A few fun days in Sydney

On Easter day we flew to Sydney and arrived at our hotel in the Kings Cross area, central Sydney.  We then made a mad dash via the Sydney transit to Circular Quay to catch a ferry to Manly.

The rainbow at the end of this mad dash was Easter Dinner prepared by our wonderful hosts the Kinsleys: Michaels, Tracie, and Siena!  Four bottles of wine latter we were much caught up on life events and the kids were playing as if they’d never been apart!

 

Next morning was Surfing Lessons on Bondi Beach.  Getting around Sydney wasn’t too hard, and Bondi Beach is beautiful.  Surfing lessons at a mature age after and eventful evening is a bit challenging to say the least.  Michael was old hat at it by the time we were done, while Danny and I got up on the boards at least once.  It was a good 3 hours of fighting to get out in the waves and falling off the boards about as quickly as we stood.  Tracie was kind enough to watch the kids who enjoyed playing in the sand and waves of the beach.

Later we explored one of Sydney’s famous Rock Pools found all over Sydney’s beaches.  Ethan found a Sea Star, Crabs, Anemones, Fish, and Urchins in the tidal pools around the pool. Then we moved onto Watson’s Bay with stunning views of the sun setting on Sydney and the city lights.

On day 3, we explore Darling Harbor’s Sydney Aquarium and Wild Life Sydney.  We were blessed with a great view of the elusive platypus, and tons of time viewing more of Australia’s unique wildlife.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Over the next two days we had a little more exploring time in Sydney, time at the theater with the Kinsley’s to watch Scooby-Doo Live on Stage, and then an afternoon at the Taronga Zoo.

This afternoon we realized we were all running on fumes and it was time to take an evening to just chill with a good dinner and early bed time.  All of this made much more enjoyable buy the wonderful view from our friends apartment in Manley.

Two days on the reef with a wonderful Boat Crew!

The last two days have been spent on Ocean Free and Ocean Freedom, operated by the same company. The crew on the boats was amazing, friendly, helpful, and from all over the world!

On our sail trip with Ocean Free, the tour was less than 25 folks and there were about 5 or 6 crew. They had a great crew to customer ratio. The crew hand-held the novice divers like my husband Danny. Others ran great snorkel tours, pointing out Fred the Loggerhead Turtle, Nemo and the Blacked Tip Reef Sharks.

We sailed to the inner reef and an island called Green Island. We snorkeled for a few hours on the beautiful reef then took a quick trip onto the island, which was definitely worth seeing. On the island Ethan found sand crabs, perfect shells, and a tided pool full of hermit crabs.

As Ethan was the only child on board, he was particularly pampered. He got to feed the sharks after swimming with them, and then he drove the boat almost the whole way back to port under the watchful eye of our captain.

I highly recommend this trip for anyone with kids or just snorkeling!

The second day was on Ocean Freedom. We had many of the same crew. The crew to customer ratio was a bit smaller but the crew was just as wonderful.

This trip went to or close to the outer reef. The waves and current made this a harder snorkel trip. But the larger reef made this s better place for those who dive. There was plenty of space to hang out and we enjoyed meeting folks from all over, backpacking the world.

The day ended on a small sand cay (in US terms sandbar). The cay only appears at low tide and made for a great place to snorkel.
A special thanks to the crew that made our trip and my son’s experience so special!

Ocean Free Under Sail..

Last Day on the Great Barrier Reef!

I can’t begin to express how glad we are that we choose to spend two days on the reef. If we ever come back to Australia it will be to sail on the reef for a week or more. This really is just one of those places you have to go and see for yourself! The photos don’t do it justice.

Yesterday, we went on a much larger boat to the outer reef. The good and the bad are: the reef is much larger and more colorful at the outer edge, however, the current, waves, and depth are also larger, which is very hard to snorkel particularly while trying to watch our seven year-old son. I recommend the inner reef for snorkeling and small kids and the outer reef for diving. But, I am sure every individuals experience is unique and therefore opinions will differ widely.

On the outer reef we saw more fish but catching them on film was not easy, except for the one fish that kept attacking me when I came near his home. He’s the goldish-brown fish in the photos below. He pecked at the camera and my facemask. I also caught a small stingray on film below. I should have worked less on photographing the fish and more on the wonderful corals!

At the end of the day we hung out on a sand cay (sand bar) that only pokes it’s peak out of the ocean at low tide. The water around the cay was the turquoise of the Caribbean. What a wonderful end of a great day on the reef.

 

Finding Nemo and other things in Cairns

We love Cairns!!!!!!

On Thursday we decided to just completely hang low. We spent the day swimming at the beautiful concrete pond. Cairns doesn’t really have a beach. It’s situated much like New Orleans right off the river and the ocean tides create a large mud flat at low tide. We explored the mud flat a bit and saw black crabs as well as a land walking fish called a mudskipper. Strange creatures.

After a day in the sun we stopped at Woolworth’s, which is the local grocery and variety store, we picked up roasted chicken and pre made salads and a six-pack of very good local beer to bring back to our hotel pool for a picnic. This is something every parent traveling to Australia should know about. Eating out at a mid range restaurant is still on average $100, and even McDonalds is around $25 to $30. The nicer restaurants have been closer to $200.

We woke up early on Friday for one of our two days out on the reef. We sailed on Ocean Free to the inner reef and Green Island. The sail out was gorgeous. And the snorkeling was amazing. Ethan did GREAT! He didn’t want to come back in and he stayed with the guided keeping mom’s worries calm. His highlight was swimming side by side with the reef sharks.

While Danny was diving Ethan and I saw giant clams, a sea turtle, Nemo in his anemone, and of course some beautiful corral. While on the boat, Ethan enjoyed feeding the reef sharks and driving the boat. On our short stay at Green Island Ethan found a tide pool filled with hermit crabs. He can spend hours playing with anything that crawls!

I’m so glad we opted for two trips out to the Great Barrier Reef! This is one of those things we may never do again and it really is an experience of a life Time!

Find the little black crabs below.

Now find the tiny Mudskipper, look for the eyes…

This is Fred

Yes, the colors of this giant clam were neon!

You can’t swim on the Cairns shore for many reasons, so they have this wonderful public pool in the city center.

Whether you like bats or not, this sight in the evenings in Cairns was amazing.  These are Spectacled Flying-Fox Bats, taking off for their nighly fruit feeding.

Cairns and the Rainforest

We arrived in Cairns on Tuesday evening too late to really do anything. So we checked-in then set up our 2 trips. Then walked around to explore. Cairns is a nice town on the shore. There is no real beach here, and we can’t swim anyway as it is Box-Jellyfish season. Box-jelly fish aren’t just painful like our jellyfish; they are deadly! But there is a nice public saltwater pool here that looks a lot like a large concrete pond, and it’s open to the public. We will be checking that out at some point.

On our way to dinner we saw very very large bats! We asked a pedestrian about them, and to our luck she happened to be one of the ecological educators in the area. The bats are called Spectacled Flying-fox Bats. They are fruit bats and live here in the city on Mango Trees. Ethan was in complete awe of the bats!

The next day we did the tourist thing; got up early to take the Kuranda train up the mountain into the rain forest. There’s a small shopping tourist area at the top and then down on a sky tram over the top of the rain forest. Our big find here was the Golden Orb Spider. I do not want to run into one of these webs!

Afterward we were whisked off to Hartley’s Crocodile Farm. Here we got to see a bunch of Australia’s fresh and salt-water crocks. There were of course many other of Australia’s unique animals here too like Wallabies and Kolas. The best excitement was the Crocodile Feeding Show.

Upon returning to Cairns we ran down the street quickly to get a photo of all the bats taking off for feeding time at dusk. Then we had dinner at Dundees. All in all a very busy day…..

Last day in Surfers Paradise

Yesterday was our last day in Surfers Paradise. Our tourist trip included an IVenture card, which is much like our City Cards. The pass included loads of tourist trap things to do. Yesterday, our tourist adventures include a tall ship cruise on the bay or riverside of the spits that form the Gold Coast. It was every bit of one of our typical booze cruises in the US. You could go on speedboat rides, and parasailing, hang on the beach, or kayak. We kayaked, and walked the beach.

Our big Australia excitement for the day was finding army’s of solider crabs on the muddy beach a bit away from all the hustle of the booze cruise. Very Alien Life form like! We chased them up and down the beach until Ethan was covered in mud! Then we ran across some boys shoving a pipe like sieve into the sand than searching the mud the brought up with this device. They were hunting Yabbys a small crayfish like animal to use for fishing and eating. Ethan took a go at hunting Yabbys and was completely enthralled.

Back at the barbecue area we saw a monitor lizard and a wallaby just hanging out. They live wild on the island. No photos of the wallaby but we did capture the crabs, yabbys, and a lizard on film.

We mad it back to our beach area resort in time to catch a few more waves to belly surf just before they closed the beach. Did I say earlier how warm the water is here? Even at dusk in the breeze the water felt great for our playtime,

Today, we will be on buses and planes almost all day getting to Cairns.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Monitor Lizards

 

 

 

Solider Crabs

 

Yabby’s

 

Until next post

Totally just beach tourists!

Up early to head to the beach for a few hours of sand and waves before going on one of the tourist chain jet boats. The ones you can find at any water area tourist spot. But what fun anyway and hey it came as part of our package.

Afterward we sat on the pier and had a few beers and lunch with live music. We could do this anywhere but why not be in Australia. The water is just gorgeous and about as warm and salty as it can possibly be…

Then we finished the day with a seconded beach excursion. Today wasn’t really much of an Australian adventure, but we had great family time!