Dunsborough – 2

Another beautiful day!

We headed out about mid morning for a drive and the first place we ended up was the Busselton Jetty.

This jetty is very long and it has an underwater observatory at the far end. There is a small train that can take you out to the observatory. Since we were there (and had actually found a parking spot), we decided to check it out as it was on our list of places we wanted to see. Since it was Sunday, it was really busy and we were going to have to wait for 2.5 hours to go on the tour. Well, that didn’t seem like a great idea so we decided to come back another day during the week and explore the jetty. There was an open-air market going on just a while away so we wandered through it. They had everything from antiques to Christmas items to knitting to produce. We saw the largest cabbage that we’ve ever seen and it was only $1.50. As much as it broke our hearts to forego such a bargain, we knew we wouldn’t be able to get through it all in the next week and a half *g*

We drove around the outskirts of Busselton and eventually saw the Information Centre. We went in and picked up a few brochures and then decided it was time to try the Chocolate Beer at the Bush Shack Brewery. On the way there we saw kangaroos in a field but couldn’t get a good photo of them – we’ll try again since John had seen them in the same place early this morning.

The Brewery was very busy – looked like it was a favourite place for people to come for a picnic lunch and have a few beer. We decided that we would each get a different type of beer and do a taste test of all of them. I had the Chocolate Beer, John had the Strawberry Blonde Beer, Karen had the Apple Cider and Les had the Twisted Lemon Beer. Our favourite was the Strawberry Blonde, followed by the Twisted Lemon. The cider was nice and the Chocolate beer was interesting – it didn’t taste bad, and you could taste the chocolate but it was not a beer you would want to drink many of at once.

I think we might be heading back there again before we leave this area.

Once we got back to the condo, John and I went to the beach for a walk – unlike yesterday, there was no one else there so it was like our own personal beach *s*

We had to fuel up the car today – gas prices range from $1.44 to $1.49 per litre – guess we shouldn’t complain about our prices anymore!

Living Snail on a dead piece of seaweed

Pin Cushion Protea

Kangaroo Paw flower

Dunsborough – 1

Well, after a very long day of travel (or should that more correctly be days of travel?), we arrived!

On Wednesday, we caught the 10:15 a.m. ferry from Duke Point, then a taxi to the airport. Getting through to the Departures area went fairly smoothly – and the attendant at West Jet even checked our luggage right through to Perth and gave us boarding passes for all our flights. We did learn, however, that once you fill out the US form at the US departure gate, you are considered to be in the US and bringing fruit in (and admitting it) will get you a quick visit to the food inspection desk. Luckily for me, the apple had a US sticker on it so it was good to go (and it didn’t even taste that good *s*). We got to the airport departures lounges just about the time that Karen and Les boarded their plane so we didn’t meet up with them in Vancouver.

It was a good flight to LA – and to our surprise, we didn’t need to claim our luggage to go through customs as we had already done that at Vancouver Airport. You do still need to exit the terminal to get to a different terminal but we had lots of time so it was not a big deal. (BTW – James, we waved at you when we passed over Seattle *s*). We walked around a bit and watched for Karen and Les, but they were flying from a different terminal and we didn’t catch up to them.

Our flight to Brisbane left at 11:50 p.m. Pacific Standard Time and we arrived in Brisbane at about 8 a.m. John and I both got some sleep but I found that trying to watch a movie was frustrating because the headphones didn’t want to stay on my ears so I watched the flight map while knitting. *g* Clearing customs was quick and easy and we rechecked our baggage. When we did that, we were given a new boarding pass for our flight to Perth which allowed us to get on the transit bus to the Domestic Terminal free of charge. Once we got to the domestic terminal, we didn’t want to sit down so we walked around and around. There wasn’t a lot of shops (and we weren’t really in the mood for shopping because we were so tired) but we did lots of looking. Oh – before I forget, Australia’s domestic policy towards liquids, aerosols, and gels is vastly different than Canada and the US. You can carry liquids on board so we took large bottles of water with us. The flight to Perth seemed the longest even though it was only 5 hours long but we were so tired.

We landed at Perth at 2:10 and, as arranged, collected our luggage and headed for the rental car lot to meet Karen and Les. We were a little surprised when we didn’t find them but then thought they might still have been in the terminal waiting for us and we missed them in the crowd. The mass of people had cleared out and we could easily see that Karen and Les were not there so we went to check on the status of their rental car and we told they hadn’t picked it up yet. Ok, time to panic! We knew they only had a short time frame to clear customs and get to their connecting flight so it seemed likely that they had missed the connection. But how to find out? We asked at the Qantas sales desk and they said they weren’t allowed to say anything about passengers. Then we went to the Qantas departures desk and asked if they could help – a very nice lady who was working with the baggage said that their flight from LA was delayed leaving so they probably couldn’t make the connection and would be on the next flight from Melbourne which would arrive at 4 p.m. There was no way of finding out though and it was 3:30 by this time, so we waited by the luggage carousels and hoped that we would see them coming down the hall. Our hopes were realized and we collected their luggage, rented the car (a small red Hyuyndai) and headed out of Perth with John driving.

Driving a right-hand drive vehicle was not quite as nerve-wracking this time (well for me – not sure about John as the driver). We headed out of town, didn’t get lo st but missed one turn because the directions we had were to turn right and an overpass had been built so you actually needed to turn off to the left. Did I mention that it was now rush hour traffic? With some basic maps, we managed to get over to the correct freeway and headed towards Dunsborough. It wasn’t a bad drive but we were all really tired and it seemed to take longer than we thought it would. When we got to Bunbury, we detoured into the town and looked for a grocery store. We found a Coles but it was closed – we all looked at each other and questioned whether it really was Friday night. Yes, it was but the late night opening night was Thursday! There was nothing open so we headed back out on the highway again and decided that we could manage in the morning even without groceries. By this time it was dark out – driving at night in an unfamiliar area in a car with right hand drive is an experience that none of us want to repeat. We finally found the condo and had 30 minutes to spare before the check in desk closed at 9 p.m.

The condo is nice – not quite what we’re used to but it will be comfortable. The bathroom(s) is/are strange – it’s divided into 2 rooms. One has a sink and toilet and the other has a sink and a tub. The second bedroom has 2 twin beds but the staff came and reconfigured them into a king. We have a small fridge, a convection microwave and a stovetop.

We checked in, sat and relaxed for a while and then headed for bed at about 10:30 Perth time. We all slept well and got up between 7 and 10 (and no, John was not the first one up this morning). Once we got up, it was time to check out the hot tub and pool as it had been too dark the night before. We had a nice soak and then came back to get ready to go to Dunsborough (about 15 minutes away) and get groceries. It always takes way longer to get groceries when all 4 of us are buying them! We got lots though and loaded the fridge up.

The rest of today was spent walking on the beach for John and I and sitting by the pool for Karen and Les. Tonight we are barbecuing pork chops for dinner. The weather is beautiful, the beach is wonderful, and the air smells fantastic and we are happy to be back in Aus!

More photos can be found on the sidebar under Australia – Dunsborough.

Hot Tub

Morning visitor at the hot tub

Our second trip to Australia :-)

We’re off to Australia again next week – this time the itinerary includes Perth and Tasmania. John and I are travelling with my sister (Karen) and brother-in-law (Les). Well, that’s not exactly true – we are travelling separately and will meet up at the Perth airport. All going as planned, our flight lands about 30 minutes after their’s does so we plan to meet at the car rental agency.

Because of the excellent service the last time, we are again travelling with Qantas – except for the flight from Vancouver to Los Angeles which is on WestJet and from Dallas to Vancouver (on the way home) which is on American Airlines.

On Wednesday, November 14, we are catching the 10:15 ferry from Duke Point to be at the Vancouver Airport in time for our 4 p.m. flight to Los Angeles. We arrive at LAX at 6:44 p.m. and leave at 11:50 p.m. on our way to Brisbane. We land in Brisbane at 7:55 a.m. on Friday, November 16 (losing that day when crossing the International Date Line). Once we’ve gone through the customs procedure, we have to transfer from the International Airport to the Domestic one. Our flight leaves Brisbane at 11:00 a.m. and we finally arrive in Perth at 2:15 p.m. Doesn’t that sound lovely and civilized? Of course, since all times are local it sounds good – the reality is that from the time we leave home about 9 a.m. until we reach the airport in Perth is just over 37 hours and then we have about a 3 hour drive to get to the “vacation ownership” condo in Worldmark, Dunsborough (in the Margaret River area south of Perth). The hot tub is already looking pretty good!

Karen and Les have rented the condo for 2 weeks but John and I are heading off on our own on Monday, November 26 and travelling by train Australind from Bunbury to Perth where we have rented another of our vacation ownership condos The Outram for 4 nights.

We leave Perth on a flight at 6:10 a.m. travelling to Hobart by way of Melbourne. We arrive in Hobart at 4:10 p.m. (Karen and Les are catching a later flight and will arrive in Hobart at 7:35 p.m.). We have another vacation ownership condo at Seven Mile Beach in Tasmania.

John and I have 6 days in Tasmania (Karen and Les have 7) so we leave Hobart on December 6 at 8:40 a.m. and arrive in Sydney at 10:30 a.m. We have 5 hours at the airport in Sydney before the flight to Dallas-Fort Worth leaves at 3:40 p.m. We land in Dallas at 1:45 p.m. and have 5 hours to clear customs *s* and hopefully get something to eat. The flight from Dallas leaves at 6:45 p.m. and arrives in Vancouver at 9:15 p.m. We’ve decided to spend the night in Vancouver and come back to the Island on Friday, December 7.

I know the flight home seems convoluted but we were looking to cut costs after the flight went up about $1000 each between when we first talked to the travel agent and when we wanted to book it. After we played with a bunch of times and routes, we got the price back to the first amount quoted – well worth the extra hassle of flying past the west coast and then back again.

A huge thanks goes to Erik, Lizz and Mathew for looking after the house and the dogs. Without their help, we wouldn’t have been able to go away for 3 weeks.

Next post – when we reach Perth (or maybe the day after *s*)

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Tuscon – 2

SUNDAY, JUNE 1

John was up really early this morning so he went for a drive – he wanted to check out the Pinal Air Maintenance facility but couldn’t get very close. While he was driving out there, he spotted a well fed coyote crossing the road by way of a crosswalk. By the time he got stopped and got his camera out, the coyote had vanished. He also saw a couple of roadrunners (Lizz and I haven’t seen any of them yet). Once he got back, we got going early this morning so that we could visit as much of the Desert Museum as possible without melting. We arrived just before 8:30 and were invited to join a tour that started at 8:30. The tour guide was knowledgeable but rather scattered and long-winded. She “cut us loose” after about an hour and we headed to the desert loop walk before it got too hot. The park was really interesting – and it was fun to compare the Australian desert to the Arizona desert. We saw quite a few animals (in cages), including:

Bobcats

Margay

Gray Fox (note that he has a blankie)

and a

Javelina

Of course, there were coyotes and lots of birds and lizards. The walk had a lot of shade spots and water fountains and actually only took a half hour to walk. After the trail, we decided to find somewhere a little shaded so we visited the hummingbird enclosure. They had quite a few varieties of hummers – and the staff was spraying the trees in the enclosures when we were there.

This little guy was “bathing” in the drops left on the branches.

When we left the hummingbirds, it was very hot and we decided to leave. We headed back toward Tucson and then took a drive out to the Biosphere. Unfortunately, we weren’t there at the right time for a tour and it was too hot to sit around and wait. After a quick stop for dinner stuff (don’t like buying too much at once), we headed back to the condo to relax before dinner and a hot tub (again, it was our private tub).

Temperature: 39 C – sunny

Western Whiptail Lizard

Cardinal

Jojoba tree

Giraffe shaped cholla cactus

MONDAY, JUNE 2

No one felt like doing much today – so we went shoe shopping. Lizz and I were both looking for work-type shoes (not sandals) and we came to the conclusion that Arizona in the summer is not a time to look for closed toe shoes. We stopped at a Walmart grocery store (no clothes, just grocery items) and were surprised to find that the prices at the Safeway were better than at Walmart. Oh yeah – our Safeway cards work in the States – it even works if you don’t have your card and you give your phone number!

The afternoon was spent lazing around – Lizz napped, John watched tv, and I took the computer onto the deck and worked on photos and this entry. It was nice and hot on the deck – and I only came inside when the sun actually made it’s way toward me and my feet were starting to fry (they haven’t been exposed to the sun much as I’ve been wearing runners and socks nearly all the time). No photos today.

Temperature: 40 C – sunny with some wind

Tuscon – 1

FRIDAY, MAY 30

A very long day – we were up really early at the hotel in Sydney. The bed was one of the most comfortable we’ve had on the trip but the hotel was very noisy – we kind of expected that as it’s close to the airport – people were coming and going at all hours and while most tried to be quiet there were a few people who decided to hold conversations in the hallway – and they echoed. Oh well – we got to the airport before 7 a.m. and checked in easily. After that we wandered around doing some last minute shopping and finishing our coffees and then water before going through security. A little more shopping and then we went to the gate area. Prices in the international departures area were definitely better than ones outside that anyone could access. However, the best prices were in Alice Springs and Cairns (both at the airport and in the towns).

Boarding the plane went smoothly and then…. the pilot announced a “glitch” with the auxillary power – which would be ok once the plane had the engines running. After that, we had to sit at the end of the taxiway and burn off some fuel as the plane was overweight. We left Sydney an hour late, which had a lot of the passengers frantic because they had a short window to catch connecting flights in Los Angeles. We figured we’d be fine as there was a 3 1/2 hour window before our flight left for Phoenix.

The flight back was really rough. Apparently, there was “weather” that hadn’t shown up on the radar systems and we kept running into it. We had 4 Australian nurses sitting near us who were heading to Las Vegas – they were quite entertaining as was the male flight attendant who was giving them a hard time. After lunch (or dinner) was served, the lights were turned out to encourage people to sleep. (And yes, they got the food right for me again – I am so impressed!) I dozed for a couple of hours – not sound sleep but somewhat restful. John had a harder time napping – probably only about an hour. We got to LAX at 7 a.m. and the auxillary power failed again. This meant that the luggage had to be unloaded by hand instead of the conveyer belts so we had to wait for a long time to get our bags to take them through customs. By this time, another 747 (from Brisbane) had also arrived so there were a lot of people in line. There was a security official who was trying to speed things up – she was actually laughing and joking with people and a lady behind me said “Oh they must have given lessons in being nice to the staff at LAX” – this got a bunch of us laughing. Once we got through the line, we were supposed to put our bags on the transfer conveyer but, because our flight was just over an hour away, we were told to take our luggage and walk to Terminal 1 where we would need to recheck the bags and get our boarding passes before passing through security again. Terminal 1 was a long way from the Terminal we were in – when we finally got there, we checked the bags and got our boarding passes. Once in line to go through security, I went to hand John his boarding pass and noticed that both passes were in my name with my seat number!

I left John in the lineup (he was letting people go past him) and raced back to the airline counter – I got another client rep who quickly fixed the problem then I ducked back under the barrier and we started through security. There were 3 lineups to go through the checkpoint: one for casual travellers, one for people who needed extra assistance and one for experienced travellers. We started out in the casual traveller lineup and then decided that after all the airports we’ve been through on this trip, we could classify ourselves as experienced travellers. That lineup was moving quickly as everyone knew that liquids/gels had to be in a plastic bag, shoes had to be removed and laptops taken out of bags. It worked – we whipped through the line and got to the gate for the flight with about 15 minutes to spare.

The Phoenix flight wasn’t very full and we made good time – we actually got in a half hour early so we had collected our bags and were waiting when Lizz called to say her flight had arrived. The terminals were a distance apart so we decided to catch the shuttle bus (one shuttle for all the various car rental places) from our respective terminals and meet at the Dollar car rental desk. It takes about 10 minutes for the shuttle to get to the rental centre and John went to arrange the car and I watched the suitcases and waited for Lizz. Of course it was a tearful reunion when she walked in a few minutes later *s* (BTW – Thanks, Arke, for taking her to the airport so damned early in the morning).

Our rental vehicle is a Jeep Patriot – we had a choice between that and a PT Cruiser and John figured that we could fit more luggage into the Jeep. Lizz only brought a backpack (so she didn’t have to worry about checked luggage when she changed planes in Seattle) but we have 4 suitcases and we had to stop for some groceries. We all needed something to eat so we found a Macdonald’s and had a quick bite and then headed out to the condo in Oro Valley. By the time we got here (and stopped at Safeway for groceries) we were exhausted. We put the groceries away and chatted for a few minutes and then it was naptime. I set the alarm for 2 hours later so that we wouldn’t sleep too long – we really need to get back on track with the time (and Arizona was a great choice as they don’t have daylight savings time so the time here is the same as at home). After dinner, we talked a while longer and then headed for the hot tub. There are two on the property and we went to the one closest to our condo. It was wonderful – there was no one else there and one of the lights wasn’t working so we could sit in the tub and watch the stars. The hot tub helped take the travel kinks out and then it was off to bed.

Temperature: 40 C – sunny

Living room

Dining room

Kitchen

Bedroom

Sunset

SATURDAY, MAY 31

After a 9 hour sleep, we were feeling pretty good. We decided to drive to Tombstone to see the historic western town. It was about a 2 1/2 hour drive down to the town – our first stop was Boothill Graveyard. Admission was free and we wandered through the sites, reading the markers

and marvelling at the cacti which were flowering. After that, we went into the town. I think we were expecting a town like Barkerville but it’s not like that. It’s very commercialized and touristy (but not in a good way). We didn’t stay in the town long – just enough to take a quick walk down the main street and look in a couple of shops. We were only out of the vehicle about 20 minutes and it was sweltering when we got back in. We started back toward Tucson and stopped at a Jack in the Box for lunch (Lizz has been wanting to go to Jack’s since we stopped going to Tacoma for hockey games).

Another stop at the Safeway for more groceries (steak to bar-b-q since we have a bar-b-q on our deck) and then back to the condo to watch the hockey game. Erik called to say that he has Wednesday off so he can pick us up and to see how our flight(s) were. It was good to hear from him – and I was impressed to hear that he had used his computer phone program to call – it was clear and not much delay.

After the hockey game ended, we headed to the hot tub – and had it to ourselves again. Now it’s bed time – if we get up early enough, we’re going to the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum – we hope to get out and see a lot of it before the temperature gets really hot in the afternoon.

Temperature: 40 C – sunny

Cactus Flower

John and Lizz at Boothill Graveyard, Tombstone

Sign outside the OK Corral

Pokolbin Hill – 3 / Sydney

Not much to say about today – we left Polkobin Hill at 8 a.m. and stopped at the Pokolbin Village Resort to check the internet and to look up travel directions to get to the hotel. We decided to drive towards Newcastle and make our way to Sydney via the coast. At one beach (the name is escaping me at the moment), we saw 17 freighters lined up waiting to make their way into port. As we were looking at them, I saw a movement in the water and we spotted dolphins. I actually managed to get a partially clear picture of one of them.

We meandered down the coastline until noon and then decided to head for Sydney as we didn’t want to hit the city at rush hour.

It didn’t seem to matter that it wasn’t rush hour – traffic was heavy. I was trying to navigate by the map we had as well as the road signs and somehow managed to point John towards the wrong exit – so instead of taking the Harbour Bridge we ended up taking the Harbour Tunnel. They are both toll roads but the tunnel doesn’t have cash booths. Ooops! Of course, taking the wrong way into the city meant the instructions we’d written down earlier in the day weren’t going to be much help. After a little agonizing, we pulled off the freeway we were on and headed into a residential type area. Finally we found a business and John went in to see if they could give him directions. The lady was fantastic – she even went out to her car and got her road map to help him see which way to go. It turned out that we were only about 8 blocks from the hotel.

The hotel room is pretty tiny – but we’re not going to be here for that long. We’ll be up by 6 tomorrow morning and off to the airport soon after. Our flight leaves at 9:45 and arrives in Los Angeles at 6:05 a.m. We have a 3.5 hour stopover in LA and then off to Phoenix where Lizz’s flight is supposed to land 5 minutes after ours (at different terminals of course!). Qantas has been having labour problems recently but, according to the tv, they are targetting domestic flights and Melbourne is the targeted airport. Whew!

Will post again from Tucson – when we’ve recovered from the flight.

Temperature: 20 C – overcast with showers

Shelley Beach

Coal loading docks at Catherine Hill Bay

Pokolbin Hill – 2

When I got up this morning, I opened the blind in the kitchen and found myself looking at a kangaroo. Of course, we headed outside with cameras and it was worth it.

I got this photo of a joey – first one we’ve seen.

We didn’t feel like doing much today – especially not sitting in the car for any extended period of time. I was going to call Lizz to confirm plans for meeting in Phoenix but the phone in our unit was not working and the reception staff didn’t know what to do to fix it. We decided to head to the info centre near Cessnock to find out where we could find internet access in the Hunter Valley. There were 3 choices – and one was just down the road from our condo – just not where the receptionist had told us it was. After a quick stop in Cessnock for some groceries and lunch at Maccas (who don’t have internet access) we headed to the Pokolbin Village Resort where we discovered FREE internet. We sat on their veranda and uploaded the blog stuff and chatted online to Lizz. We were there for quite a while and no one tried to speed us up or suggest that we leave. It was great.

Once everything was updated, we decided to drive around the valley a little more and see if we could find the lookout which was marked on a map we had. It was a fairly long drive up the hill – on another ridge at the top –

but the view was awesome. When we came down off the mountain, we noticed this mailbox

and it reminded me that we hadn’t mentioned the mailboxes here. It seems that you can use anything that will hold mail for a mailbox – we’ve seen old stoves, beer kegs, plastic buckets and lots of others. I can’t imagine what Canada Post would say if someone tried that at home.

After driving around awhile, we spotted a couple of winery signs that we really liked.

I can’t believe that our time in Australia is almost up. Tomorrow we head to Sydney to stay at a hotel near the airport before our flight on Friday. We’re sad to be leaving and we’re already trying to figure out how to manage another trip downunder.

Temperature: 19 C – mostly sunny with a few showers

Another mailbox

Kangaroo at sunset

Grapevines

Pokolbin Hill – 1

SUNDAY, MAY 25

Much better day of travelling today – we left at 8 a.m. again but before we got going, we stopped at Starbuck’s (yes, we’re back in Starbucks country – just wish it was Timmy’s though) for a coffee. Then, instead of heading back to the main highway, we headed down the coast. We stopped at

this lighthouse. While we were there, we came across a man with binoculars on a tripod – he was watching for humpback whales as they are just starting their migration. We watched for a while and John thought he might have seen something in the distance but he wasn’t sure.

We continued down the coast until we reached Forster Tuncurry where we stopped at the Info Centre. We found a couple of good road maps of the area and of the Hunter Valley and then John had a long discussion with the lady there about Canada, Australia and the United States. She was quite impressed to hear that we want to come back to Australia – there’s so many places we’ve heard about now that we’d like to see and some places we’ve been to that we’d like to see more of. The area we travelled through was called The Great Lakes – not as big as in Ontario but there were 3 quite large lakes very near to the ocean.

Had to stop for gas today – $1.53/litre now. However, we learned something (of course 5 days before leaving). If you buy $30 or more at either a Big W or a Woolworths (which is a grocery store here), there will be a bar code on your till slip. You can present that at a Caltex-Woolworths gas station and get an extra 4 cents/litre off the price. Too bad we didn’t know that before *g*

We saw a large number of these signs:

in a variety of styles. My guess is that by varying the sign, people might pay attention a little more. We did see two koalas asleep in trees (John saw one and I saw the other) but the road was too narrow and twisty to be able to stop safely.

On our way down the highway, we spotted a replica of Uluru – it was a truck stop (with restaurants, gas station and convenience store) that was done up to look like Ayers Rock. It was kind of strange but, of course, we had to take a photo of it.

We got to Pokolbin Hill at 3:30 and checked in with no problem. While talking to the lady at reception, she told us that she guarantees we will see kangaroos while we’re here as they feed in the grounds in the morning and evening. After putting all the stuff in the condo, we went for a walk. We saw ducks (who were following anyone who moved), swamphens, pelicans and horses but no kangaroos. I think we’re just jinxed. We’ll look again in the morning – especially since we’re still up between 6 and 6:30 a.m. each day. To make up for not seeing kangaroos, I’ll give you a photo of the fantastic sunset.

We’re not going to drive too much tomorrow but will probably check out a winery or two (and maybe a brewery too) as well as visit

The Hunter Valley Gardens (which are right across the road from the condos).

There is no internet access in the rooms here and I have to check to find out if there is internet in the office. If not, I’ll be looking for somewhere else to post this.

So far, we’re loving this area – it’s very pretty and there’s lots to do here.

Temperature: 20 C – sunny

Kitchen/Dining Room

Living Room

Bedroom

Bathroom

Condos

MONDAY, MAY 26

Success!!!

Kangaroos do exist in the wild *s*

John was up before 6 this morning and tried to encourage me to get up too but it was just too cold. He decided to go out and see if there were any kangaroos and while he was outside, he was startled by this (and came back to make me get up):

This hot air balloon was being inflated in the field right next to the condo. No kangaroos at this point, but we watched the balloon inflate and then take flight (For the record, I was wearing my jeans, 2 fleece tops, a pair of hand knit wool socks and my knitted headband – glad I had all those things with me).

After the balloon had flown away, we walked around the grounds looking for kangaroos with no luck so we jumped in the car and drove around the roads for a while (kind of like road hunting without guns) and eventually we were rewarded. The only problem was that they were quite a way from the road and didn’t seem motivated to move closer to us. We went back to the condo and decided to take one more walk around the grounds and guess what – there were 3 kangaroos feeding on the clover in the lawn. Two other roos were peeking through the trees and then went bounding up the treeline instead of coming onto the lawn. We watched the ones on the lawn for a while before heading in for breakfast.

Time to check out some of the wineries – the only problem was that we don’t have much time left to drink wine before we have to catch our flight on Friday. The first winery we went to was McGuigan Wines.

They had a cool old truck in front of the cellar door.

Then it was time to check out the Hunter Valley Gardens – when we identified ourselves as Canadian (a question that all the attractions ask), the lady at the ticket booth told us that the Gardens were inspired by Butchart Gardens. Apparently, the owner had been in Victoria and was so impressed with Butchart that he decided to try to do the same thing in the Hunter Valley. The gardens here are only 5 years old so they are not as established as Butchart but we really enjoyed them. One of the gardens is a Storybook Garden – it reminded me of the attraction that used to be outside Victoria (Beaver Lake or Elk Lake?) that had different nursery rhyme characters.

Once we had seen all the gardens (about 2 1/2 hours) we went to the Blue Tongue Brewery – we couldn’t resist the name or the logo. We bought some of their lager and premium light beer – it’s pretty good. We had thought about having lunch there but the menu was limited and not suitable for my allergy restrictions. Once the beer was in the fridge to cool, we walked over to the Hunter Valley Gardens area as there are shops there too. We had a fun time browsing through the stores and then headed to the reception area at the condo to enquire about internet access. The lady there told us there was a business centre at Sobels Wines so we drove down there only to find that they had no idea what she was talking about. We’ll try to post this on Tuesday when we go out for a drive towards the Blue Mountains.

Temperature: 19 C – sunny

Kangaroo

Topiary statues of Brokenback Mountain Brumbies

Orange trumpet flower

TUESDAY, MAY 27

We saw more wild kangaroos – they really do exist. Today we saw them in a field beside the road to Singleton. The area near Singleton is a coal mining area – the open pits are huge and they don’t seem to have to reclaim the land.

We stopped at a gas station in Bulga to see if there were any road maps and were told to just follow the road – it’s picturesque. I think that’s another word for narrow with switchbacks *lol* The road we were on used to be the main road from the coast to the Hunter Valley – we didn’t think we’d see any transports on it but we were wrong. There was one spot where we could pull off the road and we had our first glimpse of

the Blue Mountains.

It seems that a lot of the mountain roads here are built on top of the mountain ridges – there were times that both John and I were looking down very steep slopes.

A little further along the road, we saw these sandstone cliffs.

I thought the designs were so cool. Then we rounded a corner and found these fantastic gates

– wonder what the monastery looks like…

Our first look at the canyons in the Blue Mountains reminded us of the Grand Canyon.

It took 4.5 hours to get to Lithgow and then we started back towards Katoomba. We were looking for lookouts but most of them didn’t seem to be marked and we only had a basic map for most of the area. We did find one lookout at Mt. Piddington and it had

a fantastic view of the area back towards Lithgow. The mountains really do seem to be blue and there is a haze over them (from the eucyluptus trees) that almost looks like smoke.

When we got near to Katoomba, the lookouts were marked a little better. We stopped at Cahill’s Lookout and had a good view of

Boar’s Head Rock. A little further on was the Eagle Hawk lookout. There were fantastic views of the Three Sisters formation and the

Blue Mountains Skyway –

I decided I wasn’t brave enough to try this tram ride. On to Katoomba, where we were disappointed to find that in the lookout area, parking costs $4.00/hour. By the time we battled the large crowds of tour groups to get close enough to take a photo at the lookout,

we were almost out of time. There was an information centre at the lookout so we went looking for a map – surprise, they didn’t have any free maps and the souvenirs were really expensive.

Back on the road again, it was after 3 and we knew we’d better start back to the Hunter Valley as it would be a long drive. As we still didn’t have a very good map, we were depending on road signs. Once we were on the M2 motorway, we discovered that the signs just had road names and not where they led to. We were almost into Sydney when we spotted a sign for the turnoff to Newcastle. Of course, it was a toll highway (only $2.20) but at least we were heading in the right direction. We finally got back to the condo at 6 p.m. (and it was dark – it gets dark at 5 here right now).

Still haven’t found anywhere with internet so we’re heading to Maccas in Cessnock today to see if they have wireless internet.

Since yesterday was spent sitting in the car, today is going to be a day for a walk as well as getting the laundry done and the stuff packed up.

Temperature: 22 C – sunny

Port Macquarie

We left the condo at 8 a.m. and headed south. We detoured to Byron Bay – to see

Cape Byron, the most easterly point in Australia.

It was beautiful there – warm, sunny and lots of huge waves crashing onto the rocks. We admired the view for a while and then followed the “tourist route” down the coast – making a quick stop in Lennox Heads when we saw this display:

Australian Scouting is celebrating it’s 100th birthday

On the way down the coast, we saw lots of banana orchards, cattle horses and trees but not much in the way of ocean. There were also a few “big” items – a giant prawn and a big banana. We drove along another “tourist drive” but it didn’t get anywhere near the coast either. We had thought about stopping at Coffs Harbour but somehow managed to drive through the town without really seeing any of the hotels. We kept going (another 45 minutes) and stopped for the night at Port Macquarie. The beaches at Port Macquarie are fabulous –

there was even a wedding taking place on one of them.

Lots of driving, lots of road construction and not many photos today.

We are staying at a Best Western here and will check in to the condo at Pokolbin Hill tomorrow afternoon.

While we were driving today, we remembered something that we hadn’t mentioned before – while we were on the tour in Brisbane, all the lights at an intersection would turn red and it would be mass pandemonium for pedestrians – they were crossing the road in every direction but somehow they all managed to clear the street before the lights changed. It was like watching some strange dance.

Temperature: 20 C – sunny