Melbourne (Jan 6-11)

After a night in the  Capital, Canberra, we continued the long lonnggg drive to Melbourne. The highway had very few curvers or corners and not much to look at. Mostly flat and really dry with the odd kangaroo roadkill.

Canberra

We reached Melbourne in the evening and had to navigate ourselves to our hotel, where we had booked 2 nights, in the “CBD” (Central Business District or as we Canucks call it “downtown”). Driving in Melbourne was probably the most stressful driving I have experienced with strange turning rules/signals and trams running down the middle of roads.

The following day we spent walking around exploring the city. Downtown Melbourne is full of little restaurants, bars and lots of shopping along the streets and within the alley’s. The downtown is built along the river and is very artsy with lots of beautiful buildings and sculptures.

Trev's at the corner of Dorcas St!

Stained glass ceiling in National Art Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne

Exhibit at National Art Gallery of Victoria

Its not the greatest "outdoor" show on earth but close

Funky bridge with boat shaped bar underneath

Train station

Dog Paparazzi

Train station

  

Our second day we did roughly a 6 hour drive up and down the Great Ocean Road. There were some amazing views along the drive including the 12 Apostles rock formations. We had decided to book 2 more nights in Melbourne on hotwire and after our long day of driving and site-seeing we went to check-in. We ended up getting very lucky (Hotwire does not provide you with your hotel name or exact location until after you have fully booked and paid) as the hotel turned out to be this quaint little boutique hotel, a 30 minute walk from downtown.

Great Ocean Road

Near the 12 Apostles

12 Apostles rock formations

The Charsfield Hotel - lovely boutique hotel

The Charsfield Hotel

On the 10th we did some more walking around downtown and in the evening drove out to Phillip Island to view the Penguin Parade. Every night, shortly after the sun sets, the world's smallest penguins come in from the ocean to find their burrows for the night. We walked down a long baordwalk to a viewing area where several hundered people were seated. There was a strong wind coming off the ocean and it was freezing cold... Yes, thats right.. it was freaking cold!  As each wave would roll in it would bring a group of 10-15 penguins. They would start to run up the beach and then one would become frightened and run back. When one turned back the whole group would turn back and run into the ocean. Groups of penguins would continue to do this until they became brave enough to run the full distance across the beach to the safety of the sand dunes where their burrows were. After about 30 minutes of this, several hundred penguins had made their way up into the sand dunes. The boardwalk sat above some of the penguin’s path ways where they were running so we were able to get really close to them. We were not able to use our camera as there was a strict NO CAMERA rule. I guess the flash would temporarily blind and scare the penguins. So we copied and pasted a few penguin pics from the web site to give you an idea. Pretty cool!!

Wallaby on Phillip Island

Sun setting on Phillip Island

Wallaby on Phillip Island

Stands at which you sit to view the penguins come in from the ocean

Penguins coming in from the water

You can view them waddling to their burrows from the boardwalk that runs from the beach to the car

Happy New Year! (Dec 29-Jan 6)

 I have been wanting to go to Sydney for New Year's for over a year now... ever since we first started thinking about coming down here. We purchased a car and were planning on leaving the Gold Coast on the 29th and get to Sydney on the 30th, early enough to scope out a spot to view the fireworks. We would be downtown by 10am on the 31st to claim a good spot and wait for midnight. 

Our new car, a 2002 Ford Falcon. Her name is Merlot.

About 1.5 hours into the drive the car rpm's started flying up and down and as we pulled over the car died. It happened again several times on the way to the next town, Bellina. The garages in town were shutting down for the weekend so we booked the next available appointment for 8am on the 31st. We tried to book a rental car to go to Sydney and come back for our car after New Years but there were no cars available. We decided we’d have to stay in the town for the weekend and give up on the New Years plan so I  cancelled our hotel reservations in Sydney. Of course Bellina hotels ended up being arly fully booked and we ended up staying in this crap room for $185/night!!! On the morning of the 31st the garage let us know they were not able the problem and sent to Ford (we have an 02 ford falcon). Ford determined was able to determine which part needed to be replaced but the auto parts places in town were closed. Luckily they were able to call in a favor at one of the auto wreckers to get us the part off a used car. The car was finally fixed at 2pm and we made the decision to just try and make it to Sydney and hope we got a decent viewing spot. We drove the remaining 8ish hours to Sydney, parked and walked about 40min to a park on the water. We ended up getting a good view of the bridge. 

Kiss from the harbour bridge at midnight

Fireworks on the bridge as well as along the water

After the fireworks were over we still had to find a place a hotel but the booking websites would no longer bring up availability for the 31st since it was now technically almost 1am on Jan 1st. The night ended with us falling asleep at a truck stop type area, in our car, outside of the city..... which was actually full of cars.. Obviously we weren’t the only ones.. The next day we booked a hotel and begged for an early checkin; they said the earliest we could check-in would be noon so we went for breakfast at a nearby mall and ended up falling asleep in the parking garage at the mall... it was a long night/morning and it was humid so it was such a relief to have a shower and a bed after that!! Hahaha I know I’m tired when I fall asleep in a shopping mall parking lot rather than shopping!!  

So we slept for a few hours more hours in the hotel and than drove downtown to have dinner and see some sights that evening (Jan 1st). We went downtown again the next day to do a bit more walking around during the day and checked out China Town and a neat market they had going on.

Building downtown

Sydney Harbour Bridge view when standing at the Opera House

Seeing the Sydney Opera House for the first time!

The next day (Jan 3) we slept in and than went out to famous Bondi Beach for lunch and a swim. It was super crowded especially since it was a weekday!

Arriving at Bondi Beach there was a croud of people up on the grassy ledge over the sand watching cricket on a inflatable screen.

A crowded Bondi Beach

Surfing Santa at Bondi Beach

Delicious quesadilla lunch! 

 On the 4th we decided to head downtown and check out an area called Darling Harbour for a few hours and than head out of the city. Once we got down to Darling Harbour we realized we would need another two night's stay in the city and booked in the area.... We went to watch a 3D film on coral reef's on the world's largest IMAX screen (29x35metres). Than we went to check out the Maritime Museum for several hours. That night we went on a dinner cruise. The next day we walked around downtown a bit more and went to see the Botanical Gardens.

Giant Duck - part of a upcoming festival

Inside a submarine

View on dinner cruise

Cafe's along the pier at the Opera House

View of the city from the Botanical Gardens

 What we saw of Sydney was been really nice. Beautiful views everywhere! And lots of water everywhere; the ferry system is as good, as popular and as fast as the train or bus here. The city reminds me a bit of Seattle with all the little restaurants and piers. There are also many lovely old buildings everywhere downtown such as brick buildings or buildings with amazing sculptures and molding.

Aussie Aussie Aussie Oye Oye Oye (Dec16-29)

We were able to fix the problem and re-post the last post with photos!

We arrived in Brisbane early on the December 16th and my cousin Sean was a sweetheart and picked us up. It had been about 12 years since the last time we had seen each other and boy had he aged. Anyways we made our way to my uncle and aunt's (Dave & Viv) place in Surfers Paradise where we stayed for the first week.

Once we arrived at their building, Candice and I realized that we were staying in one of the most iconic buildings in Surfers, the Q1. It’s a giant 78 floor building just a block from the beach and is one of the tallest residential buildings in the Southern Hemisphere. Surfers Paradise is a major tourist spot 45 south of Brisbane. The area is full of hotels, large apartment buildings and canals lined with homes and boats.

View from Dave & Viv's condo

Beautiful Q1 building (the tallest glass one in the center)

Surfers Paradise boardwalk

Surfers Paradise boardwalk

Dave and Viv taking a stroll along the beach on a rainy but warm day

Later in the day we headed out to see Sean's home. Sean lives in Currumbin Valley which is a short drive inland from the beach. His house sits up and looks over the jungle-like valley. Behind his house is a variety of avocado, lime, orange, banana and mango trees. Sitting on his deck you can hear the Cicada's (similar to a cricket) chirp; they are so loud at times that you have to raise your voice to speak over them. Once night falls the Cicada's grow quiet and the Toad's start getting noisy.

Mango tree at Sean's place

Micheal standing on driveway to Sean's house

We stayed with Dave & Viv for the first week and then moved onto Rachael & Mikes apartment. We spent lots of time visiting with everyone, looking for a car, going to the beach and relaxing in the beautiful pools at the Q1. We also enjoyed our first Christmas with down under where my family spoiled us with a great holiday dinner and gifts. 

Rachael on xmas morning with her new watch

Xmas morning at Mike & Racheal's

Lyric and Baylee on their new slip n' slide on a very hot xmas day

Dave hanging out

Trev and Sean watching Baylee open her gifts

Delicious xmas dinner

Sophie (Dav & Viv's dog) enjoyed opening the stocking we got her

Viv opening her gifts

Sean, Mike and Travis having some xmas drinks

Since arriving in Australia we have been lucky enough to see the following wildlife: wild kangaroos – one had a baby in its pouch, wild Cockatoo Parrots - white with yellow under the wings and on their head, Flying Fox - giant giant bat!, large blue Jellyfish - while standing on a bridge looking into the canel water, thousands of white smaller jellyfish, dolphins - while sitting next to a river that ran into the ocean in Bellina and a "baby" Huntsman spider - it may have been a baby but it was still the biggest spider we've ever seen (don’t worry Alex.. we were out at Sean’s in the middle of jungle-land and had to go looking for it to find it outside at night.. didn’t see it in the city or inside or anything like that). And we heard a Kookaburra sing!

Sign near Sean's home

Kangaroo with a baby in its pouch in the grassy area in a small community on the way out to Sean's

Wild Cockatoo