27 February, 2007

At last, dolphins that have a bit of life in them. As son as we hit the NSW boarder, it seems like a new bread of dolphins, more like back home where they come around and ride the bow wave. These ones which where part of a pod of about 15 or so hung around for about 20 minutes. Well long enough that I went back to reading my book anyway. Haven’t quite figured out how they knew where the boarder was but it was great to have them.



















Still plenty of coal coming out of this country, leaving Newcastle we must of sailed for over 4 hours through coaliers, we gave up counting at 30 plus, and this is just one of about 4 areas where they export coal, mostly to China but also Japan and Korea. Funny that Aussy is probably one of the more susceptible countries to global warming and here they are exporting one of the main causes. Ah karma. It’s a HUGE topic of the press and conversation over here at the moment what with the big dry. Mind you when the draught breaks so will the interest in global warming probably.
















And so it was that we finally made to Sydney on a grey old day. I must admit it’s pretty cool sailing into Sydney harbour. It’s one of those things that not that many people get to do and it really is a magnificent harbour but hell, it’s got some traffic, especially on the weekend.









Still, nothing compared with Singapore I’m sure,s as we shall find out latter this year. We are really starting to get excited about leaving Aus and really starting the adventure. It does still kind of feel like home here, especially when it seem like half the people you met are Kiwis. Meet two more couples today at Manly that have yachts registered in Mooloolaba, Aucklanders and south islanders. Anyway the real offshore will all start when we do the Darwin to Kupang (Indonesia) rally at the end of July. Then up to Singapore, Thailand and Malaysia which from all accounts is just fantastic. Anyway, back to Sydney. We timed it to arrive here for Australia day which is a huge affair here with Aussy flags everywhere and on everybody, hats, shirts, pants, babies etc, etc. Still it was a great day with lots happening. We met up with some fellow yachties we had meet in Brisbane and watched all the events on the harbour, which was a total madhouse, from the safety of shore. They had a tall ships race amongst other events which was really impressive finishing under the harbour bridge, of course. Needless to say there was another fireworks display in Darling harbour that night. It did all give you pause to compare the celebration here to Waitangi day back home. Something is definatly missing in how we celebrate our identity, actually we don’t, that’s what’s missing.
















Oh by the way, this is a two parter as we can only get four photos per blog, so carry on with the blog below.

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