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Published: March 30th 2012
Sydney Day 4-March 9,2012
I woke up early to make my 7:40 pickup time for the Blue Mountain tour. It was supposed to be “partly cloudy” that day, so I chanced it and decided to wear shorts.
I headed for McDonalds with about ½ hr to spare, to use the free Wi-Fi for a few. Unfortunately, it was also VERY slow.Finally, I gave up and was walking to my meet up point when I received a call. It was the tour company, asking where I was. It was 7:30-I still had 10 minutes. I told them that I was around the corner from the hotel where they were to pick me up, and the woman became frustrated. “We are here WAITING for you! Don’t you know where the Hilton is?” she demanded. I told her that I did, and that I was told that my pickup time was 7:40. ‘Well, its 7:30 now,” she grumbled. Still not seeing the dilemma, I assured her that I was 2 minutes away. I found the giant tour bus on the street and ran for it, only to be told by the guy waiting that I had “plenty of time.” What
the hell???
As I got onto the bus, I found it to be pretty empty, so I found a set of seats to myself. Shortly after I sat down, the bus departed, and the driver came on the intercom, announcing that “the last guest had been collected,” and that we were now heading for Star City to meet “our real tour buses.” So this was a fake tour bus?
We made it to the casino, where there were a slew of tour buses from various companies. I found mine pretty easily, and once on board, found that it was still pretty empty. The driver/tour guide came around distributing our tickets for the wildlife park, rides, and river cruise at the end of the day.
Once we were on our way, our tour guide, Neil, gave us a brief outline of the day, and then a brief history of Sydney and the Blue Mountains. He was polite if not overly chatty or funny. Most of the passengers were sleeping or reading as we made our way to Featherdale Wildlife Park, about 45 minutes away.
Upon arriving at the wildlife park, several other tour buses were there. I
notice two of the smaller, more van-like buses that belonged to two of the other companies that I had considered (Sydney Tours R Us and Activity Tours). I was a bit more grateful for the larger bus that I had with AAT Kings, although the group did seem to gear more towards older tourists (average age 60).
I entered the park, eager to make my way to the koalas and kangaroos. Along the way, I looked at some of the birds, and petted a loose wallaby. Then I came to a small bridge, and saw an employee with a boa wrapped around his neck, dangling the head at passersby, in attempt to encourage them to hold the slimy serpent.
Now, I’m deathly afraid of snakes. So much so that I once fainted at a daycare center where I worked when someone brought in a lifelike replica of one. I was faced with a challenge-do I try to dash by the guy to get to the cuddly creatures or forgo it and wait it out on the bus? Just then, opportunity struck. The guy turned away from the path, talking to another tourist. I zipped through the passage in
3 seconds, and found myself in the koala pen. I made it!
At the koala pen, I got my picture standing next to one (people weren’t allowed to cuddle them in New South Wales, but I would have my chance in Cairns). I then made my way to the kangaroo/emu enclose, had some brains, and turned to scratch and snarl at the offending bird,which had a case of ice cream cones filled with kangaroo food at the entrance for $1. I purchased one and went in, spotting several fuzzy roos hopping around, looking eager to be fed.
However, there were also two large, gawky emus that were hungry, and not willing to surrender to the cuter marsupials. One of them lunged forward at me, beak open, and before I knew it, my cone was hanging out of its beak.
Not to be deterred, I went back to the food case, purchased another cone, and turned on the video on my cell to capture the feeding of the roos.As I tried to enter, the emu was patiently waiting for me.I’m attempting to upload the aforementioned video so that you all can see how successful I was in my
second feeding attempt.
In case it’s not easily viewed, the emu won again. Enough said.
I gave up on feeding, and once there was no food around, the emu lost interest in me, so I spent some time petting the kangaroos. I felt horrible as the sniffed the crumbs on my hand and looked up at me with their big, brown eyes, questioning.
Okay, I hadn’t given up yet. I purchased a third cone, this time running into the enclosure and thrusting it at the nearest kangaroo before the emu had time to charge over. The emu reached the roo as the cone was half eaten, trying to steal what was left. This kangaroo, however had some brains, and snarled and scratched at the offending bird, protecting its treat.
Seriously, why were these two species allowed loose together? The emus were big bullies!
After spending some time there, I walked around, looking at other animals before it was time to leave. This time, Neil promised us an hour and a half’s drive to the first of our three Blue Mountain stops. No further commentary was forthcoming, so I took a nap.
When we arrived
at the first stop, Wentworth Falls, it was a bit chilly but not raining (yes!). We only had 20 minutes here, and the shortest trails to view the falls were 20 minutes, so we had to settle for a bird’s eye view from the lookout.
After another half hour on the bus, we had a similar top at Echo Point, where you could view the Three Sisters monument. Legend has it that some mountain wizard was in love with these three princesses, and froze them into stone to keep them with him for all eternity. Or at least, I think that was the story. It was a picturesque view, in any case.
Finally, we were on our way to Scenic World, where the rides and the rainforest were. We had 1 hour 45 minutes here to eat lunch, ride both rides, walk in the rainforest, shop, etc. Since I passed on the buffet, I had a chicken sandwich and Coke in the café that set me back $22.
Then it was time to take the “railway” down the mountain to the rainforest. Supposedly, it was the world steepest railway. I wasn’t sure what that entailed. As I
was in line, one of the employees whistled. I looked over at her, and she pointed to a colorful parrot perched onto the building a few feet away. Then she approached me. “Open your hand,” she instructed, so I did, and she filled it with birdseed. She directed me to the other side of the line, and encouraged me to hold it out for the parrot. I did, and soon the bird flew down onto my hand and began to snack. Suddenly, everyone around me was oohing and awing and snapping photos. Just as I was trying to figure out how to reach my cell phone or camera to take my OWN pucture, and older English couple approached and asked if they could retrieve my camera for me. Appreciatively, I directed the woman to my purse, and she found my camera and took several pics of the bird and me.
Soon the bird was finished, and flew away. I went over to the railway, and took a seat next to the English couple, where we exchanged pleasantries. The seats in the car were tilted backwards at a 5 degree angle, and there was a cage covering the car. Uh-oh.
Just then, the car lurched forward, and like a roller coaster, sped almost straight down the track. I was anticipating that dropping feeling that you get on a coaster, but before I knew it, we were at the bottom.
After departing the “train,” I walked up a staircase, leading to the rainforest boardwalk. At the boardwalk, there were two different trails to the Skyway cable car, one that was 5 minutes, and one that was 25 minutes. I took the longer one, as I was doing ok on time. It was a very scenic walk, with trees covering the sky, birds and insects chirping, and many unusual (manmade) artifacts planted alongside (see picks). The trail led by some mock-cave entrances that you could peek into see what mining life looked like.
25 minutes later, I arrived at the entrance to the cable car. The walk had been a decent hike, not too strenuous. The wait for the cable car took a bit, despite cramming about 50-60 people in each car. When it was my turn, I tried to get a spot near a window, but wasn’t lucky. As we took off, the driver began point out the
waterfalls and the Three Sisters monument, but for us minions crammed in the middle, we weren’t able to see anything. At least the ride only took about 3 minutes.
At the top, I had just enough time to wander around the shop before it was time to leave. Once on the bus, we waited for about 10 minutes until Neil informed us that we were missing somebody. “So that you don’t miss time at your next stop, I’m going to drop you off and come back here for her,” he stated.
What?!?! Yes, it was inconvenient, but I would totally freak out if my bus had taken off on me.
Luckily, said woman came flying out into the parking lot just then, so all was well, and we were on our way to Leura, a little village where we had 30 minutes to shop or snack. The village was cute, but personally, I would have rather had longer time at one of the lookouts.
On the way back to Sydney, Neil was apparently done being tour guide, and he put on a video about kangaroos to watch. I intermittently read and paid attention to the documentary.
However, I wished I hadn’t at the end, when one of the baby kangaroos died. What a depressing film to show a bunch of tourists!
We took a short detour on the way to the cruise dock, where most people were taking the river cruise back to Sydney Harbour.For those that weren’t; they received a heavy, heavy sales pitch from Neil as to why it was better to take the cruise than to force him to drive them back into the city on the bus.
On our way to the dock, we passed by Olympic Stadium, where the 2000 Olympics were held. Needless to say, we didn’t get a stop here, so we had to quickly take pics through the bus window.
And then I saw it. On the side of the arena was an advertisement for Taylor Swift, one of my favorite country artists (though she does veer into rock/pop) who was in Sydney THE NEXT TWO NIGHTS!!!!
OH, now I REALLY wanted to go. I was certain tickets would be expensive, if not sold out.
Just then, the bus arrived at the dock. Neil made one last attempt at encouraging people to pony
up for the ferry. However, a few remained despite his pleas.
The Captain Cook ferry arrived about 10 minutes later, and I managed to get a seat on the top deck. Soon after I settled in, some guys were goofing around and managed to break one of the light bulbs on the strand of lights on the boat. Instead of clearing it up, the crew left it for people to step over or slip on. As we set sail, someone finally cleaned it up.
The boat sailed along the Parramatta River, cruising past several developments of houses and boats. There was a canned tour playing over the speakers that wasn’t audible over the wind and other passengers, but it was still a pleasant ride.
We first docked in Darling Harbour, unloading about 1/3 of the passengers. While docked, there was one of those little floating docks (not sure what they are called) next to the boat with a couple lounging on it. A few minutes later, they decided to put on a show for the top deck passengers when the girl climbed into the guy’s lap and…well, I’ll leave the rest to your imagination. It made for
an entertaining stop, though LOL!
Soon after this exhibition, we were on our way to Circular Quay, where I sped through the wharf to the train station and flew back to the hotel. I went next door to Woolworths and did a search on the concert. After much hemming, hawing, and debating on the phone with Giles, I decided to splurge and buy a ticket. I raced back to the hotel, changed, and raced to the Town Hall station, where I barely managed to purchase a ticket to Olympic Station before getting on the next westbound train.
About 25 minutes later, I switched trains at Lidcomb for the Olympic Station bound train, and made it to the stadium just as Taylor took the stage. Of course it was a nosebleed ticket, but it was still a decent view, and the crowd was going wild!
Taylor performed several songs, and even went into the middle of the crowd for a few of them. I’ve been to quite a few concerts, but this was the first where the performer seemed genuinely happy to be there and thrilled by the fans. Then again, we WERE in Australia-she said so herself,
“This place is AMAZING!”
Yes it is, Taylor.
Afterwards, as I made my way back to the train, I noted that I didn’t have to be apprehensive about a deserted ride back into the city. The train was packed! Of course I was in the car with the drunk guy who insisted on reenacting the concert for fellow riders.
I made it back to the hotel sometime before midnight; ready to collapse-it had been a LONG day. Before I crashed, I had a text from Anita-apparently she decided to tag along with me on the BridgeClimb tomorrow!
Here’s hoping for another sunshine, fun filled Sydney day!
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