Australia - Bucket List Adventure

My parents returned from their mission in November 2018.  While visiting at Thanksgiving time about their upcoming trip/cruise to Australia and New Zealand, Aaron was sitting at his computer.  It was Black Friday and in a random sort of way, he started looking at flights. The rest is now history.  When you have enough SkyMiles to fly to Australia and there happens to be a WorldMark resort on the island, it almost becomes a no-brainer!  That's how our spontaneous trip "down-under" came to pass.  We knew April would be a crazy month - we just didn't know HOW crazy it would become when we booked flights during the only available dates for the deal.  So glad we jumped on the chance before reality talked us out of it.

Honestly, it's pretty amazing when the Lord is in the details of our lives.  We felt that way about this excursion for many reasons.  For one, it happened to fall during the semester change which is the best time possible for a YSA bishop to be out of town (Aaron didn't even have the calling when we booked our flights).  My parents happened to be in the country and available to help with the kids (stand alone miracle given their schedule).  It also worked out for Brinley and Tanner to visit their G-parents/cousins in Hawaii during this particular week (after finals and before Brinley left for MTC) so no need for 'parent-guilt' about less time together before her missionary departure!  It all worked out and we met some amazing people along the way.

View of Shoal Bay from our window.

Our time in Australia could easily be divided up into three sections; Shoal Bay, the cruise, time in Sydney.  First - time at the resort in Shoal Bay.  After landing in Sydney, we rented a car and drove 3 hours into the beautiful country/resort area of Port Stephens.  It's autumn there and the kids are in school so there were few crowds in this relaxed beach town.

Shoal Bay - quiet on weekdays

Spicy basil - best Thai food of the trip

Green curry - so delicious

The weather forecast called for rain and from the clouds, you can see we didn't know what to expect.  Regardless, we spent most of the day hiking and exploring the beautiful national parks in the area.

Fingal Spit - leading to Shark's Island

The timing was perfect for us to pursue the goal of walking the distance on this sandbar to Shark's Island.  It is often completely covered with water making the trek foolishly dangerous otherwise.

Shark's Island - in the middle of the ocean

Mainland behind Aaron.

There were plenty of colorful birds, shells, jellyfish and ocean breezes.  We hiked to Zenith Beach and Aaron later braved the cooler weather and swam in Shoal Bay.  He spotted dolphins nearby.  We saw several swimming while eating dinner at the Shoal Bay Country Club Restaurant that evening.

Rainbow Lorikeets - outside our resort window

sunrise atop Tomaree Mountain

It always pays to talk with the locals.  We gathered lots of information from Uber drivers, waitresses, store clerks and tour guides while in Australia.  Love learning about new places.  The gal at Mod Thai told us about this awesome hike to do.  Since we were up early every day anyway, we took her advice and climbed Tomaree Mountain in time to watch the sunrise.  I walk/ran the steep trail twice and Aaron enjoyed quiet time at the mountain top - one of his favorite parts of the trip.

Shark Island - there's a glimpse of the sandbar

Zenith Beach from a look-out point

 After our morning work-out, it was time to check out and head back to Sydney.  Aaron did very well driving on the left side of the road/car but we both had to focus especially when we hit traffic.

Pelicans followed the captured fish ashore.

We stopped at Nelson Bay en route to Sydney to take in a few more beautiful views and enjoy a tasty lunch at Nelson Head Inner Lighthouse Tea Room (favorite fresh food).  The sun came out!

Best fresh food of the trip - chicken salad was perfection.

Lots of sailboats out on a Saturday.

Lighthouse/Marine Rescue at Port Stephens in Nelson Bay

We returned the rental car to the airport and took an Uber to our hotel in Sydney later that afternoon.  Aaron has learned how to shop for hotel bookings and scored a night at the Four Seasons Hotel (fancy) for less than the Marriott nearby.  He paid a little extra for the Sunday morning breakfast buffet to be included since nicer hotels don't offer continental breakfasts:).  It was so worth it - the spread was amazing and everything looked so beautiful.  I opted not to snap pics except for the honeycomb since I knew Anna would want to see it.

real honeycomb in the breakfast buffet area

Sydney Harbor view from our hotel window

Relieved to know it wouldn't cost $25 to eat these nuts!

Sydney Harbor Bridge

Saturday evening we explored The Rocks area of Sydney and took in all the sites and sounds of this quaint part of the city.  Everything about the Sydney Harbor and surrounding areas exceeded my expectations in terms of beauty, form and function.  A great vibe in this part of Australia!

Wherever we travel, visiting different branches/wards of the Church is a highlight.  After our delicious breakfast, we took an Uber to another part of the city to attend sacrament meeting.  As we walked up to the building, we saw a few other couples (visitors from UT) and the missionaries arriving also.  Our friendly bunch started talking and we discovered this Elder from our hometown.

We snapped a pic and sent it to Elder Loveland's family.

It didn't take long to figure out there would be no sacrament meeting that day.  Instead, the locals were watching the re-broadcast of General Conference which we viewed the week before.  Though a bit disappointing, we ended up connecting with the three UT couples and took a beautiful walk to the train station with them and rode back to our hotel.

Carol - neighbor to my college roommate/teammate Cathy Jolley Peterson.
 We became fast friends.

We checked out of the hotel and walked to the port to board the ship.

on deck of the cruise ship

When making travel plans, Aaron and I knew we wouldn't want to stay in one place (WorldMark resort) the entire time even if it was most cost effective.  Picking the right cruise (from Sydney to Melbourne and back) allowed us to visit another part of the country while keeping costs in check.  No more car rental, hotels or meals to pay for!  It was a brilliant plan actually.

Lunch time on board - Sunday afternoon

cabin - Aaron wanted to try out a balcony room 

Another view of the Sydney Opera House from our balcony

Only on a cruise ship do hanging towel creations scare you when you walk into your room at night. 

This 3 day-4 night cruise meant we had two days at sea and one day in Melbourne (pronounced mel-bun).  I observed coming into port to be a little different as we were guided by a smaller boat between floating marking posts. We later learned that Melbourne is a very wide, shallow bay and not deep enough for cruise ships to port unless guided to navigate through the man-made channel cut out for larger vessels.

Fast-growing city of Melbourne - population of nearly 5 million.

The vast majority of cruisers on-board were Aussies on "holiday".  As such, several we talked with came to visit friends and family in Melbourne, shop for particular items they couldn't get back home, etc.  Aaron and I picked a very 'touristy' excursion - "Countryside, Birds & Vintage Train" and enjoyed the tour guide best of all.  He was a retired teacher and delighted in sharing all kinds of interesting information (the stuff I love best about traveling).  I had no idea about the somewhat friendly rival between the cities of Melbourne and Sydney and its historical roots.  Nearly 40% of the Australian population is comprised in these two metro areas (10 million people - 25 million in entire country).  The cities certainly have different personalities and strengths which became apparent after visiting both.  We didn't spent much time in the downtown area as our excursion took us to the countryside:).

Boarding "Puffing Billy"

We took a train ride on the famous steam engine "Puffing Billy" through the countryside.  There were several road signs for koalas, kangaroo and wombats but they are generally out at dawn and dusk.

That's us on "Puffing Billy"

Coal is imported to run this vintage train with history - now a tourist attraction.

Cockatoos are a common site in the area. I really enjoyed the beauty of the rainbow lorikeets that were prevalent in the Shoal Bay area though they are extremely noisy birds.

All of our meals were fantastic and we sat at our assigned table for dinner each evening.  Crew members make special efforts to get to know cruisers and we had fun with these two.

Our cabin

We were welcomed aboard with a gigantic celebration cake and another one was served at departure.  The days clipped by quickly for us on board.  And the best part of it all was meeting Janice & Garry from Canberra, Australia.  It's really quite a cool story. 

Aaron & Heather, Janice & Garry

When we first boarded (at debarkation), Aaron and I were on deck and asked the couple next to us if they would take our picture as we left the Sydney Harbor.  We did the same for them and then started talking.  Right away we connected.  The next day Aaron and I attended a health class and guess who we saw there?  Janice & Garry.  At dinner, we found out their assigned table was close to ours.  The next few nights we actually planned to "hang out" together after dinner and literally talked for hours.  It wasn't until our final evening on board that we discovered our rooms were only two doors apart!  Funny we hadn't crossed paths in the hallway near our rooms.  With over 2500 passengers on board, Aaron and I felt the Lord inspired us to meet Janice & Garry.  It was absolutely the best part about our time in Australia.  We look forward to having them visit us in the USA in the future. 

Morning we returned to Sydney Harbor

Beautiful sunrise

Leaving Radiance of the Seas

Front of Sydney Opera House

After we got off the ship that morning, we were able to check our luggage at the nearby Marriot so we were free to explore all day.  We made the most of our last day in Australia and purchased the hop-on-hop-off harbor cruise to get around different parts of the city.  While waiting for the first run of the day, we walked around the Royal Botanic Gardens.

Display featured 'biting plants' - hence the words being manicured.

We took the ferry over to the Taronga Zoo and spent the morning enjoying all the animals one would expect to see in Australia. We saw a plethora of new creatures large and small and learned the world's most deadly snakes reside in this country.

Koalas napping/digesting food

This guy had lots of personality!

A favorite part of our visit to the zoo was observing the very active gorillas and watching elephants be groomed and bathed.  They are very intelligent animals and know the routine.  The elephants would lift each foot at the appropriate time for the scrubbing, turn around for the hose at the right time, etc.  It was fascinating.  Then we were back on the ferry.

Old lighthouse at end of harbor

Fort Denison - historic island fort in middle of Sydney Harbor

Mexican lunch at Chica Bonita's

After the zoo, we rode the ferry to Manly where we ate a delicious lunch, walked the Manly surfing beach and hiked to a look-out near Shelly Beach. The Indian Summer weather drew crowds that day (warmest day of our trip). Aaron was slightly envious of the people snorkeling in the Shelly area (too bad he was missing swim trunks and gear) but we didn't have a lot of time before the ferry would depart from the Manly Wharf.

I'm not a fan of souvenirs but a certain of our children had a very specific request for a sweatshirt from Australia.  While walking back to the dock, we passed a shop with a big end-of-season clearance sale.  And guess what we found?  Yep.  Ended up buying one for everyone (doubled as Easter gift) and managed to squeeze them into our luggage somehow.  The spontaneous shopping stop caused us to miss the last hop-on-hop-off ferry of the day but were able to take a public one back to Circular Quay (pronounced key).

Manly Beaches

That evening, we walked to the Barangaroo area - Sydney's newest harbourside precinct - then took the public ferry to see Darling Harbour, Luna Park/Milsons Point Wharf and cross under the Sydney Harbor Bridge before pulling into Circular Quay for the last time.  It was a gorgeous evening and fun way to end our time in Australia.

 Opal - public transport includes train/ferry/bus/light rail and is very efficient.

Pulling into port - then a short walk to our hotel.

My heavy traveling companion.

Getting to the other side of the world makes for long travel days.  Unfortunately, neither Aaron nor I are talented at sleeping on planes.  On the way to Australia, I watched three movies (new to me), "Crimes of Grindenwold" (Harry Potter), Ben-Hur and Lord of the Rings (first one).  On the return flight, I finished the 586-page (700 pages with footnotes) book Saints: The Standard of Truth.  It made for a wonderful conversation with the 21-year old Australian Jewish student sitting next to me during the flight.  She had SO many questions (a philosophy major at university) and was genuinely interested in the information.  She was traveling to LA with her family to observe Passover in some unique missionary way I didn't quite follow.  Regardless, I was astounded by her questions and could have talked forever but knowing our fellow travelers around us were sleeping, we kept it respectful.  It was a nice feeling to be able to clarify her misconceptions (she had seen the Book of Mormon Broadway musical) and encourage her along the path of discovering truth.  After our long travel, Aaron and I were excited to get home and prepare for Brinley's own missionary departure just days away.