Although most of this post will not sound lucky at all, I think that we were very lucky the last couple of days; it could have been a lot worse. On Monday, we went up to Kaikoura for whale watching. We had to leave our room at like 6:00, which was pretty early for us, but we were excited. The shuttle ride was like 3 hours long, so we all pretty much slept. It was literally our driver’s first day, so he didn’t really know what was going on. Therefore, we had to walk a couple blocks to the whale place, which was fine. We got there, and it was drizzling-ish outside, but it was getting better. So, we decided to go get lunch at the café and wait. Our departure time was 2 hours out. Lunch was pretty good, but not amazing. The trip before ours was cancelled, so we were a little anxious about that. Turns out, ours was cancelled too. Good thing is, we got a full refund for it. Bad news, we had three hours to do nothing. So, we frantically looked through brochures so we could do something. We ended up going to the “Seal Colony,” which only had about 5 seals at it. There was a hiking trail that we took for about an hour and a half that had some scenic views of the coastline and such. It was drizzling the entire time, however, which was a bummer. We got back into town, and Amanda and I went and looked in the shops around. We got a snack in a café, and waited for our shuttle.
We got on the shuttle, no problem, but then there weren’t enough seats for everyone. We had the same driver we did on the way out, so he wasn’t sure what to do. Turns out, somehow our reservation got messed up, and our return shuttle was not booked. We therefore got nicely kicked off the shuttle, and we walked to an I-site (an information type place). We asked if there were any more shuttles or anything that day, and were told that there was nothing. At this point, we all pretty much had the same thought: “Great.” We decided to book a shuttle for the next morning, and try to find a place to stay that night. This is where the luck starts coming in. We were stuck in a city 3 hours away from Christchurch, and had nowhere to sleep or a method to get back. Luckily, the I-Sites have lots of brochures, and they can help you book pretty much anything. The lady helping us was super nice and felt really bad for us. She got us a super nice room in this hostel called the “Lazy Shag.” We got a private room with a bathroom for only 85 dollars total, which was quite a bargain. We also got a shuttle that was leaving at 7 or so the next morning, which was great. We got back to Christchurch around 11, and grabbed some lunch (baked potatoes). It was very good. Afterward, Amanda and I went shopping for souvenirs, and found some cool clothes as well. Our bags are now SUPER full, and are now hard to close. We are considering shipping a box to Perth at this point, if it will help us avoid extra bag charges. That night, we did laundry and got Pizza Hut, since we had to leave super early the next morning for Sydney. Laundry was interesting because it was $2.00 per load. Wasn’t too bad, except the dryer only ran 20 minutes for 2 dollars. We didn’t want to use more, so we hung out all our clothes under the fan in our room, hoping they would dry. The rest of the night, while packing, was a continuous moving-around of clothes to make sure they would all get dry before we had to leave. Luckily, they did.
The next morning, we woke up at 2:30. Our shuttle was coming at 3:15, and we wanted to make sure we had enough time to eat breakfast and finish our suitcases. The shuttle came early, so luckily we were done early. Amanda and I accomplished quite a feat getting our suitcases to close. We got on the shuttle, and got to the airport around 3:45. Unfortunately, we had to sit around for like 20 minutes because the check-in area wasn’t open yet. We checked in, and then went to go to the gate. That section then wasn’t open-another 20 or so minute wait. We finally got up to the gate, and we got some extra food to eat to hold us over until after the flight. The flight left at 6:00, and was 3 hours long. We got into Sydney at 7:15 (two hours behind NZ), and went through customs just fine. We got on a shuttle, and waited for like 30 minutes for it to leave because the driver wanted a completely full cabin. He was really nice though, which helped. We got to our hostel at like 9 or so this morning, and went to our room. Our room here is definitely not as nice-we were spoiled in Christchurch! We are in a 6-person female room, and the three of us have the top bunks. We have to lock everything in the lockers in our room, just for security measures. Therefore, we can’t have anything out, which we are not used to. Our past hostel was an 8-person room that we had for the three of us, and we used every bit of space in there to spread out our stuff. So, it will be interesting to be actually living out of my suitcase, and repacking it every night. After we put our suitcases away, we decided to get our bearings-Sydney is HUGE. We found out how to get a train to the Circular Quay (pronounced Key), which is the main touristy area of Sydney. It has the Harbour Bridge and the Opera House, as well as the ferries, etc. right there. We were going to the Sydney Information Centre, but it took quite a while to find it. In Christchurch, there are signs everywhere pointing to attractions/places of interest. In Sydney, they aren’t as abundant. We eventually found our way there, and spent about an hour finding things to do the rest of the week. We went on a bus tour for a couple of hours around Sydney. This was good because it helped us look around without having to walk aimlessly. However, it started to rain about halfway through. We wanted to go to the bottom deck of the bus, but the bus didn’t stop for about 15 minutes. Therefore, we got pretty wet. We decided after that to go back to our room and figure out what to do. Amy went to get a phone, and we waited for her. Then we went to dinner, which was delicious. It was a little pricier than much of the stuff we have been eating, but it was worth it. I got a pasta dish with chicken, mushrooms, and bacon in creamy garlicky sauce. Amanda got a Caesar salad, and we shared. After that, we went to the cinema, which is right next to our hostel, and checked the prices. It is 15.50 for a movie with our student ID’s. This isn’t horrible, but it is pricey. We decided to wait for a rainy day or night where we have nothing planned. We went back to the hostel, and I am now sitting here writing this blog. Hope everyone is doing well! Feel free to email or Facebook me; I am checking it pretty regularly. Would love an email from someone other than a random club that I don’t want to read!
Coming up: Sydney Aquarium and Sydney Tower, and a Dinner Cruise on a Pirate Ship type boat! Then going to the Blue Mountains.
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