First things first- I’m back in Australia! Sydney at the moment, staying here for a week and then moving on.
Before we left Rotorua I had a chance to check out the other geothermal area and it was much more impressive. It helped that it was a sunny day too. I also had ice cream for breakfast that day, haha. Then we took another Intercity Coach to Auckland, it was a short trip and we had to switch buses half way in Hamilton, and the second bus ended up being totally full. It was the first time I had to share a seat for the whole time I’d been in New Zealand. Neither of the bus drivers commentated, sad face, and on the second bus a nasty 12 year old boy sitting behind me played 3+ year old rap music for everyone to hear. Once in Auckland, we took the free CBD bus to our hostel and checked in, and then headed to the bar to meet Ashley Burns’s boyfriend, Luke. He gave us some suggestions on where to go in town, so with those in mind we strolled around the main street- Queen Street- and along the harbor front. It was nice to be on the ocean again. Back at the hostel Luke hooked us up with a free dinner of Bangers and Mash- I hadn’t had mashed potatoes and gravy in so long! It was a real treat, even though I was soooo full afterwards. Ashley came by and we got to catch up on the last almost 7 years! It was surreal. Since she’d spent some time living in Sydney I asked her a bunch of questions about what to do and see.
The next morning I got up around 8:30 and went for a longish run along the waterfront, about 40mins. The warmer temperatures and sun was a nice change from the past few days. After that we went on a hunt for breakfast and then took one of the inner-harbor ferries across to Devonport. The tourism literature makes it sound almost like a historic village so I was a little surprised to see a few chain stores there, but it was otherwise quite quaint. We walked up Mt Victoria, an extinct volcano, and got a fabulous view of everything: the Auckland City skyline, the harbor, and the surrounding islands, all of which are also extinct volcanoes. Most, actually more likely all, of New Zealand is there because of volcanic and other tectonic plate activity, since it sits on the barrier of the Australian and Pacific plates, and they are said to be moving against/away from each other at a significant rate, causing volcanoes in the area to still erupt from time to time (one erupted in the late 1990s).
So down the mountain we visited Devonport Chocolates where the sample of the day was the Chili Lime Chocolate Truffle log. The chili added a nice kick. Kate and I each bought ourselves an additional truffle; they were delicious. After that we walked along the beaches a little, dipped our feet in the ocean just to say we did in New Zealand at least once (actually wasn’t that cold, I think Tasmania was colder), and I had a chance to collect some shells! There were lots of pretty cool ones! Hahaha
After taking the ferry back to the city we wandered a bit more and then collected our bags to go to the airport. We took the Airbus Express, which is supposed to come every 15 minutes, but we waited over 45 minutes for one to show up. Then it took another hour to get to the airport, and then we waited an hour in line to check-in. But let me tell you, it was all worth it because we flew Emirates and it was fucking sweet as! The plane was giant (it was bound for Dubai after Sydney) and had two levels, we were on the bottom level but only about 5 or 6 rows from the front of the plane. The seats all had personal screens in the seatbacks, with hundreds of movies, TV shows, sports, news, radio, games, etc to choose from. You could even pay $1 to email or SMS! We were given hot towels before take off and a full meal during the flight. AND if you can believe it, it was the cheapest flight we could find! I didn’t want to get off the plane and joked about going to Dubai… but will for sure be flying Emirates again and hopefully on a flight longer than 3hours. Never thought I’d say that.
Once in Sydney we got through customs and my nemesis Australian Quarantine really quickly and then stopped at a free internet kiosk (couldn’t resist) where we met a guy from Toronto who’d just been on our flight. Then we found the train and hopped on and met two Queens Graduates! Once we reached our stop some awful Aussie man tried to show us where to go but he was completely wrong and pointed us in the wrong direction, luckily we noticed immediately and turned around. At the hostel we checked in- probably met someone else from Canada, can’t really remember, there are too many Canadians in Sydney, haha- and then made ourselves comfortable.
Today nothing much happened. Took a trip to Woolies for groceries, I hit the free wifi at MacDonald’s and had a surprisingly very good cappuccino there, while Kate went for a wander. Later I went to Bondi Beach. I had to walk a few blocks to the next train station because for some unbeknownst reason the Kings Cross Station was “closed.” But I made it to the beach and it was great to have my feet back in the sand J Bondi seemed more built up and smaller than the last/ only other time I’d been (in 2001). I think that all the time spent on the never-ending beaches of Byron has spoiled me.
P.S. Some bad news- Queensland Tourism are morons and did not shortlist me as one of top 50 candidates for their so-called “Best Job in the World,” their loss I suppose ;) I guess I will just go on up there for a few months anyways because, well, I CAN.
The next morning I got up around 8:30 and went for a longish run along the waterfront, about 40mins. The warmer temperatures and sun was a nice change from the past few days. After that we went on a hunt for breakfast and then took one of the inner-harbor ferries across to Devonport. The tourism literature makes it sound almost like a historic village so I was a little surprised to see a few chain stores there, but it was otherwise quite quaint. We walked up Mt Victoria, an extinct volcano, and got a fabulous view of everything: the Auckland City skyline, the harbor, and the surrounding islands, all of which are also extinct volcanoes. Most, actually more likely all, of New Zealand is there because of volcanic and other tectonic plate activity, since it sits on the barrier of the Australian and Pacific plates, and they are said to be moving against/away from each other at a significant rate, causing volcanoes in the area to still erupt from time to time (one erupted in the late 1990s).
So down the mountain we visited Devonport Chocolates where the sample of the day was the Chili Lime Chocolate Truffle log. The chili added a nice kick. Kate and I each bought ourselves an additional truffle; they were delicious. After that we walked along the beaches a little, dipped our feet in the ocean just to say we did in New Zealand at least once (actually wasn’t that cold, I think Tasmania was colder), and I had a chance to collect some shells! There were lots of pretty cool ones! Hahaha
After taking the ferry back to the city we wandered a bit more and then collected our bags to go to the airport. We took the Airbus Express, which is supposed to come every 15 minutes, but we waited over 45 minutes for one to show up. Then it took another hour to get to the airport, and then we waited an hour in line to check-in. But let me tell you, it was all worth it because we flew Emirates and it was fucking sweet as! The plane was giant (it was bound for Dubai after Sydney) and had two levels, we were on the bottom level but only about 5 or 6 rows from the front of the plane. The seats all had personal screens in the seatbacks, with hundreds of movies, TV shows, sports, news, radio, games, etc to choose from. You could even pay $1 to email or SMS! We were given hot towels before take off and a full meal during the flight. AND if you can believe it, it was the cheapest flight we could find! I didn’t want to get off the plane and joked about going to Dubai… but will for sure be flying Emirates again and hopefully on a flight longer than 3hours. Never thought I’d say that.
Once in Sydney we got through customs and my nemesis Australian Quarantine really quickly and then stopped at a free internet kiosk (couldn’t resist) where we met a guy from Toronto who’d just been on our flight. Then we found the train and hopped on and met two Queens Graduates! Once we reached our stop some awful Aussie man tried to show us where to go but he was completely wrong and pointed us in the wrong direction, luckily we noticed immediately and turned around. At the hostel we checked in- probably met someone else from Canada, can’t really remember, there are too many Canadians in Sydney, haha- and then made ourselves comfortable.
Today nothing much happened. Took a trip to Woolies for groceries, I hit the free wifi at MacDonald’s and had a surprisingly very good cappuccino there, while Kate went for a wander. Later I went to Bondi Beach. I had to walk a few blocks to the next train station because for some unbeknownst reason the Kings Cross Station was “closed.” But I made it to the beach and it was great to have my feet back in the sand J Bondi seemed more built up and smaller than the last/ only other time I’d been (in 2001). I think that all the time spent on the never-ending beaches of Byron has spoiled me.
P.S. Some bad news- Queensland Tourism are morons and did not shortlist me as one of top 50 candidates for their so-called “Best Job in the World,” their loss I suppose ;) I guess I will just go on up there for a few months anyways because, well, I CAN.
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