The City of Sydney

We headed out from Hayman on the large boat that took about an hour to get to the airport.  Pretty cool to arrive at an airport by boat.  Joan and I spent most the time on the top so we could see the scenery.  It was a little windy, but beautiful.  We had the whole upper deck to our selves.  We landed in Sydney in the early evening and went directly to a wonderful dinner place that was right on the water overlooking the Opera House.  Pretty nice indeed!!   The sun set right on the Opera House.  It then turned a bright red (I think with a little help by mankind, but beautiful just the same!) 

 The next morning we went to a koala zoo.  It was a really nice zoo that had all kinds of Australian animals.  The Koala's were our favorite!  OMG... JUST ADORABLE!  Everyone had a chance to pet one and have their picture taken.  Joan and I were last and when we went to "stike a pose" the little guy decided to walk down the railing.  It was hysterical with us following him all the way across the exhibit.  He finally stopped at the corner and decided to take a pee right on my shoe.  Too funny. I was told it was good luck.  :-) 

We also were able to pet and hang out with the Kangaroo's.  There was a Momma with a little Joey in her pouch.  It was so cute!

After the zoo we went on a tour of the Opera House.  Spectacular building and history.  The sails are not white by the way - they are covered in ceramic tiles.  It's a more on the light tan color.  We got lucky when the tour guide took us in one of the theatres and there was a rehearsal going on.  We watched a ballerina practice her moves.

We ended our evening with a nice boat tour through Sydney Harbor.  It was a large boat and our tour group of 39 had the whole thing to ourselves. 

Unfortunately, half way through it began to rain...no, it poured (seems like a theme for us) but still we managed to see a lot of the harbor in the sunshine.

Gorgeous Great Barrier Reef

Day One:

We took a very large Catamaran to a Pontoon type of vessel with sundecks, scuba/snorkel tours, submergible boats, glass bottom boats, a water slide etc. It’s a permanent fixture way out at Knuckle Reef. There’s a guy who lives there 12 days at a time. It took about an hour and a half to arrive to the Pontoon.

Joan was able to squeeze in two dives while we were there. She was so excited. The first dive was great as she saw a variety of fish and coral.

On her second dive she saw a 8 foot shark sleeping under a rock, and then decided to wake up and go for a swim towards her. The good news is that he wanted nothing to do with her, and was harmless.

Carol went snorkeling and saw some incredible colored coral and a variety of fish along with a huge blue/green fish.

 Day Two:

Joan went on her second day of diving and was able to get another two dives in during her trip. She was a little disappointed as it wasn’t as bright as her first day but did do a few “dive through’s” which is when you go under a thin passageway of coral.

Carol went for a Sea Plane adventure. The Sea Plane was a small plane capable of landing and taking off from the water. Pretty cool!! The views of the Reef from above were amazing.

We landed near a boat where we boarded and drove to the Reef where we snorkeled. The coral was amazing. The colors were fluorescent (bright yellows, greens, blue, orange, salmon) with such a variety of shapes and sizes. The favorite thing was the very large sea clams that had a wavy edge that had a vibrant purple middle. It was so cool to see it open and shut. The very best snorkel experience ever!!

We boarded the plane again and headed to Whitehaven Beach with was a white sand beach tucked away between several islands and covered miles of shoreline. Unfortunately when we landed it began to rain, so walking the beach as we planned didn’t happen. It still was very pretty.

The weather hasn’t cooperated like we hoped, but still Hayman Island is a beautiful place and we’ve enjoyed this very luxury resort very much.

Outback Adventures

The Outback was Awesome…. We spent two days and had a great time.

First day:

What a day!!! We saw sunrise AND sunset WITH Champagne at both… LIFE IS GOOD!!

2:30 am was pretty early to start the day, but necessary to be able to get out in the middle of nowhere (OK, the Outback) in order to get to ride a hot air balloon to watch the sun rise. It was FREEZING (who’d of thunk.. NOT us as we were there in our “life is good” t-shirts and shorts). It took a while for the HUGE balloon to fill and while they lit the propane flames to heat the balloon it was like being next to a campfire in the middle of a cold night.

There was a smaller balloon being inflated next to us and our balloon ended up going up first (which made it great to have in front of the sunrise). There were 17 of us that were able to fit into one very large basket. There are no doors to the basket and it was a little challenging to climb up into the thing.

We choose the closest part to the middle as it was right underneath the flame thing that helped make the balloon rise. It went up pretty fast and smooth. The sky was just beginning to light and we were able to see the distant mountains/hills. Beautiful! We were up for about a half hour which was perfect timing to see the sun rise over the Outback before we landed. The landing was pretty rough as we ran into several large bushes before we ended up sort of sideways. Pretty fun.

We headed back to the resort and had a champagne brunch. It was outdoors (still a little chilly) and we sat on small stools and were served finger types of courses. Chicken legs, quiche, cheese and crackers, fruit and chocolate cake… oh, and plenty of Champagne. All before 6am. Life is Good!

Just before lunch we headed into town and stopped for a tour of the dispatch center for “The Flying Doctors”. Since there is so much remote farm land in the Outback (one “farm” is the size of Florida), many of the people do not have access to medical attention (emergency or not). These doctors will go out to the people and provide medical services or transport them to a hospital facility. All paid for by the Australian Government with the exception of the plane maintenance which is funded through donations.

Next we headed into town for lunch and shopping. After lunch, Carol’s walking pace sped up while Joan’s slowed down…motivation versus NOT. We flew to Ayers Rock which was only an hour flight where it’s still desert like in the Outback  .

We only had about an hour to rest up and then headed to the “Rock” and were greeted by servers with Champagne, h’orves. It was a beautiful evening and we watched the sun set on Ayers Rock which was really pretty. It doesn’t get much better than that!!

Second day:

The day started with sunrise (no champagne) overseeing Uluru Rock (aka Ayers Rock). We met a couple of friends at 5:30 and headed to an overlook point. The “rock” does not look as bright as we have all seen in pictures, but it is a magnificent sight just the same! The sky had some pretty pinks, reds and had some really cool tree’s that we could take some nice shots with.

After breakfast, we headed out for a 3 hour tour around Uluru, which is a distance of 9km (I’ll let you convert). We had front row seats, which was an extra bonus…(the tour rotates seats to make sure everyone gets a fair shot at the front and back of the bus) We saw some beautiful Outback country side views of the very big rocks and cave drawings and rock formations that equated to Aborigines Dreaming (Fairy Tales). Although it is requested to not be done, some people climb the rock which is said to be a great challenge. However, today the path was closed because the temperature reached over 100F. (NOT that we even would consider it!)

After our tour and lunch, we headed to the airport to head for Cairns (pronounced by the Aussies like “carns”). This is “The Gateway to the Barrier Reef”. We arrived around 6:00pm and are to meet the bus in the morning at 6:00am (bags at 5:00am.. Arrgg) to head to the Hayman Island Resort. Too bad this is just a night’s stay as the hotel is beautiful with a room overlooking a bay with sailboats and several piers. This is a rainforest area… it’s crazy to think but in this area it can receive more than 21-23 FEET of rain per year. Our next stop is a 3 day stay (thank goodness) and will be a top-shelf experience! This is where Joan hopes to get several scuba dives in!

A Town Called Alice

We left Melbourne and headed to Alice Springs which is located almost in the dead center of the continent. Once there, we headed straight out to an “Outback Dreamtime Tour”. We had lunch in the Outback and were given a great over view of the Aborigines history and culture both historically and today.

The tour finished with a group of Aborigines women who sat and painted original artwork. There they were sitting on the ground, painting away. Pretty cool! Pictures were only allowed if you purchased a painting with the artist to show authenticity. (of course we purchased.. really neat!)

Interesting thing about the Outback…there are small flys (like our house flys, but smaller) that hover around your head. (Yes we were given head nets to wear, but we didn’t wear them) Luckily, they don’t bite, but just go at your ears, nose, eyes and mouth. The reason they do this is because of the moisture. Australia is the 2nd driest continent on Earth (after Antarctica).

Water is scarce and mostly found only underground. In fact, every year, they have a boat race in the Todd River here in Alice Springs which consists of people who have boats with the bottom cut out and they run along the river bed in a race. In 1995, the race was cancelled because it rained and there was water in the river! (Yes, we listened to our tour guide) 

We then visited the Alice Springs Desert Reserve where we saw a live Birds of Prey show that had all kinds of hawks fly around outside (never could figure how they made them do all those things as it was completely outside) We saw several kangaroo’s just lounging around. We got pretty close to the point we could almost pet them.

We finished the day at an Outback Barbeque in the middle of the Outback sitting under an outdoor canopy. They made fresh bread, served several types of meat including Kangaroo (yes, we tried it… not bad, just a little tough). They played many Australian songs (sounded a lot like Irish songs) that made the night fun.

There was an astronomer amongst them that took us for a short walk in the “bush” so we could see the star filled sky. It was amazing. The Milky Way was so prominent. He explained a lot about the stars and planets from an Australian view. The East Star stays low on their horizon so it is rarely seen; just as the Southern Cross sits too low on our horizon to really see it. There was no North Star or little/big dipper as it’s not in view from here.

What a fantastic day!  Thank you, Lord!

Marvelous Melbourne

Our first full day in Australia was great.  It happened to be a special Melbourne holiday as the Melbourne Cup was being held.  It was like being in Louisville, KY for Derby day times ten!  The whole city pretty much closes down and most everyone dresses up in their finest.  Men in suits and ties and the women decked out to the max with hats and feathers and high heels.  They call it the "Race that stops the Nation".

We started our day with a long walk to Victoria Market in hopes it would be open.  It is a huge market that has everything known to mankind.  Unfortunately, it was closed like everything else.  We decided to go to the Melbourne Museum.  They had a great exhibit about the Aboriginal people.  We ventured to Federal Square where there's a huge open area where people hang out.  There's bars and restaurants with outdoor seating.  We sat with this nice Australian gal that explained to us all about the Melbourne cup.  There was a huge TV screen where everyone watched the race. 

We met our Tour group for the first time.  There's about 40 people total and they seemed very nice.  We are on the "young" side, but I'm sure we'll fit in just fine.  We learned the hard way that these folks are pretty "timely".  For our dinner outing we were to meet in the lobby at 5pm.  We arrived about 5:04 (only because  when we reset our watches we must have  moved them slightly slow as we thought we were right on time)  Well, everyone was on the bus and we got on and everyone said "there they are" as if we were lost and they were looking for us.  We won't be late again, that's for sure. 

We had dinner on an historic Colonial Tramcar.  It was so cool.  It took us through the city while we were served a great dinner.  We ended the night at the Crown Casino and managed to play for about 4 hours and only lost about a $200.  :-)

Good Bye Melbourne

Our last day in Melbourne was great. We started the day with a tour around the city by bus and saw many landmarks and learned about the history behind Melbourne. Back in the 1800's (or earlier) most of the residents came from Britain as prisoners. Their sentences were 7 years in prison and transportation to Australia.... it was up to them to get back if they could or wanted to.

We toured the actual prison that still exists today as a Museum (kind of eerie). We also saw the sight of the 1954 site of the Olympics here in Melbourne which we can also see from our hotel room.

We visited a Botanical Garden and a War Memorial (Shrine of Remembrance) dedicated to the solders since WWI who have sacrificed for the country’s liberty.

For the remaining part of the day we walked and walked and walked. Between the past two days we figured we've walked about 8 - 10 miles. We settled the afternoon at a nice restaurant by the river and people watched.

We're here !!

Wow!  We are so tired!  What a LONG day(s). We basically missed Sunday as we left on Saturday afternoon and arrived in Melbourne at 10:30 am MONDAY!  Everyone's advise was to stay up until the evening, so we showered and hit the town.  We found this really cool British Pub that was packed for a Monday afternoon.  We figured we'll be eating alot of Australian foods through out tour so what the heck, it looked good and fun.  It was on a street corner in the hustle and bustle section of Melborne.   We had a great table that was open to the outside and right next to the side walk.  Sheppard's Pie and Fish and Chips did the trick trick to give us our second wind to get through this very long day.  People watching was awesome.

We ventured into the retail section of the city.  It was packed!   There were these really cool little streets between the main streets that had coffee shops, bakeries, wine shops, etc.  We then ended up at Melborne City Square.  It was really cool.  We found this neat wine shop that had seats outside.  We split a bottle of great Australian Chardonnay watching people pass by. 

Well, it's time to try to get to sleep, FINALLY.  Looking forward to starting our tour tomorrow.