The Great Ocean Road Continued!

Day One: Port Fairy and Griffith's Island

After leaving Adelaide we drove to Port Fairy. It was a long 7.5 hour drive but we made it in time to walk around Griffith's Island and see the light tower and the surrounding ocean and beaches. 

It started out as a beautiful walk until the rain and wind showed up! The last bit of the walk was a bit of a sandstorm but seeing the light tower, the black wallabies, and all else there made it totally worth it! After our walk, we hit East Side Take Away, a local restaurant that specializes in fresh seafood. We loaded up and had another sleepover in the Commodore with food and movies. This time we were parked right in front of the ocean. It was awesome! There was an intense storm that night and the waves were huge and the lightning was loud, it was really neat (and maybe a bit terrifying!).

Day Two: Port Campbell

Today was my (Sheila's) first day driving the car for a long distance. WOW it is so strange, I immediately tried to signal with the windshield wipers! Adam was so pro right from the start, I am even more impressed now! 

We arrived early in the day and had breakfast at the Alcove Cafe. While drinking my coffee, I looked up at the television screen to see a screen that said FIRES IN COOMA. Since we had been travelling we had missed most of the fires until now. We were scared about our town and our house so we called one of our friends in Cooma who assured us all was well! Whew... we then made sure to let our parents know we were okay too! Since bush fires are not really common back home we really had no idea the threat they posed until spending the summer here. There are plenty of plans, signs, commercials, radio ads, etc to inform and help people have a bush fire plan. 

Afterwards we headed to the info station to get a map of places to see today! 

We saw many amazing sights on our travels today. The Port Campbell area is home to:

1. London Bridge: A rock body in the ocean that looks just like a bridge falling apart

2. Lorc Ard Gorge: Another beautiful rock body in the ocean where you can walk down to the beach to view as well. This is the site where the clipper ship Lorc Ard ran ashore years ago. 

3. 12 Apostles: The Apostles are rock bodies sticking out of the ocean along the coastline. There is not 12 left but they still call them as such. 

This pic was taken down on Gibson's steps because the weather wasn't great at the higher up view point that day so our other pics aren't great.

4. Razorback: Another rock body (you guessed it!) in the ocean that is shaped like a razor.

5. The Gibson Steps: The last of the rock bodies we visited. This section was great because you could view it from above and then climb down the steps to the beach and walk along it while viewing the massive rock bodies along the coastline as well. It was beautiful. 

Adelaide, you are so HOT!!

After a long day of driving we made it to Adelaide :) We were so lucky to be able to stay with our friends Kevin and Fleur. Kevin did an exchange to Red Deer four years ago and worked with Adam. They live right by the beach in Seacliff and after a few cold beers we walked down to the beach and ventured around. It is a truly beautiful neighbourhood; the beach strip is 70 kms long and loads of people live within walking distance. 

Day 1: Cleland Wilderness Park

In the morning we all ran on along the beach and then headed to Cleland Wilderness Park in hopes of hugging a Koala. When we arrived we found out it would be too hot to hug the Koalas so that will just have to stay on our Aussie Bucket list for now! Cleland was AWESOME! Many of the animals are in open spaces and you can pet and feed them. 

We fed: Grey Kangaroos, Red Kangaroos, Wallabies, Ducks, Swans (a black one!), Birds and a Wombat (well Sheila accidently fed him, and then Adam accidently petted him..oops!). We learned A TON about Australian Wildlife today; we have been seeing many signs of animals that might run on the road and did not really know all of them until today :) 

We still got to see the Koalas and they were amazing!! We didn't get many great shots as they keep them in the shade on days that are 32C or over because they cannot sweat. If they have to be handled at all on these days the handlers put on a wet jacket and hold them that way. Kevin, Adam and I still figure we could have hugged them as it wasn't near the heat maximum when we there... ahh well, next time! (And it is good they are so great about taking are of the Koalas!) 

Adam feeding a Wallabie!

We finally see a Wombat and understand
 the signs we have seen everywhere! They are dangerous
things that are quite fast and have vicious bites!

Adam worked super hard to get these baby ducks out of the pond and up to him. It took him a while but the Mom finally let them come :) 

Yay another Wallabie! They are so cute; there were loads of them
including a bunch of baby ones!

This was a really old, grey kangaroo. He just chilled in the shade 

and waited for people to come to him:) 

Poor Hot Koalas...

The Black Swan!

After the Wilderness Park we had a great lunch in a pub in Stirling. Stirling would be the most amazing place to live, it is close to Adelaide and the beach but is nestled in the mountainside and is a bit cooler with many great shops, pubs and cafes. From there we drove up to the highest point in Adelaide to view the city (Mt Lofty). 

To finish off our day we hit Hahndorf, a little German town close to Stirling. There used to be many German towns and settlements before the second world war and this is one of them that got its name back after the war. The mainstreet is full of German pubs, restaurants and other shops. 

Day 2: THE BAROSSA

Today we had an AMAZING tour guide, Kevin! He drove us around the Barossa Valley Wine Region and took us to a bunch of different wineries!

At the beginning of our day we drove through the city and saw many of the Churches the city is known for. They are massive, and beautiful and everywhere. We also stopped by Fleur's school campus. She teaches at a private school (St. Peter's) and it sounds so cheesy but it was totally like Harry Potter. There was a huge campus, with many different old English brick style buildings, a beautiful Church, and beautiful grounds. 

When we made it to the Barossa we visited 6 wineries! 

1. Jacobs Creek: This winery was HUGE! It is the main sponsor of the Australian Open and has a wide variety of wines. 

2. Grand Burge: We tried a couple good wines here and left with our first purchase of the day!

3. Rockford: This winery was in a bank of lovely old brick buildings. The ceilings were barely high enough for Adam to stand in and the wine here was great! 

4. Dorrien Chateau: This is a family owned winery and we were able to try our first Mead here. There were many different flavors and it was definitely interesting. 

5. Two Hands: This winery was our favorite of the day! They has a sit down tasting and the lady who helped us was extremely knowledgable and helpful. The bottles had great names, labels and marketing. 

6. Penfolds: This was an older winery next to a train station. They had many wines to try and were quite friendly. 

Our wine tour day maxed out at 42C. Adam and I went directly to the beach when we got there. The ocean there is warmer and very calm because of the nearby Kangaroo Island that protects the mainland from the surf. 

The GREAT Ocean Road!!

After a long trip to Melbourne from Cooma, and a good night's sleep we hit the Great Ocean Road on January 4. When we left Melbourne it was +34C @ 10:30am and it was HOT! The Great Ocean Road runs from Geelong to Portland with many places to stop and view the sights, swim, eat etc.

We made it to Bell's Beach, put on our first coat of sunscreen, and hit the beach. It was a beautiful walk down to the beach and we were in the water in seconds, the sun here is so different than home. We were roasting and the water was great! Bell's Beach is home to many great Surfing Competitions during the year, I think there is a huge RipCurl one in November. 

After our swim, we got back on the Great Ocean Road and headed to Lorne. We stopped in @ a delicious fish and chips joint for lunch and then hit the Lorne Falls. The drive down to the falls was really REALLY STEEP! We were very worried about Maximus the Great (our Commodore) and whether or not it would make it back up. The falls were beautiful and you could climb right up to them, AND Maximus handled the hills like a champ and we made it out of there!! 























After finishing @ Lorne we headed to Portland for the night so that we would be that much closer to Adelaide :) Portland is a bit more of an industrial type beach town but it was a good place to walk around. We got a couple of pizzas and found a park with a bathroom/shower station and made a bed in the back of the station wagon. We brought a speaker for our Ipad and hooked up a movie and tucked in . It wasn't too bad of a sleep, it was really hot at first... I think the temperature got close to 40C but it did eventually cool off. 

A pic of us in the back of the Commodore after our pizza and movie :) 

Welcome to COOMA, our new town :)

We made it! 
This pic took a few takes, Adam set the camera up on a rock and had to keep jumping off and on the rock ledge to get the shot. After a few takes (or many), we got this one with both of us in it and smiling, success!!! 

The town itself is really cute; it has one main street with a few side streets that you can get to by taking one of the many roundabouts. (Adam figures he has driven more roundabouts here in the last month than in his whole life in Canada). We have most things we need here: a pool (which is only open during the warm months, three grocery stores, many 'bottle shops', a movie theatre, cafes, restaurants, random shops (clothing, bedding, books, bargain, Target Country~ kinda like Saan), tennis courts, ovals (fields to play sport in), a video store, and even a few fast food places too! It is one of the last small town before the mountain resort areas and so we have many amenities despite our small population. 

Cooma is LOADED WITH HILLS! Our street is all uphill for about one km and then when you get there, our laneway is 150m and we are nestled in the hillside. Our backyard backs onto the mountain region with many hills, high grasses and of course wildlife.

Here are a few house pics!

This is our front deck. This is also the front of the house, you come up to the house and the front door is next to the window this photo was taken from. The deck gets lots of sunlight in the mid to late afternoon. 

This is the living room right next to the front door. The main floor is really open and quite spacious.

This is the kitchen and dining area. Off to the right when you can see sunlight is the laundry room and back door (which leads to the back yard, the wilderness and our laundry line!)

If you go right down the hall there is 4 bedrooms and two bathrooms. Our bedroom is quite large and has its own deck that faces the front of the property. Kari and Phil redid both the bathrooms before they left and they are AWESOME! They have rain shower heads, heat lamps and the main one has a great tub (for the cold Aussie winter ~ the locals tell us that despite the mild temperatures it gets quite cold because the houses are not insulated the same here). 

This is our front lawn area from the deck. This is about 1/3 of our yard. We have a huge area in the back as well and the yard goes past the swing set and ends with a trampoline. Under the deck, we have a garage and a carport. The garage is literally built right into the hill/mountain and so the back end of the garage is literally just huge rock from the hillside.

SYDNEY = WOW

Dec 30:The train ride here took just over an hour and a half. It was absolutely breathtaking. We rode along the coast, stopped in the forest, and even at a stop called CoalCliff which was pretty crazy. The train stops literally in the middle of the Coal yard which is on a cliff, with piles of coal everywhere! 

We arrived in Sydney with ease and walked to out hotel; Swissotel Sydney. We scored this hotel on Hotwire before we left with some Christmas money from our families! Thanks family!! This hotel was in the middle of downtown and walking distance to the Harbour. We dropped off our bags and headed on another adventure!! 

After getting our iPad and Cell phone hooked up, we grabbed a sub and a Gloria Jean's Coffee (delicious) and hit the Ferries to go to Manly beach! 

The ferry ride was great! We saw the bridge, the Sydney Opera House and many other famous and amazing sights. Our train ticket was a multi pass so the ferry ride was included, bonus! 

We wandered around the shops and Manly beach for a couple of hours in the heat. It was beautiful and quaint there. After a quick ferry home, we walked to the Sydney Opera House, and the Botanical Gardens; also awesome! After walking for almost seven hours we grabbed a pizza and a case of beer and hung out in our hotel room.

 Okay so the bird cages are random... but we found this little side street with all these bird cages and we went to go take some pictures. True story, they have hidden speakers in the alley and they play hundreds of different bird calls. You totally think there are birds in the cages until you get closer and realize there are none. 

Dec 31: New Year's Eve

The day time was not overly exciting for us here... we slept in, worked out, found a Starbucks (Yay! Used some of my Christmas gift cards!), and explored an area called the Rocks (older part by the harbour with lots of cool old pubs). 

At around 430 we ended up in a pub called the Glenmore! We had a great dinner of Salt and Pepper Squid and Burgers... followed by a few pitchers of beer and laughs. 

We headed down into the Rocks section near the bridge around 8 and there was tons of action in the street. Pubs sell beer in cans or plastic cups and people walk around visiting, socializing and buying/selling things. It was here we caught the 9pm fireworks! They were good, but we didn't have the best spot! 

We spent the next couple of hours wandering around looking for a great spot and exploring. At around 1030ish we sat down on a hill to wait for the fireworks...and promptly fell asleep. Yup gotta love two days of walking and jet lag! We woke up in time for the fireworks; they were one of the most amazing events I have ever seen. With 45,000 people in the streets, 13 minutes of fireworks and 7.7 million dollars spent, they were truly EPIC. 

We were right under the bridge but off to the side a little for them and the view was spectacular. We took some pictures but mostly just stood in awe. I know it sounds so cheesy, but if you have ever been you understand. It is like being a little kid all over again, except this show is pumped up and there is literally dozens of different locations setting them off, it is hard to know where to look! 


After the fireworks, it was time to walk back. The streets of downtown were all completely closed off to cars and what would be a 15 minute walk took us almost 45 as we walked with the 1000s of people in the streets. It was great; people were just so excited and happy and silly. 

We totally crashed when we returned to the hotel. What an awesome two days! 

Wollongong!

Ohh the suspense. We made it safely to Wollongong. Adam was AWESOME driving on the left side of the road. 

Wollongong is a beautiful city next to Sydney. Some might say it is like a Suburb but our new friend Nic told us there is upwards of a million people in the area. Definitely city-size to us Red Deer folks! 

Nic is one of Kari's friends from Primary school and she is the best! She came to meet us with Kari, and quickly became our first friend here in Australia. She offered us a place to stay and keys to her house and so we were off! 


When we arrived in Wollongong we walked around for a few hours, exploring the beach and coastline. They even have a 50m competitive pool that is free for patrons who just want to swim lanes.. you can jump out of the pool and right into the ocean as it is built right next to it. So cool! 

*Nic was so amazing and helpful; we would have truly been lost without her help and suggestions on what to do both in Wollongong and in Sydney. She even dropped us at the train the next am. Awesome new friend! :) 
Our stay in Wollongong was short, after exploring we went for drinks and dinner with Nic and planned to get on the train to Sydney the next day. 

Travelling to Oz!!

The flight down under was AWESOME! We had the emergency exit row on our flight to LA and then when we checked into Qantas... the guy said he liked us and gave us our own row for the 13.5 hour flight to Sydney! 

Adam and I were exhausted by the time we got on the LA flight and the trip to Sydney was pretty easy; we slept A TON! Qantas was hands down the best flight provider we have ever flown with, here's why:
1. They had an itinerary so you knew when services were provided.
2. They fed us two great meals (Sea Bass for Dinner and Bacon Omelettes for Breakfast)
3. They gave us a Refresh Pack to get through the night, it included snacks, water etc.
4. Each seat gets a blanket, pillow, earphones, eye mask and toothbrush + paste at no extra cost.
5. They have loads of movies, tv shows, music and games. You can even text message other seats on the plane. 
6. They have a water station for when you are thirsty and they have a snack bar so you are never hungry.

We landed in Sydney around 1030am on Dec 28. Kari had sent us an email that said to meet at Macca's. We had NO CLUE what this meant but figured we could ask someone there... so we did. 

The Security Guard we asked thought I was nuts. He replied, "You know... the big yellow M? As in McDonalds?" 

Yup folks that's right, I made a total goof of myself... a day later we found a sign that actually had Macca's on it. So we took a picture. :) 

Anyhow, we then met up with Kari, Phil, Georgina and Benson (the Aussies coming to you!) as well as their friend Nicole and went to the beach to get some lunch. WOW is Sydney ever beautiful. We went to Maruba beach near Cogee and hit up a Cafe for some food. After that, we headed to our hotel and Adam and I had a long nap! 

That evening we all hung out, ordered Thai food and drank a few beers while visiting! Kari and Phil are awesome, we are so excited for them to meet all of our Red Deer peeps. Their kids are also amazing; they have lots of energy and are tons of fun. We hope they enjoy the snow!! 

The next morning we said goodbye to Kari and Phil and headed off on our next adventure... driving. Driving on the wrong side of the road (well to us anyway). Out of Sydney. On the "Motorway".