Sydney, Australia

“Of all the books in the world, the best stories are found between the pages of a passport.”

Saber Ben Hassen

My time in New Zealand finally came to a close, after three amazing months of seeing almost every corner of the country. Blogging has been more difficult than I had anticipated, with too many activities happening for me to keep up with the blog in chronological order, so I’ve decided to skip ahead to my Australia adventures to stay more up to date with my stories.

I left Christchurch about a week prior to the devastating shootings. It broke my heart to hear of the news, and I can’t believe something terrible like that happened in such a serene country. My thoughts go out to those affected.

I had a smooth flight to Sydney on Virgin Australia airlines. The three and a half hour flight touched us down in Sydney in the early morning, with gorgeous sunrise views. I was so excited for a new country!

But what I couldn’t wait for the most was seeing my mom, who was meeting me in Australia for a 10-day vacation! I had been getting quite lonely and homesick and just wanted to be in the arms of my family.

When we finally saw each other, we both burst into tears, hugging each other for a prolonged time. You would think it had been years since we last saw each other, but we had missed each other so much.

We dropped our bags off at our hotel in the city, and then wandered around the city center. The thing that stood out to both of us was the smells of eucalyptus and magnolia flowers all around.

The close-knit houses all had lovely victorian balconies. And food everywhere! There were small restaurants all around, primarily of the Asian variety. We walked by the Chinatown district of Sydney, smelling lots of mouth-watering dishes. Basically no matter the hour of day, the little restaurants were always bustling with customers.

I loved the vibe of Sydney, and being in a busy city was quite different than what I had gotten used to in New Zealand. There were lots of harbors, and it reminded me of San Francisco in the United States, one of my favorite cities.

It surprised me to see that the Opera House was somewhat beige in color, rather than pearly white. Nonetheless, it is an outstanding piece of architecture and I would never tire of taking photos of it.

Unfortunately, I had fallen ill once again on that first day of arriving in Sydney. My mom, who had been flying for over 18 hours was much more chipper than I, not really showing signs of jet-lag. My flu-like self however, wanted to pass out.

It was so nice having my mom there to take care of me. I had missed being spoiled, and my angel of a mother enjoyed making me tea with ginger, honey, and lemon all day. I wanted to rest up a bit, so we had an easygoing following day. In the afternoon, we watched Bird Box on Netflix, which really had us on the edge of our seats.

Blue Mountains

The next day, we rode a huge coach bus with large windows and plush individual seats, on an all day trip to the Blue Mountains. Our first stop along the way was to Featherdale Wildlife Park.

Right upon entry, we saw adorable wallabies running around and looking for attention from humans. These creatures were absolutely charming and walked right up to you, sniffing your feet and placing their paws on your legs. I loved interacting with them.

The Blue Mountains are rightly named, with vivid blue panoramas for us to see. We stopped at a lookout point to admire the Three Sisters rock formation and enjoyed a few walks in the area.

In the afternoon, we rode some touristy rides in the park. The first was a cable car over a large canyon, then a large gondola, and finally a passenger rail.

The rail ride was incredibly steep, considered to be the steepest passenger rail in the world, and at 51 degrees, it felt like you were vertically riding down the mountain.

My mom is incredibly fearful of snakes, while I of spiders, so we cautiously strolled through the park, vigilant of our surroundings. Luckily we never saw either creature, but every rustling sound we heard, we would gasp and even screamed out at one point, like such tourists.

Everyone I had spoken to before going to Australia had set me up to believe that there were large man-eating spiders at every corner so that is what I was expecting. Granted we were were in a touristy park, but I think there may be less spiders that I had been anticipating in Australia.

Arriving back to the city center, we were keen to get an eagle eye view of the city from a tower. There is the Westfield Sky Tower, a touristy location, but we opted for a rotating bar on the 47th floor of the Square Tower. The bar area consisted of large windows where you get great views of the city.

We didn’t realize in the beginning that it was a rotating bar, and when we first noticed that we were moving, our hearts stopped for a moment thinking that the building was tipping over. Then we saw that the floor underneath us was moving, and you eventually can see the whole skyline no matter where you are seated.

We were happy we chose to go to this bar rather than the Westfield Tower because we were the only tourists, and got to enjoy snacks and drinks.

Sydney Beaches

The next day, we took advantage of the sunny warm day to go explore the famous beaches of Sydney. My friend Susan whom I had met in Queenstown lives in Sydney, and left us her snorkel to borrow for the day.

First we went to Gordon’s Bay. This spot had relatively few people and we got to enjoy a quite couple of hours in peace. The water was a pleasant temperature, and I waded in with the snorkel to explore.

I had never really snorkeled before, and it was a mesmerizing experience! I saw so many different sizes of fish, seaweed, sea grass, rocks, corals. There were little crabs and shells everywhere as well. The water was crystal clear and I loved swimming in it.

I later learned that there are sometimes bluebottle jellyfish in this bay, which is probably why there were so few swimmers, and I’m certainly glad I did not encounter any.

We then walked along the Coogee to Bondi boardwalk to make our way towards Bondi Beach. Our next stop was Calloway beach, and again here, I waded into the water and snorkeled around.

There were even more corrals here and some really large fish, and I loved swimming around. Normally I have fears of deep water and not knowing what is in the water, but the snorkeling really helped me diminish my fears.

We saw lots of surfers during our walk on the large waves, and I was jealous of them. The closer we got to Bondi beach, the larger and more crowded the beaches became.

When finally reaching Bondi Beach, we saw thousands of people in and out of the water. I understand why Australia is considered to have some of the best beaches in the world; the sand was golden yellow, the waves are a perfect size, and the clear water is neither too hot nor too cold.

In the evening, we met with Susan for dinner at a Thai restaurant. It was so nice seeing her again and the three of us had a great time eating and drinking. In Australia there are many restaurants that let you bring your own bottles of alcohol, which I think is great! 

Sydney Botanic Gardens

On our last day in Sydney, we strolled through the city once more and explored the Botanical Gardens. I was very impressed by the enormous gardens, as there were so many species of plants and flowers.

We saw lots of bats hanging from and flying around trees, circling above our heads. It was a bit scary, but they never flew near the ground thankfully.

We took a quick ferry to check out Manly, a beachy town north of Sydney. It reminded me of Miami and there were lots of people out on the buzzing Saturday night. We rode the ferry back as the sun was setting behind the city, making for some beautiful views. 

My mom and I really enjoyed ourselves in Sydney. The vibe of the city was awesome, the food was great, the beaches were awesome, and the boat rides were pleasant.

There are lots of activities to do and a great public transportation system. By the end, we were experts on the bus routes. I would say Sydney is in my top 5 favorite cities, and I would even consider living there!

-Anastasia