Australia 2016, Day 15 - The Longest Day of The Year

August 21, 2016

Our Sydney Sunday started early to be ready for a 10:30 flight back to the states. We hailed an uber when we got downstairs, and got a New Zealander with quite the sense of humor. It was good we did, because you could cut the tension with a knife when we realized the quick 3 minute trip to the airport would take 20 minutes due to traffic... which was also going to the airport.

We arrived 30 minutes prior to boarding, got our luggage checked in, went through customs and security, did some last minute shopping and boarded two groups behind ours. At the beginning of the day we were stuck in economy with only middle economy plus seats available, by boarding time we had one exit row and one bulkhead seat diagonal from each other thanks to Mark's constant checking of the united site.

The 14 hour flight was rather uneventful- if you haven't seen "The Big Short", I'd recommend watching it. We landed in San Francisco at 7AM, a full 3.5 hours before we departed. By 8:30 we had picked up our rental car, and driven to see our nephew Alex, and his husband Jacob.

After being caffeniated and getting showers, we felt semi human again and wandered down to Beauty's Bagel Shop for brunch. It was a beautiful brunch, tasty too! After that we drove to Berkeley and wandered the campus. It was move-in day so the campus was hopping with old veterans and young newbies alike. We hung out at a bookstore, went to see a Tibetian exhibit at a musuem and had an early dinner at a great little pizza joint and brewery. Our final destination of the day was the hills above Berkeley which gave a great view of the city. We headed back to the airport for a red eye to Atlanta, followed by a quick hop home to Akron/Canton. 

By the Numbers:
We flew 27,355 miles on 7 different carriers and 15 different flights
We drove 1605 miles  in four different cars on two different sides of the road
We walked 163,920 steps which equates to about 78 miles

Australia 2016, Day 14 - Leavin' on a Sea Plane . . .

August 20, 2016

Our long journey home started on Saturday morning from Heron Island, Great Barrier Reef, Australia.  

Heron Island

Heron over Heron Island

Heron Island Boardwalk & Gantry

Heron Island Lodging

Those of you that have been following along with our adventures thus far will remember that the trip to Heron Island from Gladstone wasn't the best experience.  To ensure that we didn't have a repeat of Wednesday (and to try something we've never done) we booked a sea plane to take us from Heron Island to Gladstone Airport.  

We grabbed a light breakfast then took a final lap around the island.  While we were walking we heard the arrival of our chariot landing quite literally right infront of our Reef Suite (talk about door to door service).  

6 Person Seaplane

Our Seaplane

Upon return to our suite one of the resort porters was there ready to take our luggage to the seaplane.  We made a quick stop by the Marine Center to retreive Jen's forgotten sunglasses and then headed to our floating chariot.  Turns out we were the only two passengers on this specific plane.  Another sea plane left about 15 minutes before ours with 5 passengers that had similar thoughts about getting back on the "vomit comet".  We were buckled, loaded and before we knew it we were taxi-ing on the water above the Great Barrier Reef (!!!!!!). Just before taking off we saw a sea turtle swimming next to the plane (such a cool experience).  Our flight gave us amazing views of the island and the reef.  About 10 minutes into our flight (half way to Gladstone) we saw 5 whales in the water below us.  Shortly there after we landed smoothly at the Gladstone Airport - only to be greeted by our fellow resort guests that were on the first plane off the island.  While not only saving us time the quick 25 minute flight was such a neat experience it also gave us and opportunity to get back to Sydney a few hours earlier than planned.

Taking off from Heron Island

Reef Selfie!

Heron Reef

Whales!

Gladstone from Seat 2B

Gladstone, Australia

The airport ticket attendent worked her magic and got us into Sydney at 2:30 pm instead of the planned upon 9:00 pm leaving us with enough time to take a nap and enjoy a final evening - Sydney Style.  Thanks to a tip from our travel buddy Kayleigh - who was still in Auckland with family - we came up with the plan to head to the ANZ Stadium (which is part of the Sydney Olympic Park) to watch the New Zealand All Blacks take on the Australian Wallabies in the Bledisloe Cup.  We rode the subway to the Olympic Park with 50,000 of our closest Rugby loving friends.  Before heading into the stadium we stopped by one of the numerous foodtrucks lining the path to the ANZ Stadium.  As a treat the Olympic Caldron from the 2000 Summer Olympics (held in Sydney) was lit prior to the game.

Sydney Olympic Torch

New Zealand All Blacks vs Qantas Wallabies

Watching the All Blacks vs. the Wallabies was a pretty neat experience.  Our knowledge of rugby was limited - thank goodness Jen read snippits from "Rugby of Dummies" prior to the game. :-) The outcome of the game was not ideal for the Wallaby fans, as the All Blacks dominated the game winning 42 to 8.  The trip back to the hotel was surprisingly quick due to well executed utilization of the subway system. 

Australia 2016, Day 13 - Pacific Snorkling

August 19, 2016

We grabbed an early breakfast on Friday then headed over to the Marine Center to rent wetsuits, snorkel gear and book a snorkel tour for our day of Great Barrier Reef submersion.   We went back to our room and wiggled into our wetsuits (which was an experience all its own).  It had been a few years since we last snorkeled so we decided to get our snorkel legs in the shallow waters of Shark Bay on the opposite side of the island.  When Mark hit the water it was as though he was part fish.  Jen took a little longer to come around. 

After a quick 20 minutes practicing in Shark Bay we packed up our belongings and headed to the Jetty to board our snorkel boat.  Our snorkel tour was an intimate group made up of 5 snorkelers (including us) 1 guide and 1 scuba diver.  We had a short 5 minute boat ride that took us a couple hundred yards off shore to the edge of the reef where the water was about 12-20 feet deep (why specifically 12-20 feet deep? To ensure that when we were vertical in the water our flippers would not damage the coral reef). There was a very strong current and we floated along the edge of the reef seeing fish, coral and even several more sea turtles.  

After we disembarked from our snorkel tour we waddled (in our wet wetsuits) back to the hotel room to clean up. Taking hot showers felt magical but we crashed for the afternoon.  Its amazing how much energy was taken out of us - it was either due to an hour of snorkeling or the arduous process of getting out of a wet wetsuit, we're not quite sure.   

Once we woke up we ventured down to Baillie's Bar to work on the blog and catch up on the Olympic games.  We perused the Heron Island Gift Shop and stopped by Reception to confirm our transportation off the island.  Before dinner we listened to live music while enjoying a cocktail at Baillie's.  After dinner we did a night walk around the island and enjoyed the amazing weather and the full moon.

Australia 2016, Day 12 - Livin' on a Reef

August 18, 2016

Warning: If you don't want to see pictures of paradise, leave now. :-)

The morning started with us sleeping as late as we could, which ended up to be about 8:30! We were down to breakfast by nine and had started a load of laundry in the 'free' washer (or most expensive washer we've ever used, depending on how you look at things). We took the opportunity to wander around the island and explore, taking pictures of the sun, the sand, and the reef. 

At 2:30 we met at the nature center for a reef walk. We were thinking it would be a rather small event, but it felt like a significant population of the resort took part. The reef extends out from the island by several hundred feet, before dropping off, and at low tide is in about 6-12 inches of water, which makes exploring it on foot really easy and cool.

During the reef walk we saw and were able to hold critters! We saw a bunch of sea cucumbers and several sea stars including a blue one! We saw and got to touch an epaulette shark and a rather large sea turtle. Amongst all this we saw a bunch of different types and colors of coral, clams with colorful lips and even some colorful worms! I think these are some of my (Mark's) favorite pictures from the trip!

Following the walk we folded laundry, tidied and found the perfect place to watch the end of a wonderful day.

Australia 2016, Day 11 - The Vomit Comet

August 17, 2016

Today started dark and early for Jenny & Mark. We got up around 4am for a 6:50 flight to Brisbane, then connecting to Gladstone for a 2pm departure to Heron Island and the Great Barrier Reef!

The flight from Brisbane to Gladstone was on a small prop plane that was boarded from the rear.   It was an interesting situation.  The flight was uneventful and within an hour we had landed in Gladstone and were greeted by the cutest airport we have seen in a while.  After a short wait for our "chariot" (a full size tour bus) to take us and approximately 30 other guests plus a group of overly eager marine science students to board our catamaran (affectionately nicknamed the vomit comet) for a quick 2.5 hour cruise to Heron Island on the Great Barrier Reef.  The catamaran was built specifically to handle the seas around Australia - measuring over 30 meters long to ensure a smooth journey.  It wasn't long before our catamaran was hit with waves higher than the hull splashing and tossing the boat around like a ragdoll.  Needless to say this was the roughest boat ride either of us have experienced.  Mark did a great job staying focused on the horizon for the 2.5 hours.  Jen on the other hand did her best - but as we all know - sometimes your best just isn't good enough.  Upon arrival at Heron Island we were greeted with a nice blend of fruit juices and a brief introduction to the island by one of the island naturalists.  After the introduction to the island was over we recovered from our journey in our reef suite.  

Heron Island, Australia

While stomachs are settling let me give you a little background on Heron Island...
Heron Island is a small coral island on the Tropic of Capricorn in the southern portion of the Great Barrier Reef.  It is approximately 40 acres in size measuring 2600 feet long by 980 feet at its widest point.  Being this small it take a leisurely 20 minutes to walk around the entire island.  The Heron Island Resort consists of 109 rooms, restaurant and bar featuring live entertainment.  Also on the island is the Heron Island Research Station owned by the University of Queensland is the largest research station on the Great Barrier Reef.

Heron Island, Australia

After a 2 hour nap to settle our systems we indulged in dinner at the Shearwater Restaurant. Over dinner we reviewed activity options for our stay and made the plan to turn off our alarms and retire early for the day. 

Australia 2016, Day 10 - In Search of Tuxedos

August 16, 2016

We started our day by packing up and getting the car loaded, then drove to breakfast at a wonderful little place called The Olive Tree. Kayleigh had museli, Jen had a bacon and cheese toastie, and Mark was the traditionalist with 2 eggs with bacon, sausage, potatoes and toast. We got on the road for our long 8 hour drive back to Christchurch. We drove through Dunedin, and thought about stopping to see Tim & Ray, but then realized we were halfway around the world from them. 

We stopped for a jaunt at the Moeraki Boulders. These are rather spherical boulders on the seashore that... Look like a giant boccee set. The natives believed they had spiritual significance. After attempting to play boccee and failing, we did a little shopping and got back on the road.

Moeraki Boulders
Moeraki, New Zealand

Moeraki Boulders
Moeraki, New Zealand

Moeraki Boulders
Moeraki, New Zealand

Moeraki Beach
Moeraki, New Zealand

It wasn't long before we saw a sign for penguins near Oamaru. We've never seen penguins in the wild before, so we decided to make the detour. Along the way we came across a train crossing by the harbor, they have the cutest train signs in New Zealand!

Train Sign
Oamaru Harbor, New Zealand

Unfortunately penguins spend the day out in the ocean fishing and don't come home to their nest until dusk (what's that about!? So responsible...) so we tried to get a late lunch nearby. Many places in New Zealand advertise they are open morning till late, but they have a greatly reduced menu unless you're in the main meal times, so we struck out finding food.

We continued our drive and finally ended up in a small town named Timaru around 5pm. We stopped at this great little pizza joint named Zest and had a dinner of soup, salad and pasta. While we were eating, Mark researched penguin sighting locations and found that the worlds smallest penguins make their residence at the Timaru pier - who knew? After dinner, we headed out to the pier to try our hand at finding penguins, and... We found one! This was the perfect end to our time in New Zealand!

Little Blue Penguin
Timaru, New Zealand