TNT - Australia!

Please be warned:  I really can't limit the number of pictures I post...
I know it is a problem, but I really can't.

Once upon a time, when I was a little girl, I dreamed of Koalas.  

Yes, I did, and I loved them!
I thought they were magical, truly.
(Ok.  I still do!)
I had the cutest Koala jacket, and my grandparents even gave me a lovely gold necklace (which I still have with Koalas on it!).  

I dreamed of journeying to the LAND of the Koalas one day...
Todd knew this when we started dating almost, ahem, 25 years ago.
Of course, I didn't tell him.  "Hey, I want to go to the land of Koalas."
I said,  "I intend to go to Australia, and perhaps stay."
-
Mind you this is even BEFORE I discovered the even more magical creature - the Lorikeet, which freely inhabit the down under!

So, when Todd had to be in Australia for work (AKA land of all sorts of cuteness) I cashed in my flying miles and joined him!

I was expecting super cool creatures, but I wasn't expecting the brilliance of the color of the sea.
Australia's Oceans are the most amazing hue of blue....
I could just sit and stare at it forever...
They are pristine.
Maybe it is the fact that we rarely see sunshine in Hong Kong?  In fact, as I type this it has been 4 days since I have been back in Hong Kong and I haven't seen the sun ONCE, nope not a once.  Just constant gray.  Imagine the dead of winter, in some cold state, like I don't know Minnesota, clouds and fog block out the sky and a feeling that snow is looming as you look out the window.  That is what it looks like outside.  It is a fib though, because it is about 95F and 90% humid.  Hella hot and wet.

The entire time I was in Australia the sun danced on the water, filled the sky, and caressed my skin.....  Since it was winter there (at 72 degrees F ish) it was a welcome, missed friend.
Even if Todd and I did get sun burnt...
Sunblock?  huh?

We ventured to a few different places while we were there.

We were staying in Sydney Harbor, which is also called Darling Harbor.

It is just so Darling let me tell you...

There is an area there called Circular Quay...

Now, everyone kept giving us directions turn right at the Circle K (that is what we heard)...

Darn it if Todd and I could NOT find this Circle K to save us!  

We did find a 7-11....

It was only after a couple days that we had an A-ha! moment.

They with their accents were saying Circular Quay, not Circle K... Oh! Yah...

Those silly different flavors of English.

We arrived at night!




Nice room!


Across the street from the hotel was a Pie Face.  Open 24 hours, and pretty good!


The following day we set out to find sim cards and explore the city a bit in the morning.
While walking around the city (looking for that darned Circle K!), we came across this in little hidden alley.

There were even piped in bird chirping sounds.  It was really strange!
I of course could only think about the fact that Hong Kong doesn't have a decent bird cage and wanted to take them all home with me!




Amazingly talented street artists!






Later, we enjoyed a ferry ride to Manly beach, we were told it was a must!


Seriously, I thought Hong Kong was crowded, no cities are crowded.





The little sail boats that dotted the blue sea were so beautiful in contrast.

A light house in the middle of the water?

Even, an adorable BRIGHT RED helicopter would zip around in the sky.

And YES, helicopters can be adorable.

We found one of the Berlin Bears!

We walked along the shore, inhaled the fresh clean air, and stood amazed at the clarity of the water....

Beautiful day, indeed.

There were happy folks just relaxing and enjoying everywhere.

Look we are in the pic as shadow people!

We arrived Saturday night and played on Sunday.  Todd had work stuff to do Mon-Weds.  He took Thurs and Fri as vacation days to have fun with me!   He asked me to plan some fun stuff to do during that time.  Ha!  He ASKED me to CHOOSE!! Hahahahah! 

I will get to that in a second...  While he was busy doing work stuff, I decided to set out and do important things too.  Like finding a TARGET!  Yah, baby!  Australia has Targets!  One of the nice things about Target (at least in the states) is it is inexpensive,  so I just couldn't rationalize taking a cab (which is flippin' pricey in AU) the 25 mins to the closest one and decided I would figure out the public transit system.  Hong Kong has really helped with that.

It was strange after I finally found the correct mall they had these moving sidewalk, rather than escalators!

The Target was near the University of Syndey, and I was mistaken for a student! I will take it!

Nice!

During the day while Todd was gone I just wandered around, and took in the sunshine and fresh air.

Oh, Australia, you are breath-taking!

I walked around the Botanical garden and listened to the birds in the trees churping.

Anyhow, back to me making the plan for the weekend.  I LOVE Heights! Love them!  If I could have, I would have arranged sky diving...  Well, I was ridiculously excited that we were going to do a SKY Walk!  Basically, you get to walk around the outside of the Sky Tower (the highest building in Sydney).

The tower is the pointy thing in the middle.

Can you tell how excited I was?  

We had to put our safety outfits on.

Lucky for me, Todd likes heights too! 

Our group.

Notice the glass tiles we were walking on, so cool you could see everything beneath.

We walked around the entire tower. 

 So Happy!, So much fun!

The guide told us to raise our arms, but I couldn't help it.

I had to tickle Todd instead, and the guy caught it! Ha! 

I was very proud to catch him off guard, and Todd laughed at my silliness. 

Todd said, "After 20 years of marriage you are still tickling me when I don't expect it, ha!"  

yah...  I am like that.

Then we Jumped!

The tour-dude called it a safety test for the next group. 

You know, if the platform didn't break when we landed it was safe.

Wonderful time.  I did NOT want to go back in. 

So totally awesome. I HIGHLY (get the pun?) recommend it if you are in Sydney!

After the skywalk we headed to the Zoo!

 Duffy asked to bring a friend on this adventure.  How could I say no?

We took a short ferry to the Toronga Zoo!

Look at all the cute birds!

There were many more, but you get the idea.

 

Even the wild birds were beautiful.

My favorite thing at the zoo....

Apparently, Koala's are only awake for about 4 hours a day.

At the zoo they have a special program where you can get a private encounter with a zoo employee and a Koala while they are being fed. You get to stand in their pen right next to them.  Just so you know, however enchanting I thought they were before the encounter was blown out of the water, because their cuteness was seriously off the charts...

We had to wait for 20 minutes for our encounter so we said hello to some other beauties while we waited.

Why are these guys so cute?!

Wild Native Lorikeets in the trees!  

Did you know a Tasmanian Devilis amazingly adorable as well?
I had NO CLUE!  Darn you Australia with your incredible wild life.

The only animal that I saw that I was sort of concerned about was this guy... :(

He looks sooo Sad! I wonder what his story is... 

Well, other than being in a cage on display...

These two didn't mind one bit.  In fact they were very romantic with each other, if you know what I mean... 

I believe Todd has a video even?

Finally, Back to the CUTENESS!

Seriously, look at these pictures and try not to fall in love.

Here name is Maya and we love her!

Awww. I don't know who's cuter in this photo the koala or Todd!

There were many Koala's all in there own little area.

These two were beyond sweet.

A Momma and a baby.  Really doesn't get much sweeter than that.  The baby sleeps nestled in his Mommy's arms...

Oh, Koala's I LOVE You!

I might have threatened to hid in Australia and stay a few times.

No. I couldn't leave my Indy or family... but the temptation.

We went to an Amazing bird show.  

Made me want to let our bird's flight feathers grow in, and train them up to do tricks.  Maybe fly around picking up after the kids!?!

Neat stick creature!

The sun was a little much for us Hong Kong folk, so Todd and I hid!

I think Todd was a bit concerned that I might, just might grab one of those Koala-babes out of a tree and sneak it home with me, so he bought me a little (non-illegal) Koala to take home!

Duff was so happy!

Todd and the babes fell asleep on the ferry back!

Back in the harbour for dinner!

Treats!

There were quite a few pubs that we would walk by on the way to dinner.  This one had funny quotes! Funny, and this particular quote was actually wise too. 

Apparently, someone in Australia kind of STOLE the Burger King franchise.  Renamed it, and it is doing quite well in Australia.  It totally smells like burger king.  I was told that Burger King actually sued them, and lost in Australia courts.  I mean they aren't discreet about it either - Whoppers!

Logo look familiar?

We went to a cute little aquarium that was celebrating it's 25th year, much like us!

This is what is like to live in my head.  I swear...

Almost all creatures just look adorable!

SMILE!

(and yes.  i know those aren't their eyes, but really how cute!)

Ok, enough cheesy T-N-T smiles!

Very important!  They had a Magnum design your own Ice Cream.

Love was put into each one!

Mine on the left, Todd's on the right.

So...
What were our children doing while we were away, aside from Pet care??

Going to the Linkin Park Concert that we were supposed to be going to with them!

Our good friends Brandon and Annette took our place and went with the kids.

Everyone had a BLAST! Yay!

One night I surprised Todd with a voyage one of the last Tall ships that are still set sail..

We had the opportunity to have dinner, live music at sunset on board this amazing vessel!

The ship was IMMENSELY huge!

I swear I am NOT stabbing Todd! I was using the auto timer and had to run back and pose! ha!

Saturday was Bus tour to the Black Mountains!
I really prefer nature scenery to city scenery!
Our tour guide, Smokey, was very cool.

He drove the van and narrated the entire time.

At one point he pulled off, jumped out of the van and just went and grabbed some bark off of a tree!

On it were a few different creatures.  Including this Huntsman Spider.

He encouraged each of us to pet it.  Only a few were brave.  It was HUGE!

I had to.  Spiders are pretty adorable too, in their own creepy way!

It was so incredibly soft, it almost felt cuddly.

Todd declined the opportunity.  Although, I am SURE he thought it was just as cute!

So MUCH SUNSHINE!

I asked Todd to pose with the side of a restroom, because do you see what I see on that branch?!

As we were driving clouds moved in...

We weren't sure if it was going to start pouring or not, and we had a LOT of steep hiking with STEPs to do...

Luckily, when we arrived it was actually quite beautiful and perfect!

Oh the Fresh, clean, cool, DRY air...  How I miss it!

The hike (and there were two of them) were not for the weak of heart or knees really.  I am being serious about the weak of heart.  Smokey told us of a woman that had a heart attack on the hike...  He apparently had to preform intense CPR to save her.  Well, he also told us of a 7 foot tall Kangaroo that jumped in the road in front of his van, went through the windshield, and I believe a large German(?) wrestler passenger pinned him quickly to the floor of the van (as Kangaroos can be dangerous).  Well, and that when they were sitting at the park having lunch one time a car ran the curve and almost hit them.  I would think these were questionably true, but he did have pictures of the car thing!

When I signed up for the hike it said something about 1000 stairs worth of hiking...  But, it said you would be hiking DOWN and then taking a train up.  What it didn't say was that you would first be hiking like 800 steps down, and then back up the bazillion steps (at a rather fast PACE), and then on the SECOND hike have a train up... Yah....  Sorry Todd...  Wasn't trying to kill you.

The views were worth it!

Hello, Smokey!

Steps, steps, steps...

The true stair master!

How would you like to have a house with this view?!

Yes please, but can we have a tram instilled.

The only thing between us and the HUGE drop, some rock ledge that was carved to walk on...

Some of the guys on the tour were discussing coming back with some bungees or something Lol.

So MANY steps...

Sad thing is going down we were kind of laughing at the poor people coming up.  We didn't know until we were at the bottom that we would be those poor PEOPLE!

Charles Darwin was here!

Ok.  Well we survived, barely, the first hike.

Then we headed to the SECOND super step hike!  We were running a little late, and were cutting it close to catch that last train back up...  So, Todd and I were looking at the nice little restaurant thinking maybe it was a good time for some hot chocolate instead, ha!  But, we are tough!  So we did it!

The Hike comes with a legend...

There is a legend (like our fairytales) taught by the indigenous people of a family.   This isn't the EXACT version that was told to us, but pretty close, and much better than me trying to remember all the unusual names...  

Three sisters, Meenhi, Wimlah and Gunnedoo had a father who was a witch doctor. His name was Tyawan.

Long ago there was a Bunyip who lived in a deep hole who was feared by all.  Passing the hole was considered very dangerous, therefore whenever Tyawan had to pass the hole in search for food, he would leave his daughters safely on the cliff behind a rocky wall.  One fateful day, Tyawan waved goodbye to his daughters and descended down the cliff steps into the valley.  Meanwhile at the top of the cliff, Meenhi was frightened by a large centipede which suddenly appeared before her. Meenhi took a stone and threw it at the centipede. The stone continued on its journey and rolled over the cliff, crashing into the valley below which angered the Bunyip.  The rocky wall behind Meenhi, Wimlah and Gunnedoo then began to split open and the three sisters were left stranded on a thin ledge at the top of the cliff. All the birds, animals and fairies stopped still as the Bunyip emerged to see the terrified girls.  As the Bunyip began to approach the girls, to protect them from harm, their father Tyawan used his magic bone to turn them into stone.  Angered by this, the Bunyip then began to chase Tyawan. Becoming trapped, in order to flee from the Bunyip, Tyawan changed into a magnificent Lyre Bird, yet in the process dropped his magic bone. Tyawan and his three daughters were now safe from the Bunyip.  Once the Bunyip had disappeared, Tyawan returned in search of his magic bone, yet this was never to be found.  The Lyre Bird has been searching for this magic bone ever since. Remaining in rock formation, The Three Sisters stand silently overlooking the valley hoping that one day he'll find the bone and turn them back to former selves.  When visiting The Three Sisters, if you listen carefully you may be able to hear the Lyre Bird, Tyawan, as he continues his quest for his lost magic bone.  (from: http://www.bluemts.com.au/info/thingstodo/threesisters/)

Before the hike you can see (naked statues) representing the father and daughters.

Which did encourage some very interesting pictures indeed!

YAY More steps!

If you look, really closely, you can see a Koala in the tree.

and more steps.

Air vent into the mountain from coal mining days.

Yay we made it to the steepest TRAIN in the world!
I couldn't have been happier!

this is the view UP!

I loved the expressions on the people's faces coming down. 

It would be a pretty intense drop if the breaks failed.

It was an awesome day, even if it hurt to walk for the next three days!

The next day we had coupons to go to the small aquarium/zoo and the wax museusm.

Was kind of sad to just see this dude sitting there in the entrance where you get tickets.

Kangaroos are NOT to be messed with.  Look how big they can get!

I love the look on a child's face when they are taking in the beauty of nature with pure aww. So sweet.

Tasmanian Devil baby - I love you!

Picture for Krystin with a wombat!

Not even close to as cute as our bearded dragon!

Different sizes and shapes of those little hoppers!

I did like that the majority of the animals were protected from 'people'...

Oh, and I FELL IN LOVE with this baby!

Who knew coockabooras were this incredibly adorable?

Cutest baby in the park!

I NEVER, ever, ever want to see one of these out in nature, ever.

Up above where I said I think ALMOST all animals are cute, not these.  These are not cute.

Normally wax museums kind of creep me out.  Maybe I watched too many wax museum themed thrillers with my Grama when I was little, but they aren't my favorite thing usually.  However, Todd and I braved it, since we had the tickets and actually had a blast!

It was really funny to me.  This is Beiber.  No one was taking pictures with him.  Every other wax figure had a wait! 

Michael Hutchinson - INXS (taking pics with dead people's wax creations is creepy too btw).

For Logan!

Aww, so sweet.

Not so sweet.

And right next to Marilyn!

Iron Man is HUGE!

Ok. I liked this one!

I love the face, Todd!

Heath Ledger is so tall! Who knew?! 

Indy!

She is so tall too!

Very nice! 

Oh, Leo....  Why are you so cute??  

For good measure we took the train!

On the last day I WAS there we went to another beach and have lunch.

I totally wanted Ben and Jerry's but we ran out of time...

Trying to smile with my eyes open in the sun.  Just can't do it. 

Lovely beach.  This is winter.  I can't imagine how busy it is during the summer.

Trying again, nope!

It was a wonderful trip. It was hard to go home without him, as he had to stay for another week and I didn't want to miss Krystin's first day of school so I returned.  I am so grateful for the opportunity to experience a little bit of Australia, and hopefully we will be able to again...  (hint, hint)