Blue Mountains

The Blue Mountains were another stop on my Aussie adventure. They are part of the Great Dividing Range and begin about 65km west of Sydney. Eucalyptus trees (often called gum trees here) excrete small droplets of eucalyptus oil into the air, lending a haze to the air that makes the mountains appear blue. The tour operator said the blue tinge is most apparent on really hot days. It wasn't hot when I went (well, at least by their standards in the west!), so the mountains weren't at their bluest, but were still quite beautiful. (Side note - the tour operator was the most hyper 60 year old man I've ever met, he sputtered off random facts about the Blue Mountains/Sydney/Australia in general for the duration of the 10 hour day, and also taught me how to throw a boomerang. He asked why I was here and then insisted on calling me "doc" for the remainder of the trip. Ah, how I will miss these crazy Aussies!)
Before we arrived at the Blue Mountains, we made a stop at this lovely little zoo called Featherdale Wildlife Park, where I had one of my best Aussie experiences to date - I got to "cuddle a koala" and hand-feed wallabys and kangaroos!
It's illegal for anyone other than the zookeepers to actually hold a koala in New South Wales. A few years ago they realized it was way too stressful for them to be held by people all day long (duh?!), so now you can only touch their backs and put an arm around them for a photo op. Suffice to say this is the happiest I have ever been at 8AM on a Saturday:
Could this little guy be any cuter?!
What, no more treats?
I could go on all day with photos of this adorableness accompanied by my cheesy commentary, but I'll move on to the Blue Mountains now. From a lookout point in Katoomba:
We took the world's steepest cable car down into the valley to an area of temperate rainforest. There's a boardwalk with guided and marked tracks, plus many more options for bushwalking. I would have loved to spend a few days exploring, but I don't have the time, plus it's definitely not safe to do alone. A lot of people go bushwalking and get lost, or get caught in bushfires. The valley is filled with gum trees, which burn extremely fast.
We spent a little time walking around on the tracks and then took the scenic railway back up the mountain. The railway was built in 1880 to haul coal out of the mines that were located in the valley. It is the world's steepest incline railway, and goes 415m up and through a cliffside tunnel...very cool! Here's the Three Sisters through the rainforest:
The Three Sisters is the most well known part of the Blue Mountains. Again, a little further up the mountain this time:

The Most Magical Place on Earth!

I was lucky enough to get to go to Lord Howe Island for 7 days last week. It is an Australian island in the South Pacific, and is part of the state of New South Wales. It's about 750km northeast of Sydney. LHI is on UNESCO's World Heritage list and is easily the most beautiful place I have ever seen. There are about 300 people who reside on the island. The tourist industry is thriving but accomodation is limited to less than 400 tourists at a time in order to preserve the island. There isn't enough demand to employ a physical therapist, so my clinical instructor and a few colleagues each spend a few weeks each year on the island, so PT can be offered multiple times during the year. There is one doctor on the island. His salary is subsidized by the government because there's often very little for him to do, especially when peak season is over. Other health care professionals (including dentists) go to the island for a week or so at a time to offer their services, but only the physician is there full-time. Luckily for us, not many people needed physical therapy while we were there, so I only ended up working 1.5 days :)
We flew out of Port Macquarie in a tiny, tiny plane. I got to be the co-pilot! The landing was fun, we came in sideways and almost missed the runway due to windy conditions. Here I am with our plane, safe and sound after landing:
The snorkeling at LHI is incredible. It is home to the world's most southern coral reef. The closest beach was about a 3 minute walk from our house, and the reef was about a 3 minute swim from the shore. We went snorkeling every day and spent time exploring each beach, plus 7 different areas of reef on a glass bottom boat tour. I snorkeled with sharks (small ones), turtles, eels, stingrays, and heaps of different fish and coral. The fish were so bright and colorful, as was the reef. I saw hard and soft coral, plus lots of different formations of coral. The weather was amazing the whole trip, but especially perfect for snorkeling the first 4 days. The water was quite warm (about 26C, which is nearly 80 F). We had to wear spring suits for snorkeling, as the water is colder the deeper you go, plus after spending a few hours in the water it can get a bit chilly. Nina & I after our first day snorkeling at Ned's Beach:
Clearly this is a good look for me:
Middle Beach:
Bushwalking on Transit Hill:
Paradise!
I am so fortunate to have traveled here, and to have such beautiful weather the whole time. I will never forget this trip! Overlooking Blinky Beach (love the name!):

Hunter Valley

I recently went to the Hunter Valley to check out a winery and the Hunter Valley Gardens. The Hunter Valley area is huge, spanning over 9,000 miles. There are more than 120 wineries here. I went to a wine tasting at Lindemans, which was quite informative and fun. In addition to the wines sold exclusively in Australia, they export over 150 million bottles of wine per year. That's a lot of grapes!
From there I headed on to the Hunter Valley Gardens, which is one of the most beautiful places I've ever been. There are more than 60 acres of gardens, including an incredible rose garden with more than 8,000 roses, and my favorite, the storybook garden.
Vineyards at Lindemans:
The rose garden...absolutely beautiful.
A cute little topiary bear in the storybook garden:
Me with Alice & co.:
Oriental gardens:

World's Best 5k

Having been a runner for more than 10 years, I have experienced all types of 5k journeys, covering trails, streets, treadmills, tracks and more. Some of these I've loved, others loathed. At times, I've ran 7 minute miles. Other days I've dragged and cursed under my breath for the duration of the distance. Suffice it to say, I have had all kinds of experiences with 5k, but none quite like the walk I went on last week.
Sydney is known for its beautiful beaches, and rightfully so. A great way to experience the Southern beaches is to walk from Coogee to Bondi. Here's the start of my walk, at Coogee. Please take note of the ocean pool at the bottom left of the first photo...such a cool idea!:



Dolphin Point:

Gordon's Bay:

Waverley Cemetery, on a cliff overlooking the ocean:
Bronte, home to some pretty fierce breakers:


Amazing!

Bondi, Sydney's most famous beach and the site of the beach volleyball competition during the Sydney Olympics:

Heaven!

Australia's Last Riverboat Postman

As much as I'd enjoy spending all my time here holidaying and sightseeing, I have to admit, I love working at the clinic. A lot. I have learned so many new things to add to my PT bag of tricks. I've also met so many helpful, friendly, interesting Australians. I get to spend the better portion of each weekday talking to Aussies about their country, which has led to lots of great travel tips. Last week, based on recommendations from two patients who have gotten to know me well, I went on a cruise on the Hawkesbury River. The cruise is that of Australia's only remaining riverboat postman. Some of the shores and small islands of the Hawkesbury River are accessible only by water (read: no roads!). The boat delivers mail, newspapers, and small groceries on the 40k trip from Brooklyn to Spencer.

Leaving from Brooklyn Wharf:
Heaps of dingys:
Little Wobby, the first delivery stop:
The goods:
I was joined by 2 busloads of senior citizens and happened to be the only person on the boat without white hair. Don't get me wrong, they were quite friendly and I really enjoyed talking to them. So friendly, in fact, that one gentleman insisted on taking a photo of me on his digital camera because I'm "an American girl." He offered to take a picture of me with my camera, then asked me to send it to him on a cd or dvd because he's currently having trouble with his email account. Adorable, and quite impressive! So here I am, enjoying the views, conversation, and of course representing GW while down under!

Sydney Opera House

I recently went on a tour of the Opera House and found out heaps of neat information about it. It's located on Bennelong Point (named for an Aboriginal inhabitant) in Sydney Harbour. When the idea of the project was announced, over 200 architects from all over the world submitted their designs. The design of a Danish architect named Jørn Utzon was ultimately selected, after being retrieved from the "discard" pile. His design was incredible, but basically impossible to build with the technology of the time (the 1950s). Nonetheless, construction started on the podium in 1958. When the time came to start the roof, the engineers were faced with a major dilemma on how to construct the shells. During the design process, the shells were thought to be parabolas supported by precast concrete ribs. However, they could not find a suitable way to construct them; use of in-situ concrete would be too expensive, but precast concrete was not an option either, as there was no repetition in the roof forms (making precast concrete for each section even more costly). For the next 6 years, the team tried to determine a viable option. The answer came to Utzon one day as he was peeling an orange: cast the shells from segments of a single sphere. The concrete ribs forming the framework of the building were premade and joined together, and are visible from inside the building.
In 1965, with construction still going on, there was a change in government, and the project was declared to be under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Public Works. Tension had been developing between Utzon and the government throughout the project, mainly due to delays related to the design, and to the cost of construction far exceeding what had been expected. In 1966, the Minister for Public Works withheld more than $100,000 that was owed to Utzon, then withheld funding so Utzon was unable to pay his staff. In February 1966, Utzon resigned from the project and left Australia.
The project was completed by other architects, and the Opera House was opened in 1973 - A$95 million over budget and 11 years after the proposed time frame for completion. In the late 1990s, the Sydney Opera House Trust attempted to make amends with Utzon and asked him to develop designs for future improvements. He died in 2008 and never returned to Australia to see the building completed.
The Opera House contains many performance spaces, and was intended to be used for all types of entertainment, not just opera. We weren't allowed to take photos inside the theaters, but we were able to see all of the performance areas, which include: the concert hall (about 2,700 seats. It contains the world's largest mechanical organ, with over 10,000 pipes), the opera theatre (1,500 seats), the drama theatre (550 seats), the playhouse (400 seats). There is also a studio and the Utzon room, a small multi-purpose area.

A few shots from inside the Opera House (it's actually 2 buildings):
Compared to the exterior and framework of the building, not much thought was given to the interior. The shells create a lot of awkward spaces on the inside, and it's really time consuming and challenging to set up the stages. A lot of the groups say it's the worst venue to perform in.

A view of the outside from the inside. The roofs are made up of over 1 million tiles.A storm rolling in to Sydney Harbour:

Sydney Royal Botanic Gardens

The Sydney Royal Botanic Gardens have become one of my favorite places to hang out in the city. It's so beautiful here! It's a great place to picnic, read, or just relax and people watch. There are a lot of great views of the harbour from here. The gardens were established in 1816 and contain flowers and trees from all over the world. The colony's first vegetable patch is located here. Some of the trees are estimated to have been there since Sydney was established. There are a ton of birds here, and a lot of the trees are completely filled with grey-headed flying foxes (aka fruit bats) hanging from the branches. There are thousands of them living in the gardens. No worries though, they eat figs and nectar, and rabies doesn't exist in Australia. They are a bit of a nuisance, and are killing a lot of the trees in the gardens. They are attempting to lure them out of the gardens and relocate the colony to preserve the trees. They are listed as a threatened species, so this is causing all sorts of problems with animal activists, scientists, etc. Click here for more information on Sydney's bats.

Somehow I can't see you walking under this tree, Mom:

The rose gardens are beautiful:

There was a great orchid exhibit going on in one of the greenhouses:

The palace gardens:

I absolutely love these flowers. I'm not sure what they are called, but they grow on a tree/bush (I have a feeling a certain someone already knows the answer or will quickly find out if he doesn't!). Can you tell how hot it was this day?!

Enjoying the gardens and the Opera House. Don't worry Dad, I didn't pick this flower, it had fallen off the tree :)