13 September 2009, Sunday
Time to leave Sydney. I will have to say that after we left the business district, I did start to like Sydney more but, still, it’s a city. :) I think we needed more time to explore it to really appreciate the city. But, like I said, we are out of here! We had breakfast at the hotel and hopped on a shuttle to the airport. Our flight wasn’t until 1:25p so we were able to take our time in the morning getting ready and eating breakfast. Our flight was three hours up to Cairns and luckily, they had a movie for us to watch on the plane. Can’t remember what it was called tho but it had Russell Crowe as a journalist for a newspaper and Ben Afflick as a congressman with Robin Wright as his wife. Remember that one? It was pretty good. Anyway, so we landed in the late afternoon in Cairns and yes, controlled fires here just like in Sydney. It must be that time of year. They do that in the states too. Don’t go to any national parks in September in the states cuz that’s when they set them on fire. Trust me, I know. :P
The weather here in Cairns is so pleasant. I was able to wear a dress and sandals at night and wasn’t cold!! That’s a first for me. I’m always cold. Anyway, we got a taxi to the hotel, found our room and immediately left it for dinner in town. It’s kind of odd: the travel agent booked us a room at the Cairns Colonial Club Resort for a night and she knew that we would be getting in at around 5p and leaving at about 7a the next day so we can’t enjoy the pools at all. Or the bars connected to the pool. :) I wonder if this place was cheap or had a deal going on. I’m not complaining tho. Our accommodation is fine except that we have 2 double beds in our room. Hey, more space. :) Anyway, the town of Cairns is very interesting indeed. I don’t really know how to describe it but it feels to me as one big tourist trap. During our previous week of travel, anytime we mentioned that we were traveling to Cairns to a local Australian, they always gave us that down trodden look as if to say, “Really? That crappy place?“ Now, I understand that look. It’s almost like a city designed to shop til you drop. Not really something that I like to do. Oh well. We’re only here one night.
We dined at Ochre who specialized in Australian cuisine. So, quite fittingly, I tasted emu, crocodile, and (yes, sadly) kangaroo from David’s plate and I’m sorry to say, I didn’t like any of them. But, then again, David said that the restaurant wasn’t that good (yes, he’s a food snob) and that it probably would have tasted much better if it was prepared properly. I had the veggie platter of hummus, baba ganoush, yogurt covered cheese and a pesto gnocchi. It was pretty good but it was very different from what I’ve tasted before. Oh, and I almost forgot. They had Cuban rum! David was very happy. He had a mojito with Havana Club and I got a cocktail with lychee and Havana Club as well. Mine was very watered down tho. Maybe the bartender thought I was under 18 (the legal drinking age in Australia). :P
We spent the next 10 minutes trying to find a taxi and finally found a Prius taxi (cool huh!) which took us back to the hotel. It’s so warm in our room: David’s got the A/C cranked up and the ceiling fan on full blast. It sounds like a prop engine and I feel as if at any minute it’s gonna take flight and chop off my legs. But, it looks like its been up there for a long time so that probably won’t happen. :P We’re gonna try to head to bed early tonight cuz we’re being picked up pretty early tomorrow from the hotel. We’re heading on our diving adventure out to the Great Barrier Reef (GBR) on a live aboard boat. Should be fun!! Night all!
Friday, September 18, 2009
Sydney, Australia Sept 11-12 2009
11 September 2009, Friday
Last morning on Kangaroo Island. This is one of my favorite places so far on the trip. I’m sure I’ll love the GBR too once we get there. But, first, we are off to Sydney. We got up relatively early, Sandy made us breakfast and then Ian took us to the little airport in Kingscote. We didn’t even have to pass through a security checkpoint: it’s that small. I miss the days when airports were like that and people were more civilized. :) We had a rather bumpy flight back to Adelaide since it was so windy and the plane is so small. But, we survived and then waited for a bit to board our next flight into Sydney. We put part of our luggage in storage since we were only allowed a 15 kg checked bag on the flight to KI so we had to wait a bit for that to come out of storage. Our flight to Sydney wasn’t too long and we had morning tea and cake on the plane.
My first impression of Sydney is most likely a little biased since we were just in a very beautiful quiet place and I personally don’t care too much for cities. We paid for an airport shuttle to transport us to our hotel. We were stuck with this tiny van, luggage stuffed to the ceiling in the back compartment and stuffed with people inside that did not understand the concept of loading from the back first. I felt like purposely hitting everyone with my backpack as I squeezed my way into the back seat. It was about 30 minutes before we arrived at our hotel, so we saw a lot of the areas going into the city. Sydney appeared like any other major city: dirty, full of traffic, a few homeless people here and there. Our hotel was located in the business district (or CBD) so the streets became nicer as we neared our destination. We arrived on Friday afternoon: the sidewalks were full of business men and women in suits with briefcases or backpacks and the streets were heavy with traffic. Our accommodation was decent enough but very much unlike the previous two places we had stayed. It felt more like a low class business room missing a hand towel in the bathroom and with the barest amenities. But, that’s alright. We usually don’t spend much time in the room. Except, we really weren’t feeling like exploring very much today. It’s very difficult to switch from a beautiful island to a major city. Instead, we decided to do our laundry which we really needed to do. We located one on the top floor of our hotel and it was pretty cheap. We had a decent view of a small part of the city from the top floor so we enjoyed that as we waited for the laundry to be finished.
For dinner, we decided on a highly rated Italian restaurant named Machiavelli. It was amazing. We really lucked out. We were seated around a central food prep table where a few chefs prepared the antipasti dishes and the desserts. It was a treat to watch them make the desserts on the stove in front of you. We started out with an olive and parmesan cheese plate with little bread sticks. For my main I ordered ravioli stuffed with ricotta and spinach with a napoleon sauce. Both were delicious. For dessert we had zabaglione which was so sweet! We had watched one of the chefs preparing it earlier and it took him forever to whip it up. He started out with some unknown ingredients in a deep sauce pan, then he added a little wine and he began to stir it over a boiling pot of water for at least 5 minutes. The end result was a warm foamy sugary goodness. We are both soooo full that we are heading straight to bed. :)
12 September 2009, Saturday
We woke up bright and early today. We have prepaid tickets to climb the Harbour Bridge this morning.
It was easy enough to find and within walking distance of our hotel. The climb takes you all the way up to the very topmost part of the bridge but before we could climb, we had to get geared up first. They require everyone to take a breathalyzer test also. Don’t want any drunkards on top of the bridge! Then, they give everyone a jumpsuit to put on. This helps to camouflage the group so we don’t ruin everyone’s pictures traveling to Sydney. You can’t bring anything with you on the bridge and they make sure of that by having you go through a medal detector. Yet, not even a camera. The guide brings along a camera to take pictures of you. Next, if you bring eye or sunglasses, they give you a strap to secure them to your jumper. Then, you get your harness and ball barring line that secures you to the cable on the bridge. Then, you get some accessories: a hat which is clipped to your jumper and a cloth hankie that goes around your wrist. Next, they have a practice course setup so you can try out the stairs and the harness strap. Lastly, we all get walkie talkies and a headset so we can hear our guide and he can hear us. Now, we’re all set to begin the climb. Our total climb including all the gearing up takes about 3 hours round trip. We start off under the roadway in the bridge structure. Then we climb up a series of ladders going straight up. Finally, we are on the top part of the bridge and climbing the arch to where the two sides are joined together. The view at the top was amazing except for the smoke coming from a few fires in the distance. But, still, you could see all the way out to the ocean all the surrounding city of Sydney. It was so much fun climbing the bridge! I highly recommend it! You get one group photo free, but have to buy any of the other photos that the guide take of you as a couple.
After the climb, we grabbed a quick bite to eat and explored the area around the bridge. The Harbour Bridge is located in the Rocks district. They have a cute street fair there along with several eateries. We also saw some hen parties (bachelorette parties) traveling from pub to pub.
Next we had to see the Opera House and take several pictures of that.
click here to see gallery
Sydney has a wonderful Botanic Garden there next to the Opera House so we took a stroll through that and low and behold, there are bats in Sydney!!
It was so cool to see them. They appeared to be fruit bats. The sun was to set in about an hour so they were waking up and some were flying around. There were so many of them up in the trees and you could hear them chattering. Too cool! That made Sydney worth visiting! :) After a long photo shoot of the bats, we headed back to the hotel and got ready for dinner. David found a place he wanted to check out in Rose Bay so we took a taxi out to the restaurant. I had the vegetarian meal of a salad and vegetables since I’m so picky and David ordered the tasting menu. The restaurant, The Pier, was on a pier in the harbor so we had a wonderful view of the harbor and of all the boats bobbing up and down in it.
click here to see gallery
For dessert, we had the strawberry soufflé. It was amazing. I think it is my new favorite dessert. :) Once back to the hotel and changed in to more comfortable clothes, we walked back to the Opera House and took some pictures of it at night. We had seen somewhere that they displayed a series of different color lights on it at night, but maybe it is only for special occasions because the Opera House was only lit by white lights. Still very pretty at night tho.
And that is all for today. We are flying up north to Cairns tomorrow afternoon to start our diving adventure. I’m exhausted so I’m heading to bed early. Night! :)
Last morning on Kangaroo Island. This is one of my favorite places so far on the trip. I’m sure I’ll love the GBR too once we get there. But, first, we are off to Sydney. We got up relatively early, Sandy made us breakfast and then Ian took us to the little airport in Kingscote. We didn’t even have to pass through a security checkpoint: it’s that small. I miss the days when airports were like that and people were more civilized. :) We had a rather bumpy flight back to Adelaide since it was so windy and the plane is so small. But, we survived and then waited for a bit to board our next flight into Sydney. We put part of our luggage in storage since we were only allowed a 15 kg checked bag on the flight to KI so we had to wait a bit for that to come out of storage. Our flight to Sydney wasn’t too long and we had morning tea and cake on the plane.
My first impression of Sydney is most likely a little biased since we were just in a very beautiful quiet place and I personally don’t care too much for cities. We paid for an airport shuttle to transport us to our hotel. We were stuck with this tiny van, luggage stuffed to the ceiling in the back compartment and stuffed with people inside that did not understand the concept of loading from the back first. I felt like purposely hitting everyone with my backpack as I squeezed my way into the back seat. It was about 30 minutes before we arrived at our hotel, so we saw a lot of the areas going into the city. Sydney appeared like any other major city: dirty, full of traffic, a few homeless people here and there. Our hotel was located in the business district (or CBD) so the streets became nicer as we neared our destination. We arrived on Friday afternoon: the sidewalks were full of business men and women in suits with briefcases or backpacks and the streets were heavy with traffic. Our accommodation was decent enough but very much unlike the previous two places we had stayed. It felt more like a low class business room missing a hand towel in the bathroom and with the barest amenities. But, that’s alright. We usually don’t spend much time in the room. Except, we really weren’t feeling like exploring very much today. It’s very difficult to switch from a beautiful island to a major city. Instead, we decided to do our laundry which we really needed to do. We located one on the top floor of our hotel and it was pretty cheap. We had a decent view of a small part of the city from the top floor so we enjoyed that as we waited for the laundry to be finished.
For dinner, we decided on a highly rated Italian restaurant named Machiavelli. It was amazing. We really lucked out. We were seated around a central food prep table where a few chefs prepared the antipasti dishes and the desserts. It was a treat to watch them make the desserts on the stove in front of you. We started out with an olive and parmesan cheese plate with little bread sticks. For my main I ordered ravioli stuffed with ricotta and spinach with a napoleon sauce. Both were delicious. For dessert we had zabaglione which was so sweet! We had watched one of the chefs preparing it earlier and it took him forever to whip it up. He started out with some unknown ingredients in a deep sauce pan, then he added a little wine and he began to stir it over a boiling pot of water for at least 5 minutes. The end result was a warm foamy sugary goodness. We are both soooo full that we are heading straight to bed. :)
12 September 2009, Saturday
We woke up bright and early today. We have prepaid tickets to climb the Harbour Bridge this morning.
It was easy enough to find and within walking distance of our hotel. The climb takes you all the way up to the very topmost part of the bridge but before we could climb, we had to get geared up first. They require everyone to take a breathalyzer test also. Don’t want any drunkards on top of the bridge! Then, they give everyone a jumpsuit to put on. This helps to camouflage the group so we don’t ruin everyone’s pictures traveling to Sydney. You can’t bring anything with you on the bridge and they make sure of that by having you go through a medal detector. Yet, not even a camera. The guide brings along a camera to take pictures of you. Next, if you bring eye or sunglasses, they give you a strap to secure them to your jumper. Then, you get your harness and ball barring line that secures you to the cable on the bridge. Then, you get some accessories: a hat which is clipped to your jumper and a cloth hankie that goes around your wrist. Next, they have a practice course setup so you can try out the stairs and the harness strap. Lastly, we all get walkie talkies and a headset so we can hear our guide and he can hear us. Now, we’re all set to begin the climb. Our total climb including all the gearing up takes about 3 hours round trip. We start off under the roadway in the bridge structure. Then we climb up a series of ladders going straight up. Finally, we are on the top part of the bridge and climbing the arch to where the two sides are joined together. The view at the top was amazing except for the smoke coming from a few fires in the distance. But, still, you could see all the way out to the ocean all the surrounding city of Sydney. It was so much fun climbing the bridge! I highly recommend it! You get one group photo free, but have to buy any of the other photos that the guide take of you as a couple.
After the climb, we grabbed a quick bite to eat and explored the area around the bridge. The Harbour Bridge is located in the Rocks district. They have a cute street fair there along with several eateries. We also saw some hen parties (bachelorette parties) traveling from pub to pub.
Next we had to see the Opera House and take several pictures of that.
click here to see gallery
Sydney has a wonderful Botanic Garden there next to the Opera House so we took a stroll through that and low and behold, there are bats in Sydney!!
It was so cool to see them. They appeared to be fruit bats. The sun was to set in about an hour so they were waking up and some were flying around. There were so many of them up in the trees and you could hear them chattering. Too cool! That made Sydney worth visiting! :) After a long photo shoot of the bats, we headed back to the hotel and got ready for dinner. David found a place he wanted to check out in Rose Bay so we took a taxi out to the restaurant. I had the vegetarian meal of a salad and vegetables since I’m so picky and David ordered the tasting menu. The restaurant, The Pier, was on a pier in the harbor so we had a wonderful view of the harbor and of all the boats bobbing up and down in it.
click here to see gallery
For dessert, we had the strawberry soufflé. It was amazing. I think it is my new favorite dessert. :) Once back to the hotel and changed in to more comfortable clothes, we walked back to the Opera House and took some pictures of it at night. We had seen somewhere that they displayed a series of different color lights on it at night, but maybe it is only for special occasions because the Opera House was only lit by white lights. Still very pretty at night tho.
And that is all for today. We are flying up north to Cairns tomorrow afternoon to start our diving adventure. I’m exhausted so I’m heading to bed early. Night! :)
Kangaroo Island, Australia Sept. 8-10 2009
8 September 2009
Yep, we were up pretty early this morning for our trip to Kangaroo Island. We left the hotel to find a very wet and rainy Melbourne. Luckily, we didn’t have to walk to the airport. :) We took a cab and hopped on our flight in no time at all. They gave us breakfast on the flight to Adelaide. Then, in Adelaide, we faced the luggage problem that we knew we’d run into. We could only check one bag a piece and that bag had to weigh a max of 15 kg (or 33 lbs) and we could only carryon a total of 7 kg (about 15 lbs) between the two of us. We have 2 very heavy pieces of luggage since we had to pack for a month: one medium and one large. Somehow, we managed to get the medium size luggage down to 15 kg and stuff everything else in the large luggage. If we had wanted to check both bags, it would have been $3 for each kg over 15kg. Ya, so we made it happen. The large luggage was put in storage at the airport and we successfully checked one back under 15 kg between us both. Ha! :) And the reason behind having to shift all our clothes around: we’re flying on a prop plane!
The plane only holds 34 people so they really have to keep the weight down. We took a shuttle out to our little plane (we flew on REX) and boarded for our very short flight over to Kangaroo Island. They served us water and a mint on the plane. :D
After touching down in Kingscote and collecting our luggage, we met up with our guide for the day: Brenda of Exceptional Kangaroo Island. She would be giving us our first of 2 tours around the island in a 4x4.
click here for gallery
We met our other 4 fellow tour mates and were off on the tour. Brenda has lived on KI for all of her life so she had quite a few fun stories to tell us about the island. Our first stop was for morning tea in Parndana at a woodmaker’s shop. He wasn’t at home, but we had a friendly greeting from his Jack Russell named Casey.
Brenda laid out some lammingtons, carrot bread and some tea/coffee/hot chocolate for us to have. After a nice break, we headed out to Flinders Chase National Park. Along the way, we started to notice a lot of road kill. Now, I’m not a stranger to road kill as I see dead deer and raccoons on the side of the road all the time, but the road kill on KI isn’t deer and raccoons. It’s kangaroos. Ya, sad, I know. But, in a way, they are like deer. There are so many of them and they don’t stay away from the road and they come to a very sad end. But, hey, they feed the ravens and magpies on the roadside. That being said, we did see many live creatures along our tour. Our first sighting was a koala crossing the road in front of us. We managed to spot him again in a tree and was able to take some pictures.
And, throughout the day, we saw wallabies, kangaroos and echidnas.
We had a quick stop for a toilet break at the visitor center at Flinders Chase National Park and then on to Cape du Couedic to see Remarkable Rocks.
These rocks were really quite neat. The weather and sea had eroded them into interesting shapes, some of them with large holes in the side of them.
One was in the shape of a comfy chair.
The sun came out at this point in the day making it much warm which I loved. :) Next we headed to Admiral’s Arch. At the entrance to it, there is an old lighthouse with 3 cottages.
Here, we took a long walkway and stairs down to a naturally formed arch under the cliff. Here, there were a ton of fur seals sleeping on the rocks. Everywhere you looked, you could see one.
After getting some exercise walking back up the hill, we drove to our lunch spot at the visitor center of Flinders Chase National Park. They have little barbecue areas with picnic tables in among the trees. A lovely lunch spot! Brenda prepared for us a cold Greek salad, a cold chicken salad, a cheese platter with different goat cheeses from the island and local Australian wines. It was delicious!
Our last part of the tour for the day took us to Grassdale in Kelly Hill Conservation Park. After driving down a rather rough dirt road for a bit, we came upon a huge grass pasture full of kangaroos grazing. We got out of the car and walked slowly in a tight group out into the middle of the field and quietly watched the kangaroos. It was so peaceful and serine. The sun was a bit low in the sky, partially hidden behind the clouds and the pasture was still and quiet. You could almost hear your ears ringing. What a lovely way to end a great day on Kangaroo Island.
Brenda took us to our B&B, Correa Corner, and introduced us to the owners Ian and Sandy. Ian is Australian and Sandy is Scottish. They have a lovely home. I was pleasantly surprised to see how warm and inviting it felt when we walked in. Ian took our luggage in for us and showed us around our room. We had the Willow Room which has a green theme to it. How’d they know that my favorite color is green?! :) Ian told us that dinner would be ready shortly and head to the dining room after we had settled in. For dinner, we enjoyed an Australian Sauvignon Blanc with our fish which was the local King George Whiting. I actually liked it and ate quite a bit for once. :) We had a lovely dessert as well. We talked with a young Italian newlywed couple for quite a bit and then came back to our room to relax.
That was a lot for one day. Tomorrow is a day of leisure for us and it will be truly enjoyed. Night!
9 September 2009, Wednesday
Ahh, a day of leisure. We woke up rather early, still adjusting to the time change, and had a lovely breakfast. Sandy really out does herself with her cooking. We had shots of yogurt topped with passion fruit juice and seeds, toasted English muffins with an assortment of jam and locally made honey, bacon and eggs upon request, fresh fruit and cereal. And, a small pot of tea or coffee too. :) We gorged. To walk off all of the lovely calories we had just ingested, we on a stroll along the beach. The B&B sits right next to it. What a lovely spot for a B&B. I know, I’m geeking out a bit but it truly is a great place to stay.
Anyway, the beach started to end and we found a path that led back up to the road. We knew that the B&B was to the left and we thought maybe the town of Kingscote would be left as well. Nope, we were wrong. We ended back up at the B&B without finding town. We did see the local trailer park and market (not really a place you want to visit!). After telling Sandy about our story of not finding town, she told us that we had made it halfway there once we had gotten on the road. Oh well. We’ll try again for town after lunch. Sandy prepared us a lunch of finger foods and sandwiches. Again, we had more local cheeses to try (I just can’t get enough of the cheese here! It’s great!!) and some fruit and crackers. Again, we ate way too much food so needed to walk it off. Once we let our lunch settle, we tried for town again.
Walking into Kingscote, we noticed many newly built houses but all empty. It was strange how many there actually were. I wouldn’t mind moving to KI. :) Just kidding. We continued walking and walking and walking and before we knew it we had walked up this steep hill and arrived at a bay but the wrong bay. We had missed town yet again. David asked for directions (yes, I have a guy who will do that) and we found out that we had overshot town by a bit and he told us the best route. It involved walking along the coast and into town.
But, there really isn’t too much of town. It’s pretty tiny and only consists of a few main streets. We had a snack (and got stocked by gulls attracted to my paper bag) while we were there and after exploring what little there was of town (which took all of about a couple of minutes), we walked back to the B&B. We reported to Sandy that we had successfully found town but on a third attempt and, after looking at a map on the internet, we determined that we had walked about 12 km for the entire day. At least we are getting our exercise! We relaxed for the remainder of the day in some comfy chairs next to a warm wood stove reading books and David worked on editing his pictures.
At dinner, we were joined by a new newlywed Italian couple and a couple from Colorado. A lively conversation commenced over chicken and veggies. We were up pretty late chatting. It will be nice to get some more good sleep tonight. It’s so quiet and dark at the B&B. It makes for some wonderful sleep and I have a heating pad on my side of the bed which is independent from the one on David’s side of the bed. I’m using that tonight! But first, a nice hot bath. Goodnight!
10 September 2009, Thursday
Our next and last tour of KI began early today. We got up bright and early, had breakfast, and Brian, our new tour guide (Brenda had the day off), picked us up from the B&B. We started the tour by driving into Kingscote and Brian gave us a little bit of history about the original settlers there.
We took a drive into the middle of the island to Emu Ridge, a Eucalyptus distillery. We watched a historic video about the distillery and then had a quick tour to see how the actual distilling process takes place. In the gift shop area, in a little basket in the corner were a baby wallaby and a baby joey (kangaroo): the female owner fosters wildlife. They were both so cute! Each had there own cloth pouch which they were both quite comfortable in.
Next, we drove out to the southern part of the island to our morning cup of tea spot: Cape Gantheaume Conservation Park. We stopped in a camping spot next to the beach with a great view of D’Estrees Bay.
Upon climbing back up the steps from the beach, I stumbled and fell. Yep, I’m a cluts. That left some nasty looking bruises on both my knees. Oh well. I can make up a good story to tell people. :) So, we had a nice cuppa with some bread and cake. Next, we drove to Seal Bay and saw, you guessed it, seals. Our guide took us down onto the beach and we were able to get within about 10 feet from a sleeping seal.
On the way to Seal Bay, we passed by a sand dune so we asked the guide if he’d take us back to that to check it out. Of course he obliged us. The sand dunes are called Little Sahara and were pretty cool. People were out there sandboarding and David was able to take some video of a girl surfing down one.
click here for gallery and video
Next, it was time for lunch, so Brian took us to a secluded spot under the trees. The spot was on a farmer’s property where he had set up 2 tents with a barbecue and picnic tables underneath it. Brian cooked us more of that wonderful King George Whiting fish but he barbecued it and it was great. Also, he had more Greek salad, cheeses and wine for us.
After lunch, Brian took us to one last spot: Lathami Conservation Park. Here, we would see wildlife in their natural habitat. Before we entered the park, we had to clean off our shoes to prevent us from bring in a dangerous fungi to the area. The three of us crept quietly around the bushes and trees looking for wallabies, kangaroos and possibly koalas. We saw a ton of wallabies and kangaroos and some birds
We emerged from the brush to look upon a huge open green space on a distant hill covered with kangaroos. We were able to get within about 20 feet of a group of kangaroos and juvenile joeys. Too cool!
Brian took us back to the B&B after that. We rested for a bit and then headed to dinner. Sandy made a caramelized salmon with a cheese quiche. I don’t really like salmon even when it is prepared properly so David and I ate off each others plates tonight. We had another lovely dessert as well that we took with tea and coffee. I love eating overseas. :) We stayed up pretty late chatting with the Italian couple about Italy and other places around the world. We’ve decided to pack in the morning. We have our flight out pretty early to Sydney so it’s time for some much needed rest. G’Night! :)
Yep, we were up pretty early this morning for our trip to Kangaroo Island. We left the hotel to find a very wet and rainy Melbourne. Luckily, we didn’t have to walk to the airport. :) We took a cab and hopped on our flight in no time at all. They gave us breakfast on the flight to Adelaide. Then, in Adelaide, we faced the luggage problem that we knew we’d run into. We could only check one bag a piece and that bag had to weigh a max of 15 kg (or 33 lbs) and we could only carryon a total of 7 kg (about 15 lbs) between the two of us. We have 2 very heavy pieces of luggage since we had to pack for a month: one medium and one large. Somehow, we managed to get the medium size luggage down to 15 kg and stuff everything else in the large luggage. If we had wanted to check both bags, it would have been $3 for each kg over 15kg. Ya, so we made it happen. The large luggage was put in storage at the airport and we successfully checked one back under 15 kg between us both. Ha! :) And the reason behind having to shift all our clothes around: we’re flying on a prop plane!
The plane only holds 34 people so they really have to keep the weight down. We took a shuttle out to our little plane (we flew on REX) and boarded for our very short flight over to Kangaroo Island. They served us water and a mint on the plane. :D
After touching down in Kingscote and collecting our luggage, we met up with our guide for the day: Brenda of Exceptional Kangaroo Island. She would be giving us our first of 2 tours around the island in a 4x4.
click here for gallery
We met our other 4 fellow tour mates and were off on the tour. Brenda has lived on KI for all of her life so she had quite a few fun stories to tell us about the island. Our first stop was for morning tea in Parndana at a woodmaker’s shop. He wasn’t at home, but we had a friendly greeting from his Jack Russell named Casey.
Brenda laid out some lammingtons, carrot bread and some tea/coffee/hot chocolate for us to have. After a nice break, we headed out to Flinders Chase National Park. Along the way, we started to notice a lot of road kill. Now, I’m not a stranger to road kill as I see dead deer and raccoons on the side of the road all the time, but the road kill on KI isn’t deer and raccoons. It’s kangaroos. Ya, sad, I know. But, in a way, they are like deer. There are so many of them and they don’t stay away from the road and they come to a very sad end. But, hey, they feed the ravens and magpies on the roadside. That being said, we did see many live creatures along our tour. Our first sighting was a koala crossing the road in front of us. We managed to spot him again in a tree and was able to take some pictures.
And, throughout the day, we saw wallabies, kangaroos and echidnas.
We had a quick stop for a toilet break at the visitor center at Flinders Chase National Park and then on to Cape du Couedic to see Remarkable Rocks.
These rocks were really quite neat. The weather and sea had eroded them into interesting shapes, some of them with large holes in the side of them.
One was in the shape of a comfy chair.
The sun came out at this point in the day making it much warm which I loved. :) Next we headed to Admiral’s Arch. At the entrance to it, there is an old lighthouse with 3 cottages.
Here, we took a long walkway and stairs down to a naturally formed arch under the cliff. Here, there were a ton of fur seals sleeping on the rocks. Everywhere you looked, you could see one.
After getting some exercise walking back up the hill, we drove to our lunch spot at the visitor center of Flinders Chase National Park. They have little barbecue areas with picnic tables in among the trees. A lovely lunch spot! Brenda prepared for us a cold Greek salad, a cold chicken salad, a cheese platter with different goat cheeses from the island and local Australian wines. It was delicious!
Our last part of the tour for the day took us to Grassdale in Kelly Hill Conservation Park. After driving down a rather rough dirt road for a bit, we came upon a huge grass pasture full of kangaroos grazing. We got out of the car and walked slowly in a tight group out into the middle of the field and quietly watched the kangaroos. It was so peaceful and serine. The sun was a bit low in the sky, partially hidden behind the clouds and the pasture was still and quiet. You could almost hear your ears ringing. What a lovely way to end a great day on Kangaroo Island.
Brenda took us to our B&B, Correa Corner, and introduced us to the owners Ian and Sandy. Ian is Australian and Sandy is Scottish. They have a lovely home. I was pleasantly surprised to see how warm and inviting it felt when we walked in. Ian took our luggage in for us and showed us around our room. We had the Willow Room which has a green theme to it. How’d they know that my favorite color is green?! :) Ian told us that dinner would be ready shortly and head to the dining room after we had settled in. For dinner, we enjoyed an Australian Sauvignon Blanc with our fish which was the local King George Whiting. I actually liked it and ate quite a bit for once. :) We had a lovely dessert as well. We talked with a young Italian newlywed couple for quite a bit and then came back to our room to relax.
That was a lot for one day. Tomorrow is a day of leisure for us and it will be truly enjoyed. Night!
9 September 2009, Wednesday
Ahh, a day of leisure. We woke up rather early, still adjusting to the time change, and had a lovely breakfast. Sandy really out does herself with her cooking. We had shots of yogurt topped with passion fruit juice and seeds, toasted English muffins with an assortment of jam and locally made honey, bacon and eggs upon request, fresh fruit and cereal. And, a small pot of tea or coffee too. :) We gorged. To walk off all of the lovely calories we had just ingested, we on a stroll along the beach. The B&B sits right next to it. What a lovely spot for a B&B. I know, I’m geeking out a bit but it truly is a great place to stay.
Anyway, the beach started to end and we found a path that led back up to the road. We knew that the B&B was to the left and we thought maybe the town of Kingscote would be left as well. Nope, we were wrong. We ended back up at the B&B without finding town. We did see the local trailer park and market (not really a place you want to visit!). After telling Sandy about our story of not finding town, she told us that we had made it halfway there once we had gotten on the road. Oh well. We’ll try again for town after lunch. Sandy prepared us a lunch of finger foods and sandwiches. Again, we had more local cheeses to try (I just can’t get enough of the cheese here! It’s great!!) and some fruit and crackers. Again, we ate way too much food so needed to walk it off. Once we let our lunch settle, we tried for town again.
Walking into Kingscote, we noticed many newly built houses but all empty. It was strange how many there actually were. I wouldn’t mind moving to KI. :) Just kidding. We continued walking and walking and walking and before we knew it we had walked up this steep hill and arrived at a bay but the wrong bay. We had missed town yet again. David asked for directions (yes, I have a guy who will do that) and we found out that we had overshot town by a bit and he told us the best route. It involved walking along the coast and into town.
But, there really isn’t too much of town. It’s pretty tiny and only consists of a few main streets. We had a snack (and got stocked by gulls attracted to my paper bag) while we were there and after exploring what little there was of town (which took all of about a couple of minutes), we walked back to the B&B. We reported to Sandy that we had successfully found town but on a third attempt and, after looking at a map on the internet, we determined that we had walked about 12 km for the entire day. At least we are getting our exercise! We relaxed for the remainder of the day in some comfy chairs next to a warm wood stove reading books and David worked on editing his pictures.
At dinner, we were joined by a new newlywed Italian couple and a couple from Colorado. A lively conversation commenced over chicken and veggies. We were up pretty late chatting. It will be nice to get some more good sleep tonight. It’s so quiet and dark at the B&B. It makes for some wonderful sleep and I have a heating pad on my side of the bed which is independent from the one on David’s side of the bed. I’m using that tonight! But first, a nice hot bath. Goodnight!
10 September 2009, Thursday
Our next and last tour of KI began early today. We got up bright and early, had breakfast, and Brian, our new tour guide (Brenda had the day off), picked us up from the B&B. We started the tour by driving into Kingscote and Brian gave us a little bit of history about the original settlers there.
We took a drive into the middle of the island to Emu Ridge, a Eucalyptus distillery. We watched a historic video about the distillery and then had a quick tour to see how the actual distilling process takes place. In the gift shop area, in a little basket in the corner were a baby wallaby and a baby joey (kangaroo): the female owner fosters wildlife. They were both so cute! Each had there own cloth pouch which they were both quite comfortable in.
Next, we drove out to the southern part of the island to our morning cup of tea spot: Cape Gantheaume Conservation Park. We stopped in a camping spot next to the beach with a great view of D’Estrees Bay.
Upon climbing back up the steps from the beach, I stumbled and fell. Yep, I’m a cluts. That left some nasty looking bruises on both my knees. Oh well. I can make up a good story to tell people. :) So, we had a nice cuppa with some bread and cake. Next, we drove to Seal Bay and saw, you guessed it, seals. Our guide took us down onto the beach and we were able to get within about 10 feet from a sleeping seal.
On the way to Seal Bay, we passed by a sand dune so we asked the guide if he’d take us back to that to check it out. Of course he obliged us. The sand dunes are called Little Sahara and were pretty cool. People were out there sandboarding and David was able to take some video of a girl surfing down one.
click here for gallery and video
Next, it was time for lunch, so Brian took us to a secluded spot under the trees. The spot was on a farmer’s property where he had set up 2 tents with a barbecue and picnic tables underneath it. Brian cooked us more of that wonderful King George Whiting fish but he barbecued it and it was great. Also, he had more Greek salad, cheeses and wine for us.
After lunch, Brian took us to one last spot: Lathami Conservation Park. Here, we would see wildlife in their natural habitat. Before we entered the park, we had to clean off our shoes to prevent us from bring in a dangerous fungi to the area. The three of us crept quietly around the bushes and trees looking for wallabies, kangaroos and possibly koalas. We saw a ton of wallabies and kangaroos and some birds
We emerged from the brush to look upon a huge open green space on a distant hill covered with kangaroos. We were able to get within about 20 feet of a group of kangaroos and juvenile joeys. Too cool!
Brian took us back to the B&B after that. We rested for a bit and then headed to dinner. Sandy made a caramelized salmon with a cheese quiche. I don’t really like salmon even when it is prepared properly so David and I ate off each others plates tonight. We had another lovely dessert as well that we took with tea and coffee. I love eating overseas. :) We stayed up pretty late chatting with the Italian couple about Italy and other places around the world. We’ve decided to pack in the morning. We have our flight out pretty early to Sydney so it’s time for some much needed rest. G’Night! :)
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Melbourne, Australia Sept. 6-7 2009
6 September 2009
Hello all and greeting from Australia. This is the start of my new blog to chronicle our trip “down under”. First off, I’d like to say we made it here in one piece and survived the 15 hour trip in economy class on a huge airplane. Sleeping on a plane has always been difficult for me and it makes it even harder to sleep when there’s a baby crying next to you, people leave their reading light and/or TV screen on while they sleep, and the bright lights displaying the bathroom occupied sign flashing on and off. Luckily, I brought an eye mask and Tylenol PM to help me get some rather uncomfortable sleep on the plane. I can’t wait to sleep in a real bed tonight!
Our first stop was Sydney but it was only a stopover along the way to our final destination of Melbourne. We’ll explore Sydney in about a week. First, off to Melbourne.
click here for gallery
When landing in Sydney, we had less than 2 hours to be processed through immigration, pick up our checked luggage and take it to declaration then to be rechecked in, travel back through security once again, hop on a bus to take us to the domestic terminal and get on another plane. What amazes me is that even with that small amount of time, the airport personnel whip you through the lines so fast, you barely know what hit you and suddenly, you are already boarded and taking off on your next flight.
We flew Qantas Airlines for our trip into Australia. Even though we had no room to move in our tiny seats in economy, they fed us very well. For breakfast on our flight this morning between Sydney and Melbourne, we received granola cereal with milk, a cinnamon roll, OJ, coffee or tea, and a tangerine. It was so good! Surprising? Yes. Airplane food normally sucks. :)
As I’m writing this, I’m finding it increasingly difficult to stay awake. Australia is 17 hours ahead of California and across the International Date Line. For example, it’s currently 7:15pm on Sunday and in California, it’s only 2:15am Sunday morning. Earlier, we were living in different days! Try to wrap your head around that! :) So, I’m a bit jetlagged. We’ve been up since 5am and need to stay up a few more hours to help our bodies adjust. It should take me a few days, maybe a week. :P
Melbourne is an interesting city. The main city is known as the CBD (Central Business District). We’re staying at the Clarion Suites which overlooks the Yarra River.
When I travel to a new place, I find myself comparing it to other places I’ve been, which really isn’t fair to the city you’re currently in because it is its own city. Do you do that too? Maybe I’m just crazy like that. :) Anyway, to me, Melbourne reminds me of a cross between London’s Canary Wharf and downtown San Francisco. There’s a free city tram/trolley that takes you in a circle around the city circle. And the Yarra River weaves itself in between the tall city buildings. Also you can get a pass and take a larger network of trams out of the city.
Our first day in Melbourne, we rode the free tram and took in the city sights. We also walked around most of the city and explored the Queen Victoria Market, Alexandria Gardens, Federation Square, and the Southbank Promenade. We found a Nandos and had to have that for dinner.
We first discovered Nandos in London and instantly fell in love with it. It’s South African cuisine with a hot peri-peri sauce (I usually get the mild version); lots of chicken dishes with a choice of grilled corn on the cob for a side. They also have wraps and pita dishes. Good stuff!
We have a wonderful view from our hotel room balcony. David was able to take some neat night time pics. After it gets dark, the Southbank Promenade has a light show which was pretty neat. I’m heading to bed pretty early tonight since I just can’t keep my eyes open any longer. Let’s see what fun tomorrow brings. :)
7 September 2009
Okay, so since I fell asleep at like 6:30p last night, I woke up at 5:30a this morning. Ugh. I hate jetlag. Leaving David to sleep a few more hours, I caught up with the world on the internet and waited patiently for him to wake up. Once he was wake and ready, we had breakfast downstairs in the hotel restaurant and continued to explore the city. We headed northeast to find Chinatown and the Greek section of town. Both were, to our disappointment, rather small and we did not find any good restaurants. We were hoping to find some Turkish food since we’ve been trying to find a good one since we left London. Unfortunately, our search continues on. To our great surprise, we did find a Target!
It was much different from the ones we are used to, but it was neat to see one in a foreign country. From here, we continued north the Carlton Gardens, the Royal Exhibition Building and the Melbourne Museum.
Upon leaving the museum, it began to rain. Unfortunately for us, we left the umbrella in its proper place: in our hotel room and it was not just a light sprinkle…it began to pour. We found a shop that sold umbrellas and we both tried to fit under it until we found shelter to wait out the rain. By then, we were both pretty wet. But, one thing that is nice about places that do get a lot of rain is that it will only pour for a little bit and then it will stop and not rain for the rest of the day or for at least a few hours. It depends on the weather tho. Lucky for us, it did only pour for a bit and we were able to head to our destination: Old Melbourne Gaol (Jail).
We went on a short tour of the “gaol” and we had a pretty funny guide giving us a history, after which, we went on a short self guided tour of the prison.
We had yet to explore the northwestern part of the CBD, so we headed that way and found a nice pub for lunch. We had walked a far bit of the city already so, after lunch, we retired back to the hotel room and rested.
We decided to do something a little bit extravagant for dinner so we found a restaurant tucked away down an alley, beneath a hotel and behind a catholic church. The restaurant Ezard did not disappoint: the service was amazing and so was the food. We each had the tasting menu: David, the 8 course standard menu and me, the Vegetarian 8 course menu.
click here for gallery
We’re pretty full and tired from dinner so it’s pretty much straight to bed for us. We’re flying out to Kangaroo Island bright and early tomorrow morning…but, I think we’ll pack when we get up in the morning. Night!
Hello all and greeting from Australia. This is the start of my new blog to chronicle our trip “down under”. First off, I’d like to say we made it here in one piece and survived the 15 hour trip in economy class on a huge airplane. Sleeping on a plane has always been difficult for me and it makes it even harder to sleep when there’s a baby crying next to you, people leave their reading light and/or TV screen on while they sleep, and the bright lights displaying the bathroom occupied sign flashing on and off. Luckily, I brought an eye mask and Tylenol PM to help me get some rather uncomfortable sleep on the plane. I can’t wait to sleep in a real bed tonight!
Our first stop was Sydney but it was only a stopover along the way to our final destination of Melbourne. We’ll explore Sydney in about a week. First, off to Melbourne.
click here for gallery
When landing in Sydney, we had less than 2 hours to be processed through immigration, pick up our checked luggage and take it to declaration then to be rechecked in, travel back through security once again, hop on a bus to take us to the domestic terminal and get on another plane. What amazes me is that even with that small amount of time, the airport personnel whip you through the lines so fast, you barely know what hit you and suddenly, you are already boarded and taking off on your next flight.
We flew Qantas Airlines for our trip into Australia. Even though we had no room to move in our tiny seats in economy, they fed us very well. For breakfast on our flight this morning between Sydney and Melbourne, we received granola cereal with milk, a cinnamon roll, OJ, coffee or tea, and a tangerine. It was so good! Surprising? Yes. Airplane food normally sucks. :)
As I’m writing this, I’m finding it increasingly difficult to stay awake. Australia is 17 hours ahead of California and across the International Date Line. For example, it’s currently 7:15pm on Sunday and in California, it’s only 2:15am Sunday morning. Earlier, we were living in different days! Try to wrap your head around that! :) So, I’m a bit jetlagged. We’ve been up since 5am and need to stay up a few more hours to help our bodies adjust. It should take me a few days, maybe a week. :P
Melbourne is an interesting city. The main city is known as the CBD (Central Business District). We’re staying at the Clarion Suites which overlooks the Yarra River.
When I travel to a new place, I find myself comparing it to other places I’ve been, which really isn’t fair to the city you’re currently in because it is its own city. Do you do that too? Maybe I’m just crazy like that. :) Anyway, to me, Melbourne reminds me of a cross between London’s Canary Wharf and downtown San Francisco. There’s a free city tram/trolley that takes you in a circle around the city circle. And the Yarra River weaves itself in between the tall city buildings. Also you can get a pass and take a larger network of trams out of the city.
Our first day in Melbourne, we rode the free tram and took in the city sights. We also walked around most of the city and explored the Queen Victoria Market, Alexandria Gardens, Federation Square, and the Southbank Promenade. We found a Nandos and had to have that for dinner.
We first discovered Nandos in London and instantly fell in love with it. It’s South African cuisine with a hot peri-peri sauce (I usually get the mild version); lots of chicken dishes with a choice of grilled corn on the cob for a side. They also have wraps and pita dishes. Good stuff!
We have a wonderful view from our hotel room balcony. David was able to take some neat night time pics. After it gets dark, the Southbank Promenade has a light show which was pretty neat. I’m heading to bed pretty early tonight since I just can’t keep my eyes open any longer. Let’s see what fun tomorrow brings. :)
7 September 2009
Okay, so since I fell asleep at like 6:30p last night, I woke up at 5:30a this morning. Ugh. I hate jetlag. Leaving David to sleep a few more hours, I caught up with the world on the internet and waited patiently for him to wake up. Once he was wake and ready, we had breakfast downstairs in the hotel restaurant and continued to explore the city. We headed northeast to find Chinatown and the Greek section of town. Both were, to our disappointment, rather small and we did not find any good restaurants. We were hoping to find some Turkish food since we’ve been trying to find a good one since we left London. Unfortunately, our search continues on. To our great surprise, we did find a Target!
It was much different from the ones we are used to, but it was neat to see one in a foreign country. From here, we continued north the Carlton Gardens, the Royal Exhibition Building and the Melbourne Museum.
Upon leaving the museum, it began to rain. Unfortunately for us, we left the umbrella in its proper place: in our hotel room and it was not just a light sprinkle…it began to pour. We found a shop that sold umbrellas and we both tried to fit under it until we found shelter to wait out the rain. By then, we were both pretty wet. But, one thing that is nice about places that do get a lot of rain is that it will only pour for a little bit and then it will stop and not rain for the rest of the day or for at least a few hours. It depends on the weather tho. Lucky for us, it did only pour for a bit and we were able to head to our destination: Old Melbourne Gaol (Jail).
We went on a short tour of the “gaol” and we had a pretty funny guide giving us a history, after which, we went on a short self guided tour of the prison.
We had yet to explore the northwestern part of the CBD, so we headed that way and found a nice pub for lunch. We had walked a far bit of the city already so, after lunch, we retired back to the hotel room and rested.
We decided to do something a little bit extravagant for dinner so we found a restaurant tucked away down an alley, beneath a hotel and behind a catholic church. The restaurant Ezard did not disappoint: the service was amazing and so was the food. We each had the tasting menu: David, the 8 course standard menu and me, the Vegetarian 8 course menu.
click here for gallery
We’re pretty full and tired from dinner so it’s pretty much straight to bed for us. We’re flying out to Kangaroo Island bright and early tomorrow morning…but, I think we’ll pack when we get up in the morning. Night!
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