Australia, Newcastle work week 3, Belmont Lagoon and NYE!

Last week was a tough week, we spent everyday weeding 3 types of weeds around the Belmont Lagoon (35mins drive out of newcastle) so that the native plants would be able to grow without having competition from the weeds. We had to pull the weeds out by hand in 30 degree heat so it was pretty tiring, on wednesday lunch, the heat got the better of me so i jumped in the lagoon and subsequietly had to spent the afternoon working in my boxer shorts as my trousers were wet and rubbing my legs! I was terrified of getting bitten by a snake or sitting on a thistle but i survived ok.
The lagoon (as they so often are) was by the sea and we were working on the sanddunes. On the thursday our team leader took us for a drive on the sanddunes in the 4x4 which was good fun. The beach we were on was the only beach in the area where anyone could drive on so there were alot of people driving around which was a strange sight to see!

New Years Eve was on the friday and we wanted to spend the night in Sydney so we decided to bunk off work and head down early. We spent the day and most of the following night in a park on the harbour edge facing the harbour bridge and opera house. It was an awesome view. I think we were in the park for the last 14 hours of 2010 and for most of that time the temperature was around 30-35 degrees, we also made a fatal mistake with our cool bag; the zip was broken and after about the first our we were drinking hot beer. We did manage to cool off for a while by going for a swim in the harbour, this was short lived however when someone told us that there are most sharks in the harbour than around the beaches.

Dispite some confusion with the countdown at NYE, it was a great night and the fireworks were amazing, i'd definatly recomend seeing them if you ever get the chance.

On new years day we were a little tired to say the least so we got an open top tour bus around sydney for 2 hours which dropped up off at the one and only Bondi beach (probably the most well known beach in sydney). It was another scorcher and i burnt my belly and thighs but thats all part of the experince i guess. The beach was packed with mainly young backpackers and tourists so the atmosphere was good, one of my highlights was eating a hungry jack (burger king) on the beach in 30 degree heat.

We got the train back saturday night and slept all sunday morning (my birthday) we then once again hit up the beach which my sunburn was not happy about and had a bottle of champaigne on the beach. (i say champaigne but it was really sparkling wine, we can't afford the good stuff). We also had the following monday off which was our day for relaxing and sleep. Thing are all good in OZ, England are looking as though we'll win the last 5 days so i recon 2011 will be a good year!