Darling Harbour Rocks!

Sydney is totally awesome. Everyone says it’s fast paced, but that’s what makes it so exciting. I guess my opinion doesn’t really count as I only spent 1 day in the CBD. For me, first impression counts and Sydney gets the 2 thumbs up.
I managed to catch up with Blair, Colin and Glenis (ex-colleagues from Grosvenor in Wellington) and a mate from Brisbane. We went for a few cheeky beers at Darling Harbour. Although it does look poshy at first glance, it is actually pretty laid back.
Everyone started fading at around 10pm but Glenis was out with us till after 1am. She’s a party animal.

When Glenis left, Rob and I jumped into a cab to our next destination. We made a detour to a random pie store on the side of the road. It was possibly the best curry pie I’ve had in my life. As the driver stopped the meter, I asked where we were. His reply was “Kings Cross”. The prostitution and crime district of Sydney. Due to the fact that it was early Wednesday morning, the place was pretty dead. Since I’m at the Cross, I had to go into a strip bar. As I ordered a drink at the bar, I could hear different conversations going on with lines like:

“Kia ora cuz”
“Oh true aye”
“Giss a smoke ow”

All with the strong kiwiana/maori accent. Was hilarious.
Anyway, there were 1 dancer and 1 guy seated in the corner. Probably wacking off or something. Felt sorry for the poor girl so Rob brought out his cell phone and took a photo of her. She came screaming over and snatch the phone off him and deleted the picture. What a funny way to end the night.
I woke up with a ragging hangover, missed breakfast with work colleagues and did not get to work till after 10am. Everyone knew I was in a bad way and they kinda left me alone to deal with the self inflicted pain.

Bed time

Sam

Skydiving is not for the faint-hearted

So I basically got peer pressured into taking an Advanced Freefall course (AFF) and I’m afraid of heights!
The solo course consists of 9 stages (9 jumps) with criteria’s you have to pass to move on to the next stage. For the first 3 stages, 2 jumpmasters would leap off the plane with you while they critique you on your posture and make sure you are checking your altimeter at regular intervals, after that, its all on you.
We did 8 hours of classroom training yesterday and jumped out of the plane today.
The adrenaline rush is amazing. Cold air rushing past you at 10,500ft with your life hanging off a few pieces of rope. The view is indescribable. The hardest part for first time skydivers is learning to control the canopy (parachute).
We all know how to jump of diving boards at a pool and we can learn how to arc our backs on the floor but learning to fly the canopy would be a first. We can only be verbally taught how to fly the canopy but the rest is based on experience and completing more jumps. Practise makes perfect.
Once I pass this course and sit a few tests, I will be able to leap off the plane anywhere in the world.
On my return to NZ, I will definitely be getting friends to join in, so look out and make sure you have a spare pair of underwear. Will take better pics next time.

Airbourne Sam

Gosford – Back in 10 mins

Well where do I start? Spent 3 days in Gosford last week and it was another interesting sight.
Gosford is about 90mins drive from Newcastle. Locals from Sydney/Newcastle would migrate to Gosford in the summer to take advantage of the beautiful beaches.
It was 1pm on a Friday afternoon, was warm as usual. I wanted to have lunch in an air conditioned environment. Across the road was a plaza, probably one of the main plazas in Gosford. As I approached the food court, there were 10 eateries but only 2 were open. I mean come on……..Friday afternoon, 1pm, hungry, food. Due to the over whelming selection of food, I had to settle for burger and fries.

Do you remember watching movies where the retailers would put signs out like
“Out to lunch, back in 20 mins”

Well this is a common thing in Gosford, without exaggerating; there were about 8 stores with those signs on the window. Was very amusing to me, I don’t think the locals manage to figure out why I was staring at the closed shop laughing.

Anywho, it’s only been 3 hours since I arrived back to my apartment from 4 days in Mackay. Mackay is on the Eastern Coast of Queensland, roughly half way between Cairns and Brisbane. Mining generates around AU$1.5Billion of Mackay’s annual gross product. Cash Cow?
We finished work early one night and decided to check out the night life. I think it is illegal to use the phrase “night life” in Mackay because it was a ghost town. Ended the night with dinner at hogs breath which I have to say is 10 times better tasting than any hogs breath in NZ. We jumped into a cab and my conversation with the lady went like this.

Sam: So……….Mackay is an interesting place.
Old Lady: There’s not too much to do here, although we do have nice pubs.
Sam: Really? We’ve been walking around and couldn’t find anything.
Old Lady: Well there’s the platinum which is a nice club with dancers, there’s the [Cannot remember] Hotel which turns into a strip bar at night, there’s [Cannot remember] on the corner which have girls dancing Monday, Wednesday and Friday which they fly up from Sydney and the [Cannot remember] with a pub and upstairs lounge with dancers.

So maybe Mackay can be an interesting place to be, although I did not experience it first hand. My conclusion of Mackay is every pub turns into a strip bar with dancers who fly up from Sydney.

Wow, this blog has taken me 30mins to write.

Bed time

Sam

AB’s are a disappointment

What more can I say. We all felt that this could be the year for the AB's to pull off the 20 year drought. But deep down inside, we sense that they could choke and choke they did on a cockerel bone. I was excited when England beat Australia and was looking forward to sleeping for 3 hours and waking up for the ABs vs. France (4am). But it turns out, I was robbed of my sleep. People with tickets to the Semi/Final must be quite gutted they don't get to watch the All Blacks play.
Ahh well, NZ 2011 here we come.

The sole purpose of my update tonight was because we had a cool thunderstorm. Apparently it's a regular appearance due to the tropical weather.
So it got to 32 degrees today. After 2 mins of leaving an air conditioned room, I was sweating profusely. Not a very nice feeling turning up to work all sticky.
I manage to take a short video clip of the thunderstorm along with some images. Was very rewarding. You can watch the 3.2Mb clip Here.

Sam

It is WARM!!!

Bon Soir,

Spent a few days in Cairns this week. It was extremely warm. 30 degrees heat at around 90% humidity, 23 degrees in the evenings and its not even summer. Was great with the air conditioner cranked up on high.
There are loads of Japanese tourists in Cairns as it is now an international airport with direct flights from Japan. The Great Barrier Reef is the biggest attraction there.

I have also been peer pressured into taking a sky diving course which commences in 3 weeks. The course consists of 9 jumps and the final jump will be solo. I am honestly shit scared. The adrenaline rush will be amazing but I’m getting butterflies just thinking bout it. Will definitely update everyone with my progress.
Too lazy to write about anything as I am quite hung over.

Ca va

Sam

Hervey Bay, the Kaikoura of New Zealand

Sorry all, I am getting more and more useless with updates.
I am turning into a lazy Aussie slob. I am probably generalising a bit too much. I should have said lazy Brisbane slob. My theory is that it is so hot and humid outside that people either lay around and drink or sit in the pub and drink. I have experienced this first hand as I am now 5 kg fatter. My shorts don’t fit and jeans cuts off blood circulation to the you know where. Time to go for runs or I’ll just be another statistic.

I just got back from 3 days in Hervey Bay. Hervey Bay is best known for its Whale watching and off road 4WD on Fraser Island. People come from all around the World and even Australia to partake in these activities. Unfortunately I didn’t do either for the following reasons:

a) We have bigger whales in NZ
b) No time (shit excuse I know but fat people have less energy)
c) We have bigger whales in NZ

My impression of Hervey Bay was that it was a nice laid back town so I didn’t mind when a cup of Flat White took 20mins. I just presumed they flew to Brazil to collect the beans themselves.
We finished work early and decided to have a few drinks at the local pub. I was by far the youngest there, although I am only 19. So as I stood at the bar waiting to get served, I noticed that the Bar tender was pregnant. As she turned toward me, my jaws dropped, she was honestly 13 years old. Shocking!
A few more drinks later, we saw the bartenders sprint out the door. Being the nosey drunk kiwi, I decided to take a look and saw the following:

1) 15 year old, 58kg male (drunk) pinned against the wall.
2) 15 year old female (drunk) trying to fight off the guys holding the male subject.
3) Liquor store within 10 meters of the tussle
4) Case of beer (24 pack) on the floor.
5) No sign of getaway car.

If you haven’t figured it out, the couples were trying to take off with a case of beers on foot. It was the funniest thing I’ve ever seen. It was hilarious. The girlfriend knew I was laughing at them so she verbally abused me, I laughed louder, she replied with more heated words, I laughed even louder, she was trying to fight off guys to get to me, I reach for my mobile phone and took a photo then laughed some more. Too bad the quality came out crap. Cops turned up 2 hours later (must have been too busy whale watching) and took the culprit away.

That’s all for now, It’s late and I need my sleep. Apparently the more sleep I get the skinnier I get says Australian media, go figure.
Off to Cairns next and will return with more updates.

Sam
P.S. It was 31 degrees today!

Beer o'clock

Hi all,

Just a quick update.
Work is going very well. Now that I've got so much free time, I'm actually running out of things to do.
So I thought, what better way to kill time than to drink myself silly.
Only managed to get mashed 5 out of 7 days. Good times..........

Spent last weekend down at Gold Coast, didn't get to the beach as it was raining cats and dogs.
The surf got to 10 foot. In surfing terms, that is a lot! Basically suicidal material to us newbie’s. Anyway, after drinking for a few hours we went to the casino. It was 3:30am!! The taxi ride was 30mins, I didn't realise we were so far away. So we ended up walking out at 6:30am. That same night, we went to Suncorp Stadium to watch Queensland Roar vs. Adelaide United (football). It ended up being 2-2. But boy were these supporters keen. This is their chant:

Drums: boom boom boom
Crowd: Queensland
Drums: boom boom boom
Crowd: Queensland

I thought that was the lamest chant of all times. Another thing that cracked me up was the name of the football team; Queensland Roar......and the mascot was a lion. Go figure. They might as well have called it Queensland Meow or Queensland Woof.
None the less, more alcohol abuse to end the night.

Oh there was a total lunar eclipse tonight, was pretty cool. Tried to take a photo but my 7.1MP did not make the cut. Ah well, time for another beer.

Take care all

Sam




Beer bongs rock!

England school boys vs. Australia High School

New Job - Cardno Group

Bonjour mes amis,

After 3 weeks of unemployment and chilling out, I managed to secure a 5 month contract with the Cardno Group.
Cardno is a civil engineering firm with numerous subsidiaries all around the world. I will be involved with the migration project to consolidate all their sites onto the WAN. Hopefully I will get to travel to places like Dubai or even UK.
Another interesting and challenging role. Fingers crossed that it won’t be another 80hr week job.
Since it’s a 5 month contract instead of 3 months, I will only be in New Zealand for 3 days in early November. Hopefully I will be able to catch up with most of you.

Ca va

Sam

Cape Byron, Byron Bay and Nimbin

Since I am a tourist in Brisbane, I decided to sign up for one of their day tours. We first checked out a lighthouse at Cape Byron, it is also Australia's most powerful Lighthouse.

Next was Byron Bay, where I spent 2 hours laying in the sun.

Last but not least, Nimbin. Nimbin is a hippy town which hosted the Aquarius Music Festival in 1973. A hippy town is not complete without God's natural herb. So as I stepped out of the mini-van and walked 10 metres toward the town, a local stopped me and said "Weed?". I was stunned! I am not the kind to fall into temptation so I said "$20 bag please" and away I went with my Marijuana. Then its off to the pub for a beer and herbal entertainment. I was baked on the way home so there's nothing much I can say.

My photo Gallery got closed down so I have created a new one. I hate taking pictures, so theres a couple there of all the Town's I have visited so far. The new link is http://picasaweb.google.com/touristsam

Trip to Gold Coast

Matt and I took a little trip to the Gold Coast last weekend.It was about 26 degrees and the water temperature was amazing. Matt brought along his surfboard and I decided to buy some flippers to do some body surfing. So I thought to myself "How hard could body surfing be? Wait for a wave then swim with it." After 20mins of pounding from the waves and drinking 3 litres of sea water, I gave up and layed on the beach for the rest of the afternoon.

The resort we were staying at was a family resort. So as we walked in, there were kids everywhere yelling and screaming. Picture 2 guys checking into a place with about 200 kids......wrong, very wrong. Just to make matters worse, we decided to take a short cut when leaving the room and we ended up in the main swimming area. So there we were, 2 lost male predators looking around for an exit......very wrong.

The night started out at Jupiter's Casino of course (Asians love to gamble). After a bit of blackjack and 10 vodkas, we decided to hit town. From here on in, it was all downhill for me. I think the term is "BLOWOUT".None the less, it was very cool to get away from the city.I didn't take many pictures as I was totally hungover. Oh and the weather was pretty crap on Sunday.