Last Weekend in Sydney

For our last weekend in Sydney, we had one beautiful sunny day and one cloudy rainy day. This is fairly representative of the weather we've had throughout the trip!

Saturday we drove to the Blue Mountains to check out the "3 sisters" at Echo Point. We stopped at a few other view points along the way including the waterfall at Wentworth. At each lookout there were mountains and valleys for as far as you can see.

Sunday we went to the Chinese Garden at Darling Harbour in Sydney. In addition to the plantings, sculptures and out buildings, we saw many huge spider webs. They are amazing to look at. It started to rain while we were there, so we hid out in one of the buildings by the coy fish pond. The fish were active and partially jumping out of the water. It was a great show.

While SPie napped on Sunday, we packed up the toys that we aren't taking on the trip home. We thought she might be upset when she woke up, but she hasn't seemed to notice yet!

SPie did notice the fireworks that were set off on the harbour behind our building last night. She buried her head under the blankets in bed and needed Sherp and I to climb in with her until they were over. Oops - maybe she was a little young for fireworks...

The "3 sisters" are the 3 peaks.


Chinese Garden fish:

Counting Down

There are only 9 days until we leave Australia and head for home! We are ready. It's been a great experience, but now that it's time to go, we just want to go. We've already mailed all of our holiday cards and Christmas/Australia gifts and shipped most of our belongings. We've donated clothes and have people designated to receive the other things we won't use and don't want to ship (i.e., flour sugar, nail polish remover, SPie's tricycle). Our suitcases are packed except for the clothes and toiletries we need for the next 9 days. The only thing left to do is pack and ship SPie's toys. We are looking forward to heading back to the states!

Fireworks

Last weekend there was a tree lighting event at Darling Harbour. A stage was setup on the water with singers and kid's characters (i.e., Bob the Builder). Santa arrived on jet skis with sparklers coming off the back and everyone sang Christmas carols. Our main reason for going was the fireworks show.

We live nearby the Harbour and whenever there are fireworks we can hear them and see reflections on the buildings nearby. I wanted SPie to see the fireworks for herself so she'll understand what it is the next time we hear them (with the warm weather it seems like there are fireworks at every big event on the harbour). Overall she did ok, but they were too loud. She spent most of the time hiding her face and repeating, "I'm ok. I'm fine." The next morning one of the first things she said was, "No more fireworks." It was a short show, so I don't think we've scared her off fireworks forever, but I doubt she'll want to go outside the next time we hear them.

Vanuatu

Every now and then we have to leave the country and re-enter, so a few weeks ago we spent a long weekend in Vanuatu. The country is an archipelago of 80+ islands and just gained it’s independence in 1980 (prior to that it was jointly governed by Britain and France). We stayed on the main island of Efate at a resort called Le Lagon.

For some unknown reason, we were upgraded to an ocean front room. Across from our patio were stairs leading right into the water. From the beach chairs outside our door, we saw a wedding at the waters edge. The site was perfect, so the wedding pictures must be gorgeous. I’m guessing Vanuatu (or at least our resort) is a big wedding destination since we saw at least 2 wedding parties on each of the weekend nights we were there.

This was a vacation to relax. The weather was hot and sunny and everyday we did nothing but eat, sleep and chase SPie around the 4 swimming pools at the resort.

Right outside our room:


The wedding (view from our patio):


These wood carvings were very cool. I think the base was part of a tree stump:


Ahh:


Starfish in the Lagoon:


View of our room from above:

And The Winner Is...

Kevin Rudd for Australia’s Prime Minister.

Natalie Gauci for Australian Idol.

This was a big election weekend; Saturday was the Government election and Sunday was the Idol finale.

Fun Facts about the Australian Government:

1. It’s compulsory for eligible citizens to vote. Failure to vote results in a fine.


2. Australia uses a Preferential Voting System. If you don’t know (as I didn’t), preferential voting is when you rank candidates in order of preference. If your first choice is knocked out of the race, your vote goes towards your second choice. This continues until the winner is determined.


3. Australia is a parliamentary style of government. The citizen’s vote the candidates to Parliament, then the government votes for the Prime Minister.


4. There is a political party called “What Women Want”. I have no idea if they have anyone in political office, but the name cracks me up.


5. An election for Prime Minister must be held at least every 3 years.


6. The former Prime Minister, John Howard, was the PM for 11 years (the 2nd longest serving PM in Australia). He was head of the Liberal Party and ran under the Coalition, which is a joining of the Liberal and National Parties.


7. Kevin Rudd is part of the Labour Party.


8. Rudd’s major agenda items are:
   
   1. Ratify the Kyoto Protocol. The papers like to point out this will leave the US as the only major industrialized nation not to do so.
   
   
   2. Withdraw 550 Australian troops from Iraq.
   
   
   3. Put more money into education.
   
   
   4. Remove the workplace agreements.


9. (Legal) Betting on the election paid AU$3.70 for a $1 bet that Howard would be re-elected.


10. During campaigning, a news story broke that while in the US, Kevin Rudd got drunk and visited a strip club in NYC. Campaign analysts have said this story actually helped Rudd and made him seem more approachable and more like the “common man”. I think it's pathetic that this came out as a news story and even worse that it helped his campaign.

Fun Facts about Natalie Gauci:

1. Her 26th birthday is tomorrow (Nov 26th). A recording contract is an amazing birthday present!


2. She’s from Melbourne.


3. She used to sing with a Jazz group.


4. She plays piano and writes her own songs.


5. The winner’s single is titled Here I Am and is available as a download now. It will be in stores on Wednesday (Nov 28th).


6. The Winners Journey album and DVD will be in Australian stores on December 8th.


7. Natalie starts the Australian Idol Tour on January 2nd.


8. (Legal) Betting paid AU$2.35 for a $1 bet on Natalie versus AU$1.57 for a $1 bet on her competition, Matt Corby.


9. She was my personal favorite from the first episode. (What can I say… when you don’t have cable, there isn’t much TV to watch.)


10. The judges had negative things to say about her wardrobe choices and I agree with some of their comments. I hope Sony gets her a good stylist.
    

Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Gold Coast

A couple of weeks ago we spent a long weekend at Surfer’s Paradise on the Gold Coast. I found it tacky and noisy. After I returned from my trip, my Australian boss said it reminds him of the really touristy areas of Florida. Personally, I think it’s worse.

I might have a better impression of Surfer’s Paradise if we had stayed in a nicer place. Our hotel was a dump. Wouldn't you know this is the first trip that I booked through a travel agent and pre-paid for. If we hadn’t prepaid for the room, I would have checked out and moved further up the coast. The unit was a “serviced” apartment, but there was no “service” at all. The place was in desperate need of a renovation to pull it out of the 70’s and the amenities were horrible. The room came with two bath towels and a bath mat. I asked for a third towel for SPie as well as hand towels and washcloths. They said there would be a charge for a third bath towel and if I wanted hand towels and washcloths I should have brought them from home. (Nice customer service!) We were getting low on toilet paper, so I asked the desk if we could get another roll. They wouldn’t give it to me; however if I wanted to purchase more, it would be $1.15/roll! The receptionist kept telling me “that’s how all serviced apartments work”. We stayed at serviced apartments in Cairns and in New Zealand and never had any problems. We had all the towels and free toilet paper that we needed!

There are a lot of theme parks in the Gold Coast. We went to Dreamworld because it has Wiggles World and a Nick Central for SPie’s age group. She went on most of the age appropriate rides, but we skipped a few because the lines were so long. SPie’s favorite ride was the train that goes around the park. We went on that twice. I find it amazing how much she loves anything that goes; cars, boats, trains, and especially helicopters.

Dreamworld advertises the “largest interactive tiger facility outside the United States”, so I had big expectations for Tiger Island. There are 2 tiger shows a day. We missed one show and left the other because the crowds were too big to see anything (it's a bad design for viewing). We did see the tigers, but it wasn’t as exciting as I expected. Overall, Dreamworld was ok, but for the money spent ($$$), it was disappointing.

The next day we drove to Steve Irwin’s Australia Zoo. This was worth the trip. The zoo is huge and the animals seem to have plenty of room to move around. As you might expect, there were a lot of crocodiles and alligators. We even saw a baby croc (8 weeks old). Most of the animals were awake and active, especially the tigers. There were 2 tigers in the enclosure play-fighting with each other. They were in and out of the water, running around the enclosure, roaring, and swatting at each other. That was very cool to see. This zoo is also the first place that I've seen a Tasmanian Devil on the move (at the other zoos the devils were sleeping).

After the zoo, we drove to see the Big Pineapple. I first heard about the “big” sculptures when I read Bill Bryson’s book In a Sunburned Country. From what I’ve read, there are random large sculptures throughout Australia and the Big Pineapple is one of them. So far, the Big Pineapple is the only one we’ve seen. This link to Wikipedia has a list of the other Big Things in Australia and elsewhere.

The Zoo and the Pineapple are North of the Gold Cost in the Sunshine Coast. From the little bit that we saw, it seems like a much nicer area. If you ever visit, stay on the Sunshine Coast and make a day trip or a single overnight to Surfer’s Paradise. Unless you’re in your early 20’s, I don’t see a need to spend too much time on the Gold Coast.

8 week old crocodile:


Tasmanian Devil:


Tigers:


Tigers Playing:


The Big Pineapple:


P.S. Since I originally wrote this post, it's been school holidays. Apparently Surfer's Paradise is "the" destination for drunken students (which doesn't surprise me at all). The last report I saw had 128 students arrested in Surfer's Paradise.