Thursday, February 26, 2009

Hiking in the Blue Mountains

Every semester the Marist study abroad group is invited to stay at a professor's (from the Australian university) Bed & Breakfast in the Blue Mountains, a nature retreat and major tourist destination merely a two hour train ride from Sydney. This retreat is usually organized for the Marist students upon their arrival in Australia, as it is meant as an orientation. However, because our group arrived in Australia during the winter, our Blue Mountain field trip was post-poned and scheduled for the first weekend in November.

I am so glad we waited!

The weather was absolutely perfect! All of my memories of Australia are colored blue: blue is the sky that looks so close you could touch it; blue is the ocean that you can see for miles and miles off the Sydney shore; blue are the mountains, as I discovered on this trip.

When Sean, Steph, Richie and I arrived at the Wentworth Falls train station our host for the weekend, Lew Hird, met us and drove us back to his B&B where we would be spending the weekend.
When we pulled up to our 'B&B' all of our jaws dropped...the place was no simple B&B - the Silvermere guesthouse was a Mediteranian-inspired mansion! The house was absolutely breathtaking!








































The Silvermere guest house is perfectly situated on top of a hill, overlooking the Blue Mountains in one direction, and the city of Sydney in the other. Sitting over our candelight dinner in the beautiful dining room, we could literally see the skyscrapers and buildings we had come to know so well in downtown Sydney. The huge, beautifully manicured lawn is often booked for wedding ceremonies and receptions.
I already told Lew that I would be getting married here... at some point...
As beautiful as the hosue was, we would have been content to spend the entire weekend lounging out in the beautiful yard, admiring the Blue Mountains from afar. But Lew had something else in mind for us.
Lew, an environmental conservationist, is passionate about Australia's flaura and fauna and wanted to show us some of the Blue Mountain's unique wildlife up close. And so we went on an expedition: a 6 hour hike that would have us descending 1000 feet into the valley of the mountains, along the way discovering the beautiful, hidden waterfalls of Wentworth Falls..































































(Lew helping me down some tricky boulders; Sean in all his glory beneath Wentworth Falls...freezing!)













(Three Sisters)



(Lew, just chillen at the Wentworth Falls' pool during a quick rest on our hike)














Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Follow the Great Ocean Road...To Melbourne!

Hi everyone,

it's been so long, I know! I am returned from Australia and back at school in New York again. The end of my Australia experience was an absolute whirlwind...I spent the entire last month of my stay there traveling from one cool place to the next, with hardly any time inbetween. But I want to at least tell you a little about some of the amazing places I visited before I left Ausralia, and of course show you some photos...


My Great Ocean Road Trip ended in Melbourne ["Melben"]. Sean and I stayed here for an extra two nights to get a chance to check out this amazing city. And man, were we glad that we did! Most of the people we had met from our tour group were planning on staying in Melbourne for a while, so Sean and I spent our days with them checking out the city.
Melbourne is amazing! I will admit that I am prejudiced in judging any Australian city against Sydney - Sydney is just so beautiful and I have truly fallen in love with the 'Harbour City'! Yet if I had to choose any other Australian city to live in, it would be Melbourne.














It is such a cultural city: Its history is visible in all of its beautiful buildings. Its arts are displayed in various gorgeous museums. Indeed, Melbourne is known as the cultural hotspot of Australia. It is the trendy city, ahead of most of Australia in fashion, dining, music and performing arts. And Sean and I, along with our new friends, took in all of this walking around and riding the historic Melbourne Tram Circuit (free!!!) which offered audio commentary on all signficant sites it passed.


Another great trip!!

Thursday, November 20, 2008

Greath Ocean Road Trippin...Take 3

Day Two contd.:

So the 12 Apostles at sunset! There are actually only 8 apostles left standing...the others have completely eroded over time. But what a sight!
It had been overcast all day so we did not have the most spectacular sunset....but the setting was cool all the same.

Very ominous (that one is for you Chip)!

After spending some time at the lookout we went back to our amazing hostel and ate our Kangaroo Mince Spaghetti Bolognese. It was amazing!


We then spent the evening in front of our beach cabin's fireplace (it was really too warm to use the fireplace but we felt we had to because we had one) trading life stories. The people on this trip were unbelievable. All of them were backpackers, most of whom had spent the past year of their lives traveling around the world. Listening to all their stories was so entertaining. I don't think I have ever laughed more or harder in my entire life. An incredible night for sure!

Sunday, November 9, 2008

Great Ocean Road Trippin... Part 2

Day 2:
Sean and I met our Great Ocean Road Tour group "Groovy Grape" at 7 a.m. outside of our hostel in Adelaide. This tour was much smaller than our spring break tour. Our vehicle for the trip was only a 20 seater van, and accordingly only 18 other backpackers on the tour with us. Our tour guide was friendly enough, a bit eccentric perhaps. But our fellow backpackers were absolutely amazing! We had plenty of time to get to know them on our first day of the trip, which was mostly just a day of driving to get out of South Australia and into Victoria, where the Great Ocean Road begins.

Yet we did make a few stops on our way through South Australia that first day. We headed for the Grampians, a mountain range that stretches pretty much across Victoria.

Here we did some relaxed bush walks and hung out at MacKenzie Falls, a beautiful and famous waterfall within the Grampian national park. We also stopped at a lookout called "The Balcony" (but it is more often referred to as "The Jaws of Death").

It was a great lookout spot to see the Grampian range. The weather was not the best while we were there, but we enjoyed ourselves anyway.

Then that night we stayed in heart of the Grampian national park at the Brambuk resort, a hostel that was really more like a traveler's lodge. In looks it resembled a Rockie Mountain ski lodge, complete with stone fireplace and huge wooden deck. The owners of the hostel were awesome, and stayed up with our group that night and told us their amazing travel stories. Al, the owner, is half-Aboriginal and told us a lot of cool stuff about the orginal Aboriginal people that lived in the Grampians. It was an awesome night and we had a great outdoor BBQ on the deck!

Day 3:
We woke up early and headed into the Grampian for a more intense bush walk than we did the day before. The walk was amazing! It couldn't really be classified a 'bush walk' as all we really walked on and over was stone. And it wasn't even really a walk, as much as a clamber. It was really cool and we had some amazing views over the valley!

After our walk we visited the Aboriginal Cultural Centre across from our hostel. The centre celebrated the original Aboriginal people of the Grampians. The centre was really cool, especially because, like most cultural centres, this one had an amazing display of traditional Aboriginal artwork.

After spending some time here we packed up the van and headed to our next destination: the start of the Great Ocean Road! It still took us a while to get to the start of the road, but after a few hours drive we alighted at the first breath-taking look-out of the amazing rock formations that speckle the Southern Australian coastline.

The rocks we saw reminded me so much of those at Arches National Park, which is not surprising really since virtually the same forces of nature were at work to sculpt those as the ones I saw along the Great Ocean Road.

There were many stops to make along the road but we eventually came to our hostel for the night in Port Campbell, a town that really marks the beginning (or end, depending on how you look at it) of the Great Ocean Road. We had decided to unload our things here and get started on dinner preparations before hitting the famous Twevle Apostles, as we wanted to see those at sunset and it was a bit early yet.

So we pulled up to our accomodation and were yet again pleasantly surprised by our abode for the night. The place was a beach-side cabin, consisting of three bedrooms stacked with bunks, a spacious kitchen, a backyard, a living-room complete with fireplace, and a wooden deck overlooking the beach. It was amazing!

We started preparing dinner so that we could eat after getting back from the Twelve Apostles, a short 20 minute drive from our accomodation. So in the boiling pot went the Spagetti. In the simmering pot went the tomato sauce. On the stove went the kangaroo. Wait...what?! Yes, that's right...kangaroo. On tonight's menu: Spaghetti Bolognese with kangaroo mince. More about that later, time to head out to the 12 Apostles for sunset!

Wednesday, November 5, 2008

Great Ocean Road Trippin

Hello all!
Well it has been a busy few weeks since we got back from Cairns which is why I have been neglecting my blogspot. School was winding down and exams loomed. However, somewhere in between my rigorous study sessions.... and my demanding internship.... I managed to squeeze in another trip!!

Last weekend Sean and I took off from Sydney at 6 a.m. to fly to Adelaide, capitol of South Australia. It was only a short flight and Sean and I arrived in Adelaide at 9 a.m. It was already boiling hot when we arrived in jeans and sweatshirts. Time to head to our hostel for the night, Backpack OZ, get changed, and explore Adelaide for the day!

I had done some research prior to the trip and found out that Adelaide rents bikes for free! Needless to say I got right on that. So Sean and I, after checking into our hostel, picked up our free mountain bikes and decided to take a scenic cruise along the Torrens River that runs through Adelaide to the famous beach, Glenelg.

It was extremely hot, but the day was beautiful and we had wanted to do something active, while exploring Adelaide. Well, we didn't realize just how active a day it would turn out to be....

Our scenic 'cruise' ended up being a 40km + bike hike! In 37 degree weather!!!!

Despite the blistering heat and more challenging bike ride than we had planned, we had a great time and the ride was beautiful. Most of it was along the river, which looked like a scene out of the Wizard of OZ or something. Everywhere the grass was sunburnt and brown, yet a foot on either side of the river bank was the greenest grass I had ever seen (including GAP), dotted with red and yellow flowers. It was gorgeous. Along much of it horses were grazing too, as the path we took was a popular horse back riding route.

Other parts of the trail were right along the beautiful beach. It was so pretty.

Once we arrived in Glenelg we were hot, exhausted, starving...and only half-way through our bike ride, as we had to then make our way back to Adelaide. So we wandered around Glenelg, a very cool beach side town with lots of restaurants, found some grub and fuelled up for the return trip. We got back to Adelaide just in time to return the bikes before the shop closed, then went straight to our hostel to shower and have a quick nap. We were exhausted!!

Sean and I then went out to eat and relax. Adelaide is a beautiful old city, remarkable because of its really old stone buildings and amazing architecture. We enjoyed these views while sitting and eating at our side-walk cafe on the main street downtown. Needless to say though, we were looking forward to an early night, especially since we had to meet our tour group, that was to take us on a 3 day tour along the Great Ocean Road to Melbourne, the next morning at 7 a.m.

ZZzzz...

Goodbye Fish...

Day 8:

And so our final day in Cairns, and of the trip, arrived. It was a relaxed day as a result of the pub crawl the night before. The pub crawl survivors (though there were few of us) went on a short walk into the rain forest and took a dip at a swimming whole. The weather was not great but the water felt good.

That night we had our goodbye party at our favorite pub the Woolshed. We said goodbye to our new friends. It was sad, after all, we had spent the past 8 days together, for most of us the best 8 days of our lives.

Alas, the next morning, it was time to return to the real world...Not as bad as it sounds though, if te real world is Sydney, Australia....

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

...Reef Sharks

Day 7:

GREAT (Barrier Reef) Day! This was what I had been waiting for all trip. A chance to swim among the largest living organism on the planet! Unfortunately, the weather wasn't the best. We woke up to gray skies and a bit of drizzle. But it wasn't a big deal; we boarded our huge Ocean Spirit cruise vessel anyway and got underway.

The water was pretty rough and a lot of people got sea-sick on our two hour ride out to the Coral Sea. Thankfully, I did fine and as soon as we got to our destination I was ready for some snorkling. Even though the sun wasn't out my visibility underwater was unreal! The coral was beautiful, so many different colors: electric blue, vivid organes, red and purples. Just absolutely beautiful!




After about half an hour I was forced to come in (I could have stayed out there all day exploring and swimming among the Nemos and other exotic fishies), but lunch was being served on the boat. And I wouldn't have missed that lunch for the world! Seemed like the crew had gone out while we were snorkling and fished for our lunch...we had a delicious fresh sea food buffet!

Then, after lunch, it was finally time for my scuba diving debut! On the ride out to the reef we had been given a crash course on diving techniques. Since we didn't have our liscense we were permitted to do a short dive down to 3 meters, accompanied by an instructor.

And oh man, the instructor was so attractive! Jacques Cousteau himself, but hotter. Anyway...


The instructors helped us strap into our tanks and then we plunged into the water off the back of the boat. We had been told to make our way to the side of the boat where two metal bars had been attached, one at surface level, the other 3 meters below the surface. While our dive coach, a Japanese woman, guided us over to the first bar she told us in broken English: "When you go down, you see small fishy...they nice fishies, they like you, don't be afraid." No worries, I thought, I came here to see fishies!

Once we were all settled, holding on to the surface level bar, our coach started guiding us down a rope to the second bar below the surface, one by one, to make sure we had the breathing down and were able to adjust our ears to the pressure. I had no problems but a girl in my group was having difficulties with her ears. So while the coach spent some extra time trying to sort her out I was just chillin, holding on to that lower bar, observing my surroundings...not much to see yet, just clear blue water.

Oh except for those 'small, nice fishies'...

Yea, they were not fishies. Mate, those were reef sharks. Baby reef sharks, but sharks all the same. She may have lied about the species, but she hadn't lied about their affection for us: they swam in and out of our legs, in front of our masks... but they were harmless.

Finally, we all got underway and began actually scuba diving! It was amazing! We saw sting ray, lots of exotic fish, stuck our hand in a clam. Everything was so beautiful!

Unfortunately we were only allowed to stay under for a 30 minute dive which passed by way to quickly. But hey, I did it!

After my group got back from diving it was time to head back to the mainland. We had to prepare for that night's event: a group pub crawl. OH BOY.

It was a great night! A party bus, the same one that took us bungy jumping, picked us up and carted us to our various destinations that night. Met some great people, had some great laughs!