SKippy-Blog

After I blogged, Paddy and I had a wander about the city and visited the Opera House and did a tour around it. Our tour guide was a slightly irritating snobby sounding Australian lady who gave Ed and I some entertainment with her trying-to-be-posh accent! She was rather saccharine sweet - it was nasty! The Opera House was exactly as you've seen it in pictures, big and grand in a lovely location next to the Sydney Harbour and the famous Harbour Bridge. Paddy and I spent a while walking along the harbours edge past the botanical gardens and took lots of photographs! We sat and had some Barramundi and chips which was delicious!

The next day was our exciting Blue Mountains trip! I was really looking forward to doing this but unfortunately we didn't actually see the blue mountains! We did see a mist of pea soup cloud and a faint outline of them though... very disappointing! The other activities were good fun though - We went to the wildlife park and I went all soppy looking at more cuddly koalas and Paddy enjoyed looking at all the pretty birds (of the feathered variety). The winery provided us with lots of nice (and some foul) wine! We also had a night time ferry ride down the river and into Sydney harbour which was lovely. When we got back we took some night time pictures of the harbour and the opera house before heading back to the hostel exhausted!

Yesterday was our final day in Sydney. We rushed about, paid off our parking fine and then went up the lookout tower which was good as unlike the previous day it was sunny! We had excellent views across the city although you couldn't actually see the Opera house and harbour bridge that well.

Our flight to Christchurch, New Zealand was last night. We arrived at 10.30pm very tired and Paddy forgot he had an apple in the bottom of his bag. An apple is considered a "dangerous item" and he was promptly fined $200NZ on the spot. They very kindly didn't take him to court because they knew it was an accident... very nice of them ay? Hmmm... a nice introduction to New Zealand.

So we are here in Christchurch! Tomorrow we are going for a return ride on the trans alpine train to Greymouth. It's supposed to be a beautifully scenic route through the mountains so we are hoping the weather holds out for us this time! Our hostel is alright but worryingly has "What to do in the event of an earthquake" signs on the back of the door as well as bombscares.

Saturday is very exciting as we have got some 20 quid tickets to see the All Blacks vs. Australia in the Tri Nation tournament! The ticket includes transportation to/from our hostel and a couple of drinks! Sweeeeeeeeeet - it should be awesome!