P P P Pick Up A Penguin
Topic: Travel
Saturday, I headed to Phillip Island to witness the March of the Penguins. Unlike the film of the same name, these are not The Giant Penguins, but in fact the Little Penguin or Fairy Penguin, we also do not follow their march from the Antatartic, and there was certainly no voice over provided by the actor Morgan Freedman.

Enroute, our party stopped off at a Vinyard, where it would have been rude not to sample the delights of eight different wines, and ruder still to use the spit buckets provided. We then made a visit to the Maru Centre, which is a refuge for orphaned Australian wildlife, such as Molly the Wombat who enjoyed having her tummy and feet tickled, but as we were informed by our guide, once she reaches full maturity she's more likely to want to chew your face off, which kinda signals that she's ready to return to the wild. One interesting aspect about the Wombat, is that their teeth keep on growing, which means they have to chew on things such as bark to keep wearing them down, or if given half a chance, a persons fingers. We also encountered a Tasmanian Devil, who wouldn't stop running round his pen, and so made it very tricky to photograph. The centre also has a couple of dozen Kangaroos, who we were allowed to feed, but its quite alarming when the bigger ones start leaping towards you wanting more food, at the same time as you're trying to back away. There were also a few Koalas, who may look cute and cuddily, but if you get too close they're likely to take a flying leap at you and not want to let go.

Finally, as dusk began to fall, we pulled up on Phillip Island to watch the Penguins, as they come in from a days a feeding. This is where they really make their money, as the main stand has a capacity to hold a few thousand onlookers, and regularly fills it.

From our vantafe point we were able to see in the distance, groups of penguins coming in from the sea, trying to beat the waves, but regularly getting knocked over like skittles and thrown back into the ocean, especially if they got startled by a seagul swooping in too close. Once ashore, they run up the beach and then threw the sand dunes to their burrows. We were sat on the side of the right hand stand, so could see them parade past, and they would often stop at various intervals waiting for other members of their group to join them. Unfortunately all photography was banned, as the flashes from the cameras would act to disorientate them.

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Did the Neighbours Tour yesterday, and got my photograph taken from various vantage points on
Ramsey St, which is actually called Pin Oak Court, and is only a cul-de-sac consisting of about 8 houses, not all of which appear in the show.

Apparently one of the home owners got so incensed by the film crew that he decided to repaint his guttering from brown to blue, thus causing a major problem with continuity in the show, and so to get round it they had Toadie up a ladder for an entire episode, pretending to repaint the guttering himself.

We also stopped off at Erinsborough High, bur we were unable to venture over to Lassiters, the Coffee Shop, or the Pub as it's actually a purpose built set, closed off to the public. The closest we could get was via a drive-by the studios, where the set was hidden by a large amount of foliage.

On a previous occassion, Toadie and Dee had been having a passionate moment in a nearby park, only for the Neighbours Tour Bus to drive by, thus appearing in shot. Toadie on the other hand was more than happy to go for a second take.
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Met up with Stig in the evening, in St Kilda. Y'see he does still exist!

More later...........

P.S. Big Congrats to Pully & Gail. They are expecting! (Well, Gail is at any rate!)

Obscure Neighbours characters playing in a band
Topic: Travel
A look of shock fell across my face, as I opened the door to my new dorm room. Pizza boxes, filthy clothing, and empty cans littered the floor, while four prone bodies occupied each of the four dorm beds.

Fortunately, the staff in the hostel had made a monumental cock-up in checking me into a dorm room already fully booked. Suffice to say, the room I eventually did get was immaculate in its tidiness, and it even had an ensuite bathroom, with a wet-room shower, clean towels, and soap provided.

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And so I ventured onwards into the Melbourne Central Business District, and within 19 minutes I had successfully located the Virgin Megastore, where I was able to sample first hand the pop delights of Aussie sensation Rogue Traders featuring Izzy from Neighbours on lead vocals (still yet be heard in the UK, but give it time, as a record deal has been signed). Verdict? They've actually gone in an electro/bubble-gum pop direction, although the track I did hear does sample heavily from The Knacks 'My Sharona'. On the evidence of one track, it ain't half bad.

The path from Virgin led to a network of underground department stores cunningly titled 'The Basement' (very Total Recall in its design), running under several different streets. Above the basement, housed more of a Debenhams style department store, linking into another shopping mall, Melboure Central. Could I escape from this claustriphobia? The more I walked, the deeper into the labyrinth I came, my addled over tired brain unable to cope with the size and complexity of the maze (I had got up at 4.30 that morning, and only recently stepped off a plane).

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The evening was spent being entertained by cover band Johnny Thunderpants, carrying the tagline 'Ex-Neighbours stars unite.

And so much of the set - which was surprisingly not dire dross - was spent trying to decipher when these people were in Neighbours, and which characters they actually played?

Was the lead singer Lance? No. Brett? No.

Was guitarist Darren Stark? No.

More by luck than judgement, it took a couple of girls from Norwich (Aha! No, they had never watched an edition of Alan Partridge, and didn't appreciate my comment about oversized plates, and Alan Partridge being their Dad), to realise that the lead singer was none other than everyones favourite Neighbours character, Woody!

You remember Woody? Don't You? Went out with Steph? Hmm? Faked his own death? Woody?

Oh well.

Oh, and it turned out that the other two hadn't been in Neighbours after all. Though I have a sneaking suspicion that the guitarist might have been Evan from The Secret Life of Us (the Aussie This Life).

But what's this? A quick Google search has revealed that their fourth member and guest guitarist (Woody's brother), also appeared in Neighbours, playing the character of Luke!

Luke! You remember Luke? Don't You? Hmmmmmm.

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Today was spent walking round the botanical gardens, which were very, er, botanical. And then visting Melbourne's Moving Image exhibition, which rather cunningly celebrated all images that moved, from film, to television, to computer games. You could even spend time walking round a virtual version of the museum on computer, and interact with virtual versions of other attendees. Or you could just get off your arse and physically walk round the museum yourself.

The exhibition is housed on Federation Square, which is very modern, and quite unlike anything I've seen before with its angled walkways and buildings.

In the words of Sir David Frost
Topic: Football
"A Great Man once said to me, 'It's not the winning that matters, but the taking part.'

"I didn't believe it then. And I certainly don't believe it now!"

-Yes, this is an oblique reference to that match, and that scoreline

Sydney Photos Online
Topic: Travel
The best of the photos from Sydney are now available for viewing here. Believe me, there are loads more as I appear to have gone a bit wild with the camera in the past week and a half, so much so that I managed to fill up my memory card. Fortunately, the Sony Centre on George St were obliging enough to burn all my images so far to CD. Thus enabling me to start a afresh.

Sydney - The Final Chapter
Topic: Travel
Gotta be quick here.

*Bondi - smaller than I expected, and also not as crowded, it being Autumn. Was a bright sunny day, though the wind off the sea did make it a little chilly. Follow the coastal walks and you'll come across Tamaram Beach (once a theme park until the early 20th Century), and Bronte Beach, which are probably of equal import to Bondi, though for some reason it was Bondi that got all the credit

*The Chinese Gardens - housed on Darling Harbour, and built to mark Australia's bicentenery and their special relationship with China.

*Off to Melbourne tomorrow, though getting up at 4.30am to watch Arsenal v Barcelona in the Champions League Final beforehand. If we happen to win, expect much carping about it in these pages. If we lose, it shall never be mentioned again. Just hope it doesn't go to extra time as that could cause problems with my flight.

Can't Think of a catchy title to describe what I've been doing in Sydney...
Topic: Travel
*Walked through the Botanical Gardens, which are near Circular Quay and the Opera House. Apart from almost being trampled to death by a herd of joggers (flock? school?) - there were literally hundreds of them - I also happened across a large flock of Bats (herd? school?), nestling in the trees of the Gardens tropical section. The Grey Haired Flying Fox, or Grey Haired Fruit Bat, has taken to the Gardens, after much of their natural habitat in Australia has been deforested for farm land. And it's quite something to see them hanging from the trees, and flying around in broad daylight.

*Sydney Opera House is a pretty impressive structure, built from the outside in, by architect Jorn Utzen. Started in the 1950s, after New South Wales Premier JJ Calhill ran a competition inviting architects from across the globe to submit designs, the building wasn't completed until the 1970s. Utzon himself quit the project with the interiors still to be built, and this fell to a separate group of architects to finish.

Taking the Opera House tour, we were led through the three different theatre spaces, with the main concert hall being the grandiest and the most impressive. The concert hall is currently playing host to the Australian National Orchestra, and on our tour we were privy to a practise run by one the flutests.


Meanwhile, total quiet was required when we entered the opera theatre, as the ballet was being put through its paces.

Unfortunately we weren't allowed to take photos of the various theatre halls, but I did manage to get a few snaps of the interiors which will make an appearance on here in due course.

*Very impressed by the depth of information provided by Sydney's Jewish Museum, which details the migration of Jews to Australia, initially amongst the first colonys from Britian, and then later on as holocaust survivors, where Australia took the second largest quantity of Jews per capita after Israel. Most of the museum is dedicated to the plight of the holocaust, including testimonies from survivors via video, wall displays, and also from a number of museum volunteers who were survivors themselves. It was also good to see large quantities of school children visiting the museum throughout my time there.

*On a lighter note, the Sydney Central YHA's Fubar, played host to Crab Racing last night, not that I could see anything of the actually races from my vantage point. I did however have a good enough view of the series of females plucked from the audience to start each race, and also table dance for no disernable reason whatsoever. But, hey, who's complaining?

Aussie Television - The Worlds Finest
Topic: Travel
Morecambe and Wise, Little and Large, Cannon and Ball, Smith and Jones, Bowers and Hill. All British double acts, for one reason or other, no longer with us. In Chris and Jenny's case, it's because they have fled Sydney, and jetted off to Brisbane, leaving me to fend for myself once more. Anyway, here's what I've been up to in the past couple of days.

*Took a trip to Manly beach with Chris and Jenny on Wednesday. Unfortunately, the shift in the weather to mild drizzle made it seem more like Weston-Super-Mare, only with more in the way of sand.

*After Chris and Jenny's departure on Thursday, journeyed up to the old part of the City, known as the Rocks, which sits at the foot of the Sydney Harbour Bridge. Made a slight fopar involving a group of Irish lads sat outside an Irish Bar, where one of them was commenting how great the place was and how he planned to the stay there the whole time he was in Sydney, in a manner that may or may not have been addressed to me. So totally by accident rather than design, I replied in a thick Ulster accent "Oh yeah, nice one lads!", only for all four of them to turn round and stare straight back at me. Rather than run the risk of any further embarrassing exchanges, I opted to keep on walking, than face such questioning as "So, what part of Ireland are you exactly from then?", "Erm, the English part????"

*Got a dose of Sydney nightlife on Saturday night, with two of my room-mates Chris (half German/half Dutch), and Tiargo (Brasillian), ending up the Home nightclub which included a session from a British Groove Band with a name far too rude to mention here. Suffice to say, I had never heard of them, but they were pretty good.

*Checked out the Power House, which is Sydney's Science and Technology museum, situated in Darling Harbour. The Power House includes an extensive exhibition celebrating the 50th anniversary of Australian Television, which unsurprisingly most of which was totally new to me, bar the odd section such as the Neighbours part where you could watch Scott and Charlene's Wedding sequence, again, and again, and again. They also held a interviewing Australian personalities and industry types from the past and present, including a cast member from 1970s soap opera No 64 (think Crossroads with flimsier sets) who played the role of a psychiatric patient who's illness was she kept taking her clothes off on screen, a Big Brother contestant (go figure), an Australian Idol contestant who entered the competition as both a man and a woman (don't ask), and the bloke who directed Crocodile Dundee and helped set up BSkyB as well as being a major player behind the scenes in Australian Television.

*Darling Harbour itself is one of my favourite parts of the City, including pubs, clubs, restaurants, cafes and museums (the aquarium, the maritime museum, the power house). Think the Bristol Docks, only multiply it by 100 and your still not even close. At night, it also has its fair population of Giant Bats, swooping amongst the trees and lakes.

CDs for under a pound...............
Topic: Travel
Right! That's it, I may as well pack my bags and go home now, as after seeing a record store selling CDs for only $10, surely nothing can top that. We're not just talking your run of the mill artists either, but the majority of names on my CD shopping list. Best of the Ramones? $10! The Rolling Stones 40 Licks? $10! CDs which would usually cost you at least 16 quid back in the UK. $10! That's like 4 quid!

Anyway, did the whole wildlife thing yesterday, what with visiting the Zoo and the Aquarium, both of which are an improvement on Auckland's offering (the aquarium very much so, the zoo only slightly better only because Auckland Zoo was still v.good).

The Zoo itself was accessed by getting a ferry across from the quays area which itself gave a good view of the Sydney Bridge and The Opera House. The Zoo had both Pelicans and Flamingos, which isn't of great note in its way, but if you're Al Pacino then you're going to think they're both one and the same (sorry, watched Scar Face with Greg and Caitlan back in Wellington, and it's been disturbing me ever since the scene where Pacino starts ad-libing to the camera when he spots some flamingos on the television and starts barking "Pellican!" to the camera). There were also some rather sleepy looking koalas, and some chimps who took great pleasure at throwing pieces of turd at the glass window, and then wiping it off and eating it. Well, that was enough to put me off eating for the next hour or so.

The Aquarium was pretty massive and had areas where you could walk down corridors built at the bottom of the tanks, and a massive viewing screen at the end, so it looked like you were in the cinema. Sharks, Sting Rays, and Seals abounded, and there were even a few ducks....

Billie Piper - Big in Katoomba
Topic: Travel
Monday, flew into Sydney, Australia, and convened with Chris and Jen, after yet another fraught session through customs ("Did I pack my suitcase full of soil? No!"), where yet again I got so paranoid with the questioning of bringing food into the country that I found myself declaring my half eaten pack of Polos for the third time.

Made our way over to Katoomba on the Tuesday, home of the Blue Mountains, that includes such things as bush trails, bush trails, and yet more bush trails. The Blue Mountains however do include a Cable Car (as opposed to tram going up a hill that purports to being a cable car in Wellington, when it patently isn't).

It also includes a downwards railway, which goes through a drop that could be described as being almost vertical. This was unexpected at the time, and therefore s*** scary. Chris positioned himself in the carriage first so had a nice metal grate to protect him, then Jenny went in the middle so she was fine, but poor old me was stuck out on the end with only a flimsy metal chain to stop falling out and inflecting serious pain and suffering on my person.

Some other facts about Katoomba and the Blue Mountains:

*They can't get enough of Billie Piper in Katoomba. Oh no! Or Billie;s pop hits from the 1990s it would seem. The former Mrs Evans, and current Mrs Who's "Honey To The Bee" single receives regular rotation in the Blue Mountains cafe

*Katoomba is a popular haunt for school kids on school trips, it would seem. Stalking us everywhere we turned, like the cast of Village Of The Damned.

*It gets cold in Katoomba. They actually get quite a bit of snow fall in July, and to mark the occasion they have an additional Christmas celebration. So, wrap up warm.

*500 piece jigsaws of The Three Sisters are bloody hard to complete. The Three Sisters are a rock formation in the Blue Mountains, which look like three sisters, possibly if squint very hard. Said jigsaw was started by Jenny at 7pm, and subsequently dismantled by an increasingly irate Jenny at 10.30pm.

New Zealand Photo Updates
Topic: Travel
Photos from Wellington now available here.
Photos from the South Island available here.