Longest Day Ever

Not too much to report here.  It was crazy crossing the international date line because it meant I had two March 8ths.  Weird.  My flights were pretty good.  I had the seat open next to me again so I was able to get some rest.  Dan actually got upgraded to business class on his flight--lucky!

We met back up at Dulles airport around 8:30 p.m..  By the time we got home and got in bed around 11:00, we just crashed.  We're both going back to work in the morning.  Oh well, back to reality.

Read more about our trip to Australia:
Sydney-Bound
Off and Running
Blue Mountains and Wildlife
We Are Now a Hostel-Free Family
A Night on the Reef
Day Two on the Reef
Travel Day
Great Ocean Road!
To Kangaroo Island
Eating Our Way Through Kangaroo Island
Flinders Chase, Vivonne Bay and Little Sahara
Last Day in Australia

Last Day in Australia

We got up early to drive to Kingscote to catch our flight to Adelaide.  I was a little worried about the timing of our flights because we had less than an hour between our flight to Adelaide and Sydney.  Luckily REX Airlines was able to check our bags all the way through to Sydney.  That was super helpful!

Our flights were fine.  The flight to Sydney was really turbulent though.  I guess they've been getting huge storms around Sydney and Melbourne.  The rain we got was really nothing compared to that.  We got so lucky with the weather on this whole trip.

Dan's work paid for the hotel for this last night so we got to stay in the Radisson.  It was so nice!  It had a gorgeous bathroom with a huge tub.  I took a nice long hot bath at night.

We decided to just take it easy so we walked around Sydney.  We went to Chinatown and Darling Harbor.  We wanted to have a nice meal for our last night and we found a seafood restaurant right on the harbor.  Unfortunately, our meal wasn't that great but they gave us a free cheese plate that was huge and delicious.

We bought a ton of chocolates to bring back for our offices.  We got all kinds of bars that we don't have in the states.  I think they'll like that.

Overall, it was a very nice, relaxing way to end our trip.

Read more about our trip to Australia:
Sydney-Bound
Off and Running
Blue Mountains and Wildlife
We Are Now a Hostel-Free Family
A Night on the Reef
Day Two on the Reef
Travel Day
Great Ocean Road!
To Kangaroo Island
Eating Our Way Through Kangaroo Island
Flinders Chase, Vivonne Bay and Little Sahara
Longest Day Ever

Flinders Chase, Vivonne Bay and Little Sahara

Another relaxed day on KI.  We woke up kind of late--around 9:00--and drove out to Flinders Chase to see Admiral's Arch, fur seals, and the Remarkable Rocks.  Unfortunately, it started raining as we were getting to the fur seal lookout.  We decided we were not really enjoying the view as much as we could, so we went back to our house for a mid-morning tea to wait out the rain.  It was actually really nice.  We built another fire and just sat and read for a while.  We also chatted with the manager of the property, James, who was very nice.

After lunch we ventured back out and the weather was much better.  Admiral's Arch was really beautiful.  And there were seals everywhere--hundreds of them!  It was like the pier in San Francisco--times ten.  

The remarkable rocks were actually very cool too.  They are huge rocks that have been eroded into crazy shapes.  Dan and I actually got into a rock and took pictures.

 Next we went to check out Vivonne Beach.  It was voted as one of the top three beaches in the Pacific a couple of years ago.  We were initially hoping to try surfing again, but the weather wasn't great.  We weren't that impressed with the beach though.  There was a lot of seaweed on the sand and there was absolutely no infrastructure--no chairs, umbrellas, food stands, toilets, etc.  The waves were pretty though.

Our next stop was Little Sahara.  We weren't sure how it was going to be because of the rain, but it was awesome!  Little Sahara is a bunch of giant sand dunes that you can sled or board down.  We got there a little too late to rent boards, but a really nice couple lent us theirs so we could try it out.  Wow, was it fun!  Getting up on the hill was so hard though!  Once we were up there, we laid on our stomachs on the sled and flew down the hill.  It was awesome.

A new group of people were staying at the house tonight.  There were ten of them who all worked in Sydney for a business consulting firm.  They were from all over the world though, including one girl from Dallas.  Another girl is from the US but was living in Hong Kong and just applied to my master's program at Georgetown.  Small world.

Tomorrow is our last full day in Australia :(

Read more about our trip to Australia:
Sydney-Bound
Off and Running
Blue Mountains and Wildlife
We Are Now a Hostel-Free Family
A Night on the Reef
Day Two on the Reef
Travel Day
Great Ocean Road!
To Kangaroo Island
Eating Our Way Through Kangaroo Island
Last Day in Australia
Longest Day Ever

Eating Our Way Through Kangaroo Island

Today was such a relaxing day compared to most of our other days.  We woke up around 8:00 and went on our way after breakfast.  Our first stop was the island beehive where they make the famous ligurian honey.  KI is the only place in the world with a pure ligurian bee population.  We tried a bunch of different honeys and they were so good.  We also got to eat honeycomb ice cream, which was easily in the top three ice creams I've ever eaten in my life!  It was AMAZING!!  We also bought a bunch of gifts here.  Everyone likes honey, right?

After that we had some time to kill before the winery opened.  We went back to Kingscote to walk around downtown a bit.  We stopped in a bakery and finally tried a pasty.  We had a veg and cheese.  It was basically a portable pot pie.

Our next stop was the Bay of Shoals winery.  The scenery was beautiful, but the wines weren't that great.  The moscato and the port were nice though.  The guy in charge was so friendly and really nice to chat with.  He had been in America years ago as a sailor for the Australian Navy.

Our hostel owner recommended we go to KI Spirits to do a tasting.  It was a great recommendation!  The owner of the distillery is a former chef and some of his creations are incredible.  We tasted a ton of different spirits, including honey and walnut; strawberry and vanilla; chili; orange and ginger; and lime.  We had no plans to buy anything, but the lime was delicious.  He gave us a sample with club soda and a cilantro simple syrup--OMG!  We had to buy it!

We did a quick stop at Clifford's Honey Farm, but there really wasn't too much there.  The first hive was much better.

After a quick lunch in Kingscote, we went grocery shopping for the meals over the next two days.  We'll be staying in Hanson Bay, which is a very remote wildlife refuge.  There are no grocery stores or even restaurants.  We stocked up and even though we spent a lot, it was less than we've spent on almost any dinner so far!  We should have been grocery shopping the whole time :)

On our way to Hanson Bay we stopped at the sheep dairy farm.  We did a tasting and got to see the sheep being milked.  The cheese was delicious and the sheep were so cute!

It was about an hour drive to our hotel.  This place is billed as a wildlife refuge and animals like kangaroos, wallabies and koalas are all supposed to be at your doorstep.  We hadn't seen any of these animals on the island yet so we weren't sure how truthful this claim was.  WOW!  They weren't kidding.  Kangaroos and wallabies are EVERYWHERE!  We got so close to them we were able to touch them.  Of course I took a million pictures.  We also saw koalas in the eucalyptus trees.  One was much closer than on Great Ocean Road.  We got some great pictures of him.  I just can't believe how many animals there are and how close they are.

Our room is so nice too.  It's in a big house that sleeps 12.  We had the back corner of the house to ourselves.  The house had two fireplaces--which we made good use of--and a large kitchen.  Only one other couple was there tonight and they were very friendly.  We cooked dinner and ate together in front of the fire.  Lovely day.

Read more about our trip to Australia:
Sydney-Bound
Off and Running
Blue Mountains and Wildlife
We Are Now a Hostel-Free Family
A Night on the Reef
Day Two on the Reef
Travel Day
Great Ocean Road!
To Kangaroo Island
Flinders Chase, Vivonne Bay and Little Sahara
Last Day in Australia
Longest Day Ever

To Kangaroo Island

Today was another travel day.  We drove from Lorne in the morning to Melbourne to catch a flight to Adelaide and then to Kangaroo Island (KI).  Dan had a good idea to see if we could find a kosher restaurant in Melbourne for lunch.  It took us forever, but we did eventually find one.  Although there is a large Jewish population in the city, Kosher restaurants have a hard time staying open.  Our lamb schwarma was really good though.

Traffic was pretty bad on the way to the airport and we were worried we were going to be late.  We made it though.  Over the last 2.5 days, we drove hundreds of kilometers!

Our flight to Adelaide was fine.  We got there in time for dinner before our next flight.  My ears have still been bothering me so we found a pharmacy and talked to the pharmacist.  He recommended getting smaller ear planes and some pain killers with codine.  Wow!  What a difference.  Apparently I have tiny ears and never realized it.  These plugs were so much better.

Our flight to KI was on a tiny plane!  The flight was 18 minutes long.  When we got to KI, we got our car and drove to Kingscote where we were staying for the night.  It was already around eight when we arrived, but we really wanted to do the penguin night walk.  Kingscote has hundreds of fairy penguins, which are small, blue penguins.  They are nocturnal.  The walk was really cool.  We saw TONS of birds.  They can't see red, so our guide had a bright red light so we could see them.  The sky was also perfectly clear so we got great views of the southern stars.  It was really beautiful.  We could even see the Milky Way!

Exhausted around eleven, we finally went to sleep.

Read more about our trip to Australia:
Sydney-Bound
Off and Running
Blue Mountains and Wildlife
We Are Now a Hostel-Free Family
A Night on the Reef
Day Two on the Reef
Travel Day
Great Ocean Road!
Eating Our Way Through Kangaroo Island
Flinders Chase, Vivonne Bay and Little Sahara
Last Day in Australia
Longest Day Ever

Great Ocean Road!

Today is our official Great Ocean Road day.  We started this morning around 9:00 a.m. and arrived at the Bay of Islands shortly thereafter.  Wow!  What gorgeous views!  The water is an amazing color of turquoise.  Combined with the lush greenery and copper sandstone, it's really stunning.  Our next stops were martyr bay and the grotto.  They were both gorgeous.  The grotto in particular was really cool because there was a cave-like structure that was half-filled with water and had a sandstone arch above it.  Very stunning.  London Bridge was cool too because you could see where it collapsed in 1990.  It's neat that the rocks are constantly changing and eroding.

We decided to take a little detour to try and find some foodie havens--Berry World, gourmet ice cream (honeycomb flavor), a distillery, cheese factories and a chocolate shop.  Well, this detour took a lot longer than expected and was not nearly as nice as we thought it would be.  Berry World didn't even look open.  We didn't get out of the car.  The distillery was cool and we did a tasting of their spirits--vanilla vodka, limoncello, strawberry vodka, coffee liquor and whiskey.  They didn't have the ice cream though, which was so disappointing.

We couldn't find one cheese place, but the one we did find was pretty good, actually.  They had some nice brie, feta and Camembert.  We also stopped at a local winery.  The wine wasn't great, but the scenery was beautiful.

We made our way back to the Ocean Road to see the Gibson steps and the 12 Apostles.  They really live up to the hype.  It was a little crowded though.  Again, we got beautiful weather.  The water was crystal clear and the sky was bright blue.  It was such a nice day to be touring the ocean views.  Since we were short on time we drove straight to Apollo Bay and skipped a few of the local icons.  We visited the tourist center to get some info and enjoyed an ice cream.  We went to Mariner's lookout for a fantastic view of the Bay!  It was really amazing!

After that we found a street that is apparently known for koala sightings.  We got out of the car and wandered up the street craning our necks to try and see something.  We had no idea what to look for though.  The road was blocked up ahead because they were doing a controlled burn.  The guy who was directing traffic showed us how to spot the koalas and found three for us!  They were really far away though and basically looked like big, gray lumps.  It was cool to see them in the wild though.

It was getting kind of late so we drove straight to Lorne where we were staying the night.  We found our hotel easily and decided we wanted to see the kangaroos that gather every evening at a local golf course half an hour away.  We got to the course and it did not disappoint.  There were tons of kangaroos just hanging out!  There was even a golfer playing with/through them.

We went back to Lorne for dinner, but again almost everything was closed.  We had to scramble to find an open restaurant.  We actually ended up just getting take out and a couple of beers and bringing them back to our room.

Overall, Great Ocean Road was amazing, but we probably should have spent at least one more day on it.  So far though, there's nothing we've done that I'd be willing to give up, so we really didn't have one more day.  It was still great the way we did it.

Read more about our trip to Australia:
Sydney-Bound
Off and Running
Blue Mountains and Wildlife
We Are Now a Hostel-Free Family
A Night on the Reef
Day Two on the Reef
Travel Day
To Kangaroo Island
Eating Our Way Through Kangaroo Island
Flinders Chase, Vivonne Bay and Little Sahara
Last Day in Australia
Longest Day Ever

Travel Day

Today was a travel day.  We woke up early and caught a shuttle to the airport for our flight to Melbourne.  It was our first time on Jet Star, and hopefully our last!  The plane was packed so tight we were like little sardines.  There also seemed to be some issues with the pressure because my ears were killing me, and other passengers, including Dan, said it was uncomfortable.  My ears still haven't recovered.

After our plane trip we got our rental car and headed straight out for the Great Ocean Road.  Some people take days or even weeks to drive this road.  Unfortunately, we really only had one full day.  We decided to start in Warrnambool and drive backward toward Melbourne so we could catch our flight a couple days later.  The drive from Melbourne to Warrnambool is about 3 1/2 hours.  I was warned the drive was going to be really boring on a highway, but it was actually great.  We were basically on a two lane road right through the middle of farmland.  I've never seen so many sheep!  We also saw tons of cattle and some horses.  There were beautiful windmills too.  We jumped one fence to try and say hi to the sheep, but they were scared of us.  Dan jumped another fence to say hi to two gorgeous chestnut horses.  When he was coming back, he grabbed the fence only to find that section was electric!  Oops!  He was fine though.

We got to Warrnambool around 7:30 p.m., checked into our motel and then went to find dinner.  It was a little disappointing that the town pretty much shut down before sunset.  We found a nice Thai place that served really good, authentic food though.

Read more about our trip to Australia:
Sydney-Bound
Off and Running
Blue Mountains and Wildlife
We Are Now a Hostel-Free Family
A Night on the Reef
Day Two on the Reef
Great Ocean Road!
To Kangaroo Island
Eating Our Way Through Kangaroo Island
Flinders Chase, Vivonne Bay and Little Sahara
Last Day in Australia
Longest Day Ever

Day Two on the Reef

Dan did his first dive this morning and then we met up for breakfast.  He saw three turtles getting cleaned by other fish!  The dive instructor said she had never seen three together.  It was just like in Finding Nemo :)  After breakfast Dan went on another dive and I went snorkeling.  Wow!  There were literally thousands of fish right at my fingertips.  They came in all sizes and colors too.  There were tiny electric fish that lit up and created a kind of spark.  Last night when we were watching the night divers, jelly fish would eat these fish and have a little firework display inside them!  We saw it a few times and each time was awesome.

I saw tons of parrot fish and gigantic fish with a big lump on its head.  I've been told they're a type of parrot fish too, but they're not as colorful.

Later, when snorkeling with Dan, we saw a turtle!  I was so excited to finally see one.  It was so beautiful, just floating along in the water.  I also saw GIANT clams that were florescent green and blue and would close up if you waved your hand in front of them.  A girl on the boat, Robin, had a digital waterproof camera and took a bunch of videos and pictures.  She said she will e-mail them to me (fingers crossed!). [Editor's note: she didn't.]

Giant clam

Can you find the turtle?

After lunch we had to leave this boat and head back to Cairns.  We transferred to a small day boat for the hour and a half trip.  We talked to Dave and Susan the whole time.  They were great.  We spent a lot of time with them on the boat too.  They remind me a lot of my parents.

Back in Cairns at the Caravella, our hostel room was much nicer this time.  We wandered around downtown for a while and eventually ate at the Raw Prawn, which was recommended to us by Susan and Dave.  We finally tried baramundi and it was delicious!  We both got the baramundi with avacado and asparagus over chips (fries).  It was amazing.

After dinner we checked out the casino.  It was tiny with very little action.  No craps tables--just black jack and some other card games.

After a long day we were exhausted.  We went back to the hostel and crashed.  We got so lucky with the weather.  It had been raining for the past couple of weeks--but we got bright sunshine.  Only tonight, after we had gone to sleep, did it start pouring.

Read more about our trip to Australia:
Sydney-Bound
Off and Running
Blue Mountains and Wildlife
We Are Now a Hostel-Free Family
A Night on the Reef
Travel Day
Great Ocean Road!
To Kangaroo Island
Eating Our Way Through Kangaroo Island
Flinders Chase, Vivonne Bay and Little Sahara
Last Day in Australia
Longest Day Ever