Sailing the city of sails

worldtour_2864.JPG, originally uploaded by mark benger.

More AC class sailing, and unlike Sydney the wind was light and shifty. I still managed a good 2 hours sail, so it went a bit better. I followed up the sail with a wander around the Maritime museum, so overall had a bit of a nautical day.

PS I just noticed that the posting time is UK time - its 13 hours ahead here, so I'm already into november.

Mt Maungnaui

I survived the wine tasting yesturday (having inbibed a few samples of realy nice wines) so it was time to get on the bus again and continue north to the beach resort of Mt Maungnaui. Had another few hours to wander around Rotarua again,before reaching the coast and heading for the hot salt water baths with a couple of hot blonds (unfortunatly they both have boyfriends back home) before a nice fish & chips supper.

Dancing in Wellington

I'ts amazing what you find out after chatting to someone on the train. I turned out that there was a Ceroc dance weekend on in Wellington (its been a long weekend here) so I've been busy dancing the night away, plus attending workshops during the day.

I then stayed in Wellington an extra day to do a Lord or the Rings film locations tour, which due to a lack of participants turned out to be an individual tour.

I'm now in the Art deco town of Napier, and looking forward to a wine tour tomorrow.

Land of the long white cloud

I arrived in the land of the Kiwi safely last night, just a bit late due to a mix up of flight times due to a typo on my itinery. I still managed to join my coach tour this morning though, and moved out from Aukland to Rotorua via some caves filled with glow worms.

Now all I have to do is find a cheap net cafe to upload my photos.

Great Ocean Road

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The photo above is The Grotto, one of the stranger places on Victorias Shipwreck coast, reached by that little track known as the Great Ocean Road (Australians not known for understatements).

Since it's such a drivers road I decided that I needed something better than the standard hire car - see flickr for a clue to what it was (Hint it begins with P and is not a Prius)

Steaming into the hills

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Some steam train pics now up - all taken on the Puffing Billy railway just outside melbourne

Through the snow to Melbourne

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Yes there is snow downunder, although as its spring here the snow is melting fast, and all skiing has stopped.

Another 1/2 sized group - 14 this time, for a 3 day trip from Sydney (bridge, opera house) to Melbourne (trams) via Canberra and the Snowy Mountains - photos are in the usual place.

High wind classic sailing

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Just a quick look at what Sydney harbor was like yesterday - in the forground is a classic 18 foot skiff, with the city center in the background.

Nonwhale watching & breaking AC yachts

Had a couple of days of things not exactly working - yesterday I went whale watching & saw a grand total of 0 whales, infact apart from one jumping seal and a flying fish marine life seemed to be in hiding, and the offer of another trip for free wasn't a lot of use as I leave early monday morning.
This afternoon I decided to go for a gentle sail on an Americas Cup class yacht - in 38knot winds. Went out beyond the harbor bridge, got the jib up and were watching some classic 18 foot skiffs when the jibsheet went with a bang - one ripped jib, closely followed by a near collision with a local yachtie who thought he could ignore the port/starboard rule. A time was then spent sheltering behind a headland with other yachts waiting for the wind to drop, which it didnt, before retreating to base under power.

Can you guess where I am yet?

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Just say the title to this post in your best Rolf Harris accent.

I've made it to Sydney, and finally found time to get the backlog of photos uploaded, most with descriptions, to let you all know what I've been up to.
After leaving the Whitsundays we proceeded inland to spend 2 nights on a farm, where I got persuaded to get up on a horse and take part in mustering some cattle, and a slightly drunk night under the stars.
It was then back to the coast and off to Fraser Island, the worlds largest sand island. We then headed to Brisbane via Noosa, from where I flew down to Sydney.

Next stop will be Melbourne, so if any of the BMTers down there would like to meet up, leave a message.

Pictures now up

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I'm finally managing to get some of the backlog of pics onto Flickr - the picture above should rearly go with the post below, and shows the four of us in front of the Curtain fig tree on the first day. From left to right are Gerard, Myself, Holly and Claire.