Jan 7th - Jetboating to Bondi Beach & Sydney observatory under overcast skies

Went Jetboating in Sydney Harbor and out to Bondi Beach, which was great fun, then in the evening went on a tour of Sydney observatory that I had booked earlier in the day as all the weather forecasts promised us the overcast skies would clear and it would be a fine evening – They were wrong and it was as cloudy as most English evenings meaning the only stars we were able to look at through the telescopes was a star on the Australian flag high on top of the harbour bridge, it was still an interesting tour though and I got this nice shot from the observatories gardens.

Jan 6th A Quietish Day

After yesterdays hectic day didn’t do a lot today, had another walk around the harbour and got this nice shot of me with the bridge in the background, other than that just did a bit of Shopping.

Jan 5th - The Blue Mountains

Took a day trip to the Blue Mountains, they are called such because of the amount of Ecupuliptus trees there which really do give out a blue haze.

We stopped off at a wildlife park on the way there, which had virtually every type of aussie animal from croc to kangaroos and koalas

Then we toured round some of the stunning scenery of the blue mountains, stopping off at various viewpoints including this one which is called the 3 sisters, then after lunch we took a cablecar ride to the valley floor and had a walk through the forests below even spotting a wild koala, before boarding the worlds steepest railway incline for the journey back to the top.

We then drove to wentworth falls and had a walk down around 250 steps for some stunning views of the waterfals which was worth the walk.

On the way back to Sydney we stopped at Sydney's Olympic park for half an hour and had a look at the Olympic stadium before boarding a cruse the rest of the way back to the city arriving by going under the stunning harbor bridge.

Was a great day with loads packed into it so had a quite evening at the hostel on the fantastic rooftop terrace.

Jan 4th - Ferry trip and watching a huge Cruise ship depart.

Had a walk around Sydney harbor including under the bridge, and round the opera house, then took a ferry to the other harbor, Darling harbor and had a walk around there for a while.

In the evening sat on the rooftop terrace and watched this huge cruise ship the Diamond princess depart Sydney harbour you could see it for miles as it headed out into the Pacific Ocean.

Jan 3rd - What a great location to Stay

Ater a week of treating myself to some pretty nice hotels it was time to go back to staying in Backpacker Hostels again else my money would have run out within a few weeks staying at Holiday Inns!

I moved to a brand new Hostel right on the harbour itself with an amazing roof terrace overlooking the bridge and opera house, all for a fraction of the price of hotels.

Jan 2nd - Quite day at a Sydney Airport Hotel

After a pretty crazy full on time over Christmas and New Year, I just relaxed around my hotel all day today, I had treated myself to a Holiday Inn airport hotel for a couple of nights and it had some great views over the airport, heres a nice shot at sunset with a Qantas A380’s tail visible in the hanger.

Jan 1st – Happy New Year from over Antarctica!

Ok I have fell so far behind with my original photoblog that I am starting a new one from 1st Jan 2010, I still indent to get my other one upto date eventually and hopefully |I will find time to keep this one more uptodate!


On New Years Eve 2009 I went on an Antarctic Sightseeing flight from Melbourne onboard a Qantas Airbus A380.

About 3 hours into the flight excitement rose as we saw the first icebergs, an hour later we were over the continent of Antarctica and descended to 10000ft which was just 2000ft above some of the mountains, The scenery was just stunning.

Then at Midnight was the big moment of celebrating new year and indeed a new decade with a glass of champagne while dancing in the aisles of the worlds biggest plane over with Antarctica shining brightly in the midnight sun just below while the band on board played Old Lang Syne it was just incredible the most amazing new year ever!

From young to old (I was sitting next to a lively 85 year old for half the flight) everyone had an amazing time. After 4 hours of flying over Antarctica it was time to leave the frozen world and head back to Melbourne, once we landed there had 90 mins or so before carrying onto Sydney and I got a chance to have a good walk around the plane including the cockpit!

Then it was time for a short 1-hour flight from Melbourne to Sydney with probably less than 100 passengers left onboard such a huge plane it felt more like a private jet and what an impressive takeoff as an aircraft designed to fly full for upto 15 hours was so light that we climbed like a rocket!

I had flown into Sydney airport twice before and both times had approached from the opposite end to the famous bridge & opera house so I was hoping it to be 3rd time lucky and get a stunning view of Sydney as we came in but alas the winds were wrong yet again and we approached from the opposite end once again, oh well I got enough stunning views on this flight so the Sydney view will have to wait!