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Australia-December
​Jan Phillips and Family

Slide Show of Photos with captions at end of trip information
Australia is HUGE and it takes over 19 hours of flight time to get there.  Neither of those came into consideration when my family of six started planning our trip.  Nor was the problem of accommodating the luggage requirements on a variety of airlines.  The trip was the result of an answer my husband gave to the question of how he wanted to celebrate a significant birthday. His wish was to dive the Great Barrier Reef.   A year and a half later we were on our way to the land down under.  Fortunately, for us the wildfires had not yet blossomed into the tragedy that they were to become.

Our son, his wife, my husband, and I left for Sydney in late November.  We flew to San Francisco and then on to Sydney.  Arriving in Sydney we went through customs and had a long lay over to contend with.  We took the train out to the ferry terminal and caught a ferry to Manley.  Along the way we saw the Opera House, the water side view.  Once there we walked around and found a cafe where Ernest Hemingway had eaten.  It was across the street from a beautiful sandy beach, which was on the South Pacific Ocean.  We caught the ferry back and then caught a taxi out to Bondi Beach.  It is as advertised, long, sandy and welcoming.  There is a beach trail so we followed it.  Then had lunch and took an Uber back to the airport for our flight to Bundaberg, our first stop.

In Bundaberg we drove out to our B & B at Coral Cove.  The owner shared their home with us.  However, they did not fix the breakfast; instead they left the breakfast makings and we did the making.  My husband and I had the apartment that was a converted garage and my son and his wife had the upstairs.  The home was on a rocky coast.  It had an outdoor grilling area where we spent three days eating and relaxing.  On our first day we went shopping for food. Our last night there was to be both Thanksgiving dinner and birthday celebrations.  By that time, my daughter and her husband joined us.

The next morning, we flew 53 miles in a small plane to Lady Elliott Island, an all- inclusive eco-resort on the southern end of the Great Barrier Reef.  There was a lagoon on the east side of the island.  We tried our hand at glamping which is very similar to having your own private room.  The only problem is that the wind blew very hard one night and literally rattled our whole tent.  The five of them (husband, daughter, son, son-in-law and daughter-in-law) completed 5 dives.  I did not accompany them.  I did snorkel in the lagoon with family trailing along making sure I was safe.  For my second snorkel attempt we were driven over to the west side of the island, which directly fronted the Coral Sea.  We walked out to a front-loading boat and got in.  They took us out to a place that had a depth of about 14 meters. I sat on the board attached to the side of the boat and my son put on my flippers.  Then I flopped off the boat and saw the wonders of the sea.  We also watched gorgeous sunsets from that beach.  After being there for 4 nights we flew back to Bundaberg.  My son and his wife then left for Byron Bay.  

My daughter, her husband, my husband and I flew to Sydney.  Along the way we spotted some of the fires that would later ravage the continent.  When we arrived at Sydney, we were lucky that the wind kept the smoke at bay.  We stayed in downtown Sydney.  The next day we walked to see the Royal Botanic Gardens and then on to the land side of the Opera House.  We ended up at the Japanese art exhibit of nightmarish creatures at the Art Gallery of New South Wales. The next day we walked to the Chinese Gardens and then out to the Rocks Market, an outdoor shopping mall.  We found good food along the way.  During each of the days we each took over 17,000 steps.

The following day saw us back at the airport. My daughter and her husband flew home and my husband and I flew to Adelaide.  The next day we took a tour to the west of town and rode to the top of Mt. Lofty for a look at Adelaide.  Then on to Hanhdorf, a German tourist town which included a brewery.  On the way back to the hotel, we saw wild koalas.  That afternoon we walked to the shopping mall.  There we found a store that had converted its basement into a replica of an opal mine.  Then we were off again for our last stop in Australia, Melbourne.
In Melbourne we made arrangements for a tour that would take along us the coast west of town.  This was the Indian Ocean.  Our first stop was at an aboriginal museum where we fed an emu, petted a kangaroo and saw examples of aboriginal art.  After getting back into the small van our next stop was in the middle of nowhere.  This was a chocolate factory for a bite of breakfast.  The shop had 1-meter long sticks of chocolate for sale as well as many other goodies.  We then continued on to see the 12 Apostles, sea stacks along the rocky cliffs.  London Bridge was there as well and had indeed fallen in.  On the way back we followed the Great Ocean Road.  This is where the size of Australia really struck me.  We saw kangaroos just taking it easy in hay fields.  Our driver stopped at a stand, got out of the van and handed each of us a handful of seeds.  We then walked across the road and saw a number of cockatoos and parrots.  He said “put out your hand”.  One of the birds hopped up onto my husband and the rest soon followed.  They landed on our heads and shoulders as well.  He delivered us back to the starting street 13 hours later.  It was well worth our time.  On our last day we took a cruise on the Yarra River, there in Melbourne.  

​Then it was time to start for home, which meant one more layover.  This time in Fiji.  The choice was 12 hours in the airport or a night in a resort.  We chose the resort.  It was nice to simply lay around and look at the ocean.  Our last flight was14 hours to LA with a very short layover and then home.