We arrived into a sunny Sydney mid afternoon and after getting settled into our hotel we decided to see if we could walk down to the harbour. As we were walking Emma happened to look up and said 'Is that a bat?' We looked up and saw that the sky was filling up with E-NOR-MOUS bats that seemed to be about the size of Matthew! We had known that they would be there but I thought that they might be something that you might see by going to a special 'hide' in a specific place (which I certainly wasn't planning to do) and definitely didn't expect them to be flying around my head like something out of a Stephen King novel. We walked (a little faster) towards the harbour that was starting to get lit up as the light faded and then we saw the Opera house and the Sydney Harbour bridge which both looked so impressive. There was a Massive Attack concert on outside the Opera House so it was jam packed but we managed to get a bite to eat in one of the restaurants that is part of the complex.
The following day we got the bus out to Bondi Beach because after a summer of watching 'Bondi Rescue' on TV I was keen to see the lifeguards in action. Purely to see if their lifesaving techniques differed to our of course :)
Bondi is filled with beautiful bodies, fine golden sand, warm sea and lots of jellyfish. The waves were fantastic for playing in so the others splashed about I assigned myself chief bag minder which happened to be a handy spot for watching bronzed beauties jogging up and down the beach. I unfortunately took off my necklace because it was getting hot against my neck and forgot to put it back on again when we were leaving which I was very annoyed about. It is now probably waiting to be discovered by someone building a sandcastle.
The following day we went to the aquarium and Wildlife World at Darling Harbour where we saw lots of things that live in the sea around Sydney making me more determined to keep a very close eye out next time I was at the beach. On Friday we got the ferry across the harbour to Manly beach which is like a smaller version of Bondi but a bit more like a resort and we spent the afternoon swimming and making sand sculptures.
Emma got stung by a blue bottle jellyfish (portugese man of war) on the ankle which produced a ring of blisters. I ran to a lifeguard (any excuse) and asked what I should do. He told me that it would be sore for an hour but that an ice cream and a bag of chips would help. I dopily asked if they were to to be applied to the blisters and he smirked and said 'as a distraction' out of the corner of his mouth and with a toss of his sun bleached hair he was off. Cairns
On Saturday morning we were off again this time to Cairns or 'Kehns' as were were coached to pronouncing by our Aussie friend, Rebecca. We were immediately hit by the heat when we arrived. It was about 30c but the humidity was something we weren't used to. We only had a short time in Cairns and our visit there was mainly to see the Great Barrier Reef so we immediately asked if it would be affected by Cyclone Ului that was due to hit the Queensland Coast the morning we wanted to see the reef. We were told that thankfully it wouldn't as it was quite a bit further south but that it had made the sea a bit choppier so visability wouldn't be as good.
Our trip included a ferry to Green Island where we snorkeled for a couple of hours and then on to the Reef where we moored alongside a pontoon anchored at the edge of the reef and were able to snorkel off there for the next 4 hours. This is the trip we took The day we got was really hot and sunny and 28c and the water was 29c so you could stay in for ages and not get cold. We all suited up with jellyfish proof suits and snorkels and fins and got in together.
I had been expecting lots of colourful fish but we weren't at all prepared for just how amazing the coral would be! The floresant blues, greens and oranges didn't look like they could be possible in nature. To quote a line from a film it was like 'being in a screensaver' When we got out of the water Matthew and Emma were nearly overcome with how fantastic it had been and said it was most amazing part of our entire trip.
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