USA Day 17. Golden Gate Park

So today I hopped on a bus (after running around trying to find a timetable and get the exact change since drivers don't give change on buses here) and headed over to Golden Gate Park.

I was planning to walk there like I have everywhere else but it was 4.5miles from where I was staying and judging from what I read it would be 4 miles uphill… and then the park itself is huge, so all in all I couldn't be bothered. And the bus was only $2 each way!

So after walking up a weird path (think i just picked a bad entrance to the park) I found myself at the conservatory of flowers! I didn't pay to go in but I did get to wander around the gardens which had a big enough selection of flowers to keep me happy!

 These were possible my favourite!

 The flower gardens were lovely and it was here I decided to have my lunch (an idea lots of other people seemed to have as well!

 My picnic spot!

 Just a picture of my and the conservatory!

 I wandered around for maybe an hour or so to get my bearings before attempting to actually find what I wanted, as the park is really big and the roads and paths don't make much sense and definitely don't resemble the map! First up was Shakespeare Garden

It was actually pretty tiny but I loved it nevertheless!

 Oh and wandering around I often stumbled across these signs!?

 I wandered all around the park and despite the weather looking really gloomy it was pleasantly warm!

 Japanese Gardens

 I thought I'd rest my weary feet for a few minutes here and no more than 5 minutes later I get approached for a survey - I've done 5 surveys since I got to America!?

 This was my last view of the park before I jumped back on the bus to downtown. A homeless man attempted to have a conversation with me the entire ride back to central so the bus journey was fun. Once I got back into Downtown the sun had well and truly come out so I opted to sit in Union Square and read in the sunshine

 It's a really popular spot to laze about as it's beautifully landscaped and in the very middle of Downtown

I did pop into Macy's (a department store) to browse the cosmetics hall and long story short a make up artist ended up doing my make up. Since I wasn't going anywhere and it was going to be washed off in about an hour I figured I should at least take a photo!

Anyway that's it for today tomorrow, can't believe my time in San Francisco is nearly up!

(& I'll be up to date posting these soon (hopefully)

Day 22. Bungy Jumping

I'm just going to let the pictures do the talking for this entry.. I think they tell the story, and are funny enough, without my rambling!

 I kinda screaming when I first fell... just a little... not so loud that the people watching on the platform started laughing for anything... 

 Just dangling above the river...

This is definitely one of my favourites! 

I did my jump on Kawarau Bridge as it was, apparently, the first commercial bungy jump, also I thought it was really pretty, and if I'm going to terrify myself it might as well be somewhere pretty!

I also paid for a video of the jump so you've got that to look forward to seeing when I'm home :)

Waikato River

Since I first crossed the Waikato River (probably on my second day in New Zealand) I really wanted to walk along it but every time I had a free day it was cloudy, or I forgot, or something got in the way. Well the past week the weather has been GLORIOUS! It has really started to feel like summer so Saturday I had a much needed lie in then set off to the river, it took a bit longer to get there than I thought, about an hour, as some roads were closed and not knowing the area that well I had to walk the long way round - when I finally got the river I was surprised to find it all paved really well (better than most of the roads actually) and there was a memorial park too!

 Starting off my walk by trying to find my way down to the river

 Memorial park

 You can just see the plane at the end of the path

 There were lots of really nice places to just sit, soak up the sun and enjoy being next to the river

 I came across this sign after about an hour of walking and so i set off on a hunt for the promised 'Wellington ST Beach'!

 I found so many little benches along the way and I can't wait to make use of these spots

 This part of the Waikato river was beautiful and it felt like I kept stopping every 5 minutes to take pictures but I just couldn't resist it was so pretty!

 I had to take a picture of this house as I thought where it was situated was so interesting

 I can only imagine the views from the house were pretty beautiful

 Just as I was becoming sure I'd either gone the wrong way or wellington st beach didn't exist the path opening out to grass with this giant tree and....

 On my right I find the 'beach'! It was tiny, but it had a mini pier, sand, sunbathers and water so I guess that qualifies it as a beach - very cute!

 I was surprisingly tempted to take a dip since the sun was beating down 

(probably not the wisest decision to go at midday)

 The Victoria bridge on my way back from wellington beach

And finally the view from Victoria bridge  

It was a lovely walk and I'm really glad I finally got to explore the river - I know it's going to a place I visit regularly. Campus can sometimes feel a bit.. claustrophobic which seems weird as I never found the campus at Lancaster that way but the past few days I've just really needed to get away from people so escaping to the river was just what the doctor ordered!

Semester Break

Monday morning we woke up bright and early ready to head up to Auckland for the night, I think it’s safe to say we all really liked Auckland. It was interesting as well, it’s probably the quietest and least populated city centre I’ve been in yet everyone from Hamilton regularly told us they found Auckland way too crowded and that there were so many people you couldn’t just walk down the street! The hostel we stayed at in Auckland was great, it had a sauna, kitchen area, rooftop balcony, an outdoor hot tub and it was located right in the middle of the city! We couldn’t have picked a better hostel really, especially as the bus stop for the airport was 2 minutes away. Like I said we only spent one day in Auckland and I definitely want to go back, we spent it in coffee shops, window-shopping and people watching in the park outside the university.

I need to give the vegetarian Cesar salad I had a special mention as it was, by far, been the nicest thing I’d eaten since coming to New Zealand.

Tuesday we woke up an ungodly hour (4am), pretty sure we woke up the whole 12bed room we were giggling so much, we caught the airport bus, so far so good, the first problem came when we went to check in and we were asked if any of us has an Australian visa… which none of us did. Cue a mini panic, a quick dash to the information counter to get an online visa and we’re on our way! After a quick breakfast and some shopping (I picked up a waterproof camera).  We all slept most of the plane journey, things once again got a little interesting once we got into the taxi and we realized none of us actually had the address of the hostel (again a mini panic while we all tried to get internet on our phones!) After checking in we realise we’re not really in the best area – there’s a lot of homeless around and quite a few strip bars - there was no mention of how scary the area was in the online reviews! Our first day in Sydney was just spent planning the rest of our time there and getting our bearings.

Wednesday, George has lost his keys, I have a cold, and It’s zoo day. A quick train journey and we’re on the ferry heading over to Tauranga Zoo! We got to enjoy the skysafari, which gave us some lovely views of Sydney’s skyline. We managed to book a koala encounter and got to meet wanda, an incredibly cute koala and get lots of photos with her!

It was a really fun day walking around the zoo in the sunshine, and one of the best bits, I thought, was every so often you’d catch a glimpse of Sydney’s skyline or the harbor from between the trees!

(on the ferry going to the zoo)

Thursday was ‘shopping day’ but we had a very bumpy start when the machine swallowed George’s card! We managed to find a payphone and sort it out eventually but it was eventful morning. I bought some shoes at zara and then we found a posh little café with wrap-around windows and sat down to natter, drink chai tea, and people watch. It was a fun, relaxing day in preparation for tomorrow’s activity – we also appeared on Sydney TV as a presenter approached us to request a song!

Friday was probably the highlight – Blue Mountains. To say I was apprehensive was an understatement, I’m not the trekking sort but Caitlin really wanted to do so we all agreed to book it. After an alarm mishap we woke up with 10minutes to get ready, we ran to the pick up point and had a panicked start to the day – on the plus side it certainly woke us up! We had the most amazing tour guide who spoke a ton of languages and was hilarious, we went on 3 treks and saw the most amazing sites! On the second walk the tour guide stayed in the van as it was cold, wet and very very windy so me Caitlin and George led the group through streams and up mountains and because we were leading we saw a kangaroo in the wild! Friday was exhausting but it was amazing!

(because of our manic start none of us looked our best but that didn't stop us taking lots of photos!)

(I still can't get over how incredibly beautiful the blue mountains are)

 (the three sisters)

(the wild kangaroo just in front of us on the path)

(I love this shot!)

 (a random little stone wall we came across)

 (this part was kinda scary since there was a sheer drop just metres away)

(the first waterfall and beautiful sight of the day)

(I loved how every so often we'd come across something like this steps or a low wall!)
Saturday was sightseeing day, we hopped on an open topped bus that drove around Sydney and if you plugged your earphones in you got a proper tour of the city with lots of interesting facts and landmarks being pointed out. We knew we weren’t going to have time to see everything on this trip as it was only a week and Sydney is pretty big but with the bus tour we ‘saw’ everything even if we didn’t get to explore them. I made sure we were at the Opera house to take photos during ‘golden hour’ (my love of photography coming out there) and we got some beautiful photos in perfect lighting!

me and caitlin at the fountain not too far from the hostel

The three of us and the harbour bridge

(the opera house with the sun setting)

Sunday was our last full day and me and Caitlin caught the ferry over to manly beach and just soaked up the sunshine on the sand after another night out, we strolled along the beach for a while then just sat down and daydreamed while listening to the sea! That evening Isaac (the person who was in sharing our room, from Paris) took us to this bar where you got a free cocktail when you go in and a pizza for only $5, it was an amazing atmosphere and the perfect way to end our time in Sydney!  

the water was colder than expected!

we treated ourselves by going to an expensive promenade restaurant and having the most delicious seafood pasta!

 (trying out my waterproof camera!)

  (my attempt at getting a photo of the skyline on our way back on the ferry)

'Stralia I loved you! I can't wait to go back!