Stop 3: 17 hour bus to Brisbane (yes I missed Fraser Island…
poor planning on our part)
Stop 4: Sydney!!
When we arrived in Sydney we got the subway/train to King’s Cross,
which took about 30 minutes total (key pt later on in the story). As soon as we
walked out of the subway station, I was a little scared haha. King’s Cross is
the “red light” district of Sydney…hookers are walking around left and right.
Our hostel was only a block away…which was an interesting experience I must
say. The hostel was pretty small but we had to carry our 50lb. suitcase up 4
flights of stairs… it was hell.
Day 1:
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| view from our hostel room :) |
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| our hostel from the outside- wooducks |
We took a bus to Bondi Beach with our Swedish
flatmates from the hostel, and got some awesome pics. For those of you
who don't know much about Sydney or Bondi Beach... well Bondi Beach is
that beach that's pretty much in any movie located in Australia (like
Mary Kate and Ashley for example!) I always had the image of people
roller blading and throwing boomerangs around it... but that's just me.
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| The perfect shot of Bondi :) |
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| Amanda and I at Bondi! |
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| just chillin' |
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| The most ideal place to swim or play water polo in the world!! |
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| Bondi, me and our swedish roomies |
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Then we took a 2 hour
trail to Coogee beach with some awesome scenery along the way.
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| Cemetery randomly in the middle of our walk from Bondi to Coogee |
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| Stairs near Coogee Beach |
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| Random beach/lookout along our walk to Coogee |
After the beach
walk Amanda and I went back to city centre and walked through Chinatown, where
I got some delicious treats. Then right across from that was paddy’s market,
which is kind of hard to explain exactly what it is.
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| Cool Pub along the way? |
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| NOM NOM NOM NOM! |
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| typical... asian poses in front of asian markets :) |
The first floor was your
typical cheap tourist stuff and boutiques separated by tents or sheets then you
get in the elevator and there’s 5 more floors with a mall, outlet mall, grocery
store, and so much more. It would have been nice to just spend the whole day
there… instead we had about 10 minutes haha. Next stop was the harbor, where
the hard rock café was… it was a highly touristy spot... not much to do but eat.
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| The ship came into the harbor! HARBOR! HARBOR! (kiwi thing...) |
Amanda and I were
exhausted from walking all day, but there was just so much left to do and we
only had one more day. So... along our next journey...
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| Sky tower up there! up there!... do ya see it?? |
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| really awesome rope wall attached to the sky tower building?? |
we went ahead and walked over to the sky tower, where
we paid $20 to get a 360 view of the city at sunset…. Really worth the money!
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| harbor view |
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| huge park in the middle of sydney |
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| looking towards the harbor bridge and opera house (can't really see them) |
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| opera house! |
Amanda and I had some debate on going to see the opera house at night because
from the tour you couldn’t really see since all the massive buildings around it
were blocking it. But…. You’re only in Sydney every so often, so we decided to
do our last hike of the day to see the opera house. When we got there I was
pretty disappointed… it was dimly lit and under construction… picture perfect
:/ We quickly got our pictures, and took a bus home so we could make some
delicious dinner at the hostel- the classic spaghetti and meatballs (kind of).
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| Sydney Harbor Bridge |
Day 2:
Amanda and I woke up bright and early and walked to Paddington’s
Market. This walk was supposedly only a 15 min walk, but each time we would ask
someone (3 different people about 10 minutes apart) “how much further to the
market?” they would simply say “oh just 15 more min!” This went on for about an
hour till we finally got there! It was so cute and so worth it. It’s has a lot
of handmade arts and crafts, jewelry, accessories and clothes. Many Sydney
designers supposedly start out at Paddington’s Market. I bought my mom this cute
necklace for her birthday, and couldn’t spend another dollar on anything else
because this trip was already a fortune! Our next stop was taking the Ferry to
Manly beach where there was another cute market and free ice cream at
ben&jerry’s… can’t go wrong with that!! On the ferry ride there and back,
Amanda and I had the hardest time getting that awesome picture of yourself and
the opera house in the background because it was so crowded and the boat felt
like it was going 100mph.
Photos from the ferry ride:
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| downtown Sydney view |
Photos from Manly Beach:
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| how they managed to stay afloat... idk? |
We got off and headed to the Rocks… the oldest
district in Sydney. There were really cool older looking European
buildings/architecture..more markets.
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| oldest pub in Sydney 1828 |
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| kind of European looking? old buildings and stone streets |
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| more markets in The Rocks |
We walked around for 30 minutes or so and
then headed back to get our perfect pictures on the steps of the opera house. I
am SO thankful to have my wide angle lens (THANKS MOM!) because when I was
taking a picture of this couple on the bottom of the stairs I barely got one
arch in the background, while Amanda and I took pictures on the TOP of the
stairs and were able to get the whole opera house in the shot :)
The final stop
in Sydney was the park a mile or two away from the opera house. We got some
more pictures…can’t ever take too many picture :P
Then ran home to get our
stuff and take the train to the airport. Well we planned our time accordingly
to having a 30 min train ride, when instead it ended up being over an hour
because the connecting trains were running late. When we arrived at the airport
(5 minutes late), the Jetstar counter had already shut down. Amanda and I were
going ballistic trying to find someone who would help us…didn’t have much luck.
Instead they made us rebook for a flight the next day. So we were sitting in
the airport… crying a little from all the stress…and then decided to go get a
nice little hostel next to Bondi Beach.
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| crying on the train ride back to Syndey... |
Day 3:
Woke up the next morning, went straight to the beach
for a couple of hours and then took a shuttle to the airport (which took 20
min… should have taken that in the first place!!) …and we were an hour TOO
early to check in. I just LOVE JetStar…best airlines ever…NOT! Anyways, we flew
to Christchurch, arrived there at 10 pm and had a 3.5 hour drive home (thank
you soososo much Monika for coming from Dunedin to come pick us up…best roommate
ever!) Amanda and I were so relieved to be home, but I must say… I sure do miss
Australia already!
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| HOME!!!! we made it! |
Then ran home to get our
stuff and take the train to the airport. Well we planned our time accordingly
to having a 30 min train ride, when instead it ended up being over an hour
because the connecting trains were running late. When we arrived at the airport
(5 minutes late), the Jetstar counter had already shut down. Amanda and I were
going ballistic trying to find someone who would help us…didn’t have much luck.
Instead they made us rebook for a flight the next day. So we were sitting in
the airport… crying a little from all the stress…and then decided to go get a
nice little hostel next to Bondi Beach.
Woke up the next morning, went straight to the beach
for a couple of hours and then took a shuttle to the airport (which took 20
min… should have taken that in the first place!!) …and we were an hour TOO
early to check in. I just LOVE JetStar…best airlines ever…NOT! Anyways, we flew
to Christchurch, arrived there at 10 pm and had a 3.5 hour drive home (thank
you soososo much Monika for coming from Dunedin to come pick us up…best roommate
ever!) Amanda and I were so relieved to be home, but I must say… I sure do miss
Australia already!
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