Exchange 5 - Down Under

We got an offer this year from a family in Sydney, Australia.  They had saved up their leave entitlement and were treating themselves to the trip of a lifetime.  After the usual continual exchange of emails and photographs we finally met at Rochester Station at 11am on the 5th August 2005.  We picked them up from the station and brought them back to our house for some lunch.

Once we had cleared the lunch things away, we showed them around the house, explained how things worked and let them go out for a drive in our car while we got our final things ready and cleared the house for the final time ready for them to move in.

At 5.30pm my mum picked us up and drove us to Heathrow for our flight to Kuala Lumpur.  We had chosen to have a short stay in Malaysia on our way back and had booked flights to and from Lankawi.  We had a long wait at Kuala Lumpur and, after a little to eat, we all slept on benches until it was time for our flight to Sydney.

After a wait in a very long queue at Sydney airport to get through immigration (our bags arrived in the baggage hall before we did) we met up with Paul, one of the family, who drove us to the house, gave us a quick tour and introduced us to Lily (a fox terrier) and the cat, whose name, I'm afraid, we can't remember.  It was winter in Sydney and we were all quite exhausted and cold after the 24 hour flight so we had some hot drinks and a spa bath to make us feel better.  Then, as it was early afternoon, we caught the train to Darling Harbour.  Ben, Beccy and I hired an paddle boat and Brian slept on a bench. After a McDonalds, some shopping for supplies and another hot drink we went to bed at 6pm.  This allowed Brian to actually get up and watch the sun rise.  We were all up by 6am and after a good breakfast we went out to see what was around.  Botany Bay was a short drive from the house (we had been left a car) and we went to the discovery centre, marvelling at the brightly coloured birds and the noisy kookaburras.

Lily spent most of her time in the back yard and got plenty of exercise but the children have always wanted a dog and we wanted to take her out walking as much as possible.  We took her to the local park where the children could play on the swings and slides.  We met some local people and discovered that many people living in the area were European muslims who had emigrated from countries such as Macedonia and Albania.  People were very friendly and liked to talk.  One day we walked Lily to the beach.  It was a very long walk, maybe 4 or 5 miles.  She loved the walk and played excitedly on the beach but when it came to the journey back, she just couldn't make it and we had to carry her!

During our stay we made sure that we visited many of the attractions that you would expect to visit.  We saw the opera house but only Beccy and I went inside (she needed the toilet and we sneaked in).  We visited Taronga Zoo, Wonamora Dam (very short of water), Stanwell Park beach, Minnamurra Rainforest and Falls, Bondi and Bronte beaches, Sydney Aquarium, the Sky Tower, Hyde Park Barracks Museum, the Australian Museum, Luna Park and the Queen Victoria building  among them.  As we hadn't had to pay for accommodation or to hire transport, or to pay for meals other than buying the ingredients in the supermarket, we had more available funds to use for sightseeing.

We made a point of driving out to Sydney's Olympic park.  We visited the aquatic centre and spent the morning swimming. We visited the Telstra stadium where England had won the Rugby World Cup two years before. On another occasion, Brian went to the International Shooting Centre while the rest of us went back to the Aquatic centre after which we met up and hired a court in the Olympic tennis centre.  Our final sporting visit was to the velodrome in Mackay Park.  During our stay, England's cricket team were playing Australia for the Ashes.  It was played in England so we were able to watch it live at night.

My birthday fell in the middle of our stay in Sydney and I really wanted to have a go at surfing.  Brian treated me and the children to a surfing lesson on Bondi Beach.  I was useless but both children managed to ride a wave standing on the board by the end of the one hour lesson.  For a treat in the evening, we went to Billy Kwong's restaurant in Surry Hills

After our first visit to Bondi beach we got a bit lost on the way home and ended up going over Sydney Harbour bridge where we accidently went through the eTicket gate.  The flash told us that we had been logged going through and we were sure that there was no device or tag in the car.  When we got back to the house we searched the information we had been given and the internet to try to find out the procedure and the cost but we couldn't.  We rang Paul who told us the price so that we could leave the money behind.  At the same time we arrange to go out for a meal with him and his girlfriend.  We met up with them, had a lovely meal and then went back to their house for coffee and a discussion about life in Australia, salaries, taxes, holidays, schools and life in general.

The only drawback with home exchange is that, because of the good accommodation, you are inclined to stay in one place.  We wanted to see a little more than just the centre and outskirts of Sydney.  We were given the name of a neighbour who would feed the animals if we chose to go away and so we booked ourselves some beds at the Katoomba Youth Hostel in the Blue Mountains.  We had a wonderful weekend there, again making sure that we saw as many sights as we could.  Most of the time was spent walking in the beautiful countryside in the mountains.

Our last day (of 16) was spent taking Lily for a long walk and tidying and cleaning the house so that we left it in the same condition as we found it.  We booked a taxi for the short ride to the airport and flew off to a four day holiday in Malaysia.  Our flight took us to Kuala Lumpur where we changed to a flight to Langkawi.  Our time there was spent staying in a lovely hotel and being real tourists (although hopefully not exploitative ones)!  While there we hired two mopeds and explored the island with one child riding behind each of us.

We had a four week holiday for which we paid for 6 nights accommodation (2 in the Black Mountains, 3 in Langkawi and 1 in Kuala Lumpur at the airport hotel).  This had allowed us to do much more sightseeing and travelling around than we would otherwise have done on the budget we had.  Without the home exchange it is very doubtful that we would have visited Australia at all.

We returned home to find our house very clean and tidy and to find some gifts left for us.  We had left some chocolates, toys and wine at the house in Sydney along with the money for the fine for going over the harbour bridge.