Out of the Land of Oz

I have bid good bye to Australia and am currently in Christchurch, NZ. The second time around in Sydney was quite enjoyable.

I played super-tourist on Tuesday and Wednesday. Tuesday was spent at the Aquarium and the Sydney Tower. The Aquarium definitely lived up to the hype as Australia's #1 attraction. The seal enclosure, ocean tank and Great Barrier Reef exhibits were the best I had ever seen. They were all immense (I'm guessing here, but on the order of 100 feet by 80 feet and each were 15 to 20 feet deep). Walking through the tunnels that led under the water and watching sharks, rays and other fish swimming all around was an unreal experience. Mix in the frenzy of camera happy tourists taking pictures through the curved glass with the flash on and you could easily have a Jaws moment (even though all of the sharks were of the tamer varieties). The reef exhibit was also top notch and was faithful to what I saw on the reef myself. I then made my way over to the Sydney Tower to take in the advertised 360 degree views of the city. There was a great view, but not worth the time or the money. Especially after having seen thousands of postcards with the same views during my time in Sydney.

Wednesday turned into the "Let me walk around and go into all of the souvenir shops that I can possibly find." Not overly productive, but there were more than enough T-shirts with funny sayings to keep the day moving (my favorite simply said "Jesus is Coming. Look Busy"). I met up with a friend of a friend (who turned out to be the friend of other friends as well), Alison, for dinner. After consuming the largest mug of beer that I have ever accidentally ordered, I had the feeling that my trip for the next day may be in jeopardy since I would have to wake up at 6am.

Thursday morning came and I made it out of bed in time. The day was spent in the Blue Mountains, west of Sydney. First stop was an area frequented by kangaroos. Now, going in to my trip to Australia I thought that it was going to be great to see kangaroos in the wild. And it was, for the first 1000+ that I saw. Then it became so normal to see them and it took it down a notch for me. Second stop was a 3 hour hike to Wentworth Falls, which provided some very nice views of canyons and the waterfall. It also momentarily took my mind off the fact that I was exhausted, which was a good thing. Last stop was a walk down the Furber Stairs (around 1000 of them) to get a good sight of the Three Sisters rock formation. Instead of climbing up the stairs, we took the railway back up. This, however, was not a normal railway but a converted coal truck railway that is reported to be the steepest railway in the world. The cars are just benches with a flimsy fence over your head (basically on top of your head) and a chain to keep you from falling out the side of the cart, allowing for breathtaking views. It is only around 300m long but it was a little terrifying none the less. The first thing that caught my attention was that the tracks resembled a ski jump, with only a flimsy fence to block the end. Then it got interesting watching the counter weight to the train operate on a thin wire and imagining the wire breaking as we neared the top, dropping us down the track to be propelled Eddy the Eagle style into the valley below. I'm sure that they had redundant safety measures, but they were well hidden.

And now I am in New Zealand. Let the good times roll.