Sydney Part 2: Excursions

As you’ve probably figured out from my last post, Sydney is an awesome city. If you didn’t read it, here it is. There is so much to see and do right there, and you really never have to leave to get the most of your trip there. However, if you’re there for four months like I was, there is so much to do outside the city as well. So this post is Sydney Part 2: Excursions.

Hunter Valley Wine Tours

This is exactly what you would expect. The Hunter Valley wine region is about 3 hours north of Sydney. We took a bus up and spent the day winery hopping. I don’t remember if the wine was good, but in general I don’t think of Australian wine as the best. It was just a really fun day though, and I was in college so I probably didn’t care if the wine was good. Don’t worry, I’ve grown out of that.

We did taste a chocolate wine which was pretty memorable as a chocolate lover. And there were some cheese and chocolate tastings along the way as well. Wine, cheese, chocolate. My three favorite things. What could be wrong?

Surf Camp

We spent a weekend staying at a campsite sleeping on bunk beds (I think?) to attend a surf camp with a company called Surf Camp Australia (creative). The camp is about 2 hours from Sydney, and they provide transportation. It was an all inclusive weekend with bunks like at sleepaway camp, and bathrooms and showers were in a separate building (I think?). Meals were all outside and there was a lot of BBQ going on. It was a fun weekend, but I am currently way too old to ever experience anything like this again. “Camping”, even of the sort of indoor variety, is not my thing.

This is not the first time I’d been surfing. I also took lessons in Hawaii but I had pink eye and couldn’t wear contacts so I couldn’t actually see anything as I was not about to wear glasses surfing at the risk of losing my only pair.

To be honest, this second experience with surfing was not much better and I could see. For those of you who have never been surfing, here’s what happens. You have this GIANT board that you have to push out into the ocean, fighting against the waves with the board smacking you in the face over and over again. 20 minutes later, you’ve reached a point where you’re far enough away from the beach to actually surf. But there’s no waves, so you wait. And wait. And wait. And then look! One’s coming! QUICK before you miss it, hop on your board belly down, swim with your arms, and then hop up to a standing position. 12 seconds later, you’re back on the beach to repeat the 20 minute trek.

It was a two day surf camp. After day one, I went to the camp photographer to see if he had gotten any pictures of me actually standing on the board that looked like I was legitimately surfing. He got some great ones. I spent day 2 laying on the beach watching people surf.

The Blue Mountains

The weather in Sydney is beautiful, they said. The country is experiencing a major drought, they told me. Winter low temps are in the 50s, and the sun is always shining.

I packed for four months based on this “average” because there was really no way to know.

Somehow, when we were there, the dry warm sunny Sydney disappeared. Nights dipped down into the 40s, and some below, and we saw more rain than was necessary (for me, but probably necessary for the drought). This was especially true the weekend that I went to the Blue Mountains. I did not have the proper attire for the winter there, and I definitely did not have the proper attire for a wet, cold weekend in the mountaints. This was part of a class trip for my outdoor education class, so there was really no way to change the date based on the weather forecast.

The trip was intended as a sort of final project to put all of the skills we learned into action. Teamwork and problem solving were the themes of the class. We would be spending two nights in a log cabin, and we’d have to start our own fire for warmth. We were hiking all day and at some points we’d need to work together to find our way.

It sounds more intense than it was. We were really just a bunch of Americans being guided through Sydney’s most beautiful mountains and hikes by a native Australian who had done it tons of times. He wasn’t about to let us freeze, starve, or get lost. And fun fact, I provided him with his first s’more. Apparently Americans had been telling him about them every year he taught this class, but Australia doesn’t have graham crackers. I happened to be traveling with graham crackers as one should when camping.

Even though the weather was terrible, the experience was amazing. But it was also incredibly wet. I don’t believe in raincoats, so I don’t own one, but I borrowed Jen’s for the weekend. At the end of the day I was soaked through the rain coat (what’s the point if it doesn’t even work?), the sweatshirt, and the tank top, and my socks were soaked through rain boots. It was also so, so, so cold, and our professor told us we were seeing some water falls that hadn’t actually been water falls in years because they’d never had this much rain. But I loved it anyway.

We started our adventure with a trip on the scenic railway. We got wet, and the “scene” was mostly clouds and fog, but again, we still had fun.

Then we began hiking. And this is what it looked like. Note: beautiful even when wet.

 

Writing that and going through those pictures sort of made me want to do it all over again.

And the next day, the sun came out. Those water falls were still at it in full force, the sky was blue, and the temperature had warmed up. Every sight was stunning. But the rain was an experience I’ll probably never have again, and I’m not actually sure which day I liked better. (I’m a rain lover, most people would obviously prefer this trip in the sunshine.)

Over 10 years later, I’m sitting here wondering about the status of the waterfalls that were created during my weekend in the Blue Mountains.

The Blue Mountains are about 1-2 hours outside of Sydney, depending on where you want to go. If you only have time to take one excursion outside the city this should absolutely be it. You’ll want to make sure you hike to see the famous three sisters.

Sky Diving

I mean, I feel like this one is self explanatory. I jumped out of a plane. I told you, adventure capital of the world.

We did this through Skydive the beach, Sydney, just over an hour from the city.

Spoiler for my upcoming New Zeland post: Bungee Jumping is WAY SCARIER than skydiving.