Australia - Dec 2012

Sydney Opera House

We decided to spend Christmas and New Years in a warmer climate this year by spending two weeks in Australia. We went with John and JoAnna, visiting Melbourne, Sydney and Cairns, and we met up with several of Keith's Kandersteg friends.  While the weather in most places was not as warm as we expected, we had a great time.  Keith had spent six months in Australia 22 years ago (Jan-June of 1991) but the two of us had only passed through Sydney once after our New Zealand trip. 

Accommodation:
Chez Bullock - While in Melbourne, we stayed with Steve and Jan and their three kids Meg, Al, and Lucy, who live in Lara, about an hour south of Melbourne. They have an awesome home with a pool and a beautiful garden. The hospitality was great!

Chez Bullock

Chez Bills - We spent a few nights at Jan's parents house (Liz and Rex) in Anglesea on Melba Parade. Their house is located within walking distance to the beach and it has a great view of the ocean.  Liz and Rex are planning on selling the house soon so it was great to be there.

Chez Bills

Best Western Olde Maritime - Located in Warrnambool, we stayed here one night when we drove the Great Ocean Road.  The hotel is within walking distance of the town center and the rooms are clean.

Travelodge - Located in Sydney in the central business district about 2 miles from the sites.  John booked it with his points so it was free!  Clean place.

Harbour Lights - Located in Cairns on the waterfront.  We got a two bedroom apartment - very nice place.

Swissotel Sydney - In Sydney close to Darling Harbour.  Shawna booked on her points so also free.  Very nice hotel.

Activities:
We flew into LAX where we met up with John and JoAnna. Our flight to Melbourne was delayed so we passed the time having a few beers before we boarded the plane at 2 am. The flight was rather long (16 hours) - we slept intermittently while also watching movies to pass the time.

Melbourne
We arrived after noon and were greeted at the airport by Steve who then drove us to his house in Lara. After eating lunch, we went for a swim (or more aptly described as a soak) in their swimming pool while drinking a few beers. This was our one and only truly warm day in the area as the rest of the time was quite windy. After our soak in the pool, we drove into Geelong where we walked along the promenade, had a couple of beers in a pub and then grabbed some yummy fish and chips and ate dinner picnic style along the water. By this point, the jet lag kicked in so we returned to their home to sleep.

Fish and Chips in Geelong

Surprisingly, we all slept through the night. The following morning Shawna, John and JoAnna went for a walk where they saw kangaroo (or at least what looked like kangaroo from afar), parrots, rabbits and magpies. While we were walking, Keith went horse riding (bare back) with Lucy. Keith had been horseback riding when he was a kid but was obviously not prepared for this - Lucy's prowess on the horse smoked Keith's ability!  We grabbed a quick brekky (Australian for breakfast) and then took the train into Melbourne to do a day of sight seeing. We first rode the free City Circle tram to get our bearings and see where most of the sights are located and walked around St Patricks Cathedral, a large, gothic style church.

Keith and Lucy

After lunch, we went up Eureka Tower to the 88th floor observation deck where we saw sweeping views of the city. We opted not to do the Edge (which is where you walk out on glass with nothing beneath you) as the wait was 45 minutes. However, we did mail a postcard to Phoebe from the highest mailbox in Australia! Steve's office is immediate next to the tower so we were able to see where he actually goes every day.  Following this, we walked around The Royal Botanic Garden and saw the corpse flower (amorphophallus titanum) which is a very large flower that only blooms for a few days - unfortunately, we did not see it in bloom in person but we did see it on the news a few days later.

Mebourne

We took the bus down to St Kilda to see penguins but they were not out so we watched the kite surfers and walked around the area. We then went back into the city center to buy pressies for the Bullock family and then tried to get into a few places for dinner before we found one that didn't have a wait - we ended up at Red Spice Road which had yummy Asian food.  After dinner, we took the train back to Lara where Steve picked us up. We stayed up talking with everyone for a few minutes before we crashed after a long day.

Christmas with Bills Clan in Anglesea

Beach in Anglesea

On Christmas morning, we had breakfast and exchanged gifts. Steve and Jan got us some goodies and water guns which then prompted a water fight amongst the boys. Steve and Keith were so soaked, they looked like they had fallen into the pool. After breakfast we drove down to Anglesea to Jan's parents house where we spent a few nights. Steve had to make two trips to bring everyone so while he drove the family, we went for a walk and then packed up. Meg drove us there so that she could build up her hours to get her permanent license - she was a great driver and we all made it in one piece. When we arrived in Anglesea, we met Liz and Rex (Jan's parents) and her brother Steve and his wife Lindy and their two kids. We ate Christmas lunch and opened a few more pressies and then walked down to the beach for a game of beach cricket. Jan, JoAnna and Shawna went for a walk along the beach while the boys went for a swim. Later that evening, we went to see the kangaroos that have taken over the golf course in town. There were so many of them. That night, we had leftovers and a few beers while chatting with the family.  It was quite entertaining watching Rex and Jan's brother Steve complain about the rubbish on TV. 

Kangaroo on Golf Course in Anglesea

On Wednesday, we took off with Steve and Jan to drive the beautiful Great Ocean Road. We stopped along the way to see the sights, including Johanna Beach, the 12 Apostles, Loch Ard Gorge, London Bridge, and the Bay of Martyres. We also took a short walk in Mait's Rest, a rain forest, and saw tons of koala near the Otway Lighthouse. At first, we only saw a few koala and went off road to see a couple of them.  We distressed one as Keith and Steve shook the tree - the poor koala climbed as high as it could go before it started to cry! Just a few kilometers down the road is where we then saw a ton of koalas, some of which were rather low to the point you could reach out and touch them if you tried.  Along the way, we stopped to eat, including having a coffee in Lorne, a savory pie in Apollo Bay, lunch in Princeton and ice cream in Port Campbell. We did not go hungry! We stayed the night in Warrnambool and had a few drinks at a pub in town followed by dinner at a Chinese restaurant, Emperor's Palace.

Great Ocean Road

After breakfast, we drove back to Anglesea, stopping to do beer tasting at Otway Estate Winery and Brewery where we tried 5 different styles of Prickly Moses beer. There was a wheat beer that Shawna liked and we all liked the ale. We then went to Lake Elizabeth and walked about 2km to try to see the elusive platypus, but we were not lucky. We then stopped at the Forrest Brewing Company to taste 4 beers and to have lunch (yummy sandwiches). When we returned to Anglesea, Shawna and JoAnna went for a walk while Keith and Steve went for a run/swim. We then had a few beers at the house before heading out to dinner at the Aireys Pub - we treated the whole family to dinner. After dinner, we chatted for a while back at the house before going to bed.  Rex gave John and JoAnna a hard time about not being married and declared that they were to marry in Australia.  John indicated that they would get married if Rex got on a plane to come to the wedding (Rex does not fly)!

Beer Tasting at Otway Estate Winery and Brewery

On Friday, we first stopped at Bells Beach to see the famous surfing area where the final scene of Point Break was set (though not actually filmed there). We then took the Ferry from Queenscliff to Sorrento to do some cheese and wine tasting on Mornington Peninsula. Our first stop was at Red Hill Cheese - we tried a few sheep, cow and goat cheeses. Our favorite was Prom Picnic, a nutty sheep cheese and Poppet, an herb sheep cheese so we bought these for lunch. Our next stop was Main Ridge Estate for wine tasting - our favorite was the 2008 Chardonnay. The woman who poured the wine did not find us humorous - she was a bit crabby! Since we needed a few more cheeses for lunch, we stopped at the Main Ridge Dairy which has goat cheese - we liked the pecorino and marinated goat cheeses. This place had cute goats in the field but there were too many kids so it was noisy. Now that we had the cheese, we needed a wine for lunch so we stopped at the Eldridge Estate and liked the 2012 Fume Blanc and the 2010 Chardonnay - we bought a bottle of the Chardonnay. We stopped in town to buy some bread and then we headed to Point Leo beach to have our picnic lunch. After lunch, we made one more stop for wine tasting at Paringa Estate which has a nice tasting room and a beautiful view of the valley - we liked the 2009 Estate Viognier and the 2009 Paringa Chardonnay. Deciding that we should get some exercise, we walked along the beach for over an hour and watched the kite surfers - Keith was quite motivated to try kite surfing some day. That evening, we met up for dinner in Brighton for dinner at the Brighton Baths Cafe and Bar with Wendy & Dave and Sue who Keith, Steve and Jan knew from Kandersteg.  We followed this with a final round of drinks before heading back to Lara.

Keith, Sue, Wendy, Dave, Jan, Steve, Shawna, John and JoAnna

On Saturday, we relaxed back at Steve and Jan's house before heading to the airport to fly to Sydney. We did laundry and caught up on email and went for a walk up the You Yangs, which are the hills close to their house.  We said our goodbyes and then Steve dropped us off at the airport (which was only a 5 minute drive from the house).

Koala

Sydney
After checking into our hotel in Sydney, we walked around the city for dinner - a couple of the places we wanted to try were closed.  We ended up at the Rocks where we had dinner and went to a few pubs for drinks.  We got to see the Opera House lit up at night as well as the Sydney Harbor Bridge.

On Sunday, we got up early and walked around the Royal Botanic Garden - not as nice as the one in Melbourne.  We walked over to the Opera House which up close is not as attractive as from afar - you can definitely tell it was built in the 70s.  We then took a bus over to Bondi Beach where we met up with Mia, Byron and their two kids.  We had not seen Mia and Byron for 7 years - since we said goodbye to them our last night in Nepal in '05.  We hung out at the beach, swam a little and had lunch and then walked the Bondi to Bronte foot path which is along the water - great views of the ocean.  We returned to the city and after a quick shower at the hotel, we went on a free tour of The Rocks with I'm Free (tour company that does free tours and you tip based on what you thought the tour was worth).  We learned about the criminals that were sent to the Rocks to live out their sentence.  The tour was great - we ended up with the owner of the company who is a young girl in her 20s.  Following the tour, we went to dinner and had a few drinks in some of the pubs that were pointed out on the tour.

Bondi Beach

Mia, Keith and Shawna

On Monday, we took the ferry to Manly Beach and walked along the promenade.  The beach is quite nice and is much bigger than Bondi Beach.  After a late brekky, we took the ferry back and then walked along Darling Harbour.  We had to take a nap to rest up for the New Year's Eve celebration which we celebrated at the Pyrmont Bridge Hotel rooftop bar.  It was a great evening.  We saw the 9pm and midnight fireworks which were spectacular.

Fireworks in Sydney on New Year's Eve

Cairns

Sexy Stinger Suits

We flew to Cairns and spent 4 nights there.  This part of the trip was more relaxing.  We spent one day snorkeling on the Great Barrier Reef with Seastar, stopping at Michaelmas Cay and Hastings Reef.  It was a bit cloudy that day but we still saw lots of colorful fish.  JoAnna even saw a sea turtle and a reef shark.  Because it is heavy jellyfish season, we had to wear 'stinger' suits which covers you head to toe - not sexy at all but it did the trick - we were never stung!  We spent another day relaxing and walking around the town - got to see where all of the flying foxes (aka bats) live during the day in the trees in town (and also watched them flying around at night) - there are thousands of them - quite surreal and freaky!  Keith and Shawna opted one afternoon to see a movie so we saw Les Miserables - very well done.  Our last day in Cairns was spent on a day trip via boat to Green Island (went with Big Cat Green Island Reef Cruises).  The island has all sorts of activities - snorkeling, kayaking, paddle boarding, etc and is a rain forest that you can walk around in.  Keith and Shawna chose to sit at the beach and read while John and JoAnna (sporting the sexy stinger suits) took another go at snorkeling and saw a sea turtle, sting ray and reef shark.

Great Barrier Reef

Sydney (again)
We spent our last day and night in Sydney before we had to fly back to the States.  We walked around a festival in the Rocks area and then accomplished the feat of the trip - doing the Bridge Climb of the Sydney Harbour Bridge.  Shawna was a little (ok, a lot) freaked out at times but it was totally awesome.  We got to see the inner workings of the bridge and then breathtaking views of the harbour and downtown from atop the bridge.  This is definitely worth it and we would do it again - next time, maybe at night!  After this, we met up for drinks with Keith's friend Liz who lives in Sydney and is a friend of the family - the last time Keith had seen her was in 1993 at his parent's 25th anniversary/ grandfather's 80th birthday celebration at Tilmouth Park Hotel.  We had a few drinks with her at the Opera Bar (cool spot) and then went to a music festival for a short while (the band was just finishing up the last few songs when we arrived).  We then capped off the evening with a few more drinks closer to our hotel.

Keith, Shawna, John, JoAnna - Sydney Harbour Bridge Climb

Our flight home was long - none of us slept very well so we watched lots of movies/shows on the screens at our seats and took advantage of every meal/snack that they served.  We arrived back in the States, we were quite sad that the fun had to end and that we had to no only return to work but also start dieting again as we all knew we had gained a few on this trip!

Shawna, Keith and Liz

Restaurants and Bars:
Melbourne / Great Ocean Road Area
Pony Fish Island - Located under a foot bridge on the Yara River in Melbourne, an outdoor restaurant where we had toasties and fish quesadillas with beer for lunch.  Great place!

Red Spice Road - In Melbourne, an Asian place where you sit on long tables with others. We ate prawns, lamb shoulder, and pork belly. Very tasty.

Apollo Bay Bakery - In Apollo Bay on the Great Ocean Road, we had the award winning pies - we tried the lamb and rosemary pie and the beef, bacon and cheese pie.

Emperor's Palace - Chinese restaurant in Warrnambool. We had a prefix meal with beef, chicken, pork and shrimp stir fry. The food was not that good.

Pavilion Cafe and Bar - Breakfast in Warrnambool overlooking the water. We had the muesli and brekky bomba which is poached fruit with yogurt.

Aireys Pub - Near Anglesea, we took the Bullock and Bills families to dinner here to thank them for their hospitality. We split the prawn salad and the barramundi with rossotto and we all shared the sticky fig pudding for dessert.

The Baths - In Brighton on the water with a great view of Melbourne. We had the prawn gyoza and pesto linguine followed by the sticky fig pudding - food was good.

Sydney
Wolfies - On the waterfront in Sydney in the Rocks area.  Quite good.  We all shared the bruschetta and shrimp to start and the barramundi, mixed grill (where we tried kangaroo which tastes like steak), and pasta with veal ragu for dinner and of course sticky date pudding for dessert.

Fortune of War - The oldest pub in Sydney located in the Rocks. Not as quaint as we thought.  We had one beer here.

Harts Pub - Advertised as one of the best craft beer pubs in Sydney.  They had a selection of 10 microbrews.  The pub was nice with cushy seats and big screen TVs where we watched a bit of cricket.

Sailors Thai - In the Rocks area, a Thai restaurant where you sit at communal tables. Yumminess!!! We all shared beef, pork belly, crispy salmon, barramundi dishes.

Lord Nelson Brewery - Another "oldest" pub in the Rocks area. Very quaint inside.  Had a selection of 8 beers.

In Situ - In Manly, we had brekky here.  We shared the corn fritter and muesli which were both tasty.

Helm Bar - In Darling Harbour, we had a couple of beers and lunch - we shared the prawns, wedges and lamb salad.

Pyrmont Bridge Hotel - In Darling Harbour.  We spent New Years Eve here which was a great deal.  We got lots of food, including shrimp, fish and chips, dumplings, egg rolls, meat on stick, sweet potato fries.  The roof top is small but perfect size - it was not too crowded.  Bar and bathrooms were only steps away and they also had a dance floor with a DJ - we danced some to work off some calories!

Australian Hotel - Due to a bet that Branson had with the owner, the pub had to change to British decorations for 6 weeks when Australia lost to England in a soccer match.  We had lunch here - shared tandoori chicken pizza and wedges.

Opera Bar - At the Opera House, this is an open-air bar overlooking Circular Quay and the harbor.  We had a few drinks here. Great views.

Toros Tapas and Bar - In Darling Harbor, we had our last brekky here.  We shared the breakfast bruschetta and fruit salad.   

Cairns
Salt - Along the promenade, we stopped here for lunch but waited too long to be seated so we only had one beer and left.

Waterbar and Grill - Along the promenade, we had lunch - shared the lamb salad and Thai beef salad.

Gillian's Backpacker - Big complex for backpackers located about 4 blocks from the water.  We went here for a few beers and also had our first night sighting of the bats flying.  Beer was pretty cheap.

Ala Turka - Turkish food on Esplanade.  We had dinner and all shared hummus and feta to start and mixed grill and lamb dish with tomato butter sauce for main course followed by baklava for dessert. Very yummy!

Raw Prawn - Awesome seafood on Esplanade.  We shared a prawn salad and tempura prawns followed by a mixed seafood in coconut curry with rice and bok choy.

Rattle-n-Hum - Great bar on Esplanade.  We had lunch - shared nachos and lamb pizza.

The Courthouse - Outside beer garden a few blocks from the water.  It's a great place to see the bats flying at night.  We went here twice to drink a few beers before dinner.

Marinades - Indian restaurant.  We had dinner and all shared mixed grill, butter chicken, lamb vindaloo, lamb saag dishes. Food was OK.

Bushfire Flame Grill - Brazilian style restaurant with meat skewers.  The boys opted to go here our last night to get the "meat sweats".  Food was decent but service was not speedy!

Australian Words We Learned:
Y-front - tighty whiteys
Lolly - sweets
Pressies - presents
Trackies - sweat pants
Singlet - wife beater
Brekky - breakfast
Sunnies - sunglasses
Boardies - swim trunks
Walkies - hiking shorts
Wipper snipper - weed eater

For more photos of this trip: