Monday I got up, walked around Lavender Bay over to Milsons Point and walked across the Harbour Bridge. I walked uptown in the Central Business District (CBD) and met Carolyn for lunch. After, I took a ferry from Circular Quay out to Manly to walk around. Manly is a picturesque seaside town and has a beautiful beach. Richie had told me that I could learn to surf out there but I had decided against it thinking it would cost an arm and a leg and, well, the water would be FREEZING. I popped in a travel agency to use the internet and ended up talking to the guy about my plans for the rest of Oz (I had asked the best way to head north..) I also found that surf lessons weren't as pricey as I thought...
That evening I went to Carolyn's for family dinner -- got to meet her 2 brothers as well. Her mom cooked a delicious roast lamb dinner! Yum!
The next day I got up and got ready to get the ferry to Manly in time for the 11am group surf lesson! I called my mom while I was walking to the beach, the last thing she said to me was "please don't get hypothermia" -- don't worry mom, I only could barely feel my hands and feet (only exposed parts) after 2 hours... :D for 16/60 degree water, I consider that really good! ANyway, I learned to surf!! definitely need practice, but I can get myself on a wave and up without the instructor's help! woohoo!
After that I went back to the same travel agency to book the rest of my time here in Oz. I now have a pretty set schedule, but I'm very excited about it!
After Manly, I met Richie at Circular Quay (he had just finished work). I went with him to his rugby practice, but he only needed just to talk to the coach -- he hurt his calf last weekend, so we were there 5 minutes. From there, we went and met Amy back at the flat and all went to dinner up the road. Fantastic dinner!
The next day I had booked a tour out to see the spectactular (views) of the Blue Mountains. I went out on that, but unfortunately there was complete cloud cover and I never saw any views or waterfalls :(
We did take a quick hike around in the rainforest there, and I got to ride the world's steepest passenger train down into the valley, and a cable car back out. We drove to a national park and went to this clearing/camping area to look for kangaroos. and saw 3 of them!! You were able to get within 5m of them which was great considering they weren't in a zoo or anything! The funny part about seeig kangaroos --- I had previously been asked by 3 seperate random people if I had seen them yet -- NO, i didn't expect them to just be hopping around downtown Sydney!!
Yesterday I walked around the outside of the Opera House, the Botanic Gardens, met Richie for lunch, then went to the Sydney Museum (all about founding and history of Sydney) and then to the Aquarium and Wildlife world. You save money by buying a combined pass to those, but I even got a student discount which ended up making it just a few dollars over the price that it normally is for the aquarium alone! Both were fantastic-- especially the sharks! In wildlife world they have habitats for the different animals that have a rope to seperate you from them -- meaning, when one of the Koalas wanted to go for a walk, it walked right out of it's little area and one of the keepers had to go pick it up and put it back up in a tree! It was great to be able to be that close to them, and all the other animals there as well.
After that I went back and packed my bag... I caught a 9pm bus out of Sydney to arrive in Byron Bay this morning. I'm waiting to check in here and then go do things this afternoon and tomorrow. It's been pouring rain until abotu 5 minutes ago -- which it is now sunny! yay! I'm going to try to go hike to the lighthouse assuming it stays decent weather... and maybe try to surf tomorrow!
