Day 23 - Sydney Attractions (Wed 1st Dec)

Chaggie had planned that today would be their day trip into Sydney despite whatever weather it would have for us. We woke up to heavy rain.

So we packed our waterproof gear and went down for breakfast with Matt, Jodi and Kathryn. Matt and Jodi went to work around 09:00, we had planned to meet Matt in the evening. Kathryn went out for an hour before picking us up for a lift to the closest train station. In this time we planned what to do for the day and whats best to do whilst its raining. We got to Padstow Station and bought our ticket, we were surprised to see that Australia use double decker trains! The trip from Padstow to Sydney City was an hour long so we arrived around 12:00.

Once we were in the City we had a wonder around, bought a few bits and found a place for lunch. We had a map that we got from the station so we were able to plan where to go next. Our next stop was Darling Harbour where Sydney Aquarium and Sydney Wildlife World is. We found a nice cheap ticket allowing us to do 4 top attractions in Sydney including both of these as well as Sydney Tower and Manly Oceanworld for only $50. Unfortunately the weather was too poor to do the Sydney Tower, cloud covered the top of it so we wouldn't have seen much. The tickets don't expire for a few months though so another time in the week. Both the Aquarium and Wildlife World are next door to eachother so this was a perfect place to spend the afternoon throughout the rain.

First we checked out the Wildlife World, as soon as we got in Chino found himself holding a Stick Insect despite his wimpy fear of insects. Staggie chose not to hold the Stick Insect, his fear is a little stronger. So we can conclude that Chaggie are both pretty big wimps when it comes to the smallest creatures. Other creatures we were able to see included Spiders, Snakes, Bats, Possum's and the biggest ants we've seen as well as wildlife we had previously seen at Australia Zoo such as Crocodiles, Kangaroos and Koalas.

The funniest moment was watching one Kangaroo scratch his groin and bottom before waving his genitals in another Kangaroo's face. The other Kangaroo wasn't pleased with this approach and so got up and had a punch up with it.

At around 14:30 we made our way to the Aquarium, this we were looking forward to. We managed to get pretty close with underwater tunnels to Sharks, Rays, Jellyfish as well as most of the 'Finding Nemo' gang including 'Dory'.




Was an epic afternoon, we finished the Aquarium at about 16:30, had a drink and planned what to do next. We had till 19:00ish till we met up with Matt and so planned a long walk to Sydney Harbour Bridge. Obviously we'll come again to see the Bridge on a day with better weather but its something Chino was pretty eager to see, Staggie was fine with seeing it also, only his 3rd time in seeing it. We got some pictures of the Bridge and Sydney Opera House before catching a train from a close by station to the Central Station where we had planned to meet Matt.

This evening with Matt we had planned to go to an A-League football match between Sydney and Wellington before a night out in the city. Our friend from England: 'Tom (Basil)' was also coming, he's been in Sydney for a good month now travelling alone so Chaggie were looking forward to seeing him. As it was only 17:30 by the time Chaggie had got to Central, we thought it was a good time to crack on with the beer and head to a pub.

It got to 18:30 and we had made our way to the stadium, Matt was a little late from work so we met him just outside the stadium as well as Basil. Kick off was at 19:00 so we missed the first 15 minutes and unfortunately the first goal too. We got in and what we saw was tiny in comparison to a Premier League game in England. There was a small fan group going mental on the North side so thats where we chose to stand, getting in with the Sydney chants. Staggie had already bought the Sydney Home Kit by this point.

The game ended 3-1 to Sydney! Was a slow game of football but great goals and was good to cheer with the crowd, they sung the whole track: 'Bohemian Rhapsody' by Queen, we had to join in with this.

A few more drinks down and after the game we headed to a pub close by, got a round in before heading to a bar/club called 'Sku-bar'. Here we had a close moment where Chino caught a drunk man opening his bag and taking out his camera before passing it around to his mates, Chino dealt with it and managed to get it back with Matt helping out. At this time Staggie and Basil weren't around. Anyway the drunk guy's friends were apologetic, obviously time to call it a night when your mate starts stealing things from other peoples bags. He was a damn big bloke too, looked like an islander, he did give a little shove on Chino but Chino knew he wouldn't have stood a chance in a fighting match, luckily it didn't come to this though as his mates were pretty sober and called it off. Once they left Matt, Basil and Chaggie were able to drink knowing our bags were pretty safe keeping them close by, had a little dance and got in with the locals before catching the last train home.

Chaggie x