After travelling through hundreds and hundreds of kilometres of fields (I had no idea there were that many sheep in Australia!), we were definitely ready to see some ocean scenery. Although we saw bits and pieces of the ocean while we stayed in Robe and Port Fairy, the Great Ocean Road didn't actually start until we passed Port Fairy. The road still didn't hug the coast, but there were many turnoffs to the various geological formations. Along the entire road we were rained on (it followed us!), but we were able to find a few breaks to explore. All along the road, the coastline is constantly being battered by the southern winds and waves. As time and the forces of water take their toll, the coastline is continually degraded leaving hundreds of isolated rock formations standing ... read more

After a couple weekends of catching up on house cleaning, yard work and marking, we ventured south to join other exchange teachers from around the world in the Shoalhaven area of NSW. Our weekend began with us heading south toward Sydney at 4:00 on Friday afternoon. We were in for traffic and we knew it! Unfortunately, the main freeway from Gosford to Sydney turns into city streets in the northern suburbs. We were stuck in stop-and-go traffic for nearly an hour before spotting our way out... the M7 toll highway, which took us the opposite direction from where we wanted to go but got us out of the city! Colleagues at school had recommended this as the most reasonable route since it would take us away from the traffic and around the city instead of through ... read more

Although school is very busy for both of us with a lot of new things to get used to, we're trying to keep at least one day on the weekend just for ourselves. We've been trying to get out and see the local area a bit and sample all it has to offer. A few weekends ago, we headed up to Terrigal Beach - the main tourist beach in the area. We watched some cricket being played in the oval nearby and were fascinated by the pelicans just waiting for the fishermen to arrive with their catch. Wow are they big! The next weekend we headed north up the coast about 30 minutes to The Entrance. What a nice spot! The Entrance beach is 8km long - and wow, that's a lot of sand! We played ... read more

Where better to celebrate Australia Day than in Sydney, so we jumped on the train and spent two days in the capital of New South Wales. We arrived on Wednesday afternoon and tracked down our hotel close to Central Station (thank you Expedia.ca). We then headed out on foot and straight down George Street. Our wanderings eventually took us toward Darling Harbour and the Sydney Aquarium. The aquarium was incredible! A menagerie of animals including seals, Fairy Penguins (very small) stingrays and sharks (Too bad that Sarah won't get to experience any of these while scuba diving!). After several hours at the aquarium, we explored the rest of Darling Harbour and Cockle Bay. After a good helping of ice cream, we called it a night. Australia day began with us boarding the "Hop-on-Hop-off" tourist bus. It ... read more

Day 1 Our Fiji trip began with a friend picking us up and dropping us off at Gosford train station. In just under an hour-and-a-half, we were at the international departures terminal at Sydney airport. After a four-hour flight and a one-hour time change, we arrived in Nadi on the main island of Viti Levu just in time to be transported to our overnight hotel - the Tanoa International - a beautiful hotel with very hungry mosquitoes that dined well on Sarah’s legs! Day 2 Up early to be transported to the marina for our ferry to Malolo Island. When we arrived at the “marina” (an open-air ticket booth and two docks), we were told that the Tiger IV catamaran was in need of repair… and they began to load our luggage into a small red ... read more