pooch "Dozer" is pretty cool too; he's part dingo and has one almost white eye and the other dark. We were shocked when they announced they'd invited friends and family for the meal. It was a fun-filled time with lots of teasing and educational pieces on all the poisonous and dangerous creatures that inhabit Australia. Dave told us that he found the skin of a snake (over 2 ft long) that is believed to inhabit their rock garden. Is that like finding 1/2 a worm in your apple I wonder??? We told them about the hilarious comment in our Lonely Planet Guide which is "Mother Nature must have been really pissed off the day she created Australia because she gave us every deadly critter possible!"

Dave's brother in law Pete works with National Parks and invited us to go with him the next day on a river trip however we had already planned to do something and declined. It would have been great to have him as a guide however we have come to recognize that to make it around this huge country, we have to decline from time to time.

Dec 11 - We hit the city at a dead run. Transit was delayed everywhere we went and we had a date to climb up over the top of the Sydney Bridge. You got it mate! Over the top!!! As you can see, we wore the coolest suits and everything we wore (sunglasses, hats, handkerchiefs) all had to be tethered to our suits. We were tethered to a railing that ran alongside. We wore headsets so we could hear our guide and we had to take a breathalyser before they would let us climb. There were about 10 others in the group and we and one other couple from the UK were the only tourists. Everyone else was from Sydney. It was so much fun and our wonderful guide Brent was fantastic and funny. It was a gorgeous day and the view when we reached the summit was incredible. We could see the PM's and Governor General's homes, the area where Russel Crowe lives and another where Nicole Kidman resides. Very cool!

We were on the climb for 3 1/2 hours and believe us, it was strenuous....up vertical ladders, climbing through openings trying to avoid cracking ourselves on the head, then up very steep steps.






Of course once we'd done all this work and had returned to terra firma, we felt the need for a good pub meal and a brew! We settled down at The Australian right across the street from the bridge and as we were finishing our meal we saw our guide Brent walking along the sidewalk. We waved and he came to chat. We bought him beer in return for his company and his invaluable travel information. Thank you Brent! We have already done some of those things you suggested.

Prior to the return to the camp, we did some shopping in a large department store and when we emerged we couldn't believe our eyes. There was a huge thunder storm. We ran to the train station and once again fumbled our way to the right platform and back to the camp.

It stormed all night and once again the van wobbled and shook. It was a good night in many ways because Australia is suffering from drought however we learned the next day that lightening caused several fires in North Sydney and blew the roofs off several homes not far from our camp. They can't seem to win these days.

Dec 12 - Happy to leave the big city (as lovely as it is) and headed to the Blue Mountains and the town of Katoomba. We were about 15 km from Katoomba and we felt the air change. It became very chilly and suddenly we were surrounded in fog. We couldn't see the car in front of us. Pretty frightening so we drove at a snails pace and finally found the camp. We had a lovely spot all on our own away from the other campers. Once the fog cleared we could see the beautiful birds that surrounded us. This area is a rainforest and you would never believe, looking at the lush vegetation, that the rest of Australia is suffering so. We spent the rest of the day walking around the quaint town.

Dec 13 - The day started out foggy and since we did not want to spend more than 2 days in any place, we were hoping it would clear so we could see the sites. We walked to Echo Point Lookout and were faced with a wall of fog so we did the only thing Bob and Sharon could do......we went to a shop that conducted wine tastings! It was only 200 feet from the lookout so we figured, give Mother Nature time to wake up and the rest of the day will be great. Indeed, after sampling a few (tee hee) and ordering a mixed CASE....we emerged to discover that the sun had indeed come out and the view was simply incredible! We had asked the shopkeeper to store our case until we could bring the van to pick it up and then returned to the lookout. The gorge before us is similar to the Grand Canyon only it is filled with and most of it covered in trees.

We walked to Scenic World and took the rides out over the canyon to the rainforest below. Then we walked the 850 steps back up to Echo Point.

Later in the day we returned to the park and drove the van up to the shop.....except.....the van stalled out on us, not once but twice....and Bob managed to get it to the side of the street. He called Maui (the rental company) and they said they'd send a mechanic and to call them back in 20 minutes for a status. While he was back at the phone booth, a young man suddenly jumped into the driver's seat. I was reading the newspaper and calmly looked at him and asked if he was here to save us. He grinned and said "no, I'm going to take your van!" It gave me a bit of a start then he said that he was here to try to get us going. He isn't a diesel mechanic so said he'd get a tow truck to pick us up. Bob went back to the phones and we were told that a truck would come and take us back to the camp. 40 minutes later a HUGE truck arrived and Danny, a fantastic young man, LIFTED our van up onto the top of his truck. How very embarrassing for us as we arrived at the campground, everyone coming out to watch as he unloaded us onto our site. Thank God we were sitting in the cab with him and not perched in our van!!!

Yesterday morning at 7:00 he arrived to pick load our van and drive us 75 km to the Mercedes Service Centre.....back toward Sydney....the opposite direction we had intended to go.

The service at the centre was fantastic and it was determined to be an O ring in the air filter that had split and caused the stall. Within 2 hours we were out of there and on the road with an altered plan. We decided to take the M7 toll road south to Canberra. This is the place where most of the forest fires have been burning for what seems like an eternity. We weren't certain if it was somewhere we should travel however the advice we were given was it was ok as long as we stayed away from the fire areas.

As we drove south we were astonished at how dry everything is.......all we could see was brown with the occasional green tree. We saw sheep for the first time in Australia and we have no clue how they live since everything appears dead. We also began to notice the smell of smoke in the air.

The weather since we arrived (with the exception of Blue Mountains) has been low 20's but yesterday was the first 30C day.

Last night we had rain and it became very cool. Today is cool (18C) and it was a perfect day to walk downtown to see Parliament House and other sites. Canberra is almost two cities, divided by a man-made lake. Everything is spread out and we didn't realize by looking at the maps just how far it was to walk. On the south is all the embassies, Parliament, National Art Gallery and consulates. On the north is the financial and shopping areas. It was amazing to us how deserted the government side of the city was....hardly anyone around and no one walking. A police officer at Parliament House engaged us in conversation and was shocked to discover how far we'd walked. He now has us pegged as "Crazy Canadians"!

We walked back to the north side of the city and had lunch at an Irish pub and here we are!

Tomorrow we leave for Jervis Bay on the coast.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO SEAN TODAY!!!

Happy Robson Christmas on the 16th to all our family. We love you and miss you!!!

P.S. Am unable to load any photo's from Bob's camera from this machine. Will do so later. Bridge climb photo's were on cd.
xoxo