Australia - Week Three

Well, what a week! After I got back from Glebe last Saturday, I decided that I really needed to make a move and call Qantas to reorganise my flights. I'd spent the previous week trying to plan my route up the East Coast and so I couldn't set anything in stone until I'd definitely moved around my trip to Ayers Rock, etc. After procrastinating in front of the phone for about ten minutes, I finally dialled their number and sat on hold for a while, my heart thumping loudly in my chest. Yes, I may be able to make it across South East Asia on my own, and then into Australia, but I'm still terrified of the telephone!

Anyway, soon I was chatting to a lovely lady who was incredibly helpful. She kindly moved my flights to Ayers Rock, Sydney, Fiji and Christchurch forward with no problems at all. Wow, so that would give me 6 less weeks over here once I moved the flight from Auckland to Santiago from 28th April to 15th March. But there was no available flight on that day, not to worry, I'm flexible I say! None on the 16th, 17th, 18th... none a week earlier... So she says hang on a second...

"I have a free seat on 21st April?"

So at that point, my carefully laid plans unravel, one less week in NZ is not helpful and now that I've moved Ayers Rock and Fiji forward, I'd actually have extra time there. "OK, move the Santiago flight one week forward, but scrap the other changes" I croak, as there'd be no point getting there any earlier. She sounds really sorry and advises me to phone up on a regular basis just in case any cancellations come up.

Back to square one, except by now I am in a complete tizz about it, I just cannot handle the thought of being in Australasia until April, there'll be no money left for South America!!! I go over and over and over all alternative possibilities in my head:

1) Redo the plan up to Cairns and just take 2 weeks longer
2) Move all flights forward anyway and hope for a cancellation
3) Move only Ayers Rock forward and hang around in Sydney for 2 weeks more
4) Find a cheap flight back into Asia and kill a month doing the bits I missed

But there are problems:

1) I cannot see how to take more time doing the East Coast
2) I cannot risk being in NZ for nearly 3 months
3) I have already spent 12 nights in Sydney
4) There are no such things as cheap flights to Asia from Australia

After three sleepless nights and a few days of not getting anything productive done at all, I reach a decision. To cut a long story short, I call Qantas back and move Ayers Rock forward, leave Fiji as it is but add on a few more days and knock my Santiago flight forward to 19th April, saving two whole days!!! So I'm flying back to Sydney in February for 3 weeks, but during that time, I've booked myself a return flight to Perth for a fortnight!!!

Well, I have friends out there who have kindly offered to show me around Western Australia and put me up for a spell. Luckily, I got a very good deal on the flights and I'll see a part of the world that I didn't think I'd get the chance to visit on this trip. More boxes I can tick! Then, on Tuesday, I had another mini disaster as all the accommodation in Byron Bay for next weekend was already booked solid. I had a room, but in the time it took me to go to the ATM, it had gone, so I'm off to Ballina (where?) for 2 nights and then Byron Bay for 3. You can't just turn up in a town and get a room like you could in Asia, so I really need to be on the ball here. I did feel 300% better though, just having plans for the next 10 days!!!

Anyway, that's enough about that now... Happy New Year! On Tuesday, I made myself a pile of peanut butter sandwiches, pasta and packed a bag with suncream, Sprite and blankets, all ready for the following morning. At 6am on New Year's Eve, I got up, sneaked out of the dorm as quietly as possible, had breakfast, and made it up to Macquarie Point to get the best view of the NYE fireworks as possible. My friend Stacey, who has done the whole Sydney New Year thing, advised me that she arrived at 9am and only made it to the entrance gates at midday, the queue was that big.

Hence my early start. I got there at 7am and the queue was already quite large, but I was reasonably near the front, all I had to do was wait until 10am for the gates to open. I had a good book and sandwiches and a quilt to sit on - no problem. At 9.20, everyone stood up for some reason and surged forward, so hundreds of people pushed in at either side of the queue. I was then stood up until 11.30 in a huge crush of people, in blistering heat!

Top Spot!

Finally, I made it through into the gardens after 4½ hours and thought there would be no way that I was in the first 3,000 people - the magic number out of 20,000 who can get access to the restricted viewing area. Imagine my surprise as I sprint into the gardens, knowing that the best spot in the place (that I had spied out on a recce days before) would not be available by now, to find that there are armbands left for the restricted area and as I enter, there is a grassy slope right next to the harbour with a clear view of the Bridge, Opera House and lots of SKY!!! I decided to stop right there, not wanting to risk losing the spot on the off chance there might be something better ahead.

So, only 12 more hours to kill. I survived a stupid madam sitting on my feet, not taking the hint when I kicked her; I survived the idiot Chinese tourists with massive lenses and tripods camping right in my eyeline; I survived the incredibly hot sun, beaming down from a cloudless, cornflower blue sky... I made some great new friends and spent the hours chatting about travel, South America, Central America, idiot Chinese tourists...

So, it was actually great fun on the hill, waiting for the most famous fireworks in the world. Eventually midnight arrived...

Happy New Year 2009

Well, I want to be really positive here, but I will be honest instead! It was worth the wait as I had a great day and met some great people and I can tell my grandkids that I camped out in a great viewing spot for New Year's Eve in Sydney. But... 17 hours is a loooooong time to wait for a ten minute display firework display that didn't even start at the stroke of midnight! You'd think after 15 months of planning and several million dollars that the first bang would go off on zero in the countdown!! They were impressive, but everyone who had ever spoke about it seemed to make is sound a million times more impressive... I really need to start having no preconceptions about stuff on my travels, as invariably I am disappointed.

However, although I never need to do it again, I am chuffed that I did it, and did it properly, no swanning along at the last minute for a tiny glimpse. In fairness, I have watched a video for the display taken from a helicopter, and then it really was impressive, but I don't think that was a plausible way for me to see them. London's were better anyway apparently...

I've had a couple more lazy days in Sydney, no need to rush as I'll be back here again in February! I went to Coogee Beach again yesterday, and had my first swim in the Pacific! I'd been to Collaroy Beach on Monday, but a storm set in just as I arrived, so no sunbathing for me then. I've not had much luck with the weather and beaches - after only a few hours in Coogee yesterday, the clouds rolled back in and the wind chill made it positively wintry!

So tonight I will take the overnight Greyhound bus to Ballina. I checked out at 10am this morning and so I've had 12 hours to kill. I went to the cinema to watch Marley & Me - a film about a dog, so of course I cried my eyes out. Might go back in a bit to watch another movie, but we'll see. It's not cheap at $16 a pop! Ballina wasn't part of the original plan, but it is supposed to be a pretty little town, the staff at the YHA will even come to collect me from the bus stop...

...although I have to make a call to them when I get there in the morning.

Damn phones...