Hi everyone. Sorry that I've been out of contact for a few days! I was sailing around Sydney with Olivia, her father, her friend Elissa, and her sister Ella.
We sailed out of Newport and spent the day in a cove off of a river (but it was very salty). I'm not sure exactly where we were, but it was so pretty!
Mr. Toohey and Ella swam to a little beach (Elissa, Olivia, and I rode in the dinghy) and climbed on the rocks. We went back to the boat and relaxed for a while, and then Richard (our skipper) made us dinner. We relaxed some more, and then I went to bed.
The next day, we planned on going to Sydney, but the waves were too big outside of the river we were on, so we just sailed to another cove-like area. We spent the day there. There were HUGE jellyfish in the water (as big as my head), so I was really freaked out.
Olivia and Elissa told me that they can't sting but I didn't believe them. We spent the day napping, reading, attempting to fish, and watching How I Met Your Mother on the TV. We had steak and sausage for dinner.
On Thursday, we were up and about very early because we thought we were going to go to Sydney. Alas, the waves and wind were, again, too violent, so we decided to lower the small motorboat into the water and go tubing. It was SUPER difficult to hold on, and Elissa and I both got thrown off several times. Olivia managed to hold on every time! I was very freaked out because I didn't want to get anywhere near one of the jellyfish, and after a few rounds, I got back in the boat. We drove around the cove a bit, and returned to the big boat. Ella and I found a Say Yes to the Dress marathon, and since there was nothing else to do, we opened up all the windows and plopped down on the couch. We had curry for dinner, and since we needed to go to Sydney to catch our flight the next day anyways, we decided to get up early and start back to Newport so we could explore the city.
We left the cove around 7:45 on Friday morning and arrived at Newport around 9:30am. We said goodbye to Richard and arrived in Sydney around 10:45. We stored our bags in a storage unit, and went up the Sydney Tower to the observation deck. The view was amazing!
We could see the Opera House, the parks, even the airport! We took quite a few pictures, and I got a souvenir penny (yay!). After the tower, we set out for Circular Quay and the Opera House. The harbor was packed with cruise ships and water taxis, but we had a great view of the Opera House, and we took a TON of pictures.
We stopped for a drink at the Opera Bar (don't worry, just seltzer!), and went up to the Rocks, the oldest part of Sydney, built on the cliffs looking over the harbor. We had lunch at a restaurant called "waterFront" and relaxed for about an hour after we finished lunch, killing time in the shade. We headed back to the storage place, picked up our stuff, and went to the airport. We landed in Brisbane at 6:45pm on Friday, and I'm now sitting in my room at the Toohey's, unwinding, but feeling a bit homesick. The trip was amazing, but felt like a vacation, so now I feel like I should be on a flight home...ah well! Something else to conquer!
I had a great few days, and look forward to going to St. Margaret's on Monday!
