Sydney Gateway Holiday Park

... out of the hotel. Poor hubby ended up spending the entire day in the hotel room on the computer but we do have a bit of time tomorrow to get out and see a few last things together before he leaves. Then I have my last bit of vacation in the Philippines and Palau.

... to MacDonald’s.
There is wi-fi, according to a sign on the window, but Dianne can’t get into it. Ask a young guy who is texting on an I-phone, who gives her the code, which must be on your receipt when you buy something, which we don’t want to do, as we only have 500 CPF left, enough to internet in a real cyber café. The session is slow, but we get ...

... because they are such famous landmarks! On our first night we went to the Opera at the Opera House. The voices of the singers were breath taking, I was very impressed!

Our second day in Sydney was a whistle stop tour of all the sites. We went up the Sydney Sky Tower, from which we had breath taking views of all of Sydney and it's suburbs. Then we went to Bondi Beach; a very famous beach known the world round for the quality of ...

Driving into Sydney we cross the Harbour Bridge which is truly specatacular at first sighting and second, third...We arrive at the Wake up hostel, a chirpy, brightly painted place where at 10am each morning the blast through the speakers, 'Wake up, Wake up backpackers' We have flippin bunk beds again, I feel too old for this lark, take me back to Annie's guest house! We head out to see the sights and literally bump into 'Scobbie' Scott and Robbie from my Thailand trip in the ...

... a good few days. Firstly, by attending a live gig by the 'Flaming Stars', a local rock'n'roll/R&B band supported by Danny & the Cosmic Tremors from 'Wintersun'. A rare night of good times in this 'dance music dead' city!
We met up again with friends found in Darwin. Emma & Ollie from Swansea joined us for a night out in Coogee and it was a lovely evening. We all shared sunday lunch to follow before saying our goodbyes as they were to fly home in a few days. We ...

... to transfer us from our aircraft to baggage collection at Osaka.
4. Shuttle bus from Osaka airport to the Sheraton hotel in Kobe.
5. Taxi from the Sheraton hotel to the cruise ship Terminal.
6. Holland America's MS Volendam to take us all over Japan, across the Pacific, through Alaska and into Canada.
7. Shuttle bus in Tokyo to take us downtown.
8. Train system in Tokyo to find markets and the Hard Rock Café.
9. Bus system in Hakodate ...

... they looked like little ants as they edged their way up the pylons in their grey jumpsuites and hard hats. this was some vauge attempt to blend them in with their surroundings so they didn't spoil tourist views. we all climbed the pylon lookout tower. not quite as adventourous as those on the outside but hey still quite a challenge of 100's of steps with no jumpsuits. sydney harbour pylon lookout, train accross bridge and walked back darling harbour and aqariumn

... I've spent untold hours looking for a 2009 version to no
avail. So I settled for the 2008-2009 version. An extra 40 pages to
lug around. *******s!
I made the mistake of not booking my
Launceston accommodation until the last minute. As of last night all
the hostels were booked. In a panic I rushed home from work and
called all the numbers in my Lonely Planet. I got lucky and found a
room in the “Sportsman's Hall ...

... br>
Tempat2 yang kami (my origin family, Francesca's family and friends of Francesca) kunjungi slama di Sydney adalah Opera House (kamis, 01-01-09), Bondi Beach (slasa, 30-12-08), Cathedral Saint Mary (sabtu, 03-01-09), Sydney Ferries (berlayar slama liburan di Aussie, kecuali thn baru 2009), Manly Ferries (Rabu, 31-12-08), Taronga zoo (Sabtu, 03-01-09), Darling Harbour (Rabu, 31-12-08), Paddys Market (in Chinatown, jumat dan sabtu, 02-01-09 dan 03-01-09), Botanical garden ...

... great tuna on the way which was a real feast for dinner that night. One incident not caught on camera was the near sinking of our dinghy together with precious camera gear that John owned. Fortunately the skipper called for abondon ship just as we got to the steps of Tactical which saved an expensive mishap. At Gladstone Tone and I were to say goodbye to Amorica, John and Woody, the trip to Cairnes being two up where we were to pick up our crew to sail across the top with us to Darwin.