A True Adventure

Tuesday 24th August-Thursday 2nd September 2010

We flew with Jet Star from Melbourne to Sydney. The flight took 1 hour. When we arrived in Sydney airport we went to get our bags. We saw Paul’s bag coming around the belt, with the rain cover off and all the straps were  un-done. My Chinese Instrument was rolling around loose on the belt. Unfortunately the mouth piece of the instrument got broken. We went to speak to a member of staff to find out why the bags straps were all un-done-but they had no explanation, and just said they could of got caught. I guess I’ll have to go back to China to buy another one of those instruments…..that was a disappointment, but never mind.

We had a smooth arrival in Sydney. We got a train from the airport into the city. We knew of a few hostels in Kings Cross, so we just got the train to there. We got off at Kings Cross and checked into the Formulae 1 hotel. It cost $89 a night (£52). The room can sleep up to 4 people, for no extra cost. We knew my sister Leah was going to be staying with us for a few of the days, plus other rooms we looked at were more or the same price, so we went with this place. We could see the Opera house and Sydney Harbour Bridge from our room, which I was excited about.

View from our hotel room

On our first night we went for a walk in to the city. We were just 10-15 minutes walk from the centre. We walked over to Darling Harbour. The harbour looks really nice at night time. There are loads of restaurants and shops around the harbour. There is also a massive IMAX cinema (The biggest screen in the world). We went to watch Hubble 3D. This is a documentary about the Hubble Telescope in space. It looked amazing watching it on the big screen.

Wednesday 25th August

We were up and out by 8.30am this morning. When we get to a new place, we are always excited about adventuring around. First of all we visited Hyde Park. There is a beautiful fountain in the middle of the park, also St Mary’s Cathedral is found here.

St Marys Cathedral in Hyde Park

Next we headed over to Sydney Opera House. There was a Japanese Marching band playing, so we stopped to listen to them.

Japanese Marching Band

After listening to the band, we took a walk around the harbour. The Opera House looks amazing up close. I’ve always wanted to see the Opera House, so it was great finally getting to see it! We walked over to the Opera House. I didn’t realise the building was split into 3 pieces.

Sydney opera House

Paul and Ruth in front of the Sydney Opera house

We then walked over to the Sydney Harbour Bridge. This is the largest steel arch bridge in the world, but not the longest. We decided to take a walk over the bridge. This was a great place to get the best views of the Opera House. After walking over the bridge from Sydney Cove (The opera house) you will end up in Kirribilli.

There is a short walk directly opposite the opera house, which gives you some great views. We stopped here and ate lunch.

Looking over at the Opera House from Kirribilli

After lunch we walked back over the bridge and went to the Botanical Gardens. We have seen many botanical gardens around the world now, but I still never seem to get bored of them. There were loads of Cockatoos in the gardens. They kept landing on us, I think they were trying to see if we had any food on us.

Cockatoos in the Botanical Gardens

Looking Nervous

When they started pecking my hand I decided to get some bread out so they didn’t eat me!!

We decided we would watch the sunset from the park. We found a perfect spot, directly opposite the opera house, with the Bridge behind it. It was close by to Mrs Macqarius Chair-this is a chair that was carved out for Mrs Macqaries by her husband, it was her favourite spot in Sydney.

Sydney Opera House Sun Set

This picture was taken in the same spot a couple of days later by my sister Leah

More blogs on Sydney coming soon

Ruth and Paul

Melbourne City- First day in the city

We visited Melbourne city Monday 16^th and Tuesday 17^th August. We got a daily train ticket from Seaford train station (near where we were staying). This cost us $9.90 each (£6) and allows us to use it all day on trams, trains and buses. The journey from Seaford into the city was about 50 minutes. We got off at Flinders street, which is a busy shopping street.

Leah, Paul and Ruth on the big Screen-Flinders St

I had heard that Melbourne had a look of English cities. It felt very like England when we came out of the train station and it was windy and raining. In Brisbane we got away with just needing our jacket in the evening, but here in Melbourne we needed our rain jackets, scarves and clothes (which we borrowed from Rachel). The buildings also reminded me of England, with their old Cathedrals. St. Paul’s Cathedral is just across from Flinders station. We took a look around there first The church is beautiful with lot’s of decoration in the windows.

We then took the tram to Parliament, where we were given a free tour of Parliament.

Parliament

We were feeling a little cold, so we went to a café opposite Parliament to have hot chocolates and cake. We are going to need to buy some more jumpers ready for New Zealand, as it’s going to be cool there also. We only bought summer clothes with us, as we knew we wouldn’t need jumpers for at least 6 months.

We looked around St. Patrick’s Cathedral next. (Found opposite Parliament).

St. Patricks Cathedral

We also visited China Town-It doesn’t feel so special after having visited China itself. It was just a small China town.

Next we got tram No. 30 from Central station to the Docklands, and we walked along the waterfront. There were loads of shops and restaurants along the waterfront. It had a lovely relaxing atmosphere here.

There is a free tram that you can get around the city, called the circle tram. It takes you round in a loop. This is the old traditional trams. We took this tram around the city.

Free Circle TramWe got a tram to Lygon street. This is known as the Italian Quarter of the city. This is where you will find all the Italian restaurants and bars. We got talking to a man in a restaurant who was from Sicily and hadn’t been home for over 20 years.

Day 2 in the City

This morning we visited Victoria Market in the city. This is open every day apart from Mondays. We looked around at the souvenirs and I also bought some Cinnamon Almonds.

We went to Visit St. Francis Church.

Then we walked over to South Bank where the Casino is. South bank is a really nice walk way along the river, with restaurants and bars. We looked around the Casino. The Casino was massive, much bigger than any one that I’d seen before. Also in the casino there was a theatre, cinema, bars and restaurants.

We really enjoyed our time in the city. It had an English feel to the city, with old cathedrals and buildings.

We also went into the city one more time with Beth (Rachel and Jared’s daughter), on Saturday 21^st August. She loved coming into the city with us. We took her around the botanical gardens, docklands and went for dinner together.

Botanical Gardens

Ruth and Paul

I have got behind with my blogs, so I thought it was a good idea to share teh writing with my sister Leah. This next blog was written by her. I will add my bit to the end.

Thursday 19th August Ruth, Paul and myself took to the road to see the Great Ocean Road. Before leaving on my trip around the world I had never heard of it, but while I was up in the Daintree north of Cairns I met a lady from Melbourne who told me about it. That’s the beauty of meeting new people from around the world, you get to hear about new places to discover. I’m so glad I heard about the Ocean Rd, it was amazing. We hired a car for the trip as there is no other way of getting there and we wanted to stop lots along the way.

We probably could have spent a few days along the Great Ocean Rd exploring the area, as there are lots of walks and areas to see inland from the ocean, but we decided to do as much of it in one day. Our main aim was to make it to the 12 Apostles as this is one of the main sites along the way.

Ocean Road is recognised as one of the world’s most scenic drives, the Great Ocean Road follows the stunning coastline of Victoria’s south-west. Stretching 243 kilometres from Torquay, just south of Geelong, to Allansford, just east of Warrnambool, the road winds along cliff tops, up to breathtaking headlands, down onto the edge of beaches, across river estuaries and through lush rainforests offering panoramic views of Bass Strait and the Southern Ocean at every turn.

Building the Great Ocean Road

The road was built after World War I by returned servicemen and stands as a memorial to those who served in the 1914 – 1918 war. What an amazing memorial to those who served their country. Not only does it make Victoria’s Southwest coastline accessible, but the views you get to see along the way are breath taking.

We started out just after 6am so we could get to the beginning by sunrise. We have been staying in Seaford which is on the other side of the bay. So we had to make our way up to the city and around the bay before we could even start our trip.

The first stop on our journey was Geelong. This isn’t technically part of the Great Ocean Road, but a nice place all the same, so we stopped on the seafront before heading to Torquey.

We couldn’t have asked for better weather for our road trip. Although it is winter here in Australia at the moment, until I came down to Melbourne I hadn’t been too cold. Both Cairns and Brisbane have quite mild winters with day time temperatures getting into their 20’s. It could be seen as a very good British summer. However Melbourne isn’t quite the same and I’m told that they are having the wettest/coldest winter in 10 years! Typical! But the sun was shining and was even warm enough for Ruth to take off her jacket and just have her t-shirt on. And as it is winter we didn’t have to deal with the crowds of other tourist that you might get at other times of the year.

This first stop on the road is Torquay, this is the gateway to the Great Ocean Road. We stopped here briefly to take a few photos before heading on our way. We didn’t really have any plan about where we were going to stop or when, we just took it as it came. As long as we made it to the 12 Apostles before sun set I was happy As I was driving, which I didn’t mind doing, I kept asking if there was anything I was missing out on behind or to the side of us. I had to keep reminding myself to keep my eyes on the Road and not on the scenery. It was so beautiful, it was hard to sometimes. But the road is by no means straight, so I had to focus.

Scenic Lookouts

The Great Ocean Road offers some of Victoria’s most stunning views of the Southern Ocean from lighthouses, lookouts and viewing platforms. Discover the famous Twelve Apostles, rugged cliffs, picture-perfect sandy beaches, islands and ancient forests from some of the best places to stop and savour the panoramic vistas.

Below is listed some of the lookouts and sites to see along the road. We didn’t stop at all of them and once we got to the 12 Apostles we turned back along the inland rd as the sun had gone down.

Torquay to Lorne

• Bells Beach
  Ocean and beach views from lookout platforms at Bells Beach Surfing Reserve. Access from Torquay via Bells Boulevard, or the Great Ocean Road.
• Addis
  Impressive ocean, beach and sandstone cliff views toward Bells Beach and Anglesea. Point Addis Road, off the Great Ocean Road, between Torquay and Anglesea.
• Anglesea
  Breathtaking coastal views from elevated memorial lookout. Just up from the Great Ocean Road, via Harvey Street.
• Aireys Inlet
  Drive or walk up to Split Point lighthouse. Ocean views over Eagle and Table rocks. There is another lookout at the end of Boundary Road, off the Great Ocean Road.
• Cinema Point
  Spectacular views back towards Eastern View, Fairhaven and Aireys Inlet from one of the road’s highest vantage points. There is a signposted turnout on the Great Ocean Road about 8 kilometres west of Aireys Inlet.
• Lorne
  Teddy’s Lookout is one of the best along the road. It provides stunning vistas from its platform high above the coast where the St George River empties into a small cove. Off the Great Ocean Road, at the end of George Street, it is a short walk through the bush from the car park.

Lorne to Moonlight Head

• Mt Defiance
  Panoramic ocean views toward Artillery Rocks. Turn out just off the Great Ocean Road, between Lorne and Wye River.
• Cape Patton Lookout
  Spectacular views east towards Apollo Bay and Skenes Creek. Off the Great Ocean Road, east of Apollo Bay
• Marriners
  Marriners lookout is a five-minute fairly steep walk from the car park, but it’s well worth the effort for its panoramic views of Apollo Bay and far out to sea. Drive a few minutes north from Apollo Bay along the Great Ocean Road, there’s a turn-off to Marriners Lookout Road.
• Cape Otway Lightstation
  Built in 1848, the lighthouse stands 91 metres above the ocean. Built to guide ships safely through the narrow Bass Straight entrance, the tower now offers spectacular views of the rugged Otway coast. Located 20 minutes west of Apollo Bay. Entry fee applies.
• The Gable
  The Gable lookout has magnificent views to the Moonlight Head. It is a short walk to the lookout platform, which seems to hang off the top of the cliff 70 metres above the waves. Turn off onto Moonlight Head Road after Wattle Hill.

Moonlight Head to Port Fairy

• Twelve Apostles
  Parks Victoria has created boardwalks, tracks, and viewing areas to ensure you get the best views of these spectacular rock stacks. Off the Great Ocean Road east of Port Campbell, there are also staircases to the beach at nearby Gibson Steps and Loch Ard Gorge.
• Bay of Martyrs car park
  At the outskirts of Peterborough, just off the Great Ocean Road, is this ideal place to see the stunning rock stacks of the Bay of Islands. They are particularly beautiful at sunset when the islands and Massacre Point are backlit by the sun.
• Bay of Islands car park
  Just west of Peterborough, off the Great Ocean Road, the Bay of Islands car park provides excellent views of this remarkable group of islands.

It was beginning to get late and we still had a short way to go before we would reach the 12 Apostles, so we decided we couldn’t make any more stops so we would make it before the sun set. As we were driving along the sun was beaming through the clouds and being the fanatical amateur photographer that I am I couldn’t resist stopping to take a photo, but I knew we weren’t far so thought it would be OK. I guessed we would make the 12 apostles by sun set and maybe this would turn out to be even more beautiful than seeing it in the middle of the day. But as you can see from the photo to the left there is no colourful skies that you usually get with a beautiful sunset. After I stopped to take a photo of the sunset and the closer we got to the coast the winds began to pick up and then the rain started to come down thick and hard. When we stooped at the 12 apostles lookout the rain was coming down so hard and the wind blowing so fast we were almost being blown over trying to take photos. But we had driven too far to not see this beautiful site.

We were in Melbourne from Wednesday 11^th August-Tuesday 24^th August 2010

Paul, Leah and myself were met at Melbourne airport by Jared Haymes on Wednesday night. I have only met Jared briefly before, but I have known his wife Rachel for most of my life. She used to go to the same ward as we did for church when I was little and our families have been good friends ever since. The journey from the airport to Rachel and Jared’s house was about 1 hour. We arrived about 11pm at night. Rachel was in bed, but woke up when we arrived. It was really good seeing Rachel again. The last time I saw Rachel was in 2006 when Rachel was over visiting her family in England along with her husband and 2 children. She now has 3 children and another on the way.

Thursday 12^th August 2010

Jared took a couple of days off work, so that he could drive us around and take us to a few places. Today we went on a drive with Jared, Rachel and their 2 children Hannah and Laura. We drove along the coast and went up to Arthur’s seat. Here you can get a good view over the coast. We stopped up here for a while to go walking. The views were beautiful and the tree’s were gorgeous. We got chips along the coast between us. We haven’t had chips in a long time so that was a nice treatJ They are very different to British chips though, not as greasy and more crunchy.

Yum Hot Chips

We went to Jared’s Dad’s on the way back to meet him and his wife Faith. Paul was fixing a few problems on Ron’s (Jareds Dads) computer. Paul always seems to find broken things, no matter where we go. They had a Japanese student staying with them so I was chatting to him a little. They have different students staying with them. I thought this was a great idea. They loved meeting people from all over the world and it helped them to learn a little about the different cultures.

Friday 13^th August 2010

Today we all went out as a family. There was Jared, Rachel, Laura, Hannah, Leah, Paul and myself. (Beth there other daughter was at school). First of all Jared asked us did we want to see Ramsey Street where neighbours is filmed. I don’t even watch neighbours but still I was excited to see Ramsey Street. So we drove over to see the street. It is actually called Pinoak court in Vermont. Regular people live on the street. It is only used for the outside filming and they have studios for the rest. When we got to the street there was a big tour bus showing people around Ramsey Street. We just tried listening in on what they were saying. We got some pictures on the street, maybe you will be able to tell me whose house I’m standing outside?

Ramsey Street

We then drove on to Grants Picnic grounds, where there were loads of Cockatoos, Kookaburras, Roselle’s and many others. We put crackers in our hands to see if the birds would come over to us. I was a little nervous at first but relaxed. They were landing on our hands and we even managed to get a kookaburra to land on us. I was impressed with how brave Hannah was (she is 2 years old). She loves animals and insects. She was trying to give the cockatoos a kiss and hug goodbye.

Paul with a Cockatoo

We then drove up to One Tree Hill. This is up high on a hill, surrounded by tree’s. We could hear Kookaburras everywhere. There were loads of Eucalyptus trees. I picked up a few leafs. I’m going to make book marks out of them.

Ruth and Leah

We then drove on to Mt Dandenong, which is where you can view the whole city from above. We just took a quick look and got a picture together. Jared and Rachel were sat waiting in the car, as they charge $5 for taking your car in, so we just walked up.

Mt. Dandenong with Laura and Hannah

Next we went to Kalorama Park, to stop for lunch. There was a beautiful view from here, looking over a lake. We were also able to see lot’s of Kookaburras from here, After lunch we went to William Picketts Sanctuary, where you can see loads of Aboriginal Art and sculptures. We followed a 30 minute walk path that took us around.

William Picketts Sanctuary

Saturday 14^th August 2010

Today we went to Philip Island with the whole family. Philip island is reached by a bridge so there is no need to get a boat over. The island is about 30 Km in length. We went to Kitty Miller bay. This was a small bay surrounded by rocks.

Rachel, Jared, Beth, Laura and Hannah

We drove on to the nobbies, where we were able to see penguins along the side of the rocks. It is really beautiful here, surrounded by cliffs.

Penguins at the Nobbies-Philip IslandRuth and Paul-nobbies-Philip Island

Monday 2nd August- Wednesday 11th August 2010

We spent this week at the sunshine coast. We were staying in a small town called Nambour, with Liz and David Guy. Leah knew their daughter Elissa from when she lived in Brisbane 10 years ago. Liz and David kindly let me and Paul  stay in their house for the week. They have an area downstairs especially designed for when guests are staying. There is a living room, kitchen, bedroom and a bathroom. David did most of the work in the house himself. There was also a swimming pool outside.

We arrived in Nambour on the Monday night about 9.30pm. David Guy met us at the station and drove us back to his house. Leah went to stay with Elissa Guy in Petrie about 1 hour away.

Tuesday 3rd August

Today we got up early and got a bus from Nambour train station to Maroochydor beach. Maroochydor is just south of the river. We walked along the beach to Mooloaba beach. The beach was gorgeous here, with beautiful soft golden sand. We relaxed in the sun for a while and just enjoyed watching the surfers. The weather at the Sunshine Coast was beautiful, about 22 Degrees most days, with a nice sea breeze.

Maroochydore

Wednesday 4th August

Today we looked around Nambour town. Nambour is an old farming town with about 10,000 people living there. We both really liked the town, it had everything you needed. A shopping center, clothes shops, restaurants, banks ect. It is also surrounded by hills and greenery. Where we were staying there were just 2 other houses on the hill, so it was very peaceful, with no light or noise pollution.

In the afternoon we got the bus to the Kawana Shopping World (about 1 hour journey from Nambour). Leah rang us to say she would be at Moolooaba Beach about 4pm with Elissa, her children and her parents. We decided to head there to meet up with them. We all went for fish and chips near the beach.

After eating we all went back to Liz and David Guy’s house, where we are staying. Liz is very creative. She makes blankets, walll signs, teddies and many more things. She was showing me some of teh scrap books she has done for her children and to document her life. I thought it was a great way of putting photos and journal enteries together. I have kept a journal since I was 10 years old, so you can imagine how many journals I have by now. I think i will do some scarp books when I get home.

Thursday 5th August

We had a chilled out day in Nambour.

Friday 6th August

Today we got a bus to Caloundra. We got bus number 602 from Nambour train station. The ticket cost us $21.20 for 2 tickets. This allowed us to use the buses within zones 15-18  for the whole day. The journey to Caloundra took about 1 1/2 hours. We got off near kings beach. It was such beautiful weather, about 22 degrees. We sat of Kings beach for a while watching some kite surfers. Then we decided to walk along the coast.

Caloundra Beach

We followed a beautiful walkway from kings beach all the way to Moffat beach. It took us up higher, where we were able to see beautiful views across the sea. We passed by gorgeous houses along the way.

When we got to Moffat beach, we found a Chip shop, where we sat and ate some hot chips. Then we walked up to Moffat lookout, to watch the sun setting over the mountains. The sky looked amazing, with blue, purple and pink colours.

Paul Moffats Lookout

After watching the sunset we walked on to Dicky beach, where we got the bus back to the Sunshine Plaza. We took a look around the plaza, then got bus 602 back to Nambour.

Saturday 7th August

There was a festival on in Nambour today, which we went to. There was free entertainment and market stalls. There were also free music and dance classes for children. We loved it and thought it was a great idea to have a festiva like this every year. There were lot’s of familes there together.

Monday 9th August

Today we got a bus from Nambour to Noosa Heads. We  walked along the beach from Noosa Heads to Coolum beach. This is about a 10 mile walk. It was a beautiful sunny day. We wanted to make the most of the sunshine as we knew Melbourne was going to be alot cooler.

Sunshine Beach-Noosa

The walk was really beautiful and peaceful. The sands were golden and the sea perfectly blue. We took our time, stopping along the way on several beaches. The walk took us about 3 hours in total.

Coolum is a really beautiful beach, with a smalll town close by to the beach. There are lot’s of restaurants, bars and shops here. We took a look around, then got our bus back to Nambour.

Tuesday 10th August

We got a train from Nambour to Petrie this afternoon to go and stay with Elissa Hooper, the daughter of the couple we were currently staying with in Nambour. My sister Leah was also staying with Elissa. We spent the evening playing games with Elissa’s 2 children, Katie and Sam (age 7, 4). Micheal, Elissa’s husband made a beautiful dinner for us all. He made vegetarian Lasagne especially for me, and beef lasagne for everyone else. He also made a vegan chocolate cake. I would never of believed it was vegan, as it just tasted like any other chocolate cake. He gave me the recipe so I must try to make it myself when I get home.

Wednesday 11th August

We chilled out this morning with Elissa and her two children. Our flight was around 6pm from Brisbane to Melbourne. Elissa kindly offered to drop us off at the airport. We flew with Jet Star. This seems to be the cheapest airline around Australia. Another airline we found cheap were Virgin Blue. When we got to Melbourne airport we were met by Jared Haymes. We have known his wife Rachel all our life, through church. She moved over to Australia over 10 years ago and is now married with 3 beautiful children. Rachel and Jared kindly allowed me, Paul and my sister Leah stay with them in Melbourne.

Blogs on Melbourne coming soon

Ruth and Paul

(Sorry for the delay in our blogs, we haven’t been on the internet much and our current hotel in Sydney doesn’t have the internet, so we just get on when we get into a internet Cafe)