Ok so time to get everybody caught up on my trip so far. I arrived in Sydney on the 26th and found Nick and Tara without to much trouble. We spent the first day just wandering around Darling Harbor and Circular Quay. We saw the sites (opera house and bridge) and made plans for the next few days. The following day we went to the maritime museumsaw a military destroyer and submarine. We only saw half of the museum because it was so large we ran out of time.
The 28th we renteda car and headed out in the direction of the Blue Mountains. The Blue Mountain area is beautiful. We saw the three sisters (not much of an attraction but it is amazing what you can do with a land formation and a story) and did a short hike to Katoomba falls. We had a hotel in Katoomba but it was fairly run down. So when we stopped for supper in Mt. Victoria at a cheaper and much nicer hotel we decided to try and get our money back from the first place and stay in the second place. It was successful after telling the people at the run down place that we had seen the town and were heading back to Sydney (they laughed and said "ya there isn't much to do around here is there").
The following morning we went on a very beautiful hike down to Wentworth Falls. We planned a two hour hike but ended up taking a wrong turn which lead us down a 4 hour trail. This was fine because it was so immensely beautiful and we saw at least 4 large waterfalls with another half dozen ones that just fall from nowhere and seem to go nowhere. Later that day we headed out to Hunter Valley (wine country).
We woke up in the Hunter Valley on the morning of the 30th ready to drink! We spent the majority of the morning and early afternoon driving around to wineries and sampling there award winning wines. I bought two semillon wines (the grape that the hunter valley is known for) and Nick and Tara bought one shiraz, one port, and one desert wine. We learnt a great deal about wines.
Then on the 31 we got up really early to head back to Sydney to return the rental car and bring our bags to our original hotel (who so kindly agreed to store our bags for the day). Late morning on the 31st we went to the Sydney zoo. Then at 3 went to a spot near the opera house to start waiting for the fireworks. It was really hot and sunny this day so we all tried really hard to protect ourselves from the sun. It was successful except for one patch behind my thump where i have new skin (because of the cast for three months). Ps. We had trouble finding a spot in the harbour 9 hours before the fireworks!. We had an awesome view of the fireworks on the bridge but the ones that were launched from the barge were obscured by a tree. Once the fireworks were done we headed out into the streets with the other 1.5 million people and walked to get our bags (about an hour). Then had to head back into the mob of people to find a cab and not just any cab but one that was empty! The cab dropped us off at the domestic airport at 3am (pity nobody told us that the airport only opens at 4!). Anyways we had no other option since all the hotels were booked months in advance or $750 a night. We managed to get some sleep on a patch of airport floor before our departure at 9am Jan 2.
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