A week with Jordo.

It's been about a month since my last update, but things have gotten less exciting in the land downunder (not that I'm complaining). School work was finally due and exams are just around the corner. The weather has also been getting colder and colder. It is now official winter in Australia (Similar to early October weather in the Southeast). I've been going on short local climbing trips and one longer trip to the blue mountains but other than that I've just been hanging out in Newcastle.


Last week Jordan Long came all the way from the U.S.A to explore Australia with me. We were planning on doing Sydney, Blue Mountains, and Cairns. But due to crappy weather we decided not to go to the Blue mountains. Because of this we explored pretty much everything there was to explore in Sydney.

List of some Sydney things we did:

Largest I-max in the world (twice)
Aquarium Wild life center
National Art Museum
Speakers corner in Hyde park
Vivid Sydney (light/lazer show in sydney at night)
Lots of Asian Food
Lots of Ice cream
China town
Concert in Opera house
Cool street musician (Tom Ward)
And just ran around the entire city multiple times , seeing all there was to see.



Then we left to Cairns in Queensland. About a 3 hour flight north of Sydney and a lot warmer. Even though it was "winter" up there, everyone (including us) was swimming, sun bathing, and relaxing outside. We went on a forest/nature hike and also booked a day trip out to the barrier reef where we went scuba-diving and snorkeling. Unfortunately I was to lazy to take many pictures of Cairns.

Jordan should have some good pictures and video of the trip. I'll link to it once he's uploaded it.


Anyways... here are the pictures. Enjoy.


Chinese Garden in Sydney.


Fish in Chinese Garden in Sydney.


He was trying to communicate with the bird.


Starfish from the Sydney Aquarium.


I have a decent amount of Sydney Opera house Pictures...


The Sails.



In case you ever wondered what the surface of the Sydney Opera House looked like.


From the Botanical Garden side of things.


Vivid Sydney: Lights on the Sails.


More Lights on the Sails.


Queen Elizabeth in the Gardens.


Wild Cockatoo in the Gardens.


Pig in Sydney.


Vivid Sydney: Under the Train.


Vivid Sydney: People powering the lights.


Vivid Sydney: Colorful Buildings.


Vivid Sydney: The Faces of the Customs Building.


Tom Ward. Pretty amazing guitarist...Also a contestant on 'Australia's got talent'. Definitely worth a watch! Listen to him here.




We also saw Adam Hardin's Chinese Mom in Australia.


And the only picture from Cairns.



Well, thats all for now. Only three more weeks in Australia :/, but tomorrow I'm leaving to the Outback.

-Pieter