Today was our last day in Sydney. Students and Staff were able to do some last minute sight seeing before heading to our next destination. Many of the students used the time to try and go to the beach one last time, see the botanical gardens and Sydney Opera House. A couple of the students decided to do the Sydney Bridge Climb.
Mallory and I had a nice treat for ourselves lined up. Almost 10 years ago Mallory did a short internship in Sydney and stayed with a host family. On our off day we had an opportunity to meet up with them and Roy offered to give us a tour of the harbor on his boat. How can we possibly pass up this wonderful opportunity. This was quite the tour with many memories for myself. The weather as you will see from the photos was not the best, a little bit of mist and a whole lot of overcast, but it was still fantastic. Things look much different from the water than they do from land. Seeing the Sydney Opera House and Bridge from different angles allows one to see how magnificient it really is.
A couple of other memories that I will always have include docking in Darling Harbor to grab a quick cup of coffee, tea or hot chocolate before getting back on the boat.
Another will be docking at the Sydney Fish Market for a great lunch of fish and chips while sitting in the boat taking in the view of the harbor and ANZAC bride.
Finally, I will remember the Australian hospitality shown by Roy and his mates to Mallory and I. What a great day.
The blog will be taking a couple of days off due to lack of internet access at our next location. I will try to update you on our adventures as soon as I can. Take care all.
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Today was another amazing day. We spent the day absailing and canyoning in the Blue Mountains. The Blue Mountains are one of Australia's famous mountain ranges and parks. They get their name from the Euclyaptus trees and the oils that they give off give the mountain range a blueish tint. The day started off with some bad news, my co-leader Mallory had not been feeling well the past few days and decided that she needed to get some rest and go to the doctor. Get well Mallory, we missed you today.
After about a 2 hour drive we made it to the outfitters office who set us up with all of our equipment for the day. We then went to our repelling (or absailing) site and had a chance to either learn or brush up on our skills. They had absails of 5, 10, 15 and 30 meters set up for the students to feel comfortable before the big fun starts. The picture at the top shows the view from the 30m spot, pretty nice if I do say so myself. The company that we use is fantastic and did a great job of encouraging those who needed it, but I will say throughout the day the students were fantastic, did a great job encouraging one another and had a great attitude. All of the students did the largest absail. NICE JOB ALL!!!
After a quick lunch the groups then headed into the canyon. This was a new canyon for me so I was excited, especially at the prospect of getting a chance see some new sites, but more specifically the opportunity to do the absail through the waterfall at the end. This canyon gave the students a chance to see the Blue Mountains in a way that many people never get. It was amazing, lots of boulders to climb, some water jumps and a lot of faith in our guides and each other. Pictures really do not do justice the beauty that we saw at the bottom of the canyon. The waterfall absail was scary and exciting for many and is something that few will forget. I know I have a few bumps and bruises from it, but loved every minute of it.
After the canyoning our driver stopped off at two outlooks so that we could take a couple of photos of the mountains. The last photo that you see here is of a spot called the Three Sisters which is a landmark of the Blue Mountains. The legend is that the name came from a story in Aboriginal dreamtime. The short version of the story goes that an aboriginal witch doctor turned his three daughters into stone to prevent a bush monster from getting to them, however, the wishbone that he used was lost when he had to turn himself into a lyrebird to avoid the same monster. After the bush monster disappeared, the witch doctor was unable to fine the magic wishbone to turn himself and his daughters back to original form.
Tomorrow is a free day to give the students a chance to explore Sydney, we will keep you posted.
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Today was another adventure and a great personal growth opportunity for many.The morning started out very overcast and looked like it might rain, but the day ended up being spectacular. Because of wave conditions we had to change where we were sea kayaking, but it ended up working out fantastically. The morning we went out into Brisbane National Water Park. We went out early in the morning because the forecast was for very choppy conditions later on in the day. This ended up being a vigorous kayaking experience and many were experiencing some soreness in arms and back from the choppy conditions. Others were experiencing some motion sickness, but everyone was a great sport. Of course, how can you not be a great sport when you have such beautiful views all around you.
The other nice aspect about the morning excursion was that it allowed us to see some of the same sites that we saw yesterday morning when we visited Ku Ring Gai Chase National Park. Seeing things from sea level gives things a different perspective.
After a nice leisurely and restful lunch, we decided to go on a shorter trip up the river from where we were. The water was much calmer and much more to the liking of the students. However, many were still fatigued from the morning trip so we cut it off a little early. I have a feeling that many of us will sleep quite well tonight.
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Today we went to Ku Ring Gai National Park which is located north of Sydney. We were met by our three National Park Guides, David Tribe (who has been leading our trips for the past six years), John Booth, and Rea Thompson -- their knowledge of Fauna, Aboriginie history, and Australian history was awesome and we soaked in what they had to teach.
We started our journey this morning viewing carvings that were dated between 200-2,000 years old -- it's hard to tell because the Aboriginie people would continously carve over the same lines as they would share stories. It was neat to see a part of history and to also learn about their connection to the land. Aboriginie people believe very much that we do not own the land, but rather we belong to the land and there is a great spiritual connection ~ to share in a custom of feeling the spirts of the land we experienced the tradition of face painting with clay. Everyone participated in this tradition and we got some great pictures!
From the carvings we went on several short bushwalks to see ancient paintings, we learned about squiggly gum trees, spiders that spin golden webs (don't worry they weren't poisonous), and how regeneration in the bush helps certain plant species not become extinct. Several of the students tasted the nectar of a palm bush, which reminded me of honeysuckle, we also got to see Westhead Lookout -- one of the most famous look out points in Australia -- it was beautiful!
From Westhead we headed to our last bushwalk down to a really unique beach with lots of interesting rock formations. Some of the students swam in the waves, while others wandered around checking out the scenery and watching some of the surfers that decided to brave the steep trail down to the shore.
Overall it was a great day, rain showers and all!
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Welcome all, this is the first entry to let you know that we have travelled in time and made it to Sydney. Why do I say we travelled in time, the main reason is that January 3rd never happened for us. We left LAX airport at 9:30 pm on Wednesday January 2nd and found ourselves after 12 hours in Auckland, New Zealand on January 4th. After a short layover we then hopped on another flight for a three and half hour flight to our final (for now) destination, Sydney.
I will say that I was impressed by our students ability to keep a positive attitude and outlook despite many of them having travelled for 30+ hours. We only had two minor inconveniences. Luckily one of them happened to me. I had trouble flying out of Greensboro and as a result had to do some standby flying to make it to LA in time to make our flight to Auckland and Sydney. I somehow made it, but my bag did not. I hope to be reunited with it tomorrow, but we will see. The other inconvenience happened when a student misplaced the paper ticket for their flight from Auckland to Sydney. After some work the student was able to pay to replace the ticket, so all is good.
After arriving to our hotel, Mallory and I had a short meeting with the students to go over some details pertaining to the course and then we gave them the rest of the day as a free day to explore Sydney all that it has. Some of the students explored the City Centre, some explored the harbours and Opera House, while others went to the beach.
Mallory and I chose to explore the Rocks area around Sydney Harbour and the Opera House. Plus we went to the the Botanical Gardens. Tomorrow is our first group activity, stay posted for our journeys.
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