One of the only things we had planned for our first few months in Aus was a week of adventures called ‘Ultimate Oz Jobs’ through gap360.com. We ended up booking this pretty much as soon as we’d booked our flights for a few reasons... it meant our first week was sorted for us, rather than us having to do the planning, plus as part of the package they helped us with everything we needed to be ready to find work AND we now get ongoing support with all things ‘working holiday’ for the full 12 months of our visa. All this just made it seem like a no brainer as it would save us so much time researching / panicking about getting set up with all the practical stuff at the other side of the world.
Sydney
The first day was nice and chilled, we had a little walking tour through the city, saw things like China Town, Darling Harbour, the Botanical Gardens (which I definitely want to go back to as it’s a cute little place for a picnic) and of course the classic tourist spot, the Opera House & the Harbour Bridge.
The Opera House is weirdly different to see up close, I don’t know if it’s just me being clueless but I never realised that it was actually made up of a few separate buildings – ‘cause the pictures you always see make it look like just one! That evening we got a free welcome drink & meal in our hostel bar, Sidebar (part of Wake Up! Hostel) the potato wedges were so good, I’d deffo recommend.
The next day was one of my faves - a boat trip around Sydney Harbour. I don’t think there’s anything I love more on holidays than a boat trip and this one was no exception; being on that boat and looking back with a view of the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge on the most gorgeous sunny day will be one of those moments I’ll remember forever, it honestly didn’t feel real. That was followed by drinks, a BBQ lunch and of course some ocean swim and beach time.
Melaleuca Backpackers
Next up was beach camp for two days at a place called Melaleuca Backpackers in Port Stephens. This place was amazing, run by a couple Michelle & Mick whose lives are dedicated to running the camp and caring for all kinds of animals, including the cutest little kangaroos called Tilly & Lottie who will now live there together as ‘buddies’ forever; Lottie is half blind so it’s not safe for her to return to the wild now. Michelle literally seemed to know everything about everything when it came to wildlife and the history of Australia, I could’ve listened to her talk all day. She told us all about how to properly approach her girls (the kanagroos) so that they wouldn’t feel threatened, but of course the time when they were up and about and everyone managed to have some time with them, I was in the shower and missed the whole thing!
The couple of days we spent at Melaleuca Backpackers were so full of activities it felt like we’d spent a week there! We saw sun rise at One Mile Beach both mornings, sand boarded on the sand dunes in Worimi Conservation Lands – the views were incredible, I’m not sure even my GoPro managed to do it justice; it literally went from ocean, to sand dunes, to rainforest, one right after the other I’ve never seen anything like it. That afternoon we did a hike up to the top of Tomaree National Park. It was bloody hot and the way up was challenging but so worth it when we got to the top and full of facts again from Michelle; a couple of the ones I remembered were: - there are so many beaches in Aus, you could visit a different one every day for something like 26 years - at the top point of our walk we saw tree branches that had been twisted and bent by the wind, this is what the Aboriginals would cut down and use as boomerangs.
Conquering a Fear
On our last night there was a reptile show where we got to meet and hold all kinds of reptile friends. I started small with the cutest, tiniest little baby turtle, which I did not want to have to give back and somehow managed to work my way up to an actual SNAKE!! He (I think it was a he) was a costal carpet python crossed with a diamond python called Didge. It was so weird, you can literally feel all their little muscles working as they move, but nowhere near as scary as I thought it would be… I still can’t quite believe I did it - I’m usually someone who’d avoid even looking at snakes at a zoo because they creep me out that much; maybe this is my fear of officially conquered now?!
Port Stephens – Sydney
What better way to end our little adventure in Port Stephens than with another boat trip?! This one was specifically to see some wild dolphins; which we were really hoping we did because apparently the group before us didn’t see any on their boat trip. Anyway, we got super lucky and saw loads! We didn’t see any really close up, but we saw so many and even some little babies which was really lucky considering they were all wild and it was only a short boat trip.
After that it was time to head back down to Sydney for a chilled night before our group bar crawl Saturday night. We’d decided to do cheap shit fancy dress – basically just any fun outfit or accessory you could find in Paddy’s Markets. Paddy’s Markets are great if you’re looking for cheap souvenirs or fancy dress like we were! Me & Meg got grass skirts, leis and flowers for our hair for about $20 (AUD so like just over a tenner in £). The bar crawl included 4 free drinks, and anything that includes free drinks in this city is a winner as drinking in Sydney is NOT cheap or easy! Happy hour is pretty much the only discount you’ll find.. drink deals, cheap shots etc. basically don’t exist, (it’s pretty much the opposite to some places in the UK where you’re almost actively encouraged to binge drink) and it is actually illegal for bars to even let you on their premises if you appear ‘intoxicated’.
Last on the itinerary was the Coogee – Bondi beach walk. This was such a beaut walk, the views were gorgeous, and I’ll definitely be doing it again; however I’ll probably avoid a Sunday morning when all the local joggers & other tourists seem to be out and it’s just quite busy. Next time I definitely want to do the walk there and back, stop somewhere cute for breakfast (recommendations welcomed pls) and stop off at some of the beaches in between too.
Aus Week 1 – Complete!
I didn’t quite realise how much we’d packed into the first week until I wrote it all down in this blog. I’d 100% recommend something like this for your first week in Aus for sooo many reasons. Not only was it pretty decent value for money, we got to meet a great group of people super quick, our tour guide Kelly was an absolute doll, had lots of advice for life in Sydney and made sure we were all having a great time; plus there were some things, like our stay at Melaleuca Backpackers that I don’t think we would’ve found on our own and it was honestly one of the highlights of the week! For me it was the best way to start our year of adventures, especially with all the support you get for the rest of your stay in Aus; and if it wasn’t for this trip we probably wouldn’t have found out about Surf Camp, where we spent our second week… more about that in the next blog 😊
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