Day 14: Sydney--Round 2

Today was our free day in Sydney and thankfully the rain held off for us.  Because our Duck Boat burnt to the ground, EF gave us a free tour of the Sydney Opera House.  Soooo cool to see what it looks like on the inside.  After that, we took off & headed to the aquarium – that Sydney aquarium is amazing.  We spent 2 hours there exploring – even got to see the platypus!!  Grabbed some lunch and then wandered into downtown Sydney.  Kids went off for some shopping fun. Kathryn’s cousin joined us as well.  I went & met a friend I hadn’t seen in years.  We all met back up & caught the bus back to the hotel.  As it’s Courtney’s 18^th birthday, we had to celebrate with cake!!  Now I’ve got five 18 yr olds!!  J  Said good-bye to our Texan & Puerto Rican friends as they are going to Hawaii tomorrow and not with us north.  Headed back to the hotel to pack for our 6 am flight. Sorry this is short, but it’s late and we have a suuuuper early shuttle to catch in the a.m…4 to be exact.

Off to get some shut eye – we’re off to Cairns tomorrow!!

~steph J

My PVHS Roamin' Spartans!!

Fun at the Aquarium

Happy 18th, Courtney!!

Day 13: Sydney!!!

What an enjoyable day in Sydney we had today!  Despite the rain and being soaked to the bone, we saw almost all of Sydney today.  We did a city tour via the bus all around town in the a.m.  Went out to Bondi Beach, stopped at a bunch of look-outs, & got great shots of the Opera House & the Bridge.  We stopped at the Opal Museum (sigh…birthstone…I resisted…), grabbed some lunch, and took a boat cruise of Sydney Harbour…in the rain.  We were dropped off in Darling Harbour and visited Sydney Wildlife Park before dinner.  It’s a mini-zoo, but after visiting Currumbin, it’s not as cool…good, but not as interactive.  After dinner we did a quick walk over the bridge and got some great shots of Sydney at night, all lit up.  It was an early night for us, but after traipsing all over the city in the rain, we were exhausted.  Tomorrow is our free day and we’re hoping the weather holds out…but we’re not optimistic.  We’ve got a few back-up plans for tomorrow, weather dependent.  Sydney is really a lovely, fun, vivid city…which is hard to see thru the raindrops.  Praying for good weather tomorrow…

~steph J

Team Iowa & driver Troy & Tour director Adam at the Gap

We love Sydney!!

Rain, Rain...Go Away!!

Even Eddie got some ups !!

Such a great looking bunch of people!!

Boat Cruise

Out for an evening stroll...Eddie got a new umbrella!

Day 12: Life is a Highway...

Today was a loooooong day on the coach, making our way to Sydney.  We were up early and on the coach by 7:30 as we had about a 9 hour trek south. Our first stop was a new one – our Tour Director’s parents own a macadamia nut farm and we stopped at their place south of Coff’s Harbour for a quick visit about macadamia nuts, how they harvest them, etc…  Was really cool as I really didn’t know they are native to Australia.  The bigger & better ones don’t necessarily come from Hawaii but from Australia. 

The main part of our day consisted of riding in the coach.  We played songs, watched some shows, played a scavenger hunt game, and took some naps.  We arrived in Sydney with enough time to check in and then head to the Sydney Tower and go up and see the city all lit up.  The weather didn’t cooperate as we made our way to dinner.  Pretty much downpoured on us on our trek to dinner.  Needless to say we were pretty happy to see our coach show up to drive us home.

We’re all praying the weather holds for the next two days in Sydney, but it’s not looking promising.   So if you all could help us out by doing the non-rain dance, we’d appreciate it mucho!

Better head to bed as we’ve a busy day touring all of Sydney on Sunday!

G’night!

~steph J

Adam showing off the macadamia fields

Kids jumpin' for joy at the farm

Lunch stop

Snack break - LOVE us our Magnums!!

Vultures when it comes to free Wi-Fi

Our Welcome to Sydney rainbow!

View from the Sky Tower

My drowned rats after our walk to dinner

Pics all uploaded

Finally got a huge block of internet time so I could upload pics, so went back and did Days 6,7 and 10. 

Enjoy!
~steph :)

Day 11: Koalas & Kangaroos

Woke up this morning & were greeted by some lovely rain clouds.  We packed up the ‘coach’ and headed south. Our first stop was Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary where we got to hold Koalas and get our pics taken with them.  Then, we got some time to wander around the Sanctuary and got to feed kangaroos. It was a bit drizzly while there but we still had a good time seeing the wildlife.  The Emu was a bit too friendly with Eddie – think he made a new friend.  Our next stop south was Byron Bay, a hippie little town on the coast.  The girls & Molly got dropped off separately as they went to take surf lessons.  The rest of us headed up to the lighthouse, Australia’s most eastern point.  A bit drizzle still, but cool to see. For free time in Byron Bay, we hit the Hog’s Breath Café while waiting for our surfers to finish.  Said they had a good time.  None are experts, by far, and were pretty exhausted afterwards.  Back on the coach we went for about a 3+ hour drive to our evening’s destination…Coffs Harbour.  It’s just a pit stop as we push on down to Sydney.  We’re staying at what seems to be a lovely resort, but we arrived in the dark, so really have no idea. J  We have an early wake-up call tomorrow to spend the entire day on the coach, about a 9 hour drive down to Sydney, so may have to get creative with our pics tomorrow.

~steph :)

Courtney & Happy Jay, the koala...who peed on her!

Time to pet & feed the kangaroos.

Eddie's new friend, the emu...who is lying at his feet..

Lighthouse fun...in the rain...

Eddie jumping sans girls...

Day 10: 4-Wheel Drive fun!!

Where to begin?!!?  What an amazing day!!  We went on a 4-wheel Drive tour out to Mount Tamborine all day – what a blast!   We stopped first to wander thru a wildlife area – saw a koala up in the tree!!  Even saw wild kangaroos out in the field!!  Soooo cool!!  Headed off into the mountains on a super bumpy road – kids flew a bit in the back of our ‘party’ bus!  Learned a new song – “Give me a home among the gumtrees.”  Kids are experts – even learned the actions! Stopped for tea and scones and headed off into the rainforest.  Hiked down Tamborine National Park to Curtis Falls.  Was cool to drive thru the Eucalyptus woods and see kangaroos out in the wild!  Wow!  Stopped for a delicious BBQ lunch, where the kids learned how to throw boomerangs and crack whips.  Eddie did an amazing job with the whip!  Back into our party bus we went and off for a rainforest tree top walk and fed the birds!  Girls did some screaming as they landed all over us…am still picking out birdseed from my hair!  One last stop at the overlook and back to Surfer’s we went.  Quick cleaning off of bird seed…and bird poop… and off to Hard Rock Café for dinner we went!  Couldn’t get us all together L so kids went one direction and adults went another.  Some had never been, so we had to do it! Sorry Bob!  Stopped down at the beach to check it out and back to the hotel we went.  We are having such an amazing time – so hard to believe we’ve been here a week…and that we have just one more week to go!!  Where has the time gone?!?  Looking back it’s so cool to see what we’ve done…and looking ahead to the itinerary makes me excited to watch their faces experience more fun!  For instance, tomorrow, we’re going to a wildlife sanctuary to hold koalas & feed kangaroos. Then the kids are going surfing while we visit Byron Bay.  Good stuff!  We’ll be in Sydney on Saturday – two big days on the coach…ugh.  But it’s all good!!

Until tomorrow…

~steph  :)

(pics to follow...running out of internet time..)

Koala in the wild...we disturbed his slumber...

Joey out in the wild...

Tea Time!

Curtis Falls

BBQ lunch

Olivia working on her boomerang form...

Cristina trying to master the whip...

Eddie was the whip master

Kathryn looking stylish while practicing her whip skills

Courtney paying listening intently to directions

Mike & Molly on our tree top walk

Adam, Debbie & I on the tree top walk

Bird feeding time!

After a run-in with a rooster, Olivia is a little skittish around the parakeets.

LOVING the day!!

Yeah Team Iowa!

Our entire bus:  Team Iowa, Team Texas, and Team Puerto Rico

Dinner at the Hard Rock

Adam joining in on our jumping fun!

Day 9: Surfer's Paradise

 We sadly said good-bye to Fraser Island this morning, boarded our Ferry & headed back to mainland Australia. We got back on our bus and headed back south.  First stop was Underwater World Aquarium where we saw all sorts of marine life & even watched a seal show!  Grabbed a quick lunch and back on the coach we went, continuing south.  Our destination of tonight is Surfer’s Paradise, and we arrived just in time to see the sun set.  Surfer’s is a big concrete jungle/Vegas feeling. We walked around a bit tonight, and hit some shops.  Not much to report today as we spent most of it on the coach. Weather is absolutely gorgeous here – mid 70s… a bit chilly in the morning and after the sun goes down at night. Our Tour Director, Adam, has challenged us all with an on-going trivia game.  One round was played in New Zealand. So far we’ve done another round here and just got another set of questions this afternoon.  Kids are in 2^nd place, adults in 3^rd – Go Iowa!!!

Tomorrow we’re off for an Australian adventure today… possibly learning how to throw boomerangs!

G’day from Surfers!

~steph J

Good-bye Fraser!

Hello Surfer's Paradise!