Sydney, Day 4 – Round 2

It’s our last full day here in Sydney, and when we woke up it was raining. Rain here in the fall isn’t like at home – it usually doesn’t last long and it definitely isn’t cold. As we were up early (getting up by 6 and to bed by 9:30), we decided to do laundry before heading out – partially hoping that the rain would stop.

It worked! We left the condo about 8:45 to catch the Sydney Explorer Hop On, Hop Off bus tour outside the Australian Museum. We could have just bought a bus pass but we really like the commentary on tours like this and it was an open top double decker. The ticket included two routes – the one through Sydney and one to Bondi Beach. We started with the Sydney tour and the commentary didn’t disappoint – Aussies call the Vital Statistics office the “Match, Hatch and Dispatch” office *lol* The bus went down some fairly narrow streets with lots of traffic. Lots of interesting buildings (but hard to take photos) and we discovered that the reason there are so many old buildings mixed with new ones is that Sydney has designated a lot of the old buildings to be heritage so they can’t be demolished to make way for high rises. Good on ya, Sydney! They’ve even designated an old Coca-Cola sign as heritage.

Heritage Designated Coca Cola sign, Kings Cross, Sydney

The Sydney route was supposed to take 90 minutes but with the traffic,

Busy streets

it was more like 180 minutes. We did meet some people from Calgary who were here to join a cruise back to Vancouver. We arrived back at Central Station, one of the stops where you could change to the Bondi route and didn’t have too long to wait for the bus. We chose to sit in the covered area for a while as the rain had started again and it was just a tad damp. It wasn’t long before it stopped, so we moved back to the top deck where the view is better. Once we got to Bondi, we decided to get off and find some lunch. The brochure recommended Bondi Surf Seafoods so we thought we’d give it a try. The store didn’t look like much but they had batter without eggs and the daily lunch special was 2 fish, 1 chip for $22.50.

Bondi Surf Seafood, Bondi Beach

Ok, it seemed a little pricey but we were hungry so we ordered. Imagine our surprise when we got that portion each for $22.50 total. This is one portion

Don’t really need dinner now 🙂

We spent about an hour at the beach – it was less windy than the first time we were there and there were people actually in the water.

Chris and John at Bondi Beach

We finished off the Bondi route and found that one of the stops was in the same place as we had started so we didn’t need to transfer buses again. It was fun to see some of the places that were beyond walking distance.

Tomorrow we will be up early to catch our shuttle to the airport at 6:30. Next stop – Port Douglas, Queensland.

Harbour Bridge from Rose Bay

Bondi Beach Mosaics

Bondi Beach Mural

Sydney, Day 3 – Round 2

Lots and lots of walking today – we headed out fairly early to visit the Royal Botanical Gardens and the Anzac Memorial in Hyde Park. It was lovely in Hyde Park – although we were there to early to visit the Memorial building. No worries – we’ll go on the way back 🙂 We saw lots of commuters using the paths in the park as shortcuts, people walking their dogs, families out for an early outing before it got hot. And it did get hot today – 29 Celsius with 99% humidity.

We wandered our way down to the Botanical Gardens and saw the statues of Mathew Flinders and his cat at the New South Wales State Library. I had read a story by an Australian author, Bryce Courtenay, titled Mathew Flinder’s Cat so I was happy to see that the statue really did exist.

Statue of Mathew Flinder’s Cat

Once we got to the Gardens, I looked for my iphone to check some geocaching information only to discover that I had left the phone back at the condo. Hmmmm – did we really need the phone? We decided that we did so we headed back to the condo to get it (and for me to put on clothing which was more weather appropriate).

On our way back, the Anzac Memorial was open so we stopped to pay our respects. The museum section was open too and there was a very moving tribute to the soldiers of World War 1. There was also a new memorial (opened this year) to the Indigenous Soldiers at Hyde Park – the standing bullets represent the soldiers who came home and the fallen ones are the soldiers who gave their lives.

Memorial to the Indigenous Soldiers at Hyde Park

Because the temperature was heating up, we decided to catch the free CBD shuttle bus that apparently stopped on Elizabeth Street and George Street. Well, we walked almost all the way back to the Gardens and still hadn’t found the shuttle. So much for that plan. On our last visit to Sydney, we had visited part of the Gardens so we were interested in visiting other parts today – first stop was Government House – the grounds are open for viewing from 10 to 4. Unfortunately, they didn’t invite us in for tea *s*

Government House, Sydney

After we looked at Government House, we headed for Mrs. MacQuarie’s Chair to complete an earthcache.

John and Chris at Mrs. MacQuarie’s Chair

While on our way to the chair, we saw the set for the opera Aida. It is an outdoor production in the Botanical Gardens. I have a photo but it insists on being inserted sideways into the blog!

After 5.5 hours of walking, we were getting a little warm and decided to see if we could find the free shuttle bus at the Circular Quay station. This was much easier (although I think we could have walked faster than the bus was driving) and we managed to get off only 2 blocks from the condo.

Tomorrow is our last day in Sydney and I think we have decided to do the Hop On, Hop Off bus tour.

Water Lily at the Botanical Gardens

Sulphur Crested Cockatoo

Noisy Miner bird

Sydney, Day 2 (Round 2)

We woke up to a beautiful sunny day and decided to go on the Captain Cook Hop On, Hop Off tour of the Sydney Harbour. The ticket was good for 24 hours and as many stops at the locations as you wanted. We started at Darling Harbour and our first stop was Circular Quay where we looked for a “virtual” geocache involving the Sydney Writers Walk (we had to pick a plaque and take a photo with it to claim the cache find). After that we jumped back on a different ferry and met a very nice lady from Yorkshire, England who was in Sydney for her grandsons’ swim meet. She took this photo for us:

Chris and John on the Explorer Ferry in Sydney

There were 9 possible stops, but we didn’t want to go to the Taronga Zoo and a few of the others were not very big and there was quite a wait for the next ferry to arrive there so we stayed on the ferry and looked at

Fort Denison

Fort Denison, the Zoo, and Shark Island but we really wanted to go to Manly so we changed ferries at Circular Quay again and headed off to Manly. Manly Beach was quite busy as was the main walking area in town (The Corso) but it was a nice place to visit. Somehow, we managed to miss the ferry we were going to return on so we decided to find some lunch – we found a really neat little Mexican restaurant called Guzman Y Gomez and had some freshly made tortilla chips and guacomole – it tasted just like what we got in Mexico 🙂

Manly Beach

On the ferry, we were treated to a humourous commentary on the history and quirks of Sydney – our guide Peter was great and had everyone laughing at his descriptions, especially of the nude beach where he told us to refrain from waving as they may wave back with other body parts. After a wonderful day on the water (without getting a burn), we left the boat at Darling Harbour and headed back to the condo. On the way back, we came across a small used book store with something different – Blind Dates with a book –

Opera House from Circular Quay

Opera House from the harbour

Kangaroo Paw flower

Little Black Cormorant at Manly Harbour

And for something kind of crazy – we like to buy Hahn’s Premium Lite beer when we are in Australia. It always amuses us that there are trivia questions under the cap but today’s was the perfect one for Canadians on vacation:

Sydney – Day 1, Round 2

We made it! And Air Canada was great – the food was maybe not so great (although it’s pretty hard for anyone to mess up my special meal of fruit plate).

We caught the 5:45 ferry from Duke Point and then took a taxi to the airport. Check in was smooth – thanks to the travel scale we had bought to check the weight before we got a surprise at the counter! We wandered the terminal for a while as we really didn’t want to sit down before we had too – 15 hours on the flight seemed like enough sitting time. Just before we were to board the plane, the staff announced that they were “light” on passengers and needed to shift some people around to the rear of the plane for take-off or they would not be able to take off – they were asking for 20 people and assured everyone that they would be able to return to their original seats once we were in the air.

It took a bit of time to sort out the temporary seating assignments but we were finally on board – it was definitely worth paying for the extra legroom seats. We probably had a least twice as much legroom as a regular seat so we brought the carryon bag down during the flight and used it as a footstool.

After a meal about an hour into the flight, we dozed for a few hours (the noise cancelling headphones worked well) and then the flight attendants woke us up for a “snack”. Strange! We managed to doze again after that, waking up when we were about 4 hours from Sydney. As I was knitting, one of the flight attendants stopped to ask me about my knitting. We got talking and when she asked where we lived, she mentioned that another one of the flight attendants had just moved to the Duncan area! Shortly after that, the flight attendant from Duncan came and talked to us –she is renting a house in Maple Bay and is loving the difference between living on the island and living in Calgary. Odd to meet someone from home when we are that far away. The flight was delayed by about an hour because of the late departure and wind but clearing customs and quarantine was quick (even though we did mark yes to having food containing grain with us) but a quick search by the canine inspector had us on our way in short order.

We got to the condo about 10:45 a.m., cleaned up and went for a walk to Darling Harbour. Lots of building going on down in the Harbour area but that doesn’t stop people from spending time there – it’s school holidays at the moment and there were lots of childcare groups and families enjoying the sunshine in the park.

Aussie Flag at Darling Harbour

Carousel at Darling Harbour

There are also lots of displays in honour of Anzac Day (April 25). Poppies are displayed everywhere – we really liked this wall of poppies and so did an Australian White Ibis – who stole one of the flowers from the display (they are artificial flowers) and flew up to his nest where we watched it decide where the flower looked best (and we noticed that he already had a few other poppies in the nest already).

Poppy display at Darling Harbour

Chris in front of poppy wall at Darling Harbour

Ibis looking for another poppy for the nest

There were 2 young guys who were playing digeridoos and performing tribal dance demonstrations at the Harbour. We stopped to look at the CD’s they were selling and discovered that one of the guys dances in a world-reknown Aboriginal group who come to the Vancouver Folk Festival and also visit Saltspring Island.

We stopped for a light lunch (sharing an order of fish and chips) and a beer (one each – not shared) and then crossed the Pyrmont Bridge to the other side of the harbor and discovered one of Erik’s favourite restaurant chains.

On our way back to the condo, we stopped for some groceries and a bottle of wine and had a nap for 2 hours. Now it’s 9:30 p.m. and it’s starting to feel like bedtime.

Internet is not as expensive as 7 years ago – $5/day here at the resort in Sydney.

We’re thinking of doing a hop on, hop off ferry tomorrow and maybe some geocaching as well.

Temperature today was about 22 C with high cloud.

Octopus on a submarine in Darling Harbour

Room at Sydney Suites by Wyndham

View from our window

Buildings on street near our condo

Back to Australia in 2015

Well, 2 more sleeps and we’ll be headed to Australia again. Who would have imagined that when we made our first trip 7 years ago (to the day! We left on April 12 then too).

We are flying Air Canada this time – hopefully the bargain price isn’t reflected in the service we’ll receive. The Air Canada flight was extremely attractive for more than the price – we get to fly direct from Vancouver to Sydney, Australia. We are not fans of the LA airport system, even when we don’t have to clear customs there.

Our flight leaves at 11:40 p.m., making it easy to have a sleep during the 15 hours we are in the air (hopefully). Arrival in Sydney is about 8 a.m. and then we clear immigration and quarantine – we will be carefully trying NOT to be featured on the Australian version of Border Security by declaring everything, although the frying pan in my suitcase might be cause for concern!

Our itinerary:

Sydney – staying at Wyndham Vacation Resorts Asia Pacific Sydney for four nights. No firm plans for what we are doing while we are there – we’re thinking of the Blue Mountains daytrip and will definitely ride the commuter ferries one day to get a view from the water.
On Saturday, we fly to Cairns and have 3 nights accommodation booked at Wyndham Vacation Resorts Port Douglas. While there we have booked a tour with Daintree Wonder Tours for Monday (Sunday at home).
Once we leave Port Douglas, we will travel through the Atherton Tablelands (an area where a lot of food is grown). We booked 2 nights at Chambers Wildlife Rainforest Lodges. With luck, we will see some nocturnal animals while we are there.
The next 5 nights will be at Cascade Gardens, a self-contained apartment in Cairns. While in Cairns, we will do another snorkeling trip to the Great Barrier Reef and a trip on the Skyrail Rainforest Cableway that John won in a facebook contest.
After 10 days in Tropical North Queensland, we fly to Brisbane and drive a little north to Worldmark South Pacific Club by Wyndham Golden Beach for 7 days. Of course, we will visit the Fraser Island Adventure Tours, the same company we toured with in 2008 but a different itinerary this time.
On May 5 (in Australia), we fly back to Sydney to catch our flight home on May 6.

Thanks to Erik, Lizz and Mathew for watching the house and the dogs while we are away.

Looking forward to our new adventure – guess I should pack my suitcase soon 🙂

Perth / Tasmania

Thursday, November 29

Still windy but not as extreme as on Wednesday. We wondered if the trip on the boat down the Swan River would be rough but then figured we’ve been on BC Ferries in really bad windstorms so how could it be worse than that *lol* We got down to the jetty about ½ an hour early so we walked around the outside of the Bell Tower and took some photos (it wasn’t open and we were going to be back just after it closed). There weren’t many people on the boat so we had our choice of seating – we went to the upper lounge and I stood on the deck taking photos. At one point, the river is 3 km across – that’s a big river! The water wasn’t rough and it was smooth sailing for the 45 minutes it took to get to Fremantle. In fact, the docking at the Fremantle Port was the roughest part (it’s right at the mouth of the river) and the boat goes alongside not into a slip.

Fremantle Dock

We had a few hours before we were supposed to be back for the return trip so we headed into Fremantle and caught one of the free buses around town to get our bearings. We got off and meandered through town, looking in stores and trying (unsuccessfully) to stay out of the rain showers. When we found ourselves at the Fishing Boat Harbour, we realized that we could finally get the fish and chips that we had been craving since we got to Australia. The only question was which restaurant would have eggless batter. We got lucky with the first try – the girl at the order counter at Cicerello’s knew the ingredients of their fish and chips and there were NO EGGS. The restaurant was really busy – there were a few groups of school kids, lots of other tourists and quite a few locals on their lunch hours. We had the barramundi and chips and they were mouth wateringly good. The portions were huge but I managed to get through all the fish and about ½ of the fries.

After lunch we headed towards the Fremantle Prison but then realized that we didn’t really have enough time to have a good look around so we went back into the downtown area and wandered around some more. The buildings are so impressive – most are made of limestone bricks of varying colours. They look so different from the wooden buildings we are used to. We saw a large eucalyptus tree that had been decorated for Christmas with lights, giant bulbs (looked like beach balls) and stars. There was also an old piano sitting outside for anyone who wanted to play it.

Tree decorated for Christmas

Soon it was time to head back to the port so that we wouldn’t miss the ship. Still not many people onboard but wine tasting was offered on the lower deck. We were admiring the views from the upper seating area – including a few people with windboards, one guy with a parachute who was water skiing and getting great air time with his jumps (apparently he shows off for the cruise boat a few times a week), and some guys on a dive boat who decided to moon everyone on the cruise boat. *lol* We got back to Perth about 5 p.m. and headed back to the condo for another relaxing Jacuzzi after packing our suitcases for our early morning flight to Hobart by way of Melbourne.

Perth from the water

One of the things on our to-do list was to visit Rottnest Island – however, that didn’t happen because of the graduating students and the parties. The students are called “leavers” or “schoolies” and there are parties that last a week. A lot of the parties have supervision but we realized that when there are large groups of students, it’s hard to actually explore. Most of the celebrations seemed to be fairly orderly – designated party areas, chaperones, buses to events, etc. Maybe we’ll get to Rottnest if we go back to Western Australia.

Friday, November 30

Up at 3:45 a.m. for our 4:15 a.m. taxi ride to the airport. Security at the airports is so much simpler than North America – you are allowed water bottles on domestic flights (ones that you bring through the security check, you don’t have to take your liquids, aerosols and gels out of your bag, you can keep your shoes on and it is still only a walk through metal detector). Breakfast was served on the flight (3 ½ hours duration). We had 2 hours in the airport and then off to Hobart (1 ¼ hrs in the air) – we had a snack served (crackers and cheese for John, more fruit for me). We arrived in Hobart at 4:15 local time and caught a cab to the condo. Karen and Les were coming in on a later flight (due to arrive at about 7:30), picking up the rental car and coming to the condo. The taxi driver took the long way to the condo from the airport (10 minutes if you go around the end of the airport but closer to 25 the way he went), but we got there. The unit at Worldmark, Seven Mile Beach that we were booked into was a small cottage with 2 bedrooms, a fairly good-sized kitchen and living room area, an enclosed patio and another strange bathroom set up – sink and tub in one room and toilet in another.

John and I walked to the local corner grocery and picked up enough stuff to give us snacks for the evening and food for breakfast in the morning. It was a beautiful afternoon – warm and sunny. We walked back by way of the beach watching all the people and dogs playing along the length of the 7 mile beach. Once back to the condo, we relaxed in the courtyard waiting for Karen and Les to arrive – we figured it should be about 45 minutes but the time kept passing with no sign of them. Another delayed flight! It got dark and we were getting concerned when there was a knock on the door and there they were. They had almost run over a furry creature (suspected to be a bandicoot) but managed to avoid it *s* The car was bigger than expected (it had been upgraded as it was the only car they had left) and Karen had found a coupon in a magazine (on the flight) for a free GPS rental so they had no trouble finding the quickest route from the airport to the condo.

Saturday, December 1

Time for the Salamanca Market in Hobart. This was on everyone’s list of places to see and we were not disappointed. After finally finding a parking spot, we headed toward the market area. John and I were temporarily delayed by the sight of 2 miniature schnauzers who were being walked by the mother of the owner. Of course we had to ask if we could pet them *g* The market had over 250 stalls and was wall to wall people. It was impossible to stick together so we wandered and periodically met up with each other. There was so much to see – produce, baking, farm fresh products, flowers, crafts, food stalls, wood working, and more…. It was exhilarating and exhausting at the same time. At one stall, there were farm fresh eggs (yeah I know I wouldn’t look at them but Les did) selling for $7 a dozen! We spent about 2 hours browsing the market and bought lots of souvenirs and Christmas presents.

Salamanca Market, Hobart

Because it was a mostly sunny day, we wanted to go to the top of Mt. Wellington to view the city and surrounding area from above. What people hadn’t bothered to tell us is that the wind is very strong at the top. It was hard to even walk in a straight line and standing on the observation deck trying to take a photo was definitely challenging. The view was spectacular though!

Chris at Mt Wellington – nice hair do!

View from Mt Wellington

The rest of the day was spent getting groceries and enjoying the resort.

Sunday, December 2

Another windy, partly sunny kind of day so we decided to go to a wildlife park. After looking at a lot of brochures and reading the Lonely Planet guidebook, we chose to go to Bonorong Wildlife Sanctuary near Brighton which wasn’t too far away. The sanctuary has two separate areas – one for the permanent sanctuary residents and the other for the animals (and birds) who are being rehabbed. We were given food to feed the kangaroos when we arrived and it wasn’t long before the kangaroos came looking for a handout. They are so soft and you feed them just like horses, hand flat and let them nibble the food. One of the mama kangaroos actually put her paws around our hands when we were feeding her.

Feeding the kangaroo

There were a couple of Tasmanian Devils who were running in circles around their enclosure (a very large area marked Devils Retirement Run) and others that you could see in burrows but were sleeping (or just ignoring the people). We saw wombats (a baby that was about 9 months old) and some adults as well as various birds and some koalas. Eventually we noticed people crowded around the Tasmanian Devil pen and headed over to see what was happening. One of the employees was trying to lure “Prince” out of his burrow – Prince was definitely not interested even when the food bits were waved right under his nose! After waving the food around for a while, the keeper went to the next pen and coaxed a smaller female devil out. While the keeper talked about Tasmanian devils and the problems facing them (including a very contagious cancer of the face), she wandered around the cage and then stretched out in the sunshine.

Tasmanian Devil

After he had finished with the devils, he went and brought a koala over to a viewing area. Everyone was invited to touch her if they wanted – didn’t take long before I was in line and so was Karen. Once we were finished with viewing the animals (I would never be finished looking at the kangaroos, wombats, devils and koalas if I wasn’t dragged out), John and I visited the gift shop/office. We weren’t in it for more than 10 minutes and 3 calls for animals that needed to be rescued came in. It was a busy place and I’m glad I could help out with my admission fee and purchases at the gift shop.

Baby Wombat

Our next stop was a park for a picnic – unfortunately the wind kept blowing everything around and it was a little cool so we didn’t linger for long. Off to the Royal Tasmanian Botanical Gardens next – specifically the Tasmanian and Australian mainland sections. There we saw some Huon Pine, a slow growing tree that is now protected from being harvested. The needles looked more like our cedar trees than pine trees. The gardens were beautiful and well labeled with species names.

Karen and I discovered a Scotch Elm tree that formed a “fort” in the center. It reminded us of all the forts we used to make when we were growing up in Lake Cowichan. *s* We wanted to go through the Subantarctic Plant House but it was closed due to the high temperatures outside (making it difficult to regulate the temperature inside when the doors were opening). >/p>

Our “fort”

There were lots of areas to explore in the botanical garden – we visited the conservatory and marvelled at the beautiful orchids. There was an “orchid cactus” that had a flower larger than my hand. In the garden, there was also a steam powered carousel – built in 1865 and still in operation.

Steam Carousel

Monday, December 3

John and I headed out to visit the Port Arthur Heritage Site. The guidebook and maps indicated a drive of about an hour to get there – of course, what wasn’t mentioned, was that the roads are narrow, twisty and posted as a speed limit of 100 kmh (similar roads at home would have a maximum speed limit of 60 kmh). We took our time driving and pulled off for a few attractions that were on side roads – including a spot called Tessellated Pavement – an interesting rock formation.

Tessellated Pavement

We finally got to Port Arthur and were just in time to catch a boat ride (included with the price of admission) to view the prison from the water and hear a little history about the two islands in the bay – one was used as a graveyard and the other as a separate boys’ prison. After the boat tour, there was a walking tour giving a little more detail about the use of the buildings on the property and a few anecdotal stories about prison life. After that, we were free to explore – the area of the prison which is accessible to the public is 40 hectares – needless to say, we didn’t visit everything. It is definitely a place to spend a couple of days and if we go to Tasmania again, we will stay nearby so that we have much more time to explore.

Port Arthur Heritage Site

When you pay your admission, you are given a playing card. This card matches up with information found in a display in the visitor’s centre. It was interesting to read all the stories while looking for the one that matches the card in your hands. It really makes you aware of what these people went through while prisoners at Port Arthur. As well as this display, we found the Separate Prison fascinating. The idea was that prisoners would be reformed by contemplating their lives in silence and anonymity. When they were out of the cells, they had to wear masks and not talk. It was soon discovered that, rather than reforming most of the men, it was driving them mad and a new building needed to be built to house these men. John and I spent 2 minutes in the complete darkness and silence of the punishment cell (a place where the normal sentence was 30 days or longer) and were happy to be outside.

Separate Prison

One of the houses which was open to the public was the Junior Medical Officers’ house. The interior of this home reminded both John and I of many old homes on Vancouver Island – high ceilings, low doorknobs, ornate decorative mouldings.

On the way back to the condo, we followed the signs to a little town that is known as Doo-town. All the “cottages” (some are more like cottages than others) are named something with Doo in the name. We saw houses named “Just Doo it”, “Love-Me-Doo”, “Much-A-Doo”, “Sheil-doo” and others. At the end of the road, was a mobile food truck called “Doo-Lishus”. We were a little hungry so we went to see what they were offering – and we saw fresh, cooked Tiger Prawns. 2 each made a meal *s* It was a neat little sidetrip.

Lunch

Tuesday, December 4

Headed north to a town called Sheffield – apparently a sister city to Chemainus. They also have murals all over town. Unfortunately, no photos as the weather was nasty. There was snow mixed with the heavy rain and a lot of wind as well (the next day, there was apparently snow on the mountains near Sheffield – not a surprise!). Karen and Les were looking up some people they had met in Fiji on their first trip there. Again, all the guidebooks and maps indicated a 2 ¼ hour drive – huh…. 4 hours later (after a short stop in a lovely little town named Ross – just below the 42nd Parallel South), we made it to Sheffield. Once we had the address, we headed to the house. It was a lovely old home set on almost 100 acres. After a short visit to catch up, we headed south again. The scenery was so much like the interior of BC (only a little greener). It was a nice drive even if it was longer than expected *g* (and that seems to be the norm in Australia – it always takes longer than it should to get somewhere).

Old church in Ross

Wednesday, December 5

Our last full day in Australia (for this trip anyways *g*). We spent the day exploring the town of Sorrell, re-packing the suitcases and having a nice soak in the hot tub. John and I went to the on-site restaurant (Beaches) to celebrate my birthday with fantastic fish and chips. The service and food were excellent. After dinner, we wandered around trying to find an elusive echidna with no luck. We walked down to the beach and spent some time beachcombing and wishing that the vacation had been longer *s*

Chris’s birthday

Thursday, December 6

We were up early as our flight left Hobart at 8:40. Once we arrived in Sydney, we had 5 hours before our flight to Dallas/Fort Worth left. It took a bit of time to figure out how to transit from the domestic terminal to the international one (a subway train), and then we needed to check our luggage and get our boarding passes. The lady at the check in counter was very friendly – telling us that she was familiar with our island. She has skied Mt. Washington several times *s* Once checked in, we passed through security (a little more strict than the domestic flights) and puttered about in the shops as we didn’t want to sit down for long (knowing we had a long flight ahead of us). Once we found our gate, we were approached by a lady who was doing a survey on departing tourists for the Australian government. She may have regretted asking us – she got her ear talked off *lol* The survey definitely helped pass the time and soon it was time to board.

Next stop – Dallas/Fort Worth 16 hours later. Another 5 hour wait between planes but by the time we passed through customs with our baggage (and then rechecked it), we only had about 3 hours to wait. First thing on the agenda was to find our gate – the entire area was Terminal D but our gate was C4. After a few confusing moments, we discovered that we needed to take a skytrain to the C gates. Once we were there, we ate at Pizza Hut and then wandered until almost time for boarding. We were sitting in the lounge area when a fellow walking by asked if we were going to Vancouver, Canada. We said we were and he told us there was a gate change – back to D40. *sigh* Ok – ask the attendant in the boarding lounge where that is and she is less than helpful (American Airlines). Finally she pointed and said go up there and you’ll find it. Lots of help. We found it ok – the duty free was delivered to the correct gate and soon we were on our way again. Once on the plane, John and I both napped for an hour or so and then waited impatiently to get to Vancouver.

What a surprise to find an automated customs area at Vancouver Airport – we were done in no time at all and actually thought we might be able to make the 10:45 ferry until we got outside to the taxi stand. Long line up…. Oh well, we had a reservation at the Travelodge near the airport so we would follow through with the original plan. After checking in, we headed to Timmy’s to get our coffee fix *lol* Then it was off to bed to sleep soundly until John came in the door at 6:50 carrying coffee and asking if we could make the 7:45 ferry. A mad scramble ensued (by me, as he was already wide awake) and I managed to shower, dress and repack the one suitcase that we had opened before the taxi arrived 10 minutes later. We made it to the ferry by 7:37 (2 minutes to spare before we missed it) and scurried up the walkway. It’s amazing what you can do when you’re almost home *g*.

Now we’re home madly preparing for Christmas – and talking about (and planning) the next trip to Aus.

Perth

Monday, November 26 – continued….

We left early to go to Bunbury to catch the train to Perth. We had a few hours to wait until the train departure so we drove around the area. Bunbury has some very beautiful beaches on the Indian Ocean. The sea is turquoise, the sand is white and the skies were blue. We stopped at Wyalup Bay Park and checked out the gas barbecue –they are found at most of the parks and beach areas and are, most of the time, free to use. They are set to turn off after about 7 minutes so you can’t walk away and leave it burning all day.

Bunbury also has a different looking lighthouse – it’s painted like a black and white checkerboard. We drove further up the beach road until we were headed away from the water and then decided to find some cold water (for on the train) and a Subway for John to get a sandwich (Ham and Swiss with guacamole and olives for those who want to know *s*). After that, we wandered around a mall and discovered one unique store – it was a wine store and it had a “wine tasting station”. Bottles of wine were topped with spiggots so the wine could be poured out. Karen and I thought about taking a photo but it seemed a little strange in a mall.

Karen and Les left us at the train station and Les got his first taste of driving the car on the wrong side on this trip. I’m sure he did well on the way back to the condo because he has driven in Australia before.

The train ride was enjoyable – the attendant greeted everyone by doing some relaxation exercises and then smiled and said he was ready for us to board. There was assigned seating – we were in the first car (there were 3) in the second set of seats. The front row of seats had a view of the wall and not much legroom. After the train got going, the attendant came and told everyone who had an empty seat beside them that someone would be “jumping into” them at a future stop. Then he asked the people in the front row of seats if they wanted to “shift” seats. Needless to say, they all felt that was a good idea. We passed through a lot of different country – there were some areas that could have fooled us into thinking we were in the Alberta foothills except for the trees. There were also areas that looked so different that we knew we were not in Canada. At one stop, there was a railroad museum on a siding. The old passenger cars looked really neat. 2 ½ hours later and we were at the Perth Train Station right at rush time. Wouldn’t you know it – there was construction outside the train station so we were completely confused about where to go so we crossed the street and found a place to hail a taxi. It didn’t take too long to find one and the driver knew exactly where the condo was.

Check in at The Outram was completed smoothly although we felt a little under dressed in our shorts and summer tops. A lot of people in Perth dress in “nice clothes” – the women wear a lot of skirts and dresses and not too many were in dress pants. We were amazed when we got to the room – we knew it was a hotel room rather than an apartment but it was quite different. There is a deep Jacuzzi tub in one corner, the toilet in another corner and between them a glass shower with a cabinet on the front facing the bed. The tv was behind the upper set of doors and a mini fridge was behind the lower set. In the middle was the coffee making area – a kettle and packets of instant coffee and sugar. Luckily, John discovered that they had really good coffee for sale in the lobby *s* The balcony is a little bigger than a postage stamp and the door out to it is only “window” in the room. Different, but completely adequate for the 4 nights.

Wyndham – Perth

First priority was to walk down to a grocery store and get a few things to eat (making sure, of course, that everything would fit in the mini fridge). That done, the next priority was to figure out where we needed to meet our tour guide at 7 a.m. on Tuesday.

Tuesday, November 27

Up bright and early to meet Marielle from Aussie Wanderer tours for a 12 hour day of fun. When I looked around at our tour companions, I was a little worried – they were all younger than our kids. The kids were from the Philippines, Sweden, Korea, South Korea and Japan and I kind of felt like the parent on a school outing *g* Our first stop was Caversham Wildlife Park, a privately owned and funded wildlife centre. The park was about 45 minutes from Perth on a normal day. On Tuesday, the traffic was light and we made it in 35 minutes. The park offers private guided tours (before the park opens to the public) to the tour companies.

Gate at Caversham Wildlife Park

Only the favourite Aussie animals are included (kangaroos, koalas and wombats are the primary attractions). Our guide was Kevin and he loved his job – our first stop was to the koalas. We weren’t allowed to hold them but we could touch them with the back of our hands on their lower backs. Kevin invited us to get close to the koalas and touch them and no one moved so, of course, I led the way. Wish I could have a real koala for a pet!

Chris with a koala

We had about 15 minutes with them and then were taken to the kangaroo and wallaby enclosure where we were given food to feed them. All the girls on the tour were not too happy with walking through kangaroo poo but soon were forgetting about what they were stepping in when they saw a mama kangaroo with a joey.

Feeding kangaroos

After feeding the mob for a while, we had to move on to meet a wombat. We weren’t too sure of what we were going to be able to do but found the wombat in the arms of one of the park employees. We were each allowed to sit with her and pat the wombat (who weighs about 26 kg) while we had our photos taken (with our own cameras so no extra cost). She was so cute – in a wombat kind of way.

John with the wombat

While moving between enclosures, we also saw some birds and other animals. One of the birds was a Barking Owl and it really does make a barking sound!

Morning tea was served after we finished our tour at the park – scones, lamingtons, water and juice (or you could buy tea and coffee from the concession stand). John and I had a coffee and it was good (the last time we were in Australia, we found the coffee weak and bitter). Back to the bus for the main attraction – a trip to the Pinnacles, 2 hours further north. Western Australia is still a developing state and there are long stretches where there is nothing other than bush. John and I were fascinated but most of the kids were sleeping. We finally reached Nambung National Park and the Pinnacles and everyone was in awe – there are so many formations (limestone) of all shapes and sizes.

John and Chris at the Pinnacles

The tallest is 4 metres tall and the shortest ones are about 10 cm. We wandered around taking photos before jumping back into the bus and driving to another viewpoint. At this one, there was a viewing platform and you could see pinnacles in every direction. Further out, was a huge pile of white sand which Marielle told us was “mobile sand dunes” – the winds are so strong that the dunes move. An hour later, we drove out of the Pinnacles Desert and headed to Hangover Bay for a sausage sizzle lunch.

Hangover Bay

Marielle told us that she needed help with getting the lunch ready – she had the girls cutting up the veggies and the boys cooking the sausages and onions on one of the free gas bbqs. While we were getting the food ready, I noticed we had a visitor. A skink (common slender blue-tongue) had come to check out the food and to wait for anything to drop. One of the girls screamed as soon as she saw it and they were all a little wary with it around. It didn’t leave and at one point, was trying to figure out a way from the wall to the table – luckily it didn’t manage that. After eating, we all went to check out the beach before piling on the bus for our next adventure – sandboarding! While we were at the beach, the skink was busy cleaning up the veggies that had dropped on the ground.

Blue tongue skink coming for lunch

After lunch was over, the next stop was Lancelin where the activity was sandboarding – using boards that looked like snowboards and going down the high sand dunes. I opted out of the activity but enjoyed watching all the kids and John try it. John didn’t get much speed up but some of the kids flew down the hill. The wind had really picked up and we were all getting sandblasted legs so no one was too interested in staying very long.

Sandboarding

Marielle decided to pack up the sandboards and take us to a viewpoint overlooking the Moore River estuary that had fantastic views. She picked the right day to go there – some of the local people told us that the river and ocean are usually separated by a sand bar but twice a year a storm will come in and open the channel. It had happened the night before we got there so we were viewing a rare occurrence.

We got back to Perth at 5:45 p.m., got some groceries and jumped on the CAT bus (a free bus service in Perth – there are three different routes and you can get on and off wherever you want) and headed back to the condo to shake the sand out of our clothes, shoes and backpacks.

Wednesday, November 28

Woke up to heavy winds and periodic heavy rain showers. We decided to explore the city of Perth so we put on our rain jackets and wore long pants and set off. First stop was the Perth Mint – we were there for the first tour of the day.

Chris and John at the Perth Mint

After we paid, we were looking around the display rooms when I turned around and found a girl waving at me. It was Melody, one of the girls from the tour on Monday. She is from the Philippines and was at the Mint on her own so she wandered around with us. Our tour guide, Bryn, first explained the finding of gold in the area and then showed us what a typical gold miner’s camp would have looked like – complete with models of the largest nuggets found in Western Australia. After that, we watched a “gold pour” which was done in the old-fashioned way (except with new safety equipment). No photos were allowed in the mint but we did get a couple of them outside. It was fascinating so we spent a few hours there – and missed the largest rain shower of the morning – and then walked down towards the Barracks Jetty and the Swan River.

We spent our time ducking flying palm fronds and jumping into stores when the wind and rain got too strong. At one store, the wind was blowing so hard, that the store owner had to shut her door (which was like a garage door) to stop the merchandise from blowing around and getting wet. Once that squall was over, we booked a return trip “cruise” with Captain Cook Cruises between Perth and Fremantle for Thursday. It was still really blowing, and we had heard from a few shop owners that a brand new hotel about 4 blocks away had just had its roof blown off and the chimney crumbled, so we decided to head further into town and find something to eat. We hopped on a CAT bus and watched as the driver ran over a dried palm frond that was in the middle of the road – the next thing we heard was the whoosh of air. The driver stopped in the approach to a roundabout and then couldn’t get the bus going again. When he ran over the frond, he punctured the airbrake line. He had to call for a backup bus and have all of us transfer to it. The new bus already had passengers and was standing room only. Definitely an experience! We finally made it to the central part of town and it wasn’t easy finding a place that had things they could guarantee were egg-free (and products are not completely helpful because a lot of them have may contain egg statements – including the wine that we loved so much the last time we were in Aus) but we finally found nachos at Miss Maud’s. After that it was still blowing and we had walked or taken a bus over much of the downtown area (and spent lots of money) so we headed back to the condo and a nice soak in the Jacuzzi.

Swan River

We’re now in Tasmania and having lots of fun – not going to see as much as we had hoped but what we’ve seen is beautiful.

Ok – enough for this post. I will continue when I can – there is no internet access at the condo in Tasmania unless I go and sit in the lobby (and the internet there is not very reliable) so posts will be less frequent while we are here.

Dunsborough – 6

Saturday, November 24

We went to an open air market in Dunsborough. There were lots of Christmas crafts and it seemed so odd to see Santa and Snowmen on things when we were experiencing 26 degree Celsius weather. The market had a combination of flea market tables and craft tables – some of the things were interesting and we had fun walking around looking at everything. I’ve been looking for Christmas ornaments but the ones we saw at the market were things that could be made anywhere so I passed them up. John was wearing his Tim Horton’s ball cap and one of the vendors asked where in Canada we were from – he recognized the Tim Horton’s name as he had worked on the ski hills in Kelowna and Banff.

When we got back to the condo, John and I walked across the street to the Flametree Winery . We sampled a few of the white wines and purchased one bottle. A lot of the wineries seem to have an “artist in residence” and Flametree was no exception. After buying the wine, we chatted with him for a while and watched as he was painting. Finally, we decided to head back to the condo and then go for a walk. We walked up the road on the bicycle/walking path and were noticing how many snails there were on the path. Just as we said that, we were passing a signpost and there were snails all over it. Very odd!

Snails on a Signpost

We went looking for more kangaroos and saw 3 in the distance but not in photo range. We also saw a western rosella (a type of parrot) hiding in the long grass – not a very good photo op walk. To our surprise, when we got back to the condo, we had a visiting rosella in the peppermint trees outside our balcony.

Western Rosella

Sunday, November 25

We headed for a car show and boot sale in Busselton. It was fun seeing old cars that we recognized (except for the names). My favourite old car was a 1962 Valiant with a push-button automatic – just like my parents had after the station wagon they had before it burned up. There were motorcycles, off-road vehicles, street cars, vintage cars and antique motors. For entertainment, they had a car drop where they hauled a car up into the air with a crane and then dropped it as many times as it took to really destroy it. The car we saw took 3 tries before it was totalled. We spent a few hours there and then made a stop at a farmer’s market before heading back to the condo.

Car drop

When we were driving back, I decided to count the number of Christian denomination campgrounds along one stretch of the road. There were 12 religious camps and 1 Scout camp. Pretty impressive considering the properties all are waterfront with a beautiful white sand beach along Geographe Bay. Lucky campers!

Monday, November 26

John and I are travelling to Perth for 4 nights by way of the Australind Train from Bunbury to Perth. We loved the Margaret River region – hope Perth is as enjoyable! More to come on Tuesday and the following days – it’s hard keeping up when we’ve so little time to explore.

Chevy Nomad

Beautiful day for a car show

Aussie hood ornament

Dunsborough – 5

Thursday – John and I headed out early to go to Ngilgi (pronounced Neelgee – hard g sound) Cave. When we got there we thought it was going to be really busy as there were two (or more) buses there. Once we got closer to the cave, we discovered that it was a school tour. I can’t believe how well behaved the Aussie kids are when they are on a field trip. Single file, no pushing and having lots of fun – reminded us of the old days when we were kids *g*

Our tour started at 10 and was a “semi-guided” tour. There were a dozen people waiting for the guide – we could hear the sound of drumming and digeridoos coming from the direction that the school group had gone and were told they were attending a Koomal dreaming performance. Our guide, Mark, led us to the opening and explained the history of the cave. As so many other caves have been, it was found when a rancher was hunting stray horses and almost fell into the hole. The cave has been operating as a tourist site for 112 years! Mark led us down the first set of very steep, uneven steps and explained the pathways. He then told us we were free to roam about the cave for as long as we wanted but that it usually took 45 minutes to go through. It was fantastic! The temperature is a constant 20 degrees Celsius so it was warm enough without being too warm. There were a lot of places with uneven footing but we didn’t have any mishaps. 90 minutes later, we emerged into the sunlight. There are quite a few caves in this region, but not enough time to explore all of them.

Shawl formation in Ngilgi Cave

After we got back to the car, we drove to the surfing town of Yallingup – didn’t see anyone surfing but the beach was beautiful. There was a lot of wildflowers – including some statice. I’m loving seeing plants that are either cultivated at home or imported growing wild here.

Statice at Yallingup Beach

We stopped at the lookout for a few photos and then headed further south to the Wardan Aboriginal Centre. It was interesting but not quite what we expected. It seemed to be more of a museum than an interpretive centre so we will have to wait for another trip to have the full experience. Maybe in the Daintree Rainforest in Queensland on our next trip….

Chris at Yallingup Lookout

Our next stop was back at the Bush Shack Brewery – we were going to have nachos for lunch but the salsa had those dreaded words “may contain egg as produced in a plant that processes eggs, nuts and wheat” *sigh* We each settled on a pint of Strawberry Blonde beer and bought a 6-pack to bring back to the condo.

After that we headed to Dunsborough, thinking to do some souvenir shopping but there wasn’t anything to be found. This is a tourist area with a difference!

Today, Friday, we decided to go snorkeling. First we went to a bay where we had seen someone snorkeling on Thursday but there was nothing to see on the bottom of the ocean, not even when we walked through the seaweed to try to stir up some fish. We decided that Meelup Bay should be our next destination. Unfortunately, when we got there, it was quite choppy and we didn’t have anything for floatation. I guess we’re not going to get to snorkel this trip…..

John and I made a quick stop at Happ’s pottery and winery – they have some really interesting wines but we only bought one bottle of Fuschia. I wish we had gone there earlier in our stay as I would have bought a few other of their wines. On our way to the winery, we found a Christmas Tree – nope, not one that you decorate but a form of mistletoe that grows as a tree. It was so pretty.

Christmas Tree

We had left Karen and Les in Dunsborough to look around – when we got back, Karen took me to a rack of clearance clothing and pulled out a pair of Wrangler jean shorts and asked me to guess the price – I figured $25 and just about fell over when she showed me that the regular price was $120 and they were on sale for $50. There were distressed jeans on sale as well and they were equally pricy. Glad I don’t need to buy any clothes!

It was a bit drizzly today – not hard rain and still warm.

Cape Naturaliste Lighthouse

Evening sky at Dunsborough

Sunrise at Dunsborough

Dunsborough – 4

Tuesday was a relaxing day – we didn’t do much more than sit by the pool, walk by the ocean and enjoy the weather.

While Les and John were barbecuing the steaks, they saw a possum. They called for Karen and I to come down and see it, but it had disappeared into the trees and all we could see was the movement as it went from branch to branch. Maybe we’ll spot it again.

Today (Wednesday), we went to the Busselton Jetty and Underwater Observatory. The jetty is 1.8 km long and used to be used for freighters but now it is only for recreation. You can fish off the jetty and walk on it even if you are not going to the observatory. We got there just after it opened and took the first “train” out to the end for the tour of the Observatory. It was a beautifully sunny day and the colour of the ocean was fantastic. We had 40 minutes to roam around the underwater observatory and the guide was good at pointing out different fish and telling everyone about the jetty.

After the tour was over and we went outside, we were surprised by how warm it already was at 10 a.m. (it was over 30 Celsius today). We brought a picnic lunch with us and thought we would eat it in the Tuart National Forest as there were 3 separate picnic areas shown on the map. When we got to the first one, there was a sign warning of high mosquito concentrations and also warning of Ross River Virus. I got out to take a photo and was immediately welcomed by a cloud of mozzies (as mosquitos are called here). Back into the car quickly and a change of plans! We’ll go to the beach to eat – well, we got there and it was also inhabited by mosquitos so we stopped for a few photos (John and Les were trying to get a photo of a stingray that was in the shallows but it was camera shy).

While we have been driving around, we have noticed that people here use solar power a lot – houses have large solar panels and even solar hot water tanks.

We headed back to Busselton and found a shaded park beside a small river. We ate our lunch to the sound of chatter from the seagulls and the watching eyes of a Corella (a type of Cockatoo). There were many more Corellas in the tree but they seemed to be looking the other way. After that nice break, we headed back towards the condo to find a grocery store and then back to the condo. Not a long day but tiring….

Oh – the hazelnut liqeur is fantastic over ice cream!