Skateparks

My relations dropped me off in Hervey Bay, which is near Fraser Island where all the backpackers go camping. I shined the camping and headed to the skatepark.The park was fun for a couple of hours but I decided to head to Brisbane the next day. This place looked sick but the bowls are bigger than they look. I messed about in the shallow end at the top right of the picture and carved around the bigger bowl a couple of times.
I'd visited this park the day before and headed back after I'd skated the bowls as it was the funnest park I'd visited on the whole trip
It was quite spread out but it was so smooth you didn't loose any speed.
Transitions, hips, Wembly gap, it had a bit of everything.
It even had a sweet bowl that was between 5 and 7 foot deep that was really fun to pump around.
I'm defo old school now as I spent more time carving and less time flipping.

Pat's house

I ventured north to Bundaberg to see my mum's cousin and her family. They kindly gave me a place to sleep for a couple of days and managed to feed me despite my not eating red meat. They were very welcoming considering they hadn't seen me in about 20 years. They were also busy building a new home in the rural setting of Childers.
Pat and her husband Trevor in front of the new house. The turf will be laid once all the building work is finished. It was a pretty large project to take on. They had professionals in to do the groundwork, bricklaying and fit some of the services but Trevor and his son in law Brian did most of the rest.
Australian buildings have bigger rooms than in the UK and the ceilings are 3 m high to reduce the heat.
Somewhere between the trees is a lake that makes up part of the 40 acre garden.

Bondi

It was a the wrong time of year for sightseeing on Bondi Beach. The natural wildlife was wrapped up warm in sweatshirts and coats instead of displaying themselves on the beach.
You'd get a good view from the skatepark in the summer. The pool is huge and it was scary enough just hitting the tiles below the lip; I'm a little long in the tooth to master a beast of this size.
The rest of the park is fun just to carve around; I hardly did any real tricks but had a blast on my last day in Sydney.

Rained out in Sydney

Sydney was a wash out. It rained incessantly for 2 and a half days and I only got to skate for half an hour the day I arrived in Manly. Although I'm old for a skater and probably should have found something else to do by now, I find it tough to keep myself occupied when it's too wet to skate; one day of being a tourist in each city is quite enough.

Obligatory photo of Sydney Opera House. There was a huge skatepark at the Sydney Olympic Park, although as it was bike day I couldn't skate.
The whole of Olympic Park was like a ghost town, which was pretty weird. They do hold big matches there but I guess there are probably more stadiums and facilities there than any city could need outside of the Olympic games.
Manly beach in the rain; there are signs advising you not to swim after a storm due to pollution being washed into the sea from the drains.
Another obligatory tourist photo, of the Sydney Harbour Bridge during the day
and at night.

Last of Melbourne

On my way out of Melbourne I stopped at a couple of the skateparks I'd skated to get a photo. I don't usually carry my camera when I skate as leaving electrical equipment sitting around for people to steal isn't that smart. This is a cool little park in Prahan near where I stayed that hosts quite a few demos. View from other side including mini and halfpipe in background.
Riverslide is the main central skatepark in Melbourne and this photo doesn't do it justice.
I had about 6 hours to kill before my overnight train to Sydney so I sat in pubs and cafes in one of Melbourne's more arty districts.

Frankston Skatepark

This is probably the sickest skatepark I've ever been to. The place is super smooth with a good mix of street spots and transitions. The street course is on 3 levels, so you can pump down through the park hitting ledges or stairs.
The main bowl is super big; 6 feet deep in the shallow and about 11 feet in the deep.
I only saw one BMXer and no roller-bladers, which was such a change from English skateparks.
They were still fixing up some parts of the park but everyone just skated round the maintenance guys.

Most of the skaters look like Baker kids with skin tight jeans and punk rock tee-shirts. Dustin Dollin comes from Melbourne so I guess he's the local hero.

High Life

After the trip to the zoo I headed to Melbourne Observation Tower to check out some good views of the city. There's a skatepark in the middle of this photo and you could see what tricks the skaters were doing through the free binoculars. This is a view down towards St. Kilda, which used to be the ghetto area of Melbourne but is now on the way up. The arty crowd have moved in and the area is good for veggie eats.
Skyscrapers in the city.
I'd deliberately arrived around late afternoon so I could see the sun go down. I took a few photos, grabbed a beer and waited for the sun to set.
Sunset.
Setted sun.

Animal Crackers

I had to find something to do to try and let my body recover after 3 days of skating. I've been sitting behind a desk and only skating for about an hour a week for the last 6 months. I'd been cycling a bit in Colombo but it's not quite the same muscles as you use to push on a skateboard. I figured I'd go to the Zoo; although I'm not sure what my stance is on zoos exactly. Having quit being a vegetarian I guess if I was on a high horse I've fallen off now.
Bear essentials.Liono Underwater windows; not swimming with seals. Australian Pengoo Chimp in the ghetto; their compound was pretty trashed. Strange insect Weird ass mutant horses What you looking at Ru?
After about 3 hours there I was pretty zooed out. The big cats had looked well bored but the smaller animals seemed OK.