From the Outback to the City

After our week in Uluru we stopped over in Sydney for the weekend to try and soak up as much of Aussie as we could.The transition from Uluru to Sydney was a major culture shock. To go from seeing only a select few familiar faces to hundreds of thousands people was a bit overwhelming.

Thursday night we stayed in Darling Harbor which was such an awesome spot. It had heaps of restaurants and bars right on the water! We had a pretty relaxed night just trying to recover from the week and prep for the weekend ahead of us. Sadly, we woke up to rain on Friday. For some reason, when I looked at the weather for this trip I only looked at Uluru which mind you is about a 4 hour flight from Sydney and in the desert. But I was ready for the beach and that summer weather I have patiently been waiting so long for so when packing there were few things suitable for cold and rainy weather. We spent the majority of our time shopping! It was great to have the options that we just don't have in New Zealand. We enjoyed a great night out on Friday which left us all a sight for sore eyes on Saturday but we managed to make it to the infamous Opera House. It was beautiful! That was the one thing I knew I had to see in Sydney and I was able to tick that off the list. When we woke up Sunday to sunshine we knew we had to make it to Bondi beach. This definitely made the entire weekend. It was a perfect day. The beach and park was full of people and kites! They had massive kites flying, one in the shape of a whale. Bondi beach is absolutely amazing! We sat at a restaurant on the beach and treated ourselves to a pitcher of Australian beer or 2.... couldn't think of any better way to end a fabulous trip!

Desert Rain

I just recently got back from a work conference in Uluru, Australia. It was pretty amazing to say the least. The entire week I was in awe. There are definitely some hard days in my job but as we spent the week working and soaking up the sun and the beautiful sights, I realized just how lucky I am . This week just made all those tough days somehow seem worth it.

It started off with an early 6am flight on Sunday from Wellington, NZ to Sydney, Australia where we met up with about 30 of our other colleagues. From there, we flew to Uluru. It was not at all what I was expecting. While yes, it was out in the middle of nowhere it had a lot more greenery than I expected a desert to have due to the late desert rain. There's Ayers Rock Resort which is basically the where the entire population of Uluru lives. It has multiple places to stay as well as some shops, a few pools and a great look out point where you can see Ayers Rock in the distance. The part I found most comical about Uluru was that everyone who lived there had multiple jobs. The one man band who played 6 nights a week was also a flight attendant. Then there was the bartender, flight attendant at day and bartender at night. The list goes on. It was pretty funny going from place to place and seeing the same faces doing completely different jobs.

I won't bore you with all the details so I'll skip to the highlights of the trip. My favorite day was definitely the day I witnessed the sunrise and sunset all in one day. It started off with a sunrise camel ride. We had to be up and ready by 5:45 for the sunrise ride before work started. Sadly it wasn't as glamorous as Carrie made it look on Sex and the City but  it was still fabulous. It was quite the sight to see! When we arrived there were about 12 camels with saddles all lined up sitting just waiting for us. Watching the others get on made me more and more nervous realizing how high up you are once they stood up. It was about an hour and a half journey through the desert with spectacular views of Ayers Rock. Truly an experience I think everyone must have at least once in their lives. After the camel ride I had the opportunity to feed a baby camel out of a bottle. And then there was a baby roo. His name was Red and just about the cutest thing I have ever seen. We even got to hold him. After all of this, it was time for work. The day went by quickly and soon enough we rushed to get ready for our sunset dinner under the stars. It was stunning! The sand was so red and the sun going down just made the colors pop. And this was just all in one day.

Our entire trip was a whirl wind. I just tried to take everything in while we were there. I guess the motto is "Work hard play hard," and that is exactly what we did.