Marc & Nora ROUND THE WORLD 2005/2006 - Join us!

Finally we said good bye to the West Coast and headed over to the East.

We arrived in Sydney on 30th of December and got picked up by Jason, Marc's Dad's Cousin's son (dont worry if u dont get it - not too important)

Jason is living with his wife Tracey and their daughter Jennifer in Cronulla, a suburb located a 25 minutes drive away from the city centre.

Cronulla - does it sound familiar? Well you might have heard of Cronulla in the news recently as the riats that took place in Sydney during Christmas happened right there.

However, when we got over all the hate has calmed down and it was safe!

Next day was the BIG day - the 31st of December. It has been a looong looong dream of me to watch the amazing fireworks live. Therefore we headed to Mc Quaries Chair, a hill located next to the botanic garden from which you have a breathtaking view of the harbour bridge and the opera house.

Glen and Sylvia, the couple we had met in Perth previously were also in Sydney at the same time so it was the four of us there.
As there are 'only' 50.000 spectators allowed on this hill we had to be there early. we arrived at 2pm and literally spent 10 hours waiting and drinking. we expected a bit of entertainment but there was nothing! no music, no shows and only 2 stalls where you could by your alcoholic drinks which was a nightmare as the queue up time was approx. 1 hour. you are also not allowed to BYO (bring your own) so we were forced to queue up for booze. It was such a hot day, increadible! 42`C!!! when it got dark all the bats started to fly around which was weird. (now we are completely used to it as we see this every day here on the east coast)

there was a firework at 9pm and the big one at midnight, which was amazing!

the next day we had a loooong sleep in and when we woke up and went outside we couldnt believe how hot it was! 46`C! it was the hottest day for more than 60 years in sydney. it was really roasting. luckily enough Tracey invited us to spend the afternoon at their parents' pool which was great!

the next days we spent shopping for a new home - not a house, but a new van. Unfortunately all cars for sale were pile of junk and really really overpriced! after a few days we gave up and decided to get to the gold coast where marc's dad's cousine hazel and her husband tony live. as we fly out from sydney we decided to do all the touristy stuff when we get back.

we found an offer for a lift to brisbane and decided to go for it. Andre, a French-Canadian guy in his 40s should have been our companion over the next few days. how can he be described? as a real hippie i guess. he travelled light-weighted (and i mean light-weighted, we couldnt spot any bag just a few shirts hanging on clothes hangers in his car) and all the gear he had in his car (such as car radio, esky, pots, sunglasses, clothes) he had collected during a council cleaning (u know when the council asks people to dump all the stuff they dont want anymore in front of their houses and it will be collected)

Nice! i have to admit that i was pretty scared first when we met him as i just expected a normal backpacker in his early 20s as you see everywhere. to meet a complete hermit was a bit of a shock.

however, i have to say that andre was really friendly and genuine and i guess it would have been great great fun travelling with him as he really wanted to stay in remote areas (thats exactly what freaked me out initially - to stay somewhere remote with no reception....-i guess i watched too much of the peter falconio trial or other backpacker horror movies)

to cut a long story short: we only travelled 1 hour with andre when his car broke down. -overheated and water pump broke. we spent a few hours in 43`c on the side of the road trying to repair it (well, the boys did and i stopped car to beg for some water). we finally managed to drive to a service station by pouring water into the radiator whilst driving. - we stopped every 2-3 km and had to stop cars for getting a jump start, then pouring water in, car stopped again, same scenario again...very funny - especially in that heat as you can imagine!

at the service station we found out that the next mechanics is another 9kms away. it slowly got dark and we decided to leave andre with his car (sorry) and find another way to get to the gold coast.

at the end we had to fly from newcastle as all busses and trains were booked out for the next few days and we also didnt fancy to have a 19hrs bus ride!