True Blue Mountain Tours / Featherdale Wildlife Park

If there was one thing that I could afford spending money to do while in Sydney, this was it. I saw a brochure for the tour in the lobby of the hotel while I was waiting for the room to be available, and really, the selling point for me was the admission for the Featherdale Wildlife Park which advertised cuddling a koala and feeding and patting kangaroos. Shelby recommended to me to go to Blue Mountain if I could, so I knew this was something I had to do. The animals were just a bonus!

The tour started when the bus came to pick us up at our hotel at 7:20am. We had a few more pickups to do before we headed out to our first stop on the tour, Olympic Park. At first, I was just thinking that we were going to some park that was just in an area called Olympic, or whatever. It actually didn't even cross my mind that we were going to the actual park where the 2000 Summer Olympics were held. Cool, more stuff I didn't realize I was paying for. It was neat to be on the Olympic grounds, but nothing too special without the vibe and energy of the games.

The Olympic Torch and just one of the stadiums. When we got there, there was some kind of world firefighter games going on as well which was pretty cool and interesting, but we didn't have too much time to check it out.




After the stop at the Olympic Park, we were off to the Blue Mountains. We spent way too long in traffic on what our tour guide Vincent said was the worst road for traffic in Sydney, and was in an ugly industrial part of the city, so not very visually stimulating, but at least we had air conditioning in the van.

Once we finally got our of the traffic, we had a little bit of a stop in a town called Leura where Vincent wouldn't stop talking about this sweet shop, so we had to check it out. It was cute, but nothing special. The town itself was also a pretty cute place to visit with a few cafes and shops.

Peek-a-boo! ====>

Leura was also our first natural scenic stop on the trip. These are the Leura Cascades, which I was actually expecting to be a lot bigger from the advertisements, but it was beautiful nonetheless. Reminded me of home =)










After our stop at Leura, we were finally headed to the Blue Mountains.

The Blue Mountains were really beautiful and it was nice to get to see some of the nature in Australia. First, we took the Skyway cable which took us across the mountains to the Scenic World vistor center, passing by the Katoomba Falls to the start of the walks through the old mining sites.

Next we rode the Scenic Railway, claimed to be the steepest railway in the world. It used to be for coal mining, but has since been changed into a tourist attraction. At the bottom of the railway, there are several paths through the eucalyptus forests and the old coal mining sites.














Unfortunately, with so much booked into the tour, we didn't have very much time to explore or walk through some of the longer paths. That was the main downside of this guided tour for me. I would have liked to spend some time hiking through some of the many trails that were in and around this Natural Heritage site, but we had to rush to our less than satisfying lunch in order to stay on schedule.

Here's a picture of Tanya and I with the famous Three Sisters in the background.

After lunch we headed to what for me was anticipated to be the highlight of the tour, the Featherdale Wildlife Park! Yay, koalas and kangaroos! I'm so excited!!!

We got to the wildlife park, and I was giddy like a child, as per usual when it comes to me and animals, especially with the promise of getting to snuggle them or pet and feed them. Seriously, I need to work at a petting zoo or something. It was already afternoon when we got to the park, and as soon as we entered, there were little kangaroos lounging around pretty much loose within the property. I thought it was pretty cool that they were just amongst the people instead of within an enclosure. As we continued though the park, it was really cool to see the wombats, tasmanian devils, kangaroos, koalas, and kookaburras, all native to Australia. I loved how up close and personal you could interact with the animals, as seen with Mr. Kookaburra below =)

Taking this picture was hilarious because I was so close to the bird, but not sure if it was going to bite my hand or my camera, so as I was cracking up, I was still trying to keep at a distance from the little guy.

Unfortunately, as we continued through the park and got to take our photo with the koala, I was noticing how unhappy and tired the animals all looked. It was really sad =( The animals all looked really stressed out and the enclosures were really small, and even though I love the interactivity with all the animals, I found that I wasn't really enjoying myself. I think the saddest part for me was seeing the wallabies fenced into such a small space that didn't feel like a natural habitat at all, especially after seeing how happy and free the wallabies were at the Paradise Springs in Rotorua. Plus you got to pet those ones and they seemed to like it and the food. The way that these wallabies were caged made them look mean and angry, not cute and cuddly like I remembered them. I left the Featherdale Wildlife Park feeling a bit sad and dissatisfied with my experience, but it was still fun to see some animals that I dont think I have ever seen before.

After the wildlife park, we had one more stop to take a ferry back to Circular Quay, the main harbor in Sydney. Originally we thought we would just be taking a short ferry from one harbor to the next, but we ended up taking the River Cat for a good 30-45min ride, which was nice despite the cold wind and my summery outfit. We also met a really nice older couple from the UK, and had some nice conversation with them. When we finally rode in under the Sydney Harbour Bridge and docked at Circular Quay, the tour was officially over. It was a nice way to end the long day, and I was feeling pretty tired and ready for some dinner. All in all, I'd say it was a great day.