Reviewing our Australian Adventure

If you are new to this site and wish to review my Australia posts, it's best to do that oldest-to-newest. To accomplish this,  either click the link or scroll down the page and look for "Waiting for the Plane" under June posts, then click the "Newer Post" link at the bottom of each page until you are current. There's about 1 post/day (sometimes 2) so you'll have just over 30 posts to read to review our wonderful trip.

Happy reading!

More Australia Pictures

In case you had not noticed, I changed the slideshow to display the underwater pictures I took on my Great Barrier Reef snorkel adventure.  They are also available as a full screen slideshow by following the link on the right and making a few extra clicks.  The original slideshow pictures remain available as well.

Today I have published a composite video of various Australian animals I took while on vacation.  You can access it by clicking here.  It's not very professional, but I love to see the kangaroos hopping and koalas feeding so I thought I'd share those (and others) with you.

I hope you enjoy watching it!

Back Home

Well, we're back in Dearborn.  The NWA flight was pretty good today.  Ran right on time and no issues.  Andy picked us up at the airport and we got home by 9:30 p.m.  I got unpacked while Mary called her mother and have my stuff pretty much put away.  

I do have quite a few things to do tomorrow and I really should make a list of them before I go to sleep tonight. It's not as long as Mary's list, but some of the tasks will take some time to do - like get caught up as Emmanuel treasurer.  Near the top is to get the pictures from the underwater camera developed so I can post more Great Barrier Reef pictures.  

Other than that there's not much new to report.  Just a safe trip home and a strong recommendation for anyone who needs to stay near the San Francisco airport to consider the Comfort Inn - Milbrae.  It's a very nice place on El Camino Way and has a bus stop right in front that can take you to a BART station for easy access to downtown.  It has very nice facilities, includes free airport shuttle, internet, breakfast, pool whirlpool and very spacious rooms at a good rate.  If Mary and I visit San Francisco again we will most likely stay there and use BART to go downtown.  

Time to hit the sack as we attempt to get back on Michgan time...

The Loooooong Flight Home

Well, after a 1 day delay, we did make it back to San Francisco today.  But the flight left lots to be desired. We were on a totally packed 747 - not a spare seat to be had - and when they made seat assignments for this replacement flight they did not keep couples together so initially Mary and I were in different rows.  After some elevator capacity issues at the hotel which caused delays at getting checked out and out to the bus, very long lines at Qantas check-in (normal flights plus our make-up 747 plus another make-up 747 headed to London), the seat assignment issue about put us over the edge.  They sent a note to the gate staff to move us around which eventually happened, but not without considerable stress in the interim. 

We were in seats B and C (middle and aisle) so no wall to lean against to sleep and no open seat like we had on our outbound flight.  The seats seemed closer together on this plane as well - I don't recall having an issue with my knees hitting the seat in front of me when flying to Australia.  Then once they served dinner and hot chocolate and people were supposed to quiet down, the plane remained very noisy.  People talking out loud, babies and small children crying every few minutes, and lots of general commotion removed any possibility of sleeping until about 8 hours into the 14 hour flight. So it was not nearly as pleasant as our outbound flight.  I think things might have been better had we not had the 1 day delay since we suspect Qantas added more passengers to our flight since they delayed the normal flight 73 by a hour to make room at the gate for our flight.  Mary's reaction:  "next time Business class".

I think I slept a bit on the flight but it was not high quality sleep; I don't think Mary slept at all.  So we're a bit groggy today.  I took a 1 hour nap once we got checked in here in San Francisco and we're planning to stay up for a few hours then to get to sleep by 8:00 this evening to help with the time zone transition. 

Tomorrow is "back to Detroit" day (NWA flight 342) with Wednesday being a get caught up at home day before heading back to work on July 3rd.  So our long Australia vacation is drawing to a close.  I watched the Australia coast disappear from view this morning with many regrets about leaving, yet I knew it was time to go.

Still in Sydney!

Well, we thought we were at our last day in Sydney, but then things happened.

As we went to the airport I joked to Mary that we should volunteer to be bumped since we have an extra day in San Francisco.  As we neared our boarding time an announcement of a 15 minute delay due to equipment issues was made.  15 minutes later, it became an indeterminate delay. The next announcement was the kicker:  "We're sorry to announce that we have to open up the plane to effect repairs and no alternate aircraft is available.  Your flight has been delayed to 12:30 p.m. tomorrow.  We will bus you to a hotel, provide supper and breakfast before busing you back to the airport.  We apologize for any inconvenience".

I cannot begin to imagine what Qantas had to do to find a hotel with 200+ available rooms and the logistics to move a fairly full 747 load of people to a hotel overnight.

So, we are now staying in Novotel Sydney, right on Darling Harbor!  Talk about a step up from the places I booked!  

So now I just need to call our place in San Francisco to cancel Sunday night since we obviously won't be needing that room.

Our last day in Sydney

Well, the Australia portion of our vacation is at an end. We had some last minute souvenir shopping to do today in Darling Harbor so we got that out of the way in the morning, then got dressed up for the Bjorn Again (ABBA Tribute band) concert at the Opera House.  The concert was good - very energetic - and we enjoyed it a lot, especially attending an event in the Opera House.

After that we took a ferry under the Sydney bridge to the north end of Darling Harbor, found a nice place for supper, then took a bus back to our hotel - and started packing. 

Earlier this week we feared we'd have to ship a package home, but it now looks like everything will fit into our 3 suitcases and we have a spare carry on bag we can use if need be.

So tomorrow is our loooooooong day (36 hours from when we get up until we see a sunset in San Francisco) so that will be a challenge.  Hopefully we can catch a few hours sleep on the plane like we did on the way to Australia.

The Blue Mountains

Today we took the bus to Central Station, then caught a train to Katoomba where we got passes on an excursion bus to see various places in the Blue Mountains.  The trails involve lots of up and down hiking and most of the once marked "easy" should be "moderate" in my book.  We didn't have any trouble with them but they involved lots of steps, rough terrain, and some very large steps.

We did walk a few trails and took a miners train ride down a 52 degree slope (felt more line 70 degrees!) and a tram back up from the bottom of the valley.  Even tho we were prepared for colder weather, we were both rather chilled as the high for the day was just 50 F.  Guess we're getting a bit spoiled.  LOL

Anyhow, we enjoyed seeing them a lot and had a nice day.

Australian Currency

This the first vacation where we've had to deal with foreign currency.  Previously on cruises, everyone took US $ so we did not have to exchange money.  Australia has very colorful currency and some unusual coinage which took some getting used to.

The coins are arranged highest to least value as you go down the picture.

• no pennies
• smallest bill is a $5
• the bills are different sizes
• no quarters: 5, 10, 20, 50 cent pieces in ascending size
• the $2 coin is smaller that the $1 coin

It just seems so weird to get any change under $5 as coins.  Mary and I keep building up lots of value in coins since the $2 coins are so small and you get lots of them.

Anyhow I thought you might enjoy seeing what the currency looks like.

I do want commend my Charles Schwab representative - he was very helpful in suggesting I open a Schwab Bank account since they have very favorable exchange fees.  I just used the debit card as a credit card for all our expenses and I could do ATM withdrawals to obtain Australian currency.  At one airport purchase they wanted to do the exchange for us, but by having them charge me in Australian$ we saved $5 on a $110 purchase. 

Thinking about home

As I woke up this morning I realized that we only have two more full days in Australia.  As they say, "all good things must come to an end"...  It's be a fabulous vacation so far and we have the Blue Mountains today and a "misc stuff "day tomorrow with the ABBA concert in the afternoon as a highlight.

So we'll be home in a few days, after spending 2 days in San Francisco to help with the time change adjustment (and because that's when I could get the free flight on NWA...) then back to the daily grind.  In some ways that will be nice, but in others....

Visiting the Opera House

This morning Mary and I toured the Sydney Opera House.  It was a very enjoyable and informative tour.  They included several videos about how the design was selected, construction issues, and current issues.  The story was quite amazing as were many of the construction details.

We did see the theater where John Denver performed (which made someone very happy), but were unable to take pictures of it since a band was rehearsing. 

On our way out Mary spotted a poster about an ABBA Concert called Bjorn Again.  She was disappointed that we could not see them in Detroit since they were appearing in June while we were in Australia.  I looked and saw they were performing on June 28th, this coming Saturday.  Since that was a somewhat open day, we bought tickets for the afternoon matinee so now we will actually attend a performance in the Opera House!  Very cool!

Bridge Climb!

Today was my bridge climb.  It was very cool and I'm glad I took the Discovery Tour instead of the traditional one.  The traditional tour walks up the top steel on one side of the bridge and back on the other side.  That's like walking up an 8' wide sidewalk.  The Discover Tour, on the other hand, has you walking on the lower catwalks below the span and you walk next to the steel and granite, close enough to touch it.  Near the top you climb ladders from the lower steel to the top as you can see in this picture. 

The climb was quite exhilarating.  While they took individual pictures, there was lots of time to just lean back against the rail and take in the view.  I'm glad the winds dies down a bit.  In morning when Mary and I were headed to the Opera House, they were around 80 km/hr (50 mph) but by the afternoon they were half that speed. 

The guide took lots of nice pictures, but their pricing was exorbitant so I just bought one of me and got a free group picture. 

So it was a wonderful thing to do once, but not something I'm likely to do again. 

A Day at the Zoo

We spent today at the Toranga Zoo, with Robert and Pat Evans, their grandson, Nathan, and Nathan's parents.  That's Pat with Mary in today's photo with the Opera House and bridge in the background.

It was very interesting spending a day at a zoo with a 3 year old.  Definitely tugs on the "grandparent strings", although someone's were tugged a bit harder than mine.  8-)

Tomorrow we tour the Opera House in the morning and my bridge walk is in the afternoon.  I got this picture of some people at the top of the bridge today.  I sure am looking forward to it!

Note: Picture link has been fixed.

Seeing the Beaches

We got a bit of a late start today after deciding to head to Manly for our first outing in Sydney.  First item of business was to get our 7 day travel passes, then we hopped on a bus and headed to Circular Quay where we caught the ferry to Manly.  This ferry ride came highly recommended since it takes you across most of Sydney harbor and you get great views of the Sydney Opera House and Sydney bridge. 

Manly Beach was beautiful! That's it in the picture.  We enjoyed watching the surfers tackle the large waves. We had lunch there, then took the ferry back to Sydney - and promptly changed our plans to check out Bondi beach since is was such a nice day. Bondi had large waves - a lots of surfers.  After Bondi, we walked along the coast to Tamarama beach, then caught the bus back to Sydney where we visited the Sydney Tower for a top-down view of the city.  

Check out the 5 new pictures in my Australia Picture page (Picassa) album.

So after a long day we're back at our hotel and about ready to head out for some supper. It's been a great day in Sydney!

Back to Sydney

Well, Mary and I are all checked into the the Sullivan's Hotel.  It's not a classy place, but very functional and conveniently located in Sydney.  I do admit that our motels during this trip have been a class (or two) below where Mary and I typically stay, but since we're in motels in Australia for 13 days, I went for "reasonable economy", even so they've run well over $100/day.  You could easily spend $200/day for motels to get "3 star" places and I was not inclined to spend that much.  So we ended up in Cairns having a 2 mile walk into town.  But on the positive front, we sure are getting our exercise!  LOL

We are both very impressed with Qantas!  For example on today's flight which left Cairns at 1:10 and arrived at Sydney at 4:10, we got a lunch!  I had a nice lunch (which came with a bottle of water) but a small can of soda and a cup of tea as well!  We were then surprised when they came around with ice cream bars!  The service is top notch, as well, with luggage arriving very promptly and extremely courteous staff.  I can't recall the last time I had a meal on a US airline - even on a 7 hour flight to Anchorage in 2005;  yet here we get one that didn't even cross a mealtime.  I sure wish they flew in the US...

We've been blessed with excellent weather while in Australia.  Our first 5 days in Newcastle had great weather with the only rainy day being last Sunday, our travel day to Brisbane.  During the 7 days we were in Brisbane and Cairns, we had nothing but sunshine (and lots of wind!) but during those days, the Sydney/Newcastle area had several rainy days.  But now that we're back in Sydney, the 10 day forecast shows nothing but sunshine!  This could have not worked out better if we planned it.

We're going to spend tomorrow getting used to the Sydney transportation system.  We have two bus lines that pick up right in front of our hotel that will take us most places we want to go.  Tomorrow we're going to buy a 7 day bus/ferry/rail pass for the whopping price of $43/person so we don't have to worry about paying fares each day, then take the Manly ferry under the Sydney Bridge to Manly Beach to visit Oceanworld.  

Wednesday is the Taronga Zoo, Thursday, Sydney Tower and the Bridge Climb.  On Friday or Saturday we'll probably take a 1 day Blue Mountain tour. 

So those are our preliminary plans.  Stay tuned for details as we explore Sydney.

Heading out from Cairns

I'm uploading some more pictures today. They'll be in the Slideshow on my blog page as well as my picass album (link on blog page). Unfotunately, I forgot to put some of Mary's Great Barrier Reef pictures on my USB drive so those will have to wait to be uploaded
We had a quiet day today. Went to Trinity Lutheran this morning. It was nice to attend a solid liturgical Lutheran service. The liturgy was close to our Matins, except it had the Apostles Creed in it. The pastor had a solid sermon around the topic of Baptism.
This afternoon we sat by the pool, relaxed, did laundry, and not much else. It's nice to have a quiet day in the middle of a trip.
Tomorrow we fly to Sydney. We have a few plans, but I plan to layout a tentative schedule tomorrow once I assess the weather.

Past the halfway mark!

Yesterday Mary and I realized we had reached the halfway mark of our vacation. I came up with 3 ways to determine when we reached that milestone, but the easiest is to take half the time between when we flew out of Detroit and when we return. That would point to the evening of June 19th, which would be late morning on June 20th here in Australia after you add 14 hours.
We've never been on vacation for 14 days and we're nearly at that milestone and still have over 10 days to go! So this will easily be out longest vacation.
We both hope all is well back in Michigan. We haven't heard much news besides what's on Katie's blog. I have heard about the major power outages and hope our house was unaffected.
That's about it for now. Time to check on a few more things and then sign off and head back to the hotel.

Kuranda - Train and Skyrail

Today we had a low key excursion to Kuranda. We took the train to the village, had 4 hours there, then took the Skyrail back. The train ride was very nice - 15 tunnels, lots of scenery and a great ride. At one stop we could get out for 10 minutes at a scenic overlook and across the river was the Skyrail. The sight of how high it was got someone very nervous to the point of thinking she might not want to do that.
The village was nice, but an obvious tourist town. Mary found that the farther you walked into town the lower the prices. She bought quite a few souvenirs; I bought a new leather belt for myself. We took a scenic walk back to the main station and, near our appointed time, boarded the Skyrail. The views were great! After the first station I switched seats with Mary so my left knee would not be bruised too badly as she gripped it. But during later segments, she relaxed a bit and enjoyed the trip, altho with the high winds, I every time I moved I was told to sit still to keep the gondola from rocking.
So all in all a pleasant, quiet day with cool sightseeing.
Tomorrow we have no excursions planned. We're planning to attend Trinity Lutheran here in Cairns, about 2 km from our hotel. For being the in the "Bible belt" of Australia there sure are not many churches! Their only service is at 8:00 so it will be an early morning.

Great Barrier Reef

Well, still no new pictures, but at least you get text!
Today we took a boat out to Michaelmas Key and it was fabulous! Everything I imagined snorkeling on a coral reef would be - and more!
Our tour package included a ride in a semi-submersible as well as snorkeling, and other amenities. We did the semi-submersible ride first and the guide did a good job of pointing out the different corals as we saw them. We got some good pictures as well and saw a turtle from the boat. That was nice, but the best was yet to come.
After a great lunch we headed to the beat and I donned my snorkel gear. I bought an underwater camera but it's not digital so I need to get the pictures developed. But the pictures cannot come close to capturing the experience of drifting silently, but inches above a living coral reef. The coral was amazing - very colorful, with different types mixed together and lots of fish, both large and small. At one point I was a couple of feet from a parrot fish that was feeding on the coral. If I held my breath for a bit I could actually hear the crunch as it bit off a small amount of coral. Fascinating!
I also saw lots of giant clams, including several that were 3-4' in size! It was fascinating to watch them, with all the little fish hanging around them. Other clams were buried into coral. I asked the naturalist and he said that type doesn't grow a shell so it buried itself inside a coral shell as protection.
The varieties of coral were endless. Large, small, soft, hard, green, blue, purple, brown, and many other colors. I no longer will even consider a snorkeling excursion in the Carribean sicne it could never compare to this experience.
So much I could write about, but so hard to relate it. This is a fascinating experience and I encourage anyone who comes to this area to give it a try. I hired (e.g. rented) a wet suit and I encourage you to do that as well. It helps you float and stay in the water longer without getting cold since water absorbs heat from you body much faster than air.
But I've rambled on enough for now. Pictures once I get home since I have to get them developed an them scanned in.

No Postie Run 8-(

We're back at the internet cafe after a long day. We had a nice day in spite of the fact that nothing worked out as planned.
We took a cab to the Areo-Tropics place and arrived in plenty of time. It soon became clear that something was amiss. It turns out that Tours-to-go never forwarded out data to them! They was some kind of a computer crash a while back and misc other details. The manager was very apologetic, saying that he had two people there who he had to bump from the previous day plus some very important cargo and adding Mary and I would be too much. The one thing we had firmly scheduled was not going to happen. We asked about flying on Friday but there was no room. They did drive us back to our hotel.
As we drove I was thinking about options. One thing I wanted to do but did not fit into our schedule was a boat ride on the Daintree river through the rain forest. So we headed into town and found a tour booking agent. It was too late to catch the river cruise I wanted, but another that included another stop was available so we grabbed it.
We caught the bus to Port Douglas, then had about 90 minutes to look around the town before our tour started. It was a nice town and we enjoyed that, including lunch at Macko's Pies. The bus driver was pretty interesting and had some cute material ("snapping handbags" = crocodile) and was very knowledgeable about the area. The river tour was less than I expected - a 1 hour boat ride where we saw 4 crocodiles. On our crocodile tour in Costa Rica we save 2 dozen on more on the same or less amount of river. But it was very relaxing and somewhat interesting. We then headed to a canyon (who's name I forget) and walked some trails. That was very nice since it was walking in a rain forest alongside a rushing river.
But we still had a bus ride back to Port Douglas and another hour long ride back to Cairns. We got to our hotel about 6:30.
So it was an interesting day and we saw some cool stuff. But we did not get to do our Postie Run. I guess we'll have to catch than next time we come Down Under.

Fewer Posts until Monday

We flew to Cairns today and got to our hotel. Once I checked in I scanned for internet service and did not find any. I asked at the desk since the hotel web site said they offered it and they do - one terminal in the lobby at $2/20 minutes.
So we'll be having a great time here - I just won't be able to post about it very much. And uploading pictures will be a bit of a challenge. I'll get something worked out, but I'm just so used to using my own computer instead of a computer at an internet cafe like I'm at now.

• Tomorrow we do the Postie Run (airplane mail delivery to ranches in the outback)
• Friday we signed up for a nice Great Barrier Reef tour which has a semi-submersible and walk-in snorkling
• Saturday we take a train through the Daintree Rain Forest to Kuranda then take the Skyrail back to bus that takes up back to town.
  

So that's our plans. While some people may kid us about being too internet attached, we'll do just fine. My disappointment is in not being as able to share our adventure with you as it happens. But I'm thinking we'll work something out.