Weekend Down South

This past weekend my program, CIEE, took us to southern New South Wales.  It was an amazing trip and I have a lot to tell. We were picked up early Friday morning from the dorms, and headed south in a big van.
Our first stop was the blowhole at Kiama, a cute little retiree town and tourist attraction.  The blowhole is a natural rock structure that is over the ocean/surf; when the surf washes in the water and air pressure push water up a chute into the blowhole, and it shoots into the air. It was really cool to see something nature formed on its own that could do this, and also says something about how old the rocks on the shore are.

The view from the blowhole.

In Kiama we also did some shopping at the supermarket- our program coordinators gave each group of 4 $120 to buy groceries for the weekend, and we spent it pretty quickly.  We bought stuff like frozen pizzas and fancy juice and eggs- basics that we have missed since we got here.
I snapped some photos of the 4 hour drive... the scenery changed quite a bit...

View from the road of Seven Mile Beach, a popular beginner surfing beach about an hour south of Wollongong.

Seven Mile Beach

Lush landscape!

Dairy country.

There were also some wineries mixed into the dairy country.

We stayed at an awesome campground resort in Merry Beach- 2 groups of 4 shared cabins with full kitchens and barbecues and jacuzzi tubs.  The campground had lots of Aussie caravans parked by the beach, with families and kids and cool tents.  It was seriously one of the coolest places I have ever been to; as soon as we pulled onto the long road towards the campground we saw mobs of kangaroos laying in the sun in the grass and bouncing around camp.  The kangaroos even came up and bounced around the campsites.  Since that was my first kangaroo sighting, I was pretty stoked, and immediately wanted to get as close as I possibly could to the furry, bouncing 'roos.

Can you spot the wallaby?

Look closer! Wallabies are solitary and shy animals, so we are lucky we spotted this one!

It was seriously like a zoo at this camp- we ran into this HUGE lizard almost as soon as we arrived!

The kangaroos were super cool, but what was even cooler were the wild parrots everywhere. We even fed them out of our hands!

After playing with the birds our group went on a walk to a beach nearby.  Our destination, Pretty Beach, truly lived up to its name and was very pretty!  

Surfers at Pretty Beach in the afternoon

Gorgeous view from the clifftop!  The mountains truly meet the sea here.

The sandy path we took to Pretty Beach.  If you look at the tree on the right you can see that there has been a fire here recently.

The next day we woke up bright and early and headed south to hike Mt. Gulaga. It was about an hour and a half drive south.  Mt. Gulaga, or Mt. Dromedary in English, is located in southern NSW near Tilba.  The mountain is sacred to the local aboriginal people, as they believe that it is the place of ancestral origin for their people. It symbolizes a mother mountain of the people.

Our aboriginal guide was the daughter of an influential Aboriginal man who worked throughout the 20th century getting rights for aboriginals and preserving their holy places.  Mt. Gulaga is now owned by the Aboriginal communities of NSW because of its cultural and spiritual significance, and young aboriginals still go up to the mountain with their elders to learn and participate in the rituals. 

The hike up the mountain was the most grueling hike I have ever been on.  It was basically 800 m straight up; it was challenging, as I think I am a little out of shape, and I had to take some breaks on the way up.  I did snap some great photos, though, as we ascended.