Beck's Aus Adventure Update =D
Intended for family and friends, but all is welcome to follow my journey =D
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Showing posts tagged sydney
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An Introduction!
Hey guys!
This is my Adventure Blog, where while I’m away on my two and a half month journey, I’ll be updating with blog posts, pictures and maybe even videos! Feel free to send me messages on the clicky button that way —-»>
For those of you who don’t know, I’m Beck and am 20 days away from leaving the sunny United Kingdom for the sunny lands of down under….
My itinerary is as follows:
27th Dec - 29th Dec: Flight from London- Hong Kong - Sydney
29th Dec - 4th Jan: Sydney
4th Jan - 23rd Jan: Adelaide (Glenelg, Centre, Kangaroo Island)
23rd Jan - 2nd Feb:Canberra
3rd Feb - 15th Feb: Melbourne
15th Feb - 22nd Feb: Sydney (Centre, Bondai Beach)
22nd Feb - 28th Feb: Wellington, New Zealand
28th Feb – 4th Mar: Taupo, Rotorua, Waitomo, Bay of Islands
4th Mar – 5th Mar: Auckland
5th Mar – 7th Mar: Matamata
7th Mar – 9th Mar: Auckland
9th Mar - 10th Mar: Flight from Auckland - Hong Kong - London
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I think I’m getting jetlag this time!
Right now I want to cwtch up in bed and sleep. Body clock is completely screwed, I’m not even sure how it’s 6.25pm lol. I managed to get some sleep on the flight, but it was slight doses and maybe racked up around 3 hours maybe? I’m not even sure, that flight dragged. Everytime I woke up I looked up at the seatbelt sign hoping it would be on and we’d be landing already, but noooo xD
Not long left now, about 5 1/2 hours to wait until I can get on my plane to Sydney, and then it’ll take about 10 hours to get to Sydney. I hope it goes by fast and I hope I sleep very well (and comfy at that)
My onflight entertainment consisted of three movies (Friends with benefits, Green Lantern and Bad Teacher), listening to several podcasts, and a lil bit of music to encourage sleep (failure T.T)
The food was quite nice, mac n cheese ^,^ Brekkie consisted of fruit, yoghurt, bread roll and some scrambled egg/sausage concoction that included green stuff and onions, so i passed on that.
Speaking of food, Im actually starving and thirsty, gonna go wander for a bit, get these aching limbs back to normal ready for round two. See you laters!!!
<3
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I suppose I should update you all!
As most of you would have seen, I’ve been around on Facebook and Twitter :D My journey’s been epic so far, and I’m so excited for the next load of days. It’s New Years Day today, and after a load of alcohol and so much fun, me & Kathryn decided to have a chill day today. Before I get onto what I’ve done today though, I will take us back to Hong Kong Airport and fill you in with all my happenings!
The 5 1/2 hour wait in HK wasn’t too bad. As I was hungry, that was my mission: Find Food. The only sit-down food places I could see at first were Asian-foods and they didn’t smell nice (no offence? xD) so I settled for some pringles and a twix. Not quite as satisfying as hoped, but I was too hungry to care. After a while of wandering around the shops, Hunger really started to kick in so I went on the prowl for some proper food. One of the biggest airports in the world is surely to have a fast food chain store that I know and love, right? Hoping to find a BK I stumbled upon McDonalds, and enjoyed a chicken nugget meal xD The rest of the wait didn’t go bad at all, once the screen updated the gate number my flight would be leaving at, I sat there and hit up the free WiFi, ending up Skyping the guys and playing a bit of very laggy minecraft… xD
The flight to Sydney wasn’t too bad. It was still long though and I didn’t get much sleep, but I did manage to read a good few chapters of A Game of Thrones, between playing games on the in-flight screen. One time I was dozing, I got woken by the ‘Seatbelt’ Sign, which meant turbulence. It’s not as bad as it sounds, but the Pilot had warned us of this before take off, stating that Darwin was having minor tropical storms, and we could get turbulence whilst flying nearby. Thanks for that, I think I’d have rather to have not known xD It wasn’t bad at all though, just a little bit jittery. I’ve been through worse!
I arrived in Sydney around the scheduled time and queued for a good while at customs, having had no black/blue pen on the plane I couldn’t fill in my form, so had to do it at the desk. Got through customs fine, declared a few things and had my bag checked, but was nothing I didn’t expect, so yeah, Thom, you won’t be seeing me on ‘Nothing to Declare’. Sorry Brother :p
Walking out of customs into the arrivals lounge I saw Kathryn waiting for me ^,^ We had a lil chat before heading outwards when I saw the vodaphone AU shop that had been advertising free ‘prepaid’ sim cards with cheap international rates, so I got one, after about half hour of waiting/sorting it out.
We then headed for a train to take us near our hotel. We needed a connection and the in-between stop (Central) was quite confusing, with a similar design to London Underground, but not simple enough for us to figure out before wandering aimlessly around the place, but we found it after all :D
After arriving at the hotel and settling in, we went for a wander around the local area to find our bearings and such. We had food at this German cafe, and it was nommy :D It’s a nice little area, a load of cafe’s, restaurants, bars, etc. and one amazing view of Sydney, this one being from our room:
We decided to have an early night, after spending most of the day yawning. Kathryn thought we didn’t have to get up too early, so a nice night of 12 hours sleep was very welcomed, and I was rather relieved that I wasn’t jet lagged that much, at least not enough to waste days.
Sydney day two consisted of us walking. A lot of walking, including a little, hilarious fall off a curb (Yes, me) after about 15 minutes of leaving the hotel. Wearing leggings too, I had broke them and spent the rest of the day walking around Sydney with holes in each leg at the knees. Nice Beck, real nice.
A little hard to decipher, but we walked for miles!
In the night we went out to this local pizza place, which does these really thin based pizzas, which were very tasty and crispy!
We searched after for a bar we’d read about that do cocktails in chrome sea shell cups and sounded generally amazing, only to find nothing at the address. After returning and researching it, we discovered it was an exclusive access bar with a hidden entrance… No awesome cocktails for us T.T
Day Three (NYE) started around 10.30, we got up and had brekkie (Crumpets and tea anyone?) and headed to the train station (the blistering feet agreed with this). We caught a train to Circular Quay and walked along the harbour-side to ‘The Rocks’, wandering in and out of shops, before reaching under the Sydney Harbour Bridge:
Here, it started ‘raining’ which was quite funny as to us brits, we’d call it picking to rain. 60% chances of rain became true, and it lasted minutes, if that lol ^,^
We walked around for a bit longer and decided to indulged in a treat at the Guylian Cafe.
Indulge we did in a baked chocolate cake and a praline milkshake. Expensive, but very delicious and scrumptious, I mean, look at it!
We then headed to Darling Harbour for a looksie around and to shop in the big shopping complex on the harbour. Inside Kathryn found a stunning dress for her to wear in the night along with some pretty shoes and accessories :D
We headed back to the hotel to start getting ready for the evening’s activities. While doing so, the harbour suddenly became packed of boats, and a plane had been writing something in the sky which was cool, we saw up to ‘Trust Ch’ and then missed the rest while rushing to get ready before the 9pm fireworks. We made it up the roof for 8.45pm and found a nice spot, there were a few people up there, but not too many. The 9pm fireworks were pretty great, and we came back down to our room and drank more alcohol :D
11.30pm was soon on us and we went back up the roof, watched the brilliant fireworks and then mingled a bit, talking to a couple who had travelled from Scotland with a young child who had slept through the fireworks, and a military engineer from Texas who had been in Afghanistan. At 12.30am, we were booted from the roof as the owner (? I guess lol) said he wanted to go out himself and enjoy 100 beers, lol, fair enough xD
After more drinks in our room (Brown Brother’s Rosé champers anyone?) and a drunken phonecall to/from Bey (Can’t remember lol) I passed out in bed and woke around 10am in time to make a quick call to Beck on Skype and then to welcome the British New Year with the family (All 15 of them in one room in front of the computer). That was fun, especially when they sang Auld Lang Syne xD It sucked that the webcam wasn’t working so I couldn’t see them, but it was a fun call either way and nice to speak to them ^,^
Me and Kathryn had a chill day today, we went for breakfast after my Skype calls, waited a while, but it was a nice hangover breakfast :D We had a look around a market, and then went back to bed. I ended up sleeping until around 6.30pm after sewing up some holy leggings xD
That brings us to hear pretty much, this blog has taken a few hours, between shopping, dinner and now a nice hot chocolate, Tam Tams (Penguin biscuits) and some Ice cream to eat in bed watching some good ol’ Aussie TV.
See you laters!
Beck xxx
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Another Update
I believe I left you at New Year’s Day, where me & Kathryn were having a chill day after two days of exploring the city.
On Monday we headed to sunny Bondi Beach, catching a train and bus (busses don’t seem to run through the centre which is different, makes sense though ^,^)
It was a sunny day, very stunning. We waded in the sea (My first taste of Aussie Sea!) as we walked the whole length. I was quite surprised at how small it actually is, I meant to look this up, but I’m sure it’s around the same size, if not smaller than my town’s Aberavon Beach. As it’s a popular place, I guessed it was huge, but I was wrong. I overheard someone saying that it’s only popular because of the ‘Bondi Rescue’ show; which I’ll add I’ve never seen.
ndEither way, I knew my lil sisters watch it and took a few pictures of the lifeguards (Cute sunhats xD) who knows, maybe they’ve been in the show.
After walking one end to the other, we headed back along the promenade, stopping at Bondi Pizza for lunch.
We headed back to Bondi Junction as there wasn’t much else to do, and wandered around the Westfield centre. I found a cool pair of pyjama bottoms and a nice turquoise top in the Target store, and while queuing, I saw my name on a Coca-Cola bottle. Australia Coke currently have a ‘Share a Coke with…’ promotion, with bottles and cans featuring an array of names, so I picked up the bottle =D
Tuesday saw an anticipated ‘Home and Away’ Tour that took us along approx. thirteen of Sydney’s northern beach. We crossed the Sydney Harbour Bridge before visiting a viewpoint of the Sydney Skyline.
Soon after, we stopped at Shelly beach, a popular spot for diving, for a drink and a slice of banana bread before a long drive passing many beaches and locations of particular scenes from Home & Away.
Around 12.30pm we arrived at Palm Beach (Summer Bay in Home & Away) having a little drive-tour of the area and being shown the hotspots. Not being one who’s seen much of H & A, the only thing I recognised was the fencing, entrance onto the beach and the ‘Summer Bay Lifesaving Club’
Me and Kathryn had a ten minute catch up (nowhere near enough time) with Nerida, a friend we met in America. She lived nearby and came down to say hi, and we chatted for as long as we could before our tour group left. It was great to catch up, and I hope that we get to meet up again when I’m back in Sydney next month :D
At the end of the tour we were dropped off at Manly Wharf and given money towards a ferry ride back to Circular Quay. Me & Kathryn browsed around the shops and wandered the Manly Beach before heading back. Damian back home suggested us sitting at the back of the Ferry, so as the boat ‘pulled up’ (is that what boats do? xD) we headed to what we thought was the back, but turned out to be the front. Either way it was awesome, and hot, resulting in sunburnt chest and shoulders. I had put cream on though!
Me and Kathryn had previously arranged to meet up with a friend of Kathryn, Holly. We met at a pub in The Rocks, enjoying a nice meal (A mega sized Pork Schnitzel) before taking a nice walk around Sydney to our train stops to go back to the hotel one last time.
I’m getting a bit tired now so gonna try speed up this ‘keeping you updated’ thing lol. It’s 9.30pm and I’m yet to have a bath/shower and pack my things again as we leave for Adelaide Central tomorrow morning.
Yesterday we flew to Adelaide, and from the airport we caught a bus to Glenelg, a beachside part of the City. We checked into our hotel, which turned out to be very posh, with a very nice ocean view from our 4th floor room. We hoped for a balcony, but alas, we were not granted the awesomeness that would have been chilling on the balcony with a glass of wine overlooking the ocean. We did however chill with a glass of wine overlooking the sea, after watching an amazing sunset :D
Today we walked around Glenelg, down to the Marina Pier for a bite to eat, and then up Jetty road for some shopping (I bought a pair of Thongs ;p). We fancied a swim since the weather was so warm (29oC) so got into our swimming costumes and checked out the pool. It was kinda small, so we headed for the beach to catch some rays and get some reading time. I read more than anything tbh, Game of Thrones is rather addictive, It’s pretty hard to find a decent place to stop xD I did go for a paddle in the sea, and as I was wearing shorts, they kinda got soaked. But, wading knee-deep in the sea was pretty amazing and quite nostalgic. If I didn’t have my valuables in my bag, I’m sure me n Kathryn would have gone full on swimming in the sea!
We haven’t long got back from meeting my cousin Iona, which was really cool. She’s lived over here for a few years, and suggested we meet up for an ice cream =D We plan to meet up again before I leave Adelaide, so it’ll be good to hopefully meet her partner and children =D
So now we’re at the end of my blog. I really should try do this more often so they’re not so long, but we’ll see how the days treat me. We’ve got some great plans for the next few days, not gonna spoil your surprise, you’ll just have to wait for the next blog/photo upload on facebook!
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Bye Melbourne, Hello Sydney!
Tuesday turned out to be a really fun day, apart from all the sappy-ness of Valentines day *wretches* I met Bey at the Internet Café around the corner from my hostel and we stayed there gaming for a few hours, playing Counter-Strike (I suck), Minecraft (I miss it) and Left for Dead II (I forgot how fun it is ^,^). We then headed to the Italian a few doors down for some very yummy noms (decently priced too) before heading to ManaBar - The gaming pub we went to on my first night in Melbs. They were holding a trivia night (gaming related of course) and we entered, with an old school friend of Bey’s joining us. The first round we sucked so bad we were the last team, but we caught up in the last two rounds and made last but one >=D One question asked for the six super heroes in the upcoming Avengers film… I’m glad to have got 6 points for the team after freaking out ^,^
Wednesday, My last day in Melbs saw me checking out of the hostel and having Bey pick me up ^,^ We went back to his house and chilled all day, playing pool and video games :D My flight was around 8pm so we headed to the Airport just after 6 and grabbed some food in the airport while we waited.
Leaving Melbourne totally sucked (And still does now T.T) and I’m looking forward to coming back. I’m gonna start saving as soon as I get home and once I have the money, I’m coming back to see heaps more, hopefully with a Working Holiday Visa =D I’m deffo going to do the Melbs - Adelaide drive since I missed the Great Ocean Road this time, and those two cities have been my favourite in Aus (I still love Canberra & Sydney though!)
Thursday I mostly chilled at the hostel, doing my washing and shizzle. I popped out to have a gander at Paddy’s market and the local area, to pick up some food for the week.
Friday I went to Darling Harbour via the Monorail and went into the Aquarium. I bought a combi ticket for the Aquarium, Wildlife World and Sydney Tower. I wanted to go into the wildlife world simply for the fact there was a Crocodile there, and its the only Aussie animal I hadn’t seen xD Anyway, onto the Aquarium:
You jelly?
Photo Bomb!
And onto the Wildlife World:
Sssssssssssnnnnnnnnnnnaaaaaaaaaaaaaaakkkkkkkkkkkkkkkke
Say Snap!
Saturday (Yesterday) I went to the Sydney Eye (Tower). Feeling not too good about it, I decided to eat first, and enjoyed a baked potato (Not often found in Aus) As you enter you get to watch a 4D film-thing, which was scenes around sydney in 3D, and you get the whole ‘touch’ feeling, so we experienced the ground shaking, water sprayed on us and even bubbles being blown at us when the film was ‘underwater’ A little cheesy, but a good idea ^,^
So Up I went in the tower, the lift ride not being as terryifying as the Rockefeller Centre in New York xD Took a few pics, bought a gift for someone (spoilers) and then headed straight back down ^,^
Afterwards I went to the National Maritime Museum, where I got to go onboard the HMAS Vampire Destroyer and the HMAS Onslow Submarine =D That was pretty epic, especially the submarine as you had to climb through the small doorways xD
After the vessels I went into an exhibition being held called ‘Aqua’ which was an interesting show/thing about wate (duh). Not so much as the water cycle and stuff, but the impact it has on lives, and how people take advantage of it and how it can have devastating effects (Natural Disasters, poisoned water in third-world countries)
And that brings me to today, where I’v chilled all day, and that’s what I’m going to do all day =D
<3
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Highlights of Australia
My Whole stay in Australia has been amazing, so here’s a few pics to sum it up =D
Meeting up with Kathryn & Our First Day in Sydney
New Year’s Eve
Seeing the colour of sand gradually get darker on our way to Palm Beach, and seeing Nerida
Watching the sunset over Glenelg Beach
Catching up with Anthony & Seeing heaps of Adelaide (And Gelato/Ice Cream)
Cuddling a Koala
Wallabies on our doorstep on Kangaroo Island
Seeing my Uncle again & Meeting my cousin David (This is not me & Them :p But we didn’t have a photo D=)
Meeting and Staying with Iona, Gordon, Abbey & Scott
Wine Tasting, Kellermeister & Hot Rods in Barossa
Meeting and Staying with Alan, Natalie, Jasmine & Alyssa
The Roulette Show & Australia Live; Garden Cricket & Drinks at Neighbours, Australia Day
Walk Thru Bird Aviary & Strawberry & Champgne Tea at AdoreTea
Meeting Bey & His mates, Botanical Gardens & Japanese Cuisine
Baby Elephants play fighting in Melbourne Zoo
Spending awesome times with Bey & Co at Portarlington
Jellyfish & Sharks at Sydney Aquarium
Braving the Heights of Sydney Tower
Enduring cramped spaces in HMAS Onslow Submarine
Thank you all for being ever so amazing! I’ve loved each minute of my time here, more so than I thought I would. The company has been fantastic and the memories unforgettable! Don’t worry, I’ll be back >=D mwahahahaha
Loves you all! <3 <3 <3
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Last but not least! Part I
Not sure if I’ll have the time to do another blog after this one. It’s been a while since my last (I believe I was alone in Sydney) and to be honest I simply haven’t had the chance to sit here and ramble on!
I’m actually really tired, but I’m going to try and keep this simple and short (lol)
The day after my last entry was Monday, and I went for a wander around Sydney harbour and the rocks again. I did a stop at the Guylian cafe for old times sake ^,^ and had a nose at the Museum of Sydney which had a special exhibit on about the history of surfing.
In the afternoon I met up with Nerida and Tom, where we had a few drinks at a bar before heading for food somewhere, ending up in ‘Lowenbrau’ a German restaurant in Sydney Rocks. It was a great meal followed by some amazing butterscotch schnapps! The atmosphere was great there, with all staff dressed in German attire and even a German band playing =)
Tuesday was a chill day sorting my stuff out and getting ready for my flight onto Wellington. Can’t remember doing much, but I know I was panicky at night over having to get up early for my bus to the airport, resulting in me having little sleep and rage-biting my htc desire and cracking the screen when it wouldn’t load. Thankfully I’ll be upgrading soon! xD
Wednesday morning started around 5.30am (I think) where I got the shuttle to the airport, waited around, had my 3 hour flight (turbulence included, but surprisingly a very soft landing). I went to the hostel and checked in, shoved my bags in my room and wandered around for a bit. I headed back to the airport to meet Becky off her flight =D Beck was mega tired, so we headed back and enjoyed a Hog’s Breath Café meal and an early night.
On Thursday we did the famous and highly suggested Te Papa museum, and on the way back to the hostel went to Welsh bar across the road for a few drinks =)
Friday we met with a friend of Beck’s - Chantelle, who we chatted with for a while before she invited us to her home for tea, which we accepted. We arranged a time to meet her and we got an Indian take away en-route and had a blast at her house talking to her and her husband :D
Saturday morning we headed to the market, where we both fell in love and bought these small pretty books:
We got the cable car up to the top of the mountain and walked through the botanical gardens back down into the cuty, looking at all the pretty trees and flowers ^,^ We passed a rose garden which was mega pretty, heaps of different roses =D
Saturday night we returned to the top of the cable car to go to the Carter Observatory and watch a planetarium show about the stars, and view the stunning night sky through the huge telescope there. We got to see a close up of Orion!
Sunday we got up at a staggering 4am to get ready for the Wales v England match at 5am showing in the Welsh pub across the road from the hostel. Starting the day with a Jagerbomb or two, we were a little tipsy at the end of the match (We Won!) We bought bacon and rolls to make a celebratory bacon butty to wash down a shot of Penderyn Whiskey we enjoyed (not-really) after winning.
The Lord of the Rings Tour bus picked us up at 8.50am and we’d sobered up thankfully ^,^ The guide was fun and the company was great, a group of 7 other like-minded LotR geeks! Rather than talk about the locations, I’m just gonna show some pics =D
A Shortcut to Mushrooms
A Rider in the dark…
My new buddy at the Weta Cave
I bought my own Precious
Sooo, I hear you’re pals with Sauron these Days… xD
Monday me & Beck went to Wellington Zoo which was great, the Chimpanzee’s were so cute! We caught the feed/speech display, and the monkeys were standing as close to the keeper as possible and holding out their arms for an apple
In the afternoon we decided to head into Miramar on the bus using the potential of our day passes, so hoped onto one heading to Scorching Bay, unbeknownst it was the only bus that returns to the city from there… So after a while of mucking around on the empty and pretty cold beach, we realised the whole bus situation. We started by walking back along the beach the way the bus had come, discussion what we were going to do and such, laughing about the situation and pretending to hitch-hike xD
We managed to grab a taxi number off a passing cab, but before we gave in we found a bus stop on an alternative route which headed into the city train station, which was close enough for our liking. Better yet, we only had to wait 10 minutes for the bus! After we finally got back into the center, we had pizza and then went to bed reasonably early ready for the early start in the morning for the Contiki Tour.
That’s all I’m blessing you with tonight, I plan on carrying on tomoro if the days activities are cancelled due to the weather (highly likely *sad panda*) There’ll I’ll tell all about my adventure stories, and how I may have broken my rib/s… xD (Seriously, can’t take me anywhere!)
