Squeezing in Sydney

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Hello there all!
Feels like we haven't written a blog in ages, but I guess that's just because we've been squeezing so much in. I should probably start at the beginning with our bus journey and our goodbyes in Melbourne - you know, work chronologically for a change.
After writing the last blog a few friends from the hostel suggested we went down to St Kilda pier to see the penguins who come out at dusk. They actually live there! I know it sounds like a pretty minor point to our trip but can you imagine wandering down a pier on a relatively cold (for Australia's winter) day and finding penguins huddled underneath the surrounding rocks! It was so cute and you had to be really careful not to frighten them off with too big movements - also because we were a bit early, due to our needing to get the bus at dusk, we were very lucky to see any at all. A few tourist signs about also told us that there were water rats in the sea and they usually could be seen swimming for shore at dusk - but we decided not to hang around for that one!
Then it was back to the hostel to pick up our bags and to say our goodbyes; it's funny, when travelling, you become best mates with people so easily; suddenly you form a group and that's that for the week - you have your friends and it feels as if you've known them forever. So with a few hugs and slightly resembling dung beetles with our bags on our backs, we left, and I found myself saying 'have a nice life' to one of the guys as it occurred to me that we would probably never see each other again. That sounds really negative, I don't mean it like that - I just think its very odd that you become so close to people who it is highly unlikely will ever play a part in your life again.
But there was no time for sentimental thought as we hurried from tram to tram to coach - a twelve hour overnight journey was on the horizon. So we both took a sleeping pill and hoped that would help us on our way to a peaceful journey but unfortunately, we both arrived at 7am in Sydney with about 2 hours of sleep - and eight hours until check in time.
Yet we made the most of our time before we could unpack - we went up another very tall tower and saw Sydney in all its glory, we rebooked a lot of New Zealand (I'll explain in a sec), did some shopping, meandered through Hyde Park on the other side of the world, and got booking things to do whilst in Sydney. Over the next few days we're going wine tasting, to a national park, seeing the Blue mountains and the three sisters, hopefully going to book a boat trip around the harbour and have chosen our dinner out in Sydney! (Thanks mut and vat in advance.) Recently, we've been in to a mass memorial for Australians who died during WW1 (awe inspiring), visited the equivalent of the Natural History museum, had a tour round Sydney Opera House, chilled out in the Botanical Gardens, seen an Italian film I adored and Ed loathed, met up with some mates from Melbourne and went clubbing and generally have been keeping busy!
The base hostel (its the same chain that we stayed with in Melbourne) here is ok, it was better in Melbourne and our ten bed dorm is filled with 9 boys and myself - as you can imagine, the room is not the cleanest. Ha, but its good - where Melbourne felt like somewhere you could live, Sydney feels like a huge, bustling city and there is so much to do! Today we're going to go around the rocks, organise meeting up with a friend from Halong bay, find some markets, go to the Sydney observatory and the harbour bridge.
About NZ, one of our friends from Melbourne had such passionate suggestions about changing our plans that we've agreed to her ideas and are now only staying in Christchurch for one night (at a place called Tranquil Lodge) then taking a 5/6 hout bus to Queenstown where will stay for three nights in Nomads backpackers. Then we're back up to Christchurch for one more night just to catch the flight to Auckland, but arrangements haven't changed in Auckland.
Well, thats about all I can think to fill you in on at the moment - we've really got to get going anyway! Hope you're all well, its lovely having you comment on here! lots of love xxxxxxxxxxxx

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Comments

[mut]

busy, busy, busy...
Hey, sounds like you're really packing it in and making the most of your time in Oz. We'll be wine tasting too over the next few days! Funny to think of you two doing the same thing the other side of the Pacific!Hannah is getting withdrawal symtons as none of the teenagers drink, even at home, so she will be a lightweight when she goes to Zante!! Enjoy the rest of your time in Oz and look after each other. Lots of love, M/J xxxxxxxx

[Carol and co in CA]

Hello
Hi Sarah, lovely to hear about everything. You are a great writer and I'm sure in the future you will be so pleased you have taken the time to record all your activities and feelings. We are having a great time with your fam here. Unfortunately Matt will not let me be his friend on facebook so I've only heard second hand about his rude comments about me. Anyway I've been very restrained since then although I'm not sure that will last as we're all about to go up to the wine country for a few days. It should be lovely with kayaking, swimming in the river and good food - oops sorry that is probably a sore point! Cayte is now in Europe backpacking with 3 girlfriends. I tried to get her to do the travelblog like you, but she didn't get round to it, which is a shame. Have a lovely time in NZ - I have always wanted to go there. xxx