More from Down Under

(This is another in a series about our three-week holiday

 to San Diego, Hawaii and Australia)

            On one of the days that we were in Australia, we went on a day tour of the Blue Mountains.  Sandy gave us a ride into Sydney where we were picked up at Circular Quay by the tour van.  There were 14 of us on the tour – 12 Americans and a couple from Canada.  It’s about an hour and a half drive out to the mountains and on arriving we began with a breakfast of coffee and scones in Leura overlooking Wentworth Falls.  We were fortunate to see a pair of lyrebirds feeding next to our veranda seating. This species is a ground bird with magnificent tail plumage and is renowned for mimicking sounds of all kinds.  (Check out lyrebirds on YouTube for some fantastic audio of their mimics.)

            We then drove on to the city of Katoomba and out to Echo Point where we saw the “Three Sisters” rock formation, the most famous in the Blue Mountains.  We took the Skyway tramcar across the valley and saw “Shining Falls” on the way to the main building of Scenic World.  We then took the cable car down to the floor of the valley, where we did a very interesting nature walk around the rain forest floor.  The walk ended at the site of an old iron mine, where some of the abandoned mining equipment was displayed.  We hopped on the vertical railroad which shot us right back up the face of the cliff.  On the drive out from the rim of the valley we were fortunate to see two kookaburras perched in a tree.  This bird species is a tree Kingfisher that has a distinctive haunting laugh for a call.

            On the way back to Sydney, we stopped at the Featherdale Wildlife Park.  The park has many of Australia’s animal and bird species on display.  The highlight of our trip was getting a picture taken with a koala bear (they have the softest fur).  After leaving the park, we ran into a massive traffic jam on the freeway that made us miss our ferry ride back to Sydney Harbor.  Our tour guide switched to “Plan B” which enabled us to tour the Sydney Olympic Park, where the 2000 Summer Olympic games were held. Much of the area is still being used for outdoor recreation and for hosting events of all kinds (there was a huge Country & Western Music show scheduled for the Olympic Arena later that evening).

            Now over an hour late for our return, the tour van stopped at Canada Bay, a small finger of water off the western end of Sidney Harbor.  There we caught a ride on a little ferryboat that in twenty minutes had us back at Darling Harbor in downtown Sydney.  We hiked up the hill on busy city streets to Sandy’s office building and took an elevator up to the 17^th floor where her offices are located.  In ten minutes, she was ready to go.  Once back down on the street, Sandy made a phone call and we were swooped up by David and Izzy coming by from his law office.  Twenty minutes later we were back at the house in Kingsford, quite amazed at how the connections for our return had all turned out.

            On the last weekend of our stay in Australia, we went to Lake Macquarie to enjoy some time away from the city.  Everyone hustled around on a late Friday afternoon to get both cars packed for the weekend.  We threw the kayak on the top of the big car and set out – Izzy and I riding with David in one car while Sandy drove Carolyn, Rory and Jamie in the other.  It was nearly a three-hour drive out of Sydney, heading northeast to our destination located on Warners Bay, just past Newcastle.  We found our rental lakeshore house on Paroo Avenue with no trouble.  We stayed in a lovely two-story lake villa with a boathouse below on the ground level.  The villa had curving outdoor verandas that faced the lake on both of the top two floors.

            After getting everything unpacked from the cars, David fired up the electric “Barbie” on the 1st-floor veranda and grilled us pork cutlets for supper that we had with a great salad and some local wine.  Sunset over the western end of the lake was spectacular that evening.

            The next morning, David and I went to town to buy some frozen mullet and shrimp that we used for bait for fishing.  We rigged up three poles for the kids and Izzy was soon hauling in little shiners as fast as she cast out.  The boys and Carolyn went swimming some and then Carolyn and I took the kayak out for a spin up and down the shore, looking at all of the lake houses and boats in the bay.  After lunch on the veranda, Sandy and David went for a longer kayak paddle, checking out several other bays along the western shore of the lake.  Towards evening we all drove into “The Esplanade”, a little business district of shops, stores and restaurants in Warners Bay.  David and the boys went on a scooter trip along the walkway next to the lake.  Later we all met at the Brown Dog Café for supper.  The “ ’69 Summer Ale” went well with my monstrous Ozzieburger and fries.

            We drove around to the north side of the bay to a wonderful children’s park built and maintained by the local Lions Club. The park had zip lines, multiple slides and chutes, water machines, bicycle paths and lots of fun things for kids to enjoy – and it was all free!  We stayed until sundown before heading home to our villa on the lake.

            Our last day at Lake Macquarie (Sunday) was very windy so it was nearly impossible to fish.  We found a single kayak in the boathouse. Carolyn paddled it and followed David and Izzy in the other kayak over to a nice little bay out of the wind where they could swim.  Sandy drove the boys over to another park to look for pelicans, but had no luck.  After lunch, everyone enjoyed swimming, kayaking and splashing around in the lake for a last time.  It took awhile to get the cars all packed up for the return home and then we started back.  On the way, we stopped a couple of times to look at houses for sale on the lake as David and Sandy are interested in purchasing one for a vacation home.  When we got back to the house in Kingsford, Sandy’s mother, Julie, had a delicious supper waiting for us.

            Our last day in Australia was a tad bit hectic.  After dropping Izzy and Jamie off at their school (their month-long summer vacation from school had ended the day after Australia Day) Sandy drove us in to Sydney.  Because Sandy had a busy day of work ahead of her and did not know if she would get home before we left, she treated us to breakfast at a sidewalk café not too far from her office building.  After our tearful hugs and kisses with her, she was off to work (as it turned out, Sandy did not get back to the house until after midnight that evening). 

            We went over to Sydney’s Botanical Gardens and walked the many winding paths looking at all of the different tropical trees and shrubs.  The banyan and fig trees with their massive above ground root systems were particularly impressive.  We walked all the way around the gardens to Mrs. Macquarie’s Chair, which is a rock formation on the end of a point sticking out into the harbor.  It has great views of the backside of the Opera House and Fort Denison.  On the way back, we stopped at the tea garden for a little lunch and fed the ibis some of our carrot cake.  We walked to Hyde Park and enjoyed one last bus ride back out to Kingsford.  Back at the house, we packed up our suitcases and played with the children.  Julie made us a delicious supper. When David came home from work that evening, he called for a taxi to take us to the airport.  After hugs with everyone but the boys, who were much too busy running in the yard for that sentimental stuff, we rode over to the airport.

            Check in for our Qantas flight was smooth and we taxied out on our Airbus 330 for a 10:30 pm takeoff.  We waited as other planes landed and took off.  Then we taxied to another waiting area and waited some more.  After an hour and a half of waiting we went back to the terminal to disembark as out flight had been postponed because of mechanical problems.  The airline provided taxi fare for a ride over to a nearby hotel, where we plopped into our beds at 1:30 am, tired and flustered.  It was a very short night as we checked out of the hotel before seven the next morning.  Our flight was again delayed, as there were no open gates at the terminal.  Finally we left shortly before eleven that next morning for the ten and a half hour flight back to Hawaii.  Because of the flight delay, we were going to loose an entire day of fun in Honolulu.

AUSTRALIA ADVENTURES!

THIS IS ANOTHER IN A SERIES ON OUR 

 THREE-WEEK HOLIDAY TO SAN DIEGO, HAWAII AND AUSTRALIA.

            We were up at 4 a.m. to finish packing and check out of our resort hotel on Maui’s beautiful Ka’anapali Bay.  The drive back to Kahului was smooth – little traffic that time of the morning.  I only was lost once trying to find the right road to Maui’s main airport.  We checked the rental car back in at Alamo and caught a shuttle over to the airport.

            The people at the Hawaii Air service desk said that our bags would be checked through for our connecting flight to Australia.  We had $4.50 cups of Starbucks coffee (I may never get used to the high prices of everything in Hawaii!) while waiting for our B-117 to board.  It was a little hop of twenty minutes over to the main island of Oahu, landing at the local and commuter flights terminal of the Honolulu Airport.  This is where all the flights from the different islands in the Hawaiian chain land and depart and it is a busy place.  We took a shuttle bus over to the main terminal and out to the international wing to board our Qantas flight to Sydney.

            Flying first class on Qantas is highly recommended!  There is great food and drink with impeccable service. But the best part of Qantas 1^st-class is very comfortable and roomy seats that actually can recline into beds if you want to sleep.  I don’t sleep on planes much, so I read a book, did some puzzles, watched some TV and a movie – all designed to take up time on the 10-hour flight to Australia.

            The flight from Hawaii to Australia also takes you across the International Dateline.  So, we left Honolulu in the late morning of Saturday, January 23, flew southerly across the Pacific Ocean for ten hours and arrived in Sydney in the early evening of Sunday, January 24^th.  You loose an entire day on the calendar while on the flight, but don’t worry we will have it returned on the flight back.

            Checking through customs at the Sydney Airport is a breeze as we had our entry visa to the country arranged before we left on the trip.  As we rolled our luggage outside of the main terminal building, we were greeted by a warm summer evening. Remember that we also had crossed the equator on our flight and have plunged deep into the Southern Hemisphere where it is now mid-summer.  Sandy and her children Isobel (Izzy) and Jamie were waiting for us and drove us back to their house in Kingsford, an eastern suburb of Sydney.

            Some of the readers of this column will remember that Sandy Mak was an exchange student from Malaysia who lived with us during the 1990-91 school year.  She became like a daughter to us and we have kept in close contact ever since.  When she married David McManus in Scotland in 2005, we were at the wedding.  Most recently, we visited Sandy and her family in Sydney in 2010.

            Sandy was going to college at the University of South Wales (UNSW) when we first visited her in Australia in 1997.  She was living with her younger sister Wendy at the time.  Wendy was finishing up her high school education then, while Sandy’s twin sister, Cindy was attending medical school not far away in Sydney.  All three sisters still call the Sydney area home as does their mother, Julie.

            When we arrived at the house in Kingsford, David, Wendy and her husband Phil greeted us.  We met for the first time little Rory, Sandy and David’s youngest child, who would turn three in a few days.  We sat outside on the garden patio in the cool evening and caught up with everyone before crashing for a fitful night’s sleep.

            The next day, Sandy drove the kids and us into downtown Sydney, which is a half-hour’s drive from their house.  Sandy is a partner in one of the top law firms in Sydney and had a little office work to catch up with.  She took the kids with her to the law offices while we walked down to Sydney Harbor’s Circular Quay to look around.  We walked over to the Sydney Opera House to see what was happening and stopped at a dockside café for cups of “Tall Blacks” (Aussie coffee is amazingly delicious!) and afriand (a Belgian pastry that was quite good).  Circular Quay (pronounced “Key”) is an amazing place as all of the ferryboats, water taxis, and tour boats are constantly moving in and out of the six separate loading docks.  Circular Quay also serves as a station for the elevated trains and buses that serve the city.  We met Sandy and the children at the Sydney Museum, where we had some lunch and toured the exhibits.  Carolyn helped Sandy, Izzy, Jamie and Rory building things in the Lego Exhibit on the second floor.

            Back at the house, David prepared a supper of fresh prawns (huge Australian shrimp), scallops and calamari that we enjoyed out in the garden patio on the warm evening.  Carolyn gave the children presents from Hawaii and was soon reading to them from a Harry Potter book.  The children even warmed up to the old man from Wisconsin when the boys learned that we were all Minions fans (King Bob!). 

            The next day, January 26^th, was Australia Day, which is like America’s 4^th of July.  Everybody Down Under takes the holiday to celebrate the origins of Australia as an independent country.  Sandy drove Rory, James and us into Sydney for the festivities that were centered on Circular Quay.  She had booked passage on a tour boat to go out in the harbor and follow the Ferryboat Race. The race is an annual event on the holiday and attracts hundreds of boats to the harbor to follow along.  It was an amazing site!  The four racing ferryboats lined up near the Harbor Bridge, a cannon was fired from the nearby Rocks, and all of the boats in the race were off! 

Well almost all, as one of the ferryboats immediately broke down, so the other three were off.  All of the hundreds of other boats followed along with the racers, out past the Opera House, beyond Madam Macquarie’s Chair and past Fort Dennison Island. After racing towards the Pacific Ocean entrance to the harbor, the ferryboats, now rejoined by the one that had broken down, pivoted in the water and started on the homeward leg of the race back to Circular Quay. 

As the entire flotilla was approaching the busy docks, a noontime 21-gun salute of cannon were fired from up on the hill. As a military band played the Australian National Anthem, a convoy of jets flew overhead in formation, trailing streams of vapor behind.  A group of helicopters appeared and flew under the Harbor Bridge as Aborigines pounded on their dance drums on one side of the harbor.  What a sight to see!  Happy Australia Day!

Later that afternoon back at the house, preparations were under way for a birthday party for Rory, who would turn three on the following day.  David fired up the “Barbie” and grilled chicken, sausages, steaks and lamb chops.  Sandy’s Mom helped prepare food for the guests that included Cindy and her two small boys, Wendy & Phil, cousin Anna and her small boy and three other couples with small children.  There were ten children in all racing around the house and garden during the party.  Everyone brought a favorite salad or dessert that the adults enjoyed with fine Australian wines and craft beers.  It was a wonderful end to Australia Day!