We say Goodbye and We say Hello!

Well, our time in Oz is coming to a close. It is our last weekend here and we leave for England on Friday. Since our last trip the time has absolutely wizzed by, I mean really flown by, it is quite amazing. Since my last entry we have been really busy. We entertained some other exchangees (Kirsty from Scotland, Marc from Netherlands and Julie from USA) in mid October. Julie visited my school for a day and I went to hers in the Melbourne suburbs a few weeks later. It was interesting to compare and contract an urban and rural school. We went to the Victorian coast (St.Leonards) for a Halloween party in the heat and with the flies. We walked in the Dandenong Hills near Melbourne, which was nice too. In mid November Sarah and I travelled down to Melbourne by train to attend the Victorian Education Department's leaving do, where we had some amazing views of the city, in Rialto Tower. This was a sad time as we said our goodbyes to the other exchangees. At the end of November we visited the Great Ocean Road and had some great walks along the coast, in the temperate rainforest and we swam in the bracing Southern Ocean. It was a relaxing weekend. The following weekend we flew to Adelaide to visit our friends, Simon and Fiona, who recently moved there from Echuca. This was again another relaxing weekend, where we enjoyed some Aussie, Russian, Chinese and Korean tucker. It was also good to catch up with them as we had not seen each other since September. Now, in the final few days down under, we have been saying our goodbyes to the various friends that we have made along the way. We are both quite sad to be leaving. Looking back it would be nice to have the exchange last for another 3-6 months, as, in hindsight, it took us a good 3-4 months to start to feel really settled. It was really from when Sarah got work in April that we began to feel more settled. We have also been meeting more people all the time and now not having the opportunity to get to to know them better. But still feeling sad about leaving is a good sign, because it means that we have enjoyed our time here. Now I will sign off, probably for the last time in Australia, as packing and tidying and more goodbyes loom. Adios Amigos for now.

Reef and Rainforest

We drove north up the Tropical Queensland coast to the village of Mission Beach. The hotel we had planned to stay at cocked up our booking but eventually it was sorted out. That evening we had a lovely freshly cooked pizza enjoyed with German beer at a bar by the sea. The setting of the town was amazing with palm trees on a long, almost deserted, sandy beach. The major drawback in the summer months being the very poisonous jellyfish, or stingers, in the warm, tropical but deadly ocean. Fortunately for us we were here about a month prior to 'Stinger season'. For the three nights and two full days we were at Mission Beach we enjoyed the sea, walked in the rainforest and ate and drank in the bars in the evenings. One day we went to the Atherton Tablelands, a hilly area inland from the coast. We enjoyed a pleasant walk around a large lake. However on the last day, just as we were about to leave Mum developed an itch on her shoulder. It turned out to be a big green tick that had burrowed its head into a pore and had its back legs sticking out. It still makes me shiver just thinking about how gross it was. We had to visit the local doctor who took it out with the help of vaseline. Ticks are a big problem in the north of Australia and can regularly kill sheep and cows and if not dealt with properly can kill humans too!

Our next port of call for the following five nights was the picturesque town of Port Douglas. As we travelled up the coast the landscape changed as more and more sugar cane plantations appeared. We passed the outskirts of Cairns and drove along the windy hilly road to Port Douglas. After checking into our townhouse our first port of call was to book a trip to the Reef. We arranged one for the following day as the forecast was for the weather to get progressively worse as the days passed.

The next day was probably the highlight of my time in Australia so far. We boarded on the boat with Calypso tours and headed out to sea towards the Reef, early in the morning. It was a perfect hot sunny day. We stopped at the Reef at three different places over the course of the day and it was simply amazing snorkeling on the reef. The colours and the wildlife below the surface were wonderful and it was remarkable how the reef was so close to the surface in places and how deep the surrounding ocean was. I could have spent all day in the sea and my back suffered later as it was red raw due to me snorkeling on the surface and looking down. I dived down a bit too and the pressure became quite powerful the deeper you went. Most scientists reckon the Reef has not got long left due to the warming of the oceans because of climate change, so it was extra special seeing it. It is shameful that this habitat will be destroyed because of humans. The Australian government does not care about saving it as they have failed to ratify the Kyoto treaty, which is probably too little too late anyway. They say that the economy comes first over the environment but so many tourists visit the Reef and if it is destroyed, will the tourists come and bring revenue into the country, Mr Howard?

We spent the next day at Mossman, an area of tropical rainforest north of Port Douglas and made a further trip the following day to the Daintree Rainforest. We had to catch a boat across the river in order to get there, which was interesting. The Rainforest boardwalk was extremely informative too as we spent a good few hours here. Later in the afternoon we got the boat train on the river and we spotted a female crocodile sunning itself on the bank. The guide on the boat train was brilliant and very knowledgeable and passionate about the conservation of the river. Highly recommended.

We spent the last two days mainly in Port Douglas visiting the sunday market and swimming in the sea as the weather, as had been correctly predicted, became wet and windy and very humid. We also walked in the Mossman again. We left for our flight back to Melbourne from Cairns early on the 3rd October. It was cold in Victoria when we landed!

My parents left for the UK a couple of days later but not before we had visited Kyabram Fauna Park and a parrot took a great interest in mum's handbag and emptied its contents all over the floor, which was amusing for all except the parrot as it found no food for its efforts. I then prepared for my last term at school down under and the last few weeks here in our rapidly dwindling year.

Reflections of a footy season down-under and it's hot up north!

After patiently waiting for my ribs to heal up I managed to play in the last 2 games of the soccer season. I was particularly pleased with my final game for the Raiders as we won 3-1 and I got 2 assists and the man of the match award, a lovely way to finish off what was a highly enjoyable season of footy on the bottom of the world. Sarah too enjoyed her first season of league football for the women. Joining the team has been extremely rewarding for both of us on many levels. We firstly had a great time playing the matches and participating in training and also we both got fitter too. Secondly we met some great people who we will keep in contact with in the future. Thirdly as a result we have had a good social life on the weekends we have been in Echuca. Lastly through Sarah's contacts at the Club she has managed to find work and now works for a minimum of two and a half days a week. In country Australia it really is who you know in order to obtain employment. This is because when we first arrived earlier in the year Sarah sent her CV and a covering letter to a few organisations, most of which didn't even respond to her. When we joined the footy club she got talking to people and was recommended by a couple of people and got work instantly. So it has helped us financially too. It is also nice to meet people outside of my work and the exchange programme and to socialise with people from other walks of life. So all round we thoroughly enjoyed being part of Echuca-Moama Border Raiders Soccer Club.

As Winter turned to Spring the weather became warmer by day although it still remained cold at night with temperatures hovering around freezing in the wee hours and up to the 20's on some days. In the penultimate week of Term 3 I went down to a town called Maldon with the grade 4 children and that was an interesting experience, particularly with some of the people I met when down there. The last week saw my parents arrive. We met them at the train station in Bendigo and they occupied themselves around Echuca whilst I completed the last few days of the term. On the first sunday of the Spring holidays we drove down to Tullamarine Airport in Melbourne to catch a plane to the Tropical North of Queensland. We arrived in Townsville in the evening and the weather was hot and muggy. The following day we took a boat to Magnetic Island which is off the coast of Townsville. It was a hot and sunny day and we took a bus to the north of the island. My Dad and I then walked across a large hill in the wonderful landscape, which took around about an hour, to be rewarded with a near deserted sandy beach in a cove. We swam in the sea and sunbathed on the sand for a couple of hours before returning the same way before visiting a bar. That evening we had a lovely meal of Aussie steak in a steakhouse. The following day we left our motel and after visiting a rather non-descript wildlife place on the outskirts of Townsville headed further north into the Tropics. More of this next time.

Bush Dancing with Broken Ribs

The following day after coming back from our trip to the Outback, Sarah and I ventured down to Castlemaine to play footy for our respective teams. In the game I got an elbow in my ribs, which to cut a long story short resulted in me breaking two ribs. And yes, I did give a 4X about it. However I did not find this out until 10 days later, when my male ego failed me and I eventually decided to go the the doctors because it was painful for so long. But the weekend in between saw me play through the pain barrier and net a goal for my team in a 2-2 draw. The injury forced me to miss all of August's fixtures, and resulted in me being quite miserable because I could not do much in terms of exercise.

At the end of July Sarah's Mum, Sue, and her partner, Pete, came to Oz to visit us for a while. We fed them with wonderful Aussie steak on their first day here and sampled some of the local wines too. We took them to a wildlife park as Sue was desperate to see some kangaroos and other Australian flora and fauna. They then went up to Darwin to get some winter sun before finishing their trip down under with another stay with us in Echuca. Their last night here saw us visit Bendigo on a trip organised by the International Teachers Association for a local bush dance. It was good fun and I had to join in, despite my ribs, which probably put my recovery period back a little.

The last weekend in winter saw us visit Melbourne for the weekend and Sarah and I went to the Science Museum and Planetarium, which took us on a trip through a Black Hole. We also visited Vic Market and lots of shops, so Sarah could buy some clothes (yawn!) for her birthday.

Apart from day trips here and there such as to Shepparton, Heathcote and Beechworth, in the foothills of the Victorian Alps, we have not done too much else because of the rapidly dwindling money supply. However Sarah has managed to get some more work recently, which will be good for our last big trip at the next school holidays at the end of September. My parents are planning to come and visit and we are planning to go to Queensland for a while then. Something to look forward to.

To the Outback - Part 3

The next day we set off for the relative short drive of around 4 hours to our next abode, a cattle station around 100km east of Ayres Rock, called Curtin Springs. We checked into our portacabin(!) before heading off to the Rock for the afternoon. We had decided to stay here because at $120 a room a night it was around 4 times cheaper than the cheapest hotel accommodation at the Rock. At Uluru (the Aborigine name for Ayres Rock) we were charged the rather dear price of $25 each to get into the park that surrounds Uluru and told not to do this and not to do that, including not to climb up the Rock because of the wind, which had risen to the hurricane-like proportions of a slight breeze! So Sarah and I walked around the Rock dodging the bus loads of Japanese tourists (although we did get some good pictures of the monolith) and managed to get to the sunset viewing area just before sunset.

The views were magnificent, albeit for only around 5 minutes as the sun set. Here is a rather different view of the Rock I took. Incidentally I was sober when I took this photo. However we were slightly disappointed with our visit to Ayres Rock overall. It was expensive and there were so many restrictions to what you could and couldn't do. The positives were that we managed to fit it in in the afternoon and that freed us up for a whole day to explore Kings Canyon and the surrounding area the next day. That evening we ate at the 'restaurant' at the Cattle Station and had a beer in the bar/shop. It was a very interesting place and was literally a cattle station with a small bar/shop, a campsite and a few portacabins for guests. The staff were mainly German backpackers who stayed there for a few weeks or months to earn some cash to travel around Oz. They could save their money up too, as there was no where to spend it, except for Uluru a 100km away, if they could get there that is. After our meal we got in the car and drove about 5km out of the Cattle Station to look at the night sky. It was amazing we could see so much, the milky way was like transparent cotton wool and we saw a few shooting stars. That night we were frozen in our portacabin, it did have a heater which were turned off because it was too noisy. It was so cold that the beer and wine we had brought with us was still very cold the next morning as it sat on the table in the room. You have to remember it is winter here and being in the desert it freezes at night while the days are very pleasant indeed.

On the Tuesday we drove to Kings Canyon and after filling up with petrol at near-UK prices we set off to hike around the Canyon. The views were breathtaking and we had a good 4 hour circular walk. It was warm and we dreaded to think what it would be like with temperatures of above 40 degrees in the summer months. We stopped at another couple of uneventful places on the way back to Curtin Springs. That night was not as cold but this time the cows were mooing all night which resulted in a disturbed nights kip.

The following morning we headed back to Coober Pedy and had to slow right down to 110km an hour as we crossed back into South Australia. We checked into the same motel and indeed the same cave. In the evening we went for a tour of the night skies. Not in a spaceship unfortunately but through a telescope. There were seven of us on this tour: myself and Sarah, a mother and teenage boy from Adelaide and an American man and his young daughter of around 8 years, as well as the tour guide. We drove in a mini-bus to a spot around 10km outside Coober Pedy. The night was really clear again and we could see 2 other galaxies low down, we also saw the colours of Jupiter and the rings of Saturn, orbiting satellites and interesting zodiac and aborigine star formations. You have to remember that Coober Pedy is in the middle of desert with no other settlements near it for hundreds of kilometres, so the views were amazing. Yet the Yank kept on asking stupid questions such as which way is Coober Pedy? Despite the lights of the town being pretty obvious. He also asked does Coober Pedy have an Astronomy Club? To which the guide wittily replied, "yes-me". I think the American's daughter was embarrassed by him. And the Yanks wonder why they get such a bad name around the world! Still it was funny and it didn't ruin a fascinating evening's night gazing.

We set off before 8 in the morning the next day, very early for us. This was going to be the longest stretch of driving at around 950km. Mid-morning we stopped at one of the many rest areas at the side of the road and I wandered down to a lake that we could see. It was a 15 minute walk or so to reach it, only to discover that there was no water in it at all, just hardened salt. It was really interesting as it looked as it if it had rippling water but this was just salt whipped up by the wind presumably and hardened over time. We reached civilisation (if you can call Port Augusta civilisation that is) at around lunchtime and continued south down the coast towards Adelaide. The weather became considerably colder and there were frequent showers. We finally reached the German settlement of Hahndorf, south-east of Adelaide, at dusk. We checked into our normal above ground motel and went straight for a German meal of saurkraut and sausages accompanied with large German hand-pulled beers - delicious. Hahndorf and other places in the Adelaide Hills were settled by Germans in the mid-nineteenth century and despite being forced to hide their Germanic roots a couple of times in the twentieth century, have since thrived on it and have become popular weekend destinations for Adelaide folk. The last full day of our holiday saw us hiking up and down some incredibly steep hills, more like mountains we thought. We also visited an Australian animal park, where I found I still had the charm as I had a couple of Birds eating out of my hand. Old talents die hard, hey? Sarah also fed the fat, lazy kangaroos and wallabies, some of which could barely lift their heads to eat more food given to them by the visitors. Sarah forced me to visit another winery on the way back to Hahndorf, where we got chatting to a nice couple again, although this time we didn't stay the whole afternoon. Instead we went into the spa and the swimming pool in the motel before having more German fayre in the evening. Sarah and I also watched the Aussie football team lose to the mighty footballing nation of Iraq, where we made up exactly half the number of people interested in watching their nation participate in the world game. There were many more people watching the oval shaped version of football on another screen. Incidentally the Aussies were moaning about all sorts of things like the heat, facilities and the preparation for the Australian national team in Thailand for the Asian Cup. The Iraqis had just a few more problems in their preparation for the tournament!

The next day we visited a few boring places such as a toy factory and a craft market, where Sarah got talking to a retired racist Scottish pensioner for ages before we headed back to Adelaide Airport. After we had checked in and gone through security Sarah had remembered that she had left our 4 CD's in the hire car. We rushed back but it was too late, the car had gone. (However we did get them back through the post later). The flight back was delayed for about an hour and we arrived in the rain of Melbourne before heading back to Echuca in the late evening. At a place called Kilmore I was stopped to be breathalysed again by the police. Kilmore Police!!! We finally got back at around 11 at night. It had been an action packed and eventful trip.

To the Outback - Part 2

After our first night in the cave in Coober Pedy we set off to explore this Outback mining town. First we checked out the Tourist Information place and we decided to partake in a tour of the town and surrounding area. Before we did so we visited the old timers mining museum, which showed us the history (relatively recent) of mining in the area. In the afternoon we boarded a mini bus with a few others and visited the mines, where we noodled for opals. (We did find a few small pieces). We also checked out an underground church, the cemetery (where there were quite a few Croatian graves and I found out that there is a large(ish) Croatian community in Coober Pedy) and most interestingly a cave where a local character used to live (he passed away last year). His home was used in the filming of Mad Max and it contained 'gifts', such as flags, knickers and memorabilia from visitors from all over the world. He used to dig parts of his cave out if he suspected that there was opal there. Next we went to see the local golf course, where they don't have to worry about watering the fairway (see picture). We then drove outside of the town to a group of hills named 'The Breakaways', which stood out like a saw thumb in the featureless landscape. The have important Aboriginal meaning to them. We also visited the Dog-proof fence, a very long fence that stretches from the Queensland coast to the southern Western Australian coast in order to keep the wild dingos out from the sheep pastures of southern and eastern Australia. Finally we saw the Moon Plain, an area of the countryside that is so barren and dry that nothing at all grows there and hence that is why it gets its name. It was a very eye-opening tour overall and we felt that it was like visiting another planet because life in this dusty hot outback town was just so different to life elsewhere. It certainly had its own charm.

After stocking up with water, food and petrol we set off on the next leg of our outback adventure, the next morning. Sarah and I shared the driving as we continued north to the state border and Alice Springs. As we crossed into the Northern Territory the speed limit changed from 110km to 130km and so did the price of petrol, which had been steadily increasing the further from civilisation we got. The cost was around 125c a litre in Adelaide, Coober Pedy was around 145c and the first petrol station in NT hit 165c. (Later in our trip we were paying 177c in Kings Canyon, it was so expensive it was almost at British levels! 177c a litre works out at around 80p incidentally). With our increased speed we reached Alice at around 4pm and we had a stroll around the city to get our bearings after we checked into the hotel. The following day, a Saturday, we climbed Anzac Hill, a hill in the middle of Alice and with great views. We then visited the Olive Pink Botanical Reserve and walked around there for a bit before venturing to the Telegraph Station, where the first colonial settlement was established in the 1860's, I think. Here is a picture of me standing in the middle of the local Todd river. It contained about as much water as the Coober Pedy golf course had grass. That evening we dined in a restaurant where we indulged in some of the local cuisine. We shared a starter of Crocodile before Sarah had the Barramundi and I had Camel. Both Crocodile and Camel tasted similar to Chicken in my opinion. Our last full day in Alice saw us visit the Alice Springs Desert Park. We enjoyed looking at the local flora and fauna that we spent around 5 hours there. In the afternoon we drove to the West Macdonnell Ranges and visited Elery Big Hole, the largest waterhole in the area and we managed to squeeze in Standley Chasm before it got dark. This was a fascinating bit of local geography and we wished we had more time to explore it and climb up the chasm but alas the failing light forced us to go back.

Alice Springs is a strange place, we found the locals to be unfriendly and generally the people in the bars and restaurants were miserable and unwelcoming. Perhaps this is because they are miles from anywhere else, although Coober Pedy is even more remote and the locals were not like that there. They certainly were much more friendly in Adelaide and surrounding area and indeed in the rest of Australia, so it really did stand out in Alice Springs. Also with problems with the local Aboriginal population in the area in the news we were expecting them to hassle us for alcohol, money etc. But this was far from the case, we found the Aborigines to be polite and unassuming generally. We even felt that they felt inferior to the white people because they would not look you in the eye or would move out of your way if they were near you. Overall we felt sorry for them as there seems to be a social divide in the city.

That evening we had a couple of beers and watched Australia scrape a last minute draw to the mighty Oman in the Aussie's first game in the Asian Cup. Then back to the hotel to pack our stuff in preparation for the next stage of our journey, Ayres Rock.

To the Outback - Part 1

Term 2 came to a close on 29 June, after a busy finale with mid-year reports to write and parent-teacher interviews. Sarah and I then went for a meal at the Border Inn to celebrate making it half way through our Oz experience. We went here for our first meal when we arrived in Echuca on my birthday, 30th December last year. It was a time to reflect on the first half of our journey and wonder where those 6 months had gone, as it seemed that they have flown by.

In Echuca itself the implementation of the third set of traffic lights appears to have gone well and both locals and visitors have accepted these multi-coloured traffic controllers as part of everyday life in this picturesque Northern Victorian outpost. Indeed it seems that they have always been here and perhaps, over the course of time, will be accepted as a vital part of the community of the city. Future town planners could even consider adding further traffic lights at road junctions, as the city expands, which will give the opportunity to future generations to become aroused by the wonder of modern technology playing an integral role in the control of vehicular access around this settlement. Who knows?

As July arrived so did the rain and the cold, as my footy team played in appalling conditions to a very unfortunate defeat. Unluckily I had to come off half way through the second half with a twisted ankle, which fortunately, despite some pain, did not ruin our forthcoming trip to Adelaide and the Outback. We drove down to Melbourne Airport on 2 July and after a really easy and efficient process in parking the car, at the long term car park, we were off on a relatively short hop west to Adelaide. When we got there, in the rain, we picked up a hire car and drove for an hour to a town called Tanunda, which is in the heart of the famous wine producing region of the Barossa Valley. We stayed at the Caravan park, which was cheap and quite centrally located. The following day we started by driving to the outlying wineries with the intention of finishing with a walk around those in Tanunda itself, in the afternoon. In true Croatian and Scottish fashion we were drinking before 11 am! As afternoon arrived we dumped the car and walked (or hobbled, in my case and staggered, in Sarah's case) to the Tanunda based wineries. As we were about to leave the first one we visited here we got talking to some people (2 Aussies and a Pom) and stayed for the rest of the afternoon sharing some of the Barossa's finest tipples. A relatively early night followed.

The following day was going to be a biggy in terms of driving and distance. We set off to drive north and to the Outback. Around midday we arrived at a town called Port Augusta, where we refuelled the car and ourselves before hitting the Outback. As soon as the last house passed us in Port Augusta we were driving in the Outback heading for the mining town of Coober Pedy. The drive in the Outback, although long, was far from boring as the scenery was always changing from areas with many small trees to areas with many shrubs, through flat land to hilly parts, through parts with lakes (of water and just dried salt) through parts with a few hardy plants, to areas with absolute nothing but red earth and dust. It was really different. We eventually arrived in Coober Pedy just before dark, the journey had taken us 9 and a bit hours and almost 900 km. We were staying in a cave. Who said romance is dead? Me protect woman in cave! Seriously, many of the places in Coober Pedy are underground because of the immense heat in the summer months where temperatures approach 50 degrees. Also the winter nights do get cold out in the desert as we were due to find out. To be continued.

Kangaroo High Country

The rest of May went by without much incident. We are starting to save some money for our future trips during the rest of the year. Football is keeping us both occupied at weekends and twice weekly for training. June 1st arrived and so did Winter. It has got much colder here at night and we have had a few frosty mornings recently. However the days are very pleasant indeed and the three layers I have on at the beginning of the day whittle down to 1 or 2 by the end of it. Apparently they get more sun in Echuca than they do on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland.

On June 2nd I opened my goalscoring account for the season in a 3-1 defeat away to a Bendigo team and I subsequently got the 'man of the match' award (a $15 voucher for booze from one of our sponsors, a Moama pub).

However the huge news in Echuca is the opening of the third set of traffic lights for the 'city' last week. This was a big talking point for the locals too. Live life in the fast lane, that's what I say!

Last weekend Sarah and I drove down to the Grampian Mountains, south west of here and north west of Melbourne. It was a public holiday on the Monday, so we planned to stay for two nights there and do some walking in the high country. We left on the Saturday morning and arrived at lunch time. We immediately set off for a 3 hour hike on the peaks near the small village we were staying at of Halls Gap. The scenery was impressive. The peaks are not as high as those of the Alps but they are more rounded. That evening we met up with a group of Canadians (and another Pom) who are also on exchange with us this year. (Most of them are based in and around Melbourne). We had a good chat about how the first half of the year had gone so far.

The next day we set off for a long hike (about 6 hours) up to and around a mountain called 'The Pinnacle'. In the first twenty minutes of the walk something very bizarre happened to us. Sarah and I were walking on this narrow path in single file with Sarah in front. We were walking in a prehistoric-like area with grey boulders and ferns all around us. (See photo). When Sarah suddenly said, "Move to the side quickly". I did so and there bounding past us was a huge kangaroo. It was on the path and was taller than both of us. It would have mowed us down if we had remained on the path. It was very surreal as it past within a couple of feet from us. It felt like a scene from 'Walking with Dinosaurs', seeing this strange animal jumping by us in this alien setting. We completed the trek and were rewarded with some great views. That evening we went to the Youth Hostel where some of the Canadians were staying at for a winter barbecue and get together. The following day we visited the Aboriginal Centre in Halls Gap before heading back to Echuca, which was about a three and a half hour car drive away.

I would just like to add that I really enjoy reading all the comments that I get from different people who read my blog. Keep it up please.

Footy in the Autumnal Rains

The Easter holidays ended and term 2 started down under on 16 April. The following weekend we travelled down to Frankston, a suburb of Melbourne to the south-east of the city on Port Philip Bay. Melbourne is frequently referred to as 'The city by the bay'. We were visiting another exchange teacher, Kirsty from Scotland and her Dutch husband, Marc. On the way down we encountered a very British phenomenon - a traffic jam! Being stuck on the freeway resulted in us taking 4 and a half hours to get there, and along with the drizzle which soon turned heavier, it reminded us of 'the ol' country'. We were so late getting there that the wineries had all shut by the time we visited them in the late afternoon, so we had to settle down at Kirsty and Marc's place and sample our own! It was good to chat to them (and another exchangee, Julie from Washington State) about how things are going and about Australians as a people (without any Aussies about!).
The next day we left early because I was due to play in my new football team's first game of the season (although I had played in a friendly the previous weekend). Both Sarah and I have really got stuck into the football (and not soccer as people insist on trying to call the beautiful game here) and we usually go to both training sessions in the week and the match, which is usually played on the Sunday. We have, as a result, started to make some good friends with other footy players and Sarah has started to find employment due to her contacts here. It really is who you know here in order to get work. We have also been out on a few social occasions too which have resulted in a few hangovers because of the strong beer here! One of these was last weekend when I went to an FA Cup final party with a few ex-pats and some Aussies too. We arrived at Rob's house at around 9.45pm to watch the game which kicked off at midnight EST. The game was live on SBS a terrestrial channel in Oz. The game went into extra time before it finished at around 2.30 on Sunday morning. It was good fun, even though I had no interest in who won the game.
So, as a result of the football we are both playing and the fact that we have overspent on trips away in the first few months we have not been away much, although we have done a few day trips here and there. However we are due to go away for the Queen's Birthday holiday weekend in June (yes, despite the fact that most Aussies are not royalists they still have a holiday for the Queen's birthday!). Also we are planning a trip to the Red Centre for the winter break in early July. It still seems weird that the months and seasons are back to front here. Also it has recently got much colder here as we are now in the last throes of Autumn and we have had quite a bit of rain, which has pleased the locals no end. When I say colder the day time maximum is still in the mid-high teens and at night it now regularly drops down to single figures, which is probably much like a May day in the UK! However as the house we are in has terrible insulation and one gas heater in the living room it feels a lot colder in the house than it would in the UK. Apparently this is quite normal in Australia, though. Still the jumpers that I thought that I foolishly packed back in December are now coming in very useful indeed!
Bye for now.

Autumn in the Land of the Long White Cloud

The last day of the first term finished on Friday 30th March and school finished an hour early at 2.30pm. Sarah and I went for a Greek meal in Echuca that evening after an exhausting week. Earlier in the week I had been to the grade three camp at a place about half an hour drive from Rochester, it was a rewarding experience although I very much looked forward to a decent night's sleep when I got back to Echuca!
On the 2nd April Sarah and I set off for an 8 day stay on the South Island of New Zealand. We drove down to Melbourne Airport and stopped half way in a town called Heathcote to go to the dunny. We got back into the car afterwards, I turned the key in the ignition and nothing happened. I tried again and again but each time....nothing. Luckily I had purchased an RACV breakdown cover back in January and I called them and they duly arrived five minutes later. The guy checked the battery, which was fine and then the alternator, which wasn't. We then took the car to the town's RACV garage and discussed our options. The best being that they tow the car down to a town called Sunbury, 20km from the airport, where they would fix it whilst we were in NZ. The RACV then paid for a taxi to the airport for us once we sorted out the car with the Sunbury garage. We had, as is the English way, left in plenty of time for the airport luckily. The RACV were brilliant and we were very glad that we took out breakdown cover with them.
The flight to Christchurch took around 3 hours and we didn't see much out of the widow because it was dark. Once in NZ we had our apples confiscated once again, as is par of the course in the Antipodes. We then took a shuttle bus to our hotel and went to bed at past midnight, due to the 2 hour time difference (we were once again 11 hours ahead of the UK. The clocks had gone back in Victoria at the end of March when the clocks had gone forward in the UK, making the difference 9 hours). We woke the next day to green, when we opened the curtains. Everything was green and not the dull yellow and brown that we had got accustomed to in parched Victoria. On that first day we visited Christchurch cathedral, did some shopping and took a bus to the outskirts where we went up in a cable car to a mountain overlooking NZ's third city. Our second mishap of the holiday happened when Sarah broke the digital camera as it hit the chair in the cable car. This was a great pity because the views over the city, the sea, the lakes and the plains were amazing. (However we did buy a disposable camera and hope to get the film developed shortly so we can place the pictures onto this blog at a later date.) We went for a short stroll to some look out points near the summit before heading back into the city. That evening I ate some lamb (well you have to in New Zealand even though it is autumn and I apologise to my Welsh friend for eating his love) and I tried the local ale, which went down most nicely.
On 4 April we visited the Christchurch museum and took a bus out to the NZ Antarctica Centre, where I stood in an artificial snow landscape where a wind machine blew very cold air at temperatures of around -25 degrees. I had a coat on but as I was wearing shorts I got rather cold. Still it reminded me of standing on a January night at the Abbey!
The next day we checked out of the hotel and picked up a hire car, which had been upgraded from a Toyota Yaris to a Corolla. (One of the joys of travelling outside school holidays as NZ kids were still at school, an experience I rarely, if ever get, these days.) We drove east of Christchurch onto the Banks' Peninsula, a volcanic outcrop from the flat Canterbury plains. We were surprised how hilly and mountainous this was as we headed for the town of Akaroa. Again the scenery was spectacular as we wove our way to this historic port with a Gallic feel. Akaroa had originally been settled by the French in the 1840's. A French ship had docked there in 1838 and the peninsula had been agreed to be sold to the French by the local Maori population. The ship departed back to France and organised a group of French (along with a handful of Germans) to settle the area. Of course due to the vast distances to be travelled they did not arrive at the harbour of what was to be Akaroa until 1840, six days after the British had bought all of New Zealand from the Maori populations. With a Gallic shrug of the shoulders and a 'cest la vie' the French agreed to stay. Akaroa today makes the most of its French connection with lots of cafes and french food in the restaurants as well as the French named shops and hotels. One of which, La Rochelle, was where we were staying for our two days here. In the afternoon we borrowed the hotel's bikes (two wheeled variety!) and rode around the port.
After enjoying hot cross buns on Good Friday we headed for the harbour where we had planned to swim with the local Hector Dolphins. We took a fast boat and sailed around the bay and out into the Pacific ocean looking for our intelligent friends but unfortunately apart from a few glimpses they were not in the mood to play. We still got ourselves into the ocean and trod water for a bit before heading back to harbour where we got some money back because of the no show of the world's smallest dolphin in the world's largest ocean. In the afternoon we went for a hike up in the hills overlooking the port on a hot NZ autumn day before driving over to the other side of the peninsula and paddling in the cold Pacific.
On Saturday we departed Akaroa in the rain! I had forgotten what the wet stuff looked and felt like. We headed back into Christchurch and out the other side into the Southern Alps for a three night stay in the mountain resort of Hanmer Springs. We lodged in a mountain cabin which was very pleasant and cold, although we turned the heating on later. I just had all the windows open for a while to add to the effect before Sarah's moaning made me close them! After a short walk in the neighbouring forest in the rain we headed back to the cabin in the twilight. That evening the town was packed with locals all watching the Canterbury Crusaders, the local rugby team, on tv. Here they are obsessed with rugby as opposed to Victoria's Aussie rules.
On Easter Sunday the Easter bunny did not appear and Sarah and I went for an almost 7 hour hike in the mountains. We had taken a wrong turning and ended up above the tree line almost at the summit of one of the highest mountains. We did not attempt it due to the wind and the hour, as darkness was not far away and we had read all these stories of people being stuck for days up the mountains in the local press. All we had on us was some water, a chocolate bar and an apple (we had to buy some NZ ones!). So we retraced our steps and after a couple of more wrong turnings we eventually arrived back at the cabin just after dark with very sore feet. Still a nice meal and some local wine helped heal the aches and pains that evening.
On our last day in the land of the long white cloud we drove across the mountain peaks and went for a short three hour hike on the western side of the Southern Alps. Whilst walking I was attacked by a wasp and stung on the head, would you believe, which was very painful! On the way back to Hanmer Springs we stopped at some hot smelly thermal springs, which despite the sulphuric smell really did seem to help relax us.
The flight back was fine and this time in daylight where we saw a lot of the Tasman Sea. We arrived back in Melbourne Airport caught a taxi to Sunbury where our car had been sorted out. We drove back to Echuca slowly in the dark aware of marsupials, which was lucky because we almost hit a plodding wombat in the middle of the road.
After sorting out the washing the next day we planned a night's stay in St.Kilda, a seaside suburb of Melbourne for Friday night. Here we visited Melbourne gaol, where Ned Kelly was imprisoned and then hanged, before enjoying a meal in Chinatown. (Us not Ned!). We ambled along the sea front the next day and did a little shopping before departing back to Echuca. On the Sunday I played football for the local team in a friendly where we enjoyed a comprehensive victory. Now, however, the Easter break draws to a close and I must ready myself for term 2, which last for 11 weeks!!!!
Today (17 June) I have added some photos to this blog page from our trip to New Zealand.

Ballarat Bugs and Adelaide Apples!

The following weekend (2 March) Sarah and I set out for Ballarat (a city north-west of Melbourne and famous for its gold mines, like Bendigo). The journey took about three hours and we again stayed at a host family, as, like previously, the weekend was organised by the ITA.
On the Saturday morning I woke up to very itchy legs, which I naturally scratched. As the day developed so did the huge red marks/bites on my legs. I did not know what caused it and Sarah was out of the equation, I think. Anyway, during the day we went to a reconstructed 1860's village in Ballarat (not a Victorian Victorian village!!!). It was a very authentic look at life in gold-rich Ballarat and the organisers made sure that everything was as exact as could be in replication. There were a few volunteer actors parading around as various locals, which made it very original. It was like we literally stepped back into time, only the modern dress of the visitors giving it away. After wandering around and visiting different parts of the town we set off to find some pills and some spray to put on my now very red and incredibly itchy legs. In the evening we went to a barbecue at one of the local ITF houses. On the way we passed the lake where the 1956 Olympic rowing events took place, although that would be difficult to hold now as there was not a drop of water left in it, due to the drought. At the barbecue we enjoyed the company, drink and food (again I tried kangaroo, this time barbecued though, and a little tough too). The organisers got the numerous Canadians and Australians there to sing their national anthems and then Sarah, myself and the only other English woman there to sing 'God save the queen' (which we reluctantly managed to do through forced teeth).
The next day we headed back to Echuca, me scratching all the way. I went to the doctors on the Monday, due to my itching and she did not know what caused it (sand flies were the most likely explanation though). We had to pay $48 for the privilege and managed to claim back about $32 of it through the reciprocal agreement the two countries have in the form of Medicare. The Australian health system seems to be half way between the UK and US system, in terms of health care payments.
On Thursday 8 March we set off for Adelaide in the evening. I was allowed a day off school so we decided to leave in the evening. We drove for about two hours and then found a motel for the night in Swan Hill, which is further up the Murray river. On Friday we continued our journey to the South Australian capital. It was an interesting journey as we drove through semi desert landscape in parts. As we crossed the state border between Victoria and South Australia we had to put our watches back half an hour to GMT + 10 1/2. More bizarrely about half a kilometre into South Australia we were halted by a luminous jacketed official next to a road block. It wasn't the police but some SA state border official. What could they be stopping us for I asked Sarah? Could they be checking for drugs? Illegally imported alcohol? Cigarettes? Smuggled Kalashnikovs for Al-Qada? No - they were after apples! They checked our car over for these dangerous products. Luckily we had swallowed the evidence 50km down the road - a narrow escape - phew! Apparently it is illegal to carry fruit between the two states as they might contain fruit fly which could potentially devastate crops in more remote areas.
We finally arrived in Adelaide in mid afternoon and checked into our motel in the city. We checked out the city centre then, which was a 10 minute walk from our motel. The following day, with temperatures forecast to hit 37 degrees (it has now turned into Autumn, apparently) we headed for the beach on a tram, which had been travelling there and back for over 100 years. It was a pleasant way to arrive to the beach suburb of Glenelg and the tram (which took about 20 minutes to get there from the heart of the city) terminated literally a minutes stroll to the sand. We enjoyed the next few hours sunbathing and swimming before heading back to the city. That evening we hit a few lively pubs and sampled the local ale, Coopers. The city had seemed much more lively than Melbourne or Sydney had been. Maybe because it was smaller and we had been in the centre.
The following day we walked by the river, visited the zoo and went shopping before enjoying a Chinese meal in the evening. We drove back to Echuca on the Monday, a public holiday in Victoria. The drive took 8 hours (+ the half hour we added back on) and almost 700km and I was knackered by the time we arrived at the house.

Everybody's gone surfing....

After another week at work Sarah drove to pick me up from Rochester on friday afternoon (16th February) for a long drive down to Gippsland, a region south east of Melbourne. Sarah had to buy a weekend pass at the post office in Echuca for the toll road that runs through Melbourne, as there were no alternative routes, unless we wanted to be driving for hours. At about 6pm we hit Melbourne and we felt at home, driving on the A14 on a friday night, as we were stuck in rush hour traffic. Unlike the UK's transport infrastructure we got moving pretty quickly though. We arrived in the small town of Leongatha after a 4 and a bit hour journey. The weekend was organised by the International Teachers Association (an organisation that we had joined at the conference at the end of January in Melbourne). The ITA is run by Australians who have participated in previous exchanges in countries like UK, USA and Canada. We were due to stay at a host family for the weekend in Leongatha. In the evening we drove to a party in the town organised by a member of the ITA, and even though I was driving and we arrived late (due to our long journey) we still had a good time.

The following morning we got up early and went on a tour of Gippsland by bus, stopping off at various points on the way. It was a sweltering hot day and our first port of call was at some interesting rock formations and tide pool location. Afterwards we set off to Phillip Island where we had lunch on the beach followed by a game of international beach cricket in the scorchingly hot sand. In the afternoon we visited an exposed area of the island where seals breed and sleep, as well as different types of penguin who were nestled away hiding under rocks to avoid the afternoon sun. Later we visited a koala sanctuary where we saw numerous koalas all suffering because of the weather. We then went to have late afternoon tea (or beer in my case). Finally we returned to Inverloch (where we had started in the morning) to have a meal and get together in a hut on the beach. More cricket and beer followed before we ate dinner (again kindly organised by the ITA) watching the setting sun over the sea. Sarah and I were one of the last to leave after nightfall to head back to Leongatha, which was about a 30km drive inland.

On the sunday morning we left Leongatha, on an empty stomach, to head back to Inverloch, where Sarah and I had a bite to eat for breakfast before heading for the beach once again. We had booked a surfing lesson along with most of the other exchangees. After getting into our wetsuits, receiving our boards, listening to safety instructions and practising some manoeuvres on the sand, we finally hit the waves. They seemed to come in groups of 3 or 4 with a few minutes wait in between. We must of been in the water for around an hour and a half and it was great fun. I fell off many many times, as did Sarah, but managed to surf a few waves too before finally succumbing to the sea. When I managed to ride a wave it was a great feeling riding through towards the beach. Afterwards we said our goodbyes, had some lunch and headed back to Echuca, which again took us just over four hours. When we went to bed that evening we were both in pain. It felt like we had been hit in the ribs a good few times, presumably due to the fact that we kept jumping up onto the surfboards lots of times. We have only just recovered now! The pictures of me show me firstly riding the waves, then me hitting the waves and finally me smiling at the waves!

Cracking Cricket and Possums in the Park

Reality dawned on 30 January when I realised the main reason I was out here was to do a school exchange as I drove to Rochester Primary School that morning. It was a teacher training day and the children came in the following day, 31 January, after their long summer holiday (which I still find it strange to think about, summer in the sweltering months of January and February). The vast majority of the 21 children in my class are great with one very notable exception, although I don't think I should go into any further detail there!
I initially found some of the staff and pupils difficult to understand with their strange antipodean accents and words. For example they all looked at me strangely when I asked them to get out their felt tips and rubbers (and thoughts of a famous 1970's glam rock singer who likes to frequent certain south-eastern Asian nations sprang to mind here) before I was told that they are called 'texters' and 'erasers'. I certainly wasn't asking any of them to be in my gang! All the pupils have to wear wide brimmed hats too, to keep off the baking midday sun. This is an essential part of school wear here.
Australians all seem to say as little as possible and speak from the back of the throat without moving their lips much. I now realise that this is because if the do say a lot then they get a gobful of blowies. Poor Sarah has a full three course meal at least three times a day here! You don't need any industrial strength stuff here, the blowies are incentive enough. I'm thinking of getting some imported specially!
It has been particularly pleasant being an Englishman out here in the past couple of weeks. The amount of stick I have taken from the first moment I touched down onto Australian soil about the English cricket team has all back fired in a cloud of fallen Aussie wickets. England have turned from being no-hopers to world-beaters and have thoroughly beaten the Australians on the last three occasions (and the Kiwis too for good measure). And as all the cricket is on live terrestrial television here I have been watching it with glee. Some people still say to me that the English were lucky although some have been noble in defeat. Roll on the cricket world cup next month. With the cricket on television (a commercial channel) I have had to endure the mind-boggling annoying adverts that they have here. Firstly there only seem to be about 10 adverts here which they keep rotating. Also they seem to think by playing so-called 'catchy' themes and by shouting very loudly they will attract peoples attention. Apparently buying a patio will change my quality of life forever and ever and if Harvey Norman tells me to 'go' one more time I will tell him exactly where to go! Saying that there are a couple of cricket based adverts that are funny. One in particular takes the mick out of both the English and Australians and a certain ex female British Prime Minister and men with moustaches!
Sarah and I also went to Melbourne for a couple of days last weekend. We drove up and went to the Immigration Museum and shopping at the large market. In the evening we met a couple of possums in a park. They were both very tame and we managed to stroke their very soft fluffy fur for a while. The next day we again went to the beach (Brighton incidentally, although we didn't see Matt or Bough) where it was too cold and wavy to swim again. It is typical that when we go there seems to be a cold front coming through and in Echuca in the working week the temperature is in the thirties or even low forties!

Baby Kangaroos and Canadian Cricket

On 22 January Jenni and Rob drove us to Melbourne as they were going to do a few things down there too. We were due to attend a conference for international teachers who were going to teach in Victoria for the year. That afternoon Jenni and Rob took us to their friends for a barbecue. One of them, who is a teacher, had recently started to look after orphaned Aussie wildlife and she had an owl, a possum and two kangaroos in her care. One of the kangaroos had her mother killed by a car and she was found still alive in her mother's pouch. The other joey's mother had been killed when she ran into a fence when being chased by dogs. The carer had to feed both about five times a day and had designed her own pouch for them to snuggle into. The eldest of the two hopped around with us when we were being shown around the house and garden and she seemed ok about this, although a little nervous. The carer did a marvellous job and was very dedicated to looking after them all. Later on in the evening we were invited to stay at another of Jenni and Rob's friends chalets that they had almost finished refurbishing in readiness to be used as holiday homes for the following weekend. They were in the Yarra valley just outside Melbourne and the setting was spectacular. Herds of kangaroos patrolled at night and when we awoke the next morning we saw them just outside our chalet bounding around!
The following day Sarah and I went into Melbourne and got Sarah's tax file number so that she could begin to look for employment. In the afternoon we spent around 4 hours in the Melbourne Museum, which contained, amongst other things, an interesting collection of dinosaur fossils and information and a part on the Aboriginal tribe that live close to Echuca. In the evening we enjoyed a Turkish meal and stayed with more of Jenni and Rob's friends in the centre of Melbourne.
We took the tram to the conference the next day which was based in the heart of the city. Sarah and I formed a small group of just three English people. We were joined by a Scottish woman (who is married to a Dutchman), a Yank and the vast majority of people there were Canadians. We had lectures, question and answer sessions and discussions about both personal and professional issues for the exchange in the forthcoming year. Sarah managed to skive some of the stuff that was irrelevant to her and went shopping with one of the Canadian women. The most interesting lecture concerned driving which was a worrying issue for the Canadians and indeed all the women in attendance. They were mostly concerned about driving on the right and driving a manual car. Also round-a-bouts are apparently a rare sighting in Canada so they wanted to know about how to approach them. The Victorian policeman who was giving this talk gave a very confusing account of how to approach these which even had me thinking what? The only difference to driving in the UK is that in Melbourne you can do a 'hook turn' which means when you are turning right you have to go over to the extreme left of the road and wait for the lights you have just passed through to turn red before turning across the road.
In the afternoon we went for a picnic in the park where we mingled and chatted and ate and drank. I then taught some of the Canadian teenagers and children how to play cricket the English way and not this nonsense winning stuff that our hosts play! Sarah and I enjoyed a Chinese meal in the evening and we found our James Squire pub which serves English bitter afterwards before retiring to our hotel for the night. The next day we attended the conference in the morning and wondered around the market in the afternoon before heading back to Echuca with Jenni and Rob.

Bitter Cricket and Kangaroo Curry

Firstly thanks to all the people who have replied to us on the comments section, it is great to hear from lots of different people - keep them coming please. On 12 January Sarah and I drove to Melbourne in the morning to watch the first one day international between England and Australia at the MCG. It was a very impressive stadium with a capacity of just under 100,000. The tickets, which we had purchased on the internet a few days previously, only cost us about 16 pounds each, amazingly cheap considering it costs 12 pounds to watch mediocre football at Cambridge United. But then again we were going to watch mediocre cricket by England. After a little confusion about where we were going to sit we placed ourselves on the top tier of the southern stand. It was a day/night game and England had won the toss and elected to bat, which was hopeful. However they only managed to amass 242 in their 50 overs, despite a Pietersen knock in the eighties, I believe, before he was hit in the ribs by McGrath. Australia easily got to the total with the loss of only 2 wickets. The atmosphere was good in the stand except the Aussies only seem to have one chant and the beer was flowing freely which resulted in some supporters being ejected by the very-heavy handed police. It seems strange that drinking is so heavily advertised here and when people get a little loud or boisterous (but not aggressive) the authorities go over the top in ejecting people! Also members of the crowd (which was nearly 80,000) brought in beach balls and threw them about the crowd whilst desperately trying to avoid the stewards getting hold of them, as they confiscated them and then burst them. An interesting game of cat and mouse, particularly when a rubber doll made an appearance and visited lots of people in the crowd for about 20 minutes and avoided the mean stewards, much to the delight of everyone as they just failed to grasp her on a number of occasions. After the game we got changed in our hotel room and took a tram to town where we found a pub that served proper English beer!

The next day we laid on St.Kilda beach for a couple of hours and paddled in the sea, it was a little too cold and rough with quite high waves, before heading back to Echuca.

On 14 January Jenni and Rob, and two of their friends from Melbourne, took us to the RSL Club in Moama (just across the state border in NSW) for an evening meal. There are about 4 of these places in Echuca and Moama that serve food, drinks, lay on entertainment, have lots of pokie machines (a more basic fruit machine) and give you free lifts there and back home on the courtesy bus. Any profit they make goes to the group of people it represents, in this case retired servicemen. It was also incredibly cheap, with 3 beers and 2 bottles of wine coming to about 11 pounds. The roast meal that we had cost about 4 pounds. Sarah enjoyed the pokies and the wine very much!

On 15 January we drove to the Australian Alps, in our new car, to a small town called Bright in Victoria. After exploring the town for a bit we had a meal in the evening. Sarah went for her usual adventurous meal of chicken (there was no scampi on the menu) whilst I had a Kangaroo Curry which was very nice, it tasted a little like beef. The following day we drove up to the mountains but unfortunately all the really long walks were closed due to the extensive fires that they experienced here before Christmas. So we had to content ourselves to a blowie infested 3 mile walk, although the views were amazing. In the afternoon we hired some bikes and cycled in the heat for about a 15 mile round trip, before Sarah succumbed to the weather. Contrastingly the next day brought rain in the mountains, and, being ill-prepared for this kind of weather, we could not go for a mountain stroll, so had to walk in and around the town of Bright on a nature walk. We headed back to Echuca in the evening, with the intention of coming back to the Australian Alps some time either in the Autumn (where the scenery will be wonderful with all the colourful leaves) and/or in the winter to ski in the snow.

On the 19th January Jenni took me to visit my school for the morning and to meet the other members of my team, who both seemed nice. I had a tour of the school by the principal, Madge before having a short meeting where I learned that I will have a grand total of 20 pupils in my class, a huge difference to the 32 I had in England! There seems to be a big emphasis on sport in the curriculum and it shall be interesting to see this in practice once the term commences. In the evening Jenni and Rob laid on a barbie with some of the other teachers I will be working with. The cricket was on the tv, where England lost again to the Aussies, so I suggested that I will run the cricket club in school so that I can teach all the Aussie children how to play badly and in 15 years or so England can win back the Ashes!

Summer in Sydney

On 5 January we set off to drive to Sydney for a few days. We left at 9.30 am and finally arrived in the city just before 7.00 in the evening. It was a long journey, over 800 km, the equivalent of driving from Cambridge to Edinburgh I suppose but with the added bonus of not having to drive through Yorkshire! We were staying at Sarah's step brothers flat in Bronte, a suburb of Sydney, with views of the Pacific. Will gave up his flat to us for the weekend and stayed with his Aussie girlfriend, Felicity. He welcomed us with a barbie and a beer or two, which was nice after a long, hot drive. Below is an Englishman, Will, doing a barbie in Sydney.
The next day Sarah took me shopping (how interesting!), although I did buy some clothes from the Debenhams of Australia, Myers. Then in the afternoon we went swimming on Bronte beach. It was a hot day although the sea was quite cold and very wavy. There were helicopters flying out at sea to investigate possible shark sightings but I made sure that there was always somebody a little further out to sea than me! In the evening all four of us went for an Italian meal in a restaurant overlooking Bondi beach which was lovely. Afterwards we went to a lively pub, then I paddled in the sea at Bondi beach before heading back to Will's flat.




In the morning Will and Felicity led us (by car) through a maze of streets in the centre of Sydney in order to find our hotel for the next two nights. After making many stops and reverses and u-turns we eventually found the hotel, said our goodbyes and checked in. We then checked out the Botanic gardens, Sydney Opera House and Chinatown. Later, whilst exploring a street market, I was tapped on the shoulder. Who could that be I thought on the other side of the world tapping me on the shoulder? It turned out to be the father of a boy I had taught last year. Steve was here with his father, Bernie, to watch the cricket and they were sightseeing in between defeats. We chatted for about 10 mins and then Sarah and I walked over the famous bridge in the rain! It seemed to be much greener and wetter in Sydney and east of the Blue mountains then it was in Victoria and southern NSW, who were crying out for rain.



In the evening Sarah and I ate a steak meal in a sports bar where they had a poker game going on, two 'soccer' matches (one Aussie and one from England), a recent cricket game and live arm wrestling, all on tv! We then made our way down a couple of bars and ended up in an Irish one on the edge of Chinatown. We amazingly bumped into Steve and Bernie again along with a guy from Lincoln, another from Barnsley and a couple of Irish girls. It was very difficult to understand what the Yorkshire man was saying with all the noise around us and virtually impossible to understand the Irish girls. There are only so many pardons you can say! Anyway we drunk, chatted, danced to a live band and joined in with the Barmy Army chants and generally had a good time. On the way back from the toilet I was accosted by two huge Samoan bouncers and led out of the bar having been accused of being 'intoxicated'. I have been drunk in the past, particularly on my stag nights, as my friend will testify, but I was no way near drunk! A little merry true, but I was in charge of all my faculties. After arguing with the thugs, to no avail, Sarah who had followed me out and then had also been accused of being 'intoxicated', trudged our way back to the hotel. Apparently it is a common thing for big in body but not in brain Samoan bouncers to chuck people out of bars for no apparent reason.


The following day we went to the aquarium and the Sydney tower and did some more shopping (!!!!!!!) and we met up with Steve and Bernie again (as we had arranged to the previous evening) and had a wonderful, and extremely good value, Chinese meal in Chinatown before setting off to have a couple of quieter drinks on the harbour side. We said our goodbyes to Steve and Bernie, as they had been excellent company, and went back early to the hotel as we had another very long drive back to Echuca the next day.



After having breakfast and checking out of our room we got stuck in the hotel lift for 10 minutes and had to jump down from it after being eventually rescued by the hotel manager. I am not so sure if it had jammed because Sarah asked me to do an impression of a kangaroo jumping around the bush or not! We drove home a different route and the distance measured 800 km on the dot, which was strange. On the way we passed a man made lake where the land had been flooded but the large trees left in place. It looked really surreal and something out of the prehistoric era.



The next couple of days we spent chilling a bit. We went to look at Kyabram Nature Reserve where we were the only visitors because of the 40 degree heat. Even the animals were hiding in the shade, except for the Dingos, who were running around their enclosure. Made dogs and Englishmen go out in the mid day sun I suppose. We also picked up our new motor and sorted all the documentation out for that.



Next time Cricket and Bitter (or is it bitter cricket?) in Melbourne.

New Year, New Country

It is scorchio at the moment with the temperature at around 36 degrees today (10 Jan). I am off to have a barbie shortly but before that I'll update.

2nd Jan everything opened again and we blitzed all stuff we had to do. The easiest was to re-connect our phone with Telstra, who were most helpful, and even suggested we take a cheaper package for our needs. This is in total contrast to the tremendous hassles that Leesa has had with the incompetent and useless BT. Sarah had phoned twice and written once before we left UK to tell them the situation and they said it would be no problem for Leesa to reconnect when we left. Needless to say that she could not do this and with my parents help she still had huge problems. I had to ring BT on my mobile to tell them that she could reonnect and that cost a bomb to call. Then still she had to wait a few more days. Perhaps that is one of the reasons why everyone in UK gets tense and everyone on Oz is laid back, if BT is anything to go by. Anyway rant over, we called other utility companies and it was generally ok, except for water, which will have to remain in Leesa's name. In the arvo (!!) we looked at a few cars and then bought one from a friend of Jenni's (a Mazda 626 with a new engine and clutch - which I will need if Sarah is going to drive it!). We will pick motor up tomorrow hopefully. We sorted out insurance for it, which was amazingly cheap in contrast to UK. Incidentally petrol works out at about 50p a litre here. A very productive day!

The next day we went to Bendigo, a town (sorry, city) about an hour drive away. Bendigo is famous for its gold mine, which we went down after a bit of shopping. We then went gold digging and found some. It was ironic beause we know a few gold diggers in the UK! Anyway here we are below the surface. Mine is the incorrect way up as I did not know how to rotate it, although I did it with Sarah's photo afterwards. To be updated in the near future with an interesting time in Sydney to come next.