three grey and overcast days though it was never cold.

We had quite a few grey overcast days and you'll see this on the videos, it makes such a difference to the "colour" of the videos, like the one I made of Sydney Harbour bridge.
http://www.holidaytruths.tv/media/2469/Sydney_Harbour_Bridge/

How many times can you want to video a bridge, after all it's just a structure made of iron.?
Obviously I've seen the bridge in photos, magazines, films etc, but it's nothing compared to seeing it for real. My son took us to the harbour the next day after arriving in Sydney, and I really cannot put it into words the emotion I felt at seeing the bridge for real...it sounds daft I know, but

Up in the Rocks area where you go to book/climb the bridge, there's a little musuem (free) packed full of information about the bridge, IE: when it was built, how long to build it, who designed it, who unofficially opened it and how many workers tragically died whilst building it. One man survived the fall only because of the way he hit the water below and suffered a few broken ribs.

Didn't stop us loving the place though

My heart has been hijacked ( hence the music on the video)...I was on the phone yesterday to the lad, he moves to Hong Kong next month and at the moment one minute he's in Singapore and then he'll phone and say " I'm in Hong Kong" .....
I said " I want to go back", he said " Mum, get you, you're turning into a right little jet setter, this is from someone who only goes to Spain these days."

Sanji x

Am I seeing things? Planning another long haul fllight? There will be no stopping you now

Very interesting reading Sanji. I'm just wading my way through your videos. Loved the Rhapsody of the Seas one. The size of those ships are hard to believe.

It's a shame the weather in Melbourne spoilt your sightseeing trips. I haven't clicked on the hotel link yet but that will be my next stop
No doubt I'll have more comments to make when I've read through everything.

Off we go to the 26th January 2011 and Australia Day.

Wow, forgive me if I go OTT on this, but this has got to be one of the best days I've had for many years, and guess what? Apart from buying some food/drink, the entire day/evening was completely FREE.

After a hearty breakfast in the apartment, we started out that morning not knowing whether to go to Coogee beach or into Sydney.
Coogee beach had events organised, but no doubt at some point, we'd have ended up sat in the beer garden of the Coogee Bay Hotel, so on the toss of a coin, we caught the bus into Sydney.

We started out at Hyde Park where the kiddies were playing in the fountain ( ermm, I couldn't see that allowed in the UK) and we watched some of the live entertainers, then we walked opposite St Mary's Cathedral and for anyone who is a classic/vintage car enthusiast, you'd have probably thought that you'd died and gone to heaven because there were a 1,000 cars on display, the biggest exhibition in the Southern hemisphere, the road was full both sides of vintage/classic cars and you could have spent the entire day looking at them. (NRMA Motorfest).

Then we decided to walk down to the harbour and although I heard the fly pass by the F/A-18 hornets, the noise was deafening, I never saw them and neither did my camcorder.
We walked up to the Rocks and en route there were stages and live bands performing, and then we hailed down a taxi and went to Darling Harbour, where the first thing we did was have a long cold drink sat outside the "Hard Rock Café" listening to the live bands performing on the floating stage in Cockle Bay"¦. the atmosphere was fantastic and the weather was a scorcher.

After the one cold drink turned into three or maybe four, we went and had something to eat and as the sun was beginning to go down, Pyrmont bridge was opened and in came the boats circling around the stage and back out of the bay.

After the boats had gone, the fun really started, and in came some sailing boats circling around"¦. such a simple idea, but so effective with the lights changing the colours of their sails and the accompanying music"¦
I'm not going to say anymore, except watch the videos. I've had to edit these down and I've split them into daytime and evening .....Oh my goodness, this is one day I won't forget in a hurry and the full version on my copy will be played and played.
Enjoy.!
Part 1. http://www.holidaytruths.tv/media/2493/Australia_Day_2011./
Part 2. http://www.holidaytruths.tv/media/2494/Australia_Day_2011./

Sanji x

Great videos of Austrailia Day Sanji. I'd have loved to have experienced that, it looked like a fun packed day with something for everyone. The sailing boat display at night was very effective with the sails lighting up. Loved the soothing music too.
Thanks for taking time once again for our pleasure

Sanji thanks so much for doing the video of Melbourne. Lovely to see the city my son and his family are living in. I tried to leave a comment but for some reason it says i'm not allowed?

Managed to finally watch the first video you uploaded of the zoo..cracking vid. I had loads of trouble downloading and then I was not allowed to post a comment on it..so I will say here, what an excellent and well made video. The music was great..but those reptiles gave me the creeps..and the snakes postively terrified me..I hate snakes...but I only ever managed to see about 3 minutes in before it cut out on me and I have had 3 attempts now

I will have a go at watching the others...

Ta for taking the time and toruble to do this....I am sure it will be much appreciated..

A video showing a little of Sydney.
A little about the video"¦"¦ It's video footage from bits here and there, bits that I filmed as I walked around and things which caught my eye.

I wished we'd have had one more day in Sydney because I loved it down in Chinatown and the evening before we left Sydney it was the start of the Chinese New Year"¦2011, the year of the rabbit.! Kung Hei Fat Choi"¦Happy New Year.
It would have been a rush to go back into Sydney and then get back late to the apartment and finish off the packing, as we had to vacate the apartment before 10 am the next morning, so, we didn't go.:bawl

Some of these colonial buildings are amazing, I ran out of "neck space" looking upwards whilst filming the Commonwealth Bank of Australia, and the reason why I filmed the HSBC bank/headquarters is because my hubby spent all his working life working for them, starting out in the Midland bank, and on my copy, I'm saying to my oldest lad "look at this xxxxxx, this is where your dad's pension went last year and why he never got a rise.""¦they made x amount of profit, but said they couldn't afford any increase in his pension.
One of the other HSBC branches, near the harbour on Pitt Street, is another colonial building, but the glass skyscraper headquarters are on the way to Chinatown......Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation, they ain't daft are they.?
I nearly forgot.......St Mary's Cathedral is a magnificent building, but I can't figure out why it opened all its doors to the public/tourists and didn't allow any photos to be taken, and there were signs all over the place and people employed to walk around to stop you.

I can fully understand the forbidding of photos if there were a service taking place, I certainly would respect the occasion, maybe some of these click happy tourists wouldn't, but it's the first church/cathedral that I've been in, which forbid photos being taken and I've been in a lot of churches/cathedrals, maybe I've just been lucky.?
Anyway, as you can see by the video, one advantage of having a dinky camcorder which fits in the palm of your hand, is that I could sneak a bit of footage of the interior.."¦.I felt like a naughty child, but I love stained glass windows and there's some beautiful windows in this cathedral

http://www.holidaytruths.tv/media/2543/SYDNEY/

Sanji x

I think I'd better catch up with some of the posts......

denny.53 wrote:

Sanji thanks so much for doing the video of Melbourne. Lovely to see the city my son and his family are living in. I tried to leave a comment but for some reason it says i'm not allowed?

Denny, I wish I could have made a better video for you, but I was fighting the rain and even my new HD dinky camcorder was getting condensation on the lens, trapping in moisture when I kept opening/shutting the len protector. Never mind love, you'll see it for yourself soon with your family.

Judith wrote:

Hi Sanji
I'm enjoying your videos and reports, they are really giving me an urge to revisit, keep em coming.

Thanks Judith, it's making me yearn to go back, I have to watch these videos several times before I upload them, just to make sure they are as good as I can get them ( which they never are because I'm not a professional, remember it's just a hobby to me, lol) so, I'm feeling pretty miserable by the time I upload them in HT/TV. lol

Am I seeing things? Planning another long haul fllight? There will be no stopping you now

Fiona
I never thought I'd ever go long haul, Hong Kong next I think.
Val.
Thanks for your comment in here, IMO HT/TV seems to be a one line conversation, and I appreciate people talking in the thread too.

Sanji x

Another video showing the beaches of Coogee, Clovelly, Bronte, Manly and the world famous Bondi beach, plus some footage of the views on the coastal walk.
We did a lot of walking by the sea, we love it.!
I never put one foot in the sea in Clovelly, even though the beach was just down the road from the apartment, I fell in love with Coogee, and if we came out of the apartment and crossed over the road, we joined the coastal walk just before Gordon's bay, and then a brisk walk/climb uphill by the side of the bay and we were on the top of the cliffs overlooking Coogee beach.

On the top of the cliffs above Coogee bay there's a memorial called " A Time For Reflection" ...a memorial to the victims of the Bali bombings....it made us stop and think.!
http://www.holidaytruths.tv/media/2565/A_Time_For_Reflection/

The world famous Bondi beach....my hubby kicked off his shoes and ran like a 5 year old into the sea wearing his "walking shorts" and with his bag still hung around his neck with all his stuff inside.
We went to Bronte beach on Christmas day and had a "barbi" with what (for a while) seemed like the entire population of New South Wales, in the park area next to the beach there's a communal barbeque, but it was manic, the lad managed to shove some sausages on the barbi, so we had "hot-dogs" and salad, and brought the rest of the food in the cool-box back to the apartment, minus the beer, and Dave cooked it all later in the evening....the weather on Christmas day was a scorcher.!

http://www.holidaytruths.tv/media/2564/Aussie_Beaches/

Sanji x

Hi Sanji - I'm getting this message when I try to access your link -
You appear to have reached a non existent page on holidaytruths.

Click Here to go to the holidaytruths.tv photo and media homepage
Click Here to go to the holidaytruths.co.uk discussion forums

Click Here to go to the holiday-truth.com hotel reviews

or use the search box at the top of the page

Hi Helen
I think I've sussed it....the video link didn't work because I missed the / from off the end of the link, but, I don't know why the photo link didn't work
Both links seem to be working now.

Sanji

That got me right in the hoiday mood shirley and madonna had me jigging in my computer chair.

We spent New Years Eve 09/10 on a cruise boat in Sydney Harbour (now that is a "must do") and this year we have decided to spend it in Melbourne. Was going to do Sydney again but think it will be a mistake as I don't think anything will live up to a first time experience of it.
Were unsure as to where to spend Australia Day but now watching the video will make our way to Sydney and have it there. Thanks for that.

I don't think anything will live up to a first time experience of it.

I agree, I'm struggling with the editing to make a decent video of NYE, I made a complete b@lls up of the fireworks at midnight, I was Ok with the 9pm display, but I was all over the place at midnight fumbling about in the dark to put the camcorder back onto "firework mode", and it's a common mistake to try and capture everything which is taking place at once, and consequently my dinky camcorder was screaming at me "panning too fast".

I should have just concentrated on the bridge and to see the full effects of the fireworks you need to be well away from them and have an advantage point, preferably in a helicopter because the smoke from the fireworks eventually cloud the effects of the later ones exploding.
If I was in Sydney at NYE, I personally would do it again, but I know my hubby wouldn't.
We sat for 10 hours in the botanical gardens, yes 10 HOURS.
We got into Sydney around 12-30 pm and the place was already heaving around Circular Quay/Opera House with people who had taken their tartan rugs and cool boxes, and bagged their spot, some from very very early in the morning.
We went into the botanical gardens around 2 pm and at 3pm they stopped any more people coming in, and if you went out of the gardens, you couldn't get back inside.

We'd taken sun cream, a few sandwiches and bottles of pop, but we were stupid because up in the botanical gardens facing the bridge, the sun is beating down until nearly 7pm until the nearest skyscraper casts a shadow over the area, and it was an absolute scorcher of a day"¦.
We were melting and getting dehydrated, so I bought a souvenir red metallic water bottle/mini flask full of water and you could go back to the water point and have it refilled as many times as you want, but at $15 for a mini flask, I would expect them to put more than just water in it.

I have never been to a place so dark, this is one of the things that struck me about Australia, the sun just drops from high in the sky and within 15 mins it's pitch black.
I couldn't see a darn thing and when the fireworks start, the lights in Sydney all seem to go out, honestly, you couldn't see anything and some people had obviously been there and done it before, because out came all these little torches from peoples pockets/bags.

As it was getting dusk, we had a colony of bats flying over us and every biting insect comes alive in the gardens, I was getting eaten alive and I'm thankful for the kind Canadian family sat near us, who shared their insect repellent with me"¦Thank you.
So, my advice would be for anyone watching the fireworks from the advantage point in the botanical gardens is"¦.
Take plenty to eat & drink"¦.no alcohol is allowed and your bags are searched.
Take something comfy to put on the grass.
Take some insect repellent
Take a torch
Take plenty of sun cream and keep using it.
Take some shade, an old umbrella, anything that will protect you from the fierce sun.
Don't leave your spot, otherwise someone else will have pushed your things to one side and bagged your spot when you return, so we took it in turns to go and stand under the nearby tree for short periods.
Having said all that, the atmosphere is fantastic, surrounded by people from every corner of the globe in a happy and friendly mood, we had an Indian family behind us, and a Canadian family on one side, and a young couple from Brazil on the other side.

The organisation for crowd control in the area and the closing off of the roads in Sydney to traffic meant that thousands upon thousands of people were able to exit easily and quickly, and disperse away from the area because you could walk on the roads and the public transport laid on after the fireworks is absolutely first class, although we stayed in a hotel in Castlereagh street for the night, and as we walked to the hotel, we could see all the buses lined up and stewards indicating for the next bus to come forward"¦extremely well organised. ( Take note the UK.!)

Would I film it all again if I was there? NO.!
Why? Because I'd enjoy the wonderful 12 minutes of fireworks exploding all around you, instead of fiddling about with a dinky camcorder, and then I'd go and buy an official and professional video, which has been professionally enhance with all the mistakes edited out.
I'll try and get my pathetic video uploaded soon.

Were unsure as to where to spend Australia Day but now watching the video will make our way to Sydney and have it there. Thanks for that.

You're welcome, Australia Day was wonderful and I enjoyed it more than NYE.

Sanji x

I spent a long time on another forum asking questions about NYEve and was told about the crowds - the queues - the heat etc - all the things you experienced and was advised that as it would be a "one off" to book a Captain Cooks cruise and we are so glad we did.
Walk straight onto the ship at 7pm and got off at 2am - dinner with drinks - dancing and good company. We did the 9pm video but all you can hear on the sound track is - look here, there, over there etc so did not bother at midnight and bought some brilliant photographs instead from a local photographer.

This year was looking at staying at The Rocks YHA over Christmas and New Year - about $150 a night (£100) and they want to charge all guests the same to go up on the roof at NYEve to watch the fireworks which I think is a bit of a cheek and that is why we looked at Melbourne. Also staying at the YHA in a private room with en-suite - they are good value for money and very friendly places.

We spent Australia Day in Surfers Paradise but was mainly beach based families with nothing much organised so looking forward to Sydney next time.
Thanks again for the videos

That's a long wait shirley. If you can get through all of that it certainly is worth it . Not that i've been to Sydney.

Did you get to the point at all where you thought of giving up and going home . We went into London for the first time ever this year on NYE and the wait is one of the most boring I've ever had to endure . We did walk back to the station at one point and turned around agan at the last minute . So glad we stayed but not sure I could endure it again .

Hi Lyn
No I never once thought about going home because if I'd managed to get to the other side of the world, then I was determined to say, "I have been in Sydney and I've seen the fireworks live".
We could have been a bit more prepared, but having said that, we didn't plan to end up in the botanical gardens, otherwise I'd have packed the mozzie repellent and bought a cheap rug from the Chinese shops in Bondi junction to sit on.
There were families who had taken just about everything except the kitchen sink in those trolley shoppers, like flasks full of tea, loads of food, playing cards, books to read to keep themselves occupied.
We were wearing ‘old' clothes so that we could park our bums on the Opera House steps or around the quayside and not care two hoots about ruining them.
We only went into the botanical gardens because it is higher (for the video) than around the water's edge and we couldn't get anywhere with a good view down below because all the places had been bagged hours before..

To be honest I did get fed up around 8pm when the insect vampires were having a three course meal out of me, but next to us was a young couple from Brazil who were in OZ for a year to work and learn the English language, she was better than her partner at the language, and whilst they speak Portuguese in Brazil, some words are not too dissimilar to Spanish, so we had a very mixed conversation between us, that's the only way I can describe it"¦.her partner on the other hand, didn't speak or understand English or Spanish very well.

Dave was whinging all the time and was excluded from the conversation because being a Londoner he can't even speak English properly (pmsl) and you know what it's like when two women get yapping and people watching "¦it helped to pass the time away. lol

Dave doesn't have a lot of fat on his bum and after sitting anywhere for a while, his bum starts to hurt, then he was too hot, then he wanted a drink of beer, then the pop was too gassy, then he was getting burnt"¦."blah, blah, blah" so if I'd have said "C'mon let's go home" I think he'd have run to the exit, so I know for certain that he wouldn't do it again, although on the video playback, he's cheering and clapping away like mad at the fireworks.

My lad has done the fireworks, so he went with his friends to Bondi beach for the night and these events are all no alcohol events "¦he crashed down at one of his friends place and he came back to the apartment the next afternoon looking "rough" so gawd knows how or where he got blotto"¦.it must have been some party after Bondi.
Some people thought they were beating the system by putting alcohol into pop bottles, but the area is "policed" very well with stewards and at the first sign of being worse for alcohol, they were turfed out, I saw a few being frog marched away, but on the whole everybody is there just to have fun and enjoy the occasion.

Sanji x

Poor Dave , He got no sympathy then

At least you had somewhere to park your bum . 10 hours stood in the same spot would have seen you murder him .