Manly Beach

McDonald’s McCafe Queenstown, New Zealand- If you didn’t notice the new blogging location we have arrived in Queenstown and it is like nothing either of us have seen before.  It feels like this tiny little town in the middle of the mountains mainly because that is exactly what it is.  There will be much more on Queenstown and New Zealand as we move around the country this week but due to delayed blogging consider us still in Sydney while reading.  (Travel sidenote: as you can see we are at McDonald’s…we got a great tip that if we need free internet that is the place to go and it has come through several times already)

With the way we scheduled our flights we gave ourselves one day in Sydney to give us a bit of a break from flying.  We were thinking we would use the day to walk around the city and figure out plans for when we return at the end of our trip…that changed when our shuttle driver told us Manly Beach had open volleyball courts.  Most of you know we have a borderline unhealthy obsession with volleyball so there was no question that is where we were headed.

After finally doing some laundry in the morning (usually if couples aren’t by each other on a plane they ask someone to switch…April almost asked a stranger to switch with her so she wouldn’t have to sit by me but then said she would stay as long as I changed my shirt) we planned out our route to get to the beach.  Luckily in Sydney everything is accessible by water so we took a ferry (another example of something that is daily transport for normal people but becomes an attraction when on vacation) and arrived at Manly Beach.

It could not have been a better day for the beach or beach volleyball for that matter.  So that we don’t rub it in too much how nice it was I’ll use Celsius and just say it was 32 degrees and all sun.  We must have had “looking to play” written all over our faces because a guy came up to us fairly soon to see if we wanted to play a game.  We were very excited to get to play…we were less excited that the guy was 6’3” and his chosen partner was 6’5”.  Let’s say for the sake of the story that we didn’t keep score.  It was a lot of fun though and there was nothing better than running into the ocean to cool off after each game.  If Roddick hadn’t practically asked April on a date this might have been the highlight of the trip so far. 

Over the last week we have been noticing a lot of things that remind us of friends/family back home so of course we had to have pictures of each of those things.  We realized we had so many we might as well share them on here...so here are a few shout outs:

2 Hey!  Not only good tasting but extra large pints on special for $4 during the Aussie Open men's final.  (Pat is roommates with Matthew Pollari...Hi Po!)

Not just a street named after Owen...it also had a clown fish ice cream shop on it I'm sure Owen would love!

We still haven't found anyone that will let us bring a koala for Noah or a penguin for Kaden but we did find a beach, camping area, creek, and range all named for Noah so that has to count for something.

Aunt Bonnie you have been in our thoughts and prayers this week so we thought it was very fitting we found your Nail Spa in the heart of Sydney.

Annie's is a women's clothing boutique and casual dining restaurant (picture if a store like The Limited sold dresses during the day and steaks and seafood at night...strange).  We had one problem with Annie's...both times we tried to go eat or have a drink there she was closed.  I can only assume she was avoiding work by playing with her friend Jamie or at the Last Chance depending on which Annie was supposed to be working.

Stretching a little here as a better name would be AK's and UP's but still a nice little village.

Dad's open air plaza in the heart of the Sydney skyscrapers!

You'll like the way you look, Luke guarantees it...3 times.  Warehouse.

Kangaroo Joey.  Doesn't look much like our friend Joey except you can tell this Joey is sad too.  I guess Joey must be a Bear's fan like Joey back home.  SUPER BOWL PACKERS! :)

Farewell to Cairns

Central Internet Café, Sydney-  As you can see from the new blogging location we have moved onto the next phase of our trip.  We are in Sydney for just one day before heading to New Zealand tomorrow and then will finish our trip by returning here.  We left Palm Cove on Saturday and spent our last night in northern Queensland in the city of Cairns.  Cairns is a fairly big city and as with everything else in the area is very tourist driven.  One of the coolest things is a large pool (or lagoon as they call it) that is in the heart of the city and goes right up to the edge of the ocean.  The pool is free to use and on this day the city was celebrating the upcoming Chinese New Year with a dragon parade and festival so it was extra packed. 

Overall we enjoyed Palm Cove, Cairns, and the surrounding activities very much.  Our hotel was all about relaxation and we used the pools and cool spas (too hot for a hot tub so they have cool spas instead) pretty much every day.  Our day trips to the Great Barrier Reef and various rainforests could not have been better as well.  Just like in Melbourne we ate some really good food and wanted to share some of our favorites. 

Liquorland 6 bottles of wine for $30...practically free!

Food is very expensive so our first stop was the grocery store where we picked up this gourmet breakfast for the week. 

Salmon pizza.  We assumed the salmon would be small pieces in the cheese...wow were we shocked when we opened the box, very good though!  Not pictured is an Aussie Pizza that we got in honor of it being Australia Day (comparable to 4th of July).

Smoked trout and corn chowder from our hotel restaurant.  The best soup I have ever tasted..almost stayed an extra day so we could have it again!

Dinner at our hotel restaurant...we look happy because we just finished the soup from the pic above.  We ordered two things and shared of course (Seared barramundi on the left, crispy spatchcock (aka small chicken) on the right)



We were told Port Douglas had the "only good Mexican restaurant in all of Australia"...so we had to try it.  Good, but not quite Fiesta Cancun, Los Banditos, or Pedro's.



Free appetizers delivered to our room when we checked into the Cairns Hilton.

 

Sushi Train!  April's dream of picking different sushi rolls fresh off the rotating line came true in Cairns.



Little Miss Sunshine

Hilton Hotel, Cairns- You might think after our jungle adventure the day before we would head for lower ground and stay there the rest of the trip…but that is not us.  We decided to head right back to the jungle but this time we came a bit more prepared.  For example this time I wore shoes…try to cut me through American made breathable mesh sharp-jungle-vine!  We also chose a route that allowed us to literally drive through on a road (which was really cool and was pretty much all curves the whole time).  The biggest difference was this time we would be flying through on zip lines instead of walking or as it was called “jungle surfing.”  Oh and we also wouldn’t be going as Luke and April.

For those worried that we aren’t lying around enough, you will be happy to know this trip didn’t leave until the afternoon so we slept in, napped by the pool, and went swimming before leaving. 

Once we arrived at the Daintree Rainforest (one of only two places in the world where a rainforest  meets a reef) we were given our new names.  Instead of April and Luke we were now “Little Miss Sunshine” and “King Kong.” 

Neither of us had been on a zip line before so this was a whole new experience.  Allowing yourself to drop off the platform and dangle high above the ground is quite a rush.  We were in a group of 6 people and Little Miss Sunshine was the first to go from each of the 5 stations we left from so she always had the extra rush that comes with not seeing anyone else make it across.  We both really enjoyed the experience and feel it was a good way to get prepared for some of the daring adventures we will be trying next week in New Zealand!

Jungle Adventure

Sebel Reef House Hotel, Palm Cove-  Today we headed out for a day trip to the small tourist town of Kuranda.  This town is high in the mountains within the rainforest.  There are a few ways to get to the town but we took a ride on the Kuranda Scenic Railway train.  The train winds up the mountains providing some amazing views of waterfalls including Barron Falls (see picture).  Our travel method for the return back down was on the Skyrail.  This takes you back down the mountain on a path high above the trees…definitely a much different view than from the chair lift at Nordic Mountain. 

In between the trips up and down we had time to walk around the town of Kuranda and go through the Koala Gardens (see picture) to see some Australian wildlife.  April managed to let a wallaby out of its enclosure and then people started feeding it so we just walked away…not kidding.  Luckily about 5 minutes later we saw an employee leading it back by its tail so I guess all was ok.  The town itself was pretty much just gift shops and small restaurants so we decided to take a jungle walk that we saw in the brochure…and that is where the adventure began.

Our first family photo :)

We headed out into the jungle on a poorly mapped out trail thinking it would take us 45 min to an hour tops to walk around and get back to town.  An hour and a half later, wet, bloody, tired, sweating…we were back. 

Our first problem was a branch laying over the path that was covered in sharp points…in a battle of Luke’s foot vs. sharp points the sharpness won and we were off to a rough start.  Our next obstacle was Jum Rum Creek which had flooded over the walking path.  We debated turning around but being as daring as we are we pushed through the nearly 1 inch of overflow to make the cross.  April commented that we were lucky not to lose any oxen during the 6 ft. voyage. 

Eventually we came to a fork in the path with one sign pointing back to town and the other continuing the Jungle Walk but also had a sign next to it saying Walking Track Closed.  Most people describe us as rebels so we had to live up to that reputation and ignore the non threatening sign.  It was probably a bad omen that 2 minutes into the path it began raining and about 5 minutes after that it started to rain heavily.  Conveniently for us we were in a rainforest so the canopy blocked some of the rainfall.  The whole walk we were a bit nervous because the sign did not say why the path was closed (you might assume it was because of flooding or a down bridge but don’t forget other theories like tigers or for any Lost fans out there…polar bears). 

We finally made it to a bridge and assumed this is where we would be forced to turn around but nothing blocking us so on we went.  The walking conditions on the other side of the bridge were muddy and slippery but at this point we had to keep going.  It did pay off as we ended up right next to the Barron River and saw some great views.  The river also ended up being the obstacle that forced us to turn around.  We didn’t mind battling Jum Rum Creek but neither of us were prepared to take on a full force river that was crossing our path. 

We thought we were safe as we were walking back on the path we had just come from but this jungle would not stop challenging us.  The final scare was a pheasant-like bird that flew up right in front of us.  Keep in mind the entire walk we had not seen any animals so we were not expecting to see anything let alone almost step on it before it flew up.  With our creative minds combined we decided to name it Jungle Pheasant. 

After picking up the pace we did eventually make it back to town but had learned some valuable lessons on our adventure.  The most important one being that just because a jungle path is paved and clearly marked…it doesn’t mean there isn’t danger around every corner!

Welcome to Cairns and the Great Barrier Reef

Sebel Reef House Hotel, Palm Cove-  We flew into Cairns around noon on Tuesday and found it to be a whole new world compared to our first week.  First of all we are renting a car here which means our first experience with driving on the other side of the road…let’s just say one thing we’re looking forward to when coming home is normal driving.  Other major differences are that we are in a very small town (Palm Cove) and the weather is even hotter here than it was in Melbourne.

As soon as we pulled up to our hotel we were extremely impressed with how beautiful the area is.  We could also tell that the week would be full of relaxation which was much welcomed after being on the go most of our time in Melbourne.  Our hotel room has a porch and swing that you can see the ocean from as well as a hot tub in the room…feels very tropical!  After we checked in and spent the rest of the day walking up and down the beach, drinking wine on the porch swing, and swimming in the hotel pool. The whole atmosphere feels much more like a honeymoon than our first week. 

We do have a couple relaxing activities planned and the first was today when we took a trip out to the Great Barrier Reef to snorkel.  The weather was hot and sunny and we were able to sit out on the deck of the boat the whole trip out which took about 1.5 hours.  Not sure it is really possible to describe the reef in a few words…but I guess amazing and beautiful will do.  The cruise ship drove around to 3 different points of the reef so we were able to spend almost 3 hours in the water.  We had a great time swimming around looking at all the crazy fish and bright colors.  A special thanks to Uncle Dick and Aunt Mary for the underwater camera!  We aren’t sure yet how the pictures will turn out but we really enjoyed the effort it took to try to get close to different things to get the perfect shot. 

We don’t have many pictures that we can post but here are a few:






Relaxing on the upper deck...finally some down time in the sun Mom K :)



View from the bathroom...even that was beautiful!

Don't we look hot...might give Joni's new pajamas a run for their money.

Finding Nemo :)





No, April didn't dye her hair blonde but we had no pics of fish and this was the favorite one we saw (huge at up to 6 ft long but would come right up to people)

Farewell to Melbourne!

Sebel Reef House Hotel, Palm Cove-  As you can tell from the blog location on our last two posts, we have moved on to the second part of our trip.  Before we get into the details of our new location we wanted to write one last time about our first.

We absolutely loved Melbourne.  The city is defined by its love of sports and amazing food so what is not to love for a couple that appreciates both of those things.  The energy of the city was noticeable right away.  We thought it might have just been because of the Australian Open but from what we heard from several people there is always some major sporting event going on in town.  The first night we walked around the city at night and were amazed with how active every street was.  There are cafes, bars, restaurants, shops…anything you could want to do available at just about any time. 

As for the look of the city, it is really beautiful.  Nearly every street has large trees either lining the sides or going right down the middle.  All of that green in between the huge buildings really makes for an interesting contrast.  About a half mile down the road from our hotel is the Yarra River and all the restaurants and activities surrounding that.  We didn’t really “discover” everything around the river for a couple days and when we did it was like opening a whole new world.  I have a feeling if we ever went back we might stay closer to that area because it was just so nice. 

There are other things that make Melbourne very unique.  The first we learned on our shuttle ride to our hotel.  The driver explained that Melbourne is one of the only cities in the world where you make right hand turns from the far left lane.  This is done due to another unique aspect which is the trams that run right down the center of the streets.  Because trams have the right away (and the steering wheel is on the right side of the car) in order to turn right you have to wait for all traffic to pass and make sure no tram is coming.  I know it is probably hard to picture but let me just say I am VERY glad we did not have to do any driving in that city. 

While we loved most things about the city, there were a few things that we weren’t real fond of.  One is that we could never seem to get enough cold water.  First we had a hard time getting water at all and then we just had to drink it warm.  There was plenty of free coffee and tea around, but never any ice in the water.  Since it's summer here, there isn't much on tv (not that we are around to watch it much anyway).  One thing that's always on is cricket, but no matter how much we watch it we still have no idea what's going on.  Another (more so for April) was that the bathrooms only had hand dryers; not paper towels.  The dryers never had enough power to actually dry your hands and the air was way too hot, especially considering the temperature outside was so warm.  Overall…not too much to complain about.

We took several pictures of some of the more interesting foods we ate and wanted to share those as well.  Here is our very mini tour of Melbourne food!  Very good tasting, but don’t ask for a ‘take-away’ container…that must not be common here because we got some strange looks.



We needed a snack during one of the tennis matches. 
Chips or 'crisps' sounded good, but the flavor choices were original, sea salt, or chicken. 

 

I don't remember what this was called, but it was basically kangaroo carpaccio. 
There were so many different components, but they worked together so well.  One of our favorite dishes.



Kebabs...April almost ordered them at a restaurant expecting shish-kabobs (These are basically like gyros).
  That would've been a shock.  These kebabs were a hit with us, especially for 4th meal.

 

Pie face...we stopped at this place a few times.  We tried several small pies...
chocolate, lemon, bacon/egg/cheese, and peppercorn steak.  So good!

 

French crepe with chocolate, bananas, and ice cream. Delicious! 
We tried going back a few times for other flavors, but the small cafe had pretty limited hours. 
Such an interesting little cafe though.

Sichuan Chicken from the Sichuan House. 
We saw the restaurant on food network and had to check it out. 



Fried quail with sea salt crust (aka tiny chicken wings :))

The gelato we ate as we strolled down the St. Kilda Pier.



Steamed mussels in napoli sauce. 
We weren't really sure what to expect, but it was very tasty.



PACKERS!

Sebel Reef House Hotel, Palm Cove-  SUPER BOWL!!! YES YES YES YES YES!!!!  One of the first things I looked up when we started planning this trip was where we could watch the Packers play when they made the playoffs and of course made it to the NFC Championship game.  We figured out that the game would be on at 7 am on a Monday so we figured the only thing that would be open would be a casino and we were correct.  We actually could have watched it in our hotel room also but we were committed to the casino so we got up at 6:15 am (which came much too early after a fun previous night) and got a cab to the Crown Casino. 

We walked in and found the sports bar where about 10 people were gathered, roughly half cheering for the Bears and the other loyal Packer fans.  Obviously the game started as well as we could have hoped and after just minutes I was already at least 3 stand-up-and-fist-pumps in.  With the 14-0 lead at the half we decided to celebrate a bit with some halftime bloodies…not quite up to deck bloody standards at the Nechvatals but oh well. 

Shockingly Australian Bears fans are quite similar to the species we know and love back home.  You know…talking trash while down 14…yelling awkwardly loud during commercials about how good Cutler is while he is pouting on the bench with a boo boo on his knee…ok getting off track with some hostility that seems to have carried over from during the game.  Overall just a great game but we did really miss not being able to watch it with family/friends back home.  It wasn’t the same when only the two of us could celebrate.  We had our jerseys on for the walk back to the hotel and only got one comment from a business guy from Chicago...basically no one really cared is what I’m saying.  So my solution is to bring it up every few hours so we can talk about how awesome it is.  We are already disappointed about not being able to watch the Super Bowl with everyone but we’ll represent from New Zealand at some horribly early hour on a Monday morning. 

After a much needed nap we headed out for our last night in Melbourne.  We’re both very sad to be leaving this city but we’ll post more about that another time.  As for the evening we took a tram (for most people the tram is just a form of transportation but when on vacation it becomes a tourist attraction for us) to St. Kilda beach to walk along the shops, boardwalk, and pier.  Just like the Yarra River, the water all along the ocean coast is brown so we again just ignored it.  The views of the city were great though and we took our favorite picture from the pier (see photo). 

We finished the night with one last tourist activity by going up to the top of the Eureka Skydeck.  This tower has views from the 88^th floor and we really enjoyed it because we could stand up there and look at all the places we had been during the week.  It was a great way to finish our time in Melbourne!

The view of Melbourne Park (tennis grounds). 
The large stadium in the upper left is the cricket grounds.