Hi all,
The pictures from my family's adventures down under are officially up! It's a little different this time because both my Dad and I took pictures, and my Dad used two memory cards. So there are 3 different albums of the epic adventure. The first one (my Dad's) has some pictures at the beginning of the February cruise, meeting Lily and birthday before diving into the great New Zealand and Australia. The second album is my Dad's continuation of the first (only covers the second half of the last day). The third album is all of my pictures - starting with SailNZ and going straight into my family being there. There is a bit of an overlap between my pictures and my Dad's.
First album: http://picasaweb.google.com/LSOL817/FamilyDownUnder?feat=directlink
Second album: http://picasaweb.google.com/LSOL817/FamilyDownUnder_2?feat=directlink
Third album: http://picasaweb.google.com/LSOL817/FamilyDownUnder_3?feat=directlink
Enjoy!
The whole Solinsky clan sending love from West Hartford!
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
Friday, July 9, 2010
Family in SYDNEY!
Hi everyone,
Well it’s finally here – the end of my time traveling down under. I can’t believe the time has flown so fast! I have truly loved seeing and experiencing all that New Zealand and Australia have to offer. The last stop of the epic Solinsky adventure is Sydney. Now I’ll tell you what we have done the past few days here:
Wednesday July 7
Today we flew from Melbourne to Sydney. We got into Sydney around mid-afternoon and it was raining. We came to the hotel, checked in and had lunch down the street. Then we walked down to Circular Quay where we picked up our cruise. We took a Cook Cruise around the Sydney harbour for an hour and a half. The cruise started at 5 so when we got on Sydney was still light, and throughout the cruise Sydney got darker so by the time we came back the Sydney city light were all on. We cruised around the Opera House, Harbour Bridge, past the botanic gardens and around the different suburbs on the harbour. It was a really nice cruise. We even had some complimentary drinks and nibbles. After the cruise we went to the Rocks – Sydney’s oldest district. We walked around there for a while and found an Italian restaurant for dinner. Then Dad and I walked around a little more and went across part of the Harbour bridge which was really cool! Then we went to a delicious Belgian Chocolate dessert place.
Thursday July 8
Today we did a city tour of Sydney with Gray Line. We saw a lot of the city highlights via a bus. We got off at Mrs. Macquarie’s chair which gives a great view of the Habour Bridge and Opera House. We then headed out of the city and went to Bondi Beach. Along the way we saw a great view of the city. Then we had morning tea at Bondi Beach and hung out there for a while. Bondi is one of Sydney’s over 30 beaches. The waves were huge! During the summer Bondi is a popular surf beach. It was really pretty. The tour was good and we learned a ton about the history of Sydney. After the tour we were dropped off at the Opera House. We had lunch and then it was time for our Opera House tour! We had the best tour guide and it was really the best tour I think I’ve ever been on! The tour guide gave us all headphones so that we could hear him no matter where we were – which was awesome! We went in the play and drama theaters and learned that the rooms are very flexible and can be changed into many formations. We then had an intro film about the Opera House. When ideas about the Opera House were just starting there were 34 possible sites and 150 possible designs to choose from. The process started in 1957 with a 3 year target and 7 million dollar budget. The Opera House was finished in 1973 and cost over 100 million dollars. They had a lot of trouble figuring out how to construct it but they really did pull it off! There are 9 halls and 7 million visitors per year. After learning this basic information, we moved on to tourt he different parts of the Opera House. We went into one of the main halls and were lucky enough to see the Sydney Symphony practicing! The sound in the theater was amazing!! It was all natural with no amplification! We then went into the Opera theater which is also incredible, but they are planning on redoing the interior soon to match the original Dutch architect’s plans. They recently renovated the bathrooms to reflect his original ideas and they are actually really cool. Anyways the entire tour was amazing and I love the Opera House more now than I did before! After the tour we went back to the hotel and relaxed for a bit. Then we headed to Chinatown for dinner. After dinner we went back to the Opera House to see “A Little Night Music” which is an operetta in English. The show was really cute, and I just couldn’t get over the fact that I was actually seeing an opera in the Sydney Opera House!! So cool!! It was a truly amazing, opera-filled day!
Friday July 9
Today we went and explored the Blue Mountains! We had an early pick up at our hotel and then we were off across the Anzac Bridge. Our first stop was Featherdale Wildlife Park. Here we got to pet and hang out with Kangaroos, Wallaby and koalas. The koalas were very energetic: jumping between trees and running laps! We also saw penguins, wombats, emus and a dingo (a crazy wild dog). It was an awesome place! We then went to Leura for lunch. After that we went to Govetts Leap for our first incredible view of the Blue Mountains. From here we saw the spectacular scenery of the Jamison and Megalong valleys, as well as Bridle Falls. From there we drove on to Scenic world. Scenic World is in the heart of the Blue Mountains in the Jamison valley. We went on the steepest railray in the world (and it was so scary!!) to get down towards the valley. From here we had an amazing view of the famous “Three Sisters.” The Three Sisters is this cool rock formation. According to Aboriginal legend Three Sisters was formed by a father who used his wishbone to protect his daughters, turned them to stone, but then dropped the wishbone at the bottom of the Jamison valley, he is now still searching for the wishbone in bird form. Anyways, there was a huge mine exhibit down there which we walked through, and also a cool bush walk explaining about the different trees. We then took a cablecar back up. After we left the Blue Mountains and went to the Sydney Olympic Park. The Olympics took place in Sydney in 2000. We had a bus tour of the different stadiums and surrounding area. Then we were dropped off for a ferry ride along the Parramatta River to Circular Quay. After the ferry we took the train to Darling Harbour where we had a delicious dinner. Now we’re just packing up.
Hope you enjoyed reading my blog these past 6.5 months! Can’t wait to see you all soon!
Sending lots of love from Down Under!
Well it’s finally here – the end of my time traveling down under. I can’t believe the time has flown so fast! I have truly loved seeing and experiencing all that New Zealand and Australia have to offer. The last stop of the epic Solinsky adventure is Sydney. Now I’ll tell you what we have done the past few days here:
Wednesday July 7
Today we flew from Melbourne to Sydney. We got into Sydney around mid-afternoon and it was raining. We came to the hotel, checked in and had lunch down the street. Then we walked down to Circular Quay where we picked up our cruise. We took a Cook Cruise around the Sydney harbour for an hour and a half. The cruise started at 5 so when we got on Sydney was still light, and throughout the cruise Sydney got darker so by the time we came back the Sydney city light were all on. We cruised around the Opera House, Harbour Bridge, past the botanic gardens and around the different suburbs on the harbour. It was a really nice cruise. We even had some complimentary drinks and nibbles. After the cruise we went to the Rocks – Sydney’s oldest district. We walked around there for a while and found an Italian restaurant for dinner. Then Dad and I walked around a little more and went across part of the Harbour bridge which was really cool! Then we went to a delicious Belgian Chocolate dessert place.
Thursday July 8
Today we did a city tour of Sydney with Gray Line. We saw a lot of the city highlights via a bus. We got off at Mrs. Macquarie’s chair which gives a great view of the Habour Bridge and Opera House. We then headed out of the city and went to Bondi Beach. Along the way we saw a great view of the city. Then we had morning tea at Bondi Beach and hung out there for a while. Bondi is one of Sydney’s over 30 beaches. The waves were huge! During the summer Bondi is a popular surf beach. It was really pretty. The tour was good and we learned a ton about the history of Sydney. After the tour we were dropped off at the Opera House. We had lunch and then it was time for our Opera House tour! We had the best tour guide and it was really the best tour I think I’ve ever been on! The tour guide gave us all headphones so that we could hear him no matter where we were – which was awesome! We went in the play and drama theaters and learned that the rooms are very flexible and can be changed into many formations. We then had an intro film about the Opera House. When ideas about the Opera House were just starting there were 34 possible sites and 150 possible designs to choose from. The process started in 1957 with a 3 year target and 7 million dollar budget. The Opera House was finished in 1973 and cost over 100 million dollars. They had a lot of trouble figuring out how to construct it but they really did pull it off! There are 9 halls and 7 million visitors per year. After learning this basic information, we moved on to tourt he different parts of the Opera House. We went into one of the main halls and were lucky enough to see the Sydney Symphony practicing! The sound in the theater was amazing!! It was all natural with no amplification! We then went into the Opera theater which is also incredible, but they are planning on redoing the interior soon to match the original Dutch architect’s plans. They recently renovated the bathrooms to reflect his original ideas and they are actually really cool. Anyways the entire tour was amazing and I love the Opera House more now than I did before! After the tour we went back to the hotel and relaxed for a bit. Then we headed to Chinatown for dinner. After dinner we went back to the Opera House to see “A Little Night Music” which is an operetta in English. The show was really cute, and I just couldn’t get over the fact that I was actually seeing an opera in the Sydney Opera House!! So cool!! It was a truly amazing, opera-filled day!
Friday July 9
Today we went and explored the Blue Mountains! We had an early pick up at our hotel and then we were off across the Anzac Bridge. Our first stop was Featherdale Wildlife Park. Here we got to pet and hang out with Kangaroos, Wallaby and koalas. The koalas were very energetic: jumping between trees and running laps! We also saw penguins, wombats, emus and a dingo (a crazy wild dog). It was an awesome place! We then went to Leura for lunch. After that we went to Govetts Leap for our first incredible view of the Blue Mountains. From here we saw the spectacular scenery of the Jamison and Megalong valleys, as well as Bridle Falls. From there we drove on to Scenic world. Scenic World is in the heart of the Blue Mountains in the Jamison valley. We went on the steepest railray in the world (and it was so scary!!) to get down towards the valley. From here we had an amazing view of the famous “Three Sisters.” The Three Sisters is this cool rock formation. According to Aboriginal legend Three Sisters was formed by a father who used his wishbone to protect his daughters, turned them to stone, but then dropped the wishbone at the bottom of the Jamison valley, he is now still searching for the wishbone in bird form. Anyways, there was a huge mine exhibit down there which we walked through, and also a cool bush walk explaining about the different trees. We then took a cablecar back up. After we left the Blue Mountains and went to the Sydney Olympic Park. The Olympics took place in Sydney in 2000. We had a bus tour of the different stadiums and surrounding area. Then we were dropped off for a ferry ride along the Parramatta River to Circular Quay. After the ferry we took the train to Darling Harbour where we had a delicious dinner. Now we’re just packing up.
Hope you enjoyed reading my blog these past 6.5 months! Can’t wait to see you all soon!
Sending lots of love from Down Under!
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
Family in MELBOURNE!
Hi everyone,
Welcome to Melbourne! We are now clearly out of the outback and into one of Australia’s biggest city known for shopping and fine dining.
Monday July 5
After our flight out of Alice Springs today we made it to Melbourne in the afternoon. After checking into our hotel we did not have much time before we had to leave for dinner. We had dinner tonight aboard the colonial tram car and it was fabulous! The tram car picked us up about a half hour walk from our hotel. The walk to the tram stop was really nice – we went by Federation Square and walked along the Yarra River. We made it to the tram stop and were greeted by the maitre de, waited 5 minutes and then went on-board our tram! The tram was set up like a colonial restaurant. We were at 2 tables on each side of the tram. There was a chef on board where all of our food was prepared, along with a waiter and an assistant waiter. There were probably about 15 tables on board, with 2, 3 or 4 people at each table. When we boarded the tram the appetizers were set up for us and were crackers with two types of dip. After settling in, the tram started moving and for the rest of the evening we circled around Southern Melbourne along St Kilda. It was so nice! After our crackers, they came around with bread and champagne. We then ordered our meal (we had 3 choices). My Mom, Dad and I got fish while the boys got chicken. The fish was delicious and the boys liked their chicken. We then had sticky date pudding for dessert which was also very good! The meal finished off with chocolates. It was a really fantastic dinner and was just so cool to be aboard a moving tram around Melbourne. It was a great way to see a section of the city and was just so much fun. The colonial tramcar restaurant has been running since the 1980s and since has won many tourist and restaurant awards. It really was high class dining aboard a tramcar!
Tuesday July 6
Today was a full day filled with Melbourne sightseeing! After a breakfast at the hotel, we headed to Federation Square to pick up our tour bus. There is way too much to do in Melbourne and because of this, we ended up splitting into 2 groups today and did two separate things. Dad and I did the Great Ocean Road adventure. We left federation square at 8 am on a double-decker Gray Line coach bus and set off for Great Ocean road. We left Melbourne via the West Gate Bridge and passed through West Melbourne. Within a half hour or so we were officially out of Melbourne and in the countryside. Torquay is the official start of the Great Ocean Road and from the moment the road started, we had unbelievable views of the ocean and cliffs. The Great Ocean Road was carved out by WWI veterans in the 1930s. It took 2,000 men to complete the approximate 400 km which create the road. The road is along the West coast of Victoria (the territory Melbourne is in), on the South coast of Australia. Our first stop was Bells Beach which has a beautiful beach and huge waves. There were TONS of surfers out today surfing the waves. We had morning tea here with Bush Bily Tea and lamingtons (Aussie sponge cake with chocolate and coconut on the outside). We then continued along the Great Ocean Road taking in the spectacular coastal views filled with cliffs, sandy beaches and rolling surf. We even saw a whale in the ocean!! It was very exciting. Our next stop was Apollo Bay where we stopped for lunch. After some fish ‘n chips, pasta and rice we were back on the road. We went through The Otways which is a rainforest filled with fern gullies and eucalypts. The trees were really beautiful and supposedly sometimes you can see koalas in the trees, but we didn’t see any. On the other side of the Otways we reached Port Campbell National Park. Back in the 1800s this coastline was known as “The Shipwreck Coast” because there were so many shipwrecks here due to it’s rugged coastline. Our first stop was the Twelve Apostles which are these huge stone islands right near the coastline. The Apostles are where the coastline used to be, but due to erosion, the coastline moved back and the soft stone was eroded, but the hard stone stayed leaving behind the Apostles. There used to be 13 Apostles, but today there at only 8 still standing. The waves crash into the bottoms of the Apostles so eventually they get weathered away and the Apostle tips over. While there are only 8, it is still called the Twelve Apostles. They are truly magnificent and beautiful! We walked along the boardwalk and saw them from up above. Then we hopped back on the bus and went to Gibson’s Steps. We walked down the 65 steps and saw the Apostles right from the beach. It was awesome to go down the cliff, be so close to the raging sea and see the Apostles from a different perspective and realize how huge they are. We then went to a specific section of shipwreck coast where a tragic shipwreck “Loch Ard” took place. Here there were 3 10 minute walks to do, and we were able to do them all in 30 minutes. We first did Loch Ard Gorge, where we walked down into the gorge where the shipwreck took place. It was really beautiful down there and cool to be down by the water. We then did Island Arch which was a pretty walk along the top where we were able to see London Bridge (where the water carved out stone that looks like a bridge). Finally we went to Razorback which had a ton of stunning coastal cliffs and structures carved out. We then went back on the bus and headed for Port Campbell the town. We had a quick stop in the town where we got some ice cream. Then we went back on the bus and took the inland route to Melbourne. On the way we saw a gorgeous sunset which lasted a really long time. Then we were shown a movie about the shipwreck that happened in Lorch Ard. It was a really great tour filled with amazing sights! Our tour guide was also great – he gave us a ton of information about everything we saw along the way. We then made it back to Melbourne, met up with Mom, Brian and Jason for dinner. After dinner Mom, Jason and I walked down Swanston Street (where we are staying) to a Spanish churro place I had been to back in April with my friend Arielle (who studied here for the semester). We picked up some delicious churros and brought them back to the hotel for everyone to enjoy! Speaking of the rest of the family, here is a special guest appearance from Brian to tell you about what they did:
it was a cool morning as we made are way to the bus. The sky was clear and we had upgraded to the grand city tour and oh was it grand. We hopped in the bus with our driver Con and 15 other mates. Making our way around beautiful Melbourne in the grayline bus. Con pointed out all the fantastic buildings the tallest one being the Eureka building. It was really cool looking. However our favorite buildings were the sports complexes. We saw two big stadiums each held all different sports: soccer, Aussie football, rugby, and cricket. The most exciting to see however was the tennis complex and the fantastic Rod Laver arena looking sweet as. We also got out of the bus on two occasions once in a park with the residence of Captain Cook the man who discovered Australia - his house was really small. The other stop was at the botanical gardens and shrine of remembrance both were cool as. We made our way back to fed square for our lunch and said good ay to the mates from the morning tour. Making our way to the included lunch where I got a beautiful chicken sandwich and Jason and mum got brilliant fish and chips. At lunch we saw these giant puppets outside kind of creepy looking but people liked them. Next we hopped on the bus for the afternoon tour with our new mates and Con the driver. The day had turned into a most beautiful day the birds were singing and the sun was shining. On the brief city tour we all took a quick cat nap to rest up for the blue dandinons (no idea how to spell it). In the forests we saw these really huge and fantastic trees myself mum and Jason went for a quick jungle expedition where we saw lions tigers and bears (not). But it was really sweet as. However the day was becoming brisk so we welcomed a cup of billy tea right by the billabong. Finally we made or way to a look out were we could see a valley and a city but it was kind of hazy so we got ice cream. On the way back to Melbourne we learned the meaning of the song waltzing matilda and much to my surprise matilda is not a woman who waltzes it is actually a sad song. Once back to the city we got Jason the second Harry Potter book and he also got hit by a trolly just joking, any way what a brilliant day.
Now we're in our last stop: Sydney. Hope all is well with you in the States!
Cheers!
Welcome to Melbourne! We are now clearly out of the outback and into one of Australia’s biggest city known for shopping and fine dining.
Monday July 5
After our flight out of Alice Springs today we made it to Melbourne in the afternoon. After checking into our hotel we did not have much time before we had to leave for dinner. We had dinner tonight aboard the colonial tram car and it was fabulous! The tram car picked us up about a half hour walk from our hotel. The walk to the tram stop was really nice – we went by Federation Square and walked along the Yarra River. We made it to the tram stop and were greeted by the maitre de, waited 5 minutes and then went on-board our tram! The tram was set up like a colonial restaurant. We were at 2 tables on each side of the tram. There was a chef on board where all of our food was prepared, along with a waiter and an assistant waiter. There were probably about 15 tables on board, with 2, 3 or 4 people at each table. When we boarded the tram the appetizers were set up for us and were crackers with two types of dip. After settling in, the tram started moving and for the rest of the evening we circled around Southern Melbourne along St Kilda. It was so nice! After our crackers, they came around with bread and champagne. We then ordered our meal (we had 3 choices). My Mom, Dad and I got fish while the boys got chicken. The fish was delicious and the boys liked their chicken. We then had sticky date pudding for dessert which was also very good! The meal finished off with chocolates. It was a really fantastic dinner and was just so cool to be aboard a moving tram around Melbourne. It was a great way to see a section of the city and was just so much fun. The colonial tramcar restaurant has been running since the 1980s and since has won many tourist and restaurant awards. It really was high class dining aboard a tramcar!
Tuesday July 6
Today was a full day filled with Melbourne sightseeing! After a breakfast at the hotel, we headed to Federation Square to pick up our tour bus. There is way too much to do in Melbourne and because of this, we ended up splitting into 2 groups today and did two separate things. Dad and I did the Great Ocean Road adventure. We left federation square at 8 am on a double-decker Gray Line coach bus and set off for Great Ocean road. We left Melbourne via the West Gate Bridge and passed through West Melbourne. Within a half hour or so we were officially out of Melbourne and in the countryside. Torquay is the official start of the Great Ocean Road and from the moment the road started, we had unbelievable views of the ocean and cliffs. The Great Ocean Road was carved out by WWI veterans in the 1930s. It took 2,000 men to complete the approximate 400 km which create the road. The road is along the West coast of Victoria (the territory Melbourne is in), on the South coast of Australia. Our first stop was Bells Beach which has a beautiful beach and huge waves. There were TONS of surfers out today surfing the waves. We had morning tea here with Bush Bily Tea and lamingtons (Aussie sponge cake with chocolate and coconut on the outside). We then continued along the Great Ocean Road taking in the spectacular coastal views filled with cliffs, sandy beaches and rolling surf. We even saw a whale in the ocean!! It was very exciting. Our next stop was Apollo Bay where we stopped for lunch. After some fish ‘n chips, pasta and rice we were back on the road. We went through The Otways which is a rainforest filled with fern gullies and eucalypts. The trees were really beautiful and supposedly sometimes you can see koalas in the trees, but we didn’t see any. On the other side of the Otways we reached Port Campbell National Park. Back in the 1800s this coastline was known as “The Shipwreck Coast” because there were so many shipwrecks here due to it’s rugged coastline. Our first stop was the Twelve Apostles which are these huge stone islands right near the coastline. The Apostles are where the coastline used to be, but due to erosion, the coastline moved back and the soft stone was eroded, but the hard stone stayed leaving behind the Apostles. There used to be 13 Apostles, but today there at only 8 still standing. The waves crash into the bottoms of the Apostles so eventually they get weathered away and the Apostle tips over. While there are only 8, it is still called the Twelve Apostles. They are truly magnificent and beautiful! We walked along the boardwalk and saw them from up above. Then we hopped back on the bus and went to Gibson’s Steps. We walked down the 65 steps and saw the Apostles right from the beach. It was awesome to go down the cliff, be so close to the raging sea and see the Apostles from a different perspective and realize how huge they are. We then went to a specific section of shipwreck coast where a tragic shipwreck “Loch Ard” took place. Here there were 3 10 minute walks to do, and we were able to do them all in 30 minutes. We first did Loch Ard Gorge, where we walked down into the gorge where the shipwreck took place. It was really beautiful down there and cool to be down by the water. We then did Island Arch which was a pretty walk along the top where we were able to see London Bridge (where the water carved out stone that looks like a bridge). Finally we went to Razorback which had a ton of stunning coastal cliffs and structures carved out. We then went back on the bus and headed for Port Campbell the town. We had a quick stop in the town where we got some ice cream. Then we went back on the bus and took the inland route to Melbourne. On the way we saw a gorgeous sunset which lasted a really long time. Then we were shown a movie about the shipwreck that happened in Lorch Ard. It was a really great tour filled with amazing sights! Our tour guide was also great – he gave us a ton of information about everything we saw along the way. We then made it back to Melbourne, met up with Mom, Brian and Jason for dinner. After dinner Mom, Jason and I walked down Swanston Street (where we are staying) to a Spanish churro place I had been to back in April with my friend Arielle (who studied here for the semester). We picked up some delicious churros and brought them back to the hotel for everyone to enjoy! Speaking of the rest of the family, here is a special guest appearance from Brian to tell you about what they did:
it was a cool morning as we made are way to the bus. The sky was clear and we had upgraded to the grand city tour and oh was it grand. We hopped in the bus with our driver Con and 15 other mates. Making our way around beautiful Melbourne in the grayline bus. Con pointed out all the fantastic buildings the tallest one being the Eureka building. It was really cool looking. However our favorite buildings were the sports complexes. We saw two big stadiums each held all different sports: soccer, Aussie football, rugby, and cricket. The most exciting to see however was the tennis complex and the fantastic Rod Laver arena looking sweet as. We also got out of the bus on two occasions once in a park with the residence of Captain Cook the man who discovered Australia - his house was really small. The other stop was at the botanical gardens and shrine of remembrance both were cool as. We made our way back to fed square for our lunch and said good ay to the mates from the morning tour. Making our way to the included lunch where I got a beautiful chicken sandwich and Jason and mum got brilliant fish and chips. At lunch we saw these giant puppets outside kind of creepy looking but people liked them. Next we hopped on the bus for the afternoon tour with our new mates and Con the driver. The day had turned into a most beautiful day the birds were singing and the sun was shining. On the brief city tour we all took a quick cat nap to rest up for the blue dandinons (no idea how to spell it). In the forests we saw these really huge and fantastic trees myself mum and Jason went for a quick jungle expedition where we saw lions tigers and bears (not). But it was really sweet as. However the day was becoming brisk so we welcomed a cup of billy tea right by the billabong. Finally we made or way to a look out were we could see a valley and a city but it was kind of hazy so we got ice cream. On the way back to Melbourne we learned the meaning of the song waltzing matilda and much to my surprise matilda is not a woman who waltzes it is actually a sad song. Once back to the city we got Jason the second Harry Potter book and he also got hit by a trolly just joking, any way what a brilliant day.
Now we're in our last stop: Sydney. Hope all is well with you in the States!
Cheers!
Family meets the OUTBACK!
Hi Mates!
Welcome to the Outback where everyone is your “mate!” The Australian outback is completely different from the rainforest. The outback desert makes up the majority of the Australia and gives Australia it’s reputation of being one of the driest countries. The outback is pretty inhabitable as there isn’t much water out here. We are in the Northern Territory and it’s a typical desert environment with it being hot during the day and cold at night. Apparently it can get up to 60 degrees CELCIUS during the day during the summer! The scenery is really beautiful with tons of red sand everywhere but also lots of trees and vegetation. I’ll break it down by day:
Friday July 2
On Friday we woke up really early for our flight to Ayers Rock. This region is ½ hour behind the east coast of Australia. We got in at 9:30 and were picked up by the free shuttle to get to “Ayers Rock Resort” also known as “Yulara.” The resort area consists of 6 places to stay, different restaurants and a shopping area. It kind of is like a small ski village. The hotels and restaurants are all connected where you can charge everything to your room and can use the different services and facilities at each hotel. We stayed at the Desert Gardens hotel. We got to the hotel around 11, settled in and walked around. We went to the information center and went to the museum they have there and learned a lot about Uluru and Kata-Tjuta. Uluru used to be known as Ayers Rock but was changed back to Uluru when the aboriginals regained their rightful ownership over the land. The museum also told us more about the weather conditions and the types of vegetation and animals that can survive in this area. We then headed off to the shopping area to Gecko’s lunch. We then were picked up at 2:15 for our big Uluru adventure. Michael was our APT tour guide and we were going around with about 25 other people in a big bus. We first went to the cultural centre where we learned more about the aboriginals’ history with Uluru and some of their stories behind Uluru. We then entered the park and did two guided walks around Uluru. The first was to Kantju Gorge and the second was the Mala walk. Uluru is so beautiful and cool!! It is huge with a perimeter of 9 km. Uluru is filled with paintings and different paths to explore. While you are physically able to climb Uluru, it is greatly frowned upon and the aboriginals ask you visitors do not to respect their culture. The aboriginals do not climb Uluru and ask that guests do not either. Most days the climb is not even open because it’s too hot, but when we were there we saw some people climbing. Anyways, we did the two guided walks and learned about the aboriginals stories surrounding the areas. Many areas around Uluru are sacred to the aboriginals. Walking through Uluru you learn so much about their culture and way of life from the structures they built and the paintings. There are many black areas lines around Uluru from when it (rarely) rains. After exploring for a while, we drove around the entire Uluru to see all of it and how it changes in each section. Uluru is made out of sandstone that has rusted and it this brilliant red color. We then headed to a sunset viewing area where our tour gave us drinks and nibbles (which were delicious). We then watched the sunset and it was really amazing seeing Uluru change colors as the sun set. It was so crazy because the sky right above was still a brilliant blue, but at the horizon the sky turned pink and then another blue. The sun set so fast – it was daylight one moment and night the next! After the great sunset we came back to the hotel and had dinner. Then we were all exhausted so we went to bed pretty early.
Saturday July 3
Today we woke up at 5:30 to go on our sunrise Uluru tour. We were picked up just after 6 and headed back on the bus with our guide Michael. We headed straight for the sunrise viewing area where we were met with tea, coffee, hot chocolate and biscuits. The sun was already starting to rise and turning the sky red. The sky changed to an amazing pink and it was just a really beautiful sunrise! There was a whole sunrise walking track that we went on and saw the sun rise at the viewing dock. It was awesome to see the colors come out on Uluru as the sun rose. After the sun rose we drove to Kata Tjuta (which used to be the Olgas). Kata Tjuta literally translates as “many heads” and has 36 domes around it. It is humongous and is over 20 km in perimeter. It is made up of granite, bathsalt held together by sandstone. We went to a viewing area of Kata Tjuta just to see how big it actually is and then drove into it so that we could walk around. We did a guided walk at Walpa Gorge which means wind and lets just say that Walpa certainly lived up to it’s name – it was like a wind tunnel! However it was truly beautiful! On the way we learned the story of Kata Tjuta and how it represents the 36 men the aboriginal tribe buried in this area when they tried to steal their women. Kata Tjuta is a sacred place for the aboriginal men and is where the men go to teach their sons about being an aboriginal man. We walked the gorge which was a beautiful walk. Then on our drive back to Yulara we saw some wild camels! Apparently camels (along with many other things from vegetation to animals including; pigs, kangaroos and wallaby) are pests. Australia has one of the largest population of camels in the world. Anyways then we were dropped off at the hotel and just squeezed into the end of breakfast (which was delicious). Then we spent most of the day just hanging out. We went to the Sails in the Desert hotel pool (which is heated and Brian actually went in), had lunch, did some of the walking trails of Yulara and went up to lookout points and read. We then went up to a lookout to see the sunset which was again really beautiful. For dinner we went to an Australia BBQ restaurant which is outside (with shelter and heaters) where you buy your meat and cook it yourself at a BBQ grill. I got fish and it was really good. There is also a salad bar and hot food (baked potatoes and corn). It was a really good meal and there was even bread pudding for dessert. Now we’re just getting ready for bed and packing up for Alice Springs tomorrow!
Sunday July 4
Happy Fourth of July! We woke up relatively late for us (7:30 am) and had another great breakfast buffet. We then got on our airport shuttle and just as we were walking on “Born in the USA” by Bruce Springstein came on the radio – talk about a good start to the 4th of July! We then went to the airport (which is really the smallest airport I have ever seen) and got on our small plane for the 45 minute flight to Alice Springs. The flight wasn’t too bad and we even got a cute little snack pack from Qantas which was great! We then landed in Alice Springs, checked into our casino hotel and had lunch. At 1:15 we were picked up for our tour around Alice Springs. We had a pretty full bus and a great guide, Harry. We first went to Mbantua which is an Aboriginal cultural and art museum. It was so interesting! We had a guided tour where we learned a lot about the different symbols that are used in Aboriginal art, the origins of Aboriginal art (mainly the dot style) and about some of the famous Aboriginal artists. We then got back on the bus and headed for the Royal Flying Doctor Base. We got to the Royal Flying Doctor Base and first watched a movie about what they do. It is such an interesting organization! Basically Australia is such a huge country with the majority of it’s population living on the east coast, but there are some who live in the outback far away from hospitals and ordinary life conveniences. Some people realized the problems with this back in the early 1900s and dreamed up the idea of the Royal Flying Doctors. The dream became a reality in the 1930s and has since grown. There are currently over 50 planes in 26 bases throughout the entire country. If there is a problem anywhere in Australia the Flying Doctors are able to get there to assist within 2 hours of receiving a phone call – this is pretty amazing considering the fact that in the US you normally have to wait 2 hours to be seen at a hospital! So the Royal Flying Doctors serve any type of emergency and are also there for consults. The majority of the time, problems can be solved via phones. Every place the Flying Doctors goes to has a Royal Flying Doctors kit with medication in it that the doctor can just prescribe by learning about the ailment (they even have a chart set up to make it easier). Doctors rarely are needed to fly out, normally it is just a nurse and pilot, but doctors are on hand if needed. It is a really incredible organization and I am so happy I learned about it! From there we went to learn about another fantastic organization – the School of the Air. Coming from the same scenario of Australia being a huge country, with some people living in sparsely populated areas, someone (who worked for Royal Flying Doctors) realized that many children in the outback were not being taught or socialized well – in that they barely had social skills for people they had not met. To rectify this situation the School of the Air was set up. It used to operate by radio use, but now it works through computers and web-cams. 133 children are in the school, are between the ages of 4.5-14 years old. It is the “largest classroom in the world” since the students live 521,000 square miles apart (double the size of Texas!). The way the school works is there are 11 teachers who work from the School of the Air base school in Alice Springs. There are 2 studios in the base school that the teachers can access their students from. The week is broken into different times that each teacher and class goes online. Typically each grade has a live-online class every day for about an hour. Then for the rest of the day, the students with their tutors (either governess or parent) complete around 4 hours of correspondence work, which the students receive from the base school. The school (through government funding) provides the technological support (the computers, web-cams etc) to the students, along with books. While the focus is on education, the live-online classroom time gives the children a chance to socialize with people their own age, which they do not normally get to do in their environment. There are other types of classes too including gym, art and music, which the children can participate in. The teachers provide a lot of individualized attention to the students by visiting each of them at least one time per year at their homes and having private teaching times once a week. This type of environment gives the children the ability to have extra work, or be on an accelerated track. The School of the Air also reaches out to some Indigenous students and helps support their schooling. I am so impressed by this school and truly loved learning about it! We even got a book for the library that gets sent around to the children throughout the Outback. From there we moved on to the Overland Telegraph Station. The Alice Springs Telegraph Station was midway along the Overland Telegraph line from Darwin to Adelaide (basically through the center of Australia). The telegraph line opened in 1872 and gave Australia (and New Zealand) a much faster way of communicating with the world: 8 hours rather than 8 months! We learned all about the telegraph machine’s development and toured the facilities. We also learned how the facilities were later used as a “bungalow” for half indigenous children. Right behind the telegraph station is Alice Spring, the “spring” from which the town received it’s name. Turns out it is not actually a spring, but rather granite is below the surface which causes the water to stay and not sink into the ground. There was actually water there when we saw it, but often times the water is only underground. With the water up, the spring area was really beautiful. We then went to Anzac Hill to see the view of the town and surrounding area, including the mountain ranges. It was a really great and interesting tour. We then got dropped off in town centre and had dinner at Café Oscar which was really delicious. Then we came back to the hotel. Brian and my Dad went to the casino, while the rest of us watched a movie. Now it’s time for bed, and it’s off to Melbourne in the morning!
Welcome to the Outback where everyone is your “mate!” The Australian outback is completely different from the rainforest. The outback desert makes up the majority of the Australia and gives Australia it’s reputation of being one of the driest countries. The outback is pretty inhabitable as there isn’t much water out here. We are in the Northern Territory and it’s a typical desert environment with it being hot during the day and cold at night. Apparently it can get up to 60 degrees CELCIUS during the day during the summer! The scenery is really beautiful with tons of red sand everywhere but also lots of trees and vegetation. I’ll break it down by day:
Friday July 2
On Friday we woke up really early for our flight to Ayers Rock. This region is ½ hour behind the east coast of Australia. We got in at 9:30 and were picked up by the free shuttle to get to “Ayers Rock Resort” also known as “Yulara.” The resort area consists of 6 places to stay, different restaurants and a shopping area. It kind of is like a small ski village. The hotels and restaurants are all connected where you can charge everything to your room and can use the different services and facilities at each hotel. We stayed at the Desert Gardens hotel. We got to the hotel around 11, settled in and walked around. We went to the information center and went to the museum they have there and learned a lot about Uluru and Kata-Tjuta. Uluru used to be known as Ayers Rock but was changed back to Uluru when the aboriginals regained their rightful ownership over the land. The museum also told us more about the weather conditions and the types of vegetation and animals that can survive in this area. We then headed off to the shopping area to Gecko’s lunch. We then were picked up at 2:15 for our big Uluru adventure. Michael was our APT tour guide and we were going around with about 25 other people in a big bus. We first went to the cultural centre where we learned more about the aboriginals’ history with Uluru and some of their stories behind Uluru. We then entered the park and did two guided walks around Uluru. The first was to Kantju Gorge and the second was the Mala walk. Uluru is so beautiful and cool!! It is huge with a perimeter of 9 km. Uluru is filled with paintings and different paths to explore. While you are physically able to climb Uluru, it is greatly frowned upon and the aboriginals ask you visitors do not to respect their culture. The aboriginals do not climb Uluru and ask that guests do not either. Most days the climb is not even open because it’s too hot, but when we were there we saw some people climbing. Anyways, we did the two guided walks and learned about the aboriginals stories surrounding the areas. Many areas around Uluru are sacred to the aboriginals. Walking through Uluru you learn so much about their culture and way of life from the structures they built and the paintings. There are many black areas lines around Uluru from when it (rarely) rains. After exploring for a while, we drove around the entire Uluru to see all of it and how it changes in each section. Uluru is made out of sandstone that has rusted and it this brilliant red color. We then headed to a sunset viewing area where our tour gave us drinks and nibbles (which were delicious). We then watched the sunset and it was really amazing seeing Uluru change colors as the sun set. It was so crazy because the sky right above was still a brilliant blue, but at the horizon the sky turned pink and then another blue. The sun set so fast – it was daylight one moment and night the next! After the great sunset we came back to the hotel and had dinner. Then we were all exhausted so we went to bed pretty early.
Saturday July 3
Today we woke up at 5:30 to go on our sunrise Uluru tour. We were picked up just after 6 and headed back on the bus with our guide Michael. We headed straight for the sunrise viewing area where we were met with tea, coffee, hot chocolate and biscuits. The sun was already starting to rise and turning the sky red. The sky changed to an amazing pink and it was just a really beautiful sunrise! There was a whole sunrise walking track that we went on and saw the sun rise at the viewing dock. It was awesome to see the colors come out on Uluru as the sun rose. After the sun rose we drove to Kata Tjuta (which used to be the Olgas). Kata Tjuta literally translates as “many heads” and has 36 domes around it. It is humongous and is over 20 km in perimeter. It is made up of granite, bathsalt held together by sandstone. We went to a viewing area of Kata Tjuta just to see how big it actually is and then drove into it so that we could walk around. We did a guided walk at Walpa Gorge which means wind and lets just say that Walpa certainly lived up to it’s name – it was like a wind tunnel! However it was truly beautiful! On the way we learned the story of Kata Tjuta and how it represents the 36 men the aboriginal tribe buried in this area when they tried to steal their women. Kata Tjuta is a sacred place for the aboriginal men and is where the men go to teach their sons about being an aboriginal man. We walked the gorge which was a beautiful walk. Then on our drive back to Yulara we saw some wild camels! Apparently camels (along with many other things from vegetation to animals including; pigs, kangaroos and wallaby) are pests. Australia has one of the largest population of camels in the world. Anyways then we were dropped off at the hotel and just squeezed into the end of breakfast (which was delicious). Then we spent most of the day just hanging out. We went to the Sails in the Desert hotel pool (which is heated and Brian actually went in), had lunch, did some of the walking trails of Yulara and went up to lookout points and read. We then went up to a lookout to see the sunset which was again really beautiful. For dinner we went to an Australia BBQ restaurant which is outside (with shelter and heaters) where you buy your meat and cook it yourself at a BBQ grill. I got fish and it was really good. There is also a salad bar and hot food (baked potatoes and corn). It was a really good meal and there was even bread pudding for dessert. Now we’re just getting ready for bed and packing up for Alice Springs tomorrow!
Sunday July 4
Happy Fourth of July! We woke up relatively late for us (7:30 am) and had another great breakfast buffet. We then got on our airport shuttle and just as we were walking on “Born in the USA” by Bruce Springstein came on the radio – talk about a good start to the 4th of July! We then went to the airport (which is really the smallest airport I have ever seen) and got on our small plane for the 45 minute flight to Alice Springs. The flight wasn’t too bad and we even got a cute little snack pack from Qantas which was great! We then landed in Alice Springs, checked into our casino hotel and had lunch. At 1:15 we were picked up for our tour around Alice Springs. We had a pretty full bus and a great guide, Harry. We first went to Mbantua which is an Aboriginal cultural and art museum. It was so interesting! We had a guided tour where we learned a lot about the different symbols that are used in Aboriginal art, the origins of Aboriginal art (mainly the dot style) and about some of the famous Aboriginal artists. We then got back on the bus and headed for the Royal Flying Doctor Base. We got to the Royal Flying Doctor Base and first watched a movie about what they do. It is such an interesting organization! Basically Australia is such a huge country with the majority of it’s population living on the east coast, but there are some who live in the outback far away from hospitals and ordinary life conveniences. Some people realized the problems with this back in the early 1900s and dreamed up the idea of the Royal Flying Doctors. The dream became a reality in the 1930s and has since grown. There are currently over 50 planes in 26 bases throughout the entire country. If there is a problem anywhere in Australia the Flying Doctors are able to get there to assist within 2 hours of receiving a phone call – this is pretty amazing considering the fact that in the US you normally have to wait 2 hours to be seen at a hospital! So the Royal Flying Doctors serve any type of emergency and are also there for consults. The majority of the time, problems can be solved via phones. Every place the Flying Doctors goes to has a Royal Flying Doctors kit with medication in it that the doctor can just prescribe by learning about the ailment (they even have a chart set up to make it easier). Doctors rarely are needed to fly out, normally it is just a nurse and pilot, but doctors are on hand if needed. It is a really incredible organization and I am so happy I learned about it! From there we went to learn about another fantastic organization – the School of the Air. Coming from the same scenario of Australia being a huge country, with some people living in sparsely populated areas, someone (who worked for Royal Flying Doctors) realized that many children in the outback were not being taught or socialized well – in that they barely had social skills for people they had not met. To rectify this situation the School of the Air was set up. It used to operate by radio use, but now it works through computers and web-cams. 133 children are in the school, are between the ages of 4.5-14 years old. It is the “largest classroom in the world” since the students live 521,000 square miles apart (double the size of Texas!). The way the school works is there are 11 teachers who work from the School of the Air base school in Alice Springs. There are 2 studios in the base school that the teachers can access their students from. The week is broken into different times that each teacher and class goes online. Typically each grade has a live-online class every day for about an hour. Then for the rest of the day, the students with their tutors (either governess or parent) complete around 4 hours of correspondence work, which the students receive from the base school. The school (through government funding) provides the technological support (the computers, web-cams etc) to the students, along with books. While the focus is on education, the live-online classroom time gives the children a chance to socialize with people their own age, which they do not normally get to do in their environment. There are other types of classes too including gym, art and music, which the children can participate in. The teachers provide a lot of individualized attention to the students by visiting each of them at least one time per year at their homes and having private teaching times once a week. This type of environment gives the children the ability to have extra work, or be on an accelerated track. The School of the Air also reaches out to some Indigenous students and helps support their schooling. I am so impressed by this school and truly loved learning about it! We even got a book for the library that gets sent around to the children throughout the Outback. From there we moved on to the Overland Telegraph Station. The Alice Springs Telegraph Station was midway along the Overland Telegraph line from Darwin to Adelaide (basically through the center of Australia). The telegraph line opened in 1872 and gave Australia (and New Zealand) a much faster way of communicating with the world: 8 hours rather than 8 months! We learned all about the telegraph machine’s development and toured the facilities. We also learned how the facilities were later used as a “bungalow” for half indigenous children. Right behind the telegraph station is Alice Spring, the “spring” from which the town received it’s name. Turns out it is not actually a spring, but rather granite is below the surface which causes the water to stay and not sink into the ground. There was actually water there when we saw it, but often times the water is only underground. With the water up, the spring area was really beautiful. We then went to Anzac Hill to see the view of the town and surrounding area, including the mountain ranges. It was a really great and interesting tour. We then got dropped off in town centre and had dinner at Café Oscar which was really delicious. Then we came back to the hotel. Brian and my Dad went to the casino, while the rest of us watched a movie. Now it’s time for bed, and it’s off to Melbourne in the morning!
Family encounters the Tropical Rain Forest!
Hi all,
This post was written July 1st and is about our experience in the tropical rain forest of Cairns! Hope you enjoy!
Today we went and explored the Daintree Forest! We woke up early, had another great breakfast at the hotel and were picked up in our 4WD tour bus at 7 am. After picking up other people at their hotels, we were off with George our guide as a group of 21. We drove north up the coast to reach the rainforest. We crossed a river by ferry (which was basically a platform with a cord pull). After the ferry we made it to our first stop: Alexandra lookout. At the lookout we had a great view of the lush forest and the beach and coral sea below. We even saw this awesome palm tree with huge leaves. Then we made it to our first real stop: the Daintree Discovery Environment Centre. We first got morning tea there which consisted of Daintree tea (or coffee) and delicious anzac biscuits. After morning tea we began our guided tour. Our tour guide, Chris, was great and he took us along the aerial walkway. We were about halfway up the canopy so we got a great view of the forest floor and the trees above us. He told us all about the Daintree rainforest and the different animals and trees that live there. The Daintree forest is a national and world heritage site and is the oldest rainforest in the world – dating way back to the dinosaurs. We then went up the canopy tower to get to the top of the canopy and see the forest from up there which was also really cool. We saw a huge spider and learned about how the aboriginals use the forest. Then we were back on the bus heading for our next destination: Cape Tribulation. At Cape Tribulation we had a guided walk by George. We saw a huge lizard on the walk to the beach which was pretty cool. Then the beach itself was simply magnificent! Cape Tribulation was discovered by Caption Cook and got it’s name because Cook encountered many hardships around this area. Cape Tribulation is special because it’s one of the only places where coral reef meets rainforest in the world. From the cape lookout we could see where the reef is and it’s pretty close! We then piled back on the bus and headed to a different section of the rainforest for lunch. We hopped out of the bus and took a quick walk through the forest along the creek to our lunch spot. Lunch was really delicious and consisted of BBQ fish, Daintree tea, dense bread, salad and fruit. After lunch we went to Daintree ice cream which was so delicious. Everyday they make 4 different flavors from plants and fruit grown in the rainforest. They give you all 4 flavors in one bowl. Today they had one that tasted like chocolate pudding, one like cappuccino, banana and macadamia nut – they were all really good! It was also cool to eat since they are all good for you and totally natural. We then went back on the bus and got on our Daintree River Cruise. On the cruise we had another tour guide, Bruce, who took us around the Daintree river and we went looking for snakes and crocodiles along the riverbanks. We saw cool mangroves with huge roots. We saw quite a few crocodiles from tiny ones (we saw a really small one!) to huge 5 meter long ones! We saw both male and female crocodiles, young and old. We saw one tree snake as well. We then got back on the bus and went to Mossman Gorge where George gave us another guided tour. Mossman Gorge is another section of the Daintree Rainforest and was really cool because we were able to see some of the plants and trees that date back to 145 million years ago! Daintree rainforest is the only place in the world where some of these trees still exist in their living form (others they are just fossils). The forest used to be huge but the government knocked down 75% of the forest to build sugar cane fields 100 years ago, and just in 1980 was selling some of the forest off to private property. Luckily the government and world recognized how important Daintree forest is and today it is a world heritage site and is thus protected. Anyways, the gorge was really awesome: we went over a swingbridge, saw cool boulders, saw a special turkey in addition to seeing the gorge! After the gorge we got back on the bus and headed back to Cairns. It was a really long day (11 hours!) but was completely worth it: we saw such incredible things and I feel that I have a much better appreciation of Daintree forest now. Once arriving back at the hotel we headed to the Esplanade again for dinner at an Italian restaurant which was really good. Now we’re just packing up before our early flight tomorrow to the Outback!
This post was written July 1st and is about our experience in the tropical rain forest of Cairns! Hope you enjoy!
Today we went and explored the Daintree Forest! We woke up early, had another great breakfast at the hotel and were picked up in our 4WD tour bus at 7 am. After picking up other people at their hotels, we were off with George our guide as a group of 21. We drove north up the coast to reach the rainforest. We crossed a river by ferry (which was basically a platform with a cord pull). After the ferry we made it to our first stop: Alexandra lookout. At the lookout we had a great view of the lush forest and the beach and coral sea below. We even saw this awesome palm tree with huge leaves. Then we made it to our first real stop: the Daintree Discovery Environment Centre. We first got morning tea there which consisted of Daintree tea (or coffee) and delicious anzac biscuits. After morning tea we began our guided tour. Our tour guide, Chris, was great and he took us along the aerial walkway. We were about halfway up the canopy so we got a great view of the forest floor and the trees above us. He told us all about the Daintree rainforest and the different animals and trees that live there. The Daintree forest is a national and world heritage site and is the oldest rainforest in the world – dating way back to the dinosaurs. We then went up the canopy tower to get to the top of the canopy and see the forest from up there which was also really cool. We saw a huge spider and learned about how the aboriginals use the forest. Then we were back on the bus heading for our next destination: Cape Tribulation. At Cape Tribulation we had a guided walk by George. We saw a huge lizard on the walk to the beach which was pretty cool. Then the beach itself was simply magnificent! Cape Tribulation was discovered by Caption Cook and got it’s name because Cook encountered many hardships around this area. Cape Tribulation is special because it’s one of the only places where coral reef meets rainforest in the world. From the cape lookout we could see where the reef is and it’s pretty close! We then piled back on the bus and headed to a different section of the rainforest for lunch. We hopped out of the bus and took a quick walk through the forest along the creek to our lunch spot. Lunch was really delicious and consisted of BBQ fish, Daintree tea, dense bread, salad and fruit. After lunch we went to Daintree ice cream which was so delicious. Everyday they make 4 different flavors from plants and fruit grown in the rainforest. They give you all 4 flavors in one bowl. Today they had one that tasted like chocolate pudding, one like cappuccino, banana and macadamia nut – they were all really good! It was also cool to eat since they are all good for you and totally natural. We then went back on the bus and got on our Daintree River Cruise. On the cruise we had another tour guide, Bruce, who took us around the Daintree river and we went looking for snakes and crocodiles along the riverbanks. We saw cool mangroves with huge roots. We saw quite a few crocodiles from tiny ones (we saw a really small one!) to huge 5 meter long ones! We saw both male and female crocodiles, young and old. We saw one tree snake as well. We then got back on the bus and went to Mossman Gorge where George gave us another guided tour. Mossman Gorge is another section of the Daintree Rainforest and was really cool because we were able to see some of the plants and trees that date back to 145 million years ago! Daintree rainforest is the only place in the world where some of these trees still exist in their living form (others they are just fossils). The forest used to be huge but the government knocked down 75% of the forest to build sugar cane fields 100 years ago, and just in 1980 was selling some of the forest off to private property. Luckily the government and world recognized how important Daintree forest is and today it is a world heritage site and is thus protected. Anyways, the gorge was really awesome: we went over a swingbridge, saw cool boulders, saw a special turkey in addition to seeing the gorge! After the gorge we got back on the bus and headed back to Cairns. It was a really long day (11 hours!) but was completely worth it: we saw such incredible things and I feel that I have a much better appreciation of Daintree forest now. Once arriving back at the hotel we headed to the Esplanade again for dinner at an Italian restaurant which was really good. Now we’re just packing up before our early flight tomorrow to the Outback!
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Family takes on GREAT BARRIER REEF!
Hi all,
Welcome to another installment of the epic Solinsky adventure. We are now in Cairns, AUSTRALIA! Here's an update of what we have been doing:
Tuesday June 29: We woke up super early to fly from Auckland to Cairns, Australia today. While on the flight we saw the sunrise and it was really beautiful! I had a really great last view of New Zealand which I definitely appreciated. We flew on Air New Zealand which was really great – they had a ton of movies and food. After a 5.5 hour flight we arrived in Cairns before noon. We checked into our hotel and went along the Esplanade for lunch. For the afternoon we just hung around and enjoyed being able to wear shorts and t-shirts outside (it’s in the 70s here). For dinner we met up with my friend from Brandeis Lisa (who I traveled around Tasmania with) and her Mom which was really nice. We all had different versions of Mahi-Mahi at this great fish restaurant. After dinner we got gelato.
Wednesday June 30: For the last day of June we had an awesome day out on the Great Barrier Reef!! After a delicious breakfast at the hotel, we were picked up and taken to the Cairns marina where we boarded our Reef Magic Cruise ship. The boat was pretty big with two levels and was pretty spacious. It was about a 90 minute ride to the Great Barrier Reef but the views were spectacular. There were beautiful lush mountains coming out of the water. Once we made it to Moore Reef we docked and jumped off the boat to a platform called “Marine World.” For the whole day the boat stayed docked next to Marine World where we were able to settle in. Marine World had tons of tables, a sun deck and all the equipment for snorkeling. We put our wet suits on, grabbed masks, snorkels and fins and were all set to go. We jumped in (the water wasn’t too cold) and the reef was so beautiful it basically took my breath away. From above the water you would never guess the reef and fishes that lie beneath it’s surface but they are incredible! We swam around for about an hour just taking in the beautiful coral and fish. I even got to touch Wally the local huge fish who comes along with his pal Rocky everyday at 10:30. The different types of fish and coral were amazing. They ranged in color, size and texture. There were rainbow striped fish, parrot fish, zebra fish, huge clams, “chocolate dipped” fish and so many more! We saw tons of different types of coral from hard to soft to brain to blue tipped. In the Great Barrier Reef there are 400 types of coral and 2,000 species of fish! It’s just truly amazing with tons of different reefs. Moore reef is classified as a small one and it was pretty big, so I can only imagine how huge the big reefs are! Then we hopped back on board and my Dad and I went on the included glass-bottom boat tour which took us to a different section of the reef. We got to see even more fish, coral and learn about them. Apparently since the coral is so far under water, because of the light spectrum red doesn’t really reach down there, which is why everything looks blue, but apparently if you add red back into the pictures all of the colors look much brighter- we will have to try that out! After that, we had our buffet lunch which actually had some really good vegetarian lasagna. After lunch my Dad, Brian, Jason and I went on a boat which took us to a different section of the reef and did a Snorkel Safari Adventure there. We got to see different types of fish and coral out there and learn about them along the way. We saw a clown fish (looks like we found nemo!), a shark and more clams. It was really incredible. The tour lasted for about an hour. Then we went back on the boat and I snorkeled a bit more in the reef right next to the base. Then we only relaxed on the platform for a bit before having to pack up our stuff and go back on the main boat. On board we had some afternoon tea which good cheese, crackers and fruit. It was a really amazing day! I absolutely love the great barrier reef!! Tonight we’re going out for dinner probably to a Mediterranean place and then have to get ready for our big Rainforest adventure tomorrow!
Sending lots of Solinsky love from the Great Barrier Reef!!
Welcome to another installment of the epic Solinsky adventure. We are now in Cairns, AUSTRALIA! Here's an update of what we have been doing:
Tuesday June 29: We woke up super early to fly from Auckland to Cairns, Australia today. While on the flight we saw the sunrise and it was really beautiful! I had a really great last view of New Zealand which I definitely appreciated. We flew on Air New Zealand which was really great – they had a ton of movies and food. After a 5.5 hour flight we arrived in Cairns before noon. We checked into our hotel and went along the Esplanade for lunch. For the afternoon we just hung around and enjoyed being able to wear shorts and t-shirts outside (it’s in the 70s here). For dinner we met up with my friend from Brandeis Lisa (who I traveled around Tasmania with) and her Mom which was really nice. We all had different versions of Mahi-Mahi at this great fish restaurant. After dinner we got gelato.
Wednesday June 30: For the last day of June we had an awesome day out on the Great Barrier Reef!! After a delicious breakfast at the hotel, we were picked up and taken to the Cairns marina where we boarded our Reef Magic Cruise ship. The boat was pretty big with two levels and was pretty spacious. It was about a 90 minute ride to the Great Barrier Reef but the views were spectacular. There were beautiful lush mountains coming out of the water. Once we made it to Moore Reef we docked and jumped off the boat to a platform called “Marine World.” For the whole day the boat stayed docked next to Marine World where we were able to settle in. Marine World had tons of tables, a sun deck and all the equipment for snorkeling. We put our wet suits on, grabbed masks, snorkels and fins and were all set to go. We jumped in (the water wasn’t too cold) and the reef was so beautiful it basically took my breath away. From above the water you would never guess the reef and fishes that lie beneath it’s surface but they are incredible! We swam around for about an hour just taking in the beautiful coral and fish. I even got to touch Wally the local huge fish who comes along with his pal Rocky everyday at 10:30. The different types of fish and coral were amazing. They ranged in color, size and texture. There were rainbow striped fish, parrot fish, zebra fish, huge clams, “chocolate dipped” fish and so many more! We saw tons of different types of coral from hard to soft to brain to blue tipped. In the Great Barrier Reef there are 400 types of coral and 2,000 species of fish! It’s just truly amazing with tons of different reefs. Moore reef is classified as a small one and it was pretty big, so I can only imagine how huge the big reefs are! Then we hopped back on board and my Dad and I went on the included glass-bottom boat tour which took us to a different section of the reef. We got to see even more fish, coral and learn about them. Apparently since the coral is so far under water, because of the light spectrum red doesn’t really reach down there, which is why everything looks blue, but apparently if you add red back into the pictures all of the colors look much brighter- we will have to try that out! After that, we had our buffet lunch which actually had some really good vegetarian lasagna. After lunch my Dad, Brian, Jason and I went on a boat which took us to a different section of the reef and did a Snorkel Safari Adventure there. We got to see different types of fish and coral out there and learn about them along the way. We saw a clown fish (looks like we found nemo!), a shark and more clams. It was really incredible. The tour lasted for about an hour. Then we went back on the boat and I snorkeled a bit more in the reef right next to the base. Then we only relaxed on the platform for a bit before having to pack up our stuff and go back on the main boat. On board we had some afternoon tea which good cheese, crackers and fruit. It was a really amazing day! I absolutely love the great barrier reef!! Tonight we’re going out for dinner probably to a Mediterranean place and then have to get ready for our big Rainforest adventure tomorrow!
Sending lots of Solinsky love from the Great Barrier Reef!!
FAMILY in New Zealand!
Hi there!
Welcome to the Solinsky family epic vacation adventure part one: New Zealand! After a bit of a plane mishap concerning Chicago, my family made it to New Zealand one day late and we have been off and running ever since! I’ll break it down by day:
Saturday June 26: My family got into Auckland International Airport bright and early in the morning where I met them with our guide. After loading everyone up in the van we set off for Rotorua. When we got to Rotorua we went to the Whakawerawera Maori village. Unlike most tourist attractions in Rotorua, this Maori village was not staged and the Maori actually live there. We had a tour by a Maori woman who lives in the village and saw her family throughout the tour. She told us the history and daily functioning of the village. The village is built amongst many geothermal features and it was fascinating to hear about how the Maori use these geothermal pools in their daily lives. For example, they use the really hot pools for cooking – and we even had corn which is cooked in one and it was delicious!! They also have a ton of nature walks around the different geothermal activities which were nice. After the tour we went to the cultural performance put on by the Maori which was really fun. They did a lot of different songs and dances and even did the haka. They also had a section with audience participation where I was invited up to learn and perform a dance with a poi, which was hilarious for my family to watch. It was a really interesting place to go to. After the village, we had a quick tour around Rotorua where we learned the history of the town. Basically Rotorua would not exist without tourism due to it’s geothermal activities. It was originally thought that the geothermal activities could be used for healing powers. We stopped along Lake Rotorua which is beautiful. From there we drove to Hamilton where we had dinner and went to the ALL BLACKS GAME!! For those of you who do not know, the All Blacks is the national rugby team of New Zealand. Many kiwis will say that New Zealand does not really have a religion, but if one had to be chosen it would be the All Blacks. All New Zealanders love the All Blacks and are constantly following and discussing them. Since they are a national team, they are constantly playing rugby internationally and hence do not play many home tests (or matches). In fact, I think they have only played two or three tests in New Zealand since I have been there (and none of these tests were near Auckland). Therefore, when I found out that there was going to be a game in Hamilton (relatively close to Auckland and Rotorua) when my family would be here I jumped on it! The pre-game show was really fun – they had dance shows and fireworks! Then right before the game started, the All Blacks did their famous haka. It was SO cool to see the haka in person after hearing so much about it! The haka is a traditional Maori war dance to intimidate their opponents. The All Blacks perform a haka before every match to intimidate their opponents. After the haka the test began. Rugby is a little hard to watch in person because there are no announcers and I felt like I was constantly trying to find the ball. However, it was a lot of fun and I definitely understood most of the game which was exciting! The All Blacks beat Wales which was awesome! Then my family was so exhausted from the long day (some of them were even falling asleep at the test), and we all slept for most of the car ride between Hamilton and Taupo, where we stayed for the night.
Sunday June 27: We woke up in Taupo and my family felt much more refreshed after finally sleeping in a bed. Our room overlooked the beautiful Lake Taupo (let’s just say it was an upgrade compared to the backpackers that I had been staying in!). Lake Taupo was really gorgeous, especially with the snowcapped mountains behind it. It was so cool to see Taupo in the winter because it’s one of the areas of the North Island that gets snow. I could kind of see Tongariro crossing in the distance which I hiked back in January and it now has snow! Anyways after breakfast we were picked up by Rapid Sensations and were off for our bike and kayak adventure. We first did biking. Considering I had biked all semester I figured it would not be that hard for me. However, we ended up mountain biking which was so hard and intense! We biked down to Huka Falls which is New Zealand’s #1 free tourist spot. The falls are 12 metres and this awesome blue color and are just amazing to look at! After biking back we went in a bike forest area which was pretty fun (considering we were on the easiest track). By the end I got more used to it but lets just say that I definitely prefer road biking! After the bike section of the trip we went on to kayaking on the Waikato River! The river was really beautiful and pretty calm. We basically just kayaked down the river, and it was a really nice day out so it was lovely. As we were kayaking we saw someone bungy jump which was really cool and scary to watch. Then we made it to the natural hot pools which were just on the side of the river. We parked our kayaks, hopped out and went for a soak in the hot pools – they were amazing! It was kind of an enclosed area with a waterfall coming down and it was all natural and so gorgeous! Then we hopped back in our kayaks and paddled a few minutes down the river to get to the van. After drying off we were off again to Rotorua. After reaching Rotorua, Brian, Jason and I went Zorbing. A zorb basically looks like a giant plastic ball filled with another smaller ball in it. You jump into the smaller ball and get rolled down a hill. It is a really crazy unique experience. We all did the hydrozorb where they put water in the smaller ball that you’re in and it kind of is like what a washing machine would feel like. It was completely bizarre but pretty fun! Then we had lunch at Jesters which is a classic New Zealand pie (lunch not dessert pie) place where we all had New Zealand pies. Then we all headed up the gandola and went luging which was lots of fun! After luging we headed back in the van and drove to Auckland. Once we were checked into the hotel we went to Gina’s Italian restaurant for dinner, which was delicious.
Monday June 28: Today was my one day to show my whole family around what has become my home over the last 6 months: Auckland! We got up early and went to Café Melba for breakfast which was very yummy. We then headed over to the ferry terminal and went on an island hop-on/hop-off ferry for the day. They took us by the harbour bridge and Devonport and we got off at Rangitoto. We climbed Rangitoto and the weather held up wonderfully and we were able to have a great view! We then hopped back on the ferry and got off at Mission Bay where we had lunch and ice cream. We then took a bus back into the city and did a bit of souvenir shopping. For dinner we went to the Viaduct which was good. Then we had to pack up and get ready for Australia! It was a really awesome last day in Auckland, and I still can’t believe it was my last one there!
Sending lots of Solinsky love from Aotearoa!
Welcome to the Solinsky family epic vacation adventure part one: New Zealand! After a bit of a plane mishap concerning Chicago, my family made it to New Zealand one day late and we have been off and running ever since! I’ll break it down by day:
Saturday June 26: My family got into Auckland International Airport bright and early in the morning where I met them with our guide. After loading everyone up in the van we set off for Rotorua. When we got to Rotorua we went to the Whakawerawera Maori village. Unlike most tourist attractions in Rotorua, this Maori village was not staged and the Maori actually live there. We had a tour by a Maori woman who lives in the village and saw her family throughout the tour. She told us the history and daily functioning of the village. The village is built amongst many geothermal features and it was fascinating to hear about how the Maori use these geothermal pools in their daily lives. For example, they use the really hot pools for cooking – and we even had corn which is cooked in one and it was delicious!! They also have a ton of nature walks around the different geothermal activities which were nice. After the tour we went to the cultural performance put on by the Maori which was really fun. They did a lot of different songs and dances and even did the haka. They also had a section with audience participation where I was invited up to learn and perform a dance with a poi, which was hilarious for my family to watch. It was a really interesting place to go to. After the village, we had a quick tour around Rotorua where we learned the history of the town. Basically Rotorua would not exist without tourism due to it’s geothermal activities. It was originally thought that the geothermal activities could be used for healing powers. We stopped along Lake Rotorua which is beautiful. From there we drove to Hamilton where we had dinner and went to the ALL BLACKS GAME!! For those of you who do not know, the All Blacks is the national rugby team of New Zealand. Many kiwis will say that New Zealand does not really have a religion, but if one had to be chosen it would be the All Blacks. All New Zealanders love the All Blacks and are constantly following and discussing them. Since they are a national team, they are constantly playing rugby internationally and hence do not play many home tests (or matches). In fact, I think they have only played two or three tests in New Zealand since I have been there (and none of these tests were near Auckland). Therefore, when I found out that there was going to be a game in Hamilton (relatively close to Auckland and Rotorua) when my family would be here I jumped on it! The pre-game show was really fun – they had dance shows and fireworks! Then right before the game started, the All Blacks did their famous haka. It was SO cool to see the haka in person after hearing so much about it! The haka is a traditional Maori war dance to intimidate their opponents. The All Blacks perform a haka before every match to intimidate their opponents. After the haka the test began. Rugby is a little hard to watch in person because there are no announcers and I felt like I was constantly trying to find the ball. However, it was a lot of fun and I definitely understood most of the game which was exciting! The All Blacks beat Wales which was awesome! Then my family was so exhausted from the long day (some of them were even falling asleep at the test), and we all slept for most of the car ride between Hamilton and Taupo, where we stayed for the night.
Sunday June 27: We woke up in Taupo and my family felt much more refreshed after finally sleeping in a bed. Our room overlooked the beautiful Lake Taupo (let’s just say it was an upgrade compared to the backpackers that I had been staying in!). Lake Taupo was really gorgeous, especially with the snowcapped mountains behind it. It was so cool to see Taupo in the winter because it’s one of the areas of the North Island that gets snow. I could kind of see Tongariro crossing in the distance which I hiked back in January and it now has snow! Anyways after breakfast we were picked up by Rapid Sensations and were off for our bike and kayak adventure. We first did biking. Considering I had biked all semester I figured it would not be that hard for me. However, we ended up mountain biking which was so hard and intense! We biked down to Huka Falls which is New Zealand’s #1 free tourist spot. The falls are 12 metres and this awesome blue color and are just amazing to look at! After biking back we went in a bike forest area which was pretty fun (considering we were on the easiest track). By the end I got more used to it but lets just say that I definitely prefer road biking! After the bike section of the trip we went on to kayaking on the Waikato River! The river was really beautiful and pretty calm. We basically just kayaked down the river, and it was a really nice day out so it was lovely. As we were kayaking we saw someone bungy jump which was really cool and scary to watch. Then we made it to the natural hot pools which were just on the side of the river. We parked our kayaks, hopped out and went for a soak in the hot pools – they were amazing! It was kind of an enclosed area with a waterfall coming down and it was all natural and so gorgeous! Then we hopped back in our kayaks and paddled a few minutes down the river to get to the van. After drying off we were off again to Rotorua. After reaching Rotorua, Brian, Jason and I went Zorbing. A zorb basically looks like a giant plastic ball filled with another smaller ball in it. You jump into the smaller ball and get rolled down a hill. It is a really crazy unique experience. We all did the hydrozorb where they put water in the smaller ball that you’re in and it kind of is like what a washing machine would feel like. It was completely bizarre but pretty fun! Then we had lunch at Jesters which is a classic New Zealand pie (lunch not dessert pie) place where we all had New Zealand pies. Then we all headed up the gandola and went luging which was lots of fun! After luging we headed back in the van and drove to Auckland. Once we were checked into the hotel we went to Gina’s Italian restaurant for dinner, which was delicious.
Monday June 28: Today was my one day to show my whole family around what has become my home over the last 6 months: Auckland! We got up early and went to Café Melba for breakfast which was very yummy. We then headed over to the ferry terminal and went on an island hop-on/hop-off ferry for the day. They took us by the harbour bridge and Devonport and we got off at Rangitoto. We climbed Rangitoto and the weather held up wonderfully and we were able to have a great view! We then hopped back on the ferry and got off at Mission Bay where we had lunch and ice cream. We then took a bus back into the city and did a bit of souvenir shopping. For dinner we went to the Viaduct which was good. Then we had to pack up and get ready for Australia! It was a really awesome last day in Auckland, and I still can’t believe it was my last one there!
Sending lots of Solinsky love from Aotearoa!
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