Blue Mountains, Australia - The Australian "Grand Canyon"

For our second full day in Sydney, we booked a trip to Blue Mountains, which is about an hour outside of Sydney. We were picked up at (yawn) 7 am, so we had to get up (yawn yawn) at 6:30 am. As a bonus, that was the day we were checking out, too, cause that night we flew to New Caledonia, so we got to pack as well.

Even though we decided not to go out at night (after Rony's DJ course), we ended up going to sleep very late. Like 2 am late. As in, 4.5 hours before we had to get up - late. We were pretty exhausted when we got up, but we kinda napped a bit on the way.

We had the best group on this tour, we all got along real well, all made each other laugh. But the best part of the tour was our tour guide, Rod. He was hilarious. The guy is kinda like an Australian hippy type guy who didin't look much more excited than us to be up that late, but he is a really great guide. He grew up in the Blue Mountains so he knew the area real well. He called us "Gangsters" the entire time, which caused funny looks from other random tourists, and played Australian rap and hip hop the whole way.

This is Rod the tour guide

After driving around Sydney to pick up the others (of course we were the second), we started out towards the Blue Mountains. It's up in the hills, past the Olympic Stadium, which is much farther out of Sydney than you'd think, especially considering it was called the Sydney Olympics.

But I digress.

We made a stop for some coffee and a potty break, which Rod was very fond us and gave us many of. Let's stop for a moment of appreciation.

Before we got off the minibus he told us which places had bad coffee and which were good, and where to get more water, etc. The guy was really looking out for us.

But he was right. After a fairly short hike (down), we got to an incredible view point. Words and pictures cannot describe how gorgeous it is. If you're ever in the area, it's totally worth going out there. And shop around for the tour, cause some companies take $100, ours took $55, and honestly, we could have probably done it on our own for cheaper, but it was a lot of fun with the group and our guide.

First view of the Blue Mountains - pictures don't do it justice

The Blue Mountains are actually not mountains. As it turns out, the valleys were created in the same manner that the Grand Canyon was created, with water washing away parts of the stone, though it's filled with trees. We climbed up and down all kinds of parts, and I thought I was going to die twice. But before I was a loser twice, I was a winner once. :-)

The guide would kinda tell us to go and when to turn, as in "Go straight, when you hit a fork, go right, then just go straight till you get to the waterfall." In this particular instant, Rony and I were in the front of the line, and somehow I became the leader. I have no idea how it happened, it is sooo not part of my personality.

But I was a great leader, no one fell, no one died, and we reached our destination successfully. I call that a win.

This is my "everyone is following me" picture :-)

There isn't really all that much to tell because we just went from one gorgeous view to another gorgeous view, often through rainforest-type areas. Instead of eating lunch at the restaurant they usually eat at, Rod had our lunches packed and we had what he called an "adventure lunch" where we sorta climbed down a bit and sat on a beautiful spot and had lunch there.

This is where we had lunch. Gorgeous, ay?

Well, everyone else ate while a bee fell in love with me. I can't help being who I am. Don't hate me because I'm sweet.

Towards the end of the tour, we stopped at a liquor shop and everyone bought a beer/alcohol. Here again, Rod appeared to know a lot. He said, "Come on, try an Australian beer. They're all good except VB." So we took his advice and each of us bought his preferred beer. I don't remember seeing any Australian beer going out of the shop beside Big Helga (which is made in German style.) Then we went to have a "party" on this gorgeous cliff. The following exchange killed me, if only because of the level of dense you must be to ask this:

Tour member girl: Rod, why aren't you drinking? You don't like beer?
Tour guide Rod: Driving drunk is kinda frowned upon in Australia.

Group shot at the last point (where we had our party)

We got back to the hostel with about an hour to spare before we were picked up to go to the airport. Rony showered and I went on the relocation websites to see if any cars were available for relocation, and we found and booked our first one!

An explanation about car relocation: People, especially in big countries like Australia, will rent a car in one place and drop it off in another. For example, they will pick up a car in Melbourne and drop it off in Sydney. The rental companies need someone to bring them back to the original location, so instead of hiring drivers or putting the cars on trucks or trains, they offer them at really low prices for people to bring them back.

We are hoping to get all of our cars this way, but since the relocation agencies only publish the list of cars 3 weeks in advance, there weren't any cars available for our dates yet. But yesterday there was!

So we will be relocating a 2 berth camper van (with a double bed, fridge, and stove) from Sydney to Melbourne over the 4 days that we chose, for a grand total of - are you ready? - $5 a day. Plus the company gives us the camper van with a full tank of gas and - get this - reimburses us for up to $150 in gas!!! How crazy is that??

There are several relocation sites, and I visit each of them every day, and yesterday as Rony was showering, suddenly one became available, so I called and we got it! It's very exciting (the cheapest car you can rent is like $45, so that's saving us $40 a day plus most of the gas, if not all of it), but we weren't really able to enjoy the excitement because we had to catch a flight and our ride was a bit late.

It got us to the airport on time, though, and we had the grossest flight ever. The staff was really nice and the plane itself was very comfortable, but there was tons of turbulence, and even my stomach was turning, and I have no problems with airplanes.

Today we walked a bit around the main city here in New Caledonia and bought clothes for the fairy-themed wedding party we will be attending on Saturday (our host got married), and bought a bunch of groceries. Rony and I prepared dinner, and we've just been chilling with everyone here. Tomorrow we start to plan our real trip here and we will update you with what we're up to and photos when we can.

Pics from Blue Mountains:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=573098&id=906005363&l=978e2dc451

 

P.S. In the last post, we were unable to upload pics because the hostel's Flash was from the stone age, so here are those links:

Last day in Bangkok:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=573068&id=906005363&l=564ad07944

Sydney, Australia

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=573076&id=906005363&l=ce56c3e0a1