Bondi Beach

Today we took tours on a double decker bus around Sydney. We also took one to Bondi Beach. First we took one to the museum and looked at a lot of cool stuff. Then we walked to another bus station and I got a snack. It was Maxibon Bits (Dibs) and a Raspberry soda. After a while we got on a bus to Bondi Beach. We ate at Gabby’s Café. Then we took a million mile walk (not really but it felt like it). I had to go pee the whole time. When I saw the bathroom I thought it was the fastest I ever ran. Then we walked to Bronte Beach. There were lots of precautions. There were huge waves. Some surfers were actually surfing the waves that were huge. Then we walked back. After that we got on the bus back home. I felt sick. I took a nap on the bus. Then we had to transfer to another bus. We waited a while and then the bus came and then we went back to the hotel.

Pam/Mom says:

Sydney reminds me with a lot of San Francisco with all the boats in the bay, the bridge and the hills all rolling down to the water. We stopped at the Australian Museum b/c we thought it would tell us why so many of the Australian animals are deadly. It didn't. But it did have this cool interactive table with some of Australia's biggest threats and a saltwater croc jumps out at you. After that we took a short walk to catch the Bondi Beach Bus. It was way too cold to swim. So we took the sea-sculpted cliff walk to Bronte Beach. At Bondi & Bronte beach, they have these pools built right into the cliffs which are filled w/ocean water. The waves crash right into them. The surf was rough & high this day. It was an unbelievable sight. This is where the kids take lessons, swim team practices, etc. The scenery was awe inspiring - it changed every few seconds.

Weather: Around 70 degrees F, overcast and VERY windy. It didn't feel 70 at all.



In cliff pool @ Bronte

Bondi's cliff pool

To Sydney

Today we flew from Cairns to Sydney. The hotel is awesome! First we went to the botanical gardens. We saw a possum with its baby on its back. We saw cockatoos, bats, and kookaburras, we also heard them. Then we went back to the hotel and went in the pool but it was too cold for mother.

Weather: Cool, windy and partially cloudy – around 68 degrees F

Pam/Mom says:

It was sort of sad to leave our little tropical paradise. The setting was so relaxing. When we got to the Marriott - we checked out the Executive Lounge where we watched the "Melbourne Cup" which is a horse race similar to the Kentucky Derby. They say Australia comes to a standstill for those 4 minutes. It was very exciting and came down to a photo finish. The Botanical Gardens are huge and we saw quite a bit of bird life. The fruit bats aka flying foxes are just gross & there so many. The cockatoos remind of sheep - they graze in small herds. We saw some magpies attack some other tourists. They're quite nasty and people actually wear these hats with pipe cleaners, etc. sticking out so the magpies can't attack their head/face. We walked to Mrs. Macquarie's Point to see a beautiful view of the Opera House & Bridge. We also saw the Wollemi Pine. A recently discovered ancient pine in the Blue Mountains. There was also a beautiful purple tree, a jacaranda, which smells wonderful.


Possum with its baby

Large tree that randomly drops branches.

Magpies

Scary, but harmless fruit bats

Ducks in the waterlily pond

Hanging with a cockatoo

The famous Sydney Opera House & Bridge

Great Barrier Reef

Today (Monday) we went snorkeling on the Great Barrier Reef. It was lots of fun. We went to Upolo Cay for the 1st stop on the boat. I saw tons of fish. We moved to a new spot & then we ate lunch; I ate too fast & felt sick. After a little while, I went back in the water. Then I saw a BIG (I mean BIG) blue fish. After that we rode back home.

Weather: Same as Sunday.

Mom/Pam says:

The reef is huge - it's the only living structure on earth visible from the moon. It's bigger than the UK. The reef itself is actually made up of 3 things: mineral, animal & bacteria. The 1st spot we snorkeled at was a cay which was literally the smallest sand bar - I had ever seen. It was much more colorful and many more types of fish, clams, corals, etc. We saw a few Nemo fish ie clown fish. The water was much rougher & deeper. While snorkeling you could hear a faint tinkling sound - it was the fish munching on the coral. Amanda dove down to pet a giant clam. Then we moved a away from the cay & snorkeled some more. The giant fish they saw was a humphead maori wrasse. I missed it b/c my mask was leaking & went back for a new one. Alas, no turtles today. I did see the very poisonous rock fish which did scare me. They're camouflaged very well & I only saw it b/c its eyes were open. I couldn't find it when I tried to show it to Amanda. The whole experience was really fascinating.

Green Island

Today we went to Green Island and snorkeled. First, we went to Green Island on a boat. Then snorkeling we saw lots of fish. This 1 type of triggerfish bit mom twice not bad, and Aunt Amanda once badly. Then we ate and went back to snorkel on another beach. There were barely any fish. So we went snorkeling on the other beach. And then at the end, we saw two sea turtles!


Green Island



The Rails with some babies

Weather: Hot and humid. More clouds in Cairns than on Green Island. Around 32 degree Celsius.


Pam/Mom says:
Yes, we were bitten and Amanda is ok. Just a little bite to her calf, but it did bleed. My bites didn’t bleed. We later learned that fish was protecting a nest and is quite aggressive. I didn’t even see what bit me, but my 1st thought was “Piranha” which I’m pretty sure are nowhere near here. One tried to bite Chad later, but Amanda charged it & we got him out of there.

Green Island is a coral cay with a resort on it. It’s quite small – you walk around the whole island in less than 45 minutes. It’s very picturesque. It started out as a coral sand strip and then a few seeds grew and voila – it’s now an island. It also has these cute little birds - rails - on it. Several had little dark brown chicks – very adorable. After lunch, we walked the little vine-forest trail around the island.

Chad really took to snorkeling. He’s quite a natural at it. He really got into finding fish – we saw butterfly fish, triggerfish, silver fish & sea slugs & sea cucumbers. We’re very excited about tomorrow. It should be much more colorful & lots more fish. The turtles were so beautiful to see. We were just about to call it a day & we were sitting in the surf when Amanda spotted the turtle, she took off motoring in her flippers. It was & we were off, too. Chad had taken off his flippers – so there was the panic of trying to snorkel & get ready at the same time. She kept tracking it. We finally caught up to it, but it didn’t want anything to do with us. We watched it for a bit and just as it went off, another showed up and was just gracefully swimming along nibbling on this and that. It was so graceful and the shell was beautiful. Amanda said they were green turtles.


We've added two new sections to the blog - First is the weather for each day and second is a comment section for Mom/Pam on our experiences. These updates may come after the original post - so occasionally check the old ones for new additions! We've also discovered Aunt Amanda can get pictures off mom's camera - so keep an eye for new pictures too!

Billy Tea's Adventure into the Daintree Rain Forest!

Today we did the Billy Tea’s Tour. First we got on a bus, our first stop was at Mossman. There were markets. I bought a Milo, it is chocolate ice cream with chocolate in it. Then we got on the bus again and we went to the river cruise where we looked for crocs but there were none. Then we went back in the bus and went somewhere to take a walk through the rainforest. We saw a wild Cassowary that are very rare. Next we rode somewhere to eat but before we got to eat we got to feed wallabies and kangaroos. Then we ate and then went back in the bus and we went to go swimming. We also ate exotic fruit, some were called star apple and papaya. Then we went back in the bus and went to a beach and walked along it. Then we went back in the bus to go home.


A tree frog


Aunt Amanda, Mom, and me at the rainforest lookout

The wild cassowary

Me feeding one of the wallabies

Aunt Amanda and me standing inside some giant tree roots

A wild dingo eating something along the creek where we went swimming

Weather: Sunny, hot & humid. Around 32 degree Celsius. It did rain a bit going up the coast. Our tour guide told us that the clouds are beginning to build for the rainy season. Cairns gets an average of 3 meters of rainfall a year. The rainforest gets 3 to 10 meters of rain a yr! They’re also about to enter their cyclone season. Cyclones are exactly like a hurricane except the winds swirl in the opposite direction.

Pam/Mom says:

We had 1st wild kangaroo sighting on our way to Mossman. There was a whole group that came off the mountains were grazing with horses. We saw lots of sugarcane, too. It takes 7 tons of harvest to produce a ton of sugar. We tasted paw paw fruit at the Mossman markets – quite good. In Mossman, there were these huge rain trees covered with ribbon fern. They were quite impressive. The rain tree had a flower similar to our mimosa trees. The cruise was a bit of a disappointment, but we did see the green tree frog which is sort of symbol for the rainforest and surprisingly not poisonous. Seeing the cassowary was definitely cool. They’re actually a pretty ugly flightless bird with a blue head that looks prehistoric. After seeing the cassowary, Chad spotted a “blue egg.” It turns out it was cassowary plum seed. The cassowary eats fruit whole such as mango and poops out the seeds keeping the rainforest growing. In fact, some plants won’t germinate unless they go through the cassowary’s digestive tract. At the kangaroo feeding, I was pretty nervous that the kangaroos were going to start kicking or punching Chad maybe because I watch too much America’ Funniest Videos. At the creek where we swam, we saw a dingo eating a bone of something. Seeing a dingo is also quite rare. On the way home from the beach, Chad locked himself in the bathroom under a large spider & its web. After the guide got him out, he noted it was a Golden Orb Spider which wouldn’t kill him, just make life unpleasant. They spin the world’s largest webs and they’re almost as strong as Kevlar.

Rainforest facts: The Daintree Rainforest is named after an English scientist, not a tree. It’s the oldest rainforest in the world around 110 million yrs. old and is part of the Wet Tropics. It has survived unchanged by ice ages, etc. The Daintree has 12 primitive species of trees. The Daintree houses ½ of Australia’s animal and plant species. It was quite lush and has some of the biggest ferns and palms, I’ve ever seen. It is also home to epiphytes which are plants growing on trees, but they don’t kill the host tree. The basket ferns get huge and sometimes when they get soaked, they fall, hence, the name widowmakers.

Platypus: I always thought these animals were the size of a large dog. I’ve come to learn they’re the size of a small duck and the males are venomous. Who knew?

In Cairns

Yesterday we met Aunt Amanda. Then we ate at Hungry Jack’s. Which is Burger King. They call it Hungry Jack’s because there was a little place called Burger King. So they changed it to Hungry Jack’s. But then Burger King closed. Then we got on a plane to Cairns. After that we went to the hotel and in the pool. Then we went to a place called reef teach. Where they teach you about the reef. I can’t tell you about it because I slept through it.

Today we went to Kuranda. We came their on a skyrail over the rainforest. I got to cuddle a Koala. The Koala was very heavy. I also got to feed wallabies and kangaroos. We saw birds and we got a Galah to come on our arms. I got a red –tailed Black Cockatoo to come on my arm too. They are rare. We saw butterflies and we decided the Ulysses were the best. We came back on a train.

We saw the real muddy on the Cairns' mud flats.

The playground was really cool.

This is the really cool manmade beach because

you can't go in the ocean because of the crocs.

On the Kuranda skyrail going over the rainforest.

Chad holding a fat koala.

And feeding a wallaby.

Weather in Cairns: Very hot and humid. Around 30 Celsius


Mom/Pam says (for Cairns):

Money Facts: Australians have no pennies or dollar bills. They don’t have names for their coins: it’s just 5 cents, 10 cents, etc. Australians have and use $1 and $2 dollar coins. All their bills are very colorful, different sizes and have different shaped clear windows. Because there are no pennies, but yet things are priced in cents – the bills have a subtotal and then a rounding line to the nearest 5 or ten cents. Things are rather expensive here. Amanda says that’s because minimum wage is $13/hr. Luckily, the economic fallout works in our favor and $0.70 US equals about $1. AUS.

It was quite funny when Chad fell asleep in the Reef Teach class. As we were nearing a break, Chad loudly snorted in his sleep and the instructor said, “I don’t blame him.” Reef Teach was very interesting with lots of facts about fish, coral and how to pet some fish and the millions of poisonous things not to touch. My paranoia of killer jellyfish is at extreme now.

Weather in Kuranda: Hot, sunny & humid. It did sprinkle once or twice. The rainy season officially starts on Nov. 1, but the rains usually start in Dec.

Pam/Mom says:

Since our body clocks are messed up, Chad & I were up at 5am. Luckily, Amanda is an early riser, too. So, we were up, dressed & out the door by 6AM. We walked down the Esplanade (boardwalk) for breakfast and did a little exploring. The tide was out we saw lots of sea life including these little bug-eyed fish that were able to come out of the puddles. We were thrilled with our “unique” discovery until we came upon the Muddy’s playground, statue, restaurant and realized, the fish are quite common. The birds here are quite amazing - lots of parrots, lorikeets, pigeons, pelicans, etc. Chad also played in the huge man-made saltwater lagoon which is there because saltwater crocs are known to be in the area.

On the way to the skyrail station we saw 100’s of fruit bats in trees. Right there in broad daylight – hanging upside down, moving and flying around. And they were big and evil looking. I gave a little scream when I saw the 1st one flying. The skyrail is made up of little gondolas that you up the mountain for 4 ½ miles over the rainforest. It’s beautiful, you can see all the way to the bay. At the 1st stop, we went on a little guided tour. I kept smelling something citrussy and finally asked the guide. He didn’t smell it. Finally another tourist admitted it was her bug spray. Kuranda is a cute little tourist town with lots of craft markets. We didn’t have long to see them because we went to see Bird World, the Butterfly Sanctuary and the Koala Gardens. Then we took the steam train down the mountain and back to Cairns. The ride was a bit hairy. We passed the Barron Falls, but they were low because much of Australia is in a drought.

Water info: Australia is fairly “green eco-minded” country. So most of their toilets have a half flush or full flush option. We haven’t been able to tell if the water swirls counter-clockwise because the toilets don’t swirl. Also all the signs say “Toilets” not restrooms. Some people refer to a toilet as a “dunny.” Amanda’s university actually gives out timers for taking 4 minute showers.

Koalas: The leaves they eat are low in nutrients and high in toxins, so they need to restrict their energy level. So they sleep about 20 hrs./day. And they have a small brain about the size of a walnut. They’re not a bear, they’re a marsupial.

They don’t really celebrate Halloween here. It’s more of holiday for the adults. There are no decorations or jack-o-lanterns anywhere. No trick-or-treating for Chad this year.

We're here!

We had to ride a lot of planes to get to Australia . Our plan was to ride from Philly, to Chicago to LA to Brisbane. But the Chicago flight got cancelled so we had to go to Dallas instead. The LA to Brisbane was really long- 13 hours! And we still have to fly to Cairns.

Weather: Brisbane: Very warm & pleasant.

Mom/Pam says:
The flight was brutal. We left Chad’s school at noon on Tuesday and arrived in Brisbane at 4:00pm on Wednesday US time. But it was 6:00am Thursday here. The flight from LA to Brisbane was just over 13 hours. We were right next to a baby, but he actually was very, very good. Chad slept very little preferring to play his DS and the video games on his personal TV screen.

Australia has very strict import laws. You’re not allowed to bring in nuts, fruit, cheese, wood, jerky, etc. We had some apples, jerky and nuts with us. We decided to throw out the apples and declare the other items. While we waited for our luggage a cute little beagle sniffed our carry-ons and sat down letting the inspectors know we had illegal food items. So I gave the inspector the nuts, etc from my bag and showed him my customs declaration card. He felt better just throwing it all out, so we did. But the dog kept sitting there because the apples had been in Chad’s bag – so that was searched, too. What a nose – he could smell the apples even though they were gone! Luckily, it’s not illegal to bring in Reese’s peanut butter cups because we were stocked with those for Aunt Amanda. Australia doesn’t sell PB cups or PB candy of any type.