A point of correction which many New Zealanders have offered to us Americans who are generalized into the category of geographically challenged. As in "We New Zealanders know where America is located, but you Americans sure do not know where New Zealand is located." So we are living in New Zealand and not "Down Under" aka Australia.
We did enjoy celebrating the start of 2011 by traveling "Down Under" from December 29 - Jan 10. (Travel Advisor: not a good time to travel in Australia as it is school holiday, prices are increased, hotels are booked, beaches are crowded.)
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| Bondi Beach 30 December! |
The pictures will help tell the story of some of our experiences.
You can click on the pictures to enlarge in a new window.
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| If you don't want to wait in line to surf, wait in line here for ice cream. |
The Opera House was a highlight of out time in Sydney (Travel Advisor: Highly recommend the guided tour to learn the history of its construction). Truly an architectural and engineering marvel.
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| Man made and natural beauty all in one. |
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| The tiles for the arches were templated five at a time. |
We were thrilled to have my parents in good health able to make the trip with us. (Trip Advisor: make sure your parents are good sports for travel before stuffing six family members, the luggage for the trip, and a grandson bursting with flatus into an small SUV for a week). Our family is blessed like the opera house to have good bones to last through the years.
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| Smiling: Have not had to be in the SUV yet! |
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| The inside is stunning in its own way. |
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| The Sydney Coat Hanger/Harbor Bridge |
Ten and a half years ago, while watching the Sydney Olympics and pregnant (Kim, not me thank goodness, but I'll take some credit now) for the first time, we chose a name for our child if it was a girl. Michelie Jones raced along the Opera House footpath to her Olympic silver medal in her homeland. (Trip advisor: Way cool to see her namesake run the same path. Dream for your child and it may come true!).
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| McKeely chasing Michelie |
We departed Sydney on New Years Eve (Trip Advisor: Yeah the $625,000 dollar fireworks show that night would have been awesome, but the explosion of a $1200 a night hotel room bill sort of rips a hole in your back pocket). After a few wayward driving directions from our TomTom GPS (Trip Advisor: We affectionately dub thee Tombyatch), we made our way not to the Big Apple of fireworks, but the Big Banana of Coffs Harbor.
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| For you Minnesotans out there...this is Paul Bunyan's breakfast snack! |
After a not so refreshing nights sleep in Coffs Harbor (Trip Advisor: At 3 am drunk people sound the same no matter what language or accent they may have.), we made our way to Mooloolaba (Trip Advisor: say moo LOOL uba). A good day to drive as we experienced a taste of all the rain that has plagued Queensland Australia this year. We missed the flooding in Brisbane by only one week. With the rate and power of the downpours we witnessed, the source of the flooding was simple to understand.
Three sunny days on the Sunshine Coast were celebrated with time in the warm waters of the Coral Sea. Surf lessons were in order, as they were promised to Joel for his birthday. (Trip Advisor: 9 year old 5'4" surfs way better than hair thinning old 6'7"). Our generalized American obesity epidemic surfaced when the instructor at the end of the class chided me by saying "You're pretty fit, for an American."
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| A reminder to swim between the flags. |
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| Ready for more. |
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| A little birdie told me. |
We beat the rain for part of the day as we drove back down the Queensland Coast. We had opted on the advice of our New Zealand friends to skip the more commercial Australian Zoo (Trip Advisor: Do not tell your kids that you skipped seeing Bindi Irwin) instead choosing to visit the Corrumbin Wildlife Sanctuary. Excellent advice it was, as the Corrumbin Sanctuary allowed for a more intimate experience with the animals.
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| Joel's scalp massage during the lorakeet feeding. |
The children were thrilled to see the animal hospital which takes in the injured or rescued animals from the region to nurse them back to health. (Trip Advisor: Surgery on animals that can bite or scratch you while inducing anesthesia is more risky than working in an ER). We were able to observe as a sea bird received induction of anesthesia for surgery. (Trip Advisor: veterinary assistants would make great ER nurses, as cleaning up bird squirt is just like cleaning up the drunk guy!)
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Spoiled Roo!
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We finished out our trip with a stop in Yamba on the northeast coast of New South Wales. Booking the trip as we traveled added to the adventure as one accommodation was overbooked and subsequently we ended up in the Angourie Rainforest Resort in Yamba. A beautiful place, if it was not raining most of the time we were visiting (Trip Advisor: What part of RAIN forest did you not understand?). Yamba is a quaint little town with some great surf beaches that have yet to be built up like the coast along Surfers Paradise. Have put Yamba on the list of places to go back to visit someday.
We completed our travel back to Sydney and returned to New Zealand to our transient/permanent home. Like any good trip, it was fun while we were there, but also, good to be back home. First night back in a familiar place and the kids thought dad looked something like this:
Belated Happy New Year to you!
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