Here is a desktop for July 2010. The picture was taken in Sydney, Australia.
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Showing posts with label Sydney. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sydney. Show all posts
Wednesday, 30 June 2010
July 2010 Desktop - Sydney Harbour Bridge
Tuesday, 29 December 2009
Arrival in New Zealand
We left Sydney a little late as another plane had to come back to the gate as it had to pick something up that it had forgotten and was in our way! The flight itself was three hours and we touched down in Auckland. The plane was emptied pretty quickly and we headed off to Immigration/Customs and Baggage Reclaim. As Jono has a permanent residency in New Zealand he joined the queue for the locals while I was with all the other foreign nationals. Jono got through pretty quickly as his queue was much shorter and I had to wait for a while. When it got to my turn the officer took my passport and swiped it and he then asked “Do you know why immigration want to talk to you?”. I was expecting my passport to be stamped and be on my way, so was surprised at the question. I said “No” but I did think how would I know what immigration want with me. I knew there was no reason for them to want me at all. As a British Citizen I could stay in New Zealand for up to six months on a tourist visa.
Before I knew it I was being escorted to a room where I was told to wait. Jono was told he could not come in but the officer neglected to tell him what was going on. He went to get the bags while I sat closed off from the free world. It was an odd experience, not one I’ve had to endure since a trip to Nepal years ago. This time, I had Ellen on a TV to watch and opposite me a vending machine full of crisps and chocolates. I did feel it was a cheek that I had to pay for a snack as it wasn’t my choice to be there.
While I sat there I could not help but feel guilty, even though I knew I had done nothing wrong. And all the time I sat there I was acutely aware that someone was watching me on either the security camera or through the one way mirror.
Nearly a full episode of Ellen passed, serious looking officials came and went and finally I was approached and asked what I planned to do in New Zealand and where had I been up to now. I reeled off the places we’d been, India, Hong Kong, Cambodia, Loas, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore and Australia. I think he’d had enough at that point and said let’s go and get you stamped into the country. I’m not sure what it was about but I thought better not to make a fuss or ask. I did notice, however, that once I was back waiting to get my passport stamped at the ‘special’ counter the others sat waiting were all dark skinned – most probably a coincidence!
Jono already had the bags by this point and we made our way through customs. Like in Australia, we declared that we had walking boots and had used them to hike in. After one look at our form by a custom’s official, we were ushered into a queue to have them inspected for dirt that may carry seeds and disease. Following this, we were in for a long wait in line, as the people in front of us in the queue had all sorts of exotic stuff to be inspected. One man had a box full of huge fish which I overheard him saying he’d caught the day before. Another lady had something similar but also was wearing a grass skirt – I did wonder if they inspected that too. At our turn the official took a quick look at the boots and we thought we were good to go.
Unfortunately we were then told to join another queue which was to have our bags scanned. I did expect another inspection after that but this time we were sent on our way free to finally enter New Zealand.
On the other side, we were greeted by Jono’s family. We weren’t sure who was coming to meet us other than Jono’s Mum, so it was really lovely to see the whole family turn out. For me it was great to arrive somewhere where no thought from us had gone into how we were going to get from the airport and where we were staying. I knew we were being picked up and that we would be staying with Jono’s Mum.
After some introductions we sat down and I got to have a lovely latte which helped me relax after the whole process of getting into the country. As I sat there listening to Jono catching up with his family, I could feel my head starting to hurt, my body starting to ache and my throat becoming sore. I didn’t realise it but I was getting my first cold in the six months of travel and I think my body knew that we had arrived somewhere safe. After the coffee we headed to Waihi where Jono was brought up - the place we would be making our base for the next 3 to 4 months.
Monday, 28 December 2009
Doing Sydney on the Cheap
When travelling from Melbourne to Sydney, we had three options – bus, train, or plane. As all three were a similar price and two took ten hours longer than the other, we went with plane! We arrived at a nice early hour in Sydney – about 8am. Unfortunately, Sydney terminal two seemed to have just about no facilities for arrivals – the shuttle bus was nowhere to be seen, and no one was manning the desk so we had to get a taxi to the city – doh!
$40 later we arrived at the brand new Sydney Harbour YHA – it was beautiful! Everything was very new and clean, and they had all the normal facilities, plus staff that smiled (pretty unusual!). In addition to this, there was a good view of the Sydney Opera House from the roof. Unfortunately, on the first two days we were there the view was obscured by a massive cruise liner parked in the harbour, but once that cleared out the view was brilliant.
The good thing about arriving early in the morning was that effectively we had an extra day of sightseeing, meaning that in total we were in Sydney for a full four days. I have to say that during our time in Sydney we did spend a lot of time around the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge. This was partly because Mahmoud wanted to photograph these two landmarks until there were no more photos to take, and also because it was an aesthetically pleasing place to be, and the weather was good enough to wander around the harbour. We opted not to do the expensive guided tour of the Opera House!
Mahmoud wanted to climb the Harbour Bridge, which I have to admit looked pretty cool. At $190 each though, it was just a bit far out of budget (considering how much we’d already spent in Australia), so we had to settle with the next best thing – walking over the bridge! It was a fair old hike from one side to the other, and the views of the harbour were very good.
Once on the other side, we had a look at the bizarre Lunar Park. Sadly, it was closed and we could not go in. Never mind.
Just around the bay, we walked through the botanical gardens. They were very pretty and peaceful, despite being so close to the city centre. The most interesting thing here was a colony of 22000 flying foxes (large bats). We heard them and smelled them before we saw them. Watching them fly from their roosts at twilight was a scary sight!
Another interesting thing we did on one day was take the ferry from the city to the suburb of Manly, which had a good surf beach. The ferry ride was the good point here – it was a great (and cheap) way of seeing the harbour from the sea. An added bonus was that there was a yacht race going on in the harbour on the day we were on the boat. We got some great close up views of yachts and the water was absolutely teeming with onlookers and racers alike. Fortunately, our ferry was the biggest thing there and we breezed through the traffic!
Other than that we spent a lot of time wandering around the city itself. We found the cheapest food to be found in food courts where you could get some decent Asian cuisine, but once these closed it was difficult to get a good cheap meal. We were determined not to self-cater on our last few days, and our wallets suffered as a result. In our travels we wandered down Oxford Street which was an interesting walk to see a part of Sydney culture. We also did a bit of well-deserved shopping around town – Mahmoud bought some new shoes!
Finally, we left for New Zealand early in the morning of our fifth day in Sydney. We managed to catch the shuttle bus and got ferried to the airport. Our driver was a bit down on his luck – his boot door, wing mirror and glove box all broke during the drive. Still, we arrived at the airport on time, and got our plane out of Australia. It was a shame to be leaving – but also a wee bit of a relief. Australia is such an expensive country that we blew our budget out of the water, and still couldn’t do everything we wanted! Still, it was well worth it – some amazing sights to be had, and we had a brilliant time.
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