Bondi Beach
The Treaty House was interesting. What I found much more interesting than the Pakeha (European) relics were the Maori ones. Housed at the sight is a massive ceremonial war canoe that is launched once a year on the anniversary of the treaty signing. Next to the Treaty House is a Maori meeting house. It contains exquisite carvings that make the Treaty house itself pale in comparison. I guess, being from New England, I have seen my share I have seen my share of English Colonial architecture. After exploring the site, Luci read while I flew my kite. Luci was supposed to be taking digital pictures (I was shooting black and white film) but never took the camera out of her bag.
We are now at Bondi Beach outside of Sydney. Once again we had a smooth flight. Our luck is bound to run out sooner or later. This morning Luci went to Yoga while I went surfing. I figured that since I was in Australia I couldn’t pass up the opportunity. Being a snowboarder and skateboarder it would seem logical that surfing would come naturally. I caught a few waves (and even stood up on a couple) but it is harder than I thought. Skateboarding and snowboarding is almost entirely in the legs, while surfing takes a great deal of upper body strength. I am not terribly fond of the water nor a very good swimmer either which makes it more difficult. It was fun just the same; if I had about a week I think I could get quite good.
Unfortunately, inside the Great Barrier Reef there is not much surfing. But we are going there for the sailing. We decide to change our flight from Sydney to Cairns in the north of the country to Sydney to Townsville a bit farther south and closer to the Whitsunday coast where we begin our next boat charter. It would have been 12 hours of bus ride to get from Cairns to the Whitsunday coast so we opted to just skip it. This way we will be able to meet up with a couple of the rest of the crew to do some grocery shopping before we set out. They are in Townsville now taking a diving course.
The weather was nice when we first arrived in Sydney but there have been some pretty intense thunderstorms passing through in the afternoons.
Tags: NZ AU 2005
Luke