Blue Mountains: Canyoning, Abseiling and Waterfalls!

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This weekend, a group of 20 of us from the BU program took a 2 hour train ride out to the Blue Mountains for the weekend. A couple of my friends and I decided to stay the weekend in Katoomba, a town right adjacent to the Blue Mountains.

We started off the weekend by abseiling (rappeling) down 30 meter (around 100 feet) cliffs. The views were amazing, and the abseiling itself was surprisingly easy to do!

Later in the afternoon, we put on our wetsuits and hiked down to the canyons, which was a workout in itself! We then jumped into 45 degree water, and began our journey through climbs and jumps throughout the canyon. The grand finale was at the end of the canyon where we abseiled down a massive 50 meter waterfall! Here is a video of an expert (definitely NOT what I looked like going down!) going down the Empress Falls Canyon: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OwUygiW7vmI.

the waterfall we rappelled down!

the waterfall we rappelled down!

A Sydney September

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Thought I’d include some photos, mostly taken by Danielle, ranging from Surf Camp to the Sydney Swans AFL game. Cheers! 🙂

Jerri and I heading down to Seven Mile Beach

Danielle & I 🙂

view of downtown Sydney from the Art Gallery of NSW

these birds are everywhere! i think they're our equivalent to pigeons. crazy.

Surf Camp!

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Surf camp was an absolute blast. We (myself and about 40 people from my program) took a bus about 2 hours south of Sydney to Seven Mile Beach. We stayed in bungalows, woke up at 6:30 AM each morning (I hadn’t done that in a while!) and ate breakfast all together in the center of camp.

At around 7:30 we put our “wetties” (wetsuits) and game faces on. Our instructors guided us to the beach, where we carried our 7-foot surfboards down to the water.  After a brief practice session on the sand, we grabbed our boards and headed to the ocean. The water was a little chilly, but nothing compared to the 50 degree surf I’ve experienced on the East Coast!

Our instructors were super nice and helpful. One of them, Erin Dark, is the #1 under 18 surfer in Australia (she is only 17)!

Although waking up this morning was a little hard/painful, this weekend was well worth it!

How is everyone back in the states? 🙂

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From Lord of the Rings to the Land of the ‘Roos !

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G’day friends and family! I apologize for the lack of updates thus far, it’s been a bit of a crazy journey so far! After 14 hours of layovers in Los Angeles and Auckland, I am (mostly) settled in Sydney!

The 15 hour flight from Los Angeles to Auckland was surprisingly pleasant! I was supplied with blankets, pillows, plenty of movies and personal bottles of wine, which were put to use after our extensive travel issues.

Once we arrived, we were bussed to our dorms, which are brand new and located in downtown Sydney, very close to Darling Harbour. I have 3 roommates, Divya, Christine (who both go to Boston University) and Natalie (who is from the University of San Fransisco), and they are all awesome!

We have done a lot of academic/program housekeeping, but we have obviously had some fun along the way. We went on a harbor cruise (pictures to follow), scavenger hunt and were forced to visit a couple of local bars 🙂 .

Cheers, mates!