Our first guests were our good buddies, Woody and Chris Pelton, from Burlington, North Carolina. The Pelton's came for the second half of November. We started in Bundaberg and they finally got away in Sydney. We had a BLAST with them; this is some of what we did:
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| Arriving in Bundy |
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| We had to find a Roo! Being very experienced travelers, we knew we had to WOW them with our plans for their time here. We began in "Bundy" for a few days and then traveled to places we hadn't visited. As luck would have it, we had rain, lots of rain for the 3-4 days in Bundaberg, we really only get rain here when guests from the US visit. (Note to drought-stricken Queensland: Invite our friends to visit and you'll get your much needed rain!) They were impressed with the location, our condo, and the restaurants. We took them to all our favorite places to eat (we actually thought the theme of their visit might be "Eating your way through Australia); Indulge Cafe, Catalonia Bistro, Thai Red Chili, and Bargara Beach Hotel where we saw the nightly parrot "invasion". We were devastated with the news of the Paris terrorist attaches and because Woody has many students in Europe (he is Dean of International Studies at Elon University), he had a little communication to do with his University, which he accomplished. The Rum Factory was a great tour, the Macadamia Nut Retailer, and some of my favorite shops rounded out our time in Bundaberg. We then headed to Perigian Beach by car to spend a few days on the Sunshine Coast (the name says it all).   Perigian Beach and "Shack" where we stayed We were very fortunate to be able to borrow the Treston's (the past director of the ER here in Bundaberg) beach house which they affectionately call "the Shack". It was a bare bones "A Frame" house located across the street from the beach. Greg Treston was there to greet us and show us around the charming beach town of Perigian. The shack was a chance for us to experience being Aussie Beach Bums. a place to shower and sleep.     |
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| U of the Sunshine Coast was located on what was a kangaroo sanctuary.The roos were everywhere! |
The best part of this time was the quaint town of Perigian Beach and it's proximity to Brisbane and the Sunshine Coast. Woody is the Dean of International Studies at Elon University in North Carolina. As his title explains, he sends and receives students from all over the world, including Australia. His connection here in Australia is the University of the Sunshine Coast (now what US college student wouldn't want to spend a semester at a school with that name?) located about an hour north of Brisbane, and 1/2 hour from Perigian Beach. He wanted to visit the school and introduce himself to the staff there who help arrange the exchanges. Being in Perigian Beach made access to USC (the "real" USC -- University of the Sunshine Coast, not those pretenders who lost their bowl game to the Badgers) very easy, and we all were invited to dinner with an associate of Woody's --- a gourmet meal in a gorgeous house overlooking the town.With the formalities over for Woody we headed to Noosa (surfing and shopping haven) the next day and one of the most beautiful walks we've done in Australia. This walk was recommended by everyone we asked and it did not disappoint. We left early as the weather was warm (80-90 degrees) and we wanted to get the whole walk in.
Truly amazing vistas and then a real surprise in a tree above the path on the way back, can you see it?
It's a Koala in the tree. Seeing one in the wild was a first for us, the Queensland coast is their habitat but is rapidly disappearing due to coastal development. We were thrilled to see this little bear. As they do 20 hours a day, it was sleeping so we got a good long look at it.
We were all happy we had headed off early to do this walk. Now time for lunch at the Noosa Heads Surf Lifesaving Club and a little beach time! We left Perigian on Sunday and stopped at the Australian Zoo, made famous by Steve Irwin, the bloke who defines "idiot" in the dictionary. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M5lIXAovhp0 (Steve Irwin died of a sting ray barb to his heart a few years ago.)
Yes, that's his baby (sorry about the quality of photo).
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| Our little part of the world |
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| John doing his Michael Jordon jump. |
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| So cute |
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| A cassowary Onto Brisbane and our first Airbnb booking (we took our kids' advice) and booked a lovely unit in the heart of Brisbane right on the river. Except for the extensive security questions (who knew John had such an extensive criminal background?) needed as first time users of the site, it was great. We had a unit which was deluxe by any definition, but the $6000 coffee machine (yes, we looked up what it cost) made the place over the top. After the 5 days on the beach, we did loads and loads of laundry and made all kinds of fancy brewed coffee. We were up all night.  Can you say Room with a View?   We played "Oh Hell!" on the balcony and drank in luxury. Speaking of luxury...next stop Whitsunday Islands.  |
We got to the unit and this was the view.
In town, we made plans for a day on the water to see Whitehaven Beach and do some snorkeling. Whitehaven Beach is rated as one of the 10 best beaches IN THE WORLD according to Conde Naste Travel Magazine. We were reserved for a day on a catamaran to see it. Meanwhile we needed dinner reservations. Lucky for us we had a few recommendations, one being The Hamilton Island Yacht Club. Besides being a gorgeous space, the dinner there was beautiful. Like most of dinner places, it was pricey, but the whole night was magical.
This is out of sequence but the Yacht Club is a beautiful building which we could see from the sailboat ride to Whitehaven Beach the next day. The form of the roof of the building is either the tail of a whale or a bird in flight, you decide.
The woods they used in the interior was like the wood used in the finest yachts, burnished to a beautiful glow. http://www.hamiltonisland.com.au/about-the-island/hamilton-island-yacht-club
The day of our sail was perfect, except very little wind. We got under way by use of the motor, but the water was nice and flat which I enjoyed. We were stopping by Whitehaven first for a couple of hours, then lunch, then snorkeling.
I don't know what the captain would have done if Woody hadn't been there to help navigate.
I'll just show in these picture what the day was like, so incredible.
The Beach
The sand is silica sand, so fine they tell you to leave electronics on the boat as the sand can find it's way into anything -- it really was like powdered sugar. Woody is not one to sit still for very long so he and John found a path up the hill to see a different vista, this was their view from the top of the island.
Pretty spectacular from up there.
The lunch they provided was delish, shrimp and sandwich wraps, salads and drinks. Yum.
The snorkeling was not great by any standards. Even though we were in the Great Barrier Reef, the coral and fish were not plentiful. No one told us to go to Whitsunday's to snorkel, it's the other stuff you go for. Because this was the only opportunity for the Pelton's to snorkel it was a little disappointing, but they were fine with it (at least they didn't ask us for a refund).
Back to the unit and the daily bird show. We had cockatoos that were quite comforttable flying and landing all over our balcony, and not shy about stealing food from the table.
The nightly bat show was really something but we couldn't photograph it because of the darkness. The fruit bats, called "flying foxes", appeared about 6:30pm, just as darkness fell. They are quite large and make this awful squeaking noise.
They covered the trees just like this photo, yuck, yuck, yuck...but there were no mossies.(Mosquitoes in American English) Just another Aussie experience for us to remember.
Woody was not finished trying to drag our sorry butts up another hill. He found a trail up Hamilton Island behind one of the hotels. We were game as it said it was a "moderate" trek, we were leaving later than we should being the day was going to get very warm, so if it had said difficult, Chris and I would have passed.
Well, it was the most difficult "moderate" trek I've ever done. The incline was steep, and full sunshine, we started and climbed to the first drop off, then Chris and Ellie dropped off. I think it was only "moderate" by Sir Edmund Hillary standards.
The views were great, we heard.....
They were great and I'm glad the boys had a camera to document how beautiful it was.
Meanwhile, Chris and I found a quiet place to wait for the boys.
Check out the swim-up bar. It's noon somewhere!!
The timing of the trip was over Thanksgiving, which isn't really celebrated here....go figure!
We decided to embrace the cuisine here and had an Asian Fusion dinner which was lovely.
Next stop SYDNEY!
We were heading into the last few days we had together so we decided to go to Sydney because Woody and Chris had heard that they should not miss seeing this city, and we could connect to our final part of the trip, Perth, for a medical conference from there. While John and I had seen Sydney on the first trip we took here in 2012, we loved Sydney and couldn't wait to see it with Woody and Chris. I needed to book some rooms for the 3 nights we had and remembered the wonderful hotel where we stayed last time. It was the Starwood property JP arranged for us, Sheraton On the Park. When I tried to find the same level room he had arranged for us I found it was $580/night....ouch. We really didn't want to shoot the wad on a place where we just slept but the location of the Sheraton was great, so I looked for a place nearby. I found the Y Hotel, a few blocks away, but much more affordable (read "cheap"). I booked it and hoped for the best. (It did get a very good review on Tripadvisor.) While not deluxe, it was adequate, and I appreciated Woody and Chris not complaining. But, they don't complain, about anything.
We were just a few blocks from Hyde Park, which is the oldest public park in Sydney.
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| This is the grand avenue, the fig trees are amazing. There is just too much to say about this park, so here's the website. http://www.cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au/explore/facilities/parks/major-parks/hyde-park |
And we shopped the markets,
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| Even Woody shopped! |
But the Harbor and Circular Quay was the place to be.
We did the tour of the Opera House, but we had a bit of a wait, so we took in what appeared to be a very busy Saturday on the Harbor. We watched a sailboat race which the famous Sydney ferries had to dodge, as well as a cruise boat.
The tour of the Opera House was great. Even though we had done it before, we heard new things and became even more amazed by the engineering of this iconic building.
The Sydney Opera House is to Sydney what the Eiffel Tower is to Paris, it changed the landscape of Sydney by its presence. The building takes your breath away in every way possible. It's still a work in progress as repairs and improvements for the 21st century are necessary.
The harbor is the heart of the city. We loved spending time there everyday.
We got up early on the Sunday we were there to catch a nature walk at the Botanical Garden (guess who found the walk? Somebody has to stop Woody). We had a lovely guide who walked us around privately as we were the only peope to show up that morning.
We bought tickets for the Hop On Hop Off bus on Sunday and took the 90 minute tour of
Sydney in the afternoon. This is always a good over view of the city, and a good opportunity to nap, which we all did -- not that it wasn't interesting but sometimes there's just no overcoming the sleep hormones.
Most of the pictures from the bus are blurry or just beyond what was to be snapped, Bondi Beach was clear and easy to see.
The next day we took a ferry to Watson's Bay which was recommended to us by one of the doctors in Bundaberg. We took a ferry and had the best morning in this sleepy town just 20 minutes by ferry boat, from Sydney. We felt worlds away from the city, but there Sydney was in the distance. We took a nice walk to the lighthouse and then back to the ferry harbor for lunch.
We were at the end of our time with Woody and Chris, only one special dinner left, at the Cafe Sydney located in the Custom House overlooking...what else?...the Harbor.
This was the perfect end to our time together. We had so much fun and loads of new experiences, can't wait until our next vacation with them.
For the Pelton's, it was home to start getting ready for Christmas. For us, it was on to the other side of Australia -- Perth and Fremantle.
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