Bridge Climb, Opera House and FOOOOD

Time to document our time in AUSTRALIA!

Friday night we were off to the airport wayyy early only for our flight to be delayed from 9 to 1am, then we entertained ourselves through 2 gate changes and another 2 hours of delays by playing “Password” until we finally boarded our plane around 3am. Needless to say we were a bit upset we paid for a hotel room in Melbourne that we didn’t arrive to until 6am.

We only let ourselves sleep a couple hours because we were anxious to explore the city! We went to the first in our string of cafes we would be eating at for the rest of our meals that week. Our first stop for the day was Federation Square where we caught the free tram around the city to the Queen Victoria Market. We spent quite a few hours roaming the isles of Australian boomerangs, hats and scarves, jewelry and other local ware. We ventured inside to the meat, cheese, bread and fish markets and picked up some wine, cheese and crackers for our lunch later!

That afternoon we spent some time relaxing at the hotel trying out our local cheeses and wine before we were off to a cute tucked away Italian restaurant on Degraves street. Later we found a live band at a bar who sang Sweet Home Alabama and Sweet Caroline when we told them where we were from!

Sunday we ate at Time Out, a café in Federation Square that as a group we would hit up 3 times in 3 days… its embarrassing but it was SO good! Because of the weather we decided to hit up the closest mall where Alix talked us into buying $20 movie tickets to see Harry Potter in 3D. The next show that wasn’t sold out was at 6:40… little did we know that the mall shopes closed at 5pm. So we had an hour and a half of sitting and waiting to see a movie we weren’t crazy about seeing that we had already paid 3 times the normal movie ticket amount for… haha Lauren and I just made it comical to get through the night. After all was said and done, the movie wasn’t too bad and it was a nice chill night.

Monday, our last day in Melbourne, we started off the day with breakfast on Degraves street which is just as cool in the day as it is at night, the cafes overflowing onto the pedestrian-only streets. Then we had to sneakily check out of the hotel we booked for 3 but fit 5 in, and had to rent lockers for our bags… Lauren had a bit of trouble with her huge bags haha. Later, we figured out the bus system to get us to Bridge Street for some shopping and I was able to find the infiniti scarf I had been looking for the whole time! Back to federation square we took a little stop into ACMI a moving picture museum that was actually pretty interesting. We then (of course) had Time Out again for lunch and ended up sitting there for about 3 hours waiting on the rain to go away. Then off to the airport for the second half of our journey- SYDNEY!!

We arrived in Sydney late Monday night (luckily our plane was only delayed 10 minutes!) We met Caelyn at the apartments we were staying at, she always went ahead of us to check out the situation before we got there haha. (She is Alix’s friend from high school) The apartment was quite spacious and had an incredible view of Sydney from the 21^st floor!

Tuesday we walked around Darling Harbor in the clear and sunny morning, the only one we would have in Sydney unfortunately. The weather went downhill fast and stayed that way the rest of our time there L Nevertheless we were off on another adventure!  First we went to the Wildlife zoo and saw Koalas and Kangaroos along with the most dangerous spider in the world (Michael you would have freaked, I had goose bumps the whole time!) We learned a lot about Australian wildlife and I have to admit it’s a bit scary. Next was the Sydney Opera house for a tour and we ended up buying tickets for the show Faustus that night, ate dinner at their swanky restraint (with the coupons that came with our tour) and went straight to the show in the pouring rain! Faustus was interesting… a little dramatic, very artsy and a bit racy, but overall an enjoyable experience to actually be able to see a show at the opera house!

Kangaroos! She came over to spoon with him!

Darling Harbor

Mama Koala and her Baby!

At the Sydney Opera House!

Wednesday we were up and at em bright and early to go climb the harbor bridge walk! It was an incredible experience! They suited us up and walked us out on these cat walks 100+ feet in the air where you can see through the floor, all the while hooked to a line from your harness. Then we were inside/under the bridge before we climbed right up the top, over traffic, hundreds of feet in the air! I don’t do well with heights so I was pretty proud of myself, and it was so worth it. The view of Sydney was priceless. Afterwards, the girls we really disappointed they didn’t get our cute tour guides number, but what can you do. Carolyn didn’t go to save money for Skydiving in Queenstown, so we met her at the Warf for lunch.  The rain picked back up so we spent about 30 minutes at an information desk deciding our next move, on our way to a museum, we got distracted by a mall and some dessert.  We had plans to go to Bondi beach and take a cocktail cruise but the pouring rain put a bit of a damper on things, so it was a pretty chill night.

At the Top of the Bridge Climb!

View from our Appartment!

Thursday was our last day in Sydney so what did we do first? Eat. At Waterfront Grill in Darling Harbor. We sat there for about 3 hours in front of the heater before we went to an IMAX movie- Born to Be Wild. It was an IMAX 3D about these baby orangutans and elephants rescued in the wild and raised to be put back in the wild independent. It was so amazing, of course, because Morgan Freeman was the narrator. Once again it was too rainy for our original plans, so what do we do? Eat. We went to a nice dinner at a hotel to celebrate the end of our Aussie adventure.

Friday we were off to the airport and back home to Auckland. As a side note, I flew Jetstar TO Aussie Land, and Quantas back. I feel like I went from flying in a tin can to flying first class. I got food and free movies and wonderful service. Never again will I fly Jetstar… actually that’s probably a lie because they have really cheap flights, but you get what you pay for I guess. Back to Auckland, it was an interesting feeling I got as I stepped off the plane, I felt like I was home. It was a sigh of relief to be back in a place I know so well. I guess that’s what 2 months somewhere will do to you. I have truly loved living here and calling this place home. It is still hard to believe I have been here for 2 months and have just under a month left!

Yesterday I went with Amy and Brett a couple hours north for Brett to go surfing with some friends. It was so cool watching them and taking pictures of them riding the waves in their wetsuits. We had a nice picnic lunch of cold pizza and fruit J Home to hang out with Amy, Brett and Allen, Brett’s brother and watch Unknown and Easy A and have a great roast dinner! This week is pretty chill, the girls are in Queenstown and while I am jealous of their snowy, ski week it’s nice to have this time to catch up, sleep in, relax and prepare for my two weeks full control next week! I have TONS to do but after those two weeks only one week left! Then flying back home to turn in my portfolio and get my diploma! :D