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Published: February 15th 2010
First of all let me apologize for the tardiness of this post...we are back in North America now and living in Ottawa...I will fill you in in a later post...but as we were so close to landing in a new city, reality gets in the way. So much of our time has been spent on finding places to live, making arrangements and applying for jobs. But like I said I will get this blog out and fill you in on a blog to be posted very shortly (promise) on our resettlement Ausanada! Canaustralia! Whatever...they both work. Australia seems to be Canada's long lost brother! Auzzie's act and do things very much like Canadians. Almost everything is familiar here...except the trees, flowers, birds, animals, beaches, and other things. But aside from those things we are one! It's like we came home even earlier than what we had planned.
After a marathon plane ride from Bangkok to Brisbane, we jumped in our rental car and realized the steering wheel was on the wrong side! So our first hurdle was to learn to drive with the opposite brain! This would have been much harder if we hadn't just spent a couple of
Kuala Lampur airport
2 of the largest and most gorgeous airports...Bangkok and Kuala Lampur!weeks in Thailand, where they also drive on the wrong side, and we were able to observe. So away we went at 11 PM for an hour's drive north to a place called Mooloolaba.
It seems we have done this to ourselves numerous times and it has not been on purpose, but is certainly something to be wary of when traveling. After a marathon flight, we immediately jump in a vehicle and drive for 1 - 4 hours. We did it in Greece, Thailand, and Australia...come to think of it those are all of the places I organized!😞
Mooloolaba is on the Sunshine Coast, north of Brisbane. It is a beautiful part of Australia and is surrounded by beautiful beaches and national parks. We chose this location after speaking with a Canadian, who lives in Australia, whom we ran into in Greece. She expounded the virtues of Mooloolaba (we never had to write that down as we never forgot it once she said it...it sounds like what you would say after being face planted into the sandy bottom when a six foot wave crashes on top of your head) and the Sunshine Coast. She mentioned the Australia Zoo
Kuala Lampur airport
It was late at night. (Steve Irwin and family's home base) was in this area. We had noted long ago that we wanted go visit this zoo and had always assumed it was in Sydney. It's a good thing we talk to strangers!
If France was the capital of thin people, Australia is the capital of fit people. Everyone seems to live in bathing suits. If you are not at the beach, then you are going to the beach, or coming from the beach. It's like a whole continent of California! The men all walk around with no shirts or shoes...even miles away from the beach. No shirt, no shoes...no problem mate! I tried to run a few times in Australia, the first day at 10 AM and it was way too hot. The second day I tried it at 8:00 AM and it was way too hot! They get off to early starts in Australia I noticed as even at 8:00 AM, there were a lot of people on the trails and buzzing around.
We hit Australia in the summer! Kids are off school in December and January and it does seem just like July and August would feel in Canada...busy with
Kuala Lampur airport
Not nearly as comfortable as it is big! locals and tourists. Except Australia is about 10 degrees hotter. We hit a couple of 40 degree days in Australia, and I for one (pretty much the only one), learned that I really enjoy the hot weather (at least the dry stuff).
We checked into Bellardoo Apartments at midnight. The next day we are very pleased to see that we have an ocean view from our second floor balcony and are situated right across the street from the beach! We had to hit the beach so we walked across the road and found a small patch of beach between two rocky patches and experienced the Australia surf. Just a few people at this beach which is located in between two very popular long sandy beaches called Mooloolaba and Alex Beach. The surf is the biggest we have seen, which makes the boys incredibly happy. It took some convincing to get Gabriel into the water, as he developed the famous fear of, "being eaten alive by a shark in three feet of water". But after he saw that Nicolas, Alex and I survived for 30 minutes, he was soon enjoying the surf and being 'Mooloolabaed'.
I have not taken
a survey amongst us yet, but in my opinion, the beaches of Australia are the most beautiful we have seen on our trip. Maybe it has to do with the surf, or maybe I am influenced by the weather, or maybe it comes down to how garbage free they are, but they rank the highest, in my mind.
We had the pleasure of getting together with a school mate of mine from UBC. Kate Maslen was the Australian in my MBA class. She has been in Australia ever since we graduated in '98 and currently lives several hours north of Brisbane. She was already planning a get-away with her two young daughters, and she planned it for Mooloolaba to meet us there after I had made contact with her. It is very nice to see a familiar face when you are on the other side of the world. Kate is pregnant with her third child...so no wine for her...it's a good thing I was there to pick up the slack! Kate helped us sort out some of the Aussie phrases we have come across like 'schoolies'. I came across 'No Schoolies' phrase frequently when searching for accommodations in Australia
and Kate explained it is the young people who just finished school and are traveling around and partying.
Another classmate of ours, Grace, lives south of Sydney in Bateman's Bay. We made contact with Grace but did not have the time to get down to see her. Grace, Kate, and another classmate Linda are all getting together in mid-February...sorry I will miss them. We enjoyed seeing Kate and wish her and her family well with the birth of their third child.
We just missed getting together with Leigh and Ron Smythe, friends of ours from Medicine Hat. We were all in Australia at the same time, but our paths did not crosss...it's a big country! Too bad.
We drove 20 minutes outside of Mooloolaba to Kondalilla National Park to go for a hike. I read about this hike that features Kondalilla Falls and the possibility of seeing Koalas. We walked down a path through a forest for perhaps fifteen minutes before we hit the falls, and specifically the rock pool at the bottom of one of the tiers in the falls. On this 35 degree day the place was lined with people swimming in the all natural
pool and jumping from the rock cliffs into the seemingly bottomless, and incredibly refreshing, pool. There was also a line-up for the rope swing haphazardly tied to a tree branch. It was surreal and made me think back to Burkina Faso where we swam in the creek at the base of some small falls and now here we were in another natural creek swimming.
Unfortunately, Alex was not feeling well so he chose to sit this one out and watch us. Gabriel was the first to climb the rocks in bare feet to get to the jumping point, and after prodding from Gabriel and the desire for Nicolas to try (which he could not do alone), I made the trek for the great leap. It was a blast and we could have spent the entire day here...but there was hiking to be done!
So off we went down the path to the bottom of a very tall Kondalilla Falls. This was the most beautiful forest I have ever walked through! The variety of vegetation, the solitude, the birds were all incredible. It was a fantastic walk...alas the koala sighting would have to wait another day. Following our hike
we drove a scenic route in the national park and had a glimpse of the Glass House Mountains that are individual mountains that just rise out of nowhere to a considerable height. A great day that was not at a beach!
We were excited to see the Australia Zoo, so we hit it on the Monday after arriving. It was a gorgeous day and only 35 degrees...so we felt lucky! We got there at opening and left at closing. It is a very large zoo where most of the animals have been rescued or were problem residents. We saw plenty of crocs (huge!), lizards and dragons, snakes, tasmanian devils and birds from the kookaburra (which have a fantastic laugh) to parakeets, minas, and condors. We found it all very interesting. The enclosures this zoo has are excellent and all attempt to mimic the natural environment of the animal...no bars here!
There were many koala bears in several areas within the zoo. They have got to be the cutest thing in the world! We saw one koala with a little baby and the babies are even cuter! The kids loved the koalas and we had the chance to pet
one and we had photos taken of the kids holding a koala. We did manage to find koalas in the wild a couple of times on some walks, so that was neat. During our time in Australia, there was a news story of a koala being shot by someone. The story led news for a week as they reported the condition of the koala (they named it but I cannot remember what). The koala could not be saved and eventually died. But we all thought "you have to be pretty disturbed to have the urge to shoot one of these things". It's not like they are pests as they sleep 20 hours a day and eat high in a tree the rest of the time.
The zoo had a large enclosure for the kangaroos that we could walk through and get up close and personal with the wallabies and roos. They are neat animals, somewhat shy yet powerful. In one of the kangaroo enclosures at the end of the day, we saw a mother with a fairly old joey in her pouch. They do not leave the pouch for good until they are about 8-9 months old, and it
is the mother that determines when the right time is to 'lock the door'. This particular joey was starting to come out of the pouch periodically and we watched as it exited and spent a bit of time wandering around. The keeper said it was the longest period he had seen the joey spend out of the pouch...so we were fortunate. We were told by a few people before arriving in Australia that we would have no problem finding kangaroos in the wild, but we didn't see one in our time there! At the Zoo we discovered what an avocado tree looks like as well as tried freshly fallen macadamia nuts (the only indigenous nut to Australia) from the macadamia trees.
Mooloolaba was a great base to visit a lot of different areas. We went to Noosa one day to hike the Noosa National Park. We wanted to have a picnic at the trailhead and then head off on a hike along the coast. We drove to the trailhead area and all of the 50 or so parking spaces were full so we drove back into town to find a picnic place. After lunch we headed back to the
trailhead area and there are still no parking spaces, but as we drive around one opened up on the right side of the road so we duck in before any of the others driving around could grab it. We walked along a trail and found ourselves at a beach which was enticing enough for a swim for about an hour. At one point I was wearing my snorkeling gear on top of my head and trying to catch a large wave to body surf. My snorkeling gear was ripped off my head and immediately disappeared never to be found again. I always wondered how that snorkeling mask arrived at the bottom of the ocean in Finding Nemo.
After swimming we got back on the trail and immediately found a koala up a tree for our first wild koala sighting! They wedge themselves into the crouch of a branch and the tree trunk. This is necessary as they are either eating or sleeping and do not need to have to worry about falling out. While on the trail, Nicolas and I saw a school of dolphins. There is so much to see and hold your attention...another great walk!
When
we returned to the car we had a parking ticket! It was a 2 hour parking zone, however the ticket was not for a time violation but rather for 'misalignment'...meaning I was parked pointing in the wrong direction on the right side of the street, which for Canadians is the right side of the street. I thought it was bull to be giving tickets for that reason in this area...but you have to pay it ($60 Aus) and move on or else the rental company will soak you further.
After a week in Mooloolaba, we drove down the coast toward Sydney. We spent a few days in Port Stephens at a cabin in a campground in Soldier's Point. Port Stephens is a fantastic place and is the dolphin and whale watching capital of Australia (the whales migrate June to December). Upon arrival Nicolas and I walked to the bay from our cabin and got fairly close to pelicans the size of Nicolas and watched a school of dolphins only a stone's throw from the shore.
One of our highlights of Port Stephens was going sand sliding on the largest moving sand mass in the southern hemisphere, which is
just off Anna Bay. They take you out to these dunes in large six-wheeled vehicles, give you a snowboard looking thing which you sit on and fly down the steep dune. It is a large area of pure sand dunes...where a 1 wood away (300 yards) to the north are trees and vegetation and a par 5 away to the south is the beach...all visible from the top of the dune we were sliding down. Flying down the dune is a blast...coming back up was no fun at all! Actually it is fun to watch the kids struggle and to just walk past them pretending that the walk up is easy and does not bother you. Walking up a toboggan hill with a toboggan is nothing compared to the burn of climbing a steep hill of soft sand! Regardless, we spent a couple of hours going up and down. Fortunately we went in the morning and this was a very reasonable day weather-wise at only 30 degrees. The day before was 40 and you could not be barefoot on the sand.
Probably the highlight of Port Stephens, if not Australia, was learning how to surf. The three boys and
I took surfing lessons at One Mile Beach. I really liked this beach as it was a large horseshoe shape protected from the wind but still had large surf. We had gone to One Mile beach the day before to swim and sign up. When we arrived in the parking lot, we found a koala up a tree sleeping. We had our surfing lesson and all really enjoyed it. So we went back early the next morning to rent surfboards and were all very successful at getting up on our boards and riding the surf. Surfing rocks! We are now officially 'surfer dudes'!
Part of our learning to surf lesson included reading the surf to determine where to and where not to surf. In Australia every few feet (it seems) there are signs that tell people to swim only at patrolled beaches and in between the flags. The problem is that they have a lot of beautiful beaches everywhere, and not all of them are patrolled. The signs warn about rip currents and during our lesson we were shown how to recognize these currents. We not only saw numerous signs about rip currents and swimming between the flags, but
we saw tv commercials, radio ads, and were told by instructors and locals. These rip currents can be very strong currents that flow out to sea from the beach, it is the channel the water uses to get back out to sea. You can see where they are sometimes by analyzing the surf and seeing where there is a calm break in the surf. During our two weeks in Australia, there were several deaths that hit the news because of rip currents. The point of the flags that are set out by lifeguards at patrolled beaches is essentially a rip current free zone. Sometimes during the day the lifeguards will move the flags if a rip current forms close to the swimming area. They are hard to see and can be deadly.
We wanted to have a few days in Sydney, so after Port Stephens we drove three hours south to Sydney on Australia Day. Our accommodations in Sydney are much the same as Port Stephens. We are staying at a cabin in the only National Park in Sydney called Lane Cove. We arrived, checked in and then walked to the train to go downtown to Darling harbor for
the Australia Day celebrations. On our way to the harbor we walked through Hyde Park and looked up to see the largest bats we have ever seen. The wings were unmistakably bat wings, but the size was more like a large raven! Apparently, they are the fruit bats known as the 'flying foxes'.
We joined about 100,000 people to watch the fireworks. It was neat to be in the middle of all the people in Sydney and, save for the bridge that was in our way (who put that there?) had a fantastic view of the fireworks. Happy Australia Day!
The Australia Open was taking place in Melbourne while we were in Australia. The whole country gets into the event...so we did also and followed the action on a daily basis. You can hear people talking about it in the grocery store and on the street. It is a big event and Australia is a big country! When Melbourne was having problems with rain, we were basking in warmth and sunshine. We heard reports of some very wet weather in places, but we had great weather wherever we were.
At the Lane Cove National Park we participated
in a couple of programs they offered that included an aboriginal dance performance and an evening animal walk to find the nocturnal animals in the park. We saw two different kinds of possums, sleeping kookaburras, a gecko, several bandicoots, and a number of different spiders. The kids thought it was just another walk and were not happy to be forced to go, but really enjoyed seeing the animals at night and were very good at spotting them in the darkness.
We have gotten to a point where walking is seen as evil, at least from the kids perspective. So if I want to play with them I tease them about doing a marathon walk today. They refer to me as the walking freak, even though the only way you can see the interesting aspects of any country is by walking. When we were walking, the end was always "10 minutes away" if they asked me, but they caught on to that fairly quick and learned to expect 30 minutes if I said 10. Sometimes it was actually 10, so it was a good way to keep them guessing and off-balance.
At Lane Cove National Park we ran into
another Canadian family from Peterborough who were doing the same thing as us, only in the opposite direction. They were five as well (1 girl and 2 boys) and had already been on the road for 5 months as they had done South and Central America. They were expecting to be on the road for possibly another 7 months still. They were very nice and we exchanged contact information to compare notes in the future.
Sydney is a beautiful city. We have seen some beautiful cities. We realized that we have also seen several Olympic cities including Barcelona, Athens, and Sydney. We wandered (I had to come up with a new word for walking so the kids wouldn't rebel) around Darling and Sydney harbors. In Darling harbor is the Maritime Museum that is free! It is free to go into the museum to see the exhibitions. It cost (and considerably) to tour the ships and sub floating in the marina just outside of the museum...so we skipped the ships but enjoyed the museum. We went on a boat tour of Sydney harbor and saw a lot of prime properties and great harbor front locations.
It struck me as
I drove around the East Coast of Australia that there is nobody speeding. They have a very tight rein on drivers here. One reason is that they have quite a few 24 hour photo radar cameras on the highway. In others, they have manned speed traps. So people have learned. I was warned about speeding and thankfully, stayed the speed limit. They also have ghost toll booths. Most of the toll booths here are not booths at all but just cameras that take a photo of your license plate. Residents that travel through the toll areas often have established an online credit for tolls or have a tag that charges the credit card for each time they go through. If you do not have an account you have two days to pay any tolls. You can go online and enter you license number to see what charges apply. For those of us with rental cars, you have to call and establish an account to debit your credit card. If you have an unpaid toll charge they mail out a failure to pay notice. If one of these lands at the rental car office you will see a $40 charge on
Nicolas...zan!
There are actually vines you can swing from! your credit card in addition to the $3 toll charge...crooks! Unfortunately, as you travel between provinces (i.e. New South Wales to Queensland) you have to set-up the account for both provinces. So beware of the ghost tolls!
Australia lived up to all of our anticipations. It was very beautiful and special and we could have spent a lot longer in this country. We did not see any of the outback or the Blue Mountains. We were told how beautiful the country was north to Cairns, south to Melbourne, west to Perth, and the capital region of Victoria none of which we could get to on this trip. There is just so much to do like scuba, deep sea fishing, kite surfing, trekking, winery tours, surf, surf, and more surf and yet there is so little budget. We did find Australia VERY expensive. Accommodations, groceries, gas ($1.34 per litre!) are all very expensive. I would even say more expensive than Europe, but the euro to Cdn exchange rate still makes Europe more expensive. The Cdn dollar and the Australia dollar are practically at par, so the transparency was appreciated.
It is hard to leave Australia...probably harder than any other
country we have visited, because we know we have barely scratched the surface of what this country is about. We also know that leaving Australia means our adventure is ending. However, we still have one more stop in Palm Springs before we hit eastern Canada to start the next adventure. We are stopping in Palm Springs to visit my sister Heather, brother-in-law Mike, niece Lindsay and my mother who is in Palm Springs visiting them. However, we first have to endure another marathon flight from Sydney to Hawaii and then onto Los Angeles. The kids are getting a kick out of the fact that we get a free day in our life. We get all of the time back in one day that we lost by traveling eastward. We leave Sydney at 9:20 PM on January 29 and arrive in Los Angeles at 9:20 PM on January 29! Too bad this free day will be spent in aircraft and airports. Unfortunately, but par for the course, we will take a shuttle from LAX to the rental car company, then drive 2 hours to Palm Springs when we get off the flight. Oh well...travel and learn!
Take care,
Dana,
Nadine, Alex, Gabriel, and Nicolas
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Kirsten
non-member comment
wow!
It is wonderful to read about your adventures, what an amazing experience to have together as a family!