Feb 26th, Kangaroo Valley and Fitzroy Falls

Galah's rested in the front yard tree the morning before we were to leave. They are so playful and pretty. "Don't be such a Galah" is a common Australian phrase. It stems from the foolish play of the Galah.

Penny and Karl joined us for a nice breakfast. Jess made blueberry pancakes and in honour of the Canadian guest, maple syrup as a treat. We had bacon wrapped eggs, fresh homemade banana loaf and raisin bread. We did not go hungry. We had a very nice visit.

Jess took us for a drive through Kangaroo Valley. It was a beautiful drive on one of the windiest roads I have ever been on. It twists back and forth, doubling back on itself over and over. Glimpses of the valley and the far away mountainous terrain were the only hint of truly how high the elevation was.

After coffee at the tin shed in Kangaroo village we started back, stopping to take pictures and go for a short hike at Fitzroy Falls.

Feb 25th - Beach at Thirroul

Let the pictures speak for themselves.

Then we went for dinner at Judd's parent's house. We had a Greek dish and a salad with fried cheese and baked sweet potatoes. It was ve-e-e-ry delicious.

Feb. 24th - the Mermaid Pools and Shakespeare

Incognito.


















Hannah was not feeling well. She has quite a fever from cutting teeth so she stayed home with Grandma and Poppa while Jess and Christian went to M.O.P.S.

After a lunch of traditional Australian meat pies we set out to find the Mermaid Pools. They were as evasive as mermaids are known to be, except in the movies of course. The sign directed us out a quaint country road, but we were unsuccessful in finding their exact location. As time was passing by and we needed to return home to greet Lauren we decided to create a mermaid pool in the back yard.

Christian, Jess and Poppa had great fun in the water. We dubbed the wading pool "the mermaid pool" to satisfy Christian that we had found it and it had been right there in the backyard all along.


























Jess took me to where Judd works. The shop had several small planes at various stages of repair. Parin and Judd told me about the day the Tim McGraw walked in and they had no idea who he was. Faith Hill had bought him a newer version of one of these planes for his birthday, along with flying lessons. So here he was to check things out. He gave them tickets to his concert.



































Judd and I met Parin and Bernice in Sydney to watch a live performance of "Hamlet", in which Judd's brother, Luke, played the starring role. He was very passionate in his performance and we quite enjoyed this rendition. Ophelia was quite convincing in the role of having lost her mind, when she became distressed over the death of Polonius, her father.
















Upon arriving back at Jess and Judd's I noticed the game of tile Rummy on the table, indicating that Jess and Jack had had a rousing competition while we were gone, but all was quiet now as we didn't get back until after midnight. So goodnight.....sweet dreams.

Feb 23rd - Playschool and Shopping

Judd headed out to work.

Lauren went to school.

The rest of us went to playschool.

Christian showed us around. Wow, what a neat place for a kid. I think I would like spending my time there if I were his age.

It is one of the best set up playschools I have ever seen.

Very stimulating for the children's activities, and they were very open to us coming and spending time there with Christian. I felt quite welcome.

We then went to MacArthur Square for four hours of shopping and lunch.

This of course was Jack's very favourite part of the whole trip (j.k.). He was very tolerant and managed to make a few purchases as well, but was quite relieved when we returned to the house.

22 February - Sydney Harbour

We are off to Sydney to return the rental car and see if we can find our way around to the harbour for a tour.

We decided to take the Sydney Harbour H'lites Tour.

We sailed past the Harbour Bridge, which takes 3.5 hours to climb. We were thankful we were not one of the ones climbing it right now as they were being blessed with liquid sunshine as we watched them from the boat.

Building of the Opera House was started in 1973 and took 14 years to complete. It has 1000 rooms and was $95 Million over budget by the time it was completed.

The Queen Elizabeth is visiting in the harbour. She weighs 95,000 tons.

Ships belonging to the Australian Navy fleet are recognized by the letters HMAS, standing for Her Majesty's Australian Ship.

The Queen Mary 2 is also in the harbour. She weighs in at around 147,000 tons. She has the capacity and requires a crew of 10 warships. The Queen Mary is 140 feet longer than the Eiffel tower is tall. She is the longest ocean liner in the world.

Australia has 40 naval ships and only a half admiral. Therefore the Australian Navy has an admiral from Edinburgh.

A white flag on a ship means it is a navy ship. A blue flag is the national flag of Australia, and a red flag means the ship is non-navy, such as the cruise ship on which we were sailing.

It is 260 kilometres all the way around the harbour.

One of the islands within the harbour was blown up, creating a reef within the harbour.

Darling Point is an exclusive suburb. Captain Darling named many of the landmarks after himself before he participated in passing a bylaw forbidding anyone to name public sites and landmarks after themselves.

The average price of a house in this suburb is $7.7 M. The most expensive house cost $18 M to build. Just recently one house sold for $52 M.

This island is known as the picnic island. You may take a guess as to why that would be.

The entrance to the harbour is only 1.5 kilometres wide.

As we passed by the Taronga Zoo our guide explained that three baby elephants have been born in the zoo. The first was a boy, the second died and the third was a girl. Of note is the fact that if a baby elephant dies the mother recuperates faster and is ready to reproduce again sooner if the deceased baby is kept around to stimulate her to reproduce again.

Also, the Tasmanian Devil has a very bad reputation for being vicious, but they do not eat live prey. They will only be enticed to eat you if you are already dead.

70,000 tons of sand and concrete weigh down the base of this lookout tower.

By the time we were getting off the boat it was raining pretty good so we chose not to visit the Rocks, nor the Botanic Gardens (sorry Ames, I really wanted to see them because you spoke of how peaceful you find them to be).

We decided that perhaps by the time we bussed over to Paddy's Market the rain may have subsized. However, after getting on the bus, someone else told us that the Market was closed. So instead we got off and visited the Queen Victoria Building, which is very high end four story shopping mall.

This ended our visit in the city and we navigated our way back to Picton by train, stopping at George's Pub for a schooner.

Judd took Jack out for a drive on some windy country road in some suped up car. It must have been pretty exciting because Jack wants to do it again in the daylight.

Jess and I spent the evening scrapbooking while watching an Australian iconic movie, "The Castle" and then "IT Crowd".

Feb. 21st - through Hunter Valley

Here is Jack's post for today:
We drove to Jess' and Judd's.

Here is my version of today:

After a very nice buffet breakfast we set out in search of a winery that would do a tour. It is overcast today, so blessedly a little cooler.

We stopped to consider going through the Hunter Valley Gardens but it would not open for an hour and we were not sure if the colours would be vibrant considering it is the end of the season. This would be a fun place to visit if one had a pocketful of money and lots of time to try everything.

There was golfing, aqua golf, shops, cafés, pubs, flower gardens, wineries, jet plane rides over the valley, hot air ballooning over the valley, carriage rides and a wedding chapel.

Not even the shops were open to relieve us of our monies, so we moved on.

As we passed Drayton's Family Winery we noticed an "open" sign at the entrance so we stopped in hopes of catching a tour. As luck would have it, this winery stopped doing tours two years ago when a barrel blew up, killing two visitors. We took this as a sign we should just move on.

As we approached Sydney the rock cuts through which the Pacific Highway took us were absolutely gorgeous. They reminded me of Northern Ontario although the rock cuts were much more frequent and extremely tall, adding such beauty to our drive. The remainder of the drive was rather uneventful with the exception of a few moments of losing our bearings driving through Sydney.

Stopping to ask directions was of little use as the gas station attendant was unable to tell us where highway 31 was, or how to get to Picton or Canberra. It turned out the highway was only a few blocks from where we asked for directions. From there we managed to find our way to Picton with no trouble.

Jess made us a hearty meal of whole grain spaghetti, and apple crisp with ice cream for dessert. It was every bit as good as any meal we had had in the fancy restaurants up north. I started catching up the blog, then a nightcap of gin and tonic while watching IT Crowd and we were off to dreamland. Goodnight once again.

Port McQuarry

On the road at 8 a.m. to see what the day would bring our way.

Port McQuarry is paradise on earth. The sand beaches were dotted with people trying to fend off the 39 degree temperature by playing in the water, resting in the shade and basking in the sunshine. Surfers were riding out to catch the next wave and challenge themselves to stay upright while riding its powerful swell. Beautiful soft sand lay gently between dark rocks along the waters edge.

As a successful fisherman cleaned his catch at the cleaning station these hungry visitors stood waiting to catch whatever might be tossed their direction.

Waves lapped up the footprints imprinted on the sand, erasing the evidence of those who have already travelled this way.

We stopped and watched the dragon boat festival racing for a few moments.

I didn't even have to go into the ocean to get wet. The bottle of water I drank since breakfast just created a stream from the nape of my neck right down my spine to my unmentionables.

At the gift shop I could have sold another 3 or 4 spray fans just in the 5 minutes I was there.

We just drove past a field with a number of very large camels. I felt sorry for the larger creatures in this heat. Strange....we didn't expect to see camels in this part of Australia.

We made phone calls home to wish happy birthday to our two birthday girls back home. It sounds like the family managed to do them justice even without our presence. I knew we could trust them to party well on their own.

Harrigan's in Hunter Valley was a haven after a long day of driving and heat. It felt heavenly to freshen up and cool down.

Off to the "Irish Pub" - somehow that doesn't sound right in the heart of wine country.

I wanted to do the hot air balloon trip over the Hunter Valley, but they leave at 5 a.m. from several miles away and this is Sunday night so we are not able to get it booked before then. Instead I'll check out wine tours a little closer to the ground. 5 a.m. is a little too sparrow's fart for me this time around. (consult Auzzie slang for that expression)

Unfortunately the place we chose to stay does not do winery tours so we will have to check out some spots in the morning.