A wonderful plane journey to Sydney via Adelaide and Melbourne that lasted 16 hours. By the time I got Sydney I was the only international passenger left. It was all a bit quieter than Tokyo. Where had all the people gone?
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| Nobby's, Newcastle |
I got on a train to Newcastle and when I arrived I was greeted by an answerphone message (not literally, I had to phone the house first) saying that "if I was a lost Englishman looking for somewhere to live then the address is....." That was no good, I already know the address but where is it? I hopped in a taxi and was charged $2.95 for the privilege of being driven round the corner. Never trust a taxi driver. Fortunately Anne and Ross had just popped in and heard my message and where there to let me in. Everyone else had gone to watch A Midsummer Night's Dream so I settled in to watch TV and await the others.
When they arrived Oz and I swapped photos and stories of New Zealand (cold, like England, sheep, Rotorua etc.) and Tokyo (karaoke, busy, 4x400 etc). Then it was time for bed. I hadn't slept much in the previous 48 hours.
2011
Tokyo to Sydney direct is 9 hours. I was obviously on a very cheap ticket.
I must have been the only British backpacker ever to fly into Sydney and go straight to Central Station and leave town without ever looking at Sydney at all. Oz's (distant) cousin Anne had many moons ago offered us accommodation in the house she owned that her sons lived in. It seemed like a good idea to take her up on the offer until we found our feet in Australia. I don't think I had much idea of the geography and only knew Newcastle from the summer pools and the earthquake they'd had.
Ross - partner of Anne at the time.
The company I work for bought Newcastle NBN tv about 5 years ago, and it just happens to be around the corner from where we stayed. I get up there from time to time. It's still the way it was in 1991!
The taxi fare seems ridiculously cheap in this day and age but back then I remember being outraged at being charged that much to go a distance I could have walked in 5 mins. The exchange rate for a quid back then was:
| 1991-09-03 | September 03, Tuesday | 2.17324 AUD |
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