Monday
September 16th
My
weekend in Sydney was incredible! A few friends and I went down early on
Friday, instead of going Saturday morning, so we could hit up a few bars and
see the nightlife a little bit, as well as shop Paddy
’s Market early Saturday. It was a fantastic plan! My
favorite place we went Friday night was
O Bar, which is a bar that is on the 47
th
floor on a round building in the heart of Sydney; all the walls are glass and
the floor spins very slowly so you can see the entire city if you sit for long
enough! It was great seeing the beautiful Sydney Harbor Bridge all lit up,
since we would be climbing in the next day!
So
Saturday rolls around and we climb the bridge- it was awesome!! I loved almost
every second of it, it was scary in some parts, but overall very doable, I
highly recommend! That night we had dinner with everyone and celebrated!
The next
morning we took a thrilling ride on the
Thunder Jet Boat, which is a crazy
stunt boat that takes you around Sydney Harbor doing spins and such- you get
drenched! It was soooo fun! After, we went to the Botanical Gardens and the
Government House, and then went home to Newcastle. Now I
’m getting everything ready for my exciting spring break
that starts this weekend! So much to do
….
Here's a just a little bit of my spring break...
& read on for all the exciting details!
Saturday
September 28th
Leaving
New Zealand tomorrow and I definitely have to say I've had an absolutely
fantastic time. This country is so freaking stunning. Just on the bus rides you
can't help but take a bunch of photos because everywhere is just beautiful;
mountains everywhere you look and green green green.
This
entire trip has been very adventurous. We landed in Auckland and got a night
and the next morning before leaving; of course that time was occupied by
shopping. The first place we went was Hahei. Hahei is a very special little
place because nearby are both the famous Cathedral Cove and Hot Water Beach. We
of course did both. Hot Water Beach was first. Basically you dig a hole on a
specific part of the beach and when the tide comes up, the hole fills, and
because the ground has geothermal activity, it becomes a hot tub; and man was
it hot! Steam comes off of them! That was incredible. The next morning, we got
up bright and early for a 7 am kayaking tour on the ocean to Cathedral Cove. It
was quite windy that day so the ocean was a bit rough and it was tiring
paddling against it, but it was so worth seeing the cove, it was gorgeous.
The
second place we went to was the Waitomo Caves. These caves contain the very
tiny glowworms. We went on two cave tours, the Rhukari and Glowworm. Rhukari
had beautiful stalagmites and stalactites and rivers flowing through it as well
as a few glow worms. The Glowworm cave had so many glowworms; you take a boat
on a river through that cave and it just looks like you're looking at tons of
constellations of green stars. Glowworms are actually only found in this part
of the world (New Zealand and the east coast of Australia); they're mainly only
found in caves because they essentially live in hammocks for months at a time
and there's no wind to knock them out, as well as the total darkness helps
attract food to their glow.
Next was
Rotarua. This town was really cool and seemed pretty modern, unlike a lot of
New Zealand, although there were sulfur springs everywhere so if it was windy
at all, which it was, the smell of sulfur (not good) consumed the entire town.
That was incredibly unpleasant, but the sulfur springs were incredible; like
you would just drive around the town and all over there would be holes with
sulfur and steam coming off of it. Just
tons of geothermal activity! While in Rotarua, the majority of the group went
on The Lord of the Rings Hobbiton tour; that was so fun! The houses are so cute
and afterwards you get a free drink at the Green Dragon pub.
Our last
stop was Taupo, 100% my favorite place in New Zealand. Taupo isn't near the
beach at all but it's built right off of Lake Taupo, which is the biggest
crater lake. Our first day there, we took a sailboat tour on the lake to see
the Maori carvings which can only be seen from the lake. These are carvings on
a cliff rock that were made by the indigenous people of NZ; they're only as old
as 1980 but they are still very neat! And the boat ride turned out to be very
exciting, it was rough seas that day on the lake and we would've been soaked if
not for the fleece lined ponchos they give you! The sailboat tipped a lot too,
that was so fun! That night we decided to take on the great Tongariro Alpine
Crossing the next day. We woke up at 5 am, got picked up at 6, drove an hour or
so to the mountains, and started our great trek around 7:30. This day hike
consisted of going across a volcanic rock valley, then climbing a mountain that
is right next to a huge active volcano (erupted twice last year) and then
descending a great deal before you finish with a couple hours through the bush
(jungle) until you finally reach the carpark (parking lot). It took us until 4,
so 8.5 hours. The entire hike is roughy 15 miles and is incredibly rocky, with
various terrains including snowy paths. You see the mountains below and the
huge volcano right next to you, as well as a few craters and the famous neon
lakes. The views were incredible to say the least. The hike was pretty
difficult and terrifying in some parts but overall I liked it. Would I ever do
it again? You couldn't pay me!! After 6 hours, my legs started shutting down
going constantly downhill for so long and after 7 hours or so, we all started
going delirious, "I think I see a car!" (Meanwhile still in the thick
of the bush) "Is that a dog?" (Tree stump) After we reached the
carpark, I literally cried out in relief "I'M ALIVE!!" People
probably stared and questioned my sanity, but that's okay because I was just
happy to be alive.
I'm now
sitting on the bus going back up to Auckland to fly out in the morning to
Sydney, then straight to Cairns! New Zealand has been spectacular, but I'm not
complaining to leave for sunny Cairns...
Monday
October 7th
I’ve finally unpacked everything and done all my laundry from
the last two weeks (I don’t even want to think of how
many times I wore everything- blegh)
Cairns
was so sweet! It was waaaay hot though….like too hot. We explored the
city and did a little shopping the first day. The second day we went out on the
Great Barrier Reef, which is an all day thing. That was amazing! I thought
there would be way more fish, but it was nevertheless a spectacular experience,
and I got a bunch of underwater video and pictures, too! The last day, we had
our flight in the evening so we did a quick trip to the Cairns Tropical Zoo,
and we all held a koala! It was so cute and cuddly!
 |
| Buster & I |
Now I’m reunited with Newcastle and Abbeywood (the apartments)
and it feels so good…
It got
hot here while we were gone, like mega difference! Our apartments don’t have air conditioning so there’s been lots of sweating, but even more frightening, lots of
BUGS! Gah! The spiders have gotten bigger, the moths more plentiful, and the
mosquitoes hungrier. I still love Australia so so much….but these bugs are really starting to freak me out….please just stay out of my apartment! How hard is it?! The
moth count since I’ve been back found in my
apartment is up to at least ten….that’s just in a few days. Anyway, I’ll stop my little bug rant. The weather is beautiful and I’m excited for all the days I’ll be spending at the beach
this month, and of course the homework I’ll be doing as well…. (:
