G'day from Australia! What a surreal thing to write, and since being in Sydney I still haven't quite got my head around being here. Every time I see the opera house or harbour bridge, I have to pinch myself, I'm really here!
The last time I wrote I had just said goodbye to my family in Tauranga, New Zealand. The three days I spent there were, thankfully, brilliant. The girls I shared my dorm room with in the hostel were really welcoming and from all over the place, America, Ireland, Australia, Sweden, Switzerland....On my first full day there I had a well-needed relaxing day which was made up of reading, napping and a trip to the supermarket. Later in the afternoon one girl called Aoife, from Ireland, convinced me and Emily, from America, to make use of the hostels free bike rentals. Although the bikes were basically falling apart we managed to cycle to Mt.Monganui, which is a bustling beach resort town, with lots of lovely looking restaurants, beautiful holiday homes and a gorgeous scenery including the mountain and two popular beaches. It was a far cry from Thames, where I had originally planned to stay, and I was relieved to see I had chosen the right place. The next day I decided to have a more productive day and set myself the task of climbing the mountain. The climb turned out to be a sequence of seemingly endless steps and by the time I arrived at the summit I was thankful that the incredible views allowed me to sit and stare at them for a prolonged period of time, giving me a chance to catch my breath and reduce the shiny redness that my skin had adopted.
After spending a while taking in the views from every side of the summit and watching a paraglider fearlessly shoot off into the sky I started to climb down and, after taking a slight wrong turning made my way back to the town where I treated myself to a frozen coke (only $1!) and got the bus back to the hostel. That evening I sat with Emily and we watched a New Zealand film called Boy, a coming of age, indie film about a 12 year old Maori boy. It was nice to see a local film as we had had very little chance to meet many locals and really see what it's like to live in New Zealand. It is also on my bucket list to watch a local film in every country I visit, so far so good!
My final full day in NZ was spent lazing about in the hot salt pools which are located at the foot of the mountain with Aoife. We sat and enjoyed the sunshine and met a man called Rod who gave us some really valuable tips for our travels. It is amazing that as soon as you mention you are travelling to people everyone has personal experiences and advice to share with you. Finding out about where to go, where to avoid, what is worth the money and places that are off the normal route is surely a great part of backpacking and people, as always, are more than happy to share their opinions with you. That evening I re-packed (crammed) my bag and sorted out my online check-in, which was a bit nerve-wracking. The girls from my dorm then decided it would be nice to go out for some drinks at a bar down the road where there was some live music.
The next morning my alarm rudely interrupted my sleep at 7am for my coach to Auckland which left at 8am. As this was the only coach all day I had to wait in a shopping centre in Auckland for a few hours before I made my way to the airport.
It was weird to be suddenly alone again, I got a repeat of the feelings I had had sitting on the bench after my family had driven away 'I can't believe I am in new zealand', 'What am I doing?' and 'Come on Emma, you can do this' flicked through my mind as I got steadily more nervous about my first plane journey alone. I arrived at the airport with PLENTY of time to spare and went straight through security, skipping the check-in desk thanks to my nifty little hand luggage backpack. My plane set of at around 18:30 local time and landed in Sydney at 20:00 local time, 11 hours ahead of the UK. The flight was nice enough, Emirates is a great airline and the countless films available in the seat screen helped time go quickly. Although it was an uneventful flight I found that my hands were shaking when I came through arrivals. I jumped on a DOUBLE DECKER train from the airport to Kings Cross and when I exited the train station I was met by a mirage of neon signs and scary looking bouncers. Turns out that Kings Cross is Sydneys 'red light district' and full to the brim with strip clubs. It didn't help that I had no idea which direction the hostel was in and therefore had to walk back and forth, up and down the main strip a few times before I got my bearings, passing the same dodgy looking bars again and again. Luckily when I did find my hostel my first impressions were good with really friendly staff and fellow travellers. The hostel is called Kings Cross Hostel and turns out to be in a really great location in the city, regardless of all the neon signs. The main downfall of the place is the lack of air conditioning meaning that sleeping in a 12 person dorm is pretty stuffy.
The next morning I met three girls from Surrey (small world) who were staying in the same room as me. Catherine and Georgie, who were travelling in Australia together and another Catherine who was travelling alone. We spent the morning watching the Lego Movie, which I LOVE and then me and Catherine (who was travelling on her own) decided to go and do the free walking tour of the city. It started in the centre, near the cathedral and ended at Circular Quay which is near the Opera House.
We learnt a lot about the first settlers from Plymouth and the convict history which seemed even more apt as Sydney will be celebrating Australia Day on the 26th of January, marking the anniversary of the first settler ships arriving. After a day walking around we decided that we deserved a cheese and wine evening on the roof of our hostel with the other Catherine and Georgie and this was the first time I saw the bats. From a distance, they look like eagels soaring towards you, then, as they get closer, you start to wonder whether dogs here have wings, but then you realise they are bats. Huge bats. Huge fruit bats flying over the city at dusk like a scene from a horror film. It makes you remember, that even though you are surrounded by English, shopping centres and Opera, this is a tropical land. This is far away from Brighton. As if to emphasise this we also watched lightning flash in the distance, a tropical storm. After the cheese and wine, we heading on to a local bar and danced like lunatics for a few hours before bed.
Over night there was a monsoon style rainstorm which hammered down on the pavement outside of the window but by the morning the heat from the sun had dried most of the street. I did some boring stuff in the early afternoon like buying a sim card and some suncream then met up with Catherine and Georgie and crossed Habour Bridge to the Olympic Pool. This may seem like a strange thing to visit when in a large, famous city but this is a public swimming pool with a twist, the location. The pool is situated right next to the river, practically under the bridge with a view of the opera house, skyscrapers and Luna Park, a 1940s theme park right next to the pool.
We stayed there for a few hours, paddling and lying in the sun until we got very hungry and made our way back to the hostel, picking up a pizza and garlic bread on the way back.
The 22nd was the day I got to go to the famous Bondi Beach, a bus ride away from our hostel. The weather was beautiful and Georgie, Catherine and I lay on the beach like local aussie girls soaking up the rays. We must have forgotten that we are all pale English girls though because not one of us got away with the sunbathing without burning some part of us. I was a bit disappointed that there were no shark warnings while we were there but there was a warnings for jellyfish however the sea was too inviting and the weather to hot to stay out of the water. We went to the big Westfield mall on the way back and had banana bread and coffee on the top of the mall with a view over the city. That night we were convinced once again to go out for a drink with people from the hostel, which was really fun and good to meet other people staying the hostel.
On the 23rd, partly due to a hangover and partly out of pure laziness I did absolutely nothing. Thipe main highlight of the day was that we made cookies and watched the Baz Lurman film 'Australia' which means I can tick off watching an Australian film from my bucket list too!
The 24th was much more productive as I decided to got for a walk on my own around the botantical gardens, which are absolutely huge and full of amazing plants and exotic birds. That evening I met with Georgie and Catherine and did the first cultural thing of the trip so far. We watched our first opera show. The Sydney Festival is going on at the moment in the lead up Australia day, meaning that there are lots of events and performances going on around the city. One of these events was a free opera performance in a open green area next to the botantical gardens called The Domain. We met with some family friends of Catherines and enjoyed the breathtaking talent of the singers and musicians, surrounded by hundreds of other people all with picnics and wine. The sky darkened, bats flew overhead and lightning could be seen in the distance during the performance which added to the drama of whole experience. It was a really special part of my trip that I won't forget and I am filled with amazement for the singers.
Today has been another lazy day, taking advantage of the roof terrace in the sun and trying to plan what I am going to be doing as I travel around Australia. I am heading to Byron Bay with Catherine and Georgie next and we are staying in the house of one of Georgies dads friends, which will help with the budget and will mean not having to share a room with 12 people anymore. Woohoo!
My time in Aus so far has been brilliant but I have only seen Sydney and soon I will be travelling from one place to another, something that involves planning and organisation.... so we'll see how that goes!
Thanks for reading :) x
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