Category: Australia

Day 39: The Limestone Coast

After a HUGE delicious brekky, Stephanie and Craig gave us detailed directions for our trip along the Limestone Coast. We bade a fond farewell to the Victoria House and hit the road.

 

A big brekky by the garden – we are ready to face the day!

Highly recommended for anyone driving the GOR – Victoria House B&B

First stop was Mount Gambier – a little town with two big volcanic craters, both filled with lakes. One of the craters had a small wildlife area were we went looking for koalas – we found them high in the trees, sleeping. We have come to the conclusion that koalas are boring, and entertained ourselves with the local birds instead. The Swamp Hens were very friendly (especially when you feed them pretzels), and the Cape Barren Geese are very feisty (especially when you flap your jacket at them – apparently that is a sign of aggression that they will respond to!).

Blue Lake in Mount Gambier

 

Hanging out with the Swamp Hens on the shores of Valley Lake – inside a crater

Igor being friendly, and then not so friendly, with the Cape Barren Geese

While Mount Gambier has a bunch of caves, we were still a bit caved-out from New Zealand, so we decided pass. Our final stop before hitting the road again was the Umpherston Sinkhole. Not as big as the one we missed in New Zealand, but it had a very pretty garden at the bottom.

 

Such a pretty garden – lovely use of a sinkhole.

We stopped for lunch on the beach in Robe – another quaint village, similar to Port Fairy – and took a quick walk to view their distinctive lighthouse.

Admiring the lighthouse in Robe

 

A mini-London Bridge! The sea is getting stormy – time to hit the road.

The final stretch of the Limestone Coast was the Princes Highway through Coorong National Park – a 130km road of nothingness, with a lonely little gas station halfway through.

A long, long, long stretch of road on the Limestone Coast

The huge lagoon of Coorong National Park

Salty beach in Coorong National Park – reminded us of the lagunas in the Atacama Desert

Once we reached the Fleurieu Peninsula, we hopped a short ferry at Wellington, and arrived at the Port Elliot YHA – a gorgeous beach house that had recently been renovated into a stylish hostel. While Port Elliot doesn’t have many dining options open for dinner, we ordered the Mushroom Madness pizza from the Cockles Café – one of the best pizzas we’ve ever had! Great ending to the day.

Catching the free ferry in Wellington, SA

This pizza was stupid good.

Day 38: The Great Ocean Road – Part II

Today was jam-packed with stops, so we were on the road by 7AM to make the most of the daylight. First stop was a bush walk at Maits Rest.

A misty morning walk in Mait’s Rest

Next stop was another animal attraction: The Great Ocean Road ECO Wildlife Park. No one had recommended this and we can’t imagine why – it was awesome! The owner, Steve, is living our dream: fed up with life in the city (Melbourne in his case) and wanting a more wholesome environment for his kids, he started a farm / animal park about 7 years ago and has a goal of being completely self-sustaining within the next 5. He has a petting area with the usual suspects: kangaroos, emu, deer & alpacas – but for an extra $5pp you get a special interaction…WITH DINGOS.

A regal peacock greets us at the entrance to the Great Ocean Road Wildlife Park – we will never be too old for petting zoos!

Spending time with lazy & itchy kangaroos!

This greedy red deer kept following me around, and eventually took my entire bag of feed out of my hand and ate it in one gulp!

Igor is a sucker for a pretty face – this llama is gorgeous!

 

Falling in love with emus – these giant birds are like little dinosaurs!

 

DINGOS! They are so sweet – they just want love & attention

This fellow is awesome – he marched right up to me and sat in my lap!

The morning flew by at the animal park, so after a quick PB&J lunch (boy do we miss the RV!) we had to get back on the road to visit the most iconic attraction of the GOR – the Twelve Apostles (Marketing again – turns out there are only 9. They used to be called “The Sow and Piglets” but that wasn’t drawing enough visitors), as well as the other rock formations along the coast.

 

Igor is disappointed in the quality of the cuisine – but the warning signs at our next attraction seem to promise something exciting!

The Twelve Apostles

London Bridge

The closest we’ll get to “London Bridge” during this trip

Loch Ard Gorge

After all the rocks, we were in the mood to see some more animals! This time we visited the Tower Hill Animal Sanctuary for more kangaroos, wallabies & emus, this time in their natural habitat.

Tower Hill Animal Sanctuary

More emus! Jut chillin’ by the side of the road – you can’t miss them!

A short walk along the path, and we run into a wallaby!

More kangaroos – best of all was mummy kangaroo with a little joey!

After all the wild life, we hike to the top of Tower Hill

View from the top of Tower Hill

As the sun was starting to set, we made a quick stop to the quaint seaside town of Port Fairy to check out the historic wharf & lighthouse before finishing the day at the Victoria House Bed & Breakfast in Portland.

Igor taking aim at the Port Fairy Lighthouse! Run for cover – argh!

Port Fairy Lighthouse

Sunset in Port Fairy

Our hosts, Stephanie & Craig, were incredibly welcoming and set us up in the Honeymoon Suite (no joke)! Stephanie recommended Lemongrass Thai for dinner, where we could bring our BYO sparkling. After dinner and a hot shower, we settled into the living room to enjoy a sherry nightcap by the fire.

Dinner out at Lemon Grass Thai

Our room at the Victoria House B&B – the Honeymoon Suite

Writing emails by the fire, with a glass of sherry – good evening!

Day 37: The Great Ocean Road – Part I

We knocked on Mama & Bo’s door at 5AM for a quick goodbye hug – Igor & Lindsay are now officially on our own! We flew into the regional Avalon airport outside Melbourne, only to find out that Lindsay accidentally reserved our rental car at the main Melbourne airport – oops! Luckily we hadn’t prepaid, so after confirming there was no fee to cancel, we booked the last car in Avalon and headed out for the Great Ocean Road!

Since Igor’s favorite type of attraction is animals, our first stop was in Angelsea. The local golf course has always had a herd of kangaroos that live on the course (helping to keep the grass short!) – after years of people trespassing to take pictures, they finally started running little tours via golf cart. It was a little hokey, but a very cute stop.

 

Kangaroo tour at the Angelsea Golf Course

Good life for the kangaroos!

So far we have learned that kangaroos like vineyards & golf

We continued West along the coast, stopping whenever we had the interest: Spit PointLighthouse, a fantastic view of the road at Teddy’s Lookout, and our first sighting of koalas at Kenneth River! We could see a group of about a dozen tourists standing under some eucalyptus trees & pointing up, so we pulled off the road to see what the commotion was about. Sure enough – three koalas were eating/sleeping high in the branches.

 

View of the Spit Point Lighthouse

Trip for our first Aussie road trip, on the Great Ocean Road

Short detour to Teddy’s Lookout

Panorama of the GOR from Teddy’s Lookout – totally worth a stop!

Koalas in the trees at Kenneth River!

While that was nice to check off our list, the best part about Kenneth River was the large number of cockatoos, who were very unafraid of tourists! One of the tourist groups had been told to bring biscuits to feed the cockatoos out of your hands – boy did that work! The groups was very friendly, and offered everyone standing around a biscuit as well – there was no shortage of birds, so everyone got a picture of themselves with the wildlife.

 

Lindsay with wild cockatoos

 

Igor with wild cockatoos

 

ALL THE WILD COCKAOOS

Looking at the time, we decided we had just enough time for one more attraction before sundown, so we booked it to the Otway Lighthouse just in time for a quick climb to the top. While the lighthouse complex closed at 5PM, the lighthouse guide told us we could let ourselves out via turnstile whenever we liked, so we stayed around after everyone left the park to watch the sunset in peace.

Tour of the Otway Lighthouse

Enjoying the sunset in peace

Day 36: Sydney

While our original itinerary included the Sydney Harbour Bridge Walk (@ $230pp – no cameras allowed), once we realized you can walk across the bridge on the sidewalk for free we decided we could save that money for a really spectacular dinner instead. We headed out first thing in the morning, and got fantastic views of the Harbour & Opera House.

Walking across the Sydney Harbour Bridge

Once we got to North Sydney, we checked out their version of Coney Island – Luna Park (Igor thinks Sydney has New York envy – every neighborhood we visited so far as an NYC counterpart). Unfortunately, the park was closed for the day, but the creepy sign was still cool to see up close.

Entrance to Luna Park with Mama

 

If they had been open, I would gotten half-priced fare!

As it was a very hot day, we decided to stop for some ice cream before heading back over the bridge, – yum! The cool treat gave us the extra energy we needed to climb to the top of the pylon for a bit of history of the building of the bridge & more great views.

Ice-cream for lunch – this was a great idea

Double-scoops each to power us back over the bridge

 

Sydney Bridge Climb Options: Left – $200+pp and you don’t get to take your camera, Right – $13pp and you can take as many pictures as you want! Deal!

Sydney Panorama from the top of the pylon

Back at the Rocks, we made one more stop as a group to the Old Sydney Observatory. Mama & Bo headed back to the hotel to freshen up before dinner, while Lindsay & Igor continued on to Darling Harbour. On our way back, we finally found the Citi building (Igor was quite happy seeing it from *afar*).

Enjoying a quick tour of the Sydney Observatory – with a great view of the Bridge

 

Exploring Old Sydney with Mama

Panorama of Darling Harbour

Walking along Darling Harbour

Loving the local art installations in Sydney

Oh look! The Citi Building! Let’s admire it from over here.

We really splurged for dinner (in order to celebrate Mother’s Day!): the Gold Penfolds 6-course pairing menu dinner cruise around Sydney Harbour. What a way to say farewell to Sydney – and to each other!

Starting our evening cruise with bubble & canapés, with a breathtaking view of the Sydney Opera House

The Sydney Opera House, the Sydney Harbour Bridge & Luna Park

Here’s to a decadent 6-course pairing menu

 

Fantastic foods, paired with delicious Penfold’s wines

Live music, for a bit of after dinner dancing – a perfect end to the evening

Day 35: The Hunter Valley

For our second day trip, we headed out to the wine country of the Hunter Valley. We started the day at Peterson House – a boutique winery that specializes in sparkling wine – yum!

Anytime, anywhere – Lindsay is up for bubbles! Great quality (and wide range of styles) at Peterson House in the Hunter Valley

We followed the recommendation of one of the locals for our second stop: Pepper Tree Wines – no sparkling unfortunately, but the gardens were lovely.

Mother-daughter morning drinking – recipe for a lovely vacation!

We heard that one of the nearby resorts had some pigs that tourists could help feed at noon. We found the pigs, but lunch must have been delayed that day, so we decided to go get lunch for ourselves instead.

We found the pigs in time for their feeding, but got bored of waiting and started playing on the nearby swing

Some couple have it together – some still need a little practice…

After a refreshing bite, it was time for some more wine tasting! Igor enjoyed the Syrahs at Lindemans, and Lindsay found some more sparkling at Tulloch.

Igor enjoying some classic Hunter Valley Syrah at Lindemans

 

Sparkling wine & family history at Tulloch – family-owned & operated for three generations

We stopped at two more wineries for views (after over-indulging in Martinborough, we wisely decided to cut ourselves off until dinner): Audrey Wilkinson Vineyard had the most spectacular views of the Hunter Valley, and Hope Estate (which Lindsay used to sell when she worked retail at Best Cellars in NYC!) where we got our first sighting of kangaroos!

Studding view of the Hunter Valley from Audrey Wilkinson Vineyard

Playing the in the vineyard at Audrey Wilkenson

 

A valiant attempt at a piggy-back ride – she loves him anyways

Hope Estate – home to quaffable Chardonnay & Shiraz…and a herd of kangaroos!

 

KANGAROOS. IN. THE. VINEYARD. Could this *be* any more Australian?!

When we got back to Sydney, we freshened up, and ventured outside the Marriott for a delicious seafood dinner in Historic Sydney at Fish at the Rocks.

Ending the day as it started – with some tasty Aussie bubbles

Day 34: The Blue Mountains

After a good night’s rest, we all met up bright & early at the Executive Lounge for a massive brekkie before heading out to the Blue Mountains for the day. We started our visit with a short hike to the Wentworth Waterfall, then on to Echo Point to view the Iconic Three Sisters.

The Blue Mountains – the oil in the air from the eucalyptus trees creates a blue haze

Enjoying the view from the top of Wentworth Falls

The Three Sisters and the Lone Bachelor

Walking down (half- down) the Giant Staircase

 

Quite a crowd at Echo Point – luckily only a fraction walk the trail so Igor can enjoy his animal statues

Lindsay & Bo got a private performance at the Waradah Aboriginal Center, where the performers demonstrated traditional dances & played a didgeridoo.

Aboriginal dance & didgeridoo performance at Waradah

Private show! The performers outnumbered the audience!

Next stop, we all headed for Scenic World: a Blue Mountains Disneyland – complete with rides! We ran around to try all the trams (along with dozens of Asian tourist), and enjoyed a walk through the Sculpture Garden – a pathway with about two dozen art installations ranging from bizarre, amusing, thought-provoking, and downright stupid. Winners announced in May – two of our favorites won awards!

First stop at Scenic World – the Scenic Skyway!

The couple of boots enjoying a glass-bottom view of the forest below

 

Another view-point of the Three Sisters & Lone Bachelor

Next ride – the steepest railway in the WORLD!

People’s Choice Award-winning installation: “Drop Bear Training Camp” – Koala squadron trying to take back their habitat by dropping the “f-bomb”

The Best & The Worst: Artist-Peer Award-winning “Whispers of the forest” where delightfully-creepy sound boxes whisper thoughts of the trees around you & “literally nothing” (looks like a lazy art-class project to me)

As the sun went down, we headed back to Sydney for another Executive Lounge dinner & unlimited bubbles. Cheers!

Temporarily stuck in Sydney traffic, but with a great view

Day 33: Sydney

We woke up in the wee hours of the morning to catch our 5AM shuttle to the airport. After a tasty airport lounge breasfast we boarded our short flight to Sydney. We caught the subway to Circular Quay and met up with Mama & Bo at the Marriott, where we mooched off their Executive Status to have a second breakfast at the lounge (I guess we were still on hobbit-time!).

The rest of the afternoon we all played tourists, exploring the famous Sydney Opera House & strolling through the nearby Botanical Gardens.

 

Admiring the exterior of the Sydney Opera House

 

Touring the inside of the Opera House

The Sydney Harbour Bridge

 

The Government House in the Royal Botanic Garden

Lindsay & Mama enjoying the gardens

 

The many native birds of Australia – no introduced Canadian Geese or Mallard Ducks, like in New Zealand!

Reading about the f*ed up history of the treatment of Aboriginals by European Australians – apparently their national “Sorry Day” is coming up this month.

After such an early start & a two-hour time zone change, Igor & Lindsay were knackered by 8PM. We enjoyed a “dinner” of appetizers & open bar sparkling, we passed out in our luxurious Marriott beds.