Back in Sydney

After travelling to New Zealand and trying to sleep at the airport there, I arrived back in Sydney where I found myself kind of depressed after an amazing time in New Zealand. At first I was going to try go to a different hostel, such as around Bondi, but by the time I got to the Central, I was pretty tired and just decided to stay the the Railway Square YHA where I have stayed before. I took a few hour nap before making my way to Darling Harbour which is probably one of my favorite places in Sydney. On the way there I walked by the Sydney Entertainment Centre which happened to be showing Keith Urban with Lady Antabellum that night. So I asked if there were any tickets left and they were like yes, but in the back. But they said if I waited, there would be some more tickets released. I waited half an hour and it turns out it was front row tickets, so I bought a ticket and an hour later the show started. It was quite fun being able to go to the front row and getting so close the the artists.

Lady Antabellum

Keith Urban about 3 feet away

End of the Concert

The next day was a bit wet so I got a pass that allows me into things such as the Centerpoint tower, Manly Oceanworld, and the Sydney Aquarium and Wildlife World. I did the latter two that day and will do the rest the next time I am in Sydney. The next day I just relaxed a bit and actually did a free walking tour of the city through YHA which was cool getting to know a bit more a bit of the city and making some new friends along the way. Later that night there was a free fireworks show at Darling Harbour which was decent and happens weekly during the Summer and sometimes during the fall.

Darling Harbour

After that, it was basically a train ride back to Bathurst for 4 days of Uni before an Easter break of 5 days.

New Zealand!

After staying two nights at a friends place, I was driven to the airport on a beautiful early Sunday morning. From there I flew on Jetstar to Christchurch where I had some family picking me up. He immediatly recognized my face and we went off to see some other family that don't live to far from Christchurch. It was really good finally being able to see them rather than just emailing between them. So we stayed there for a few hours and then went off to Waimate which is a little town in the middle of Christchurch and Dunedin (each are 3 hours away though). The person I stayed with was really good friends with my Uncle and was really into electronics and things such as radio communications, so that was really cool to see all that equipment.

Due to limited time, I stayed there for only a night, before heading taking the bus to Dunedin. Dunedin was first settled by some Scottish people, so a lot of the building are the type you would find in Scotland. There is even an old water fountain there that was donated by Queen Victoria in 1872. So this place has been around for quite a while.

Train station in Dunedin

After doing a bit of exploring in town I did a tour of the Cadbury Chocolate factory which was good and meant a lot of free chocolate. Once that was done I had an hour or so before taking a tour with Elm Wildlife Tours which was cool because you got to see things such a  fur seals, big seals like the one below, as well as penguins, albatross (Birds that only fly in the wind), and various other birds and animals.

Two Penguins that just came from the ocean

After spending two nights in Dunedin I took the bus to Queenstown which is the adventure capital of the world and probably one of the most beautiful places in the world as well. Queenstown for me, is a mix of Vancouver, because of the lake and the mountains, and Whistler because of the small town feel that it gave me. While in Queenstown I did things such as Skydiving, Ziplining, racing around the luge track, and going to the incredible Milford Sound. I also met a group of dutch people that were staying in the same room as me at the hostel and they also knew some other dutch people staying in another hostel which was quite fun.
The trip to Milford Sound was fairly long at 13 hours total, but it was well worth the wait because of some of the amazing sights along the way and at Milford Sound. The pictures really don't do it justice, because when I was at Milford Sound it almost felt like it was surreal.

On the way to Milford Sound

Milford Sound

Milford Sound

Milford Sound. The pictures don't do it justice

Waterfall on one of the Mountains in Milford Sound

Mitre Peak

The next day I went Skydiving with NZone which was a really cool experience and something that I could not just pass up. The whole experience is about 3 hours long as you go through the paperwork, get driven to the site, wait a bit before your turn, get suited up, and then go skydiving! It takes about 15-20 minutes to get up to altitude of 15,000 feet and then before you know it, its your turn and its quite the rush falling at 200km/h for about 60 seconds before the parachute comes out and you glide down for 5 minutes or so.

Going up in the plane!

Heading down!

Quite the view!

Video of me Skydiving!

The next day I got a combo pass at one of the local shops to go up the Skyline Gondola, 6 laps around their luge track and a pass to go ziplining with Ziptrek. 

Me at the top of the Gondola

The Remarkable Mountain Range in the background.

Just a little ways away from Vancouver!

Amazing Sunset over Queenstown! Nice way to finish my time in Queenstown

Video of me Zip-lining upside down!

While in Queenstown I also had the famous Fergburger which for $10NZD was definitely the best burger I have ever had at that price. So good in fact, I actually had 3 in my time there. On the last night in Queenstown me and the other dutch people there went to town for the night and didn't get back till 5 or so, and I had to be up at 6:30 for my 8 hour bus ride to Franz Josef. Good night for sure, and at least the bus was comfortable. Only problem is that New Zealand is so nice, so you really don't want to sleep on the bus with the beautiful surrounding passing you by.

In Franz Josef I did a glacier climb on the Franz Josef Glacier which is 12km long and moves at a rate of 5m per day. It was just a half day tour, and we spent about an hour or so on the glacier walking through crevasses and over the ice. It was quite a cool experience, and they give you basically all the equipment you need such as rain coat, overpants, touque and gloves, hiking shoes and crampons for the ice. If your in the area I would recommend that you go for a least a half day and if you can a full day.

The Franz Josef Glacier, you only see about 4km of it here.

Hiking through the ice

Sun setting in the town of Franz Josef with the Dutch flag

The next day I went off to Greymouth which was well, pretty grey, but it was alright. Met some other Canadians in the YHA hostel there, all from different provinces and watched Lord of the Rings into the night. The next day I had the TranzScenic train booked from Greymouth to Christchurch which went through some amazing scenery, and with the sunset and fall colours it really made it spectacular.

Near the entrance of the Greymouth Harbor

Found this kind of a cool shot on the train

View from the train

The picture does not do the picture justice

Sunsetting over the NZ alps.

After the train I took the shuttle to the Christchurch airport where I slept overnight as I had an early flight to catch back to Sydney.

Absolutely amazing morning as we took off from Christchurch

Overall I am extremely happy I went to New Zealand, and this is just shows you a small part of New Zealand. Ten days was not near enough, so I hope to come back sometime and explore the north and south island quite a bit more. If you get the chance, this is one place you won't regret going!

Weeks leading up to the break

Its been a little while since I posted here, as I have been pretty busy trying to get assignments done before the break, and then I had the break which meant I didn't have to much time on the internet. So over the next few posts I will be caught up again.

In the weeks leading up to the break after Katoomba I mainly just hung around campus procrastinating over doing homework and hanging out with friends. On one of the weekends we had Laundry Luau which was a nice event just bringing everyone together from the Diggings residence. We had some great weather, and had a great atmosphere.

A few days later there was an event set up by Vodafone on the famous Mt Panorama Race Track (Well known for the Bathurst 1000 in October) which brought over an actual F1 car and another V8 Supercar and let the driver of each switch with the other. The F1 car did a lap time of 1:48 and averaged over 210km/h of speed. It was cool being able to see this as I will unfortunately I won't be here for the Bathurst 1000 in the October.

A few more days later we had 80's prom at the university where I was voted to become the 80's Prom King for 2011, which was fun. After that we were basically done for the semester and I was able to get a ride back to Sydney with a roommates parents and stayed there for two nights in Sydney which was great. Which leads me to my next post in which I go to New Zealand!

Katoomba and the Blue Mountains

This weekend I got the opportunity to go to Katoomba for $20 with 19 other international students at CSU, which seemed like a pretty good deal, and I heard some good things about the Blue Mountains so I went.
We had to be ready at around 8am for the bus which took two hours, so we were in Katoomba at around 10. Then we got a bite to eat and made our way to another bus to get to Scenic World which is a place with a cable way, world's steepest rail, and some walkways through the rain forest.

Cableway at Scenic World in the Blue Mountains

The Blue Mountains

After Scenic World we got on the trolley and made our way to Gordon Falls to get some more spectacular views of the Blue Mountains. 

Near Gordon Falls before we got drenched

We were able to get some pictures in, and then we saw some dark ominous clouds heading our way, but hoped it would hold off. Our hoping didn't work very well, so we quickly got all our cameras and everything wrapped in a waterproof jacket and put in a backpack and then the rain came. Us three north americans got totally drenched when the rain started hitting. And when we got to where we thought we needed to be, the trolly never came (or it was way late) so us three soaked guys were able to get a ride from two girls that were doing some camping the area.

Overall it was a good trip and something I will not soon forget being in the rainforest getting drenched in a large rain storm and trying to get back to Katoomba. Not sure what I am doing next weekend quite yet, but in two weeks I will be going to New Zealand during the fall break.

Another interesting weekend in Sydney

This weekend me and another Canadian decided to go to Sydney again to check out things like the Taronga zoo. We were able to get a ride with someone from the uni, so we didn't have to suffer the boring 4 hour train ride. We made it to Sydney to discover that since it was Mardi gras weekend, literally all the hostels were booked full in the city. So after a bit of searching on the web we found the Pittwater YHA located about an hour by bus and water ferry from Manly. So we booked that and made our way there with another person from the uni as well. It was a long but nice trip, the scenery out that way is beautiful.

Hammock at the Pittwater YHA

We stayed there the night, and then made out way to the Taronga zoo the next day. The zoo was really cool, especially with the view over the city and we also did the Koala encounter (Against the law to touch them though).

After the zoo they wanted to go to the mardi gras parade, so we made our way out there and it was crazy busy with between 200,000 and 300,000 people expected! I did not stay for the whole thing because I had to go back to the hostel in time for the last bus. The other two stayed at another friends place overnight or pulled an all nighter. In the morning me and the other Canadian met up again by Manly Beach and just relaxed at the beach for a few hours till our ride back to the Uni was ready.
I think next weekend I will stay around the Uni and probably go on the Katoomba trip in the Blue Mountains with the CSU international department. If there is still space that is, will find out later.

Weekend in Sydney

I just could not resist going back to Sydney again with the amazing weather to go to Manly Beach and meet up with Marcel. So on Friday some other roomies were heading back to Sydney as well, so I got a ride with them. On Friday evening I took the train from Sam's place to Circular Quay to see the botanical gardens and some other sights in that area in the few hours I had that evening. On my way to the botanical gardens I met a British girl who's friend was doing the bridge climb, who was also trying to find the botanical gardens, so we chatted for a bit before she had to go back to her friend. By that time, I was getting hungry, so I went to "The Rocks" and got a gourmet meatball wrap at the market there. I sat down near the harbor and met a Canadian girl from Ontario doing a 1 year working holiday, so we chatted for a bit and before we knew it, it was getting dark and she had to head back to the hostel, and me back to my buddies place.

At "The Rocks" near the Sydney Harbor Bridge

This is probably what I love most about travelling, its the totally random and interesting people you meet along the way all on different journeys.
The next day I went off to the ferry warf to go to Manly Beach and the surrounding area. I heard some good things about the area and they were right, its a spectacularly beautiful area as you can see below. I went swimming for a while and then walked around the area for a bit, where I got my last shot from.

Manly Beach

The Corso

On the way to Shelly Beach

Nice end to the day

On Sunday I made my way back to the city, to the botanical gardens and after having some difficulties, finally got a hold of Marcel, who I wanted to me while in Sydney. So we met up and had a very good (and expensive burger...worth it though) by the Opera House, before I had to make my way back to the train station to catch the last train back to Bathurst.
Overall it was a pretty good weekend and I am looking forward to this weekend as I will head back into Sydney again and check out things like the Thuronga Zoo.

O-Week at CSU

I arrived at CSU (Charles Sturt University) on the 19th and moved into my room. I also met my roommates which seem like a great bunch of people. Before I knew it, I even got offers from the parents offering to let me stay at their place whenever I am in Sydney which just shows how friendly the Aussie people are.
O-week was a great start the the school year with things like dag night, who I want to be when I grow up night, etc. So that was really good. And my RA, Alex is probably one of the nicest and best RA's out there. She is great at helping with whatever needs to be done and organizing events for us in the catered cottages.
The Windradyne cottages are part of the diggings group, and during our O-week we all got something to put on our arms to show which housing group we belong to. The gym is right across the road and is free for students, so hopefully I can get enough modivation to actually go at least once in a while. I have been having quite a few 50cent McDonald's cones the last few weeks.

Our Cottage (8 rooms)

My Room!