Sydney Study Tour 2014 - Blog

The study tour group comprises eight Y12 students from Queen Elizabeth's Grammar, Alford: Annabel Armstrong, Sally Devereux, Dion Harrison, Amelia Houltby, Jamie Saunders, Georgia Stephenson, Daniel Till and Clare Toogood. Each day a different student leads the day and will write the blog for the day:

Day 1 - Amelia Houltby

After a long and tiring journey we have finally arrived in Sydney, and it was definitely worth travelling all this way for. The first leg of the flight to Dubai took 7 hours and before we knew it we were on a 13 hour flight to complete our journey to Sydney. We then got a minibus to the hotel and tried to get a good night’s sleep before beginning our study tour. Our first day began leisurely with breakfast at the café across the road called ‘Naggy’s’. The food was delicious, especially the banana and maple syrup pancakes which went down a treat. We then walked into the city centre, soaking up the atmosphere and discovering more about the way of life in Sydney. It was also the first time we experienced the Australian sun and we were all amazed by how hot it is.

We made our way to Circular Quay where we got our first glimpse of the Harbour Bridge and the Opera House and we were all stunned by how beautiful the view was and the scenery was made even more amazing by the blue water, clear skies and shining sun. The view was accompanied by the sound of aboriginal music, didgeridoos and eccentric street entertainers, all of which were very intriguing.

We then went to The Rocks area to the Discovery Museum where we learnt about the history of the area and how it has become what it is today which was very interesting. We found out about the aboriginal people who first lived there, the first immigrants from the UK that lived there and what life has been life throughout the ages at The Rocks.

After visiting the museum, we made our way past the Opera House to the Botanical Gardens where we strolled through the luscious grounds by the water and got to grips with some of the different wildlife that Sydney has to offer. We also got saw some different views of the Harbour Bridge and Opera House which were equally as stunning as the first. We then made our way back to the hotel before heading out for a delicious Italian meal down the road from the hotel.

Day 2 - Dion Harrison

Greetings from Sydney, where our second day began with a bus ride to the Hyde Park Barracks. Here we developed an understanding of the history of the city and its convict past; the Barracks was designed to house 600 Sydney convicts, who would otherwise have to steal to afford accommodation costs. However, the building in fact contained up to 1200 people at its peak. Facts such as this were expertly delivered by our insightful tour guide, enabling us to fully immerse ourselves into Australia’s past.

Following our morning at the Hyde Park Barracks, we spent lunch at Harry’s Café De Wheels. At the café, we were challenged to eat the ‘Tiger’, which consisted of a pie, topped with mashed potato, mushy peas and gravy. Determined, we rallied together and five of the group succeeded in the challenge (myself included).In order to burn off some of the calories from this achievement, we took a walk to the day’s subsequent destination – the Museum of Contemporary Art.

The museum featured a Yoko Ono exhibition, ‘war is over (if you want it)’. The displays – although confusing at times – proved extremely thought provoking; in particular, several chess boards consisting of two sets of white pieces. Consequently (as in war), while both sides oppose each other, they are actually one and the same. Other exhibitions were also present at the museum, including a range of Australian exhibits, further involving us in the nation’s culture and unique aspects. The museum – with its modern art and design – provided a significant contrast to the morning’s historical theme, showing the development of Australia through the years.

The conclusion of the day however, proved to be the highlight; climbing the Sydney Harbour Bridge was extraordinary for everybody in the group. While putting on our climbing jumpsuits, we also removed any apprehension of the heights we would scale and approached the Bridge with a collective determined and enthusiastic mind-set. From the very peak of the Harbour Bridge, we were able to fully absorb the sensational views on offer, especially of the magnificent Sydney Opera House. During the climb, we also learned about the development of the bridge, such as that it contains over six million rivets, individually applied into the structure.

The day therefore, proved to be a fantastic experience for us whilst in addition, expanding our knowledge on Sydney as a city today and how it developed into this.

Day 3 - Annabel Armstrong

We began today with yet another delicious breakfast at Naggy's which was thoroughly enjoyed by everyone. We then travelled to the Circular Quay on the bus to catch the ferry to Manly, which had beautiful views of both Sydney and Manly, for our surfing lesson. The surfing lesson was amazing and an experience all of us will remember after setting a challenge to stand up by the end of the lesson. After many exhausting returns into the sea to try again, and many falls, we all managed to complete this challenge. Jamie was our pro-surfer who, even on the first attempt at riding the wave, successfully stood up on the surf board and continued to do so. We were very fortunate with the timing of our lesson as the Australian Open for Surfing was taking place literally metres away from where we had our lesson.

After our lesson we then walked along the sea front to a smaller beach and a rock pool and on this journey we got a sight of the incredible views of the Manly coast as well as seeing many water dragons which were very fascinating. To finish our trip to Manly we walked back to the centre and stopped for dinner at a fish and chip shop which we ate along the sea-front and the food was very tasty. The weather today after a cloudy start was extremely sunny so a surfing lesson in the refreshing sea was needed for us all and the day was one which I'm sure none of us will forget in a hurry.

I had been nervous about my leadership day but really enjoyed it. I had researched all of the transport carefully and everything went to plan – I even managed to sort out all of the change for breakfast.

Day 4 - Clare Toogood

Today started with us all leaving the hotel bright-eyed and bushy-tailed at 7:45 am, having eaten breakfast in bed that we had bought from the super market yesterday, as we knew we wouldn’t have time for breakfast at Naggy’s today. I managed to successfully navigate around the train station without getting lost. This, according to Miss Francis, is the first time that this has ever happened! Woo!

Upon arriving at Strathfield Station and reaching Meriden School, we were greeted by Mrs Stevens (Head of Senior School) who informed us of the plan for today. We would each be joining three lessons today, to either participate or observe. Some of these included Chinese, Latin, Geography, Chemistry, Maths, Economics and Extension English. Everyone really enjoyed each of the lessons that they were in; Millie even learnt a Chinese song and we await her performance!

I went into one of the Extension English classes, which I found out was an additional course that students could take as well as their original Additional English; which is the equivalent of our A Level English Literature course. We did The Strange Case of Dr Jekyl and Mr Hyde and the concept of duplicity combined with the good and evil nature within human beings. However, they ended up finishing the lesson ten minutes early just to ask me questions! They included subjects like had I ever been to the Harry Potter Studios in London. (Yes!!!)

Half way through the day there was the weekly chapel service. It was during this that Daniel and I were called up on stage to be interviewed by the Chaplain. During this session, we were asked to pronounce different Australian places, such as Woolloomooloo as well as identifying whether some of the places were actually real of not. One final thing happened of interest though during that service . . . Daniel was asked to that read out some of the lyrics to 'What Makes You Beautiful' by One Direction which led to the development of his fan club.

In the afternoon, after a tour of the school, we performed our speeches to some of the students and while many of us were nervous, everything went well. Everyone was very interested in what we were speaking about although we got a few digs about the recent Ashes failure. Therefore, afterwards, we managed to defend our honour saying that at least the women’s team retained the Ashes.

All-in-all today has been brilliant. While I was very nervous today for my leadership day, everything was a success as we didn’t get lost! I thoroughly enjoyed everything today and can’t wait for tomorrow.

Taronga Zoo here we come!

Day 5 - Sally Devereux

G’day from Australia!

Today the group woke up to the hottest temperatures so far, so after generously applying sunscreen and another delicious breakfast at Naggy’s, we headed to Circular Quay. Despite the rather congested traffic, we got to the Wharf with time to spare to catch our ferry to Taronga Zoo. We had another chance to catch some breath taking views of the cityscape during our journey, and take a few photos.

We managed to master our map reading skills soon after arriving and headed straight for the Tasmanian Devil talk. Here, we gained an insight into how they feed, navigate and breed, as well as some information about the Devil Facial Tumour Disease, one of the only types of contagious cancer in the world which has the potential to wipe out the entire species. After this we had a quick march to the bird show, a highlight for many members of the group. Owls, parrots and various other birds swooped low over the audience, and one even took a dollar coin out of somebody’s hand and then returned it to them!

We then enjoyed a refreshing ice cream before splitting off into smaller groups to explore the rest of the zoo. The “Australian Walkabout” section proved popular, where we had the chance to get extremely close to wallabies and kangaroos, and a few people succeeded in seeing a platypus! After a final keeper talk concerning the very cute Koala Bears, the group headed back to the ferry wharf via the sky safari gondolas, providing us with a last minute glimpse of the zoo.

This evening, the group are heading to a vegetarian restaurant. One of the aims of the trip is to get people out of their comfort zones, so I’ll be interested to see how the group react to a diet that is unfamiliar to them. Today I’ve really enjoyed the challenge of adopting different leadership styles throughout the day, such as an authoritarian approach whilst travelling and a more consultative approach around the zoo. We are hoping for an early night, in anticipation of our final speeches at Thomas Hassel School tomorrow.

Day 6 - Georgia Stephenson

Good afternoon once again from Sydney! We participated in our second school visit today, this time travelling to the Thomas Hassall School, an Anglican College for girls and boys. We had an early start setting off from our hotel at around half seven – we took the train to the school which we caught with around two seconds to spare! We finally arrived at the school by half nine before being introduced to the Principal and senior prefect team. We were all treated to a tour of the college by the prefects, in which they showed us the wide breadth of buildings and facilities they had to offer for their pupils ranging from kindergarten years, up until the most senior students.

After our tours we were led to one of the school halls where we once again performed our speeches to a group of Year 10 and 11 students – just like at Meriden they were a success. Thomas Hassall thoroughly enjoyed our speeches and made us feel very welcome, with them showing us their own presentation of their school which we all found insightful. Before we left the school we had the opportunity to observe some of their lessons in our specialist subjects, and they kindly provided us with a goodie bag and packed lunch to enjoy on the train journey home.

Currently we are all smartening ourselves up for our visit to the Opera House tonight, and we shall update you later on how we found our operatic experience!

I have just arrived back from what was a spectacular experience at the Opera! We all travelled on the bus to get to the Opera House and as expected caused commuters to exchange surprised glances at us, with some even suggesting theories as to why ten people were on the bus all dressed up – these included that we were off to a prom and even attending a wedding! Once we arrived we proceeded to the Opera Bar where we all enjoyed drinks and tasty appetisers whilst taking in the spectacular view of the Harbour Bridge lit up in darkness. Before long it was time for the performance to start and we all eagerly rushed to our seats.

The Magic Flute itself was outstanding and throughout both halves I could not take my eyes of the spectacular visuals in front of me. The standard of the sets was accurate to every detail that the fantastic vocalists sang – their voices blew me away. Everything about The Magic Flute was mesmerising and I really enjoyed the addition of the foolish Papageno who worked well as a light-hearted comic element and this mixed with the more serious moments of the production concerning the Prince Tamino and his brave quest to find his beloved Pamina. When asking other members of the group of their opinions of the Opera reactions I received included ‘the singing was amazing but the special effects also blew me away’ and ‘the whole experience being very enthralling’. We all agreed that we would have to watch another Opera in the future.

Day 7 - Jamie Saunders

After a spectacular night at the opera house the group woke up fairly late and had breakfast at 8:30 am across the road at Naggy’s. After a leisurely breakfast I led the group to the local market held in the Glebe primary school grounds which had a wide range of stalls offering jewellery, clothes and even musical instruments. After some wandering around and a few purchases we continued our journey to the Blue Mountains. We caught the 11:15 am train from Central Station up to Katoomba. The train journey itself greeted us with vast green spaces containing beautiful trees and landscapes which covered the horizon.

After the relaxing two hour train journey the group was lively and ready to go walking down Katoomba Street. Catching a quick snack at the local shops we made our way to Echo Point which provides a view of the surrounding mountains and probably most importantly the Three Sisters. Everyone was impressed with the views and many photos were taken of the surroundings. One of the things we found quite early on in our journey in Australia is that the Australians like to name things literally, for example the harbour bridge, Sydney opera house and Circular Quay. The Blue Mountains are no exception to this trend as the horizon encompassing the mountains was a beautiful blue colour from the eucalyptus trees.

The next challenge of the day, the giant stairway, proved to be a formidable foe with very steep and uneven stairs that the group managed to scale with great care. The stairs themselves led us around and up to the first of the Three Sisters and then even further down into the mountains. Once we had safely made our way down the giant stairs we stopped for a break and sweets were shared out amongst the group. I then led us across the mountains from Echo Point to Katoomba waterfall which although it seems a short distance on the map turned out to take longer than we expected with paths that seemed to climb up the mountains then take us lower again. The walk proved to be interesting including Georgia’s encounter with a caterpillar that managed to find its way into one of her socks and also a beautiful rendition of the school song in order to keep the morale high during the tiring trek across the mountains.

Relieved to have scaled across the mountains it wasn’t long before we caught the last bus of the day to take the group back into Katoomba; the bus itself a replica of a 1969 trolley bus. Once in Katoomba again the meal for the night was Chinese and we found a restaurant called Bamboo Box. It was Dion’s very first taste of Chinese cuisine and the whole group attempted to eat the whole meal using chopsticks (including Dion) with a very high success rate thanks to Millie’s chopstick demonstrations. We then caught the 7:20 pm train back to Central Station. The whole group was tired and ready for bed with our last full day in Australia ahead tomorrow.

The leadership day was fun with its own challenges along the way, leading everyone across Sydney and to the right train stations and platforms and then navigating the group in completely new surroundings. It also proved to be rewarding as well with the feedback from the day and the experiences that everyone took from the day. I am pleased that the group enjoyed the day and hopefully went outside of their comfort zone and tried something new .

Day 8 - Daniel Till

Good evening from the other side of the world. Our final full day in Sydney again began with a trip across the road to Naggy’s café for breakfast with most of the group opting for the French toast with bananas and maple syrup. After an eventful bus journey, with the bus being redirected from our usual route into the city centre we arrived in The Rocks Market. The harbour side is in my opinion somewhere so perfect to be shopping even though it was raining quite heavily all day. This gave us a good chance to see what The Rocks has to offer with their various artists and stall holders, and also the opportunity to buy some one-off and handmade gifts for our families.

At 12 o’clock we took the short walk to Circular Quay from the markets to catch the ferry to Manly, where the weather was still poor with heavy rain. We then went and collected our hybrid bikes and went on a bike ride up to North Head where we would be able to view Sydney city centre from afar. Despite the rain we managed to navigate our way from the ferry wharf all the way to North Head in Manly. With spirits high at the top we were all thankful for the downhill stretch and the accompanying back wind. I then led the sodden wet group through back into the centre where we dried off and the rain stopped. We then walked through Manly to collect our final gifts and went down to watch some surfing. The group then went for their second helping of the fruit salad we had on Annabel’s day, Tuesday, which again did not disappoint.

We then walked back through to the ferry port with stops in a few shops including donuts from Krispy Kreme. We caught the half past 4 ferry back to Circular Quay and ended up catching a train to Central station and then a bus back to the hotel which went well considering an unscheduled transfer to train. Because of the time, I gave the group just under an hour, a tall order for some (myself included) to smarten up for our final evening meal by the harbour at a restaurant called Wolfies. We made our way down to Wolfies for our 8:30 booking. The group made excellent meal choices with Kangaroo, crocodile and huge New York steaks on the cards. Our food was beautiful and, put simply, one of the best meals I have ever had. It was however the most expensive meal I have ever had to pay for with a rather handsome cost for the group, including pudding for some. I gathered the money from group members and we left back for the train, and then a final bus to the hotel room.

I thoroughly enjoyed my time as leader today and everything went according to plan. I felt I dealt with different challenges that arose through the day really well. The group, however, made my job very easy, all being very attentive and in high spirits and made the day a great success. Everybody is now feeling a bit low having to start their packing this evening ready for tomorrow’s 9:45 pm departure from Sydney International Airport.

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