Australia Part 2- Sydney

Everywhere we visited in Australia was amazing and beautiful but for some reason arriving in Sydney was different.  It was the first time I had the overwhelming feeling I was in AUSTRALIA!  I kinda felt like a little kid on Christmas morning. Now here is how we got there and what we did...


For this trip I did basically ALL of the planning from where we were going, when, how long, where we stayed, what we did, and all of the in-country flights.  Needless to say our flight from Cairns to Sydney left at 5:20 AM.   Since Port Douglas was an hour drive from Cairns we had to leave our hotel at 3:30 am.  Lets just say our group wasn't too thrilled with me.  However, I did this so that we wouldn't miss half a day of Sydney because we were flying.  In the end I think it worked out well and we all appreciated the early morning flight.


Upon arrival in Sydney we checked into our hotel and our room was actually ready!  We changed clothes and dropped off the bags and then headed to check out Sydney.  Our first stop was the Sydney Opera House where we quickly jumped on the next tour.  I enjoyed the Opera House tour way more than I thought I would.  It was cool learning how the project was proposed and the design picked.  Then it was interesting to learn all the hurdles they went through to get it completed.  Did you know the original architect was fired before the job was finished?? And that he never saw his building completed in person??  Crazy.

After we toured the Opera House we walked over to the Harbour Bridge.  Our plan was to just buy tickets and book our "climb time" for another day.  However when we showed up there was an available time for right then.  We decided to go ahead and climb the bridge since we knew the weather was great and it may not be any day after that.  It turned out to be a great decision.  The weather was perfect and our view was amazing.  

The Harbour Bridge was orginally opened in 1932.  At that time there were a total of 5 automobiles in the city area.  It's amazing that they had the vision to build such a large bridge that is now 6 lanes wide (or more, I can't remember exactly).  It is also the tallest steel arch bridge in the world, and yes, we climbed the top.  The climb was a cool experience.  We had to wear these "sexy" suits and a harness that attached us into the bridge.  The climb totaled about 3 1/2 hours but that was with time to stop and rest and take in the view.  From the top Sydney is a spectacularly beautiful city.  Sadly they didn't allow us to take our own cameras and they wanted to charge $25 for 1 picture!!!  If you look at the picture below you can see little spots on top of the arch of the bridge.  That is where we climbed.   

Our second day in Sydney we headed out to the Taronga Zoo.  The zoo is on the other side of the harbour from the city which gives some amazing views.  The best way to get to the zoo is to ride the ferry which was a scenic ride as well. Sadly this was the only place that we saw traditional Australian animals besides wallabies and kaolas.  At the zoo we got to see many types of kangaroos, tasmanian devils, and a Cassowary bird.  Taronga zoo also has a great seal show and a highly popular free flight bird show.  It was amazing to see how well all these animals were trained. 

Taronga Ferry

Lazy Kangaroos

I think he's sleepy

Cassowary Bird

Tasmanian Devil

View from the Free-flight bird show

After the day at the zoo we headed back to the hotel, showered up, and got ready to go see "The Nutcracker" at the Sydney Opera House!!!  Mom and I were so excited to get to actually see something a the Opera House.  Dad had to pull some strings to get us tickets or maybe just lucked into them by being in the right place at the right time.  It was a great and special experience.  Micah's still not so sure why people care about the Nutcracker though ;)  Getting to see The Nutcracker made it feel a little more like Christmas.

After the Nutcracker we went to the apartment and since we were in a Christmas mood, Mom decided to give me my present.  Every year for Christmas, Mom gets us matching PJ's.  At one point in time Mom decided that I had probably out grown this tradition and lets just say, I did not agree.  I always look forward to my Christmas PJ's that I get to open on Christmas eve.  When we are with the whole family all the girls get matching PJ's and we take pictures around the tree.  It made my night when Mom brought out my Christmas PJ's in Australia!!  Tradition lives on :)

One of the things I loved about Sydney was the public transportation. It's so nice to be able to get around the city quickly without having to pay for a cab or walk forever.  Sydney has a great subway system and ferry system that can get you almost everywhere you want to go. And we also found that some of the stations had free wi-fi.  As you can see the 3 of us enjoyed this feature. 

For our third day in Sydney we made a day trip out to the Hunter Valley wine region.  We started the day off with a 2 hour train ride and then our guide for the day picked us up at the train station.  The first stop on our itinerary was a brewery which is funny since it was a wine tour.  But, this made Micah happy and got him in a good mood.  The brewery had some very...interesting flavors including "bacon". And yes, somehow the beer tasted like bacon and no, it was NOT good.  But they did have some other beers that were good.  They also had a 4 sampler trey where you could choose 4 different beers to try.  

Our next stop was actually a winery called "Tempus Two".   We spent quite a while in this winery because we were enjoying the company of our bar man.  Oddly enough, he had spent sometime not only in Texas, not only in Houston, but in League City!  Micah and I's first apartment in Houston was in League City.  Needless to say we had fun conversation and I think he gave us some extra special wine tastings. 

We went to several other winery's through the day and met some "interesting" wine ladies.  They were all highly entertaining.  We even did a tour at one of them since I had never been on one before. My parents had decided to buy one bottle every place we went so at the end of the day we went home with 5 bottles of wine.  Micah and I bought one that is supposed to age well to drink on our 10 year anniversary.  

For our last full day in Sydney, Micah and I wanted to go to Bondi Beach.  So we got up that morning and caught the ferry to the beach. The morning started off beautiful, hot, and sunny.  By the time we arrived at the beach, it was windy, cloudy, and we could see the rain moving in.  We took a quick stroll on the beach and then took cover and ate lunch while it rained.  Mom and Dad weren't too interested in the beach so after the rain they headed back to downtown Sydney while we stayed to brave the weather. Right after lunch it started to get sunny and I was even able to lay out a little and get a slight tan.  Sitting on the beach was a great spot to do some people watching.  Bondi Beach is very regulated by the lifeguards and you have to swim "Between the Flags".   The lifeguards come out and put flags on the beach that determines where you can swim.  This day, the currents were apparently bad because the space they gave for swimming was very small.  Eventually we decided to brave it and go out in the water.  It was COLD and rough but fun at the same time.  However, once we left the water it started to rain again so we decided to head back to our hotel and get cleaned up. 

The next was our last day in Sydney.  Our flight left Sydney to go back to Melbourne at 9:30pm so we had a decent amount of time to get a few last things checked off our list.  First, we took a ferry out to Watson's Bay where we thought we would eat lunch.  We arrived around 11:00am and none of the restaurants opened until 12:00 but you could get a beer.  Ha.   So we found a spot with a great view and drank a beer or two and then hoped back on the ferry to head back to Sydney.  When we made it back we took a stroll through the Royal Botanical Gardens.  The park was beautiful and again, had great views of the Harbour Bridge and the Opera House. 

Eventually we went to the airport and headed back to Melbourne.  We arrived in Melbourne around 11:00pm and Mom and Dad's flight left at 6:00am for Houston.  It was a sad goodbye but we had a great vacation with them.  I don't think we could have asked for a better vacation together. Love you Mom and Dad!

Australia part 1

Of all the countries I have visited so far, Australia is probably my favorite.  Some of it may have to do with living in Saudi for 6 months before visiting.  I was very ready to feel "normal" and not be stared at all the time.  Kenya, although a great vacation, didn't really give the feeling of "normal".  We were still out of place and kinda confined to the tourist areas.  I was ready to ditch the abaya for 2 1/2 weeks. 

Micah and I started our trip in Melbourne.  We arrived the night of December 3 while Mom and Dad didn't arrive until the morning of December 5.  For our first day we did the essential things Saudi people would do....Ate sausage biscuit for breakfast (PORK) and went to see "Harry Potter".   As you may or may not know, Saudi does not allow movie theaters so we were excited to get to see a movie.  However, we were both jet-lagged so it was somewhat a struggle to stay awake through the whole movie.  I continuously ate popcorn to help me out.  After the movie we just walked around Melbourne and explored the city. I was doing my best just to stay awake and follow Micah around. Bed time came early that night. 

The next morning we woke up and got ready to meet my parents at our apartment.  I was very excited to see them since it had been 5 months since we last saw each other.  We didn't give my parents much time to adjust.  We got them on a bus and headed for the "Queen Victoria Market".  From what we saw, it seemed like a flee market.  Later I found out that we probably missed the best parts...ohh well, maybe next time ;)  

One of the popular things to do from Melbourne is to drive the Great Ocean Road.  It's basically just a scenic drive along the coast with some popular stopping areas to take pictures and stuff.  When we started out, it looked like a sunny beautiful day but as we drove it continued to get foggy and rainy.  It didn't stop us any, just made our pictures not quite as bright.  

Since we rented a car to drive the Great Ocean Road we decided the next day would be a good opportunity to go out to Philip Island.  This is a popular destination because of the "Penguin Parade".  At night the Little Penguins come in from fishing and make their way back to the burrows but more on that later.  We headed there mid morning and of course once we arrived it started raining.  Oh well.  We bought a pass that got us in to all of the attractions on Philip Island.  Our first stop was the Churchill Island which is another small island off the coast of Philip.   Here they basically just had some old houses of the original settlers and we watched some working dogs round up sheep. Then we went to the Koala reserve. We were able to get some great pictures of a Koala that decided to eat some lunch really close to the pathway. 

After the Koalas we drove to the other end of the island to a place called "seal point".  Well I didn't realize that we would have to take a boat ride to see the seals and needless to say we were too late for any of the rides.  So we walked around and looked at the scenery.  The clouds were really cool. 

For the Grand Finale we went to the Penguin Parade.  At the parade we sat on a dock where we had a view of the ocean and the path to their burrows.  The penguins start to make their way to shore at sunset.  Before actually coming to shore the penguins join together in the water into rafts.  Once they get brave enough they will make their way on shore as a group.  If a bird or other predator comes they may waddle back to the water and start all over again.  The penguins were super cute and surprisingly noisy.  Sadly we weren't allowed to take any pictures.  Mom took a picture of the sign which gives you at least an idea. 

Our last day in Melbourne was once again rainy.  I asked a local if it was normal for it to rain this much and she said "No, we've been in a 10 year drought.  This is the most rain we've seen in years".  Awesome. Again, we survived.  Instead of walking to where we were going we decided to catch a taxi.  The one thing I kept insisting on doing was a tour of the Melbourne Cricket Grounds.  I could tell everyone wasn't really sure why but they agreed anyway.  In the end, it is still one of Micah's favorite things that we did. 

The evening of our last day in Melbourne we boarded a mini cruise ship called "The Spirit of Tasmania".  We rode the ship through the night and arrived the next morning in Tasmania. It was a fun experience and I would recommend it. 

Tasmania was amazing and we all agree we could have spent two weeks there instead of 1 day.  The countryside was beautiful as well as the coast.  We started off our drive headed to some waterfalls.  I was looking for Columba falls but instead we made it to Ralph Falls.  

After going to the "wrong" falls we continued on our drive.  Then we accidentally found the right falls.  In the end we all agreed the first falls were a more exciting adventure. Here is the Columba falls. 

If you haven't noticed, we spent an entire day driving from one side of Tasmania to the other with scenic stops on the way.  Here we stopped at Freycinet National Park to hike to the Wineglass Bay lookout.  Again we had clouds fogging up our view but it was still amazing.  This was our last official stop in Tass.  We had some more exciting events after this like almost running out of gas but in the end we made it safely. 

The next morning we flew out of Hobart, Tasmania headed to Port Douglas.  Port Douglas is a small beach tourist community about an hour from Cairns.  It was a fun little town with lots of good places to eat. This is also where we went diving on the Great Barrier Reef.  Everyone told us about how bad it was to get out to the reef and how almost everyone gets sea-sick.  However, we had AMAZING conditions with sunshine and almost no wave action.  I don't think a single person got sick this day.  Micah and I were able to do 3 dives while Mom and Dad snorkeled.  We had to wear these smurf suit things to protect us from stinging jellys.  The dives were great. 

Since you shouldn't really fly right after diving, we spent the next day in Port Douglas touring the Daintree Rainforest.  On our tour we stopped at some scenic spots, swam in a creek, at lunch in the rainforest, took a rainforest hike, and rode a boat to look for crocs.  

Since this post is already so long, I'm going to save Sydney for my next post.   Hopefully it will be coming soon.