Blue Mountains

A few days after Christmas we all made our way towards Sydney for our NYE reservation. We had planned this trip with a stopover in the Blue Mountains as we had never been there ourselves and Stacy's parents wanted to see them before they headed back to Canada.

We had a very busy 2-night stopover, with us cramming in both Jenolan Caves and Katoomba's Scenic World all in one day. It was a day full of beautiful sights, but by the end of it we were exhausted.

Here are some photos of our stop at Jenolan Caves:

And here are some pictures from our stop at Scenic World:

The Famous 'Three Sisters'

The steepest passenger railway in the world

Another shot of the steepest passenger railway in the world

It was BUSY! (between Xmas and NYE)

Christmas 2013

Once again, sorry for the delay in getting these posts up. We have a personal goal of getting all posts updated before Stacy heads back to work in 6 weeks! :o

------- Anyways....

Christmas 2013 was a special one to us as it was Matty's first. We also had Stacy's parents here, so we had even more to celebrate.

Christmas in Oz, however, has never felt like Christmas to us. It is just too hot and there are so many traditions that are just so foreign to us (bbq on the beach anyone?). Nonetheless, it is fun time, but we always try to incorporate some of our own traditions into it. One of these traditions includes having a turkey dinner. Unfortunately, turkey in Australia is a bit difficult to come by.  First of all, the only time of the year that they are sold here is at Christmas time. Not many Aussies buy turkeys though (they prefer to buy seafood for Christmas) - so I speculate that they only sell them here to appease the expats. ;) Second of all, turkeys are ridiculously over-priced. We're talking $80 AUD for a standard-sized bird. Furthermore, it's never easy finding the standard trimmings that you are used to. For instance, cranberry sauce (jellied or whole) is not sold down here. They do have cranberry "jam" though (which was suggested as a substitute to us our first year here - barf). So this year we were prepared - we had Stacy's parents bring all the necessary trimmings down with them from Canada.

So everything was looking good for this year's celebration - that is, until the day before Christmas Eve when Blair came down with the norwalk virus. And as everyone knows, norwalk is quite contagious, so it was passed along to Stacy next. This meant that we needed to delay (gasp!!) Christmas by a day. So, in the end, we opened our presents on boxing day and had our turkey dinner that day too. All in all, it was a great celebration, but still fell short on feeling like a proper Christmas.

The Great Ocean Road

After Melbourne, we headed west along the coast and drove the famous Great Ocean Road (famous for the Twelve Apostles).

On the first day, we drove from Melbourne to Warrnambool. This drive, although only 264km, took us the entire day to complete because we were stopping every few minutes to see the sights. It was a very warm day (+38 degrees), which made touring the Apostles quite uncomfortable. Another difficulty we ran into was the number of mozzies in the area. Look closely at the photo of our car door below to see just how many flies we had to deal with at each stop along the highway. Honestly, these little suckers did take some of the beauty away from this drive!

Anyways, it still was a very beautiful drive that we are very glad we had the opportunity to do. Here are some of the sights along the highway:

 

Here are some photos of the Twelve Apostles:

 

 And here are some additional sights near the Apostles:

On the second day, we headed back towards Melbourne via the Grampions National Park. Here are some pictures from our tour through this park.

Melbourne - Take 2

Following Tasmania, we hopped on a plane and flew back to Melbourne. We spent another three days in this awesome city. This time we toured around the Crown Resort and Entertainment Complex to see some of their Christmas displays, we did a boat cruise down the Yarra river, we had High Coffee at the Intercontinental, and we drove to Phillip Island to see the penguins and the sights along the way.

Christmas at the Crown

Christmas show at the Crown

Christmas in Melbourne

Christmas in Melbourne

Yarra River Boat Cruise

 Finally, here are some photos from Phillip Island:

Tasmania

A week after returning from Ayers Rock, we squeezed in another vacation before Christmas. The trip was broken into three parts: Tasmania, Melbourne, and the Great Ocean Road. This blog update will focus on Tasmania! :)

We spent three days in Tasmania, where we based ourselves mostly in the Hobart area. While there, we visited the Tasman Arch, Port Arthur, Wine Glass Bay, Cascades Brewery, Salamanca Market, and the Bonorong Wildlife Park.

First up was Port Arthur, with a stop along the way to view the Tasman Arch in the Tasman National Park. Port Arthur, a World Heritage site, is a former convict settlement consisting of eleven remnant penal sites originally built within the British Empire during the 18th and 19th centuries.

Tasman Arch

Port Arthur

Port Arthur

Port Arthur

 The following day, we hit the road and drove approximately 200km east to visit Wine Glass Bay. Located in the Freycinet National Park, WGB is located halfway down the east coast of Tasmania. A very pretty beach, which we definitely considered worth the drive.

Here are a few sights we saw along our drive to the Freycinet.

East Coast of Tasmania

East Coast of Tasmania

East Coast of Tasmania

East Coast of Tasmania

The following day, we toured around Hobart. We spent an hour or two visiting the Salamanca Market, we ate at a James Squire pub, visited the Bonorong Wildlife Park, and toured the Cascade Brewery (Australia's oldest operating brewery). All in all, a great tour of Tasmania!

Salamanca Market

All James Squire on tap!

Look at that menu!!

Cascade Brewery

Cascade Brewery

Tasmanian Devil