Saturday, February 25, 2012

New South Wales

Australia, what a gorgeous country! The moment we arrived in Sydney Airport, my husband and I drove to Blue Mountains. I was actually in-charged of the planning, to look for hotels and which places to go to in New South Wales. First stop, Blue Mountains- well from the name itself the color of the mountain is actually BLUE! The mountain is so beautiful and serene. We spent the night at Leura, a small town very close to Blue Mountains. Leura is a cozy town with lots of nice shops and good restaurants. In the morning, we went to see the Three Sisters Mountain and the surrounding nature then we continued driving north of New South Wales. 
The highways were big and long while the surroundings- vast fields of green. We saw wild kangaroos jumping around and spectacular animals I have never seen before. In the middle of nowhere, you can find outlet shops that sells Durango cowboy boots and hats, UGG boots and animal skin rags with very reasonable prices. Can you imagine a red UGG boots for 99USD??? It costs like 300USD in Sweden.




We went to Dubbo (as part of the plan) to have dinner and spend the night there. Dubbo is considered a major shopping center of New South Wales but it was too early for me to shop so I didn't! Plus we went to see the shops and I didn't find anything. We just drove, drove, drove and if we find something on the way, we stopped. Then we saw on the map that we are actually passing by Waterways Wildlife Park. The fee was very cheap (which is unusual in Australia! lol!) and the animals in this park were actually rescued animals. I  fell in love with the place. We spent hours there, taking photos of every animal. The Koalas were very sweet and you can actually pet them; the Kangaroos were jumping around; and a lot of wild Australian animals in the park. 
We continued driving towards north, we stopped at nature parks and walked for hours in the Australian forest. We drove up to Coffs Harbour to see the nice beaches then we drove back down to Sydney. We stopped at Hunter Valley to see the vineyards, taste the wine and try the smelly cheese.  We also went to another cozy place, The Entrance, just an hour or two drive from Sydney. We decided to spend two nights there since the place and the beach was awesome.  

                                               at Blue Mountains!

                                               It's Blue!

                                               Koalas, aren't they cute???

                                               Spot the baby Kangaroo...

                                               Coffs Harbour!

                     @ Hunter Valley

Our experience driving around New South Wales was really a memorable one and we will surely be coming back!