Part II

Saturday, April 28, 2007

Our last night in Sydney, take two

Mid snorkel off the coast of Sydney we learned our flight out that evenıng to turkey was cancelled! We rushed to a payphone and scrambled to get in touch with Gulf Air. Pele was tracking our flights for us and through a chain of phone calls she was able to hunt us down (amazingly this was the only day on our whole trip we had a cell phone!) After a bit of stress and more than a few phone calls we were rebooked on another flight in 24 hours. Our hosts Liz and Greg were kind enough to entertain us another night. And missing our flight turned out to be pretty painless. Big thanks to Pele, Liz and Greg for making a bad situation really not bad at all.

Yeah, another night in Sydney isnt so bad

World famous Bondi Beach

Not bad for a big city beach!

Mike posıng under a sandstone cliff

Glorious coastline!

Cemetery with a view

We paused for the national lawn bowling final

"What? Cancelled!?"

Choko made us happy... and sad. We are coming Candy!

Friday, April 20, 2007

Our last day in Australia

We spent the last 10 days driving up the east coast of Australia. I had no idea how big Australia was until we got out on the road and started clocking the kilometers. We drove about 1000km (600 miles) and barely made a dent on the coast line. On our way to our destination ("Surfer's Paradise) we stopped at Seal Rock and Yamba, recommendations we had from relatives. Both spots were outstanding. Seal Rock was one of the best beaches we had seen on the entire trip, and Yamba was really nice and laid back as well. We camped at both and had a great time.

In Surfers, we met Amie's grandmother's brother Laure and his wife Marge, their son Greg and his wife Angela, and their 3 kids. The hospitality we enjoyed there was incredible. Greg has a home right on a canal with views of Surfers skyline. Surfers itself feels a lot like Miami or Las Vegas, but on a beautiful beach. There are tons of sky rise condos going in and a bit of a seedy-big-city beach town feel. Because it was "school holidays" there was a lot of activity in town, and at Greg's place. He had groups of friends showing up in droves to stay at his big house. This gave us a really good feel for what Aussie's are really like. Needless to say, we had a blast and stayed longer than we planned.

Laure and Marge are in their mid 80s and are an inspiration. They are both doing very well to say the least. One night, Laure drank me under the table (way past midnight) and two of the evenings Marge made us meals that were so good we were in disbelief-aren't taste buds supposed to deteriorate as you age?

There are wild fruit bats everywhere that are as big as cats with 4-5' wingspans. I was scared for my life.

One of the best things we did while on the gold coast was our stop at Steve Irwin's Australia Zoo. We thought the zoo in Sydney was the best we had been to ever, but this was even better. It was all kind of sad because Steve Irwin really did run the place, and now that he is gone, his wife and young children continue on. They were all there and we got to see his wife feed the giant crocs, and bindi, his daughter do a song and dance routine. The highlight though were the animals, we got to pet roos and koalas, got to see crocs and wombats up close, feed an elephant, etc. Amazing, and a must for anyone coming to Australia!

While camping on the way back down the coast to Sydney, we got the resolution we were waiting for on the shipment of Yoshita. SHE IS NOW AT HOME!!!!!! After 6 weeks of 6am phone calls to Chile cursing my best in Spanish at the thieves extorting money from us, we got our bike released without paying them anything. I say that, we've paid $1700 so far for the shipment, but at least the Chileans didn't get their $2000 ransom they were vying for!

Back in Sydney we met even more relatives, the Keohns. I am amazed at how warm and kind all these people have been to us as the relationship they have to Amie and I is really quite distant. In most cases we are staying with second cousins or aunts twice removed. Regardless, they have treated us so well we are in their debt. Our time in Australia would not have been anywhere near as enjoyable if it weren't for all the great hospitality.

We had one last meal with Ian and Maree, who we came to really like and will miss very much. I helped Iain lay some sod the morning before we left, he appreciated it I think, and I was honestly happy to help. Last night we stayed with their daughter Liz and her husband Greg in downtown Sydney, and again, they wouldn't let us pay for anything, made us an amazing home cooked meal, and really, were just great people to meet and get to know.

Tomorrow we are on our own again. We've got 21 hour flight to Turkey that neither of us is looking forward to, but the adventure most go on!

The beach at Seal Rocks

Amie with Laure and Marge

Huge bat visiting us on the back deck

Too many shrimp on the barbee at Gregs

Bronte models an outfit for us

Steve Irwin's wife Terry carries on the tradition

Amie pats a Koala

Baby wombat

Great surf near Byron Bay

Amie likes taking pictures like this

The beach at Surfer's Paradise

Burleigh Heads Beach at Surfers

That helicopter is doing shark spotting (no joke)

This is the life!

The view from Greg's deck

They start early in Australia

Teaching the Aussies to gamble (with grapes)

Cricky! We miss you Steve!

I think a room and Candy would be best mates

Crocs!

So long guys! We'll miss you! Come see us!

Keeping the regimen alive

Thats for Steve Irwin

Thats because Yosh is HOME!

Still together :-)

Maree and Iain's new place

The Keohns

Thanks Anna!

A Black tie affair at Iain's for our send off

Tuesday, April 10, 2007

Sydney, Australia

We’re having a great time in Australia. We’ve explored some of Sydney’s finest including The Rocks, Darling Harbor, the Zoo, Opera House and plenty of shopping malls. We also took a trip out to Canberra and the surrounding area to visit some more relatives who live on 40 acres of outback land. 10 days on the mainland and we’ve been able to get some much needed R&R (thanks to Iain and Maree’s great hospitality and lovely home), see wonderful sites and meet great family!

Sydney is beautiful. It reminds us of a bigger and cleaner San Francisco; tons of gorgeous bays and harbors, brilliant clear blue water, pristine restored old buildings and plenty of neighborhood varieties. If it we’re for their deadly ‘funnel-web’ spider I might put this on my list of places to live! Yes, the funnel-web spider is one of the deadliest spiders in the world (Australia seems to have quite a few species of the ‘worlds deadliest’ type) and lives primarily in Sydney region. It can be found in the ground and known to jump on you if cornered. Let’s just say I’ll be quite happy when I depart Australia knowing I didn’t have an encounter with one myself! I’ll keep my fingers crossed for the time being… Along with the dreaded ‘funnel-web’ spider, I would like to add that Sydney has helicopters patrolling the beaches all day long, everyday to spot sharks. Yes, they are constantly up there watching out for sharks in order to vacate a beach if one is spotted. I think that only tells me how many they must have here! I guess that must be mild compared to the northern section of the continent which has plenty of salt water crocs (the biggest in the world), box-jellyfish (deadly) and plenty more sharks. They say that the jellyfish are only ‘seasonal’…but I wonder how good they are on judging the seasons????

I keep looking around at the woman here and admiring what great fashion sense they have. Although I don’t doubt Australian woman know how to dress, part of me thinks I must be that much out of touch. I think anyone who wears the same few t-shirts and pair of jeans for 6 months in a row might loose touch with fashion-reality. Especially if surrounded by woman wearing top hats, ragged skirts and the sorts for the majority of that 6 months. Either way I’ve been in awe as I look at the people in the big city and peer into the shop windows. Styles have definitely changed; I guess that just shows how long I’ve been away.
Our time stay with Iain and Maree has been a trip saver for Mike and I. We both were at a point where packing up and moving on to the next location was the last thing we felt like doing, no matter what it was we were about to see. Seeing my folks fly home and knowing that home was just a flight away even tempted me further from not wanting to be on the go anymore. I was sick of not being in one place for too long. Not eating from a home kitchen. Staying in smelly and run down hostels. Camping in the pouring and cold rain. Showering with my flip-flops on to avoid touching so much filth. All of the things that come with traveling were starting to seriously ware on me. Thankfully for the great hospitality we’ve both recharged and are again excited with the remainder of our travels. We have had some wonderful meals, great company and such a comfortable bed.

It was great to see a bit of the countryside (‘bush’ as the Australians say) with our visit to Jenan and Des’s house. Jenan is my mom’s cousin and she lives on a 40 acre lot with her husband Des who is a bee-keeper. Mike and I had a great time visiting with them and learning more than we thought existed about bees and bee-keeping. It’s quite fascinating! They took us on a nice bike ride around the city (also the capital) Canberra with their daughter Pele. We were hoping to spot some Roos as there are plenty of them out there, but somehow the Roos must have known the Americans were in the area with their cameras, because they were no where to be found. Des took us in his 4x4 on a deep search of the ‘bush’ to find them, but to our avail, all we saw was their dropping and tracks. Next time I guess! It was a great visit and so nice to meet such lovely people. We’re just about to take off on our own up the Gold Coast. We leave tomorrow after picking up our rental car. We stayed in Sydney an extra couple of days to celebrate my birthday. Did some shopping and enjoyed a really nice Italian meal overlooking Darling Harbor. Such a nice day, Mike really treated me great although it is always sad to be away from friends and family during these times…

Sydney Opera House