The last time I wrote in this blog was before my trip to Sydney.
Sydney was amazing. I had a wonderful time touring the Opera House, climbing the Sydney Bridge, seeing the Aquarium, and Sydney Tower. I also cruised the Harbour at night, the Sydney skyline and view of the Opera House and Bridge at night is spectacular.
I met up with a long time pen pal type friend and we walked around a lot and later on met up with her friend and went out to experience the nightlife. We were so tired at first, but managed to stay out until 5:30am. Then it was back to my hostel.
I flew back to Melbourne for my last night. A bunch of my friends were already leaving for trips and home, but the ones I was closest with were still there and had a mini party in me and my roomate's "honor". I miss them!!
Then I flew after a 4 hr delay to Auckland, NZ. Quantas is currently having problems lately with their mechanics on strike, causing massive delays and cancellations. I finally made it to my hostel and rested.
The next day I flew to Queenstown, which is quite possibly one of the most beautiful towns I've ever visited. The town itself is located near a large lake in between mountains which over look The Remarkables. I decided to walk around town for a bit, which is very quaint and filled with ski shops and cafes. Then I hiked up to see a small animal reserve to see the Kiwi bird. After that I took the Gondola up to the peak of one of the mountains and stayed until sunset. I did a "luge" ride, which was this cart that you rode in and steered around twists and turns. Then I went back to my hostel for the night. The next day I woke up early and took a trip to see the Milford Sound, which was beautiful despite the fog and rain. I flew back to Auckland the next afternoon, and went to Waitomo where I went caving for 7 hours!. First I abseiled 100 meters (330 ft), into "The Lost World" and had to climb a 30 meter shaky ladder to get out of the cave. Then I abseiled into another cave, down 3 underground waterfalls, crawled through holes on my hands and feet and climbed real rock walls. When we finally were out of the cave it was nightfall and I hadn't seen sunlight in quite sometime.
The next day I had at my leisure and decided to walk the 20 minutes in the rain down "town" which consists of 4 houses, a convenience store, a pub and a couple of tour operators. I stopped in to see the Angora bunny rabbits, and then walked to the Waitomo Glow Worm caves. Unfortunately from all of the rain we were only able to see part of the cave because the rest was flooded.
After that I caught my bus to Rotorua and toured the geothermal area. I saw the largest HOT waterfall in the southern hemisphere, a mud volcano, lady knox geyser, the champagne pool, devils bath, etc and made a nice visit to the spa.
Then I took a bus back to Auckland where I had another 5 hour delay in the airport. My flight to LAX was actually almost cancelled. We arrived in LAX at around 4pm, causing me to miss my connecting flight to Newark by ten minutes, so I had to wait another 5 hours before I was home in my bed at 6am. The next day I had an interview which I didn't do so great on, I blame in part to the lack of sleep and stress from being in an airport for 15 extra hours.
and I've been home pretty much going into NYC for Co-Op interviews and eating some fine NJ pizza.
Its weird being home though, because I'm so used of being away and preoccupied with things. Where I live is so quiet and rural, its nice, but very different from Melbourne. I find myself not really wanting to see my old friends either, which sounds bad. I want to see them, but I want to see my other friends more. I miss them. I'm already planning my next trip back as soon as I can afford it.
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