G'day, strewth, fair dinkum etc
Hello from Australia. I'm in Melbourne now, enjoying the Commonwealth Games atmosphere. I'll be at the MCG Saturday night to watch the athletics (see if you can spot me in the 83000 crowd!).
My final night in NZ was spent watching some rugby, the Crusaders being the top team in NZ at the moment. Not having paid much attention to the Super 14 previously, I was surprised by the razzmatazz of the occasion. Before the game was a display of motor bike stunt riding, then some dancing girls, the the crusaders themselves, 7 men on horseback riding around the edge of the pitch (sadly one fell off and had to be taken to hospital though I understand he was ok). http://uk.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/mfconway@btinternet.com/detail?.dir=4789&.dnm=a1afscd.jpg&.src=ph
Then after the home team scored points, there was a blast of 'pumping' music accompanied by cheerleaders! Incidentally, the score was even at half time, then the Crusaders brought on some of their star players from the bench and ran away with it 43-15. The way they kept the ball alive after the final hooter had gone until they scored yet another try was very impressive!
Incidentally, that evening the Kiwis won the Rugby Sevens at the Commonwealth games. Whereas the Aussies seem to like all sports, the Kiwis are a bit rugby fixated, which shows up in the medals table, where the Kiwis are well behind the deep fried mars bar eating Scots!
I flew to Sydney the next day. I've seen the Bridge and Opera House - both are wonderful structures. I then crossed the bridge to see the view from the other side, and did my usual endless tramps around the streets. The scale, height and business of Sydney came as a shock to the system - I think two months in NZ has turned me into a country bumpkin! The sheer number of Chinese came as a shock as well - I could have been forgiven for thinking I'd boarded the wrong plane and ended up in Singapore a month early!
One of the great Sydney trips is the ferry to Manly (a pleasant beach suburb). Sadly on the day I went to Manly, the ferry was on strike, and I had to take a bus instead!!! The notice outside a Manly bar sums it up nicely.
http://uk.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/mfconway@btinternet.com/detail?.dir=17e8&.dnm=7054.jpg&.src=ph
In Manly I visited Oceanworld, where in addition to the fishy exhibits was a 'nice' display of poisonous snakes and spiders - it's always worth brushing up on these!
A highly recommended walk goes from Manly to Spit Point. It starts off going past expensive house then heads through a surprisingly dense wood, then climbs through a regenerating wood, along a beach then through a narrow ribbon of woodland between the houses and the sea (only 50ft wide, but enough to isolate you). Quite steep in parts, it takes a good 3-4 hours, especially if you do the lighthouse extension (not recommended!). There is a lot of wildlife on view, plenty of lizards and birdlife, plus my first snake! It was in the grass right by the path, and certainly looked like one of the highly poisonous ones I had seen that morning! It's the brown object on the far right of the photo (a bit like a hosepipe). Ok, not the clearest photo ever.
http://uk.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/mfconway@btinternet.com/detail?.dir=17e8&.dnm=ddaa.jpg&.src=ph
From Sydney, I took the train to Canberra, the nation's slightly pointless capital (we have two great cities in Melbourne and Sydney, but can't decide which one should be the Capital so we'll build a new city between them, in the middle of nowhere). Canberra has some decent museums, but the highlight for me was wandering around the Parliament building - once you've been security checked you're free to wander around. This is the House of Representaives
http://uk.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/mfconway@btinternet.com/detail?.dir=/7a4f&.dnm=dd24.jpg&.src=ph
The layout of the city was done by an American, and is vaguely like Washington DC, with a massive (make that ludicrously big) lake in the middle. Unfortunately, this means that everything is excessively spread out, and walking aroud the city is extremely hard work! Very noisy parrots too.
http://uk.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/mfconway@btinternet.com/detail?.dir=/7a4f&.dnm=5562.jpg&.src=ph
From Canberra was an all day journey to Melbourne (by connecting coach then train). After the metropolitan sophisticates of Sydney and Canberra, it was nice to see some proper Aussie men on the train, i.e. rough looking and wearing vests!
Come on England!!!
Mike
My final night in NZ was spent watching some rugby, the Crusaders being the top team in NZ at the moment. Not having paid much attention to the Super 14 previously, I was surprised by the razzmatazz of the occasion. Before the game was a display of motor bike stunt riding, then some dancing girls, the the crusaders themselves, 7 men on horseback riding around the edge of the pitch (sadly one fell off and had to be taken to hospital though I understand he was ok). http://uk.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/mfconway@btinternet.com/detail?.dir=4789&.dnm=a1afscd.jpg&.src=ph
Then after the home team scored points, there was a blast of 'pumping' music accompanied by cheerleaders! Incidentally, the score was even at half time, then the Crusaders brought on some of their star players from the bench and ran away with it 43-15. The way they kept the ball alive after the final hooter had gone until they scored yet another try was very impressive!
Incidentally, that evening the Kiwis won the Rugby Sevens at the Commonwealth games. Whereas the Aussies seem to like all sports, the Kiwis are a bit rugby fixated, which shows up in the medals table, where the Kiwis are well behind the deep fried mars bar eating Scots!
I flew to Sydney the next day. I've seen the Bridge and Opera House - both are wonderful structures. I then crossed the bridge to see the view from the other side, and did my usual endless tramps around the streets. The scale, height and business of Sydney came as a shock to the system - I think two months in NZ has turned me into a country bumpkin! The sheer number of Chinese came as a shock as well - I could have been forgiven for thinking I'd boarded the wrong plane and ended up in Singapore a month early!
One of the great Sydney trips is the ferry to Manly (a pleasant beach suburb). Sadly on the day I went to Manly, the ferry was on strike, and I had to take a bus instead!!! The notice outside a Manly bar sums it up nicely.
http://uk.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/mfconway@btinternet.com/detail?.dir=17e8&.dnm=7054.jpg&.src=ph
In Manly I visited Oceanworld, where in addition to the fishy exhibits was a 'nice' display of poisonous snakes and spiders - it's always worth brushing up on these!
A highly recommended walk goes from Manly to Spit Point. It starts off going past expensive house then heads through a surprisingly dense wood, then climbs through a regenerating wood, along a beach then through a narrow ribbon of woodland between the houses and the sea (only 50ft wide, but enough to isolate you). Quite steep in parts, it takes a good 3-4 hours, especially if you do the lighthouse extension (not recommended!). There is a lot of wildlife on view, plenty of lizards and birdlife, plus my first snake! It was in the grass right by the path, and certainly looked like one of the highly poisonous ones I had seen that morning! It's the brown object on the far right of the photo (a bit like a hosepipe). Ok, not the clearest photo ever.
http://uk.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/mfconway@btinternet.com/detail?.dir=17e8&.dnm=ddaa.jpg&.src=ph
From Sydney, I took the train to Canberra, the nation's slightly pointless capital (we have two great cities in Melbourne and Sydney, but can't decide which one should be the Capital so we'll build a new city between them, in the middle of nowhere). Canberra has some decent museums, but the highlight for me was wandering around the Parliament building - once you've been security checked you're free to wander around. This is the House of Representaives
http://uk.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/mfconway@btinternet.com/detail?.dir=/7a4f&.dnm=dd24.jpg&.src=ph
The layout of the city was done by an American, and is vaguely like Washington DC, with a massive (make that ludicrously big) lake in the middle. Unfortunately, this means that everything is excessively spread out, and walking aroud the city is extremely hard work! Very noisy parrots too.
http://uk.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/mfconway@btinternet.com/detail?.dir=/7a4f&.dnm=5562.jpg&.src=ph
From Canberra was an all day journey to Melbourne (by connecting coach then train). After the metropolitan sophisticates of Sydney and Canberra, it was nice to see some proper Aussie men on the train, i.e. rough looking and wearing vests!
Come on England!!!
Mike
posted by Michael Conway at
3:49 am
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home