Sydney

As I always find myself disorientated and lazy it took me two hours to find my backpackers in Sydney. First of all the toll free number they gave me for my cheap airport transfer remained unanswered so I opted for a not so cheap train ride. I took a train to Central Station and then switched trains to go to Kings Cross (R200 later mind you). The hostel wasn't that far from the station and relatively easy to find. Also true to my traveling traditions my dorm room was on the third floor. Again I had the huge suitcase (the same one I dragged up the stairs in Barcelona). The dorm room was small, fucking hot, but relatively clean. By the time of check in I only had one room mate who wasn't there. It was a four roomed dorm for girls. This girl, obviously not from South Africa, had all her belongings lying all over the room obviously not even thinking that someone might steal her shit. Anyways I went in search for dinner shortly after check-in and found myself down at Wooloomooloo wharf and had to climb a shitload if stairs again to get to Victoria street which was where my bed was located.


I ended up at a small pizza joint called Doughboy just around the corner from Sydney backpackers. This backpackers is slightly different from all the other places I've stayed before. This one didn't have a bar or a tiny restaurant. It was all self service. Its cool for one night (just make sure you have your own towel, they don't provide that - however they do provide semi decent bedding) but I wouldn't recommend it. It was cheap though. The cheapest I could find though - should've been the first red light. Don't be fooled they have a really cool website. There are many other backpackers in Victoria road which looked awesome!


The following day I woke up to have my free breakfast - dry toast with strawberry jam and then packed up, dragged my suitcase down to reception and checked out. I took a taxi to the Blu hotel where we were booked in for work for the next few days. It really was walking distance, but with a million stairs between point A and B.


The hotel was beautiful and really centrally located. Check out the link : http://www.tajhotels.com/Luxury/City-Hotels/Blue-Sydney/Overview.html

NZ continued

Tori, one of Frankie's best friend celebrated her birthday while I was there. I was lucky enough to be invited to the birthday barbeque. To my surprise, two of Tori's close friends are South African. I found myself at a braai in Wellington with lamb chops, boerewors and biltong. WHAT?! It was great but surreal at the same time to be able to speak Afrikaans in New Zealand. Who would have thought? 

The braai was great fun. Somewhere in the middle of night, Frankie and I braved the cold and walked all the way to the shop to buy chocolate and cooldrinks. On the way back we hitch-hiked and we met a guy (in the parking lot) who looked extremely happy - smiling from ear to ear. Frankie asked whether he would take us back to the BBQ and he said yes almost immediately. Turned out that he just had the best sex with a random dude he just met. Being a little freaked out at the back of the car, it was incredible to see how happy this guy was and that his night was made. A little weird all in all, but we got back to the BBQ in one piece and everyone was really happy about the midnight snack :)

Sunday was our last day full day together. The weather was so miserable that we spent the whole day in doors watching movies and eating :) It was a great way to spend the day and it was so cool to just hang with Frankie and Dave like the old days. Who know's when I'll see them again.

Monday morning I had to say goodbye to Frankie and Dave. It was a sad morning, but also a very quick goodbye (which I prefer). It's always a see-you-later and never a goodbye.

I would never be able to thank them enough for opening their home and their fridge to me for an entire week. I'm incredibly blessed to have such great friends. I just hope that one day I will be able to repay them. Frankie and Dave, you know my door is always open. Hopefully we can get you guys to South Africa soon. 

Lots of love,
Netta xx

In a land down under

I live for traveling, but man do I hate flying. It's long, it's boring, the food sucks and did I mention its long and boring?

My trip to Sydney (1 Feb 2014) was especially long. It started a Saturday morning at seven. Cape town - Johannesburg - Bangkok - Sydney (21 hours of flying without lay overs). Cape Town to Johannesburg was uneventful. As I boarded the Thai Airways flight to Bangkok I thought to myself: Ugh man eleven hours of sitting squashed up against some stranger ... Fun! To my surprise (and for the first time in my life) the plane was pretty much completely empty. I couldn't believe my luck! I had three seats to myself. What?! I had dinner (delish) and watched 'The Butler' (hectic!!) and slept the rest of the way. They woke us up for breakfast and half way through my movie we were on the ground. Nice, I can like to be traveling like so :)

Bangkok airport was a little confusing - I have to add I was also still half asleep. I sat outside my gate waiting to board without a drop of water or coffee. There was nothing to buy (plus I discovered that I forgot my Baht at home). As boarding time came closer I realised that the gate is still not open but that there are people on the other side. All the time I was waiting at the wrong side. Off course I was stuck at the side with nothing to do, nothing to buy and only about 3 chairs. All the open shops were just around the corner. fml


The flight from Bangkok to Sydney was pretty crappy. It was full, long and boring. Nine hours of doing nothing. Yay!

I did fall asleep once or twice. Also managed to finish watching Hugo (such a cool movie). Further more I watched Turbo and Tintin - still it felt like the clock was standing still.

Andy, Maggie and Michael were at the airport in Sydney to meet me and took me to their house. Andy and Maggie met my parents on a cruise in 2004 and have been friends ever since. Michael have visited us in South Africa and  now I've visited them as well. It was so cool to see where they live and to hang out with them. Enroute home they took me the scenic route - we crossed the big Sydney bridge and I could vaguely make out the opera house. It was pretty amazing and very surreal.

We had a couple of beers at home while catching up. I slept like a baby, literally woke up every hour but felt pretty refreshed the following morning.

Arriving at the Sydney airport the next morning, I was told that my ticket to New Zealand didn't include luggage, so I had to pay $80 for my suit case. Not a nice way to wake up. Nevertheless I had to do it cause I was going away for one week and really had nowhere else to leave my stuff. The flight to Wellington was uneventful and by the time I got off on the other end I was proper sick of flying. Didn't want to see the inside of a plane anytime soon.  Dave picked me up from the airport and drove me their house. I met Frankie and Dave back in Korea and saw this as the perfect opportunity to come and visit! Dave and I went home, made cheese sandwiches and had a chilled afternoon. Was so nice to see their house and their pets all the way from Korea. It was even more surreal being in New Zealand than in Sydney.

Our first night was spent out in the front yard with some friends of Frankie and Dave, eating pizza and playing cards.

Petone, where Frankie and Dave lives is a pretty little town. It has an American feel to it, super suburbia. On my first morning I went exploring down Jackson street, grabbed a cup of coffee and headed down to the beach. Thereafter I took the train to Wellington and walked all along the quay. Wellington is beautiful, just a pity it was a bit windy. The weather is a lot like Cape Town. I walked, I sat, I shopped and had Burger King :)

Our first official site seeing was that of Zealandia. It is a beautiful bird sanctuary that forms part of the green belt that runs around the city. Its over looks the city centre but feels like you are miles away.

The Friday was probably the highlight of my trip. We woke up to a drug bust in our street and watched the whole thing unfold. It was pretty exciting to see them catch the bad guys. It was a gorgeous morning so we headed off to town and rented some stand up paddle boards on the wharf and paddled up and down the coast of wellington city. The views were breathtaking, just wished I had a water proof camera to take it all in. We even managed to do downward facing dogs on our boards without falling off. We then headed to a little hill overlooking the airport for a picnic and went home for a well deserved nap.

It was a good weekend to be in Wellington.  Waitangi day as well as the Sevens. The Sevens is almost like Halloween in Wellington. Everybody dresses up and takes to the streets to get hammered.  We had cheerleading outfits but they didn't fit so we just headed out looking funny. We partied on the wharf and then went to a house party in cuba street where we got stuck in a lift. The house party was such a mood killer, there was only 6 people and we knew no one. It was on the way out that we got stuck in the elevator. Luckily it was only for a few minutes but it was really scary - it was so tiny and we were six people squashed up against each other. When we finally made it out we went to Courtenay place to check out a few bars.

So tuned for what happened next ... 

Some Barcelona pictures :) Next time I won't be so lazy and I'll add them to the text. Enjoy x