"Spring Break" in Australia

The semester is more than half way over!! I can't believe how fast the time has gone in New Zealand, but finals start in 5 weeks! For our "spring break", Graham and I traveled to Australia, going to Sydney and Cairns. Our trip went something like this:

Friday: A 6 hour never ending bus ride from Dunedin to Christchurch, surrounded by very odd people and a man wearing pink socks who kept burping. We (barely) survived the bus ride, then spent the day in Christchurch. We found that not much is happening there, and the most popular color is orange (because so many construction workers are wearing orange vests and trying to repair the damage from the devastating earthquake a few years ago). We went kayaking on a river through the Botanical Gardens, then went to a mall made out of containers...pretty neat! We ate a very classy dinner in the food court of a local mall, then slept in the 5 star hotel known as the Christchurch International Airport! It was quite an interesting visit, and I'm certain I've seen everything exciting about Christchurch.

Saturday: Our flight was supposed to be at 6 am, but we were delayed A LOT and spent much more time in the Christchurch airport than anyone in the world would ever want to. We finally arrived in Sydney around noon and met up with Conor O'Brian and went to the zoo!! It was great to see a Gilford friend on the other side of the world! The zoo was awesome, tons of animals and a beautiful view of Sydney harbor the whole time! It was great! Then we took the ferry back to Sydney and walked around a bit, then went to Darling Harbor for some take out Indian food and fireworks on the harbor! It happened to be the same day as Gilford Old Home Day, so it was just as if Conor and I were at home in Gilford, fireworks and everything!

                    

                             

Sunday: In the morning Graham and I (and it seemed like every other citizen of Australia) went on a cliff walk from Bondi Beach to Coogee Beach. The path went along the ocean around many beaches and beautiful cliffs! Then we joined up with Conor and his roommate to see a show in the main theater of the Sydney Opera House!! It was a National Geographic photographer talking about all of his adventures throughout his career...so cool! And we got to go in the main theater! It was a great day!

Monday: Graham and I spent the day at Manly Beach, a 45 min ferry ride from Sydney Harbor. It was a great relaxing day! In the afternoon we went to the Sydney Olympic Park which was basically a ghost town, totally abandoned and just empty...very strange. I'm sure it was quite busy in the summer of 2000, but not any more!

Tuesday: We flew 3 hours north to Cairns, a small city right in the middle of the Great Barrier Reef! We got lunch then went to the town "lagoon", a public saltwater pool right in the middle of town. If you swam in the ocean in Cairns, you'd probably be eaten my a crocodile, so the lagoon was much safer. It was another relaxing afternoon in the warmth of Cairns!

Wednesday: Snorkeling on the reef! Two hour boat ride to the outer reef, everyone was sea sick, and I'm sure that 50% of the boat puked. But we didn't ! And snorkeling was amazing! Every single color in the world can be seen just a few feet under the water. We saw turtles, barracudas, every single type of fish possible, and lots of coral! It was great!

Thursday: We took a much shorter (thank goodness) boat ride to Fitzroy Island, an island in the reef! We went for a walk to Nudey Beach (not for nudists, although the name is quite confusing in that regard) and then went on a glass bottom boat tour of part of the reef, then did some snorkeling and some relaxing! It was a really awesome island that I would have loved to spend more time on, but our time in Australia was over :(

Friday: Flying home. Stopped in Brisbane on the way home...got some really yummy nachos in the airport! 

And now it's back to school. It was a really great vacation, so relaxing, and I even got a tan! Very exciting stuff!