We were gone for a total of 8 days, but 2 of those days were spent traveling. We also dropped the girls off with Elisabeth and Tayson in Pocatello the day before(2.5 hour drive one-way), and then she brought them back the day we got home.
Day 1(Sunday/Monday...lose a day)-fly to LAX (2 hours), 4.5 hour layover, then fly to Sydney(15 hours).
This is the longest flight I've ever been on! My bum hurt after about 10 hours, It helped to get up and walk around and stretch. Multiple times I walked to the bathroom did some squats in the bathroom, and then walked back. I also had an inflatable seat cushion that I used for the last bit which also helped. Noise cancelling headphones are a must. As is a neck pillow when you're on that long of a flight and wanting to sleep. I'm a terrible sitting-up sleeper, but I took some Tylenol PM once I wanted to fall asleep, put in my ear plugs, and then put on my Alaska Bear Silk Sleep Mask (best sleep mask; we've used it for years...great for our Iceland visit too where the sun is up all night in June) and that helped some. I slept a little. The airline served us two meals and a big snack which was nice(United). The food wasn't bad. I actually liked the stuffed crepes/pancakes they served.
Day 2(Tuesday) -Blue Mountains, ferry, exploring Sydney.
We drove to the blue mountain for a hike...everyone says we should've done the scenic world railway...but we didn't want to drive any farther...we had just arrived to Sydney that morning and were tired from not sleeping well on the overnight flight. Driving that first day in Sydney (and any day driving in the big city) was terrifying because you're driving on the right side of the car and on the left side of the street which is completely opposite from what we do! If you go into brainless autopilot at all, it could mean a serious accident. We had a couple of really close calls, one time turning left at an intersection into oncoming traffic! Also, at the end of our trip, another car sort of side swiped us (I'm not exactly sure if it was there fault or ours or both) and then drove off. Some of their black paint came off onto our white car, but it didn't leave a dent and we were able to get the paint off.
Once we drove back to Sydney we checked into our hotel and then took the metro to Sydney harbour. We got some fish and chips and went on a ferry tour of the harbour which I would recommend.
After the tour we decided to walk home instead of taking the metro so we could see a little more of Sydney; besides it was beautiful outside, in the low 70s. On the way back we stopped into this beautiful library with high ceilings and their walls lined with books. They had ladders and staircases all around. It reminded me of the library from beauty and the beast.
We made ourselves stay awake and busy until about 8pm at which time we all fell promptly asleep. And we slept until around 7am.
After the temple we went back to Sydney harbour to go to the aquarium. It was fun to see the sharks and giant string rays, but if we went to Australia again, I wouldn't do the aquarium. After the aquarium we did some shopping in Sydney, walked back to our hotel, got changed and ready for the evening performance of Phantom of the Opera which is near the botanical gardens and the opera house. Quick side-note, when I bought the tickets on the Opera House website, I thought that meant it was at the opera house, but it indeed was not. While on the ferry tour the day before, they pointed out where the Phantom of the Opera was playing, and it's nearby the opera house, but it's at an outdoor theater on Sydney harbour. That was very disappointing, but we still loved the show and had a great time.
We walked around the beach at Coff's Harbour, watched some old guys play rugby on the beach, ate dinner in town (fish and chips and fish salad) and then went back to the motel to relax.
This 'shark bite kit' kept me out of the water at this beach.
The food in Australia is healthier(more fresh, less refined), more colorful and overall aesthetically pleasing, even when eating in hole-in-the-wall type establishments. I also noticed that lots of people there are very active (tons of runners, walkers, bikers etc) and I don't know that I really saw anyone overweight. I loved that they had trails everywhere which makes it so easy to be active and walk, bike where you want to go. And it wasn't just in the big cities, but the smaller areas we drove through as well, you see people walking, jogging, and biking. I also noticed that a lot of the population was asian. In the big cities it seemed like almost 50/50. I saw some of aboriginal descent, but not many.
It was an hour and a half drive north from Brisbane.
The kangaroos on the other hand were happy to eat from our hand with very little effort on our part.
In our first area of Kangaroos, Scott didn't venture out to feed any, but when we went to another area of kangaroos, the red kangaroos, he decided to give it a try. We bought two bags of food from the guest services, just $3 each, but we only used about half, so we gave the rest away to people who were in there near the kangaroos but didn't have food.
Day 7 (Sunday)- driving to Sydney, Bondi Beach. This was our last day full day in Australia. We spent most of it driving back to Sydney. Once we checked into our hotel near Bondi Beach, we walked across the street and explored the beach for an hour or so. It was beautiful, but also pretty crowded. This location was probably my least favorite location to stay the night; it had more of a college-town feel. But the beach was beautiful and we enjoyed our walk.
We walked through the botanical gardens to get to the phantom of the opera show which was beautiful and serene. I was surprised how quiet it was in the gardens when we were surrounded by the city.
Day 4 (Thursday)-After a morning jog to Sydney Opera House, we packed up and drove to Coffs harbor where we'd stay for the night on our way to Brisbane. The drive to Coffs Harbour was about 5.5 hours. Ocean Park Motel was one of my favorite places to stay probably because it was bigger. It had a full kitchen and 2 bedrooms which was nice, plus a little living room area.
Day 5(Friday)- Friday morning Scott and I went for a walk/jog along the beach to a trail. It was beautiful.
We drove up to Burleigh Beach on the Sunshine Coast next and laid out for a bit. It rained on our drive up there which worried us, but it cleared up by the time we got to the beach. From there we drove to our hotel a Marriott in Brisbane. It was near the LDS Brisbane temple and downtown which was fun. We ate dinner and dessert at our hotel (Annabelle finally got her Pavlova she'd been wanting to try ever since reading "Keeper of the Lost Cities" where they'd raved about it) and then we rented some Lime scooters and explored the city.
Day 6(Saturday)- Saturday morning after we checked out of our hotel(my second favorite place to stay because it was so nice and new and in a great location) we drove to Brisbane temple to have a look around. They were closed for cleaning/maintenance, but it was still fun to explore the grounds. This temple is absolutely stunning in it's beauty. After the temple it was onto Australia zoo! What we've all been waiting for and which was our favorite activity from the trip.
We were hoping we might get a glance of Robert Irwin. We watched him on Dancing with the Stars. Annabelle was particularly excited about this activity for this reason.
I loved that this zoo had some interactive things, like feeding the kangaroos. Annabelle even got a wallaby to feed from her hand which we later learned is harder to do than feeding the Kangaroos because the wallabies are more shy and reserved.
When we went to the Wildlife Warriors show, Annabelle's dream came true! Robert Irwin and his mom came out and did a crocodile show!
The Tasmanian Devil is a weird looking animal and he scooted around a lot on his bum which was funny to watch.
I got to pet a koala! They're so soft. There was a worker right next to me, guiding me on where to touch(on its bottom) and how to touch it (using my back hand).
There were so many koalas in the trees around us, walking around on the branches of the eucalyptus, eating the leaves or just lying around.
We signed Annabelle up a couple of months ahead of time to do a koala encounter where she got to hold a koala and get her picture taken with it. They only take 4 people to do this, and only a couple of times a day, and when we signed her up, there was only one open spot, so Scott and I stayed behind and continued to check out the other animals at the zoo while Annabelle got whisked away onto a golf cart and taken to a special area near Africa where she was able to be with the koalas and see the koala hospital.
We saw these signs on our way to the zoo, and we saw the kangaroo crossing sign in several other locations as we drove. While driving from Brisbane back to Sydney, I saw a couple of fields in the morning with kangaroos bounding across them! So fun!
Day 8 (Monday)- Monday morning we had some difficulty getting out of our hotel parking area as they had a gate that we couldn't figure out how to open and the staff hadn't arrived yet. After about 10 minutes we realized they had a second key pad (they had one we had to use to get our car into the garage), and that we needed to enter in our code on that keypad in order for the gate to open. After that incident, it was pretty smooth sailing. Our flight left at 1030am Monday morning, and because they're a day ahead, we ended up getting home Monday afternoon. And originally, after our 13 hour flight to CA, we were going to have to wait 5 hours to get our next flight, but we arrived with just enough time to catch an earlier flight that had enough spots on it for all three of us, so we didn't have to wait at all in CA, we just went from one gate to the other and we were on our merry way! Blessings! We had a great trip, we loved our time in Australia and loved our time together, and as always, I'm excited to be back home, with all the family again and sleeping in my own bed and back to our usual routine.
I was sad to miss general conference live (we couldn't stream it Sunday because we were driving and Monday we were flying....remember, Australia's a day ahead so that's when conference was), but I was able to watch it all the week after we were home. I am grateful for technology.
Once home, I printed out our favorite iconic Australia picture...the one we had taken at the phantom of the opera that has sky harbour bridge and the opera house in the background...and put it on our family wall in the kitchen next to the senior trips we took with Elisabeth and Charles. I love our senior trip tradition.
Just before arriving in Australia I read a book called Exiles, which is a historical fiction novel that takes place in Australia. It was interesting learning about how Australia was a place they sent convicts from England. since I'm hosting bookclub in May, this is the book I'm going to have us read, and I even brought home some Australia foods to share like TimTams and Vegemite...I'll buy some yummy sourdough bread to put the butter and Vegemite on. I learned that you only put a pea-sized amount on your buttered bread; any more and it doesn't taste so good. I also found a couple of stores here that sell Bundaberg juices, so we'll have that out too as well as some fruit.
