I landed on 'Stralian soil last night, at around 10pm New Zealand time, and my immediate reaction? Take me back to Christchurch, quick sharp! I walked out of the airport into a taxi occupied by a gentleman of Asian extraction, who appeared to have no clue where I wanted to go! Although once he'd discovered the place he was very good if a bit crazy and talked to me about alpacas of all things- he reckoned you could make a fortune selling alpaca wool! It was sooooooo humid I was mighty uncomfotable, all you peeps know how much I hate hot weather! I got settled in and was feeling odd, sort of tired, it being very late in NZ but still too early to go to bed in Oz! I must've fallen asleep eventually, I woke up this morning at 7 (obviously still on NZ time!) to hear all about the humungous storm at about midnight last night, which I slept straight through (as usual right guys?) It was raining though still hot, so I went off to walk around, found my way to the quayside and got a bus to see the sights whilst staying dry! Decided to get off at the aquarium, possibly a mistake, lots and lots of people! I eventually got in and was surprised they let you take pics, but I decided the poor fish were probably completely blind from all the flashes (recommended to get better shots!) so I declined. It definately made everywhere even more crowded as everyone waited impatiently to get their pics of Nemo, Dory, Bruce and the Saltie. They had Blue penguins, great big turtles and sharks as well as a seal exhibit, although there weren't very many seals, only 1 of each sort and only 4 total! Go to the penninsula above Kaikoura if you want seals! Best thing I saw today was the sign at the croc enclosure, you could go up some stairs and look down on it, no major barrier to stop you going in with the croc, just a sign that said " Please do not go into the enclosure, if the fall doesn't kill you the croc certainly will" Pretty laid back when one of the deadliest creatures on earth is only 20ft below you!
I had a look at the maritime museum lots of interesting stuff about boats and things... (well it was raining and the museum was dry!) There was a pretty cool thing about navigating with the stars though. Then I had lunch a starbucks a bit of a walk round Darling Harbour when it stopped raining and then hopped back on the bus to watch all the sydneysiders running around trying to keep dry. I may have even laughed, which I should maybe have thought twice about cos when I got off the bus and tried to walk down the road all the pavements and storm drains were full, I lost one of my Jandals to the suction between water and tarmac and had to chase it about 50m down the road! I'm sure everyone was laughing at me but its a good job I'm in such a good frame of mind at the moment, I was laughing too at how ludicrous it seemed!
I'm slowly learning to be laid back and relax, take an hour to look at this, no need to rush, but its pretty difficult when going to milk has been my major occupation for the last year, I couldn't help but think what was going on at all my dairy farms over in NZ every time I looked at the time, oh, they'll just have finished morning milking, or time to get the cows in! At least hopefully now I'll be able to start getting a life! I am missing my cows though...
