Then on Friday, headed to the Blue Mountains, a short (hour and a half) train ride from Sydney. Did get some tramping done on the Saturday and Sunday. I would really like to get back for some climbing though. Looks like a great place.

Here’s a pic of Aoife, half way along the Prince Henry Cliff Walk

Still, there was a nice view of the 3 sisters (used to be 7 of them, but a few just needed to break away (ba boom))

And all too soon it was back to ChCh. Now I just have to sort out my visa extension and all will be cruisey from here on!

From Tuesday->Friday I stayed with my friend from ChCh, Yvonne. Which was great – over in a place called Manly. A really chilled out place about a 30 min boat ride from Circular Quay. Great feel to the place, where more smoothies were consumed!

The flat itself was very nice. Though I was slightly unnerved by the sign



I mean just how many calls do these companies get that they think the phone might already be engaged?! (it was a pretty rickety lift!)

Cockatiels fly all around the place (and come to your 7th floor balcony to disturb ones reading of ‘A Short History of Nearly Everything’.

But what can you do! Well, for one, you can try to scare them away. But this doesn’t work. I’m obviously not scary enough.

Also managed to meet my a friend from Openet, who is over doing contract work in Oz for the next few months (rolling out for the national service provider). Working crazy hours, but thriving. So thanks Graham for buying me a pink cocktail ;) Might meet up again in NZ if he comes to tour, which would be great fun!

And on Thursday, met up with Aoife again, and headed to the observatory, for their evening tour. That I would highly recommend. We lucked out a little bit with the weather – it was still a bit cloudy, but not too bad. Got to see some really nice constellations the Jewel Box was beautiful, and got to see that the brightest star of the southern cross – Alpha Crucis, which is actually a binary star system. Our Guide, Ian, was excellent. Really fun.. there was a wee 3D film presentation where they whizz you round the solar system. Ian happily told us, that if we were thinking of heading to Venus for a summer holiday it would be a pretty bad idea. He explained (gleefully) that if we went there, as soon as we stepped out we’d be crushed by the atmosphere, squished completely. But he then went on to say, that before that happened, the extreme temperature of Venus would probably have boiled our blood away, and he finished by saying that there’d not be much left of us as we’d be utterly dissolved by the Sulphuric Acid that would have rained down on us.

A cheery fellow :). So all in all an excellent tour, would really recommend it. Also has a good exhibition on the Transit of Venus (which Captain Cooks was ordered to record, before heading on to discover the Great South Land – what is now Australia).

So yes, arrived in Sydney, for what was a very lazy week indeed. Stayed in town for the first three nights, and hung out with my friend Aoife. Headed over to Bondi to have a look at the beach that 1/2 of Ireland seems to stay at when they travel to OZ. And you can see why.. well, if the sky had been bluer you could see why. Still, there were quite a few people out surfing.

Checked out the markets (pretty cool) the Chinese Gardens (very nice place right in the centre of town) and also headed to the powerhouse museum. Still, once you’ve visited the science museum in London I reckon you’re pretty spoilt.. But generally spent my time drinking smoothies and catching up on reading and postcards.

Did of course have a look at the Opera House

and also had a wee walk across the Harbour Bridge, but did not do the climb to the top (at $180 I decided not to)

So had a flat warming on the Friday. Was an absolutely great success with loads of friends coming, think there were about 40+ people there in total, but we had enough mulled wine and mince pies to satisfy the masses.

Living next to Warick and Michelle has it’s – consequences ;) We ended up playing The Balloon Game at about midnight…

This involves tying a balloon to a piece of string and then to your ankle, and then everybody jumps around trying to burst the others. No wine glasses were harmed in the playing of this game. Thankfully.

My friend Thor jumped on my balloon immediately. So I killed him.

So yup, kicked off at about 7pm (Kiwis are actually kinda prompt) and didn’t finish until about 5am I think. Glynn & Carolyn, Sam and Steve turned up which was great, all looking very well. Then there was a bunch from work, and quite a few cavers and climbers. All in all, an excellent night (though you can’t go too far wrong with mulled wine in my experience!)

I wussed out at about 3am to catch a couple of hours sleep before my 7am flight to Sydney… This pic was taken flying over the southern alps.

So, no word as yet from the fire inspector people.. not even sure if they’ve visited yet.  Went snow boarding on Monday – took the day off work.  The bunny slope was out of order, so graduated (a little early) to the Green Slope.  Really had a great day, 10cm of fresh powder, so my falls (and there were many) didn’t hurt too much.  I’m totally getting the hang of turning on my heels, but when I go onto my toes I tend to get far too much speed up (turning too slowly) and wipeout spectacularly..  Then I headed back to ChCh and had the weekly squash match, so quite a full on Monday really.

Rest of the week, well getting stuff ready for immigration here, am going to apply to extend my visa for a year, though am thinking of leaving in April or so anyway.  What else, getting stuff ready for the house warming, spent about $200 between us on food and drink, and I’ve been busily baking mince pies for the last couple of days (I now appreciate my mother even more than I did before.. takes such a lot of time!)

Quite looking forward to Saturday – I fly out to Sydney for a week, will be visiting friends.. will be great to relax.  Mind you, the flight is at 07:25, so I’m supposed to be there at 6am at the latest.. and I imagine the house warming will go on until 2ish at least.. dear oh deary me!