We're back from our Australian adventure!

We got off to a bit of a slow start when our flight out of Toronto was delayed by two hours. Apparently there was a “Bird Strike” to the tail of the plane on the inbound Toronto flight and Air Canada engineers thought it best we transfer to another plane – at the other end of the terminal!

By the time we reached San Francisco we had missed our connecting flight to Sydney. The next available flight out was 24 hours later… so we spent a bonus day in San Fran.

The best part might have been getting onto a Qantas flight the next day (great food, great service and personal video screens for each passenger). Four movies later, we finally arrived in Sydney. While getting our photo taken in front of the Sydney Opera House, we met a couple from Waubaushene! We travelled 16,000 km to meet someone who lives 50 km from my home town. It’s truly a small world.

In the evening of our first day, we made our way to the Sydney Aquarium. The shark tank was awesome!

The next week was spent touring around the city. We spent a day at Bondi Beach... and then walked along the cliff top path from Bondi to Tamarama... visited the Royal Botanic Gardens... toured Sydney Opera House... and visited Sydney Wildlife World.

Unfortunately, we had a small technical glitch and lost some photos. L We also visited the Powerhouse Museum, China Town, the Rocks, went on a night time cruise of Sydney Harbour, went shopping at Paddington Market, Queen Victoria Building and Pitt Street Mall, met up with Patrick’s friend Marie for dinner and ate meat pies with mushy peas, mashed potatoes and gravy! And Patrick visited ABC.

On Christmas Eve day, we made our way out to the Blue Mountains. Our trip started with a stop at Featherdale Wildlife Park (yes, I’m holding a baby wallaby), followed by a quick stop at the Sydney Olympic Park. Then off to see the Three Sisters, followed by a fairy ride back into Sydney Harbour.

We also spent a busy Christmas day in Sydney. We started off at the cathedral, and then exchanged gifts, followed by a lovely afternoon nap. We made our way to Manly Beach on the ferry, then rushed back to meet Patrick’s parents for dinner at Swissotel.

On Dec 26, we began the long drive from Sydney to Hall’s Gap. Day 1 of the drive was… well… very boring! We spent the night in Albury and then hit the road for the next leg of the trip. We stopped for lunch in Ballarat. Patrick’s parent’s visited a wildlife park, while we explored the Goldfields. After two days of driving, we finally reach our destination – Hall’s Gap. We stayed at a charming hostel called Tim’s Place. The kangaroos come right up to the buildings! (Note: Kangaroos in the wild were still a novelty to us as this point!)

We spent the next day exploring the Grampians. We stopped in at Tower Hill State Game Reserve on route to our evening destination of Warrnambool (We had a fun dinner at a little Mexican place in Warrnambool… we laughed ‘till we cried!!).

From Warrnambool, we set our drive of the Great Ocean Road. It was spectacular! One of our splurges was a helicopter ride over the 12 Apostles (one of the most famous landmarks in Australia). In my opinion, it was money well spent! (We have a DVD from the ride too!)

We arrived in Melbourne on the evening of Dec 28 and made our way to our closet… uhm, I mean hostel. Luckily, we only needed the hostel to sleep! The next morning we went exploring in the city – Melbourne has a couple of free tourist shuttle buses and trams that travel different routes around the city - and picked out the places we wanted to visit.

In the afternoon, we headed off to Philip Island. Our first stop was the Koala Conservation Centre... followed by a trip to the beach in Cowes... then off to the Penguin Parade. This was incredible! These little guys come home from the ocean and make their way to their burrows every night. Thousands of tiny little penguins.

New Years Eve day was spent touring around Melbourne. We spent quite a bit of time shopping (We actually waited outside until the one and only Lululemon in Australia opened!! Stuff actually goes on sale!!) We also visited the famous Queen Victoria Markets then went down to the river to find a nice place for dinner. We met up with Patrick’s parents, enjoyed a nice dinner followed by fireworks.

New Years Day was our last day in Melbourne, and our last day with Patrick’s parents. We went on a lovely cruise of the Yarra River, followed by a tour of the Royal Exhibition Building before making our way to the airport. John and Kathy headed home to Qatar, and Patrick and I hopped on our flight to Cairns.

Lonely Planet said that finding tourist information in Cairns is like finding porn on the Internet. They were right... every second storefront is a travel agent. Once you get past the neon lights, there are a few pretty views... like the surrounding mountains and ocean front lagoon. It was 35 degrees when we arrived… needless to say, we spent a lot of time at the pool and in the lagoon!

We spent two days scuba diving the Great Barrier Reef. It was a little rough on the way out (thank GOD for those little brown paper bags!), but fine once we got into the water. Our instructor, Sven, was awesome! The pictures really don’t capture the full beauty of the reef.

On our last full day in the Cairns area, we went on a day trip to Cape Tribulation, Daintree River and Mossman Gorge. Our tour bus driver, Fin, drove like a BAT OUT OF HELL!! Not such a bad thing, as the roads aren’t quite as curvy as along the Great Ocean Road, and we got to see a lot more than if Fin actually drove the speed limit!! We stopped at the Daintree Wildlife Sanctuary to see the crocs and a ton of LOUD, but very pretty birds. Then it was off to the rainforest and a walk along the Marrdja Boardwalk. We enjoyed a lovely lunch at the Cape Trib Beach House and walked along Cape Tribulation beach (beach two, I think). Next we headed off on a crocodile and wildlife cruise on the Daintree River. We only saw one little croc… but who would have thought that tree frogs could be so interesting!! We stopped for a quick dip in Mossman Gorge before heading back to Cairns via Port Douglas.

Sadly, we realized that we were nearing the end of our journey when we departed Cairns and headed back to Sydney.

For our last night in Australia, we decided to get a little adventurous and stay in King’s Cross – the red light district! I’m not sure why we don’t have any pictures. What happens in King’s Cross stays... just joking mom!

The next day we set out on a very carefully planned souvenir shopping trip to the QVB. Picked out a couple of great didgeridoos and then headed for the airport. NOTE: In the USA, didgeridoos are considered weapons (!) and need to be in you checked baggage... but that’s a story for another time...