Featherdale Wildlife Park and Blue Mountains

The day after I triumphantly climbed the harbour bridge it was up at 6 for me to go to the Blue Mountains. I left the house at 6.40- can I just say this is amazing for me! I never got up that early for anything!!- to be in the city centre for 7.50 where I was collected by a bus and we began our trip to the Blue Mountains. We had a little surprise stop on the way to Featherdale Wildlife Park. We were greated by a baby wallaby and inside there was wallabies and kangaroos roaming around freely! It was really fun to get up close and personal with the kangaroos although i did see one eating a dead bird, not so pleasant! Also got to rub a few koalas which was great fun. It was a flying visit but just enough time to take a ridiculous amount of pictures.

After that we headed for the Blue Mountains. First stop was echo point where we had a perfect view of the 3 sisters- 3 pillars of stone beside eachother- and across the whole very green valley. It was very pretty. Then it was off to lunch whcih apparently served very "average portions"- I ate half of it and was stuffed, and Im a big eater!! After a wander around the town and into the sweet shop, theres always room for sweets. we continued up to our next stop which contained the worlds steepest railway!! it was very exciting going down to indiana jones or star wars or one of them!! We had some time then to walk around the area and do some exploring! We also got cable cars across the valley so we could see everything from every angle. It was beautiful, even though the sun had disappeared and the rain was beginning to fall. Our finally stop before leaving the Blue Mountains was to another lookout point to take some last minute photos. After that it was goodbye Blue Mountains and we started our journey home which involved a lot of sleep! Before heading to catch the ferry back to Sydney we made a wuick stop off at the Olympic Stadium took some silly photos and left. We arrived at the ferry stop as the sun was setting and came into Sydney in the dark the only lights being that of the city, it was impossible to take photos of but it was truly lovely.

The last few days in Sydney were spent packing and organising clothes, enjoying the sun and saying goodbye to the beautiful Sydney, I will be back again someday!!

Sydney Harbour Bridge Climb and Opera House tour.

The one thing that has to be done when you go to Sydney is the harbour Bridge climb. Just like bungy jumping in New Zealand, its one of the things that you cant really leave without doing, although I have left before without doing it!!! I set off for my harbour bridge one beautiful sunny day looking forward to the face that i could still get a tan while climbing and not have any problem with trees being in the way or anything like that.

Unfortunately I got that completely wrong. I far from was able to get a nice tan because we were given these hideous all in one grey suits with a little bit of blue and a picture of the harbour bridge. Apparently this is so you blend in with the bridge-although im pretty sure its not grey- and avoid distracting the drivers on the road below. After we got our suits on we were given all our equipment. A belt was tied around us with place for attaching a flees is we got called a "ball and chain" for attaching to the wire all the way around the brifhe for safety and a pocket for the radio. After this was dont we attached the accessories. We had a choise from a fleece beanie, a sun hat, thread for holding your sunglasses, and lots more. Once all the accesories we attached our pa system, which did not involve any ear phones but some sort of system that allowed us to here through our cheek bone-i wasnt really listening when she explained it all, something to do with vibrations. Finally all geared up and weighed down with plenty of necessities, we weere ready to begin our adventure. There was around 14 of us on the journey altogether, 2 from Aus too many from the states and a few from england and the irish girl. One man and his wife were celebrating his birthday, another man and his son were celebrating there mums birthday while she went shopping, and the rest, like me, were doing travelling. We were all attached to the continuous wire and started our journey towrds the summit of the bridge. The views were spectacular. Unfortunately we were not allowed being our cameras though. I could see right across the harbour over to the botanical gardens and I could see car ships coming in on the other side. I couldnt see however, any clouds in the sky. We got our pictures taken with the opera house in the background, we got our pictures taken looking cheesy, we got a group one done and we learned lots about the bridge. 1437 steps later we were back down at the bottom of the bridge removing our accesories and sad to be at the end of our trip. We were given a group picture to take home as a memory- I of course bought more after that- and it was done. I had climbed the harbour bridge.

Having absolutely loved my day so far I decided not to stop there and decided to go to the opera house tour. I stopped for some lunch and made my way over to the opera house. I went to buy my ticket and the lady asked if i had a student card and I showed her it. And she said to me: "oh i dont know, its a bit out of date-1990", I responded- "no thats the year I was born!"- "I was thinking you were a student for a very long time!!" I did get my student price however and we began the tour just as the sun was setting in sydney. We walked around the outside and got some fabulous pictures of the opera house and the harbour bridge in sunset. It was absolutely fabulous. I have seen so many sunsets on my travels but everytime I see one I am amazed and lost for words. We continued our tour learning some really interesting information about the opera hoyse - the architect who designed the opera house has never seen it fully completed, and unfortunately never will. I also had the pleasure of going in and seeing the rehearsals for the Australian ballet. We sat for about 10 minutes watching people dance around the stage so gracefully and beautifully, it was fabulous. Finishing my tour I was completely satisfied with my day, and I headed home full of love for the beautiful city of Sydney.

Botanical Gardens, Woolmooloo and Manly

It seems that the sun is always shining in Sydney. And when the sun is shining there is not better way to spend your day then being out in it. I did just that one afternoon in Sydney. After my now normal train journey into town I decided to explore the botanical gardens. Located right beside the opera house and harbour, its such a pleasant walk through the gardens especially when the sun is shining and in the morning when its quiet. I ended up walking to woolmooloo about 40 minutes away also beside the harbour and stopping to have lunch in a bar. I walked into the bar and asked the man if i could have a table for one. He told me i could help myself and go order my food over the other side. But before i left he said "can i see your id please". I said that i just wanted food and didnt want to buy any alcohol. He said it didnt matter that i needed id because I was on a licensed premise. So i told him i only had my irish drivers licence but he asured me that that was ok. I took it out and gave it to him and he looked at it and called over his manager. the 2 of them stared at it for a few minutes and then asked me if i had any other id. I said i had my student card and showed it to them. They looked at it and said that they both had different dates of birth. I quickly corrected them and it turns out they were looking in the wrong place on my student card! The were looking at a number that made me look like i wsa born in 1915!!! Eventually the manager said that he would let me away with it this time but Id need something else in future because our drivers licences are very easy to copy. I couldnt help but think "i have an irish accent, im on my own, its the middle of the afternoon... use your brain a little bit honey!!" After that humiliation i went over to get a table to see a family sitting with 2 babies... they do not look 18 can i just say!!!!

I ate a brisk and frustrated lunch before heading back to the botanical gardens to sit and read in the sun. And to be amazed by all the people out running about. I stopped counting after 300!! It was crazy the amount of people out and a bit! I meanwho cares about food on your lunch break lets just go around and get all sweaty and smelly before going back to work!!! Everywhere i walked 2 or 3 people ran past me! Definately wouldnt see that at home!!

A few days later, sun shining once again, I got the ferry over to Manly. My 40 minute journey wsa spent enjoying the waters and beautiful scenery around me. Along with watching people pushing to get some good pictures, the asians are very vicious people when they want to be!! When I arrived in manly I had lunch beside the beach-now carrying my passport with me at all times to avoid further more humiliation!- I sat reading my book with my feet in the sand, braved to put my feet in the water for a few minutes! And then spent my money on clothes.. it has to be done!! It was such a relaxing day, sun certainly does make a difference in your life.

Back to New Zealand and Bondi Beach

After getting back to Sydney I decided to investigate the possibility of returning to do some more exploring in New Zealand. After numerous google searches and flight searching I wasnt really having any success with my situation and decided to go to Trailfinders and see if they could do anything for me. i set off on tuesday morning hoping that I would be able to do something about it. With my wonderful sense of direction- and a map- I made it to trailfinders and while I was there decided to book my bridge climb and a trip to the Blue Mountains. Unfortunately the lady told me that I had to go to Qantas to reroute my ticket and about an hour later after a trip to the atm and forever waiting for my tickets I was on my way to Qantas. I cannot tell you the amount of times that i was stopped by people from different organisations but it was a lot. Eventually I stopped to talk to one guy but it turned out i was of no use whatsoever to these people because I wasnt over 21, I did not live in Australia and I didnt have a job- all the necessities!! It did help when i was stopped from them on though because I had a reason to keep on walking.

I eventually made it to Qantas and asked the man if he could help me in anyway. I said I wanted to go back to New Zealand and he said "New Zealand... either you didnt do the bungee jump or you met someone there." I told him I had successfully done the bungy jump and later on-about 45 minutes later-when my ticket was sorted he said "now if he doesnt treat you right then you can email this address and Ill get you back no problem!" what a nice gentleman.. if only he knew that there wasnt any guy!!

So 2 hours later I was successful and was returning to New Zealand. I was excited and so pelased that it worked out well. To celebrate I was off to Bondi Beach.Although by this stage I was completely exhausted from walking around trying to get help and waiting for tickets to be printed I just wanted to go back to bed. But I persevered and hopped on another train and a bus to get to bondi beach. The sun was shining like usual and I had a loevly lunch in front of the beach followed by a very bried walk before heading for my long journey home. Although I didnt do very mcuh in Bondi I can say I have been there and it was very pretty! i will go back one day and do the walks that people gave out to me for not doing..but Im not the walking person as a Lot of you know.. Although I am improving on the situation!

Toronga Zoo Sydney

The Monday after we arrived back in Sydney it was back to school and work for everyone, except for Katherine! So we decided to take off to Toronga Zoo and explore. This was a great excuse for me because I wanted to go to the zoo but didnt particularly want to go on my own!

So now i had my kid for the day-which many people did think she was my kid- we set off on the train first counting the stops till we reached Wynyard changing platforms for one stop-this became me routing for the rest of my time in Sydney- one train to Circular Quat and hopping on a ferry across to Toronga Zoo with fabulous views of the Opera House and Harbour Bridge on the way! One final trip on the bus up to the zoo and we had reached our destination!!

First stop to the koalas, take some pictures as quick as possible and run after the already disappearing child. This continued for quite some time as we explored the reptile centre- lots and lots of snakes!! We witnessed a bat eating a chicken! We rubbed a snake, watched elephants playing games, chased after a seal, listened to the penguins making lots of noise, stared at the kangaroos, sat on fake animals, had a quick lunch, watched a tiger pace up and down very angrily and argues over whther the bird show was on or not-I was right- All in the space of a couple of hours. I also got mistook for a mother when a lady made a comment to her kid and turned around to me and said "Youd understand you have kids!!" A polite laugh and smile and i was off determined to make it known to everyone that Katherine was not my daughter and for the rest of the day would say loudly "youll have to ask Mummy when you get home?" or "Do you think Mummy will be home when we get home?" All in all we managed a day without rain untill we got on the ferry, no tears, no getting lost, no escaped animals and lots of photo taking. A successful day for Melanie all in all..

Hyams Beach Australia

The day I arrived in Sydney I was unpacking my bags and repacking some of them into a smaller bag to go on a holiday amidst my holiday! This time i was going on my own but with my 3 younger cousins and my aunty and uncle. Our destination- Hyams Beach, home of the whitest sand in the world. We left early Saturday morning for a 3 and a bit hour journey with lots of games of "I spy", lots of "are we nearly there yet?" and lots of bags in the car. But we made it a live to alovely little house located at the top of the hill and about a 5 minute walk from the beach and the only shop/cafe in the area. I could immediately see that my lack of internet access for the week was going to be a challenge. We arrived and grabbed our rooms without any maor catfights and the holiday had begun.

Our house was lovely our back gerden went up into a bush area and throughout the week we had frequent visits form possums, kookaboras-no idea how to spel them!-and we even got to see 3 kangaroos!! It was fabulous and there were many amazed faces. The week consisted of lots of sun throughtout of the day, lots of rain throughout the night, mornings on the beach, afternoons reading in the house, early nights. It was just what I needed after a lot of late nights and early mornings. I went swimming twice and managed to get internet access once which was sufficient enough to get me through the week. We went on long walks on the beach and I managed to avoid going bike riding and more long walks!! It was lots of fun but I was glad to get back and begin my exploring of Sydney- the thing i do best!!

Taupo, Rotorua and Zorbing

Although I planned on staying on night in Taupo I ended up staying 3. I was having great fun meeting new people and getting to know them that I planned to stay one more night and then the rain the next day made me stay another night. In that time i did not do any sight seeing or touristy things. I stayed in the hostel watching dvds playing games making random trips to the supermarket but having fun all the same. On my last night there we went to this Pub called Mulligans-Irish of course!! Where they had a table quiz on so a group of us did that and we had great fun.

The next morning it was time to say goodbye and I was off to Rotorua about an hour away from Taupo. I was sad to leave and was reluctant to go. It was another miserable day as I checked myself into an irish hostel-my room was called munster!! I dumped my stuff and decided to go zorbing. Zorbing is basically being rolled down a hill in a small plastic ball which is surrounded by air and a larger plastic ball! I decided to do it with a little bit of water added. At the time I didnt realise how wet you get so i didnt bring any change of clothes or towel. This resulted in me having to buy the zorb outfit which was extremely attractive...I felt like the bell of the ball(sensing my sarcasm!). Up I went to the top and decided to go tothe buttom on the zig zag route! The water was added and I jumped in! And off I went getting thrown from side to side around and round! it was great fun!! Once I arrived at the bottom I was attacked by a camera man taking pictures of me non stop! The door being opened, thumbs up, getting out, recovering from getting out, jumping in the air, walking away from the zorb! I mean everything!! It was great fun though!!
After a quick stop at the tattoo parlour I was off to bed and back to Auckland the next day. The end of my New Zealand trip had arrived and I was sad to go.