At the G and Southgate

Yesterday Erika, Kelsey, and I headed over to the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG, the G) for a big tour of the arena and grounds. The MCG has existed in some shape or form on that location for 175 years, and the current stadium seats over 100,000 people and hosts cricket and AFL matches, including the annual AFL Grand Final, and also the 1956 Olympics.

The tour was excellent and we were able to see the stands, the locker rooms, media rooms, go on the field, and really go behind the scenes of the arena. Kelsey was even more excited than we expected, and must have made her family proud! We finished the hour-and-a-half long tour and then visited the Australian Museum of Sport. We learned more about the history of AFL (it's older than baseball!) and saw the Olympics exhibit, featuring the 1956 Olympic torch and hundreds of medals, suits, and equipment from all of the games that Australia has participated in (all of them.) We saw Cathy Freeman's tracksuit and Ian Thorpe's swimmers from the 2000 Sydney Games.

Around 2pm we met up with Megan and got a late lunch at the Southgate. We met up with Alex and walked around the city for a while and then headed back to the Southgate to see the famous fires along the river. We finished the day with a great dinner with beautiful views of the city.

Today we're off to the Healsville Sanctuary to meet lots of animals.

The Grand Final - and lots of street art

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Two days ago Erika and I said our sad goodbyes to Kristy and her family and flew out from Sydney Airport to Melbourne. In the airport we had a quick lunch of meat pies at Pie Face. My lamb chicken curry was delicious! After a very quick flight (on which they still fed us) we landed in Melbourne and were met at the gate by Kelsey and Megan (Mee-gan). Australian domestic flight security was much more lax than we were used to – shoe on, jackets on, liquids of any size allowed, and no one checked our IDs at any point.

When we got in we quickly rushed to pick up Megan and Kelsey’s friend Tess, and then get back to their house to catch the second half of the Grand Final – Victoria’s equivalent to the Super Bowl. Kelsey’s beloved Geelong had been knocked out the previous week in the semifinals, or else we would’ve had to find an alternate ride home!

At their home, we met Megan and Kelsey’s parents, Geoff and Janine, and their friends Brash and Caz. We enjoyed the end of the grand final (curse you Hawthorn), many Carlton Draughts, and lots of meat pies and delicious Australian BBQ. Afterwards, we finished the night with QUITE a bit of dancing and some more Australian brews at The Irish, a stellar local bar whose real name has been all but forgotten at this point. We went out with many of Megan and Kelsey’s friends, and were even joined by our friend Alex from our trip, and they all showed us a great time. Erika’s rumored dancing also did not disappoint.

Yesterday we gave ourselves a bit more time to sleep in (read: sleep it off) and then went out for brunch at the Abbey Road café in St. Kilda. We had some great breakfast while listening to excellent music and catching up. Alex joined us near the end of brunch and then we walked around beautiful, but windy, St. Kilda beach, and took in the Sunday market where local artisans showed off their wares.

In the afternoon we drove in to central Melbourne and walked around the Yarra River area and the beautiful financial and cultural districts. We saw some of the famous Melbourne street art and graffiti, and walked around for several hours, joined by our friend Mike from Contiki as well.

Finally, we finished the night at Misty’s American Diner, an American-themed restaurant in Melbourne, for dinner with Megan and Kelsey’s friends and Alex. The food did not disappoint – we had some delicious milkshakes – and we were excited to be the experts on all-things American, at least for one day!

Sydney airport

Kristy and co. dropped us off at the airport and we all said our goodbyes, for now. Erika and I are checked in and at the gate. We will miss Sydney but we are also really excited for our Melbourne adventure!

Also we had delicious meat pies for lunch at the airport. We looked like complete imbeciles eating them, but they were delicious nonetheless. 

We'll check in from Melbourne tonight!

-Simon and Erika

So long, Sydney

Yesterday was our last full day in Sydney and even though we didn't pack it as full of time-sensitive activities as our previous days we still kept very busy and had an absolute blast.

We woke up early in the morning and then Erika and I navigated the buses to Circular Quay and then to Bondi Beach. Bondi is the surfers' paradise of the world and we could understand why: neither of us had ever seen consistent waves of that size before. The beach was also extremely wide, and very deep, allowing us to get some great time in the sand and also gave Erika her first Pacific Ocean experience.

After taking in Bondi we embarked on the Bondi to Coogee Coastal Walk, a 6km hike up and down the cliffs and shoreline from, unsurprisingly, Bondi Beach to Coogee Beach. We took far too many photos and far too much video on this hike because it was just stunning at every point. The local city councils built up these walks as running paths for their citizens and we were lucky to enjoy them for a day.

When we finally arrived in Coogee, only a little tired, we hopped on a bus back to Circular Quay and met up with Kristy, Hannah, and Laura who had just flown in from the Gold Coast. The five of us then enjoyed some dessert (it's all they have on the menu) for lunch at Max Brenner's chocolate bar. I've been told I'm not allowed to post photos from this lunch, but I'm going to do so anyway. Erika and I shared the best dish on the menu. Remember that we did this after a 6km hike up and down cliffs!

We took our time at lunch, catching up and reminiscing about last summer's European adventure. Around 4pm we headed back to Circular Quay and rejoined the I'm Free Walking Tour to finish up touring the Rocks.

After rushing to catch the bus back home, change, and eat a quick dinner, we were back in downtown Sydney for the Sydney Pub Crawl, hitting 4 of Kristy's favorite spots in town and having Camilla join us. Our favorite place was definitely Scubar - under the water / ground.

We got back home at an ungodly hour and promptly fell right asleep. Now, we've just finished packing, washing the club stank off of us, and are, unfortunately, about to leave Sydney, for now at least.

Thank you so much to our amazing friends Kristy, Hannah, Dale, Camilla, Laura, and Jess for showing us such a good time here. What a wonderful place and what stellar people!

Melbourne, you're next!
-Simon & Erika


PS: We did not eat here.

On belay

We're back at Kristy's house after a long day; our most adventurous yet! I've never been more grateful for hot water as I am only now finally warm!

About a month ago Erika was researching the Blue Mountains in New South Wales and learned about a company called High and Wild Adventures, which offered canyoning and abseiling tours of the cliffs and national park. Without completely knowing what we were getting into, she convinced me (who can say no to those big blue eyes?) and we headed out to fulfill our destiny this morning.

 
We got to Katoomba (I love this country) by 8:45 and met our guides and group. I was the only guy surrounded by six other girls, so my bravery had to be turned up to 11.  Surprisingly the heights weren't even an issue. I was lucky, in a way, because I could never tell just how high the cliff was until my butt was out over the edge and I was sitting in an L-Shape with my feet up. We started with an easy 5m cliff (read: tall boulder) but the thing with abseiling is if you can do it on a 5m cliff, you can do 25 almost as easily. We got our lessons from Chey and Evan, our guides, and then tried a few turns on the 5m boulder, a 15m cliff, and then a 25m drop. Everything was going very smoothly, and we were stunned by the sites around us, until I took my first turn on the 25m cliff. I broke the cardinal rule of abseiling and kept my feet up, and bent, as my poor butt kept going down. Suddenly I felt myself go upside down, a fact which was confirmed when Evan, keeping us safe from above, gave me a wide-eyed look and started yelling, "Use your hands!!!" (You're never supposed to use your hands in abseiling unless something is wrong.) At least the harnesses work. Even more surprisingly I somehow did not panic. I kept thinking, "Hmm... something is wrong... well someone is going to fix it." Finally, after I righted myself, with considerable coaching from above, I made my way down the cliff and headed back up for another turn.

After mastering abseiling we headed to an absolutely stunning overlook in the Blue Mountains for a picnic lunch that the guides prepared for us. I could either write a 5 page essay about the Blue Mountains, or I could just post these pictures for you instead. Better yet, I could suggest that you visit them for yourselves, because that's the only way you can fully appreciate them.

The mountains get their name from the blue haze that comes from the eucalyptus gum trees that saturate the region. The gums release oils at such a rate that the forest literally appears blue. This was especially comforting to the two of us as we've been educated among the Blue (Ridge) Mountains before.

After lunch we embarked on the true and previously understated part of our adventure. We took our small van into the park, hiked down deep into the Empress Canyon, and then changed into our wetsuits. For added measure, we put on coats, thermals, and some girls even had winter hats on. Every little bit would help! Evan and Chey estimated the water at 10 C, or 50 F. It didn't even feel that warm. Somehow, even though we watched the video ahead of time, neither Erika nor I internalized just how much time we would spend in (or submerged in) the water. The first full immersion was the toughest: we jumped backwards from a ledge, down 10 (33 feet)  meters, and into a pool of terribly brisk water. While Erika handled it like the champ that she is, when I hit the water every one of my muscles tensed up and for a few moments I felt like I couldn't breathe. I backwards doggy-paddled my way back to some dry(ish) rocks and was helped up by the group. After the initial shock wore off, and my extremities finally, and mercifully, went numb, the rest of the jumps, dives, and wades were much easier to take. Each one still shocked the system like nothing I've ever felt, but I was able to enjoy the canyon and our adventure a lot more - especially the part where we jumped from 15m (50 feet) over a few rocks into a waiting pool.

The canyoning culminated in our final abseil of the day - 30 meters (98 feet) down a waterfall. It was pretty difficult to maintain good technique while frigid water keeps pouring on you and around everything that you'd want to push off of / balance on. I did NOT display good technique, but I did make it down unharmed. Erika was the star of the day, impressing our guides by keeping her feet on the cliff the whole time and gracefully navigating the falls with ease.

Our day wasn't done yet as we shook ourselves dry, changed into our spare clothes, and then hiked back up from the canyon floor to the top of the park. Thankfully, we stopped at a few overlooks to snap these views. Again, go visit this place. Pictures just aren't enough.

We finally met up with Kristy and Hannah at the end of the day and headed home where a delicious dinner and warm showers awaited us.

Cheers!
-Simon

The Zoo with a View

Good morning (afternoon) all! Erika and I are up taking advantage of our residual jet-lag and are up early this morning, ready to drive over to the Blue Mountains and gearing up for a day of abseiling and canyoning. Heights adventure part deux!

Yesterday we headed in to Circular Quay in the morning with Hannah, Camilla, and Kristy. Upon arrival we met up with Dale and then took the ferry from Sydney to Manly Wharf. We had some amazing views of the Harbour from the ferry.

When we got to Manly, we quickly got some lunch and then even more quickly ran to see the beach, snap some shots, and run back to catch the next ferry! We were in a rush because we had to make our 2pm tour at the zoo.

After swiftly navigating the ferries, and losing, and then finding our friends twice, we made it to the zoo right as our tour started. For our anniversary, Erika and I got each other tickets for the Wild Australia Experience tour at Taronga Zoo. We figured that at any zoo in the US we would see animals from around the world, like elephants, or tigers, or reptiles. But if we were lucky enough to be in Australia, we really wanted to get to know the animals unique to this continent.

The tour was absolutely stellar. Our guide, Robert, was an expert zookeeper who not only knew everything we could ever want to know about the animals, but he also knew his animals very well and could encourage (bribe) them to come out and pose for us while he'd describe them in particular. We spent over two hours with the Tasmanian devils, koalas, kangaroos, wallabies, emus, wombats, duck billed platypuses, a feather-tailed glider, and a yellow-bellied glider, among many others! We even got to go back into the animal kitchen and try some food, all safe for human consumption and not too bad.

After we the tour we found some surprises for baby Jackson (get excited Mr. Man!) and took the cable car down from the zoo, which is on a beautiful hill on the Taronga peninsula. We got some beautiful views of the Sydney Harbor.

Finally, we took the ferry back to Circular Quay, walked to the QVB building to catch our bus, and said goodbye to Dale until we hopefully see him in America. We took the bus back to Winston Hills and had a delicious dinner with her family.

We'll see you after the Blue Mountains!

-Simon & Erika

Started from the bottom now we're here.

Erika and I had a really exciting and long second day in Sydney. We woke up early in the morning after getting a wonderful 10 hours of sleep... in beds! After walking all day Monday we slept like drunken babies.

We navigated the Sydney bus system and then absolutely booked it from the station across Circular Quay and to the Sydney Opera House in time for our 9AM tour. In the tour we got to go inside the complex and learned about its construction and very unique building properties - how the roofs were designed not as shells but as parts of a cut-away sphere - and they're also mostly concrete and ceramic. We were also able to go into three theaters, including the main Opera theater, and were stunned by the sheer size of it and also the attention paid to the acoustics.

After the tour we continued to walk around the Opera House and then the Quay, enjoying a quick lunch and slowly meandering our way over to The Rocks where we would begin our Bridge Climb.

As we wandered through The Rocks and finally find the Bridge Climb prep building, I was getting more and more nervous. We signed in, walked through the museum and learned a bit about the bridge, and then met our group. From there we very systematically signed waivers, were breathalyzed, received our suits, were fitted into harnesses, got clips for our sunglasses, got some hats, and finally trained on a climbing simulator. The climb team literally thought of everything!

After all of our preparation and some encouragement from our guide, Darren, we headed outside and found ourselves on a catwalk suspended some 30 meters above the roadway below. We were still under the bridge but the narrow path frightened me enough. Luckily Erika was always there with a smile behind me and Darren kept distracting all of us as he talked into a microphone and gave us a great tour and history lesson while we excited (or nervously) walked and climbed on. After getting past the first support tower, we began climbing up and popped up in the middle of the 6-lane highway. Honestly this was the only point where I even considered turning around... but 90% of me told the wimpy 10% to harden up and we pushed on, climbing up another 30 meters to reach the arch-level of the bridge.

From there, the climb got a lot easier and we were rewarded for our efforts with an absolutely stunning, blue and sunny day. It had been cloudy in the morning but we were really pleasantly surprised with a perfect natural backdrop to the beautiful Sydney around us. We slowly moved up the arch, pausing to learn about the various sites around us, and not look down!

Finally, after over two hours of prep and climbing we reached the top, and I was able to let out a bit of nervous celebration. We then crossed the bridge (which proved to be the most nervy part of the climb since we cross 140 meters above the sea on a narrow catwalk!) and then began our descent down the other side of the bridge, still stopping and learning about the sites around us as we went down.

I was glad to touch solid ground again when we got back to the base (after descending in between 6 lanes of traffic, and a commuter train) but the experience was amazing and something that I'm really, really glad Erika convinced me to do!

After we left the climbing complex we walked through the Rocks and came upon our friends Kristy and also Hannah and Dale who arrived in Sydney earlier that day. We headed home to change (and get the smell of nervousness off of us!) and then went back into town for a Contiki reunion dinner with Kristy, Hannah (UK), Dale (Melbourne), Camilla (Sydney) and Jess (Sydney) at the 360 Restaurant at the top of the Westfield Tower - the highest point in Sydney.

Finally, we all continued the reunion at a nearby bar and then made it home to promptly and quickly fall fast asleep. Today we are off to Manly Beach and then to the Taronga Zoo to meet with Koalas.

Cheers!
-Erika and Simon