Back in Brisbane - 13 hour Layover

The way that flights worked from Hamilton Island in the Whitsunday's over to Fiji, required a 13 hour layover in Brisbane.  So I checked myself into the Brisbane Marriott for free as I cashed in all my Marriott Rewards Points!  I was also greeted with such status when I checked in.  I got an upgraded room with a river view.  They also brought all my luggage up for me to the room and had it waiting for me by the time I got upstairs.  It was nice to not have to lug everything around by myself considering I am carrying around 23 kilos of clothes (that's after leaving a bag of about 15 kilos in Sydney and I shipped 20 kilos home - (approximately double the kilos for pounds to those not speaking metric!! haha)).  And finally, free Internet - hard to find free Internet these days!

Since I checked in around dinner time, I walked over to South Bank where I had been last weekend to eat at a restaurant that L recommended.  It was called Jellyfish and it had stunning sun set views overlooking the bridge and the Brisbane River.   I also ate one of L's favorite dishes - Moerton Bay Bugs.  They are basically baby like lobster tasting fish - absolutely delicious - despite the name Bugs!

After dinner I came back to the hotel for an early night as I was getting picked up very early the next morning to make my way over to Fiji!

Tropical Depression in Tropical Paradise

I arrived in the Whitsunday Islands on Monday to meet back up with the girls.  As soon as the plane began its descent into Hamilton Island Airport- I saw cloud coverage and rain drops.  Never did I think that this rain, grey skies, clouds, and wind would last until we left the island on Friday afternoon.  But it did.  At least this was the spot on our holiday where we splurged on high class and expensive accommodation since we spent a good portion of our time inside. 

We stayed at Pinnacles Resort and Spa and had a fabulous and spacious three bedroom apartment.  There was a gorgeous kitchen with beautiful stainless steel appliances and granite counter tops.  We also had an enormous outdoor porch looking out onto the Coral Sea- too bad we don't have one pretty picture of this view.  We also had our own hot tub on the porch which we used one night.

We spent all of Monday afternoon and most of Tuesday inside the apartment catching up on our photo uploads and e-mails.  Tuesday afternoon T and I went to the spa to treat ourselves since there was only so much photo uploading and e-mails one can handle. 

On Wednesday we attempted an island cruise to Long Island.  We were in the Whitsunday's which is supposed to be tropical paradise, so we weren't going to let this rain stop us from at least seeing and saying we have been to a few of the 74 islands that make up with Whitsunday's.  Due to inclement weather yet again, there wasn't much we could do on this island so we snapped a couple pictures, had some lunch, and played some pool.

On Thursday we attempted yet another island cruise - this time we went to Day Dream Island (below).  We basically did the same thing that we did at Long Island, except this time we played a little mini golf.  Good game M!

Of course as we were leaving on Friday to make our way back to the airport, the sun did peak out for a bit, but lucky for us, it didn't last long, so we didn't feel cheated.  And as we collected our baggage at Brisbane airport, it was time for us to say our goodbyes.  After spending the past four months together, we were about to part - I was on my way to Fiji, and the girls were off to the Sunshine Coast.  What an incredible, memorable, and amazing four month adventure with new girls to add to my mix of amazing friends. 

xx

Weekend in Brisbane

There really is nothing like a Saint Anselm College bond.  At St. A's, we are immersed in a culture of hospitality.  My weekend in Brisbane Australia demonstrated that St. A's truly is a special place and five, six, seven years off of the hilltop, there is still a sense of community and hospitality among those connected to Saint Anselm College.  L and I met at St. A's through mutual friends.  When L found out I was moving temporarily to Australia, she invited me to her and her fiance's home in Brisbane to check out the city.  I graciously accepted so on Friday evening L and her fiance S picked me up from the airport. We went straight to their new home and L cooked dinner and we had a relaxing evening in just catching up.  It was like no time had passed, we picked up where we left off last on L's visit to the Jersey shore.

On Saturday, despite forecasts for a rainy weekend it turned out to be a beautiful day so we took a ride on the City Cat which is a ferry that runs through the Brisbane River and you can take in the beautiful sites of the city and river bank from the ferry. 

We got off at South Bank to walk along the walking trail and enjoy the beautiful flowers and greenery. 

We then drove to take a ferry to Straddie Island (where they got engaged).  Upon arriving at Straddie Island we had some great barramundi for lunch (I'm going to miss this fish at home - its such a nice white fish).  We then did the walking trail to enjoy the views of Moerton Bay from the Island where we saw giant sea turtles swimming along.

Then as we were waiting for the bus to take the ferry back home a kangaroo just hopped along in front of us with a baby kangaroo in its pouch - unfortunately I was not quick enough with the camera but it was so cute!  That night there was a rugby game on so they had some friends over and we watched the game.

Knowing that there were two important rugby games on this Sunday afternoon, we made an early start to the Gold Coast.  The Gold Coast is very comparable to Miami.

After a quick breakfast we went to Main Beach in Gold Coast to soak up the sun and go in the ocean.  Before heading back for the games we stopped for some great seafood outside of Surfers Paradise.  When we got back home they had more friends over to watch the game.  They were all so great and welcoming and it was a fun day!  It was no surprise that their friends were so welcoming and nice because they were connected to a St. A's alumni!

My flight to the Whitsunday Islands to meet back up with the girls on Monday was not until lunch time so S and I had breakfast after L went off to work before he dropped me off at the airport.  Once again, another notation of St. A's hospitality!

It was a  fabulous weekend in a new Australian city with wonderful hosts.  Thanks for a great mini SAC reunion weekend.  

A Quick Trip to Cairns in Queensland

On Wednesday October 12th I had an early morning flight out of Tasmania up to Cairns with a connecting flight in Sydney.  Basically the whole day was devoted to travel.  I left Hobart around 8am and didn't get settled into our hotel in Cairns until about 4pm.  So that afternoon I explored the famous Esplanade of Cairns at sunset and had a quick dinner before resting up for a big Thursday.

On Thursday I had a  full Day Great Barrier Reef Boat and Snorkel adventure.  The highlight of the snorkeling was seeing a giant sea turtle just swimming along.  There were also tons of giant brightly colored fish which was a delight to look at.  The coral was not as bright and colorful as you would expect from pictures, but nevertheless, beautiful to look at.   The water was quite warm so no wetsuit was required - a fabulous welcome to my first taste of summer in 2011, even though it was already October.  All in all a great but exhausting day. 

My flight to Brisbane was not until 5pm on Friday so there was still plenty of time to explore a little more of Cairns.  I decided to spend the morning and early afternoon at Trinity Beach and then I got some Tim Tam flavored gelatto before heading to the airport to have a mini St. A's reunion! Trinity Beach was very peaceful as it was not full of tourists and the scenery was just beautiful. 

Tasmania Day Number 3

Today we decided to take a boat cruise so once again it was an early morning.  Upon walking outside we saw that it had snowed on Mount Wellington last night as the tops of the mountains were all snow covered.  So we were all bundled up in coats, scarves, gloves, and hoods.  After an hour and a half drive to the boat at Port Arthur we suited up in our supposedly waterproof red onesies!  We were all in matching red waterproof one piece suits - definitely the cover for the next Glamour Magazine Covershoot!  As we set out on the boat, the sun was peeking out behind the clouds but there was definitely some rain clouds in the distance which did not look fun.  We took in the views of the beautiful cliffs and sea caves set among the cliffs.  We even saw hundreds of birds, including an albatross.  There were also sightings of New Zealand fur seals and a whale.

 However mid way through the trip we hit an enormous storm as we approached the Southern Ocean (Did you know there are more than 4 oceans that we learn about in school?!! one being the Southern Ocean).  There were intense winds, white caps on the surf, waves almost coming over the sides of the boat and a crazy hail storm that lasted for almost ten minutes.  The ice pellets were accumulating all around us.  The crew on the boat couldn't do much to protect us from the elements so we sat and tried to huddle and shelter ourselves from the crazy weather as best as we could.

 

If you have ever seen the movie the Perfect Storm, this was it, an exact recreation right off the coast of Tasmania.  Apparently the waterproof onesies were not so waterproof after all as we were all soaked from head to toe even though we had 3-4 layers on underneath the suits.  And our feet were so cold and wet as the hail and surf seeped into our sneakers.  But there was nothing we could do, but sit through the rest of the sight seeing cruise nice and wet and cold and pray we didn't get sick from the elements. 

Once back on land, we had to borrow some clothing from the tour company to have lunch in because they were nice enough to put our clothes in the dryer for us.  So we went to a beautiful lodge for lunch overlooking the water and ate delicious food in sweatpants four sizes to big for us!  Clearly today, was not a day for fashion for us! 

After lunch we went to a chocolate factory for tasting.  The most interesting piece of chocolate that I had was apple chocolate.  It was dark chocolate with a distinct hint of a granny smith apple taste, quite delicious!

The final stop on our tour today was a visit to the Remarkable Cave.  This is a natural rock cave like structure situated on the southern most tip of land in the world before reaching Antarctica which is about 2,000 miles away.
  The wind at this tip of the southern most land mass in the Southern Ocean was so windy - we were only able to enjoy it for a few moments and a quick picture before the wind sent us back to the van.

Once again another fun filled day - and our last cold one.  Tomorrow we head up to Queensland for some summer like weather as we get set to snorkel the Great Barrier Reef.  Also, Queensland does not follow daylight savings time, so even though we sprang ahead two weeks ago in New South Wales and Victoria, we will be falling back in Queensland, so I'll be back to being only 14 hours ahead of you instead of 15!!!

Tasmania - Day 1 and 2

After three months of working through our second busy season of 2011, A, M, and A's friend T and I began our Australian holiday adventure.  We arrived in Hobart Sunday afternoon around 5pm on the 9th of October.  We explored a little bit of the Salamanca Waterfront area along with Princes Park which is full of cherry blossom trees which was really beautiful.  Then we had an early dinner at a restaurant which was voted the best seafood restaurant in Hobart.

Monday was a fabulous first full day in Tasmania.  We got picked up around 7am for a full day adventure tour.  Our tour guide was fantastic.  His name was Jeremy and he was full of information and more than willing to take photos for us at all the great photo op points!  Our first stop was at Spring Bay and Raspen Beach which looked out onto Moriah Island.  The morning was cool, but the views were amazing.  There is so much water in Tasmania, between seas, bays, rivers, oceans, etc...really really beautiful. 

After that we made a stop at Spikey Bridge and Spikey Beach.  The places are named Spikey because of Spikey Bridge which is a bridge that is built out of natural stones which have spikes all along the sides to keep the cows and sheep in and not fall off the side of the low lying bridge when being herded across. 

The next stop was Friendly Beach which had amazingly beautiful white sands.  When we had gone to Hyams Beach in Sydney we were told it was supposed to have the whitest sand in the world, but I think Friendly Beach has even whiter sand.  Also, there wasn't another person on the beach so it was just us, so it was nice and serene and peaceful. 

The next stop was Coles Bay and the Hazards for some more breathtaking views. 

Now that it was lunch time we stopped at Honeymoon Bay to take in the views and eat our sandwiches. 

Next on the agenda was Sleepy Bay which was full of adventure.  We hiked around a bunch of rocks to take in even more beautiful views, it just kept getting better.  We also crawled in and out of a cave which was really fun. 





The last part of the day before our 3 hour drive back to Hobart was a visit to Kate's Berry Farm.  Here we had a fabulous late afternoon snack.  I had a wonderful apple and raspberry pie with vanilla icecream!

On our way home back to Hobart there was a beautiful full arch rainbow with every color visible - a perfect end to our our first full day in Tasmania!

Long Weekend in Melbourne

Unlike the US, Labor Day weekend for New South Wales Australia is the first Monday of October, not September.  So we took advantage of the long weekend and went to Melbourne for the weekend. A quick one hour flight away to the state of Victoria.

After arriving late Friday night we began our tour of Melbourne on Saturday.  It was time for our Penguin Tour on Phillips Island after a quick view of Federation Square.  We took a tour bus to Phillips Island (2 hour drive each way) to see the March of the Penguins.  At dusk every night, hundreds to thousands of penguins basically body surf out of the ocean and waddle up the beach to their borrows to mate/feed young and rest after a long day of fishing.  It was really cool to see all these penguins walking in little lines up the beach.  You can't take pictures though because about 10 years ago there were a lot of penguins dying and they realized it was because they went blind, and couldn't survive because they rely on their eye sight so much.  Due to all the camera flashes, the penguins went blind.  So no photos for penguin eyesight sake!  We got back from this around 10pm and went to bed after a quick dinner because our Great Ocean Road Tour started at 6:45am the next morning and this was a 14 hour tour so we needed to be rested.  And on top of this it was day light savings time and we sprang ahead so we lost an hour of sleep!  It's weird to spring ahead when I know it's fall at home, but everything is reversed below the equator. 

The Great Ocean Road is a beautiful 300 kilometer road that hugs the coast line with beautiful features.  We stopped at numerous touristy photo op points.  First we stopped at Bells Beach, a famous surfing beach.  Then we stopped at the famous Great Ocean Road sign. 

Following that we went to Kennett River followed by Ottoway National Rainforest for a brief walk.  The next stop was the main site - the 12 Apostles.   
We took a 10 minute helicopter ride over them and that was amazing.  They are named the 12 Apostles because they are rock features that are naturally formed in a beautiful structure except there aren't 12, there used to be 9 and now there are only 8 because one crumbled into the sea.  

After seeing the 12 Apostles from the sky we briefly saw them by land before moving on to Loch Ard Gorge (to the left).  

The last and final stop on the Great Ocean Road Tour before driving 300 kilometers back to Melbourne was the London Bridge.  We got back very late again and had some dinner and went to bed.

On Monday it was our first chance to explore the city of Melbourne so we pretty much just spent the day exploring the cafes, shops, alleyways, beach area etc.  Melbourne was nice, but definitely not my city of choice.   All in all, a fun long weekend!