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| I have been crying my eyes out all morning...I found out that one of my
best friends in High School's father died. We were always over her
house and her dad was like an extra father for all of us. I am feeling
so upset about eveything. I can't believe it. I am still in shock. My
heart is broken over it. I wish I was back in Philly so I could just
hug her and let her know that even though we have grown apart I am
still here for her, and I always will be.
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| I am back. I had an amazing time in Australia and the South Island.
My first stop was in Sydney. I got there in the afternoon, so I checked
into my hotel and walked around a bit. The city is gorgeous. My hotel
was in a very central location, I had access to restaurants, stores,
transportation. On my second day in Sydney I was picked up outside of
my hotel by a man on a Harley. I took a motorcycle tour of the Sydney
beaches. It was absolutely beautiful. Than after the motorcycle tour I
was dropped off at Darling Harbor for a jet boat ride around the
harbor. I didn't realize that you get completely SOAKED on the jet boat
ride! It was alot of fun though. So after being completely drenched I
walked from Darling Harbor back to my hotel to change than I headed
down to Circular Quae (where the opera house is) to catch a ferry over
to the Sydney zoo. There are many street performers there, and one guy
inpaticular stood out. He was painted blue, wearing a kilt while on a
14 foot unicycle juggling knives while eating an apple. It was rather
amazing to watch him. I took the ferry to the zoo which was alot of
fun. You have to take a gondola up to the top of the zoo and walk down!
The view of the city from the zoo was amazing. After spending the day
at the zoo I caught a ferry back and checked out the infamous opera
house. It is gorgeous. I got there right as the sun was setting and it
looked absolutely beautiful. The next day I took it kind of easy and
went shopping and walked around the city and went down to the aquarium
in Darling Harbor. That was fun because I had never seen a platypus
before and the aquarium had 2 of them. The day after I was picked up
early because I went on a full day tour out to the blue mountains. I
was picked up around 7 am in this huge off road vehicle. There were
about 13 other people on the tour. Our First stop was a place called
Featherdales where we had 'Breakfast with the Koalas'. Featherdales is
a wildlife park and it is a very cool place. There are Kangaroos and
wallabies just hopping around and you can pet them and feed them. After
breakfast we got on our way to the blue mountains. We stopped at
several differnent viewing places to see the Valleys and canyons. We
saw 'The Grand Canyon' of Australia. It was really beautiful. We
stopped in a little town for lunch, and then we headed to Scenic World
which has a gondola and a very steep train ride that takes you to the
bottom of the canyon. It is at scenic world where you can see the
'Three sisters' which are a rather odd rock formation in the moutains.
After scenic world we headed to a park to go and find wild kangaroos.
We found a whole lot of them. It was really neat to see them in their
natural environment. One of the kangaroos had a little joey head
sticking out of it's pouch. There are several pictures of it. It was
just very cool. After finding the Kangaroos we started our journey back
to a ferry port to take a boat back to Sydney. On the way to the ferry
we drove through the Sydney Olympic stadium. The Olympic area is huge!
Then we all took a ferry back to Sydney which was amazing because it
was dark out and the city looks beautiful at night! That was all for
Sydney.
My next stop was Cairns. I
got their about 10ish and I got to my hotel around 11. I checked in got
situated and went and walked around Cairns. Cairns is a very touristy
city. There are tourist shops everywhere. It is still very beautiful. I
just got the feel for Cairns and went back to my room for a nap since I
had a VERY early flight that morning and I was tired. The next day I
woke up early to go on a trip out to the great barrier reef. I was
talked into going scuba diving for the first time. I am so glad I
learned how to scuba dive on the Great Barrier Reef. It was absolutely
gorgeous. There were so many colorful fish swimming around me! I saw a
beautiful Angel fish and we found NEMO! There was also a fish that they
called 'Wally'. He was a massive fish about 160 lbs and he likes to
come up and play with all the scuba divers. That was a tiring day! The
following day I went on a rainforest tour. Our first stop was a river
cruise to see some of the various wildlife in Australia. We saw Pythons
and tons of Crocodiles swimming down the river! After the river cruise
we ventured deep into the Daintree Rainforest. We did some hikes and
learned about plant life. Then we went to Cape Tribulation where all
the troubles for Captain Cook (the founder of Aussie) had begun. It was
a beautiful cove with white beaches and blue water. We had lunch at
cape tribulation. After Cape tribulation we did a couple more hikes
than we headed to a wildlife park. I played with more Kangaroos! They
really love under their necks scratched. After the wild life park we
went for a quick tour of Port Douglas. Port Douglas is very fancy. Then
after Port Douglas we went back. The next day I went up to a tourist
town called Kuranda. You take a gondola to get up there. The gondola
was the longest I had ever been on. It takes about 45 minutes. The
views from the gondola were absolutely stunning. You could see the
beaches, rainforest and you could even see the very blue parts of the
ocean where the great barrier reef was. I walked around the village for
a while and got to hold a Koala (which was something I have always
wanted to do) at 3:00 I had a ticket for the scenic train. The train is
this very old fashioned train that winds down the mountains and takes
you back to Cairns. The train ride has a commentary so you learn all
about how the train track was built and why. The train went through 14
tunnels passed 5 waterfalls. It was a very cool train ride. It took
almost 2 hours to get back to Cairns. I had a very good last day in
Australia.
The second part of my trip started in
Christchurch. I got to Christchurch and checked into where I was
staying and than I met up with my roommate (the German girl) because
she was down in Christchurch. We hung out for a bit and saw the
Cathedral than I headed back since I had to wake up early. I was picked
up about 7 am and there were about 7 of us. We were in what they call a
'rocket bus' to take us from christchurch through the southern alps to
Greymouth where we met the rest of the people on the Kiwi experience
bus. The drive was very long, and was through huge mountains and it was
raining pretty much the whole time. We finally arrived in Greymouth
about 1:00 pm where we met the rest of the bus. There were about 40 of
us all together. We got on the big bus and met the others and than we
headed to Mahinapua for our first night. Mahinapua has a population of
1 and is in the middle of nowhere. All there is, is a hotel (which
wasn't really a hotel) and a bar. The hotel had dorm style rooms and
the bathrooms and showers were in a trailer in the barn! It was a quite
different experience. We all had dinner together. I think the purpose
of Mahinapua was purely for bonding of the bus. It was a neat little
place. We all kind of just hung out in the bar, by the fire and played
pool after dinner. The next morning in the pouring rain we drove to
Franz Josef. It was raining so hard. Harder than I have ever seen and
it did not let up at all. As soon as we got to Franz Josef, Hoki (the
bus driver/tour guide) dropped us off so we could all register for our
glacier hikes for the next day. Than we went to our accommodations for
the night. It was pouring so all of us just pretty much sat around and
watched movies all night long than went to bed. The next morning it was
clear and beautiful (Thank God), so we all went on our glacier hikes.
The glacier hikes were tough. The steps were so tiny and slippery and
there were deep cracks all around! It was really neat though. Then we
started to get into some un-hiked regions of the glacier and that was
very fun. We were hiking through ice caves, It was amazing. That was an
incredibly long day. It was about 7 hours. When we got back all of us
pretty much ended up in the hot tub to sooth our aching muscles! It
started to rain while we were all in the hot tub, but none of even
cared! The following day we headed to Wanaka. Which is a little ski
village that reminded me alot of Okemo. The drive to Wanaka was the
most amazing drive on the whole trip. We saw mountains, lakes, oceans,
glaciers. It was stunning. At one place we stopped to look at the coast
line a little seal kept popping his head up. When we arrive in Wanaka
we checked into our hotel and than walked around town. The next day we
got up around 9 and went to 'Puzzling World' in Wanaka. Puzzling World
was very cool. There were so many different rooms that played tricks on
your mind. It was a very neat place. After Puzzling World we started
our way to Queenstown-'The Adventure Capital of the World' The first
stop in Queenstown was at Kawarau Bridge-the site of the first ever
Bungy jump. Everybody pretty much did it (except for me). Since I was
only suppose to be in Queenstown one night while everybody else was
there the whole weekend Hoki booked me to do the Nevis bungy jump on
the first day. The Nevis is the 3rd highest Bungy jump in the world. So
I went and did that. It was absolutely amazing. After Bungy Jumping I
took a gondola up to where the ledge Bungy Jump was. Everybody was
pretty much doing the ledge Bungy so the whole bus was up there. The
views of the city were absolutely breath taking. I watched everybody
bungy which was very funny! The next morning I was suppose to leave
Queenstown and take a 13 hour bus ride back to Christchurch but I
called mom and told her that I loved it so much and I wish that I could
stay another day and go snowboarding. So I wound up changing my flight
and flying out of Queenstown rather than Christchurch on Sunday. I went
snowboarding all day. The mountains there are amazing! You take this
dirt road that winds all around the mountain to get to the top. the
views are gorgeous! I am so glad that I stayed that extra day with all
my new friends. After snowboarding all day a couple of the people and
myself who didn't do the ledge Bungy jump did it that night. Bungy
Jumping with a view of Queenstown was the most amazing way to end my
trip!
I had an amazing time. The South Island and the North Island are so
different. I am so glad that I was giving the chance to see both of
them. Here are a couple of pictures from my incredible trip!
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