I finally got to Sydney! (Details of my trip)
Hello everybody!
I am so happy to be FINALLY writing this post. I have been waiting four long years to make this trip to Sydney, and I finally did it!
On Friday the 6th of September 2019, myself and two of my carers (Karen and Julia), started our journey to Newcastle (Stop one of my holiday) at 6am in the morning. We stopped a brief rest in Coffs Harbour, approximately four hours from home, and then continued on our way to Newcastle.
We arrived in Newcastle somewhere between 2:30pm and 3:00pm (i'm not entirely sure what the actual time was). We checked in at the Ibis Newcastle, and made our way to our room. Once opening the door we realised that there was only one room for all three of us to sleep in. We then checked out the disabled amenities, which was hilariously bigger than the room we would be sleeping in. Which isn't a bad thing, just something funny to note. We found our way to a little Italian restaurant where we had dinner. I had some delicious Spaghetti Bolognese.
We were only in Newcastle for one night, before moving on to the next leg of our journey, which was visiting the Australian Reptile Park in Somersby, NSW and then continuing on to Sydney that afternoon.
The Australian Reptile Park was much smaller than I had anticipated it to be, but admittedly the only thing I had to go off of was the clips that had been shown on Bondi Vet. But it did not disappoint at all, it filled all of my expectations. I was hoping to catch a glimpse of Tim Faulkner (the general manager of the ARP, just in case you haven't seen Bondi Vet), however he wasn't there on the day I visited. Although I was able to Hugo the Galapagos Tortoise, one of the ARP'S most well-known residents. I was able to watch Hugo eat his lettuce and I noticed that something had happened to his shell, but couldn't work out what it was that had happened, and I was unable to get the attention of someone who might have been able to tell me. At the end of my day I was able to get my hands on Tim's two new children's books, both of which were released last year, they are; Neville the Devil and The Happy Humpback Whale.
Once we finished up at the ARP, we continued on and made our way down to Sydney!
When we reached Sydney, we got to our accommodation at the Hyde Park Inn, and unfortunately for Julia, she was taken down by a migraine, so had to spend some time trying to sleep it off. While Julia was down, Karen and I went to Coles to get groceries for the next few days. We made it back to the hotel just in time for Julia to wake up. We went to bed to get a good nights rest, before adventuring around in Sydney.
The next day, we went out intending to visit the Sea Life Aquarium but forgot our tickets. Thankfully the Maritime Museum, which is located in the same building as the aquarium, was hosting a photography exhibit. So it didn't turn out to be so bad that we'd forgotten the tickets.
On the next day, which was the 9th of September, we headed across to Taronga Zoo, via ferry. Upon arrival at the zoo, we attempted to go on the cable car, but unfortunately it was not disabled accessible. Once inside the zoo after a bit of re-configuring, due to the cable car idea being squashed, we mapped out our journey around the zoo. We spent the whole day at the zoo, getting to look at every single animal. The pygmy hippopotamus woke up from a nap while we were there, and we were expecting to see him go for a swim, but instead got him doing his business. The animals that were an absolute highlight to see were the meerkats, as we spent quite some time admiring and watching them.
SIDENOTE:
*I'm unable to remember which zoo it was that I visited on my trip, we were lucky enough to see platypus. The male was in one tank, while the female was in another tank. The story behind the female platypus was the fascinating one. We were speaking with one of the staff at the zoo and the female has actually been hand-reared, so because of that, she was smaller in size compared to the male in the other tank and also had a tendency to swim around in a square because she was raised in a square plastic box.
On the 10th of September we made our way back to the aquarium, this time, with our ticket. A small amount of the aquarium was actually "underwater". Many of the exhibits showed animals above water, giving you a better view at them. Before moving on to Bondi for the afternoon, which was probably my own personal highlight of visiting Sydney, not including the events of the next day. While we were in Bondi, we went for a walk along the beachfront, observing the waves which were perfect for surfers, however, the wind made it difficult for anyone that was trying to walk. I tried to meet some of the lifeguards from Bondi Rescue, but unfortunately that didn't happen, so we then went and took a look at Icebergs, and got a few photos while we were there.
On the 11th of September, we had reached the half-way mark of our time in Sydney. We spent the morning getting ready to head to Bondi Junction, so that we could visit Bondi Junction Veterinary Hospital (BJVH). I spent quite some time at the Veterinary Hospital, after defeating the stairs to get into the venue in the first place, as it's not disabled accessible. Once we were inside I spent some time talking to one of the vet nurses who goes by the name of Neil Coy (who you may have seen before if you've ever watched Bondi Vet). We spoke about different arthritis medications for dogs, because at the time of this trip Rusty was struggling with her arthritis and I was hoping to get some advice on other options we could try to assist her. (At the time I am writing this, Rusty is no longer with us, she passed away peacefully on Monday the 30th of September. R.I.P Rusty 💖). After this we spoke a little bit about Bondi Vet, as I have followed it since it began. I then asked him if Vet Gone Wild was continuing, he unfortunately was unable to tell me, so he was hoping that when he saw Dr Chris next, he might be able to tell me. We got several photos of me in Dr Chris' consult room and within the BJVH building. Before proceeding to leave we spoke about the fact that I was doing volunteer working and he wished me all the best in all my future endeavors.
Upon leaving BJVH, we proceeded to find a florist as I was on my way to meet Dr Lisa at the Small Animal Specialist Hospital, otherwise known as SASH. After succeeding in purchasing some flowers (a lovely pink bouquet) we made our way back to the car. In the car, while on our way to SASH, I was in disbelief that it was finally happening, I was finally going to be able to see SASH in person. Upon arrival at SASH, we walked in to the building that is specifically set up for veterinary oncology. Karen made her way up to the reception desk to inform them that we had arrived, and it was at that point that we were told we were in the wrong building. However, the receptionist was excellent and rang Dr Lisa, who promptly came to the building we were in, and spoke with the receptionist who then organised someone to come and collect us and take us through to the emergency building and give us a tour. When I met with Dr Lisa in the oncology building, I gave her the flowers that I had purchased earlier and we spoke about her dog Nelson doing hydrotherapy, as well as my pets at the time. Unfortunately, I didn't get to meet Nelson, but was still happy to know that he was in the building while I was there. It was during our time with the SASH tour guide that I met up with Dr Andrew and spoke with him for a little while, about my pets, which was nice considering the chances of meeting him were slim. After meeting Dr Andrew, we weren't at SASH for much longer, so we came back out to the reception area and the tour guide was kind enough to get me a SASH goodie bag, which I am under the assumption they had when attending the Sydney dog lovers show. The goodie bag consisted of a map of SASH and some information, two stickers, two business cards, a pen and a slip lead as well as a signed photo of Dr Lisa and Dr Andrew.
After leaving SASH we spent the rest of the afternoon at Bondi Beach and Bondi Icebergs. We had originally planned to go in the water at Bondi Beach, however, it was extremely windy so we decided against it and instead made our way to the Bondi Icebergs to have a look. Unfortunately, the main way to get there was not entirely disabled accessible so we had to take the longer route, which was still somewhat difficult as there were electrical poles along the pathway that I had to weave around, and the pathway itself was already fairly skinny, not giving me much room. Once we had finished up in Bondi, we went to Ben & Jerry's for some ice cream, before proceeding to head back to the unit, as we had to do more driving the next day.
The next day we left Sydney to make our way to Symbio Wildllife Park, located in Helensburgh. At Symbio they had a cheetah named lion, who was spoken about during the cheetah presentation. During the presentation, hosted by a lady named Jules, we were informed that cheetah's are equipped with free-floating shoulder blades, which allows them to take greater strides, therefore, contributing to their speed. Once we were finished up at Symbio we headed to Wollongong, our home for the night.
We left Wollongong to travel to Bateman's Bay, where we would be visiting Mogo Zoo.
We visited Mogo Zoo on the 14th of September. As excited as I was to visit Mogo Zoo, there were some parts of the park that were not disabled accessible, which meant I was missing out on some things. Although, I did get to see the external of their veterinary facility. Apart from the veterinary facility I got to see a heap of animals, such as; gibbons, snow leopard (which was sleeping) and a Fennec fox just to name a few. Unfortunately, some of the animals we wanted to see had been removed from exhibit at the time we were there. We tried to find some goodies for myself in the gift shop, but were ultimately unsuccessful, especially in finding what we had originally set out to buy.
The day after visiting Mogo Zoo, we made our way back to Newcastle, and began the final days of the trip. We also celebrated Karen's birthday on the same day.
On our last day in Newcastle, the 16th of September, I met up with a friend of mine named Tarryn, who currently lives down in Newcastle. We had dinner at a thai restaurant, and caught up after not having seen each other for quite some time. I was also lucky enough to meet her husband, who I hadn't met before, as the last time I had seen her, she hadn't been married. We had a good chat about life and things that were going on, including the fact that her and her husband both work in the same hospital. I got to see some photos and pictures of her two dogs, one is a labrador and the other one I am fairly sure is a dachshund. Before parting ways, we took a photo to remember the moment, of which I will put up at the end of this blog, along with my photos of me with Dr Lisa and Dr Andrew. (All other photos will be linked from Facebook)
The final day involved a lot of driving...
And then it was over.
https://www.facebook.com/stephanie.collas.1/media_set?set=a.2573921122838209&type=3
I hope you enjoyed reading about my trip to Sydney!
Stephanie :)
I am so happy to be FINALLY writing this post. I have been waiting four long years to make this trip to Sydney, and I finally did it!
On Friday the 6th of September 2019, myself and two of my carers (Karen and Julia), started our journey to Newcastle (Stop one of my holiday) at 6am in the morning. We stopped a brief rest in Coffs Harbour, approximately four hours from home, and then continued on our way to Newcastle.
We arrived in Newcastle somewhere between 2:30pm and 3:00pm (i'm not entirely sure what the actual time was). We checked in at the Ibis Newcastle, and made our way to our room. Once opening the door we realised that there was only one room for all three of us to sleep in. We then checked out the disabled amenities, which was hilariously bigger than the room we would be sleeping in. Which isn't a bad thing, just something funny to note. We found our way to a little Italian restaurant where we had dinner. I had some delicious Spaghetti Bolognese.
We were only in Newcastle for one night, before moving on to the next leg of our journey, which was visiting the Australian Reptile Park in Somersby, NSW and then continuing on to Sydney that afternoon.
The Australian Reptile Park was much smaller than I had anticipated it to be, but admittedly the only thing I had to go off of was the clips that had been shown on Bondi Vet. But it did not disappoint at all, it filled all of my expectations. I was hoping to catch a glimpse of Tim Faulkner (the general manager of the ARP, just in case you haven't seen Bondi Vet), however he wasn't there on the day I visited. Although I was able to Hugo the Galapagos Tortoise, one of the ARP'S most well-known residents. I was able to watch Hugo eat his lettuce and I noticed that something had happened to his shell, but couldn't work out what it was that had happened, and I was unable to get the attention of someone who might have been able to tell me. At the end of my day I was able to get my hands on Tim's two new children's books, both of which were released last year, they are; Neville the Devil and The Happy Humpback Whale.
Once we finished up at the ARP, we continued on and made our way down to Sydney!
When we reached Sydney, we got to our accommodation at the Hyde Park Inn, and unfortunately for Julia, she was taken down by a migraine, so had to spend some time trying to sleep it off. While Julia was down, Karen and I went to Coles to get groceries for the next few days. We made it back to the hotel just in time for Julia to wake up. We went to bed to get a good nights rest, before adventuring around in Sydney.
The next day, we went out intending to visit the Sea Life Aquarium but forgot our tickets. Thankfully the Maritime Museum, which is located in the same building as the aquarium, was hosting a photography exhibit. So it didn't turn out to be so bad that we'd forgotten the tickets.
On the next day, which was the 9th of September, we headed across to Taronga Zoo, via ferry. Upon arrival at the zoo, we attempted to go on the cable car, but unfortunately it was not disabled accessible. Once inside the zoo after a bit of re-configuring, due to the cable car idea being squashed, we mapped out our journey around the zoo. We spent the whole day at the zoo, getting to look at every single animal. The pygmy hippopotamus woke up from a nap while we were there, and we were expecting to see him go for a swim, but instead got him doing his business. The animals that were an absolute highlight to see were the meerkats, as we spent quite some time admiring and watching them.
SIDENOTE:
*I'm unable to remember which zoo it was that I visited on my trip, we were lucky enough to see platypus. The male was in one tank, while the female was in another tank. The story behind the female platypus was the fascinating one. We were speaking with one of the staff at the zoo and the female has actually been hand-reared, so because of that, she was smaller in size compared to the male in the other tank and also had a tendency to swim around in a square because she was raised in a square plastic box.
On the 10th of September we made our way back to the aquarium, this time, with our ticket. A small amount of the aquarium was actually "underwater". Many of the exhibits showed animals above water, giving you a better view at them. Before moving on to Bondi for the afternoon, which was probably my own personal highlight of visiting Sydney, not including the events of the next day. While we were in Bondi, we went for a walk along the beachfront, observing the waves which were perfect for surfers, however, the wind made it difficult for anyone that was trying to walk. I tried to meet some of the lifeguards from Bondi Rescue, but unfortunately that didn't happen, so we then went and took a look at Icebergs, and got a few photos while we were there.
On the 11th of September, we had reached the half-way mark of our time in Sydney. We spent the morning getting ready to head to Bondi Junction, so that we could visit Bondi Junction Veterinary Hospital (BJVH). I spent quite some time at the Veterinary Hospital, after defeating the stairs to get into the venue in the first place, as it's not disabled accessible. Once we were inside I spent some time talking to one of the vet nurses who goes by the name of Neil Coy (who you may have seen before if you've ever watched Bondi Vet). We spoke about different arthritis medications for dogs, because at the time of this trip Rusty was struggling with her arthritis and I was hoping to get some advice on other options we could try to assist her. (At the time I am writing this, Rusty is no longer with us, she passed away peacefully on Monday the 30th of September. R.I.P Rusty 💖). After this we spoke a little bit about Bondi Vet, as I have followed it since it began. I then asked him if Vet Gone Wild was continuing, he unfortunately was unable to tell me, so he was hoping that when he saw Dr Chris next, he might be able to tell me. We got several photos of me in Dr Chris' consult room and within the BJVH building. Before proceeding to leave we spoke about the fact that I was doing volunteer working and he wished me all the best in all my future endeavors.
Upon leaving BJVH, we proceeded to find a florist as I was on my way to meet Dr Lisa at the Small Animal Specialist Hospital, otherwise known as SASH. After succeeding in purchasing some flowers (a lovely pink bouquet) we made our way back to the car. In the car, while on our way to SASH, I was in disbelief that it was finally happening, I was finally going to be able to see SASH in person. Upon arrival at SASH, we walked in to the building that is specifically set up for veterinary oncology. Karen made her way up to the reception desk to inform them that we had arrived, and it was at that point that we were told we were in the wrong building. However, the receptionist was excellent and rang Dr Lisa, who promptly came to the building we were in, and spoke with the receptionist who then organised someone to come and collect us and take us through to the emergency building and give us a tour. When I met with Dr Lisa in the oncology building, I gave her the flowers that I had purchased earlier and we spoke about her dog Nelson doing hydrotherapy, as well as my pets at the time. Unfortunately, I didn't get to meet Nelson, but was still happy to know that he was in the building while I was there. It was during our time with the SASH tour guide that I met up with Dr Andrew and spoke with him for a little while, about my pets, which was nice considering the chances of meeting him were slim. After meeting Dr Andrew, we weren't at SASH for much longer, so we came back out to the reception area and the tour guide was kind enough to get me a SASH goodie bag, which I am under the assumption they had when attending the Sydney dog lovers show. The goodie bag consisted of a map of SASH and some information, two stickers, two business cards, a pen and a slip lead as well as a signed photo of Dr Lisa and Dr Andrew.
After leaving SASH we spent the rest of the afternoon at Bondi Beach and Bondi Icebergs. We had originally planned to go in the water at Bondi Beach, however, it was extremely windy so we decided against it and instead made our way to the Bondi Icebergs to have a look. Unfortunately, the main way to get there was not entirely disabled accessible so we had to take the longer route, which was still somewhat difficult as there were electrical poles along the pathway that I had to weave around, and the pathway itself was already fairly skinny, not giving me much room. Once we had finished up in Bondi, we went to Ben & Jerry's for some ice cream, before proceeding to head back to the unit, as we had to do more driving the next day.
The next day we left Sydney to make our way to Symbio Wildllife Park, located in Helensburgh. At Symbio they had a cheetah named lion, who was spoken about during the cheetah presentation. During the presentation, hosted by a lady named Jules, we were informed that cheetah's are equipped with free-floating shoulder blades, which allows them to take greater strides, therefore, contributing to their speed. Once we were finished up at Symbio we headed to Wollongong, our home for the night.
We left Wollongong to travel to Bateman's Bay, where we would be visiting Mogo Zoo.
We visited Mogo Zoo on the 14th of September. As excited as I was to visit Mogo Zoo, there were some parts of the park that were not disabled accessible, which meant I was missing out on some things. Although, I did get to see the external of their veterinary facility. Apart from the veterinary facility I got to see a heap of animals, such as; gibbons, snow leopard (which was sleeping) and a Fennec fox just to name a few. Unfortunately, some of the animals we wanted to see had been removed from exhibit at the time we were there. We tried to find some goodies for myself in the gift shop, but were ultimately unsuccessful, especially in finding what we had originally set out to buy.
The day after visiting Mogo Zoo, we made our way back to Newcastle, and began the final days of the trip. We also celebrated Karen's birthday on the same day.
On our last day in Newcastle, the 16th of September, I met up with a friend of mine named Tarryn, who currently lives down in Newcastle. We had dinner at a thai restaurant, and caught up after not having seen each other for quite some time. I was also lucky enough to meet her husband, who I hadn't met before, as the last time I had seen her, she hadn't been married. We had a good chat about life and things that were going on, including the fact that her and her husband both work in the same hospital. I got to see some photos and pictures of her two dogs, one is a labrador and the other one I am fairly sure is a dachshund. Before parting ways, we took a photo to remember the moment, of which I will put up at the end of this blog, along with my photos of me with Dr Lisa and Dr Andrew. (All other photos will be linked from Facebook)
The final day involved a lot of driving...
And then it was over.
https://www.facebook.com/stephanie.collas.1/media_set?set=a.2573921122838209&type=3
I hope you enjoyed reading about my trip to Sydney!
Stephanie :)
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