I’ve finally gotten to writing up my last blog post of our trip to Australia, New Zealand, and Fiji. Thanks for reading if you’ve been keeping up with my very sporadic posts. To finish up our trip, I took our last few days and put them all into one blog post and then will post the video I made with clips from our entire trip. I hope you enjoy and thanks again for keeping up with our Hammond Adventures!
To finish up our trip, we had about two and a half days in Sydney, Australia. Since I had gone there earlier in the semester, I was excited to be able to show my family around the city. We got to Sydney early in the afternoon and got an Uber to our Airbnb. With all our big suitcases it was very tight, but we were able to squeeze in.
Lindsey barely fit in between all our suitcases!
That afternoon we decided to go and take a ferry to Manly. We got to see a great view of the city from the ferry and then walked around by Manly beach for a bit before heading back to Circular Quay. Of course, we had to stop for a gelato snack since we were going to have a late dinner.
We decided to go on one of the I’m Free tours that I had gone on earlier. I enjoyed both tours so much and thought Mom, Dad, Lindsey, and Unc would like them as well. The evening tour was great, even though there were lots of people out in the Rocks because it was a Saturday night and there was a Bastille Day festival going on. Our tour guide did a good job of navigating our large group through the crowds, though. After the tour we went to the Australia Hotel for dinner. They are known for their “Coat of Arms” pizza, which is half kangaroo and half emu meat.
The next day, we had our day to see the Sydney sights. We started off by having breakfast at a Swiss café and then went to the other I’m Free walking tour, which told us a lot of the history behind Sydney and showed us a lot of the famous buildings and landmarks in the city. It was just as good as the first time I took the tour. When we finished, we were right by the Sydney Harbour Bridge, so we went up and walked across, stopping on the other side for lunch and then heading back.
We walked through Circular Quay and the Rocks, where there were festivals and Christmas in July markets, to the Opera House and Botanic Gardens. The sun was starting to set, so we got some beautiful pictures. That night, we went to a conveyer belt sushi restaurant for dinner and then found a place called the Choc Pot for dessert. I had their lava cake, which was so delicious!
My delicious Choc Pot!
The next day, we wanted to see some Australian wildlife so we took the train a little outside of Sydney to Featherdale Wildlife Sanctuary. I had read online that this was the best place in the Sydney area to have an interactive experience with Australian animals, and it was definitely a highlight of our trip. There were tons of kids there, but we were still able to enjoy seeing and petting the animals.
We saw many koalas, most of which were just sleeping or eating up in their trees. We all agreed that they are some of the cutest animals and could have just stayed and watched them all day. But, we also got to see many other animals such as kangaroos, wallabies, dingoes, Tasmanian devils, echidnas, penguins, emus, ghost bats, and many types of birds.
One of our highlights was getting to pet a koala. We all got to pet and take a picture with Victor and we now consider him part of the family. Unc was especially excited to get his picture with Victor, so we’re hoping that Riley doesn’t get too jealous.
After spending most of the day at the animal sanctuary, we took the train back to Sydney and had enough time to go back to the Queen Victoria Building. We wanted to get bubble tea there and look at some of the shops, as well as see the fancy clocks that have scenes from British and Australian history that go around on every hour. It was a great end to our time in Sydney, and we felt like we got to see a lot of the city even though we only had a few days there.
The next day, we headed back to the US. It was crazy that I had been away for over five and a half months- it didn’t feel nearly that long and I honestly would have been happy to stay longer. I had such an amazing time studying abroad and travelling, but I was excited to see my family and finally get settled back in at home. Now that I’m finally finishing my blog posts, it feels like my time abroad was so long ago. I’m glad I documented it so well and will be able to look back on my pictures and posts in the future. Thanks for keeping up with all my travels this semester!
Hammond Adventures 
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