Last week was pretty rough between finishing up the final paper for my environmental politics class, writing my first paper for biomedicine and culture, and completing the e-learning portion for the PADI course. Luckily, the weather was slightly chilly and wet pretty much all week, so I didn’t spend too much time staring out the window longingly.
Tuesday was a nice break; the ecology class took a field trip to the Long Reef Reserve, where our groups were assigned different areas to record numbers of individuals of different species. Afterwards, we got to explore the biodiversity in the area. We saw crabs, tons of differently colored sea urchins, coral, a funky, sea-slug-like mollusk that looked like Shrek (below), a huge squid leg that did not like being poked and stole Drew’s pen. We attempted to retrieve the pen for a good 15 minutes before it was time to go. College kids are easily amused.
Already severely sleep-deprived, I decided to go out Thursday night to dance with my friends and have some fun after a fairly uneventful week. Perhaps not the best idea since I had to get up at 6am the next morning for 3 open water dives and my PADI test, but I survived. After 2 Fridays of 1 pool session and 3 open-water dives and about 6 hours of e-learning, we are officially certified! It’s something I’ve been meaning to do for long time, so I’m glad it worked out so well and didn’t take too much of our precious time in Sydney. Exhausted yet again from diving, lugging around heavy gear and tanks, and an ever-increasing sleep deprivation, I had a $3 wheat microbrew across the street, watched The Prestige with a few friends, then promptly passed out.
I really wanted to go caving in the Jenolan Caves as per Dr. Garton’s recommendation, so I organized a day trip to the Blue Mountains for Saturday. Allison, Tomas, Steven, Katherine, and I all got up around 7 to grab the rental car and hit the road. It was fun to pile in a car and go exploring once again.. reminded me of NZ! The plughole cave tour was fun, although a lot like TAG caves that I have back home: crawling, squeezing, climbing. It was a good introductory cave for the rest of the crew though, and I got a sweet t-shirt.
After caving, we took a brief walk around the cave area and saw an ADORABLE echidna! (one of the 3 species of monotremes – egg-laying mammals), as we learned in the NZ biology course) We were literally a foot away from him for a good 5 minutes as he pecked his long nose in the ground for food, then waddled away to peck in some different areas. Too cute.
A cave guide told us of a nearby field where we could see kangaroos, so of course, we took a short detour for our first kangaroo siting. We saw around 30 kangaroos in a huge field; some were hanging out by the playground eating some grass. I probably got about 20 feet away from another grazing group, before they did their funky alternating arms and legs hobble away from me.
We took a stop in the Wentworth Falls area to watch the sun setting over the gorgeous Blue Mountains. We did a short hike until it was dark, then headed home.
Sunday, a few of us headed to The Rocks (the area near the Sydney Opera House and Sydney Harbour Bridge) for the weekend market. There are tons of markets here, at least a large one in every part of the city and lots of smaller ones sprinkled throughout.
Monday, we took a field trip to the Quarantine (‘Q’) Station near Manly Beach, which they opened up just for our group. The tour guides took us around the complex and showed us what it would have been like to be an immigrant until just a couple decades ago. Afterwards, our professors were nice enough to cancel our other classes and let us hang at the beach. To get to Manly Beach, you have to walk about 25 minutes to The Rocks area, then catch a ~35 min ferry to the beach, so it’s quite an ordeal. Unfortunately, it was cloudy the entire time until we stepped foot on the return ferry (go figure), but Aerin, Sheri, and I definitely fit in some lovely beach naps.
Tuesday after class, a few of us went to the Sydney Fish Market in Darling Harbour for lunch, and it was glorious. I cannot believe it took me so long to go there. I am definitely kicking myself for it now. I shared a dozen raw oysters with Jay and seared tuna with Allison. Then I grabbed some fresh tuna and salmon sashimi, half of which I brought back for dinner. YUMMM!
Later that night, we saw Avatar at the IMAX theater in Darling Harbour, which is apparently the largest in the world. It was amazing.
Cloudy skies killed any chance of paying a last visit to Bondi on Wednesday, so we checked out the Royal Botanic Gardens instead. They didn't have anything on the Botanic garden in Christchurch, or even Wellington's, but it had a nice view along the coast of the opera house and sydney harbour bridge.
Thursday, the entire group took a trip to the Blue Mountains for a field trip. We hiked a ~5 hour trail where we saw the three sisters and a lot of nice waterfalls. We also saw a lyre bird! The bird is known for its amazing ability to mimic other birds calls as well as mechanical sounds, such as a camera shutter and a chainsaw. Pretty awesome.
Oh! And we went out for a nice dinner for our last night in Sydney. We ate outside with a beautiful night view of Darling Harbour. After some searching, we found a restaurant that served kangaroo, which was our goal for the night. There were 5 medium-rare strips atop mashed potatoes and covered in red wine jus. It was pretty tasty, although I think I'll stick to lamb! I still need to try crocodile and emu..
Today after checking out, I went back to the fish market for some more deliciousness. I got more oysters and sashimi. :)
We’re about to hop on a bus for the airport now. We’ll spend a few nights in Brisbane, before heading to Heron Island.
I can’t believe my time is Sydney is drawing to an end already. I have fallen in love with this city. We shall see what Brisbane holds...
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