The Olympic Park is amazing. A huge site containing what was a 110,000 all-seater stadium (it now only holds 80,000 - they reduced the capacity after the Olympics), the Aquatics Centre, a couple of other stadia, oh and a McDonalds. There are numerous exhibits that have gone on show since the Olympics. Perhaps the most impressive are a couple of exhibits near the main entrance of Stadium Australia (now named The Telstra Stadium). One of these is a set of poles with the names of all 74,000 voluteers who helped with the smooth running of the games - there are 5 Cornwells on there - wonder if we're related to any? There is also what also looks like a beahc hut but is basically 12 TVs done in a circle inside the roof where they play a rolling 2 hour tape of the Olympics with all the best bit. So we got to see Sir Steve Redgrave doing his bit in really dramatic and well-edited fashion. Great.

We managed to get a couple of concession tickets for the Stadium tour and duly spent about 90 mins being showed roundthe huge complex. It is so well planned and built it really makes you wonder if we've got what it takes to do something like this and to be honest the only pang I had of real disappointment in the whole thing was along the lines of 'Why can't Britain do something like this...?' The site itself of course is huge and are we ever going to be able to find an accessible site of that size in London - of course not (if we did the cost of the land would be too much anyway...) therefore why do we persist with a London bid not Birmingham/Manchester etc...? Anyway back to the stadium. We got to see the changing rooms, commentary suites, Gold and Platinum members areas and even got to stand on one of the genuine podiums from the games and had our photo taken. Not quite a perfect photo as those masters of one-up-manship the Aussies make sure that every photo has a huge beaming Aussie flag in the background - nice touch! Before the Olympics you could buy a ticket for the Platinum Area for $34,000 (AUS) - about 15 grand. This gives you 2 tickets to every event to be held at the stadium for 33 years, in the best seats, with bar and food thrown in...hmmmm tempting eh? Unsurprisingly since these limited tickets went on sale only 2 have since chenged hands (after the Olympics) for over $70,000. Sounds like a great initial investment to me...

Arriving back we decided to venture out to Hard Rock Cafe and great fun was had by all, cocktails, shooters, vodka redbull, guinness (!) and some great food was consumed but we all feel a little worse for wear this morning. We think it was the richness of the food. Off out now to Bondi beach and we're going to do a 6 km (!) cliff-top walk to Bronte and Coogee. Should be fun.