The Blue Mountains Bus Trip

Today (Tuesday) we went on a bus trip to the Blue Mountains. We started the day at a wildlife sanctuary, headed to the Blue Mountains, went to a winery and did a wine tasting, and then to end the day, took a river ferry to the Opera House Harbor.

The day started off great at the wildlife sanctuary. First we got our pictures taken with koalas. Koalas are so calm and gentle. For some reason, I always thought they were mean, not sure why though. Did you know that they sleep for 19 hours a day? They eat so many eucalyptis (whoa spelling) leaves that in order for their bodies to break down the toxins from the plants, they have to sleep all that time. Koalas actually don't need water to survive either... random fact of the day!

We walked all around the sanctuary and eventually found ourselves in a caged in petting zoo area with kangaroos. The small kangaroos were very gentle and docile and they were really easy to feed. One was a sneaky little bugger and hung out by the door and kept trying to break free from the cage when people walked in. Anyway, so mom and I are feeding the smaller ones icecream cones with feed inside and we're having a good time along with everyone else. So we're standing there just looking around when this rowdy kangaroo comes up and clings onto my arm and tries to take my camera! I kinda shrug him off, but have to use force because he is quite big. Then he runs over to Mom, jumps on her, tries to steal her purse but decides that humping her side would be much more fun. I was like, "Dude Mom, you just got humped by a kangaroo!!!" So we're making our way back to the end of the caged area and we're feeding a gray kangaroo who was quite nice when the cheeky little humping kangaroo comes back. He jumps on mom and I tell her to hit him so he goes away. He must have understood me... the jerk comes over and starts punching me... I mean totally not kidding, a freakin kangaroo is punching me!!! I am laughing pretty hard and these people are video taping everything. Then the kangaroo starts to lean back on his tale and stand very tall--like way taller than me at this point-- and I'm kind of scared because I'm not sure whether I should stare him down or look away. They don't give out lessons in how to fend off a kangaroo in elementry school you know? So he tries to punch me again and I push him. Then what do you know he starts trying to kick me... so I cock back my fist and I clock him. I punched a kangaroo. I punched a freakin kangaroo in the throat. I startled him and he kinda stumbled because he tripped over his tail, then he bounced away. For a minute it was Team Philadelphia vs. Joe Boxer and I was pretty sure I wasn't going to win. We all ran out of the cage and the people videotaping were hysterical... but they weren't getting picked on by a goddamn kangaroo! We watched the video... Oh-my-God... I could totally end up on America's Funniest Home Videos. So we all turn around to look back in the cage and what do you know, he is standing there staring at me... like let's go at it again! Umm how about my first and last encounter with a kangaroo!!! I now have a fear of petting zoos... I imagine this will be my first and last experience.

Then we headed to the Blue Mountains which we didn't even see because it rained for that portion of the day. We were eating lunch in this little giftshop area and we walk into this one store and what do they have? A The Who's Tommy pinball machine. I seriously almost peed my pants. I was like MOM OH MY GOD I NEED THIS!!! I took a bunch of pictures. It was awesome, I wanted to steal it right then and there. After my giftshop-pinball-machine-meltdown we took a gondola ride from one side of the mountain to the other. The clouds and fog were so thick that we couldn't see two feet ahead of us in the gondola. It was a pretty pointless trip, but whatever. From there we took the world's steepest train down the side of this mountaint then walked for a bit through a rainforest. We reached the bottom then headed back to the top of the mountain on a sky cab (similiar to a gondola but it goes up). We met a real nice older couple on the trip and talked to them for most of the day.

After all that we headed to the Tizzana Winery for a wine tasting (website it kinda hokey http://www.tizzana.com.au). What a fabulous place with SO much history! We tasted mostly merlots (yuck) but they had a very good wine that I ended up purchasing... It's an Ambrose Rose... very yummy! After the winery (don't worry, Mom didn't buy the place out) We took a relaxing water taxi cruise on the river leading into the harbor. I took a bunch of nice shots, but you don't realize how hard it is to take pictures on a boat until you try to fo it!

The water taxi lead us back to the harbor where we took the subway back to the hostel and had dinner at the dirt cheap hole in the wall bar across the street. What a fantastic dinner!

P.S. In case you all forgot... I PUNCHED A KANGAROO!!!