Oz

Well, my trip to Sydney, Australia went great! I am now back in Dunedin, enjoying the spring time warmth.

We arrived in Sydney in the morning after only a few hours of sleep. We wandered the city for most of the day, exploring Newtown and the area around our hostel. We ate dinner at a cute little cafe outdoors under the heat lamps and then found out there were fireworks in Darling Harbor that we shouldn’t miss. We made our way through Chinatown and happened upon N2 Extreme Gelato, a famous Sydney ice cream establishment that uses liquid Nitrogen to make their creations. Most delicious, smoothest ice cream I have ever eaten. We were so into our ice cream we barely made it to the fireworks, but we saw most of them.

Best ice cream I've ever tasted

Best ice cream I’ve ever tasted

The next day, after a much better night’s sleep, we climbed the Sydney Harbor Bridge. we donned our jumpsuits and made our way up to the top. It was a beautifully sunny and warm day with great views of all of Sydney. Afterwards we walked through a market in the The Rocks and ate fancy pancakes at Pancakes on the Rocks

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On another beautifully sunny day we took the bus out to Bondi Beach. We did a long beach walk from there to Coogee beach where we ate a picnic lunch. The waves were full of surfers and the beaches full of tourists. Our day at the beach felt like summer, which was a welcome change. That night we had dessert at at a Belgian Chocolate bar, before exploring the city at night a little bit.

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We took a train and a bus to get to Featherdale Wildlife Park where we got to feed at pet kangaroos and koalas. You could buy an ice cream cone filled with some sort of grass for a dollar. Then you would go crouch down and wait for the kangaroos to hop up to you and eat it out of your hand. They could just hop around as they pleased, and were not shy at all, especially when you were holding food for them! The koalas sat curled up in their fake trees and happily munched on leaves as we took pictures with them and felt their oddly woolen fur.

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We got back to our hostel to find that someone had gone through our things and had taken a charger and a converter. The people working at the hostel were really rude and creepy so we decided to leave even though they refused to refund us for the nights we wouldn’t be staying there. In the end we were all so much happier to stay in a hostel we felt safe and comfortable so it all worked out.

Betsy and I went to the aquarium for a couple hours that evening where we found Nemo!

42 Wallaby Way, Sydney

42 Wallaby Way, Sydney

The  next day we took at two hour train ride out to the Blue Mountains. When we arrived, the little town of Katoomba was blanketed in a thick fog. We were shocked to be able to see our breath as we got off the train and quickly found a cafe where we could sip some hot chocolate. Afterwards we stopped in a tour agency to find out about where to go and the woman was utterly unhelpful. She told us we wouldn’t be able to see Three Sisters through the fog, the main attraction, and that there were no waterfalls to see. Well, we walked out to the trail and happened upon multiple gorgeous waterfalls and panoramic views that were at times fully obscured by the fog, but were mostly only made more dramatic by the fog. We made it out to Three Sisters just before the rain started and the fog settled down even thicker.

Three Sisters

Three Sisters

The rest of our time in Sydney was spent wandering the city, eating delicious food, shopping around in Market City, walking through neighborhoods full of fancy boutiques and cafes, a boat tour of the harbor, meandering through the Royal Botanic Gardens, and searching for little bits of wifi.

Now I’m back at school with only 6 weeks left of the semester and spring sunshine beginning to shine through the trees.

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