Semester Down Under

It's been a little over a week since I returned home, and boy has it been an adjustment. It took a little over a week of waking up at 5 am and sleeping at all the wrong hours of the day, but I've finally recovered from the time difference. Still, there are so many small things that continue to remind me of the change. The outlets don't have individual switches, everyone has the same accent as me, no one understand my lingo (brekkie, uni, sweet as, etc.), toilets only have one flush option instead of a half flush / full flush, the internet actually works, smart phones and 4G exists, the passenger side of the car is actually the driver side, cross walks don't go "bing bing bing bing bing bing" telling me when to walk...the list goes on and on

Although all of these differences do make me miss Australia, they also remind me how lucky I am to have called Sydney my home for the last 4 1/2 months.  Looking through all of my pictures, hearing songs that remind me of certain places and certain people, putting up and using all my souvenirs all bring me back to such a wonderful place. It's weird to think that many of the people I met and most of the places I saw will never be in my life again, but I know the experiences and memories will forever be with me. Living away from home, my family, and friends, spring breaking in New Zealand, camping in the Outback, swimming the Great Barrier Reef, jumping out of planes and off ledges, playing with (and eating!) Kangaroos, meeting people from not only all over the states, but all over the world, getting to know these people so well that it was as if I had known them my whole life, then having to say goodbye to these people, some of them forever, seeing shows in the Sydney Opera House, climbing the Sydney Harbour Bridge, road tripping to the Twelve Apostles....it was a  crazy, challenging, eye-opening, inspiring, life changing, and absolutely beautiful semester to say the least. It's bittersweet to be home and realizing that the semester I had looked forward to since I was 15 is over, but I know that it wasn't goodbye Australia, just a "see you later."

"Travel isn't always pretty. It isn't always comfortable. Sometimes it hurts, it even breaks your heart. But that’s okay. The journey changes you - it should change you. It leaves marks on your memory, on your consciousness, on your heart, and on your body. You take something with you… Hopefully, you leave something good behind." - Anthony Bourdain

Bucket list shenanigans (And finals)

After our honeymoon getaway in the islands, it was back to reality for me. Finals started the 17^th, and I had a “take home final,” aka an essay, due the 17^th, a marketing final the 19^th, and my finance final the 21^st. Luckily I had written most of my paper on the plane ride home, but since I was writing in the vacation state of mind it needed a lot of help. Then it was onto a few days of marketing studying, which I wasn’t too worried about, and the final. Not that finals are fun or anything, but since it was so different than back home I’ll fill you all in. Basically since hardly anything else is graded during the semester, they take finals EXTREMELY seriously. You’re given not only an assigned room to take the final in, but an assigned seat. They let you into the room about 10 minutes early, you put all of your bags into the back room, and find your specific seat number. Then you literally can’t get up unless you raise your hand and one of the proctors escorts you to wherever you need to go. Then you have to fill out an attendance form, they check every single student ID for the photo and signature, and then inspect water bottles, calculators, and anything else that might be on your desk for cheats. Then you have ten minutes of reading time to literally just read the exam and if you pick up a pencil, as one kid in my room did, they rip the exam from your hands and give you a new one. I honestly can say that the pre-exam routine was much more stressful than actually taking the physical marketing exam!  After that, though, I had approximately 38 hours to learn an entire semester of finance (sorry mom and dad! The truth comes out). So, for the next 38 hours, minus a sleep or two, I literally sat in the same exact chair at our kitchen table and learned that entire semester of finance….to my best ability. At 9:20 am I took my last final in the Great Hall (Hogwarts), and at 12:00pm I was free for the next 10 days!!

Since it was one of the last weekends, a lot of Newcastle people I had met on my NZ trip were coming into Sydney for their last time, so Saturday night was full of new “old” friends and goodbyes. Sunday my housing program provided us with tickets to an Opera House show, so even though I had already been, I decided to check it out. The show was Peter and the Wolf narrated by Dame Edna, so it was pretty interesting to say the least. As you probably know, Peter and the Wolf is a childrens story, but Dame Edna is a famous male Australian comedian’s female alter ego. Dame Edna is basically this character with a complete life story that has been created and the comedian only performs as her. The show was pretty enjoyable when the Sydney Symphony was playing and Dame Edna just did stand-up, but once she started narrating children’s stories it got kind of dull. After the show I went out for my last punch bowl in Darling Harbour with Kelsey, one of my Newcastle friends in the program. Later we found this bar with a bowling alley that had a Sunday deal where you just had to buy a drink at the bar and got a free game of bowling! After our first game a few of my other friends from my apartment met up with us and competition got heated. One of my friends and I were fighting to avoid last place, and in the very last turn of the last game, he just missed some pins so I avoided last place by one point!!

Monday Naomi and I headed up to Newcastle with Kelsey since visiting her was also on my bucketlist. We got into the area about an hour before sunset, so we went out to Nobby’s beach to wonder around and watch the sun go down over the water. There’s a really cool light house and “pier,” basically a pathway out into the ocean,” so we walked down that while waiting. Not only did we get to see some really cool stone artwork along the path and an awesome sunset, but we also got to see a pack of wild dolphins feeding like 100 feet away. Watching dolphins feed on a beautiful fall evening with a beautiful sunset in the background is another one of those moments where you kind of have to pinch yourself because it seems unreal.

 

 

Another activity I had been wanting to do all semester was sandboarding and a really popular place to do it is Port Stephens, which is about an hour bus ride from Newcastle. Kelsey hadn’t done it either, so we took a day trip up there Tuesday. After walking around the town and grabbing lunch, we headed out to the dunes from some sand adventures! The dunes were absolutely amazing because they literally run right up to the ocean. We got 4 wd’d to the sandboarding hill, picked out some boards and climbed to the top! The view was absolutely beautiful as you can look out and see the ocean on one end and rolling green hills on the other. After taking in the view we sat down on our boards and scooted out to the edge of the slope, which was WAY more steep than we expected it to be. Since the hill was so steep you weren’t allowed to stand, so you sit on the very back of the board, bend your knees, rest your heels on the front of the board, and put your hands out to the sides in the sand to steer/control your speed. We were all kind of nervous so it took us a while to get going, but finally I just said “peace guys!” and pushed forward. I gained a lot of speed and went way faster than I thought I would and made it about ¾ of the way down the hill before taking a tumble. We went again and again and again, but eventually climbing up the hill got pretty exhausting and we had gathered enough sand on our bodies to make our own beach. There was a mini hike we had wanted to do back in town and one of the sandboarding workers said he would drive us over so we made sunset. The walk up Tomaree Head look out was only about 20 minutes (although after climbing that sand dune hill it felt like forever) and the view was absolutely beautiful. You could look out over most of Port Stephens from one side and into the ocean from the other. After watching the sunset we headed back to town to catch a bus to Newcastle so Naomi and I could catch our train back to Sydney.

My last big Sydney adventure was doing a 10k hike from Spit bridge to Manly. It’s a 4 hour hike along the northern coast of Sydney and it was absolutely beautiful. The winter weather in Sydney is really just rain, rain, and more rain, but the day we did it felt like the perfect spring day. We started the hike after lunch time and I was instantly so happy that I was able to fit it in. The path goes in and out of all of the bays and it reminded me a lot of home or Star Lake, making me at least a little bit excited to be heading home in 3 days. The first third was over beaches along lake homes. Like Lake Geneva, I was more distracted by the insane houses than the ocean views. The middle third of the walk was through a national park, so it was more of a hike than a walk and was were all the scenic views came in. For much of it we were in the woods, but at one point you get a glimpse of the ocean and see the city way out in the distance making you realize how far you actually are. We wanted a better  view, so after adventuring a bit I found some rocks in a clearing that gave an absolutely amazing view of the opening to the Sydney Harbour, Manly, Watsons Bay, and the city. It was pretty bittersweet looking out at all of the places I had spent the last months calling home. The final chunk of the walk was through the neighborhoods of Manly, and again I spent most of it gaping at houses that I couldn’t fathom ever even dreaming of living in. After finally making it to Manly about 4 hours later, we treated ourselves to a jug of sangria and took our last ferry ride home.

 

 My last few days of Sydney have been spent packing, wandering around the city, eating at all the restaurants I loved, hanging out with my roommates and friends, and saying goodbyes as they come.

Study Week aka VACATION WEEK!

Here in Australia they do finals a bit differently than back home. In Madison I would have my last day of classes, then a designated "study day" then finals week. Here, I had my last day of classes June 7, then the next week (June 9-15) is called Stuvac week and is intended for studying, then finals last two weeks. But the way I see it is that if they are going to call it "Stuvac," aka "Student Vacation," well, I'm going on vacation!

So, as one last little trip before finals and my last weeks in Sydney, my friend Tory and I decided to vacation to the Whitsundays, which is a group of islands off the coast of Queensland, after our classes ended the 7th. We found a really good groupon type deal for a 5 night stay, full day Great Barrier Reef tour, and half day Whitehaven tour, so we treated ourselves to that! We mostly just lounged around at the resort filling our bellies with lots of food and champagne and treating ourselves to doing absolutely nothing which we hadn’t done all semester! It was really nice just to sit back on the beach or by the pool and relax for probably the first time all semester! Our resort also had sea kayaks, Lorikeet feeding, and poolside bar, so when we did feel up to doing stuff we did have options!

Our Great Barrier Reef tour was on a pretty windy/wavey day, but it was still pretty awesome. We had a two hour boat ride out to the reef again and then we arrived at Reef World, which is like a permanent barge off the reef with a sun deck, an underwater viewing room, picnic area, and partial submarine. We started off with the submarine trip over the reef because it was high tide and they could sub right over the reef. It was sweet because it was all windows and they literally go right over the reef at the drop off, so you get to see a mixture of the small coral fish and the larger fish that hang out by the drop off. After the sub ride we filled up on lunch then hopped in for a snorkel! At this point it had been approaching low tide, so when you were over the coral you were literally 2 feet away from it, which was awesome because the colors stick out a lot more. There was also a drop off that you could swim down and around, too, and I saw a Nemo and Marlin hanging out around there! This group also had a professional photographer, so we had a little photoshoot with him. He has some fish food so he’s literally surrounded by fish and at one point food must have gotten right by my face because a fish literally just hit me straight in the goggles!! He captured the moment just before the hit!! Tory went in because she was cold, but I wanted to stay in and swim around some more because there were SO many more fish species at this location than the previous one I had gone too. Finally I decided to swim in and all of a sudden I look forward and see this HUGE fish. I have an irrational fear of fish, so I was kind of freaked out, but he seemed super curious and friendly because he just kept swimming around right in front of me and around me! I wanted to touch him but he had two stubby teeth that stuck out soooo I got scared and didn’t, but it was still so cool!!

The day of our Whitehaven beach tour was kind of cloudy and crappy weather, but the beach was still absolutely beautiful. This is Australias “most photographed beach” and is only accessible by boat so we did a mini tour around the islands as well on our way out! The beach is 98% pure silica sand which makes it super white and soft. We used the sand to exfoliate (it really works!), built sand creatures, and napped on the beach!

Vacation can’t last forever, though, and it’s back to Sydney to write some papers and study for finals!  I can’t believe I’m almost done with school here!

Vivid Sydney

Despite being pretty sad about leaving my family, I did get to come back to Sydney during Vivid Sydney and bring Keanu with! We got back in Sydney Monday evening and planned on going to dinner and vivid right away that night, but when we left the apartment later it  was pouring rain, soooooo we turned around and just had dinner at the apartment and I caught up on some homework so we could enjoy the rest of the week. After my classes Tuesday, we headed to Darling Harbour for the vivid water show and dinner. For a quick explanation, vivid Sydney is a festival of light and they light up EVERYTHING in Sydney from buildings, to cool light sculptures, to the opera house, to the water, to the bridge!

Darling Harbour featured Aquatique, a water and light show timed to music, for the first time this year and it was absolutely amazing. We watched the first show, which was themed “Rock and Roll.” It’s absolutely beautiful to see the water and lights with the backdrop of the city in the back. It really couldn’t get better (but wait until later and it does). Then we walked around looking for dinner and found a harbour side restaurant with a $35 deal for a main or entrée, a drink, and dessert. For those of you who don’t know, this is (unfortunately for my wallet) an extremely good deal. During dinner, we got to see another vivid show that seemed to be Baliwood themed from afar. After filling up on deliciousness, we walked across the Pyrmount bridge to look at the light fixtures on there and watch the light show on the maritime museum, which was “sounds of India.” After finishing the Darling Harbour light festivities, we walked down George Street to Circular Quay! There was so much going on here it was a bit overwhelming! 90% of the buildings were lit up and there were light fixtures everywhere and a photograph display. The contemporary art museum had a really cool and intense show that had done by a young Australian artist. After watching the opera house change from across the quay, we wanted to hear the music with it, so we walked around the circle. Along the way there were fiber optic fixtures, magic mirrors, giant spikey things, and more. Once closer to the Opera House we could hear the music that went along with the images and colors being projected on the sails of the Opera House, so we just sat there for an hour or so and took it all in. On our way back to the bus station, we stopped at the Customs house, which was definitely the coolest of them all. The music is picked by a person, who then dances on a dance floor to the song and the lights on the building move along with their dance moves. The images and colors on this building were also the most intricate and artsy.

Wednesday we made our way to the Sydney Sealife Aquarium, which was on my “one month left in Sydney bucket list.” I was pretty stoked because I had been trying to get there all semester specifically to see some Nemos, Dorys, and a Dugong. For those of you who don’t know, I’m a bit (way more than a bit) obsessed with Manatees, and a Dugong is a southern hemisphere Manatee. We got to the aquarium at the same time as like 5 school groups, so it was a bit frantic and scary at times, but still really cool. It was cool to go after the Great Barrier Reef, too, because I could see some of the fish I saw in the water and know what I saw! Also, I got to hang out in Dugong island for a good like 30 minutes and watch a Dugong eat lettuce and blob around. Even when there were literally 100 small children in the same tunnel with us, I just followed it around. PLUS….once you exit the aquarium you go into the gift shop and they had a GIANT dugong stuffed animal. VERY UNFORTUNATELY, it wasn’t for sale, but Keanu did buy me a small one for my birthday and from now on I am on a hunt for a human sized dugong stuffed animal! Tonight was one of my friends 21^st birthdays, so we went to another Darling Harbour vivid show and met up with her there for some drinks!

I had some classes and work to do Thursday, so Keanu and I hung out on campus and took naps in my favorite lawn chair meadow. I clearly have a really good definition of “classes” and “work to do” after a semester of class only twice a week and plenty of distractions to make even that hard ;). Since we wanted to see the Harbour Bridge Vivid display we had to go over to North Sydney because they only do it on one side. This was fine because also on my “one month left in Sydney bucket list” was Luna Park, the theme park located in North Sydney just under the Harbour Bridge! Admission is free, so we weren’t really planning on riding anything and just were going to wonder around and look at the bridge, but there was a $20 Ferris wheel ride, “gourmet” snack, and drink deal, so we did that. The park was practically empty and I swear they forgot about us in the Ferris wheel because we went around and around and around and around for at least 35 minutes. It was really neat to be riding around in the Ferris wheel with all of the theme park lights and then also being able to see the colours projected onto the bridge. Finally they were like, “we’re stopping it to let people on, but you can stay if you want!” I was pretty Ferris wheeled out and the line to “colour the bridge” was pretty short, so we got off, grabbed our snack and wine/beer and hopped in line! There were 4 parts on each half of the bridge that you could color, so naturally I did a lot of purple and Keanu did a lot of green. Then we threw some blues and teals in there, some flashy light patterns, hit go, and a fancy, whimsical noise sounds, then BOOM! You’re colors and light patterns show up on THE Sydney Harbour Bridge! It’s pretty fantastic and exciting to say that we got to colour the iconic Bridge during vivid!

Friday we tackled yet another item on my bucket list which was to go to Cronulla, an area of South Sydney. It was about an hour train ride away and once we got there we planned on ferrying over to Bundeena, which is where the Royal National park is. Upon getting off the ferry, it was a bit confusing and we weren’t sure which way to go. After looking at a map and heading towards what I thought would be an information center, we somehow ended up at a nice, quiet beach that overlooked the city of Cronulla. Since it had been a while since I got to beach in Sydney, we took the accidental opportunity to soak up some sun and I went for a nice (freezing cold) dip in the ocean. Finally we decided that we should ACTUALLY try to find the park, so we got a map from a local store and headed towards one of the walks through the park. After doing one way of the walk, we saw a huge sandy peninsula that Keanu was set on going on. Apparently he thought it was connected to the land we were currently on, but it wasn’t, so after Keanu tested the waters for crocodiles, sharks, and deepness, we threw our bags over our head and waded through to the other side! It was basically just one gianttttt beach because the entire peninsula was pure sand, so again we just lazed around and swam! Once we were all beached out we headed back to the ferry to head home. That night we headed to circular quay again to meet up with my roommates and watch vivid for one last time before heading out for the night to Oxford Street with some friends. Yes, if you remember from my earlier posts that is the “gay” area of Sydney, so we did hit up one of the gay bars. It was actually one of the most fun nights I’ve had here so far because it was just 3 stories of pure dance floor, so we all literally just danced our asses off until like 4 am!

Since it was Keanu’s last day here, the days itinerary was up to him. He wanted to see Manly Beach, so we took a ferry up there just intending on walking around since it was too cold to beach. It ended up being “Taste of Manly,” though, so we sampled some of the wines. I got a “pink blush” and it was literally the best sparkling wine I have ever had in my entire life. If I could I would bring home an entire suitcase full of Pink Blush wine bottles!! That night we wanted to get one last nice dinner together, so we headed to Darling Harbour for the Saturday night firework show they always do and dinner despite the fact that it was a super rainy evening. The fireworks were absolutely amazing because they time it with a vivid water/light show and music. After the show we wandered around looking for another dinner deal, but decided on eating at the South Styne floating restaurant (just guess…also on my bucket list). It is (was?) one of the worlds largest operational steam ferry’s and is one of Sydney’s most famous boats because it was one of the first big Manly Ferries. We finished the night off with the final firework/vivid show of the night then headed home to pack and watch a movie!

Brower Power

Friday was our first day in “cairns,” but we stayed about 30 minutes north of the city in Palm Cove in a cute family owned resort RIGHT on the beach. The whole area is absolutely beautiful. It has a very tropical feel to it with the ocean and mountains covered in rainforests surrounding it. We had the evening off, so after lunch I soaked up some sun. Unfortunately there were “Beware of crocodile” signs everywhere, soo I was too scared to go in the water, but I did catch up on some zzz’s and took a nice beach nap. 

Saturday we were off to the Great Barrier Reef!! Despite the fact that we had to wake up super super early, I was super stoked. We did a catamaran trip, so we had a two hour boat ride out to our first reef spot. We were served morning tea and had lots of time to relax on the nets, get some sun, AND get soaked from the waves! Once we arrived at the reef, Dan went off for his certified SCUBA and Ryan, Mom, Dad, Keanu, and I started our snorkel. We took a little boat over to an Island because it was pretty choppy out and it was much calmer over there, and while we were waiting for my dad to get the next boat over one of the workers shouted “turtle!” I pushed my goggles on super fast and swam over to the area. Since it was super windy visibility was kind of low, but all off a sudden there was just a big sea turtle right in front of my face!! I knew right then and there that it was going to be the coolest snorkeling ever (well, actually it already was after seeing that turtle!). I went back to start off with everyone else and the reef was so cool. There was a ton of coral species and a lot of really beautiful fish. Ryan and I saw another turtle just hanging out in some coral, so we watched him for a bit. Eventually I kind of got lost from everyone, but I saw yet another turtle and got to chase it around for a bit which was fun. I kept trying to reach out and touch it, but they can actually swim much faster than I expected!! I finally found Keanu and we snorkeled around some more, saw yet another turtle, and then snorkeled back to the boat. We explored some more and he showed me some cool coral species he knew about from SCUBA. We also saw another turtle and this one was a lot more courageous. We got to swim around with it for quite a bit with our hands resting on its shell. It was pretty unreal because I feel like I always see those photos or things in movies and I’m like “nahhh…that doesn’t really happen!” BUT IT DOES! After our first snorkel we had an extremely delicious buffet lunch and boated to our next spot. This spot was a lot more choppy, so I got tired pretty fast. It was really cool, though, because there were a lot of deeper drop offs, so you could swim down and around. There were a lot of different fish species here, too, and at one point I got stuck in a giant school. After we were all snorkeled out we went back for yet another snooze in the sun. Once we started heading back, one of the workers brought out a lot of photos and discussed the coral and fish species we saw, so that was really to figure out what you were actually looking at! About halfway they also put the sails out and we were cruising! Since the wind was so strong we went almost the exact same speed as when we were motoring! That morning we went out for dinner at one of the local restaurants and had yet another early night since we had a BIG day ahead of us….again!

 

 



So, when I call this “Brower Power” I really mean it. In 30 hours, we were about to conquer snorkeling and SCUBA'ing the Great Barrier Reef, ATV’ing the rainforest, skydiving Cairns from 14,000 feet, and bungee jumping.

Let’s start with ATV’ing. We were picked up at around 6 to 6:30am and driven up to this family owned business. It was a beautiful drive up the mountains through the rainforest. We geared up and then did a little warm up drive around their practice trail. Then we were off! We literally got to ATV through the tropical rainforest, up and down winding hills, through mud pits, and over creek beds. At some points the ATV was literally 1/3 underwater!! It was a really fun way to see the rainforest!

Next up was our skydive. Ryan, dad, Keanu, and I were jumping from 14,000 feet this time! I was pretty relaxed since I had already done it, so it was fun to watch everyone else deal with the nerves. Keanu, who hates the stomache dropping feeling, looked like he was going to be sick. Ryan just kept saying “I cant believe I’m jumping out of a plane,” but was super stoked, and dad was just pretty excited and calm. After the jumpers came back and rolled up their chutes, which by the way is pretty nerve-racking to just watch these guys pack their own chutes (HUMAN ERROR!!), we were off to the airport. After we got our goggles and harnesses all set up and were briefed on what to do, we were off to the plane! There were the 4 of us and 4 other people and we were all doing 14,000 feet so we just went straight up. It was an absolutely beautiful with the rainforest, mountains, and the ocean. Then WOOSH…..doors open and first persons out!! It was exciting to be in the middle this time and get to see the people going out of the plane since I was 2^nd last time and had no time to think. Ryan and dad went before me along with two of the other people, and it’s funny to get to see their faces when scooting to the edge of the plane. Also, people literally just get sucked out of the plane as if they are like…being vaccumed up. Then I was up and out! I took one last look at Keanu, who still looked like he was going to be sick, then we were flipping out of the plane door and we were off! I’m still absolutely obsessed with the adrenaline and feeling of the free fall and this one was probably 20 seconds longer. I also didn’t black out this time and can remember it all, which is good! Lol There was definitely one point that I had to like..stop and stop smiling and screaming to catch my breath because everything got so dry with the longer fall and also it was super windy out (Our jumps almost got cancelled!!) Then the chute came out and I actually got to steer it this time! Embarrassingly, though, I wasn’t strong enough to pull down the ropes, so we could only go right since that was his free arm that he could help me out with. Landing was a bit stressful with the wind and ropes got tangled around my face, but all was well and it was pretty smooth for me! Ryan had a pretty bumpy landing, though. So, 2 activities down, 1 to go!!

Initially, Keanu, Daniel, and I had signed up to do a canopy swing because we could all 3 go on it together. Once we got to the place, though, and Daniel saw that you could get dunked in the water when you bungeed, he was sold. Keanu was going to switch to bungee as well, so I just told the girl I no longer wanted to do anything. As I have said before, bungee was fun, but I only needed to do it once in my life. However, the girl wouldn’t let me cancel, so here I was just having devoured lunch and being forced to bungee jump. Even worse, this was the kind that went across your ankles, and that absolutely terrifies me. The ONLY reason I was capable of doing the other one was because it was around my waist. So anyways, I just run up there and want to get it over with. I was going to go first, then Keanu, then Daniel. But of course, they call our names and Daniel goes. Then Keanu goes. Then they finally call my name. At this point I actually thought I was going to puke. Actually, just writing this I’m getting nervous!! So the guy is like “how are you doing today?” and without hesitation I tell him “not good.” I should have lied because this just gave the guy opportunity to mess with me. I knew that I would be physically incapable of hobbling off that edge with the harness around my ankles, so I asked him what my options were. He said I could hobble to the edge and jump off, he could hang me off forwards and let go of the rope, or he could hang me off backwards and let go of the rope. I couldn’t jump. There was no way I was going t hang off that edge looking down. So, backwards it was! I scooted to the edge and slowly leaned back. I’m so unhappily happy at this point, so I tell him I’m ready, and he insists that I’m ready when he’s ready! So, I’m just here, hanging over this ledge and am going to fall and have no idea when! I’m literally begging the guy to just drop the rope, and finally put my hands up to my head in exasperation and BOOM…..I’m falling and bouncing and falling again bouncing again and then my hair is falling out of the bun and going everywhere and I can’t see anything because of hair and all of the blood is rushing to my head and then finally the guy at the bottom grabs me and plops me on the boat and I can breathe again! So, this time, when I say “I’m scarred for life and I’m never bungeeing again,”  I mean it! After our jumps we had to get some celebratory “we’re alive” beers for surviving the days activities. 

 

 It was our last night together, since Dan left for L.A the next morning and Ryan, Mom, and Dad left for New Zealand, so we went out for our last family dinner at a restaurant close to our resort. The next morning Dan left quite early, but the rest of us just hung out until our van came to pick us up. We had one last lunch at the airport then their plane started boarding for NZ.

I was really bummed about everyone leaving, but it was such an amazing time to be able to share my home (Sydney) away from home (Madison) away from home (The Bay) with my family and experience something as beautiful and iconic as the Great Barrier reef with them. I couldn’t be more lucky to have such a loving adventurous family who is willing to fly across the world to see me. The 10 days I had with them were definitely the 10 best days I’ve had while abroad and despite the fact that I’m not looking forward to leaving Australia at all, I am looking forward to being back home with them!

Family in Australia!

I refer to it as May madness for a reason…I got back from the Outback Monday evening, crammed homework and class into Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, and then Daniel arrived Friday morning! Since I was exhausted from all of my adventures and he was exhausted from jet lag, we had to keep the day exciting. We started his trip off with walking across part of the Sydney Harbour Bridge to the pylon lookout, which has pretty cool views of the harbour and the city. To pick it up a notch, though, we did a jet boat ride through the Sydney Harbour, which was an absolutely awesome and crazy way to tour the harbour. Of all of my boat rides in the harbour, that was definitely the most exciting! I thought the jet boat ride in New Zealand was pretty scary and that was on perfectly flat water through a river, so imagine doing 360’s and 80 to 0 in like 2 seconds in the middle of a busy harbour with huge, choppy waves. Needless to say it definitely got our adrenaline going and woke us up for a bit! Saturday we did Hunter Valley wine tour so Dan could add Australian wines to his wine connoisseur list ; ). The wine country was about 2 hours from Sydney and was absolutely beautiful, as is any winery. We got to do two professionally led wine tastings where they told us about each wine as well as 2+  “taste it yourself” tastings and a cheese tasting (YUM…Wisco represent). The traditional wine of this area is a Semillon, which is a relatively dry and citrusy wine—they almost all had a hint of apple and/or lime to them—and was unfortunately not to my liking. I think I’ll just stick to my “sparkling wines.” I did, however, thanks to Dan spotting it, get to see my first wild (and alive) Kangaroo hopping through some vineyards!!!

Sunday funday mom, dad, and Keanu arrived!! Since the “Bronte to Bondi” coastal walk was on my mom’s Sydney bucket list, we did the full Coogee to Bondi version. Despite the fact that this was the 3^rd time I’ve done the walk, the weather was absolutely perfect, the company was great, and the walk was as beautiful as ever. As we arrived at Bondi Beach, the sun started to set and the clouds were all a beautiful pink. Upon finishing the walk, we went to “The Bucket List,” which is a indoor/outdoor restaurant/bar on the ocean with lots of colored christmas lights and really good vibes., for happy hour drinks and dinner. I think I’ve definitely found my new favorite Sunday spot J

To complete the fambam, Ryan arrived Monday afternoon! While waiting for him to get into the city we took a spin through the Chinese Friendship Gardens. The gardens were initiated by the local Chinese community to symbolize the close bond between Sydney and an area in China. Even though they are located in the middle of Darling Harbour and right outside of the city centre, the Gardens are incredibly peaceful and absolutely beautiful. One of my favorite secret spaces in Sydney, and if they didn’t cost money to enter I would 100% make those gardens into my a study space! After meeting Ryan at the hotel, we headed to the Sydney Tower, Sydney’s tallest building. After going up to twice the height of the Sydney Harbour Bridge, everyone (minus my mother…fear of heights!!) did the Sydney tower skywalk, which is a 45 minute walk around the OUTSIDE of the tower with two glass viewing platforms. The walk around was pretty cool, but I will admit those glass floor platforms were pretty freaky. On the big one, our guide had all 10-15 people doing the walk jump at the same time. Let’s just say my feet didn’t leave that platform and I held on for dear life as it shook! After the tower, we walked down the main street to Circular Quay and walked around the Opera House and through the Royal Botanical Gardens to watch the sun set over the city from Mrs. Macquarie’s Point. My mom’s bucket list also contained sitting in Mrs Macquarie's Chair, so she got to cross that off her bucket list as well! On our way home, we stopped for the world famous (maybe just Australia famous?) Harry’s meat pies. Since everyone else was still pretty jetlagged that night, I took Dan and Keanu out to experience the crab races! Keanu’s crab won 2^nd place so he won a free shirt!!

We started Tuesday morning off right with some Pancackes on the Rocks. This is Sydney’s most delicious brekky place, similar to your Daddy Maxwells but also with tasty, decadent desert pancakes as well. The first time I went I got a stack of pancakes with bananas, strawberrys, nuts, chocolate sauce, whipped cream, and ice cream! YUM YUM YUM! After filling up on brekky, we hopped on the ferry to Watson’s Bay, which still remained to be one of my the favorite day trips I had done in Sydney months later, to check out The Gap, the coastal walk, and the lighthouse. Tuesday evening we had a Ghost Tour of The Rocks booked so we could cross yet another thing off of my mom’s bucket list! The tour was really eerie, but it was cool to learn about the history of Sydney’s oldest neighborhood and hear (and act out) all of the secret stories. We also got access to the some old historic building, which was super extremely creepy. Our guide told us how it’s relatively common for people to feel taps on their shoulder, get light headed, or feel freezing all of a sudden. He also told us of a few ghosts that multiple people on the tour have seen. Although I didn’t see any ghosts or get any taps, there was an area of the room that my nice, new birthday DSLR camera (THANKS MOM AND DAD!!!) wouldn’t photograph. The flash just kept flashing as long as I held the button down and my camera made weird clicking noises, but it would NOT capture a photo. I turned around to point it at the other end of the room and the photo took right away. I asked my dad if he could take a picture of that room with his camera, and his did the same exact thing. It would just flash and flash and click and click, but no photo! Turn around and boom…camera works fine! I told our guide about this later on and he said that a few other people have told him of the same thing! CREEPY!! We topped that night off with pizza and drinks at Opera Bar!

Our full day Blue mountains tour started off early Wednesday morning so we could stop at the wildlife park on the way to play with wallabays, koalas, and roos! After enjoying Australias native wildlife, we continued our drive through the blue mountains and onto Katoomba. We took the scenic railway across a giant ravine to Scenic World where we could view the Three Sisters, ride the world’s steepest incline railway, and d.0o a short rainforest walk! That night we went out for a happy hour and dinner in Darling Harbour with my roomies and one of my friends, where Keanu, Dan, and my parents dove into the Australian culture with some kangaroo steaks! Yummm yummm!

Although I was able to get excused from my classes on Tuesday, I unfortunately had a full day of class and homework Thursday, so after brekky and a morning tour of Uni Syd the family was on their own for their last day in Sydney. They explored the city, checked out the Opal Museum, and then saw Star Trek in the world’s biggest IMAX, which I still need to get to!! Thursday was an early night since we were off to Cairns early in the morning!!

 

"Ayers is gonna rock"

4 days after returning from Melbourne, I was off to the outback! We flew into Alice Springs, although I like to call it Radiator Springs (from Cars), as it is in the absolute middle of the desert, aka nowhere. We started the day off with a Didgeridoo lesson, which is a wooden instrument used by the Indigenous tribes. It proved to be much harder than it looks… you blow into it kind of like a trumpet, but there are a lot of challenging breathing techniques. Basically you need to be able to breathe out and in at the exact same time. I was able to get a few actual didgeridoo sounding noises out of mine, but mostly just a lot of loud “TOOOTS!”

 After our lesson we went to the Reptile Center to educate and prepare ourselves for surviving in the Outback our next few nights. A reptile expert showed us a lot of the native snakes and lizards and we also got to hold a few, including the Blue Tongued Skink, Jacky Lizard, Bearded Dragon, and an Olive python! After coming face to face with the creatures of the outback and a lesson on snake safety….we were ready!

The next morning we were up before the sun, as we had a long drive ahead of us to Ayers Rock. Our bus picked us up at 6am and the road trip was off to a start with a sunrise, a lot of sand, and quite a few naps. We got a few pit stops along the way, and (un)lucky for us one was a fire wood stop in which we all wandered into the desert to gather fire wood. Let me tell you, finding fire wood in the desert is not so easy. Sure there were trees, but they were all made of tiny little twigs and I was sure we were going to freeze that night without a fire. After 291 miles and 6 to 8 hours of driving, the big red rock finally came into view and it really is as magnificent as they say. Since the native Anangu people ask tourists not to climb the rock due to its sacred and spiritual significance, we did the 10. 6km base walk. According to Aboriginal culture, Uluru was created during “dreamtime,” the era in which the world was created. The rock is about 348m high and this is literally just the tip of the iceberg as the majority of it remains underground. Every aspect of Uluru tells the stories of the aboriginal people—from the art work marking the walls, to the imprinted paw print of the demon-dingo dog, to dark greenish streaks from where the lizard thief fell to his death for stealing an emu, to the formations that represent the Mala boys who couldn’t leave ceremony due to the dingo dog and are now stuck forever until another Mala person returns to Uluru. It was truly a magical experience hearing and reading about all of the stories and the cultural significance this one rock had. Uluru is also known to change colors throughout the day, so besides the base walk we also did a sunset and sunrise viewing. Once the sun hits the rock from just the right place during sunset, Uluru turns a magnificent dark red. As the sun rises from behind Uluru, the dark silhouette of it stands out against blues, purples, and pinks. I can see how the aboriginals have lived here for so many years, as it is absolutely breathtaking at all times of day from all places.

The magic doesn’t stop there, though. Our first night we stayed in a campground in Ayers Rock. We DID actually have a campfire and we rolled out our “swag” and sleeping bags under a billion stars. Despite being absolutely exhausted, I couldn’t close my eyes. After eventually dosing off, I woke up at 3:30 am to the wind howling and dingo’s singing in the distance all while I laid under those billions and billions of stars. I can’t even explain what I was feeling at that moment, but it was truly magical, spiritual, and unreal. “Wow,” was literally all I could think.

 

We also did the 7.4km Valley of the Winds walk at Kata Tjuta (pronounced Joo-ta), which means “many heads.” Kata Tjuta is a group of 36 domes (Olgas) rising out of the dessert. The tallest of the domes is referred to as Mount Olga and is said to be the home of the snake Wanambi and it is his breath that is the wind in the Valley of the Winds. The walk went around some of the Olgas and through gorges and valleys. It was pretty exhausting towards the end as the sun started coming up, but no worries because I had my fly net and was ready to battle the thousands and thousands of flies that live in the desert! After our hike we had another 200 mile drive towards Kings Canyon. We were camping at another site this night and cooking dinner on the campfire, so naturally had to stop to collect firewood again. Since our dinner depended on it, we all brought back trees this time! That night, it rained, and rained, and rained, but luckily our fire worked out enough for us to have an absolutely delicious dinner cooked by our tour guide. We had chili, bread cooked in the fire, potatoes and cooked veggies, pasta, and rice. Yum, yum, yum.  Despite the fact that we had a shelter to set up our swags under, I was woken up more than a few times to water leaking in and dripping all over my face. At 5:20 am, we were woken up to begin our last day.

It continued to rain our entire last day at Kings Canyon, but I had no complaints because it was better than pouring sweat and the rain kept the flies away. Also…anyone could say they went to the Outback, but not everyone can say they saw it in the rain. At Kings Canyon we did the 6km Canyon Rim Walk, which starts off with what people call “heart-attack hill,” and I actually think I did have a heart attack…so...many…steep…stairs. Once to the top, I swear I left Earth and walked straight into Mars. It was sandstone on sandstone on sandstone and I have never seen anywhere like it. During out walk we learned about some of the plants and how the aboriginal people used them. Some were used as medicine (rubbing it on your forehead to cure headaches), some for hunting (put the leaves in the water and animals that drink it get drugged and pass out), and some for punishment (put it in the eyes and you go blind). Halfway through the walk we got to the Garden of Eden, which was absolutely amazing with the rain. It was overflowing and it was so cool to just see a big running waterhole in the middle of a big rock Mars. Even our tour guide was freaking out because he had never seen it like that. 

 

 After another 205 mile drive back to Alice Springs, our trip came to an end. We closed the trip out with new friends, dinner, and drinks at the bar owned by our tour company. Oh yeah, and I rode a camel!

P.S-HAPPY BIRTHDAY KEANU FROM THE OUTBACK!