OZ continues...

The next day we planned on moving from the hostel to stay with Sam's friend Jorden, so we got up early, packed up and hopped on a bus and train to the other side of town where Jorden was staying. After settling in, Sam and I left to go meet up with Lizzie to go on an adventure. Another train ride back into town and we hopped on a ferry to Cockatoo Island where they were having an art exhibition.

Cockatoo Island

Cockatoo Island used to be a prison so the exhibit was really interesting. It was a lot of modern art including a bunch of digital pieces. They were all set up in random places on the island, such as in cells and guard houses. This presented an opportunity to take a lot of fun photos. Lizzie really likes photography, Sam's a art major focused in photography, and me, I'm asian, so when you put us all together, we went crazy on the photos.

It was a ton of fun wandering all over and we finished up all the exhibits as the sun set. As we took the ferry back, we went under the Harbour bridge and the Opera house were both illuminated.

We then hurried back to catch the train to Jorden's to celebrate her birthday. We immediately headed out to a cheap mexican restaurant with 4 dollar tacos and 3 dollar tequila shots. It was the best cheap mexican I had in the last 5 months. Then it was time to go out, despite it being a Tuesday. We went to a place called Side bar where we were the only group of girls and the other group was a group of gay guys. It was really fun just to hang out with a cool group of people and enjoy dancing.


The next day we took a train to the infamous Bondi beach. Apparently its normally really crowded in the summers but considering it was winter, was pretty empty. It was a beautiful sunny day and it was nice to walk along the water and see the Pacific from the other side of the world.


Jorden, Sam, and I realized there was a market we wanted to go see so I could buy souvenirs for everyone so we rushed over to Paddy's market and went crazy. There was so much to see so it was hard to get everything in before they closed. Once we made it back, we tried out this new sushi restaurant right outside of Jorden's apartment. It was their grand opening so all the sushi was 50% off, which means a lot of sushi under 3 dollars. It was delicious too and a great last dinner in Australia. We then stopped on the way home to get ice cream and had a great girls night in watching New Moon.

The following morning, we got up bright and early to catch the train back to the airport to fly back to NZ. It went without any problems and we came back to find Lincoln short of a few members. That night, everyone got together to hang out in the lounge as a last hurrah and farewell to people. It was the last time we were all going to be together and it was really sad to know that this experience was almost over.



Also heres a link to all Australia adventures.
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=185193&id=665896295&l=0e987dd5d8

The Land of OZ

So I'm a bit behind with my blogging due to my utter lack of wanting to do anything the last week when everyone was abandoning me and now I've got nothing but time for the next two days in Auckland. But first Australia...

Sam and I got a ride to the airport at 4 to get our flight at 6, which I attempted to sleep on but failed miserably. We arrived around 8 in the morning because of the time difference but it took a while to get out of the airport and get our bearings. We bought our metro passes which let us go on anything; busses, trains, ferries. We took the train into the city and hopped on a bus to get to our hostel, the Wood Duck Inn. I was a bit concerned when we walked in and it had a shady stairwell but we checked into our 10 person room and took a fantastic nap.

We woke up sometime around 1 and decided to go explore the city. Near the hostel we checked out the St. Mary's Cathedral which was really beautiful and massive! We then wandered over to the Botanical Gardens which were super cool and beautiful. They had wild cockatoos and different types of vegetationa and flying foxes which are really cute bats. We turned a corner and there were hundreds of them just hanging from the trees. We then walked along the water and all of a sudden, right in front of me was the infamous Opera House. It was crazy to finally see something so iconic in person. Just past the Opera house was the Harbor Bridge, and it was a perfect blue sky and WARM! Christchurch had been so cold for a while so it was wonderful to be in the sunshine in such an amazing place. We had muffins by the water before going back to our hostel.


We hung out for a while with the other people at our hostel. There were a lot of English, Dutch, and Germans there and we got really close with a English girl named Lizzie and a Dutch girl named Reve. Sam and I decided that since it was towards the end of our time here, it was time to splurge for dinner. We decided to go get Thai food which was surprisingly delicious and not too pricey before walking over to Darling Harbor to watch the World Cup. They had a giant screen set up on the water and there were tons of people watching the game. After one game, I was definitely ready for bed, so we walked back to the hostel to get some good sleep in.

The following morning, everyone got up early to have our free breakfast on the roof. It was pretty basic, cereal and toast, but I think it was a great idea because it brought us all together to hang out and get to know each other. A group of us decided to meet up and go to a museum and have lunch in the botanical gardens. We explored the Sydney art museum before the guys took off and us girls decided to have a picnic in the park. Sam and I had decided to save money through making sandwiches instead of eating out. It definitely was cheaper, healthier, and I think we make awesome sandwiches. Relaxing in the sun was a lot of fun and just sharing culture with Lizzie and Reve was interesting. Then it was a walk along the water before we split off and Sam and I decided to hop on a ferry to Manly beach.


It was a beautiful ferry ride in the harbor and we went right past the Harbor Bridge before we arrived at sunset at Manly. I think Manly beach may be a future home someday because its a ferry ride away from Sydney and yet has the touch of a beach town. There were people running everywhere and its a great surfing beach. Now I just have to get rich so I can afford beach front property.

My view from my future dream home

Sam and I walked along the water and enjoyed the fact that we were at the beach and it wasn't freezing. We had plans to meet up with the girls for dinner so we quickly hopped on the ferry and made it back in time to catch them heading to italian. I had some good pesto pasta and once we were all decked out for the Holland game it was time to head to Darling. The whole group from the hostel was at the game and all decked out in Holland pride. It was a really good game and it was tons of fun cheering on a team in a big group. After the game, half the group went to get celebratory drinks, but I was so tired I went back to our room and passed out.

Dutch Pride