I pet a koala!

We woke up really early this morning to head into town and meet our Blue Mountains tour bus. Unfortunately, we had to sit at the bus stop by my townhouse for about 25 minutes because the bus we were supposed to be on into the city decided to not show up. There were a few other frustrated people with us at the bus stop. I managed to get message Adam on facebook from my phone and get the number for our tour company, as they didn’t provide it in their confirmation e-mail, and call them to let them know we were running behind. It turns out it didn’t matter though because our bus was completely full and skipped the last couple of stops so we still made it to the meeting point on time. We had to wait yet again though for our tour bus to show up 25 minutes later. Overall, a lot of waiting and a little too much excitement considering it was still before 8am.

Our tour today was great. We headed out into the Blue Mountains, which is the mountain range that surrounds Sydney. It was different from the area I travelled to on Saturday though. We stopped at Featherdale Wild Life Park first where we were able to pet koalas and feed kangaroos. My mom even held a snake! There were a bunch of other Australian animals there as well. We located the dingo, wombat, kookaburra, Tasmanian devil, wallaby, and a few penguins, among others. I was surprised by how friendly all of the animals were, and how free. The koalas were climbing the trees right above our heads.

My mom held a snake!

This koala was super photogenic

My new friend, Mr. Kangaroo (or mrs!)

Penguins in Australia! 

After the wildlife park, we stopped at Wentworth Falls. It was a bit of a walk down some stairs to get to the lookout point, but it was beautiful. You can see out over all of the mountains and across to the actual waterfall. We took some pictures and climbed on all the rocks before getting back on the bus and heading to our lunch stop in a quaint little town. My mom and I ended up eating at Red Door, which was a small café. I finally found a place to get an iced chocolate, which I heard is all the rage in Australia (that might be a complete lie). It was pretty good; basically just a scoop of vanilla ice cream with chocolate syrup decorating the glass, a little bit like a liquidy milkshake. I paired that with a ham and cheese croissant. We popped into the bookstore and bottle shop across the street to kill some time as well, but we didn’t find anything.

The mountains near Wentworth Falls

Wentworth Falls

Three Sisters was next up on our tour. It’s a rock formation located in the Blue Mountains. We stopped at a lookout point in Katoomba and took some pictures. It is really weird how the rocks just managed to end up in that formation, but at the same time, I expected them to be more off by themselves instead of just next to the side of a cliff.

Three Sisters

As we were leaving Katoomba, we stopped in the rainforest. We took a scenic railway journey down into the forest. It was actually surprisingly step considering our rail car didn’t have any seatbelts. I guess I didn’t really consider the 52 degree angle fully beforehand. We got a little bit lost wandering along the paths in the forest, but we spotted some really strange trees. There were information plaques on the mining that used to be done in the area too, so that was interesting to find out about. Luckily, a nice couple pointed us in the right direction and we made our way back uphill to ride the scenic cable car to the top. This ride went a little bit slower than the railway so we were able to take some more pictures of the mountains as we ascended.

Scenic Railway

The rainforest is pretty intense

Our final stop on tour was at the Sydney Olympic Stadium Park. It really is quite huge. It apparently cost $3 billion to build on top of the $4 billion spent in roadwork and maintenance to the city. However, they installed solar panels around the stadium to cut costs on some of the electricity used to power the lights and the nearby Olympic Village. They turned the torch circle into a fountain and put up a decorative mindfield of poles to honor the volunteers and medalists, so we took a few pictures. The stadium is used for concerts and conferences now.

Where they kept the torch

In commemoration of the volunteers and medalists

Sydney Olympic Stadium

We took a harbor cruise back to Darling Harbour from the Olympic park wharf. It was actually a pretty informative cruise given by Captain Cook Cruises. Every time we passed a major landmark, we were told something about it, which is much different than when I took the government ferry to Manly. It was interesting to learn though. My mom didn’t get seasick either, which is good.

We walked around Darling Harbour after disembarking, but neither of us were hungry so we caught the bus back to my house instead.