Canberra - Melbourne - Great Ocean Road

By: Kristin

After Blue Mtns. we drove to Canberra (the nation's capital) and it was COLD. Probably the coldest we have felt in Australia....around -3 celcius and when the wind blows...it felt cold! We spent 2 nights at the YHA in the city and were spoiled with a TV in our room...nice!

We went to the War Memorial Museum (which was awesome....so well displayed) and we were among many school groups..oh how I miss teaching! (I know, my time will come...) Also, we watched the Prime Minister of Singapore walk to his car. There were secret agent looking people everywhere as we walked up to the museum and then a couple of news reporters and camera crew.

Next, we spent the afternoon driving 30 minutes out of the city to the Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve to do some walking and looking at nature! IT was cooooold and we saw ICE on the ponds! We walked some short boardwalks and then went back to the city. But as we were driving out there were 'heaps' of 'roos and wallabies feeding on the grass. I got out of the car a couple of times and walked up to them..they are fairly tame and don't even mind that you are there.

Bren with some ice from the pond on our walk outside of Canberra...ice in June? New concept!

A group of 'roos at Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve.

That night, we went out to a local pub to watch the second "state of origin" rugby league game. This is a HUGE 3 game series between the New South Wales team and the Queensland team. A true cultural experience! Especially when you meet a couple of local Aussie blokes to keep you entertained at the bar (in addition to the game on TV).

We spent the next couple of days driving to Melbourne (temp. averaging 15 degrees during the day). We knew that the coastal route would be nice but as the weather is a little colder now driving along the coast and NOT being able to swim was getting a little tiring so we went inland to Mebourne. And we were so lucky to be able to stay with Brendon's cousin and family in Mel. We stayed 3 nights there....hit up the Queen Victoria Markets on Sunday and just spent the day on Monday exploring the city.

At Federation Square, Melbourne, Victoria. This is where they showed the Socceroo's World Cup games...just for those who haven't been keeping posted on the 'roo's: won against Japan, got beat by Brazil, and tied against Croatia and so moved on to the final sixteen but got beat by Italy (1-0) on a penalty kick in the last minute of the game. Bren had fun watching 2 of the games (the Japan game at 11pm and the Croatia game at 5am...I enjoyed the recaps during the day!)

A pic of part of Melbourne city looking across the river.

Tuesday (this is now June 20) we headed off again. This time to the famous "Great Ocean Road". It took about an hour and a half to get to the start of the coastal route and the first stop was in Torquay (the "official" surfing capital of Australia). There is one shopping area where there are all the surfwear/gear outlet stores (Billabong, Ripcurl, Roxy, Quicksilver)...Brendon was the only one to buy something (if you can believe it!). Then to Bells Beach where they host some pro surfing competitions (mostly in the summer)...but there were tons (maybe close to 50) surfers all in their wetsuits hitting the surf. Such fun to watch! We made our way down the road to Lorne where we stayed the night.

Some sufer's at Bells Beach...brrrr a little chilly for me.

"Great Ocean Road" sign and "Drive left in Australia" sign to the left.

Along the coast of the Southern Ocean

Next day we decided we would probably make it the rest of the way (the whole stretch of road is about 350km) and so got up and started our twisting and turning along the coast. The weather was cloudy but it was still pretty nice. We stopped to do a quick hike through the rainforest and also took a detour to the Cape Ottway lighthouse (didn't actually pay to go into the light house). But on our way out we came to a bend in the road and there were about 5-6 cars just stopped on the road and a group of people looking up into the trees. YES! It was a Koala!!! And it was awake and really close to the ground on a low branch. So we got a couple of pictures. We actually saw three in total but the others were much higher in other trees.

Got to the famous "12 Apostles" around 3pm and the rain started to fall. Still was a beautiful sight even though we had to get all dressed up in our rain pants and rain jackets. It seemed like at the end of the G.O.R there were tons of stops and things to see along the coast line and so it was too bad that it was raining. But we did see a lot. Interesting side note: there are places to stop along the road every 300 metres or so to either take a picture or let the cars behind you pass. And after each of these stopping places there is a small sign on the side of the road: "Drive on Left in Australia"....we thought that to be quite amusing but it makes sense since so many people driving the road are tourists and many will rent a car for a couple of days and drive from Melbourne.

The 12 Apostles.

More cool rock formations.

The Blue Mountains

by: Brendon

After Sydney we really had no idea where we were going next. I knew I wanted to go to the Blue Mountains (about an hour or two west of Sydney) but the weather looked like it was going to be cloudy and a possibility of rain (or so the weatherman told us). We decided to take our chances anyway and are glad we did. On the way there we took the longer scenic route and caught a bit of a sunset on the drive in. We arrived in Katoomba (the main town in/near to the National Park) after dark and got settled into our hostel room. The hostel in Katoomba was great! The kitchen was large and the dining area was huge and had a great gas fireplace in the middle. We were also there with many families who must of come for the long weekend (the Queen's Birthday holiday) so it was busy for the first night there. After dinner we watched some footy on the big screen tv they had...so great!
On our first full day (we ended up staying 3 nights so had 2 full days to do what we wanted) we woke up early and went on a great hike. The blue mountains are absolutely beautiful although very busy with tourists. The hike took us down a steep gully into the valley below one of the cliff bands in the park. It then followed the cliff band for a while before ending at a place called Scenic World. Scenic World is just outside the park and is where the old mine used to be. It is now a huge tourist destination and there are a few things to do here. We decided to take the old rail car up the hill instead of hiking the 900+ stairs. It was a quick ride but pretty cool.
That night we also went to the edge cinema (an Imax theatre in town) to watch a movie all about the Blue Mountains. It was very interesting even though I had seen it before and Kristin enjoyed it as well.
On our second day we did another hike in a different area of the park. We took the cliff top walk to Wentworth Falls and then walked down the cliff on really steep stairs cut into the rock to a ridge cut (naturally) halfway on the cliff face. It was a great hike and we were very lucky to have two full days of blue skies and great temperatures.
After our hike we drove to the a place in town called Echo Point where the Three Sisters are. The Three Sisters are a rock formation that you can view from a great lookout point at the visitors centre and are kind of the icons for the Blue Mountains. All the post cards and souvenirs have the three sisters printed on them.

The view from the start of our hike the first day

(from here we descended into the valley).

Sign for the Scenic World Rail Car.

Waiting for the Rail Car.

View from near the start of the hike on the second day.

On the way down to Wentworth Falls.

Wentworth Falls.

Just a great view from the Ridge!

A great waterfall in the "Valley of The Waters".
(I liked these better than Wentworth Falls)

The Three Sisters from Echo Point.

Didgeridoo

by Brendon:

Step one: making the didgeridoo

Ok...well this is a really late post but here it is none-the-less. Before we even went to N.Z. I had done a didgeridoo making workshop. Building a didgeridoo is really quite easy as the wood is already hollowed out for you by termites. At the didgeridoo studio I got to pick out a few tree limbs that I liked and then went to work stripping the bark off. The bark stripping took about 20 minutes for each tree limb. After the bark was stripped off the 3 or 4 tree limbs, I chose one that I thought would be the best for me. I then sanded the stripped wood until it was really smooth. After the sanding you knock out the termite nests from inside the didgeridoo and then hot wax was poured down the inside. The studio owner then carved the word Yidaki (one aboriginal word for didgeridoo) into the wood and coated it with a varnish. At this point I wanted to paint the didgeridoo but was out of time.

Didgeridoo before being striped.

Step two: painting the didgeridoo

After getting back from N.Z. Kristin and I headed down the coast as you all know and at one point were in Byron Bay. It was here that I found another didgeridoo studio which ended up being much better than the last. The first thing that the owner had me do was hollow out the bottom of the didgeridoo and smooth it out even more which I liked. I was probably going to do this back home anyway. He then coated the inside with more wax. I then figured out which pattern I liked and came up with a bit of my own idea. So it took Kris and I about a total of 4 hours to paint. It takes a while because of all the dots, which is typical of Australian Aboriginal art. Anyway I'm glad I was able to do this so now all that's left is to learn how to really play it.

The bottom of my Didgeridoo.

Me and the didgeridoo.

We wanted to do another post but we just settled for this one because the photos can't be shrunk on this computer. We are really having problems finding computers with photo software on them so you'll all just have to be patient as we will post our next blog when we can.