Saturday, November 23, 2013

Sun, Sand, and Thunderstorms

Sydney! 
We made it into and out of the city, and saw the major sights while we were there. The rain was pouring down when we arrived but let up shortly so we were able to walk about without getting soaked. Walked across the bridge and around the opera house, through the botanical gardens and the art gallery. Definitely one of my favorite cities. 

One of the waterfalls in the Blue Mountains. We also went on a tour into the Jenolan Caves-highly recommended. The tour was well done and the caves were amazing. (Hard to take good pictures while in a cave though.)


On our way to the beach... Lots of little lizards around here, some not so little.


Our camp in Coff's Harbour. This is where we had the thunderstorm last night. The little car has been doing well. Tyrell changed the air filter and fuel filter and fixed some sputtering issues it was having. And, thinking of the hot summer ahead of us, christened it Hot Tamale! We have adjusted well to driving on the wrong side of the road, and the car for that matter. Although, we still get the windshield wipers going while intending to use the turn signals.

We are now on our way to a WWOOF farm west of Brisbane. A cattle ranch that promises to show us some "real Aussie bush life'. We plan to stay about 10 days and then will probably head to the Great Barrier Reef for some diving!

Tuesday, November 12, 2013

We Found Australia's Ski Resort!


Brrr! We wanted to climb Mt. Kosciuszco, Australia's highest mountain at 2,228m, but when we drove up to the trailhead it was blowing hail, foggy, and cold! Maybe another time...

Somewhere along our drive through Alpine National Park. We saw bounding kangaroos, wallabies, emus, parrots, and a big snake on the road. No wombats yet.

Aaah, this is what vacation is supposed to be like:) 
Our little car is doing well. Gets somewhere between 30 and 40 mpg (we can't seem to get a definite number). Still so many miles to go! 
Next few stops: 3 day hike in the Blue Mountains, Canberra- capitol, Sydney- everybody knows Sydney, WWOOF farm?, and the beach!


Wednesday, November 6, 2013

This week... The Great Ocean Road!

Hooray! We are in our little red 1996 Mitsubishi Lancer and touring the famous Great Ocean Road. It is nice to be out of the big city of Melbourne, population 4 million. Although we did enjoy our stay there. The highlight was the 153rd Melbourne Cup horse race. We got dressed up and joined the 104,000 other race goers at the track.






This was earlier in the morning, by midday we could barely move.

It was exciting to be on the rail with the horses thundering by.

We had to go shopping before race day...

For the rest of our trip we found a great book: Camps Australia Wide, with listings of thousands of free sites.

Monday, November 4, 2013

Melbourne, Australia




Federation Square




Our new car!






Today was our fifth day in Australia. We found a little vehicle to tour the country in and are going to the IMAX tonight- the third largest screen in the world!
Tomorrow is Melbourne Cup day!!!  Excited to get all dressed up...what do you do with a "fascinator"?!
The weather has been great, mostly sunny and temps in the 50s and 60s.
More to come later.