An overnight bus trip down to Sydney, which arrived two hours early, and an hour and half train ride up to Woy Woy, followed by a half hour car ride with Nakita landed us at her family’s house in Macmaster Beach. It was good to see her; I hadn’t in about 8 months. We were very happy to be in a real home with a room to ourselves and endless good food. I put on a bunch of weight while we were there from constantly eating meals of meat and snacks of cookies and cupcakes and leftover desserts. It was amazing staying with them though. They were the best hosts we could have ever had. Her mom Amilia and step-dad Bevan were great to hang out with and very accomodating. The first night we ate almost an entire lamb, the next night we had steak, pizza after that, etc. Nakita was constantly baking treats for us as well. One day she took us for a walk up the highlands, which is a trail along a massive fjord that is one side of the bay that is Macmaster Beach. It gave us a great view of the beach and the ocean. The other side of the bay, a high fjord covered in houses, looked like Italy. She also took us on a walk to her family’s 9-acre block where their future home will be. The area they live in is gorgeous. The houses are in a forest of tropical trees, which leads to an abundance of spiders and dangers during high winds, and only a few minute walk to the beach. Nakita broke her mom’s salad bowl and Bevan made fun of her by telling her that he almost broke it once and her mother burst into tears.
The weather was back and forth so we spent equal time on our laptops and at the beach. We also went into Sydney for a day. We met up with Nakita’s sister Petea on her lunch break and after she got off work. We had lunch and some chocolate at a very fancy chocolatier restaurant. I trained down to Mascot Station and got a shirt for Dad at the Harley-Davidson dealership down there. We had planned to meet at the Sydney Opera House but we apparently communicated wrong because I sat there for an hour after we were supposed to meet and then left and walked partway over the bridge and then back through The Rocks. I eventually ran into them at 6 p.m., we were supposed to meet at four, outside of the Circle Quay train station, where they thought we were supposed to meet. Peta came shortly after and we walked over to a restaurant in Darling harbour; which has a very posh club scene. We had a nice dinner. I had a lamb burger while Alex had a kangaroo steak. Afterwards we walked back through town and went up the Sydney version of the CN Tower and took in a great night time view of Sydney. The downtown core is nestled in quite a small rectangle. We also got a look over at King’s Cross, where we would be going the next night clubbing. Apparently it’s got a bad reputation for prostitution and drive-by shootings. The police presence there is quite heavy in response to this well-earned reputation. We then walked back to the station along George Street and then arrived back home sometime later that night. Sydney kind of reminds me of a cross between Vancouver and San Fransisco with a bit of San Diego thrown in… It’s very Westcoast.
The next night we took the train into Sydney, with a $4 bottle of wine each in hand to meet Suz from Bali & Ko Phangan at a nightclub in King’s Cross. We met her perfectly outside a club called Sugarmill after taking quite a bit of asking to find it; almost as much as it took to find a pay phone that was 20 feet away from us. It was good to see her. We hung out in the bar/club and had a few pitchers with her, her and her friends, one of which we called fat Cashmore. Afterwards we went to another club in King’s Cross, and then apparently another very posh one on George Street called the Ivy which we weren’t even supposed to be in due to our dress and that it was a private function; and which I have no recollection of going to. Peta was surprised that we went there because of how posh it is apparently. We ended up traking the 7 a.m. train back to Woy Woy and were picked up by Nakita. I don’t remember anything between leaving the second club and driving back to the house in Nakita’s car. Alex said I was fine until we were leaving the last club when I was falling all over the place from being so tired. Alex kept talking about how it was light out when we left the club and how we had never done that before. I think I have a small recollection of that first glimpse of sunlight. I caught a lot of flack from the family that morning for still being drunk while I was eating my breakfast before going to bed.
The next night we were supposed to go to a rubics cube party with Peta but we were in no condition to. I had slept until 5 p.m. that evening and was still out of it. On our last day we had a nice barbeque out in a park with some nice steaks and then proceeded on to the Reptile Park. There we saw all kinds of Aussie wildlife, including kangaroos, koalas, and crocodiles. It was a good day. We also met Nakita’s brother who had just returned home from Schoolies the day before rocking a fohawk that his family beaked him pretty bad for. I also got to tell the whole family what sizzurp is.
We endured our 30 hours of travelling with the patience we have created in ourselves from all the travelling we have done in the past couple years. The plane rides were a piece of cake; what with the food, alcohol, movies, blankets, and sleeping pills. Sydney to Beijing was 11 hours and Beijing to Vancouver was 10.5 hours. The nine hours in the Beijing airport, atleast the first half, was the worst. I hadn’t brought any clothes besides a t-shirt and shorts and was shaking I was so cold. We ended up taking refuge in the airport Pizza Hut for 4 hours because it was about 15 degrees warmer than the rest of the airport. Arriving home was strange; two days later it stills feels like a dream.
Steeves
