Last Australia Post-Blue Mountains

(the train station at Katoomba)

(the Blue Mountains are actually blue!)
So on our last full day in Australia we went North of sydney to Katoomba. Home to the Blue Mountains, this tourist area was worth the train ride. We were in a car with some very loud people so we didn't sleep too much on the way there. The Blue Mountains are blue because of the off-gassing from the gum trees that grow below them. There is also a rock formation that looks like three small mountains called the three sisters, which is pretty neat. We took a cable car ride between 2 lookout points which allowed us to get a really great view of the mountains.

(the Three Sisters)

(white birds (maybe cockatoos) that were flying in the canyon)
We paid for a bus ticket and took a bus from stop to stop, getting on and off to see various featured points. We went to a set of falls. The bus driver, before we got off told us to touch the water and report to him on the temperature and what the water felt like. I felt it and it was cold, soft and felt a bit oily. When we got back to the bus, he asked me (in front of the bus full of people) what it was like. He explained that the water was cold because it came from an underground spring, which regulated the temperature of the water (like geothermal works). The water is soft because as it rises to the surface and passes over several types of rocks as it falls down the springs, it softens the water. It's oily because it has kerosene in it (I forget why though)

(these are the beautiful waterfalls where I felt the water)

(the view from a hiking trail, where we got lost)
We went to a great little cafe called the Red Door Cafe. I had a rosemary, sweet potato and lamb pie. It was so Asutralian and so yummy. It had homemade chutney on the side, which reminds me of my Grandma Billing. Chutney seems so old fashioned, but delicious and under used.

(red door cafe)
At the end of the day we finished with a few cupcakes from Cupid Cupcakes. My favorite was the pound cake with passionfruit frosting. Mmmm...

(cupid cupcakes)

This one's for Uncle Allen

When we were in Australia we went into the Subway (Trains) a number of times. I took a picture of one of the cool vintage ads in the subway for my Uncle Allen. He collects old fashioned cars, so when I saw this I thought of him

This one's for you, Uncle Allen

Back in Sydney

We are back in Sydney. We flew in at noon and Derek wasn't feeling well. We hung out at the hotel for the afternoon. I tried venturing out by myself, but couldnt' figure out how to know how much I had to pay for fares. You pay different amounts depending on where you want to go. In the evening, Derek and I went and figured out our train tickets. When we bought the tickets, we asked the guy in the ticket booth if he could recommend a place for us to eat that would be open at 7 or 8 at night. That's something I forgot to mention. Stores close early here. It seems as though businesses and restaurants are either open until 5:00 or 5:30 or they don't open until 6:00 or so and then are open quite late.

The guy recommended a noodle bar. After getting lost after we exited the train station, we finally found the place he had recommended. It was a very hip place. Located in Chinatown, the clientele ranged from cool, younger asian adults to a white businessman to an Asian grandma who sat across from Derek. There were 2 long tables with benches. We ordered at the counter (from a menu which we couldn't read)and then were brought yummy bowls of noodles and broth. Derek's was a pork broth with ramen noodles and I had a chicken broth with fried chicken and fat noodles in it. It was delicious and we were so hungry.

As were were walking (which we did a lot of when we got lost) I noticed that they had labelled the street at the curb (or kerb, as they spell it here) which way to look in order to avoid being hit by a car. That's something that my sister, Heather, had mentioned from when she was in Australia that you have to adjust to which way to check for on coming traffic before you cross the street. Derek and I have commented to each other a number of times how it feels like you may get hit from one side (the expected side in Canada) when the traffic is moving in the opposite direction.

We went through Central Station as well. It joins all of the train lines in Sydney. It's this cool, old train station and it's always bstling with activity and accents from around the world. Very cool.

More from the Great Barrier Reef

Some more from the Great Barrier Reef:

You can see all of the fish we were swimming with. The videos are a little shaky as it was getting a bit windy. You can actaully see where the reef is in the middle of the ocean from far away, because there are waves that form over the shallow reef areas like they do at the beach.

The Great Barrier Reef

We woke up at 5:45 to get ready for an incredible adventure (not a small feat for those of you who know how we like to sleep). We drove about an hour along the coast (really beautiful) to Port Douglas. There we got on a fast boat (sort of yacht-looking)where they had breakfast for us and made us sign papers saying we knew that snorkeling and scuba diving were dangerous, yadda, yadda... We rode out to the reef, which was about an hour ride where they gave us, who hadn't scuba dove/dived before a lesson on how to scuba. Actually, it was also a video on all the bad things that could happen like lungs popping, running out of air etc. They told us that the most important thing was not to hold your breath underwater, just to kep breathing slowly. Since when does breathing become so complicated?? (Oh, right when you're underwater for 40 minutes) So the ride itself was pretty bumpy and Derek (for those of you that have heard about our not-so-fun cruise experience) wasn't feeling top notch anymore, but we had taken some anti-nausea pills, so it wasn't too bad. We got suited up and weighed around 150lbs more with the tank and the weights around our waist. They put weights around your waist so you don't float to the surface, which I kept doing anyway. We went under and practiced switching to our secondary air supply and clearing our masks. We went under the water and looked at all the coral. The coolest part was seeing an anenome and seeing the little clown fish (like Nemo) less than 12 inches in front of us. Ok, so I have to be honest with you, I really hated the diving part. My mask kept filling up with water because I didn't have it positioned right and there were several times where all I could think about was "breathe, breathe". My eyes were stinging with saltwater and the instructor kept having to come and get me as I tried to clear my mask and was floating to the surface. My air regulator came out of my mouth (which then you have to blow small bubbles out of your mouth so there isn't as much pressure on your lungs). Anyway, I was super glad when it was all done. I would try it again, but only after lesssons and becoming certified. **Aside: I wasn't sure how much detail to put here, but basically the rest of the day for Derek went like this: Derek was sick, threw up over the side of the boat, went snorkeling for 15 minutes at my request, and slept for most of the rest of the day inside the boat. (this is a sea cucumber, they breathe out of their butts) I went snorkeling at the next 2 locations, which were absolutely beautiful. I resolved my facemask issues and took pics and videos with an underwater camera we rented, and enjoyed the rest of the day, and was thrilled that I didn't get stung by a jellyfish (this is the beginning of the jellyfish season). We had been snorkeling in the Bahahas, and I thought it was cool, but not amazing. It was so amazing at the Great Barrier Reef. I am so glad we went to the reef (and Derek is almost glad we did too)

The smells we smell...

Have you ever noticed how there are different smells depending where you visit? Florida smells like water, chlorine, and moist, California smells like smog and tropical flowers. So what does Australia smell like? Where as in Canada a mall would smell like food and cleaner, in Australia it smells like food and incense. Sometimes at night there is a smell like hot garbage and dog food. Other times is smells like salt water and sunscreen. The food markets smell more like surrry than in Canada.

I just noticed this and thought i'd write it down so I'd remember.

The Rainforest and The Ocean

We took a drive up the mountains near Cairns, to the Rainforest Village of Karumba. Karumba Village is located in the Rainforest. This rainforest is considered the oldest Rainforest in the world. We walked a 3km pathway through the rainforest. It's crazy how the canopy really does block out the light (and the rain, as it was sprinkling in the morning).



We then drove to Barron Falls, also located near Karumba. The road back down the mountain, was the narrowest 2 lane road we have been on. Derek didn't have to touch the gas once the whole way down the mountain. He only had to use the break as he navigated around hairpin turns. Once we reached the bottom, we went to check out a golfcourse nearby. It was also so incredibly beautiful (wee may reutrn to try it out).



On the way back to Cairns, I suggested that we go down the road to Trinity Beach. The area down to the Beach was full of Beach homes and apartments. When we made it down to the ocean, it was absolutely beautiful. I suggested parking down near the beach and that we walk along the water. That progressed to taking off our sandals, and finally to my suggesting that we take a swim. We went back to the car, changed into our swimsuits and went back to the water. There are red and yellow flags set up on the beach, indicating where swimming is recommended. We may have wandered outside the flags, but had a great time jumping into the waves. It was pretty windy here today, so we had lots of great waves to enjoy. There were a few saves that were so strong they knocked us down and pulled us along the bottom of the ocean. The sand was soft where it was still dry but in the actual ocean, the grain were far more coarse. Coarse sand plus being dragged along the bottom by waves equals a bathing suit, hair, ears, and every other orifice full of sand. I had 2 large handfulls of gravel-like sand fall out of my bathing suit afterwards, but boy was that spontaneous swim ever worth it. It was amazingly beautiful. The beach curved around to where a small mountain rose next to the ocean.



After showering and removing all the sand, we went for supper on the Esplanade. We parked and started to walk to the restaurant when Derek looked up and saw something flying overhead. It wasn't a bird, it was a bat!!! We looked in the trees and saw them hanging upside down in the tree. When we returned to the car later in the evening the were screaming and swooping overhead, with their nasty, glowing eyes.

As a nice finish to the evening, I had the most wonderful Rhubarb Ice Cream. For those of you who don't know, my favorite types of desserts are Rhubarb dessert, so this little flavor discovery was quite a treat.

Couples Retreat

We are totally living the life here. We had a nap this afternoon and then went and booked our SCUBA adventure and walked along the boardwalk. After that we went for oven fired pizza on the Esplanade...had the Don (kalmatas, roasted red pepper, basil, ham) and spiced chicken (chicken, garlic) and they were so yummy. We just saw the new movie Couples Retreat, which was pretty funny and less inappropriate than I was expecting. It's 9:00am in Manitoba and midnight here, which is still kind of strange. I'm sleepy and off to bed...

Crocs and Kangaroos and Koalas, oh my!

*Note: yes, this is an actual sign, not a joke.

This morning began with a trip to the Cairns Tropical Zoo. We drove 20kms north, through many round abouts to Palm Grove. It was there that we got to see a variety of native Australian animals. We saw 5 meter long crocodiles, many of which are serving "life sentences" there for eating dogs and up to 30 head of cattle along river edges. There were a variety of birds, with enclosures that you could go in and have them flying freely overhead. I really like to look at birds, but had a few "moments" when I didn't realize how close they actually were. Just ask Derek, and he will be happy to mock me and tell you all about it... We went to the Red Panda enclosure where the panda was taking a nap in the tree. We saw the hairy nosed wombat, which is a marssupial relative of the kangaroo. We also got to feed and touch kangaroos. They were about 3 feet tall and smelled like rabbits. Derek described them as being as if a Rabbit and a Deer mated (which I can kind of see).




WARNING: Geek Moment:
Marsupials are a class of mammal with the characteristic of the mother having a pouch in which the joey (all marsupial babies are called joeys) climbs into this pouch, or marsupium, at an earlier age than most mammals, where they are fed and continue to develop until they are ready to live outside the pouch, such as Koalas, Kangaroos, and Wombats. Koala babies are born after only 35 days gestation, when they are merely 2 cm long, hairless, eyeless and earless. They climb into the pouch, where they are fed by their mothers until they are ready to come out of the pouch. They then stay with their mothers, riding on their backs for up to 1 year. Also, the reason that they sleep for up to 19 hours a day is that their only food is the leaves of gum trees and the leaves are so low in protein that they don't have very much energy


Ok, I got that out of my system, so here is the really cool part: We both held a Koala!!! They are super soft and not as heavy as you would think. They hold on tight but I definitely wouldn't want to meet them if they were angry, their claws are crazy! It was such a cool experience!

Adventures in Cairns

Today we ventured out to see what Cairns had to offer. We spent some of the afternoon shopping at the factory outlet mall here. I drove there on the wrong side (to our standards) of the road. It was so cool! Unfortunately I didn't realize how cool it would be and didn't take my camera.

We went down to the pool just outside our hotel room, and hung out, enjoying the beautiful weather. Then, we went down to the Esplanade, which is the street and boardwalk area by the ocean. It is full of great shops and restaurants. We went to a seafood restaurant and tried Barramundi (a local australian fish) which is a white fish and absolutely delicious! Derek also had kangaroo (which tastes like a very tender beef) and crocodile, which had a chewy texture and tasted like a combination between scallops and chicken. We then walked down the esplanade where we saw boomerangs, UGGS, lots of honey and macadamia nuts (grown locally), and digeridoos. Digeridoos are a weakness of mine. every time Derek and I go to a msic store in Winnipeg, I always go and look at them. They are even cooler here, they are works of art. It's also neat because in each store where they are sold is usually someone who is demonstrating how to play them. The aboriginal art here is also really awesome.

While walking we tried dessert crepes (fresh fruit with custard and whipped cream) which were amazing and gelato. The gelati here is the best I have ever had, and I love gelati in Winnipeg. The fruit flavors are even more intense and include flavors such as passionfruit. There was also a cute shop offering samples of soft salt water taffy-like candy. The flavor they were offering as a sample was some sort of blue plum, and it was so soft and delicious, we went back and bought a bagful of mixed flavors. I can't remember all of them but they included a variety of fruit flavors I hadn't heard of before. We also saw a guy performing with flaming sticks (I don't know what they are actually called), but it was neat. The weather here is still gorgeous at almost 9:00 pm, it's actually too warm for me to wear a cardigan with my tank top and shorts! It's going to make it hard to go back to the unseasonably cold weather in Sydney and even harder to come home to snow.

Something is different...

We are having a great time here, and noticing some of the differences between home and here. First, and most obvious is the driving on the wrong side of the road. This means the rivers is on the opposite side of the vehicle, you have to look in the opposite direction when crossing the street, yield to the opposite direction, and make sure you're not driving on the wrong side of the road after turning.

There is not a "no shirt, no shoes, no service" policy here. People walk around in Cairns without shoes. Last night, half of the people who walked into Subway as we were eating were barefoot. Children walk around on the streets, sidewalks and in restaurants without shoes.

Business hours are "Trading Hours"

The electrical outlets are a different shape (we need converters) and they all have switches on them to turn them on and off.



Yogurt is spelled Yoghurt, but is yummier than the stuff we buy at home.

Phone numbers are eight digits, rather than 7 (eg ####-####)

The tax is included in all the prices

Green Peppers are called Capiscum, Cream Soda is called "Creaming Soda" and "lemonade" is the same as Sprite.

The trunk is called the "boot"

There aren't Starbucks that we've seen so far but some McDonalds have a McCafe area, which is beside the regular counter area where they have espresso machines and you can order gourmet coffee and fancy desserts. I haven't tried a coffee there yet but I am planning on checking it out.

Sydney, Australia

This morning began our first full day in Australia, as we got in later last night. We started the day checking our bags at the domestic airport, and then went to figure out the trains. The 'train' is what they call their subway system. It is far cleaner than the Subway in New York, and waaay more expensive. It cost us $46.00 AUD (about $40 CDN) for us to ride down to the Sydney Harbour and back!! Having said that, their public transit system really does rock. There are buses, ferries, monorails and trains to get you anywhere in the city.

So we got to the Harbour and the first thing we saw was the famous Harbour Bridge. We walked down along the edge of the water and saw the famous Sydney Opera House which, was actually the first thing we saw as we flew into Sydney yesterday. It is really incredible up close. The paid for a tour of the inside of the Opera House. It was really neat to see the stages (there are 3 smaller ones and the large main auditorium) and the roof lines and architecture are absolutely amazing.

The main auditorium is completed made of wood. The ceiling and chairs are made of white birch and the walls and floors are lined with another type of wood that result in perfect acoustics. The stage was dressed with thousands of REAL flowers as the London Philharmonic is currently playing there. The rings hanging from the ceiling are for acoustics as well. they allow the sound to bouce back down to the orchestra as they are playing so that they hear the full sound. I can't really explain what a cool place it is. We got to touch the roof which is made us of hundreds of thousands of special, self-cleaning white and cream colored ceramic tiles. Even the bathroom was super cool. During the tour there were some technical malfunctions so the tour guide allowed us to take pictures inside the main auditorium (even though you're not allowed to due to some sort of copyright laws). It was a truly incredible experience to visit the Harbour in Sydney.