Oh, my name is Kenny and I’m a kangaroo, ‘garoo, ‘garoo...

We have been in Oz for 5 days and we still have not seen a koala bear or a kangaroo. I’m being to think that the only ones are on the road signs. So, just to prove they do exist Elizabeth is taking us to see some at a sanctuary near where the Jones live.
The journey is fairly short and we get there almost as the park opens. We are able to see all the mammals in Oz, I believe, including those elusive marsupials! We are invited to feed the ’ roos, with what for all intents is “cheerios”. Of course we don’t need to add milk or put the food in a bowl – this is not an AA Milne novel! We are fortunate to see joey’s in the pouch as well; quite ungainly with maybe a tail or leg sticking out. One lazy pup was feeding upside down whilst mum was waiting to be fed!
The Koalas are asleep. Well what’s new? They sleep for around 20 hours a day and feed solely on eucalyptus leaves. And only come down out of their trees when they are unwell, or changing trees. Everyone who wants has the opportunity to have their photo taken with the koala. Their fur is quite wiry, not as fluffy as you might imagine, and they are very tolerant. If they get stressed they just walk away.
We walk around and see the dingos. One of them decided to do a Simba circular run, which has obviously been done before as the track is clearly visible. After running round flat out it found the pond and flopped head above water to cool off! This display does nothing for our equilibrium, as you can imagine with 2 week to go until we get home. We didn’t really see possums and wombats because once again they are nocturnal and all we saw was their rear end in a burrow. We did however see an echidna feeding on ants. This is an strange animal like a large hedgehog but with a furry coat and spines like a porcupine. It has a long snout/beak ideally suited for digging out the ants and termites.
Well, it’s time to get the bags packed and make our way to Sydney airport. Elizabeth, making sure that we didn’t forget our visit, presents us with Forester, a baby koala friend for Philias and Wattlie. Apparently, aussies work fast and Forester is the result of their assignation – somehow I think that even Darwin would have a problem with this!
Well sitting waiting for the gate to be called “open” we see a lot of activity around the desk with a couple of compact video cameras being used, and goody bags for each passenger being prepared. OK, what’s so strange? Firstly our carrier Jetstar is a budget airline, and they don’t give goody bags, and secondly their normally is a ban on this type of photography in airports. Thirdly, some in the know are very anxious to get photos of some of the people at the check in desk. We have already checked in our luggage and not been asked to pay the expected Au$80, which our ticket info from Expedia stated! The reason becomes clear as we board the plane. Starting this week is the Melbourne comedy season and the bags are advertising for this. They contain cheese and biscuits, CDM (oz style not quite the UK taste), a soft drink, and some high quality mixed salted nuts. There is also a complete programme for whats on as well.
In addition to a very full flight, with Melbourne GP fans travelling , we had a stag party group and travellers like us. We are then told that there is an attempt to set a new Guiness Book of Records attempt at the highest stand up comedy event ever at 35000ft above sea level! We had 3 comedians entertaining us for about 30 minutes with it all being recorded, whilst the seat belt signs were switched off, of course. We didn’t take any photos, sorry!
On landing at Melbourne we see how much busier it is than the last time we were here. Fortunately, we are at an airport motel tonite, so we don’t have to battle the traffic into the city 23km away. We will be leaving Oz tomorrow and so need to get ourselves fully organised, and all the luggage closed. So, for now we will close.

I’m on the top of the world, looking down on creation....

We have a trip to the Blue Mountains today which requires an early start and 5 hours of train journeys. This meant leaving with Martin at 06:30 and then travelling west from Sydney. The train to Mt Victoria will stop at Katoomba, where we will get off, and then a trip to the Three Sisters and the rainforest is planned, although today we definitely won’t be seeing any rain!
The township of Katoomba was settled in the late 19th century after mineral deposits, including kerosene (paraffin) shales and coal were discovered. The sandstone rock is quite soft and has been lifted and eroded over millions of years to form a smaller version of the Grand Canyon, but unlike the GC it is very heavily forested with gum trees, tree ferns, turpentine trees etc. So, after a skyway ride across the steep sided valley we take the cableway down into the forest to explore. To protect the forest floor there is a boardwalk which allows light from the canopy 75 metres above to penetrate where it should.
We were fortunate to have the cableway ride with 50 school kids from Lawson School who were on a trip. They were very excited and when the car plunged down the side of the rock there was the predicted screams of mock fear! Great fun!
We didn’t want to get too tangled up with them whilst we were exploring so let them go ahead. As a result we quickly saw lyrebirds. These look a bit like small grey pheasants with their long tails and seem to make their living out of scrabbling around under leaves and around rocks and tree roots. Hopefully the picture gives you the idea.
Part of our trip will include a train ride said to be the steepest in the world. It runs at 55⁰ to the horizontal and brings us back to the top of the canyon in short order. The railway was formerly used to transport coal but when this operation ceased another form of revenue was needed!
We travel around Katoomba and Leura on an ex -London Transport double deck bus (Atlantean) around the rim of the canyon and beyond. This would otherwise be a 10 hour walk would be needed to see everything. As it is we could have spent three days here and not done every walk, and the museum.
As some of you know M is planning a patchwork using fabrics from around the world. Well that was the excuse she gave when she headed off for the Fudge shop, (I have the photographic evidence). The fact that it also sold fabric was a lame excuse as I’m sure you will agree despite her anticipated protestations!
Hang on a minute, I’m not having that! I didn’t even see the fudge sign until I got near the door..I was following the patchwork one! AND before we have any more fudge nonsense, all I came out with was 2 small pieces of fabric and 1 skein of embroidery silk...NO FUDGE!!
We are seeking the shade as much as we can as the temperature is in the high 20’s and will be making our way back to Sydney for dinner with Martin, Elizabeth and Ryan this evening. Even Philias is cultivating marsupial tendencies to keep out of the sun. He doesn’t want his fur bleached or to have highlights!
We have again been watched very closely by scavenging birds. This time the bird is about the size of a magpie and very vocal. It’s called a koolagong or similar. I shall have to look it up!! They seem especially partial to potato chips, but before you even think it, they weren’t ours!
Back in Sydney we meet up with Martin before travelling across to Manley for supper. Ryan and Elizabeth are travelling from home with Ryan navigating, whilst we are taking a leisurely ferry crossing to the east coast. We haven’t seen this part of Sydney yet and certainly not the heads of the harbour. We see a regatta of yachts racing in the harbour under a setting sun with bronze shades on the water as we land at the quay. We are going tomeet E & R near the restaurant and suddenly see Ryan running full pelt towards us in his England football shirt and sporting a new hair cut, very pleased to see us.
After our supper, Ryan decided that ice creams where required by all. But first we were required to run the gauntlet of the vertical water jets. Adrenaline pumped we take it in turns to traverse the 6 water fountains each with probably a dozen spouts. These rise and fall in random order and the result of getting caught is a wet BTM and a soggy ride home. Fortunately, Martin and Elizabeth’s car remained dry. Wet car smells almost as bad as wet dog, so that was a result.

What a day for a daydream, what a day for a daydreaming.....

Martin had suggested that as we hadn’t seen the QVB or the Botanic Gardens that it might be a good plan to spent a second day in the city and then depending on how the time went, take a ferry to Parramata. This sounded a plan and also gave us an excuse to be Daytrippers – Sunday driver –No!
The cheapest way to do Sydney travel is to get a weekend ticket for $2.50 each and to travel wherever you want on the trains and buses. Sadly today being Wednesday we were too early! Our Daytripper ticket cost us $18 each and gave us the freedom to travel all day as we chose on the spur of the moment on trains buses or ferry’s.
But before leaving home let’s see if we can contact one of my Cubs from Vigo Hawks Cub Pack.
We managed to call his home number but unfortunately for us Richard was in Melbourne for a two day course and he wasn’t getting back home until around 10:30pm on Thursday. He did suggest we meet up at Manley Quay for kayaking, which he does most mornings, I believe. Trouble is Manley is at least 1½ hours away, and he starts at 06:30. Hmm, perhaps not!
We head off for Central on the Northern Line and see a whole different aspect of Sydney. Being the railway area it is slightly seedy as all city railway centres are. I’m not sure why this is other than it being a melting and meeting pot for society in all its guises.
Sydney has the oldest street in Oz called George Street and this is the one we need to walk down to get to the Victorian area of the city where the Queen Victoria Building and the Town Hall are magnificent edifices to the opulent excessive of that age. QVB is a magnificent trading place which the mercantile forefathers went to town on. Today it is a bijou shopping mall with time on its hands for all those who want to indulge.
We had iced coffee and then took a trip up the old elevator lift to explore further. Convenient facilities are located on the 1st floor. This is where Margery lost her camera! Doh! She left it hanging in the loo! “Oh dear what a calamity poor old camera is lost in the lavatory”! We only realised when about to take a photo of an incredible clock a couple of minutes later.
You can tell by the levity that this story has a happy ending! I wouldn’t be joking if it was still lost! We managed to find security and reported the loss frankly not expecting to see it again, but as it happened it got home before we did courtesy of another guardian angel who handed it in and Martin for very kindly collecting it.
Rather cheesed off, M and I carried on with our day as planned, by first visiting Hyde Park. The Catholic Cathedral St Mary’s is located in the Park and it leads through into the Botanic Gardens where we see flying foxes (biggest variety of bats): hundreds of them hanging out in the trees trying to keep cool and complaining noisily about the heat and the humans (school parties etc) below!
Having exhausted the Botanical gardens – including Ron sampling all the edible herbs! – we made the most of our day tripper tickets and took the ferry round to Darling Harbour. This is part of the main Sydney waterway, but a separate part with swish cafes and restaurants around it as well as a wildlife centre, aquarium, Imax cinema, beautiful fountains..oh yes, and a huge Macdonalds! Needless to say we give this one a miss! It would, however, have been very rude to pass the Italian ice cream parlour, as we’re sure you’d agree!
This Harbour is very much a commuter port as people use the many ferries that leave from here to travel home from work – sometimes to collect a car further out of the city, but many with bicycles that come onto the ferry with them. We join the commuters to try a different way home – across the harbour and up the Paramatta river to Olympic Park. This is where much of the Sydney 2000 Olympics were held, and is still almost in constant use – the Aussies being sport mad, of course! It’s a spectacular set of stadia set on the riverside with parkland including some Mangrove swamps around it. It’s also conveniently 20 mins from where Martin and Elizabeth live! Even more convenient when you realise that Elizabeth has just been recognised as an athletics official in oz, so spends a great deal of time here!!
On the way home we stop to pick up Ryan from Cubs. The scene is similar to those around the world, I imagine with parents waiting outside ready to take charge once again of their offspring. Curiously we were all invited in as there was a message for the parents. Baloo was going back to the UK, and Akela was away on work business 3 weeks out of 4. The Wednesday cubs will close unless a female leader and another leader are found. Coincidentally, Martin (Wood Badge, ex Akela and 10 year service) has been having some problems getting the Group to accept him as a trained leader. The equivalent of their GSL wants him to do all his training again and this situation, not only being ludicrous, has gone on for the last 18 months with Martin saying he wasn’t going to do it, which in the circumstances you can’t really blame him for!
That’s not the end of the story, Martin being Martin has written to NSW HQ and has very recently had a reply which sounds promising. What is being proposed is a personal profile interview and then picking up on any specific needs. Common sense at last. We hope everything progresses smoothly for Martin and all the young people who would miss out on Scouting in the event of closure of this Cub pack. It was interesting seeing the similarities and differences in the closing ceremony. It shouldn’t take Martin any time to lick them into shape!
Oh well, early to bed as we have an early start tomorrow.

The Harbour lights are shining..

As we start to explore Sydney.
We arrived at Sydney airport 15 minutes early and were waiting to collect our luggage, as a rather surprised Martin found us. He was very pleased to see that we were “travelling light” (1 case and the rucksack being in left luggage in Melbourne) ...there were some comments about sister-in-laws and kitchen sinks? !
An interesting drive across the city and out to the north as Martin hadn’t driven it recently, and wasn’t too sure where he was going..or so he said! It looked remarkably competent to us!
Elizabeth was waiting up for us (a night owl like her sister, Tricia) and we sat up chatting until gone 1! Not good after several late nights/early mornings, but what the heck!
Two very excited children greeted us over breakfast...and all the big hugs have been passed on, Tricia! (Ryan’s was a ‘virtual’ hug, as he’s far too big for real ones these days!) I have some to return next time I see you.
It was great to have that sort of reaction from Ryan and Emily – we haven’t seen them for over 2 years so that was a bit special. Mind you, we’d forgotten how many intense questions intelligent 9 year olds ask!
The family have their normal schedule, so we’re going to “do our own thing” during the day, and meet up with them in the evening. We’d been debating about hiring another car for some of the time, but we certainly don’t need it in Sydney itself. It turns out that the rail service is relatively economic and has a reasonable timetable, so we decide to use that instead.
9.30 Tuesday morning, Elizabeth drops us off at Pennant Hills Station, and we do the 1 hour commute into Sydney city centre. Martin described the rail service as ‘slow’ (He works for Railcorp!) but it certainly isn’t too bad, and we get a good view of the suburbs as we make our way in.
So, where do you start in Sydney? The Opera House, of course!
Now, I knew the shape of it – it’s an Aussie Icon...or so I thought. ‘The’ Opera House is actually 3 separate buildings housing 2 different performance type specific (opera, orchestral, ballet) concert halls and about 6 other performance spaces of varying size. There are also two rather posh restaurants and hundreds and hundreds of red granite steps....no I’m not joking and I think we walked up or down most of them! We book ourselves onto the “essential” tour (we avoid the extra $120 for the backstage one!) which proves to be very interesting and well worth doing. It’s certainly a fascinating building and very cutting edge in design even today – so much so at the time they were building it, it nearly didn’t get built at all, as the engineers struggled to find a way to put the architects design ideas into reality.
After the tour and taking LOADS of photos, it’s an outdoor lunch overlooking the harbour and bridge, followed by a walk through circular quay to the older part of the city – known as The Rocks. Sadly we’re not here at the w/e as the Rocks hosts street markets that are well worth a visit. We have to be satisfied with the quiet village atmosphere and the interesting architecture, as we work our way up to yet more steps leading the Bridge walkway. Well, it had to be done, didn’t it?
It’s been a very hot day, and walking the bridge with no real shade was not the most comfortable place to be, but the views were amazing. Philias and Wattlie decided they needed a portrait right in the middle of the bridge, under the Australian flag..but also under the watchful eye of the security guard, and right beside the sign that said “No unauthorised climbing” ! Bears! Fortunately the security guy had a good sense of humour..either that or he was humouring two very sad poms!
We arrived on the north side of the bridge at Millsom’s Point, where there just happens to be a station on the correct line...good planning! So we poodle off up the line to meet Elizabeth as arranged, only to find that Martin is on the same train, one carriage in front of us! Sadly he has to cycle home from the station, we go back by car for a sumptuous Aussie Barbeque. Excellent! We’re glad we spent some time with Emily today, as we won’t see her again before we go – she’s off for 3 days activity camp with school.
We discover that the hills area where we’re staying is 15 mins away from the enormous Hillsongs church – Martin says it has over 5000 people in it’s congregations..a bit big for us!

I’m sitting on a railway station, got a ticket for my destination

Well, today we are going to travel on a train, car and taxi, coach and a plane. So far as we are aware we are not going on a boat. That’s why we didn’t use the other song title which we could have used! Which one? Why “Trains and boats and planes took me away...” of course.
We saw the train yesterday and we also saw Thomas Oz style! But today we are travelling on The Puffing Billy. It was built as a branch line for the owner of a specialist horticulturist to transport his wares to Melbourne for home and export sales. It was closed down in 1953 after a landslip and it was opened about 5 years later by volunteers and enthusiasts and continues to run trains each day. The trains are steam hauled with exception of during very high fire risk as the possibility of sparks setting light to the bush is too high.
The trip we took was only part one way and we alighted at Emerald Lakeside(8.25 miles) which was the end of the line up to 1998 when the extension to Gembrook was restored. Emerald township is the highest part of the line and is 1045 ft above sea level and 6 miles from Belgrave where we started our journey. Here the engine takes on water before proceeding for a further 6.75 miles to the terminus.
Our engine was very well turned out and worked hard up the 1:30 Emerald Bank before cruising down to our morning tea stop by the lake. Well, M had seen a kookaburra by the side of the road yesterday, but was delighted when one came and sat on a branch right where we were sitting. We also had attentive pukeko and ducks and a whole flock of sulphur crested cockatoo! Something about food, I would say!
We had to get the compulsory DVD and “T” shirt. Good job we have a generous luggage allowance on this trip!
We have a fantastic seafood lunch before being whisked off to Southern Star Rail/Bus station to catch our transfer to Avalon airport to catch the flight to Sydney. The traffic jam we experienced is the first since leaving the UK, and to be in such a big city has really landed us down to earth with a big bump. This is probably as well, as Sydney will be bigger and more crowded, I expect. We pass Albert Park where preparations for Sunday’s Australian GP are in full flow. Simply Red are playing in Melbourne on Sunday evening as well. How come we will be in Singapore? At least we should be able to watch it on TV.
We are looking forward to seeing and staying with Elizabeth, Martin, Ryan and Emily, and exploring Sydney.

Now I’ve found that the world is round...

Wednesday Morning (+3), 5am (apologies to Paul Simon) and we are getting ready to leave our hotel room in Christchurch with the Aussies all over NZ Blackcaps in the First Test at Wellington. The overnight score was NZ 4 down with a very steep hill to climb to avoid the follow on. Today, we are crossing the” Ditch”, and we will arrive in Melbourne around breakfast time.
Despite protestations I was relieved of $NZ 50 to “allow” us to leave! OK, I know that they should have been paying me, but when you’re “down under” everything is upside down! We are the only people in business class and so have a choice of 8 seats. The thought of playing musical chairs with two MP3 players came to mind but even better having to fight for a seat when the announcements are made over the PA. Let’s go with it!
Our host asks “Would we like to have sparkling wine” at 06:30am. Not wishing to offend, but thinking more of our own fragile state we opt for orange juice, or in my case orange juice and water. The man knows how to live the highlife. Margery is quite pleased with the apologetic of broccoli and pumpkin etc for the cooked part of her breakfast. It appears that ”v” stands for vegetarian and vegan in these parts AND I was the cat that got the butter and M got the marg! The poor stewardess couldn’t really understand that I was more than happy with the breakfast – so often the veggie option is just a salad or a few vegetables, so I end up starving! ..this one was great as there were pulses and cereal bits as well as potatoes – so I definitely wasn’t hungry!
We take off in darkness and so see the sunrise for over 2 hours as we are flying westwards. I adjust my watch backwards by 2 hours. We are now making up for lost time, so to speak.
Melbourne’s urban sprawl lies beneath us as we fly in making NZ cites seem Lilliputian by comparison. We touch down in a new continent and one neither of us has ever dreamed we would visit. At least we are going the wrong way so they can’t accuse us of being convicts!
Arrivals was fine except the 90 minute wait to check our presents through AQIS (Quarantine) all for a few bits of wood, some shells and our camping bits. See what we go through thinking of you!!! No, it was really only the walking boots and the trekking poles which might have been a potential problem, and an X-Ray of the rucksack seemed to satisfy” them with a job to do”, and the we finally get the all clear to meet Alick and Mandy waiting patiently at the arrivals gate.
Emerald, where Alick and Mandy live is about 1 hours drive from Melbourne Tullamarine International Airport, and they had left at around 7 am to pick us up. Poor things, they thought that they had missed us when we didn’t emerge for such a long time. It is the first time that we had met Mandy but within minutes you’d have thought that we were family. We were soon talking about everything under the sun and Alick was normal. He can talk for Australia, and he hasn’t lost the nack!
We were able to leave 2 bags at the international airport, which will make life a little easier and cheaper as we fly up to Sydney.
It was great to get to Lawson Drive where we were to stay for the next 36 hours, because to be honest, the musical chairs game had left us both a bit jaded. Well, we had some lunch and then the chance to stretch legs properly around A & M’s beautiful garden and then the nearby reservoir, which was formed from a natural valley and a concrete / stone dam. I know it is the end of the summer, but the water level was shockingly low, especially as yesterday was the first day of the autumn for them. Remember, that it was only two weeks ago that golf ball size hail and flooding had hit Melbourne. We get to understand pretty quickly that Oz is very much a land of extremes, and that whilst it wasn’t always this way in living memory, today you can so easily have 4 seasons in one day.
We saw signs for Kangaroo feeding, but to be honest we were there about 1 hour early and we still had to get back before dinner. We did see Sulphur crested cockatoo and rosella (a red, blue and green parrot), as well as the ubiquitous Australian magpies!
After a very pleasant evening it was for us an early bedtime as we ware on our way to travel the railway tomorrow. “Train whistle blowing, makes a sleepy noise; underneath the blankets lie all the girls and boys.” zzzzzzzzz

We come along on Saturday morning, greeting everybody with a smile!

This is our last day in NZ and we are going to make the best of it. We missed Lyttelton when we went to Akaroa as they had a fete on and we wanted to avoid any possibility of a traffic jam. Lytteleton has many reasons to be mentioned as it was the place where the first 4 ships bringing emigrants from Gravesend landed in December 1850. It is also the port from where the Antarctic vessels sail to the USA and NZ bases.
The best vantage point for seeing the City of Christchurch, the plains of Canterbury and the Southern Alps and North to Kaikoura is at the summit of Mt Cavendish (945 metres high) which is part of the volcano that formed these hills or mountains. The drive up by car was breathtaking with incredible views, but why would you cycle to the top? That’s what I call breathtaking!!
We hadn’t enough time yesterday to see everything we wanted, and so decided to visit the museum, and art centre in between riding the trams again. The weather was just perfect for doing this as it was cloudy and warm, so we didn’t feel we were missing out on that last minute opportunity to top up the tan. Sorry everyone for mentioning the sun! I lost Margery in the museum as it was quite easy to dip into an exhibit and mean while I went to another. Well if lost we always said to the Beavers, Cubs and Scouts we will meet you at the entrance. Well it worked!
We decided that with carrying souvenirs we needed to reduce weight of our cases. So, we took pieces of clothing which we felt were surplus and donated them. We also got rid of our last bits and pieces of cutlery etc as we won’t be having picnics here after our lunch today. Also we are returning Scooby  which has been our wheels for the last 25 days. We did 2800 km in Scooby and still aren’t always sure what side the indicators are! Doh!
We have an early morning wake up call for 3:30 am and are getting cases and “stuff” sorted so that we can get an easy in to Oz bearing in mind we must have everything clean (boots, trekking poles etc) and we can’t take in any food of any sort. So as we don’t want a $1000 fine we are double checking everything.
Just discovered we both have a $NZ 25 exit tax to pay. Humm... wot if we haven’t got it. Will they make us stay?
Sadly, we think not but tomorrows another day!