Taronga Zoo, because it was free!

Deirdre, Allen and I went to Taronga zoo today because it's been partially sponsored by Sydney Water, hence free to employees of Sydney Water which includes Allen and me.

The weather was fantastic as usual and the zoo is set just north of Sydney central on the harbour side. Once you have caught the ferry across the harbour you can take a cable car up to the top of the zoo and then slowly make your way down.

As soon as we got to the top of the zoo Allen couldn't wait to stick his arm up some poor wombat. I guess it must be part of his medical background and training.

One of the first animals you could see were the koalas. I must admit that they were very cute and looked more like stuffed animals that had been put up a tree for tourists.


I could just imagine Johnny Morris's voice over on them when they moved about. They were quite quick bounding around the floor when going from tree to tree.

You could even have your photograph taken much closer to one for 3$ each.

Most of them were asleep in the trees, but this particular one was quite active. I guess it must have been its turn to entertain us while the others slept.

We also saw wombats which were very cool, if a little on the bulky side. Many of the animals just looked so unique to anything else that I've seen before.

Here's an active one in its burrow. They can apparently reach speeds of up to 40km/h and have been known to take out things by running into them at speed.

There were also the other Australian only animals such as kangaroos of various types, the tasmanian devil (didn't look like the cartoon), and more platypus's than you could shake a stick at.

The zoo also had many other animals which were quite amazing to see up close. I quite liked the tigers and snow leopards.

The tiger was very restless in it's enclosure as it was pacing around and quite often walked right up to the glass screen. You were literally a couple of centimetres away from it at times.

The snow leopard had also recently had two new cubs which were very entertaining to watch. They looked so cuddly and were very playful with each other. Their paws were massive though, even at only five months old they were the size of a medium dog and had paws that looked quite dangerous.

Seeing as the zoo was on the opposite side of the centre of Sydney there were some great views of the city and it would be fantastic to visit there next time with a packed picnic.

This chimp is exactly how tired I felt last Monday when in the car and everyone else was wine tasting. I probably slept just as much as the chimp is doing here too! Hmm, I think I see a likeness to it and me...

Sandboarding Photos.

Here are a couple of shots of the sand boarding that were taken with Deirdre's camera.

The first one is of me coming down the hill on my backside, probably just before I'm about to wipe out as I look like I'm starting to move sideways there.

The second shot is of me when I first tried going down the sand dune while standing up.

I think I look quite nervous and tense in the shot. You can make out Andrea in the background watching me while I slide down too.

Easter Break in Port Stephens.

Deirdre, Allen and two of Deirdre's friends Andrea and Kate and I went up to Port Stephens for the Easter break this weekend, it's about a two hour drive north of Sydney. The weather for the weekend couldn't have been better really from Saturday to Monday. We only had two nights booked at a motel which was just across the road from a great beach in Shoal Bay. You could literally get up in the morning and run across the road for a quick swim before breakfast and Allen and Andrea did too.

For our first night there on Saturday we decided to pop into the next town along the coast Port Nelson. It was slightly bigger than the bay that we were in as it's only a very small seaside town really. After eating there we decided to look for some sign of night life there. We could initially only find one pub there and that was a pub, hotel bar, betting shop and fruit machine arcade in one.

We wandered around the place looking for other drinking places but couldn't find any. After asking a couple in a shop they were struggling to name more than three places to drink in! It turned out that Shoal Bay had a livelier night life than Port Nelson and that was only because it had a small strip with three pubs or so.

Anyhow we still had a good time with a few beers in the only places available and the following night was to prove much more fun when out in Shoal Bay.

We planned to try to go dolphin watching on Sunday morning then to see the sand dunes and go sand boarding in the afternoon followed by a walk up a nearby hill to get a good view of the area.

The boat we went on for dolphin watching was a small boat capable of carrying only 18 people and was ideal as it wasn't crowded at all. Strangely enough the boat was made in Southampton where I was born!

This is a picture of our tea and coffee making crew on the boat. (Big smile) From left to right, Kate, Andrea and Deirdre. The skipper of the boat was very easy going and didn't even mention any safety aspects of the boat in case of the worse.

We initially saw a large turtle on the cruise which even the crew were fascinated by as they said they rarely ever see one on the surface. It bobbed up and down a bit probably thinking what on earth all these people were interested in so much.

After that we did manage to see a few dolphins on the tour. You aren't gauranteed to see any so it was quite a sight to see some. They briefly swam along with the bow of the boat and I managed to get this great shot of one of them.

It was exciting to see the dolphins and everyone on board was much happier after seeing them. It would have been a really pleasant cruise around the harbour even if we handn't seen them but was quite special after seeing some dolphins.

After lunch we booked a trip out to the sand dunes to have a go at some sand boarding and to see the large beach there too.

Once at the sand dunes I had to do my final scene in Capricorn One impression. You have to watch the film to know what it's all about, but basically I just run towards the camera from a distance while someone takes some photos of me.

The sand boarding was excellent and I really enjoyed it. It's much simpler than snowboarding as all they did was put you on a small long board like a small snowboard and you slide down a big steep sand dune sitting down with your arms outstretched to balance. The only disadvantages compared to snowboarding is that you aren't strapped to the board so can't turn on it and you have to walk back up the sand dune after each go. Seeing as I was getting a rush of adrenaline after each go it wasn't difficult for me to run up the sand dune and want to have another go.

After a couple of goes I wanted to have a go at it while standing on the board. At first the instructor asked whether I wanted to spend the night in hospital or back at my hotel. I said hospital so he let me have a go while standing. Again because you're just standing bare feet on a wooden board it's impossible to turn and once the board starts to turn while sliding down you either have to do a controlled bail out or uncontrolled one when you catch an edge.

I tried standing up on the board twice and bailed out about 3/4 of the way down both times but it was still lots of fun. The falls while standing up were much more spectacular though and I do have this snapshot image of me spinning in the air just before landing on the sand thinking it wasn't such a good idea to stand up. In the end nothing was broken and I had a great time with an insane grin on my face afterwards.

The only other disadvantage of sand boarding is the sand. It really does get everywhere and after the second big fall I was covered in it. I spend most of the next two days pulling sand out of my shorts pockets and ears! Still it was all worth it in the end.

After the sand boarding we were taken to the nearby beach which was a very gentle sloped beach with quite rough waves. Walking along it was very pleasant even while totally covered in sand from sand boarding.

We still had just about had enough time to walk up a nearby hill next to Shoal Bay when we got back from the sand dunes, before the sun set.

The walk up the hill was quite easy as there was a well laid out path. Here's a shot from about 1/4 of the way up while the sun was setting.

We eventually got to the top of the hill but unfortunately the sun had just set by the time we got to the top. It was still a great view of the surrounding area as you can see from this shot of Shoal Bay.

We went out for food and beers in Shoal Bay on Sunday night. The place where we ate was more of a hotel pub bar and they were initially showing some plastic surgery program on the TV screens which didn't go down so well and then some late night rugby league game. Everyone in the pub was totally obsessed by watching the rugby game, even all the women.

Later on in the night the bar next to the pub had some live music and we went there to watch it. While there we met an Aussi guy called Ron. He was from the Liverpool district in Sydney and was quite a stocky bald guy who did martial arts. He happened to remember me from the previous night as he was one of the people that we asked where the bars were in Port Nelson! He was quite drunk at the time and was quite funny. I think he's the first stereo typical Australian that I've met here as he was very blunt and to the point with me but in a very friendly way. He was telling me how to chat up women in Australia and the method that worked for him was to be very direct and ask them whether they wanted a f%$&! He sweared by this technique too. I didn't try it out.

The following day Andrea had to get back to Sydney to meet a long time friend and the rest of us went to look for wild koalas. I think Allen wanted to hunt them for sport. :-) We walked for quite a while in a nature reserve which should have had some koalas but unfortunately they were a no show that day. We looked for them in the trees and even looked out for their poos to. Maybe news had got around that they were being hunted that day so they went away for the Easter break.

After this we had lunch at Hunter Valley and everyone else took some time out to sample and buy some wines from all the local vinyards in the area. Not being a big fan of wine I just took the opportunity to catch up on some much needed sleep in the car.

All in all a fantastic weekend and much fun was had by all.

Colds, Gym troubles.

I've not updated the blog for a good week as to be honest I haven't been up to much. Other than the usual working and getting home there's nothing that exciting to report right now.

Managed to pick up a cold too, probably from the flight back from Hong Kong, this hasn't helped me and I spent most of last weekend indoors because of it. Still I'm mostly over it now and even managed to get down to the gym this morning.

The weather here is still very warm, despite it being mid way through the autumn. It's been clear blue skies every day since I've been back from Hong Kong. It even reached 30 degrees today, mind you it's been up to 27 on most other days!

Still having trouble transferring my gym membership to an Australian branch of Fitness First. I was eventually told by the Bristol branch that they have contacted the Sydney branch and I should now be allowed to transfer my membership to Sydney with only a admin fee.

I tried to call the Sydney branch and was told by someone that they would look into my request and call me back. After a week they still hadn't called me back so today when going to the gym I asked them about transferring my membership. One of the blokes behind the counter then said that it would be no problem to transfer my membership from the UK to here! Why wasn't I told this the first time around?!?

So, after filling in a few forms and giving them my credit card details the bloke said that he could contact the Fitness First in Bristol by email to transfer my membership to Sydney. I'm now convinced that I've joined the Fitness First in Sydney and will still be charged from the Bristol branch next month. I'll have to wait and see but I have no faith in them getting this right!

Looking forward to Easter this weekend. What with all the recent events I had totally forgotten that it was Easter so soon and hadn't planned anything at all. Fortunately Allen asked me whether I wanted to go with him and Deirdre and two of her friends to Port Stevens for the long weekend.

According to the guide, Port Stevens basically contains beaches, sand dunes and has plenty of Dolphin and Whale watching if you go at the right time of year. Unfortunately this Easter isn't the right time of year. I think there is also a large Tarantula reserve there, like I'll be visiting that this weekend!

Back in Sydney.

I managed to book a flight back to Sydney for Friday evening to arrive in Sydney on Saturday morning.

Here's a picture of a sign that I saw on an estate in one of the many high rises in Hong Kong. Thought it was mildly amusing and I wasn't quite sure of its exact meaning.

My flight back to Sydney wasn't the most pleasant flight that I've had. For a start it was a late night flight and arrived at 6.30am in Sydney so I had to try to get as much sleep as I could. Unfortunately it was a very bumpy flight throughout the night so I only managed to get an hours sleep at most.

I think I've had enough of flying log haul flights for now. After four long flights in the last two months I've earned plenty of Virgin frequent flyer miles but have definitely had enough of sitting in an aeroplane. Video on demand or not, I've seen nine movies and had enough of trying to sleep on a plane.

This is quite funny when I look back at it, but I was shitting bricks at the time. They are very strict on what you can bring into customs in Australia and because of this they scan your luggage when you pass though customs. When my large ruck sack was being scanned and I passed though the guy at customs asked me whether I had packed the bag and was this my signature on their declaration form. I said yes to both to which he asked me to follow him with my bags. He led me to one side and ignored my question as to what was up.

At this point I was quite concerned because my ruck sack doesn't have any locks on the zips so I thought someone could have put something illegal in it. He told me to put my ruck sack on the table and then asked me whether I had an electronic fly swatter. I said yes because I bought one for Paul in Australia as he was complaining about the mosquitoes here and I had thought it would be a good present for him. It's the size of a tennis racquet and had a metal gauze which can be electrified by batteries to swot mosquitoes. I thought it was quite safe as there is another metal layer over the electrified layer. Apparently there has been a case though where a kid had dismantled one and then used it to electrify other kids, so they are banned in Australia.

The customs man then confiscated the fly swatter and filled out a form for it for me, and that was it. Nothing else, just an innocent mistake on my part. Still it gave me quite a fright!

I didn't do much over the weekend except catch up on some much needed sleep and chill out in my flat here.

I managed to get nine hours sleep on Saturday night which is quite a lot for me. I also had a couple of Krispy Kreme donuts and felt too tired to visit the gym on Sunday morning. Quentin obviously won't be happy when I arrange to see him next Saturday.

Called Wespac (the Australian bank) today and they said that there is likely to be a problem if Barclays send money to a receiver with a different account name than the one that I have here. The woman from Westpac also thought that it was totally silly that Barclays wouldn't allow me to make an international transfer to a different named account.

I'm now trying to transfer money from my Barclays account to the Westpac account using an internet company called XEtrade which claims to have the best international transfer rates and an 'easy' way to move money around internationally. I'll let you all know how I get on with them. Hopefully they won't disappear with my money, they are based in Canada and their web site appears to be genuine.