Australia 2010

Sorry I haven’t been posting. Our internet connection was really terrible for a while. So here’s the rundown of our last few days.

1/27 – We walked down to the Opera House in Circular Quay and took some pictures during the daylight. Then we browsed the shops in The Rocks. It is one of the oldest areas in Sydney and most of the streets and alleyways are still brick or stone. We headed back to the hotel to stash our things and start the packing process.

Around 4pm we went back to The Rocks to have dinner at a German restaurant we saw while we were down there earlier. It is called Lowenbrau’s. You may have heard of their beer before. Jayson ordered the smallest size beer (or bier) that they had. Jayson had sausage with sauerkraut and I had fish. Jayson said his bier was the best he’s ever had. He wanted more but he was about an hour from taking a breathalyzer test so he abstained.

After dinner we walked over to the Sydney Harbour Bridge for a hike up the bridge at 7pm. They have their routine down to a science. We started by watching a video about what we were expected to do (mostly safety things), took a breathalyzer test and signed a waiver. Then we were moved into the jumpsuit room. Everyone was give a jumpsuit that had long sleeves, long pants, zipped in the back and had several attached triangle-shaped rings on the back just below the shoulders. We were also given rain pants to were over our jumpsuits because there had been a little bit of rain during the day. We had to remove watches, bracelets, and non-stud earrings. Next I was give a strap for my glasses that was clipped to one of the rings on the back of my suit. We were each given a locker to store everything else. We were not allowed to take anything up on the bridge that wasn’t clipped to our jumpsuit. Unfortunately that means no cameras. Our guide did take pictures of our group while we were up there and we bought a couple of them. There were 14 people in our group. That is the largest group they will take. We were then introduced to our guide and taken to get our belts. We put on our belts. They tighten so that it is almost impossible for them to just “fall off”. Attached to the belt are more rings for attaching things, a case for a radio and a tether with a ball on the end about the size of a fist. We moved over to the “accessories area”. There they attached two little pouches to the back of the belt with a rain jacket in one and a fleece jacket in the other. We were on the night tour and it does get cool at night there. Then we had the opportunity to pick out any other accessories we wanted. You are free to take a hat along, but it has to be one of theirs, because they have the little clippy things. They had stocking caps, ball caps, hair scrunchies and handkerchiefs (for those touching moments , or if your nose gets runny or your eyes tear up from the wind). The hankies had an elastic band on one end that you put around your wrist. Then you could wrap the rest of it around your wrist and tuck the end underneath. Next we had to get our radios. The radios were clipped onto our belts and the strap from the headsets was clipped to our jumpsuit.

We were finally almost ready. We still had to practice using the tether and going up and down the ladders. They had a simulation ladder. The ball that was on the end of our tether had a free-moving latch running through the center of it that would be attached to the end of a 1/4 inch thick wire rope. The ball latch could only come on and off of the ends of the wire rope. The entire hike was one incredibly long section of this wire rope. They only break was at the beginning and end of the hike inside a secure tunnel. We had to practice going up and down the ladders using the tether and not being on the same section of ladder as the person in front of you.

We were finally ready to hike!! That whole process took one hour!! I’m glad to know I was safe, but that’s a long time before you even get started. The website said the hike was “moderately strenuous”. I would not agree. It was lightly strenuous. The hardest part was going up and down 3 ladders and being 150 feet off of the ground while you do it. Once we got onto the arch, there were stairs and we stopped quite frequently. A few times so our guide could tell us a few facts and other times just let us stop and enjoy the view. It was beautiful!! We never needed our rain gear or fleece. The moon was a few days shy of being full and was still quite bright. There were quite a few clouds so we didn’t see many stars but the clouds reflected the city lights and were very colorful. We hiked to the top of the bridge, crossed over at the very top to the other side and came back the same way, just on the other side of the bridge. We were actually out on the bridge for just under 2 hours.

A few interesting facts about the bridge…It is the largest steel arch bridge in the world. Those huge granite pylons on either side of the bridge have absolutely no structural value whatsoever. (The builder convinced the government to add them so that people would feel the bridge was safe.) The actual structurally significant pylons are steel and barely visible from the ground because they blend in with the steel arch. The Bridge Walk is open 363 days a year. It is only closed on December 30 & 31 and that’s for the fireworks. They started setting up the fireworks on December 26, but start on the south side of the bridge. By December 30, they are ready to set up the north half of the bridge where the walk takes place.

We finally got out of there around 11pm and stopped by Lowenbrau’s on our way back to have a drink.

1/28 – We were able to get late check out from our hotel, by only an hour. Our flight didn’t leave from Sydney until 9pm. We had to check out by noon. It took a while to get everything packed. Because we were taking an international flight, we wanted to make sure all of our liquids were packed away in our checked luggage. We also purchased too many extras and didn’t leave enough room to pack them. Oops! Domestic Australian security doesn’t care about liquids. We stowed our luggage with the hotel and walked down to Darling Harbour. We were here 10 years ago, but it was at night and none of the shops were open. We were also here two nights earlier, but the same problem. We really enjoyed the shops and unfortunately bought so many things that we had to find a corner when we got back to the hotel so we could stuff some more crap into our already overstuffed bags.

We went to the airport, got some dinner, went through security, which wasn’t any tighter than domestic security and were immediately dumped into the duty free store. There were several places in the terminal where you literally had to walk through the duty free store to get to where you needed to be. It worked to. We bought several items and probably at least 40% of the people in the terminal had a bag from them.

We found our gate but we told that once we passed that point, there were no bathroom facilities, food or drink and we would need to stay there until we boarded our flight. So we took care of all those things and went back. They checked our passports and boarding passes. Then I got lucky and was picked to go through a manual check of my carry-on. The screener seemed to be an incredibly unhappy woman, but she didn’t give me any trouble. As the gate area filled up about 5 minutes before they started boarding, an officer came up and down every row of people with a dog who was sniffing all the bags. So, I guess they did have increased security after all. At least for flights going to America. Other flights that were boarding before ours did not have the same security procedures.

This was one of the longest days of my life. We left Sydney at 9pm and arrived 13 hours later at 3:30pm. We got a rental car, found our hotel and were met by Jayson’s brother, Jeff and his girlfriend, Irina. We walked to a nearby restaurant on Venice beach and enjoyed a lovely evening together.

1/29 - That brings us to today! We slept in a little bit this morning. We are staying right next to Venice Beach. That is the famous California beach that has a weight lifting center on the beach along with tennis courts, basketball courts and skate parks. Right along the beach on the side closest to the beach on the sidewalks, vendor areas are painted out and numbered. On the opposite side are buildings all full of similar vendors. Pretty much any kind of crap you might want to buy is available here. We actually opted to buy an extra piece of luggage for $25 because we purchased some wine in Australia that we were able to carry on with us, but were not able carry on in the US. Even a flat rate USPS box will cost us $14 to ship back and one wouldn’t be enough. We also ate lunch and just wandered around on Venice Beach. I love people watching here. It is the most eclectic collection of people in one place. You have the homeless folks, the musicians, artists and dancers. There are clothing shops, souvenirs shops, restaurants, tattoo parlors and drug stores. These particular drug stores are selling marijuana. :O There were at least 4 of them and they all had people outside handing out business cards that the “Doctor Is In”. Get your prescription now!! It was really funny. I get the sneaking suspicion that some of these people were being paid in product instead of cash. Now that I’m thinking about it…The bag that I purchased was sitting out there for who knows how long. I really hope there aren’t any drug-sniffing dogs on journey home. I’m not sure how I would explain that. “Honestly Officer! My bag was just sitting near some weed. I don’t actually have any.”

This evening we went downtown to see Pee-Wee Herman’s Playhouse. It is running for 3 weeks here in LA only and won’t be anywhere else. We really enjoyed the show. One of my favorite comedians is Eddie Izzard and he was performing in the same complex, but we could only do one or the other and we’ve seen Eddie Izzard on at least two of his tours already. Jayson said the Pee-Wee Herman performance was just like the TV show. I was lots of fun! (Fun was the secret word of the day)

OK. I know this post is INCREDIBLY long. But we are headed out to the airport first thing in the morning. Hopefully I’ll be able to post some pictures within the next week that you can all see. Maybe I’ll get lucky and get stranded in Vegas. (I think I wrote that we were coming back through Phoenix, but I was mistaken) I hear Oklahoma is not a very fun place to be right now with snow and ice.

Two more days of vacation!!!!

Lydia

We arrived in Sydney on Monday evening and took a short walk down to Circular Quay (pronounced “key”). There are lots of restaurants overlooking the Opera House in the shadow of the Harbour Bridge. Last time we were here we did not have the opportunity to see the area after dark. It was beautiful and the weather was great!

Tuesday is a national holiday here in Australia. It is Australia Day. I’m still not entirely positive of the roots of the holiday, but it is very similar to the USA’s Independence Day. We had booked places on a motorized sailing yacht to spend most of the day. In the morning we found our way down to the appropriate bay and found the Sydney Sundancer. The Australia Day organization in Sydney Harbour organizes quite a few events on the harbour during the day. We headed out toward Sydney Harbour and were there for the start of the Ferry Race. This was a simulated race. Apparently the ferries have gotten so old that if they were really to go at top speed, they just might fall apart depriving the good citizens the use of a very expensive to replace ferry. There were 4 ferries involved in the race. All of them were sponsored by some company and decorated with flags and banners. The ANZ ferry won. It is important to note that it was a simulated win. The finish line for the races was the Harbour Bridge. As the race started, our boat was in front of the race. Almost all of the other boats in the harbour, small and large, were following or riding along beside the ferries for the entire race. It was an amazing site!

Next on the agenda was a Navy demonstration. A helicopter came by in two passes and dropped two guys into the water. Then the helicopter came back again and “rescued” them. We were in a great spot to see this. Shortly after this same helicopter (or one very similar to it) began flying around the harbour. Below it was the largest flag I’ve ever seen! It was at least 3 times taller than the helicopter and was hanging below the helicopter on a wire of some sort. He flew around and around the harbour for at least 30 minutes. It was an incredible site.

Next was the judging for the boat competition. Our boat has won several of the awards in the past few years and this year they were going for Best-Dressed! The boat was decked out in yellow and green flags all around. There were about 30 people on board. They handed out yellow smocks that resembled a life vest and we each put one on and waved Australian flags. When the judges came by the played the song “Waltzing Mathilda” (which is a very well-known and popular song here) and everyone sang along while waving flags to the beat of the music. I know we were a finalist but I’m not sure if we won.

 There were several displays throughout the rest of the day from fighter jets, airplanes & helicopters. There were so many boats out on the harbor and most of them were decorated somehow.

There were about 30 people on our boat and a lot of them knew each other and have been getting together every year for Australia Day for many years. They welcomed us right into their group and we had a wonderful time!!

After we docked in the late afternoon & said our goodbyes, we went back to the hotel to freshen up before heading out to see the fireworks. The fireworks were in Darling Harbour and we accidentally took the long way to get there, which wasn’t much fun since we were walking. By the time we finally arrived, we only had about 30 minutes before the fireworks were supposed to start. We saw a Subway, grabbed some sandwiches and found a place to sit along the edge of the harbour. It ended up being a great seat. The weather had been great all day. They started the fireworks off with a lot of low stuff that created an immense amount of smoke. Unfortunately the wind wasn’t very strong and a lot of the subsequent fireworks they shot off were only half visible in the cloud of smoke.

We had a really good time all day. The rain managed to hold off and we had sunshine for most of the day. It was a great Australia Day!!!

Lydia

We took a day trip yesterday. It was called Kangaroo Island Highlights. We took a full-sized coach bus that was almost full. The day before when we were kayaking the only people around were Jayson, me, our guide and a fisherman. We didn’t even see anyone else the whole time we were out. Yesterday was a bit different. There were close to 40 people in our group.

We started out by visiting Seal Bay. It is home to quite a few Sea Lions. We were able to walk right out on the sand . Most of the sea lions were just relaxing on the beach. A few of them moved around here and there. We were about 30 feet from the closetst one. Next was lunch followed by a show called Birds of Prey. They showed 4 birds that are native to Kangaroo Island. I forget the name of the first one, but there was also a barn owl, kookaburra and wedge-tailed eagle. The barn owl hopped along the laps of almost everyone in the front row. We weren’t seated in the front, but I did get to pet it. It felt very much like a fluff of cotton. When he brought out the Kookaburras, he had gloves and let several people hold and pet them. I was lucky enough to get to do that.

Our next stop was the Remarkable Rocks. Basically it is a huge granite boulder along the ocean that has some very weird and remarkable rocks on the top of it. We were surprised that there were no fences, ropes or anything else to keep you from going over a VERY steep drop off with some pretty treacherous rocks below. Our tour guide told us that 7 tourists have died from falling off this rock in the last few years!

Our last stop of the day was Admirals Arch and the New Zealand Fur Seal colony. The rocks were very rough here and the seals were living right underneath of the arch. There was a boardwalk set up to make the walk down easier. We watching a baby seal wander all over the place for about 10 minutes. Not sure what his goal was, but he was hauling. He climbed over rocks, up a steep embankment, fell a couple of times, pissed off some adult seals and was still on the move when we had to leave.

The island is absolutely beautiful. On the way back we saw several kangaroos just waking up not to far off the road.

After we returned, we headed to a little shop where we picked up some local fish & chips. We took them back to our room to have dinner. It was delicious!

At 8pm we walked down to the Penguin Center to take a tour and see the Fairie Penguins come out of the water at dusk. Befroe the tour started, we noticed 3 wallabies moving about in the brush. We got some really cute pictures of them. We took the walk over to the penguin area and were quite dissapointed to only see 3 of the little guys. This is not their active season. By March, they will have over 500 little penguins in this area. Right now there are a few penguins that have to stay on land while they molt, but other than that, they are between mating seasons and have no reason to stay on shore. The penguins are really cute. They are the smallest in the world and are only about 24 inches tall.

We are at the airport in Adelaide right now waiting for our flight into Sydney. Jayson has been watching cricket on TV ever since we went to the game the first night we were here. Last night we watched the Australian team beat the Pakistani team for a championship title. As we are sitting here, the entire Pakistani cricket team just walked by us and getting off a flight! I didn’t ask for any autographs, but I did recognize a couple of players.

Lydia

Today was a FANTASTIC day! Lot’s going on.

We headed off early in the morning for the airport to catch a flight to Kangaroo Island. KI is about 10 miles off the shore of the mainland. The plane was full with 33 passengers. About 8 minutes into our flight the captain informed us that we could move about the cabin because we had reached our cruising altitude of 8,000 feet. About 5 minutes later he came back on and asked everyone to return to their seats because we were beginning our descent. I’m still not sure why anyone needed to get out of their seat for a 20 minute flight.

We were the only airplane at the massive airport in Kingscote! Jayson headed to the rental car counter while I watching the guy pull all the luggage off the plane and drive the little cart around to the side of the building  so everyone could pull their luggage off. We are renting a Hyundai Getz. Jayson is our driver. He has done a very good job of staying on the wrong, I mean left, side of the road. The biggest problem is that the directional is on the right side of the steering column and the windshield wipers are on the left. So almost every time we turn, other cars need to watch for the windshield wipers if they want to know we are intending to turn!

We checked into our hotel which is in the town of Penneshaw. We are in a “villa”. I was a little concerned when we walked up because the outside looks like corrugated tin on the sides and roof, but inside it is very cute and modern. We have a nice little porch and sliding screen doors to enjoy the ocean breeze.

The next adventure for the day was to meet the kayaking guide for an ocean kayaking tour. He gave us directions that included “follow the signs”. We were a little concerned that we might have trouble finding the spot and left plenty early. Apparently we left too early because he hadn’t put out the signs yet. So we ended up in the wrong place before getting turned around and heading in the right direction. There is a main road on KI that is paved, but the majority of the roads are pea gravel so you can’t go too fast. We also saw at least 8 dead kangaroo & wallaby on the side of the road and we are certainly not interested in paying for any damage to the car. We did see a live kangaroo on the side of the road and a wallaby hopped across the road in front of us. We did finally find the appropriate location.

We ended up on Red Banks and put in our kayaks. The views were phenomenal and right off the bat we saw a pod of dolphins! Hooray for dolphins! We followed them for a bit and then kayaked down to a rare seagulls nest. The dolphins came back for another visit to check us out. All along the banks were red cliffs about 250 feet tall. The water was crystal clear and the contrast between the two was beautiful! We stopped and walked along a secluded beach that is impossible to reach except by boat. Back in the kayaks again our guide, Scott, told us to watch for sting rays. We saw close to 20 of them through the rest of the trip. The whole trip lasted 3 hours and was a great deal of fun. We didn’t really get any pictures because we didn’t want to get our cameras wet.

We had dinner at the hotel restaurant and were served by the owner, Richard. He’s from Great Britain. He was very personable and a lot of fun. After our meal, we struck up a conversation with a couple seated at the table next to ours. They were visiting from Canada. Richard joined us and we talked for a couple of hours over drinks. We had a very enjoyable time and the day was fantastic!

Lydia

Today was kind of a lazy day. We got out of the hotel room so late, we just ate lunch. Then we headed for the Adelaide Central Market. It is similar to the Queen Victoria Market in Melbourne, but not quite as impressive. For one thing all of the stalls were kind of hodge podge. There would be a fruit stand next to a meat market next a clothing boutique etc. It was still quite large, but not nearly as impressive.

From there we hopped on a tram to Glenelg which is on the ocean. We walked along a pier and watched smallgroups of teenagers jumping off the pier. Then we walked along the beach and picked up seashells and rocks. One thing we have noticed that is absent here along the coastline is the smell of fish. It was very windy and not as hot as yesterday but the sky was just a little overcast so when the sun was hidden the breeze was quite cool. There were several shops along the road to the beach, so we did a little window shopping.

Beach at Glenelg

We headed back to the hotel and were able to get a little laundry done. While the laundry was drying, we headed across the street to a restaurant where we both had fish for dinner. It was quite lovely!

Tomorrow morning we fly out to Kangaroo Island! I am quite looking forward to this part of the trip. We have been in the city almost our entire trip and we will spend the next 2 days in a much less densely populated area.

Lydia

10th Wedding Anniversary!

Well, yesterday was our 10th wedding anniversary! Congrats to us.

Adelaide is VERY hot right now. Yesterday the temperature climbed to just over 100. We had breakfast at a great little shop on the Rundle Mall. Jayson ordered the Belgian waffles with fruit and I ordered the Deluxe Breakfast. The Belgian waffle was not very big, about 5 inches in diameter, but it was absolutely delicious!! The deluxe breakfast came with spicy sausage, bacon, scrambled eggs and toast. We shared both meals. Jayson is finding coffee a little difficult here. No one serves coffee. They serve cappuccino or tall white or short white or espresso, but order regular coffee and the server is completely confused.

After a very late breakfast, we headed to the Adelaide Zoo. It was just a short walk from our hotel and we arrived there around noon. This month they have on loan two giant pandas; Wang Wang and Funi. We had to wait in line to see the pandas. Funi was napping the entire time but Wang Wang was quite active. The pandas were separated and each had an area inside and outside that they could move freely from one to the other. Wang Wang wandered around the inside area before sitting in a pool of water for a few minutes. Then he headed outside for about 10 minutes and wandered all over his enclosure giving us a great opportunity for pictures.

The other very exciting thing at the zoo was the lions. They had 2 female and 1 male. Every time I’ve been to the zoo, the lions pretty much sleep and occasionnally meander in your general direction before going back to sleep. We arrived at the lions area around 1:30 and were amazed to see the two females circling their area over and over. A couple of times one of them “barked” (or whatever you call it) at spectators sufficiently scaring them. They didn’t come after me so I was quite amused by the situation. The male lion was separated in another pen, but there was only a chain fence separating the enclosures. Each time the females came near him he paced along side them until they were out of view again. After spending quite a bit of time here, we saw a sign that said the lions would be fed at 2pm. We decided to hang out and watch. My guess is that they knew it was feeding time and that’s why they were so active. As soon as the gate clanged behind the pens from a keeper coming in to give them food, the two females started pawing at the gate and “meowing” (a little more loudly than my cats do). In general they just made a huge racket until a piece of meat was tossed out for each of them. I would guess that they each got a good chunk of meat probably about 15 lbs. Then they found a nice spot under a tree for dinner. The male was nearly as exciting to watch, he just waited his turn and ate his dinner.

We saw a whole bunch of other animals, plenty of kangaroo and a Tasmanian devil, but some were conspicuously absent, like the penguins. Not sure where they were hiding but we couldn’t see them. The Adelaide Zoo is a nonprofit zoo and works very hard at conservation efforts. We were able to see the nursery with two joeys (baby kangaroos) and a baby koala. It was a little too hot to really see a lot of the animals. Quite a few of them were just sleeping and trying to stay cool.

We headed back to the hotel to change and cool off before dinner. We noticed that quite a few restaurants here close between 2 & 6. We headed downstairs to the hotel’s restaurant for dinner. Jayson choose the kangaroo fillet and I chose the pasta with kangaroo. Both dishes were FANTASTIC!! Kangaroo is one delicious animal! For dessert we shared chocolate pudding. At least that’s what the menu said. In reality it was a chocolate cake filled with chocolate sauce. It was also quite good!!

Today we flew into Adelaide. We checked into our hotel and then headed out to a mall near our hotel. It was not the traditional mall, but a street that was blocked off to cars for several blocks with all kinds of retail shops and restaurants. The weather here is much better than what we had in Melbourne. Today was sunny and 90. We had dinner at a little pizza place on the corner near our hotel and sat outside to watch the people pass. It was a very nice day!

Lydia

PS. Uploading pictures is turning out to be quite a headache because our internet connection isn’t very fast. I’ll post a few pics here and there as I can, but will post quite a few when we return.