A week in Australia
Traveling is one of my greatest passion, whenever I got a chance to visit any place that I have not seen before rare are the chances I am going to miss it. My name is Aunik and born and brought up in Shimla, the capital of Himachal Pradesh. In the month of December last year in 2010, I got a chance to visit Australia with my friend Kartik. I have had heard a lot about Australia. Mainly people visit the country to see the wonders of the natural landscape. I am very much excited about our tour to Australia, the reason behind this is as I have never been to the foreign land before. I applied for 12 days leave from work and fortunately it got approved. I would love to share the memories of the tour with you. Our journey started on Monday, as our flight is scheduled in the evening at 7:30 PM from New Delhi, still we board a bus from Shimla bus stop at 9:30 Am in the morning. We reached Delhi at 5:30 PM in the evening and finally reached airport at 6:30 PM . It was a long flight and took almost 14-15 hours and when we reach Sydney it was 2’O clock by my watch. Since both of us are quite tired therefore we decided to take rest and direct rushed to the hotel.
First Day:-
In the evening we hire a cab from the hotel and went to the Sydney Opera House which was just ten minutes drive from the hotel.without visiting this place , tour to sydney will not be worth.The historical landmark of sydney is opera house, which look very magnificient under the light from bridge(Sydney Harbor) It was said that it started with dream of some architect named Jorn Utzon who aim was to make some a architectural icon which could be a unique one in the entire world. Because of it design the place is known as artist dream concert hall. Any one can easily easily judge the skill in drawing from this unique icon. We had a coffee there and spend good one hour there.
Royal Botanical garden
Next day we went to see the famous Blue Mountains, which is included in the list of World Heritage sites. Mountains really gave majestic view and a must see especially for those who love greenery then a sea. When we came back from there we were feeling full of energy. Then we went to see the famous Royal Botanical Gardens , within one hour we reached there.This garden was established by the governer of Sydney, Bligh in the 18th century. The most interesting thing was that, throught in the garden were many presentations, art instructions, aborginal heritage tour, walks guided by the guide etc.
Third Day:-
Next day we went to the famous beach in Sydney named as "Bondi Beach". Out of all the placeses to visit in Sydney, this beach is the famous spot to visit as between two headlands there is a beautiful crescent sand shaped. In all the week days, there is a great crowd of many toruist and residents.
Many more places in Bondi like some markets and Campbell Parade, sunday Market are worth viewing. Since I don’t know the surfing art so i played a beach volleyball with some tourists there. We spent whole day there sometime in the sun and sometime playing volleyball.
Great Barrier Reef
Great BarrFourth Day:-
After that we visited the world's largest coral reef system, of the Great barrier Reef of Queensland. We decied to go by air as our six hours whould have wasted if planned to go by bus. We reached Queensland within two hours. The reef of Queensland is spaced widely aproximatly 2600 kilometers. The major tourist place is this area with annual tournover of two millions where many feet tramp on the frogile corel. A famous pink greynight rock in Castle Hill which is very huge is also well known. Paved roads provide us the exelant view of town ville. For WWII miltray basis and defance batteries, Castle Hill fullfills the same purpose. Many underground tunnels were also built under the Casltle Hill in the past era. No many more tunnels are developed where entrances are along with steel poles giving a legendary site.
Glenelg
Fifth Day and Sixth Day:-
We spent last two days of the tour to Australia , in Adelaide city famous for its churches. We spent our first day in the famous churches by doing worship in Adelaide. One of the famous church is St. George's Church. We looked at the architecture which was really very attractive. The most prominent townscap feature of Adelaide is the Brougham Uniting Church. The organ is noteable for its case and tonal design, its location and action have changed over time.
Next very day we planned to Glenelg beach. Where a variety of events like beach games, water sports, fishing, sailing, barbecues, picnic tables attract all the tourists. One of the autrialian told us that the inspectors at the beach practice a number of activities during the summer months and many life savers and guide are near by at the days of Saturdays and Sundays. One family is enjoying the cricket there we asked them for the participation and they agreed , we played a good cricket for 2-3 hours. From the Glenelg We came back to the Sydney.
We reached Sydney in the evening and it was all dark , since it was the last day so we thought of going to the shopping. We also went to Close to Kings Cross the heart of Sydney’s central business district. At night, when the whole city closes down, there are few places like Kings Cross which sparkle and thrope all through night. As our flight it at 10:30 Am so we got up at 9:00 Am in the morning and had our breakfast, and reached Kingsford Smith Airport at 10: 00AM sharp. At 8’O clock in the evening w reached Delhi. It was great experience to visit Australia. The memories of the tour are going to be with me forever.