HOLIDAY - Sydney

Tuesday, July 8 – I love Sydney!!! There are just certain cities that really appeal to me, and this is one of them. Too bad it’s listed as one of the top 10 most expensive places to live in the world…We walked down to the harbor area and I just loved the city feel. It’s quite a bit colder than Cairns. We started the tourism with a tour of the Opera House. Our guide was like 5 feet tall and hyped on caffeine and hilarious. I enjoyed the tour and we got to see the 2 main theaters as well as a smaller one. After pictures we went to Circular Quay which is the main wharf and we took a ferry to Manly. We were making jokes the whole time about how manly Manly is.  We didn’t do too much there, but we walked some on a scenic pathway that was beautiful. I wish we could have gone farther but we had to make it back so we could get to the bridge in time to do the Bridge Climb! We had the best time. There is lots of equipment that you have to put on but we were the first group of all the groups schedules to go at our time for the night climb, so we got to climb up when the sun was setting and see different perspectives as it became dark. LOVED IT! It was a little nerve wracking at some places, but I loved the experience overall. We got a free hat at the end of it and we bought a couple photos as souvenirs. Such an amazing experience. Then we started the long walk back to Hyde Park and we were exhausted and didn’t know where to eat (we have limited budgets...hence eating the same stuff over and over haha) so we ended up having kebab again and sharing some chips. Not bad.

Opera House tour

One of the theaters in the Opera House

Enjoying my burrito...since they barely exist in Australia.

Scenic walk at Manly

Manly beach muscles.

Wednesday,  July 9 – Oh my gosh, this day. We were supposed to have our Blue Mountains tour and get picked up like all the rest of the tours that we have gone on. Only when we got to the meet up place we stood there for 30 minutes and no one was there. We finally called them and found out they were there at the designated time (7:35am), waited for 5 minutes but didn’t see us so they left, but if we took a taxi to Darling Harbor the coach would try to wait for us. Well, I think we got there about 2-3 minutes too late because after spending $22 on a taxi they were not there and we had no idea what to do. Because we weren’t going to get refunds and Mom was not happy at all. We eventually found the Gray Line people who were trying to be accommodating but couldn’t really do much. They told us we could try and meet our group up at Scenic World which was part of the tour and we wouldn’t really miss much, but to do that we would have to take several modes of transportation to get there. Mom was really iffy, but we decided to go for it and if we didn’t meet up with them at least we could see the Blue Mountains. Super annoying though. So we hurried onto the Light Rail which would take us to Central Train station where we would take a 2 hour train to Katoomba after which we would have to find a way to get the rest of the way to Scenic World and meet our group where they were having lunch. So we did all that: the Light Rail, the train ride, and a bus. We were supposed to get off the bus at the car park at Scenic World, but we ended up getting off a stop too early at the Skyway Rail and got to ride across on that (which we apparently weren’t supposed to), but we had no idea what else to do! We were both getting pretty frustrated at this point because we had been playing catch-up the whole morning when we never should have been and had spent another $52 between the two of us that we should not have had to and we didn’t even know if we were going to meet the group. We had to talk to the people where we were supposed to show our wristband or pay the money, and they were skeptical when we explained the situation but we eventually met our driver. Poor guy, he probably hated us hahaha! Then they told us lunch wasn’t included when our tickets said it was. So they worked with us and so we didn’t have to pay an extra $20/person to eat food, and we scarfed some lunch and got to join our group for the rest of the tour. Hallelujah. We got to see an Aboriginal presentation with some cool dances and their horn instrument, then see the Three Sisters at Echo Point, then drive down to another wildlife place called Featherdale. The animals here were awesome and wide awake!! We saw bats at feeding time, little penguins, more kangaroos and koalas (even some albino kangaroos), dingos, emus, a Tasmanian devil running laps (literally), a million birds, a echidna, a saltwater croc, and probably some more that I don’t remember. It’s been really cool to go to all the different wildlife places because they’ve all been different. Then we got dropped back off at our hostel and we ate Subway and it had FOUNTAIN DRINKS!! With ice, straws, and refills!!! Oh my goodness, the things we take advantage of in America. State of Origin game 3 was also on tonight, and mom wasn’t feeling so great so we watched it back in the room. It was great to see Queensland win the game. They actually killed it!! But NSW won the first 2 games so they won the series, but that’s ok.

Aboriginal show.


I got picked out of the crowd for part of it!

3 sisters...celebrating us 3 girls in my family!

Featherdale Wildlife Park

Bats

Cassowary

Wombat

Kangaroos

Tasmanian devil

Saltwater croc

Little penguin

Emu

Loooooooong day.

I LOVE SYDNEY!!!

Thursday, July 10 – Travel day again. We walked a bit around Hyde Park before catching our shuttle to the airport. We flew to Auckland today and that took most of the day. The plane ride was uneventful (always a good thing) and we took a shuttle bus to the city to our hostel, Nomad Fat Camel. A very interesting place. The walls are paper thin, it leaves a lot to be desired (you get what you pay for), and we’re right in the middle of a bunch of bars. Hahaha! Such an interesting place. I’m sure it’s quite nice out there. Looking forward to our tour tomorrow.