life, by me

Well, this is the end of my Ozzie adventures.  I have just spent the last 10 days staying in Manly (so named because Captain Arthur Phillip encountered many confident and 'manly' aborigines when he first visited it that he named it 'Manly').  Manly is just the other side of the water to Sydney harbour, a 30 minute ferry ride.  I can't believe I have only been here 10 days, it feels like I have done loads!

When I first arrived here it looked as though it was set to rain for the duration of my stay, but luckily for me the rain didn't last too long.

I decided to do a bit of volunteering whilst I was here to use up the rainy days.  Abbie, my friend from University who I have been staying with, is a primary school teacher over here so I got to help her fill in the letters on her playground masterpiece!  (Actually, I was entrusted with the white lines.)

I also 'vollied' (Australian slang for 'volunteered') at the 'Manly Environment Centre' which was in town and helped them to make some display boards for a stand they had at the weekend in aid of 'World Environment Day', my cutting and laminating skills came in handy.

There seems to be lots going on in Sydney over the winter period.  It was weird to see a sign on the 1st June which said 'Happy first day of winter!'.  At the moment there is 'Vivid' festival going on, which is an annual festival of music and light.  Every night they light up different buildings in the City and shine projections on to the Opera House.  Also, as part of the festival, I was very excited to go and see 'The Blind Boys of Alabama' performing inside the Opera House last weekend.  It was amazing, just going inside the Opera House was exciting for me, and the band were pretty awesome too!

At the weekend, Abbie and her housemates also gave me a tour of the blue mountains, and I am pretty sure I met the inspiration for my leaving party aborigine outfit.  Here is a picture of us all at the '3 Sisters' (they're the pointy rocks to the right of me).

And here's me with a giant stuffed koala...

As well as sight seeing in Sydney, Manly is a cool place to hang out.  It's supposedly one of the best places in Sydney to come surfing, here's some proof...I didn't personally have a go, from prior experience, I know it's not one of my talents.

And here are some surfers, casually hanging out, outside the bottle shop (off licence) in the evening...

Manly is also famous for its 'Food and Wine Festival' which happened last weekend.  Ever tried pear cider?  It's surprisingly nice.

Abbie took me to Palm Beach, where Aussie soap 'Home and Away' is filmed, here she is doing her best 'my life's a mess' pose, commonly seen on screen.
 

Today I did a coastal walk from Manly to the Spit, it was about 12km and had some amazing views, I took loads of pictures, but this is kind of what it was like...

So, that's pretty much the highlights of my last 10 days.  As I've been staying with Abbie, it's been nice to chill out a bit and forget I am backpacking, didn't have to sleep in a bunk bed either!