Brisbane- Day 2

April 29. 2011

Today, after brekky at the hotel, we headed out to stroll through the city- going by the Queen Street mall and city sculptures to the Brisbane Museum. Saw animal exhibits and a series of Aboriginal exhibits- many kids all around...Nice museum!

Ate lunch at a cafe on the way back to our hotel and took a scenic mountain/rainforest drive through D'Aguilar National Park. Stopped at Walkabout Creek, the park rangers headquarters, checking out their small collection of kangaroos, wallabies, birds and reptiles and watched them feed their duck billed platypus. We then continued through Brisbane Forest Park which is 28,000 hectares of natural bushland.

Checked out beautiful panoramic views over Samford Valley out to Moreton Bay and its islands...

Next we visited Bellbird Grove and listened to the beautiful bellbirds sing (yes, they sound like bells- awesome) and had a short walk around. Then off to Maiala Rainforest which is 680 meters above sea level. We hiked through the rainforest under old trees, strangler figs, ferns and saw a few local birds.

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 I managed to bring a critter back to the tour van - a leech- ewwww. Anyway, it was a nice walk even though we did get rained on a bit- it's a rainforest after all...A nice cup of coffee with our host and we were back in the city in time for dinner at Little Singapore in the Queen Street mall area- yum! Off to bed- big day tomorrow!!

Brisbane- Day 1

April 28, 2011

First full day in Brisbane! We are in the middle of the big city instead of being in the quiet tourist section as we were in Sydney. We arranged a tour right off when we arrived yesterday, something I had been looking forward to for a long time- Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary. I was finally going to get to hug a koala. I know, I know, their claws are sharp and they generally aren't as cuddly as they appear, still...something so very appealing about an animal that cute that eats for 4 hours a day and sleeps for 20 hours...seriously...

So in this tour, a river cruise was included. It was interesting in light of the horrible flooding that happened here after X-mas this year. We have not seen any flood damage so far in the city, but along the river itself, there are remnants. While cruising along, we saw a restaurant on the water that was basically a shell now and most of the homes along the river in the suburbs showed some kind of damage whether it was eroded beach/riverfronts or damaged or missing docks. Construction is still ongoing here definitely...

The city itself is pretty impressive though...quite a few different bridges crossing the river as well...

The day started out rainy and dreary as a couple here have been in the morning. The river cruise was a bit wet and chilly...once we arrived at the sanctuary however, the sun came out and it turned into a beautiful day. It was a perfect day for hanging with the kangaroos...

and lizards...

and of course, the koalas...

I think Randall (the koala) was a bit intimidated by Mike.... :D

It was fun to hold this little guy even though he managed to poo while I held him (which Mike thought was hilarious).

Yep, more koalas, at least 200 in the sanctuary.

We traversed through the small sanctuary taking in all of the sights and enjoying the warmth and sun.





"Hey  baby, how you doin'?" hahaha...these guys are so funny!

Mike's new friend, Mr. Emu...

So yeah, it was an awesome 2 1/2 hours at Lone Pine- we headed back to the boat that took us back to the city. The cruise back was pretty mellow and we headed back to our hotel from the boat, walking by an awesome opal shop (how did that happen? ;) ) and a good coffee shop. I am becoming very fond of long blacks with one sugar...

After catching up on my blogging, we headed to the bar for a cocktail and on to an awesome Japanese restaurant- Oshin. Lesson for the evening: everything tastes good when covered/fried with tempura batter...

A bit of a sleep in tomorrow and more city exploring and another tour planned. :) G'day mates!







Travel Day- Hervey Bay to Brisbane

It was a crappy, rainy day to start out with, pretty much matching my mood leaving Hervey Bay. We drove to the bus station, dropped off our rental car, and boarded the bus that would take us to the train station in Maryborough. We got to the train station and got our oversized luggage onto the train (well, Mike did). It was quite an ordeal in the chilly rainy weather. Once on the train, we enjoyed seeing the countryside on our 3+ hour journey...

Once in Brisbane, we lugged our stuff around the city to get to our hotel (it was further from the train station than I thought). Once at the Novotel, we got settled, enjoyed a yummy vanilla vodka drink and planned our dinner. We had a nice evening walk through the city and ended up at Govindas, a Hare Krishna run Indian buffet- cheap, but really good food, which is exactly what we needed. After dinner we walked to the hotel and crashed...looking forward to hugging koalas the next morning...

Hervey Bay- Day 3

April 26, 2011

Our last full day at HB, we both wish we had booked more time here. I took another lone trip to Urangan Pier- what an awesome day- a lovely stroll along the pier and gorgeous scenery.

When I came back from my pier walk (again with breakfast), Mike had rented a car and we were off to drive up the Esplanade- the strip which runs the length of Hervey Bay. We didn't think we would need a car here at first, but HB is very spread out and we were both tired of walking. We drove to the end of the bay (Pt. Vernon) and pulled over at a bunch of the lookout sites and walked on the beach and took in the views. Driving on the left was interesting for us both... We also stopped at a little shop with "alternative style" clothing- I bought a t-shirt and we asked for a referral to a good tattoo shop so I could get a tribal style kangaroo tattoo- but it wasn't meant to be...as usual, I waited until the last minute and there really wasn't time to get a tattoo design drawn up and done on our last afternoon in HB *sigh*.

A view along our Esplanade drive!

We decided to stop for lunch at a restaurant called Tapas in the suburb of Torquay- given a thumbs up by the caretaker of our townhouse units. Awesome food!

We continued down HB, taking in a couple more beaches along the way and headed back to the townhouse to chill before our final dinner in town. We ate at the Pier restaurant and had more great food and a nice bottle of Hunter Valley verdelho, a white wine, which was totally out of character for us...

Anyway, good weather, good food, and our final day in Hervey Bay. We will be back!

Hervey Bay- Day 1- Fraser Island

Our first full day in Hervey Bay was a tour of Fraser Island, right across the bay. Fraser Island is the largest sand island in the world, requiring a 4WD vehicle to tour around it. There are few roads through the island and most of them are very narrow. Thankfully, our tour guide Hayden was a seasoned pro at getting us around in our 20 person 4WD bus. A ferry brought a bunch of tourists and some vehicles across Hervey Bay to Fraser Island. We headed to the interior of the island for about 1/2 hour, slow going and very bumpy.

First stop, Lake Birrabeen, a freshwater lake, for a nice swim and beach time. The path to the lake had been washed out due to excessive rains, so everybody took off their shoes, rolled up their pants and waded through sometimes thigh high water to get to the beach.

From there, we headed to the Eurong Beach Resort, one of the 2 main resorts on the island, for tea/coffee.  Then we proceeded up the eastern coast of the island, driving up the beach the entire way- very cool! The Pinnacles were next on our list- a very cool site, basically over the many gazillion years of existance, this island had different colored sands and you could see the hills layered in different hues.



Next was lunch at a beautiful spot called Rainbow Gorge. We saw a bit of local wildlife...

A kookaburra with his catch, a leggless lizard.

A tawny frogmouth.

Our guide Hayden cooked us lunch on the barbi... ;)

Then more beach driving...

To the Moheno shipwreck...

Eli Creek for a refreshing wade...

And a quick rainforest walk before returning to the ferry to catch our ride home...

No dingos were seen, which was kind of disappointing, but we had a great time and learned alot about the formation of the island and learned some folklore from our guide. It was a very busy and fact filled, fun and tiring day. We saw an awesome sunset on the ferry ride home. We ate at a restaurant closeby, the Deck, and had an okay meal (and beers). Then we crashed...long, but awesome day!



Travel Day (to Hervey Bay)

Spent most of the day flying to our next destination- Hervey Bay/Fraser Island. Looks like a nice vacation town, kinda' like the Maine coast, but with MUCH warmer water. We are staying in a suburb of Hervey Bay called Scarness tonight, moving to another suburb called Urangan tomorrow (long story).

This evening we walked for a while along Scarness Beach, then ate Thai food at a restaurant along the main strip (Esplanade). We will be off to bed earlyish tonight, have an early tour of Fraser Island tomorrow...pics to follow...

Sydney- Day 4- final day...

Today made me kinda' sad. I was getting used to waking up, heading for brekky and getting my latest fix- a view of the Harbour Bridge and Opera House along the way. I am not really a city person, but Sydney has been awesome! I have to believe that things may get even better on this trip or I won't leave here! :) Today was a pancake morning yet again. Then off to the aquarium and wildlife world to see the animals...

  Next it was off on a harbour cruise- with tea/coffee and snacks. It was really nice getting out on the water and the weather was a bit overcast, but nice and warm.

Sydney Tower towards the left.

Yeah, the Opera House again, from the water this time.

After the cruise, I convinced Mike to do one more walk over the Harbour Bridge. The sunset was amazing and the harbour is so beautiful all lit up in the evening. Dinner was Italian where Mike made some Italian conversation with our waitress (who was from Rome).  Sydney has been magical, tomorrow we head up to Queensland to continue our adventure. :)



Sydney- Day 3

Today was another beautiful sunny day.

  We were up at 5:30 am to get ready for a tasting tour in the Hunter Valley wine region, a couple of hours northwest of Sydney. A bit groggy, but ready to go at 7 am, our tour guide, Max, picked us up at the hotel. We chose this particular tour because there were few people and food was included (with the appropriate wine pairings). We hit the road and rode for about an hour or so before stopping at the Australia Reptile Park for morning tea/coffee. We got to pat a baby koala, American alligator, and we fed some kangaroos what appeared to be puffed wheat. That was fun!

Mike's new best friend!

The wombats were super cute too!

Next stop was Wollombi Village- where we sampled Dr. Jurd's Jungle Juice- a yummy winey drink.



Next it was off to Hunter Valley- primarily farm and wine country. It is beautiful!

We sampled cheeses at the "Smelly Cheese Shop", had some gelato, and trekked on toward the wineries. We visited and sampled wines from 3 of the gazillion wineries in the area. They were mostly good- my favorites were the Sangiovese and dessert wines. :)

There were a dozen or so people on the tour. We were all very quiet when we boarded the van in the morning- after our first wine tasting, it was amazing how animated and friendly we all became! ;) We also sampled a paddle of beers at a local brewery. They made an amazing (alcoholic) ginger beer at the Blue Skink Brewery.

Our last stop was the local chocolate shop where we purchased chili chocolate (demolished on the way back to the hotel), chocolate covered coffee beans and white chocolate macadamia bark (drooling yet?)... We all piled into the van to head back to the hotel and it was eerily quiet- I was quiet anyway- fell asleep instantly after all of the wine, beer and food!

All in all we had another wonderful day. To top it off, we headed to the Waterfront Restaurant for a late, light dinner. Perfect weather, perfect day.



Sydney- Day 2 (4/20/11)

4-20 was an oercast day in Sydney, but there was no rain, so we were up early and made the most of it. First stop- pancakes!! (that's a no brainer)...

  Staying in "The Rocks" section of Sydney means that you are near all of the tourist attractions and you can pretty much walk most everywhere, so we did.

  Today we did a bit of shopping, booked a harbour tour for Friday and headed over to the Opera House. How many different views/photos can one take of a bridge and an opera house? Many...as they can both be seen from everywhere we went. So yeah, lots of different and interesting (I hope) views.

  We took the "Essential Tour" of the Opera House and then headed to the Botanical Gardens next to it where I annoyed the cockatoos while they dined on some kind of seeds...

and we watched the large bats, they were everywhere.

  After walking the gardens and thoroughly tiring ourselves out, it was back to the hotel room for a bite to eat and a shower- we purchased tickets for a play at the Opera House earlier in the day- Shakespeare's (modified) "Much Ado About Nothing". I had seen this play before years and years ago and wanted to see this version- that and I thought Mike would like this play much better that the Madame Butterfly Ballet- the only other option. ;)

  The play was awesome and I am headed to bed right now to get some sleep before our next adenture- tune in tomorrow to see...







Sydney- Day 1 (4/19/11)

We arrived in Sydney this morning at 6 am, pretty much the longest travel day ever. Weird to think that in a little over a days time, one can be half way around the world. Anyway, a nap was definitely in our near future, even after having been advised to stay up all day...it just wasn't happening. Our room was great and our bed could not have looked more inviting...

  After our nap, it was time to search for food and had my first experience with vegemite (on toast) here:

  Then off the the Harbour Bay Bridge, which we could see from our hotel window clearly, but found getting to the walkway a bit more complicated...

  We found the walkway and set out on our journey, climbing up the many stairs of one of the pylons for a few awesome views:

People climbing on top of the bridge (fun stuff)!

  After much walking- back and forth across the bridge and around the city, it was time for drinks.

And a sunset...

  And a late dinner at Sailors Thai...Okay, enough adventure for one day...time for a good rest.

G'Day Mates! :P