Good Bye to Australia!

Wednesday Dec 3

Well this is it, we are off.

A fond farewell to all the lovely Aussies we have met in our travels.  You have made this trip an incredible success!!! Merry Christmas to all of you!

First we fly to Auckland, then Vancouver tomorrow.  We have one day in Vancouver to help with time exchanges. Then off To Calgary to see Lisa and Ian.  Finally, home for Christmas and to see Andrew and Emily and everyone else too!

See You Soon!!

Kangaroo Dinner

Kangaroo Dinner - Tuesday Dec 2

Last day at the beach then on to the city.  We had a terrible storm overnight, so we slept in a bit.  Packing was a challenge as there were too many things to bring home.  We donated all our cooking utensils, towels, and food to St. Vincent de Paul.  They run a van every night for the down and out serving hot drinks and sandwiches.  We ran into them as we left the train station last night and knew that was where all our extra stuff would go.  They were pleased and took everything.

Next, we found a business to weigh our bags and ship the extra stuff home.  That was much less expensive than another suit case over four flights. (Auckland, Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto)  Four flights to get home!!!

We drove along the Pacific Scenic Drive up to Sidney.  Coffees and lunch on the way.  I booked into the hotel while Alan took the car back while I checked into the hotel.  We are right across from departures and only have to walk.  They even provided a cart at the entrance of the hotel that can be taken over to the terminal tomorrow.  It was handy when I was manoeuvring the luggage etc. by myself. Alan had Kangaroo for dinner!!! And no I did not!!!

 

 

 

 

 

Day in Sydney

Monday Dec 1

At the beach.  Wake up, eat breakfast, pack for day in Sydney.  Try to lock door, door lock broken, man fixes, drive to train station, finally find parking, purchase tickets and ride train to Sydney. 

At the main train station we buy two lattes and get on the hop on, hop off bus, stop at Darling Harbour, take lots of pictures, then we catch a ferry to Circle Key and change to another ferry heading to Manley Beach. The wind is howling and the sand is blowing hard.  When we turn around we are glad we brought our rain jackets as a dark storm is headed towards us.

We take the two ferry rides back then join up with the tourist bus again and take it around the rest of the downtown before heading back.  We pick up lattes and jump on a train to Wollongong. Unfortunately it is the milk run and it takes almost two hours, nineteen stops later.  We would have had to wait for the fast train, so we made it in about the same time. 

The rain started and it continued all night.  This is the first full rainstorm we have experienced since we arrived.  The electrical storm lasted three or more hours and was in close proximity.  The power flickered only once.  We were worried that the river behind us would flood and looked out the back door to see that it was three times the size it had been earlier in the day.  Guess what I dreamt about!!! We did prepare before we went to bed, so we could hop into clothes and leave in a hurry, but it wasn't necessary, thank goodness!!

Wollongong Surf Leisure Resort

Sunday Nov 30^th

Time to rise and shine.  We are slow to get out of bed but pack up quickly.  We head towards the town of Fairy Meadow and our campground but stop to fill up our car and have breakfast.  We stop in Fairy Meadow at a nice little restaurant for breakfast.  We have cheese, bacon, mushroom and tomato omelets……delicious.

With breakfast over we head towards the local monthly market and have a look around.  In the stalls we find a nice piece of homemade nougat and a gluten free caramel slice.

After the market we check in to our new cabin at the Wollongong Surf Leisure resort for the next two nights.  We find a much nicer accommodation right by the beach. At the resort we do laundry and we sort our suitcases, paperwork, food, etc.  We are half packed and one step closer to being ready for our return trip.  Tomorrow we are heading to Sydney.

Blue Dog Restaurant

Blue Dog Restaurant - Saturday Nov 29^th

A very early morning today as we are meeting Miriam and Jackie in Milton at 8 am.  We are early out the door so on the way we stop in Milton at the Heritage Bakery to pick up a few bakery items to take to Jackie’s – some raisin scones and a GF orange polenta cake.  Jackie is a local rug hooker who has just arrived home from the hospital. We arrive on time and Miriam meets us at the driveway.  She introduces us to Jackie.  We have a nice visit and look at all of her rugs.  Miriam has to run a course this morning so she must leave and we say our goodbyes to her.  We stay and have coffee and eat the bakery items with Jackie and have a great chat.  We thank her for the nice visit and say our goodbyes.

At the shore in Ulladulla we do a nice shore walk to look at the fossils.  We take a few pictures for later reference.  After our walk, we start the drive towards Wollongong, but stop for lunch at the Blue Dog restaurant.  We have bacon and eggs, toast and latte’s which is delicious.  That holds us for a while, so we continue up to Wollongong and stop at “i”.  We have been looking for accommodation but have not been so lucky to find any so they book a room for us.  We will be staying at the Sovereign Inn for one night. 

We head out after a bit of work to find supper and end up at the Bowls Club where I have a steak and Katherine has a nice chicken sheesh kabob.  We enjoy the food and have a nice conversation with the locals.

Tomorrow we are moving to our new cabin for the next two days.

Australian War Memorial

Australian War Memorial - Friday Nov 28^th

We are up early this morning to start packing our bags and check out of our nice golf and country club.  We head to the Yoawani dining room to do a bit of internet work before we leave and this nice Yoawani employee meets us at the door.  He helps us log in and says would we like coffee, to which we reply yes.  He says he will bring us a coffee (very nice of him).  During our internet time, he stops in to see how we are doing and we have a nice chat about our travels here in Australia.  He is thinking of taking his kids on a trip and Canada is high on the list.  We give him a few good ideas and also provide a nice quick slide show on what they will see based on a trip around Alberta.  Before we leave he tells us we must go to the War Memorial Museum.  He also hands me his business card.  We thank him for the coffee and the great accommodation and off we go.  When wecheck the card later, we find he is the club CEO (Adrian Derham).  We take Adrian’s advice and our trusty GPS finds the War Memorial.

After finding the free parking in the basement of the memorial, we park the car and head upstairs.  The building is beautiful stone, with wide open front steps and when you turn around to look back, WOW…you can see clear to Parliament House??  The sight is spectacular.

Inside, the building is also amazing, with wings dedicated for specific time periods of war (First World, Second World, and Korean War) and dedicated to the Australians that fought in the battles.  They include static displays, historic films, and combinations of movie and sound to highlight specific Aussie battles.  They are very moving and we watch all the displays.  We spend hours in the wings and after we tour as much as we can, we move on. 

Upstairs and outside is the most emotional war memorial we have ever seen.  Two long, long walls covered in bronze plaques and highlighted with poppies dedicated to the names of Aussies that served in the Great War, the Second World War, and newer conflicts today.  It is very moving and we read as many of the names as we can.  We find one Cornthwaite that fought in the Great War, 58th Battalion (Cornthwaite, W.M).  At the ends of the walls is a domed room that pays homage to the Unknown Soldier.  The dome is covered in millions of tiles which create images of each of the different forces (Air, Sea, Army and the Woman’s force).  Just an incredibly special place. 

On the way to Ulladulla, we pass a sign that says local police doing random roadside breath tests…..I missed that sign.  Not far down the road, and around a corner, here is a roadside Ride Program.  The officers pull five cars over at a time, they ask for your licence and then asks me to blow into this small handheld device and count to 5.  You don't even touch it! He was more interested in the fact Alan is Canadian and says he would like to go to Canada someday..….the Australians and Canadians are so much alike. 

The ground levels out after the town Bungendore and it is much flatter.  As we get closer to Batemans Bay the country side becomes very mountainous and we are back into twisty, windy, narrow roads. 

Eventually we arrive in Ulladulla and we find a motel. Dinner is at the local RSL. We call Miriam and she is home, so we stop over for a cup of coffee, an oatmeal square for Alan and a great yarn.
We take a few more pictures of rugs and she asks us to meet her the next morning in Milton at Jackies house.  We agree, say our goodbyes and head out.  We leave a nice bag of wool bits with Miriam as we don’t have enough room in our suitcase.  She is very happy to receive them.  She gives Kath a beautiful pair of English hooks.  We will be up early to be in Milton for a visit at 8 pm.