Bye bye Brisbane...

Well, the end of our trip is finally here - we leave for home tomrrow morning. Brisbane turned out to be a bit of a bust. It seems that the minute we landed in Queensland things started to go a little funny. Accomodations in the city itself were very hard to come by and Denver was even hung up on when he mentioned that we had a child with us! The first night was spent in a pretty run down hostel full of party-minded backpackers. (Well, we figured out where all the young b-pk'ers were hiding out - up in Queensland!) We rented a car the next morning and set off for the beaches up north.
Once we left the city, things were fine, but upon our return, we had the same problems with accomodations. We FINALLY found a place to stay last night after checking about a half dozen places. Brisbane is a hard city to get around in... lots of one way streets and streets and confusing intersections. The city itself is pretty modern compared to what else we have seen in Oz, and we felt it had very character compared to Melbourne, Sydney and Adelaide. Trying to find a place to have a decent meal was another disaster!
But all, Brisbane-bashing aside, we are happy we made it up here as we had some great weather and spent 4 days at 4 very different and beautiful beaches. Oliver's mood improved a lot once we were able to get some beach days in and we were able to spend the last few days of our trip relaxing... (until we got back into the city of course!) : )

So, we leave tomorrow at 11 a.m., so we will spend most of the 13 hour flight to L.A. during waking hours, which means lots of entertaining for Oliver. Wish us luck and we'll see you all soon!

Nancy
XXX

Adelaide and beyond...

Well, we will be leaving Adelaide tomorrow, after spending about 6 days in the city and surrounding regions. The hostel here is amazing - the best we have stayed at yet! It is very centrally located in what is a very small and walkable city. We like Adelaide very much - although there wasn't all that much for us to do and see within the city itself...

We arrived from Melbourne in the evening and spent a couple of nights in the hostel. We spent the first day walking around the city and basically "relaxing" (we visited 3 parks in the first day alone so Oliver was in heaven!) : )

The next day Denver went and rented a car and we set off for the Fleurieu (Floo-ree-oo!) peninsula. We spotted a seal playing in the surf off of Victor Harbour and saw countless kangaroos along the roadside. We drove around the peninsula and visited a few seaside villages and sights before spending the night in Port Elliot. We found accommodations in the upstairs portion of the town pub which was interesting!

The next morning we headed up past Adelaide to the Barossa wine region. I can only imagine how beautiful it must be in the summer. There were vineyards EVERYWHERE. (I think they have about 60 or so in the region.) We did a few walks and wine tastings and spent 2 nights in the local caravan park in a rented cabin, which was a lot of fun! We left this afternoon and are back in the Adelaide YHA. We will have a few more hours to spend in the city tomorrow before our final leg of the trip when we fly up to Brisbane and hopefully we will be able to finally wear some of the shorts we have packed!!!

Back in Melbourne and off to Adelaide.

Well, we are back in Melbourne after spending two rainy and (very) cold days in Port Fairy on the coast. Port Fairy was one of those places that we wished we would've had a better chance to explore, but the weather just would not cooperate. It seemed that every time the sun would come out, and we would take a chance on taking a walk, we would get caught in yet another frigid downpour (at one point, we actually had to take shelter as the hail that was coming down was the size of peas).

The hostel was a great old building from the mid 1800's (with insulation to match and no central heating of course) so we bundled up under our duvets at night and huddled together to stay warm. We met some fantastic people though, and I must say that weather aside, it was one of the best places we've seen so far.

We stopped at Tower Hill - an extinct volcano - on the way back and spotted emus, wallabies, kangaroos, and even 2 koalas perched high in the gum trees!

We spent last night here in Melbourne and we'll catch the bus to the airport this afternoon for our flight to Adelaide. We are going to be playing it by ear when we reach Adelaide as we have dropped our plans to visit Kangaroo island because of the cost. We'll hit the Barossa valley wine route, spend a couple of days in the city and we might get a chance to visit a National park or 2.

I can't believe we still have 2 more weeks here - it feels like we've been here forever! : )

The Great Ocean Road

We left Sydney for Melbourne, which was nice change of pace. A much more laid back city, not quite as slick and go, go, go as Sydney. We spent the morning in the Queen Victoria Market (Think Atwater market x 10) and the afternoon in the botanical gardens.
This morning, Denver went and rented a car and we left Melbourne to drive the Great Ocean Road to Port Fairy, where we are staying for the next 2 nights.

The scenery was amazing - and the road was the twistiest one I have even been on - so much so that Oliver had his first bout of car sickness. Poor little guy.

The weather has taken a bit of a turn... we were speaking with the manager of the hostel who told us that the temperature outside tonight is a balmy 6 degrees. Brrrrr! Oh well, as long as the sun is shining tommorrow while we are out and about we don't really mind!

We will spend the day here tomorrow before making our way back to Melbourne and then flying out to Adelaide on the 12th.

Cheers!

Goodbye Sydney, hello Melbourne!

We will be leaving Sydney this afternoon for Melbourne. We have done and seen so much in the past 4 days or so, but we will be happy to be moving on. Sydney is just another big city - we really could be just about anywhere in the world as there is such an international mix of people here and on some days you are hard pressed to hear an Aussie accent. In Melbourne we are planning on spending 2 nights in the city before finally renting a car to see some of the countryside - something we are all very much loking forward to.

Some of the highlights here in Sydney have been th zoo, the aquarium, the ferry rise to Manly beach (and Manly itself!) and the great hostels we have been staying in. Denver and I were both a little surprised at the quality of the accomodations - they are really just budget hotels with communal kitchens and common areas for watching t.v. etc. The one we have been in for the past 2 nights even has an "all you can eat" breakfast which we have been taking full advantage of! : )

We made it!

Wow - we're finally here! What a beautiful place!

The trip here went surprising well, although we got off to a bit of a rocky start. We left for T.O. a little later than we would have liked and after quite a few stops (dinner, bathroom breaks etc.) only made it to Emma's house close to 2 a.m.

The next day we took public transport to Pearson and flew out on time. Oliver finally got to sleep at about 9 p.m. and was so tired he actually slept through the entire landing! He only woke up once we put him onto his stroller to change planes at LAX.

The L.A. flight was delayed by about an hour, so we didn't actually take off until about 4 a.m. Montreal time, but we all managed to stay awake. The Qantas gang took really great care of us and after a nice dinner (about an hour into the flight) we all feel asleep and managed to get between 5-6 hours of rest. We landed in Sydney this morning at 8 a.m. local time and it is 4:15 p.m. as I write this and although we are tired we are all still awake. I think we will sleep well tonight but I think the effects of the jet lag will be minimal.

We are staying in a great hostel right in the middle of downtown. The facilities are spotless and our room has a double bed with a single bunk above. There is a full restaurant-sized stainless steel kitchen for our use and great hot showers! (I cannot remember the last time a shower felt as good as it did this afternoon after we finally checked into our room!)

We walked around the city a little today and got a feel for where everything is. It is a beautiful city and it was a fantastic day weather-wise. It's hard to believe that it is the middle of their winter as the sun was shining and it must've hit 20 degrees.

Tomorrow we are talking about hitting the Taronga zooand the aquarium later on in the week. Thursday we are flying to Melbourne to continue our adventure...

Leaving tonight...

Well, we finally decided to leave for Toronto tonight instead of tomorrow.

I was worried that we were cutting it too close if we were to leave Friday morning, so we have decided to hit the road tonight right after work and drive to Denver’s sister’s house, where we will spend the night. 

Our plane to L.A. leaves from Pearson International at 6:30 p.m., so we will have some time to relax before making our way to the airport. We will land at approx. midnight (Montreal time), have a short (3 hour) layover and then catch the 3 a.m. flight to Sydney, which will land at 5 p.m. the next day. (7 a.m. local time)

We all enjoy flying and Oliver has flown many times before (Vancouver, Cuba, Florida) but neither he or I have ever gone quite this distance before. (Denver visited Australia for 2 months when he was 17 or 18). 

Hopefully I will be able to update this blog from the road as many of the hostels (yes, we will be staying in some hostels!) have Internet service. We are sort of flying by the seat of our pants on this trip – we have our first 2 nights booked at a Sydney hostel, but other than that we are on our own. I won't be able to post any photos “from the road”, but you'll be able to track our progress as we explore the land down under…