Travel Home

I've made 3 posts tonight as I didn't have good internet access over the weekend. These cover our weekend up in Cairns, Queensland and travel back to the USA today.

We arrived safely in Los Angeles today after 24 hours (17 actually in airplanes). We flew from Cairnes to Brisbane to Auckland, NZ to Los Angeles. Tomorrow morning we make our way back to home sweet home. We were able to enjoy dinner this evening with my mom and dad and Karen and Kelvin Langford. We shared some of our photos and memorabilia.

This was a great trip. We were able to see and experience a lot of different aspects of Australia. Lots of fun and good memories were made. We look forward to getting back home and sharing a few more details with our family and friends.

Judy also hopes to get this photo into our local newspaper. They regularly run photos in the travel section when someone goes on a trip and gets a photo with the travel section. We think this is a pretty good one.

Great Barrier Reef

Sunday was spent on the great barrier reef, one of the natural wonders of the world. The reef stretches over 3,000 miles, but we were able to explore a small part of it. We had a nice tour via a catamaran out to the reef.

Once we arrived at our location we were free to explore via our snorkels and masks. I actually had a chance to do a little scuba diving which I hadn't done in years. It was fun to go down 20-30 feet and explore around the reef. I then joined Judy, Pop pop and the boys for snorkeling the rest of the day. Mee Maw decided it wasn't for her, but joined us on the boat and a small sandbar island.

We enjoyed lunch on the boat and an all day exploring. Part of the time we were able to go out on a small sandbar island which was underwater by the time we left because the tide had come back in.

Everyone enjoyed the snorkeling. Our first site, the water was a little deeper and had more reef to explore. At the second location the water was pretty shallow and you could explore around easily. The water in most places was probably 10-12 feet deep ... what was amazing is that we were about 25 nautical miles offshore. Because of the reef the water is very shallow is some areas ... its just amazing that the ocean is that shallow at that distance from shore.

We saw many colorful fish and coral. Zach and Andrew saw a stingray. I saw some giant clams ... these things were enormous ... probably 6 feet in diameter. I had never seen anything like those before. The water was just that beautiful south Pacific blue. This picture really does not do it justice.

On the way back, we crossed paths with another boat from the same company we were using. They proceeded to get into a water fight between the two boats, using a firehose to squirt water from one boat over to the other. Naturally, I had to participate a little and make sure that our hose didn't get kinked up ... allowing us to get maximum distance.

Everyone was worn out from the sun and the water. The temperature was probably about 90 degrees, but by being only 16 degrees away from teh equator where we were, the sun was really intense. I used the wetsuit that I had used for diving to help protect me from the sun part of the time, or I would have been fried to a crisp very quickly out there. With the sway of the boat as we crossed the ocean and the nice warm breeze blowing across the bow, it was easy to catch a little shut-eye on the way back in to port.

Cairns, Karunda and the Rainforest

On Saturday, we got an early start and headed over to the train station in Carins. We took the scenic train 2 h9ours up the mountainside to a little town in the rainforest region called Karunda. There were some great views on the way up, including some waterfalls. It was not yet the rainy season, so there wasn't actually any rain in the rainforest, but the forest was thick and views were fantastic.

We spent the day in Karunda which included visiting a small animal park and taking some mini-hikes along the rainforest.

At the animal park, we were able to get up close to the animals and were able to actually hold the koalas (for a price) and feed the kangaroos and wallabies (for no extra price).

We had lunch in town and then headed back down the mountain on the cable car. This was a 7.5 mile journey along the treetops of the rainforest which provided great views in all directions.

Melbourne with Family and Friends

We spent several days in Melbourne and have had a couple of travel days. We took a bus from Ulla Dulla back up to Sydney. Riding the public bus in Australia isn't much different than in the US ... you don't! It wasn't too bad, but lots of interesting sights and especially smells. We just spent one night in Sydney before flying down to Melbourne on Tuesday. Melbourne is also a large city of about 3 million people. Like Sydney, it looks very new and modern.

Phillip Bonnell, a friend of the family, was at the airport to meet us and take us out to Jean Bonnell's home where we would be staying. Jean has a very nice home in the "suburbs" of Melbourne. When we arrived, the whole Bonnell clan was there and we had dinner together.

Here is a photo of the group that was there. As you can see, there was quite a crowd. Lots of kids too, which just jumped right in with Zach and Andrew. Next thing we know, they were off in the next room playing.

The next day, we scouted out all of the houses the Halfords lived in while in Melbourne. Judy especially wanted to see where she was born and other places they lived. Jean went with us for the day too.

We came to the first place, which was actually the house that Jean had lived in previously when they were there. Well ... that house had actually been torn down and a new house was in that location. So we went ahead and found what "may or may not" have been a house the Halford's lived in. That phrase .... "may or may not be" became a very common one that day. There is a big privacy gate and brick wall in front of the house. Well John wasn't going to be deterred by that (it was his house after all) ... so he hops out, rattles the gate which was locked, peeks through the mail slot, rattles the gate again, paces back and forth at the wall, checks the mail slot again, and shakes the gate one more time for good measure. In the meantime, we're all still sitting in the car because there isn't really anything to see. He comes back over to the car and says "Well, I've done all I can do here ... what are you going to do?" to which I responded "Get out of here, before the police come!". I was surprised how many different places they had lived in the Melbourne area ... we must have gone to 5-6 houses. As a pastor, they would rent the houses and then have to move every so often.

Each place we went had a similar view ... a large brick privacy wall. John would say that it used to be a much smaller brick wall in front of the house when they lived there, and we would scout out the next place. What I did learn that day is that the Aussies do fine masonry work. Here is a fine example of what we saw at most of the places that day.

We would then head to the next place with John often coming to jarring stops and starts. Or come to an intersection and start to turn left and then swing back right. Judy and I were tempted to count the number of horns blown at us by people behind us.

We actually did get a good view of the house that Judy was born in. It hadn't been torn down and didn't have a huge brick wall in front of it to be scaled. Judy and her mom took a picture in front of it as you can see here.

Judy then became very nostalgic about the place and began to suck her thumb right there in the driveway. OK, I put her up to it ... I originally suggested she lay on the driveway in the fetal position, but if the police came we may not have been able to get her out of there in time :)

After 5 hours, taking out an hour for lunch, we headed back. Fortunately, Phillips wife, Jennifer, had offered to let Zach and Andrew come over to her house and play with her boys for the day. That was a huge help. I don't know how many brick walls they would have put up with for the day.

Later that evening we enjoyed dinner out at the pub with Jean, Phillip, Jennifer, Ross and Gaye Beath (Judy's aunt and uncle), Ben and Joel Beath (her cousins) and Ben's girlfriend, Phoebe. We had a great dinner together and then visited until 1AM back at Jean's home. Jean was an extremely generous hostess to us all for the days we were there. We hope to return the favor when they come to visit the US in 2009. Jean asked to pass along hello to everyone, especially Becki and the Curran's.

We flew up to Cairns today in Queensland. Beautiful country with huge mountains and forests. We'll go to the rainforest today and out to the Barrier Reef tomorrow.

Outback Living

Wanted to provide an update on the past 2 days since I haven't been able to provide an update lately.

Two days ago we made the trip from Sydney to UllaDulla. We boarded a private coach (bus) and headed out. We first stopped at an Australian farm. As you can see from the sign, it was a fair-dinkum colonial farm. Fair-dinkum apparently means genuine.

Here they showed us lots of ways of the farm and the outback. We had a genuine Australian farm hand show us the ropes which included shearing sheep, milking cows, cracking a whip, throwing a boomerang, watching dogs herd sheep, and then had a Aussie BBQ for lunch. "Throw another shrimp on the barbie" ... OK, we had steak, but you get the point.

There were a couple of highlights of the day. First was the boomerang throwing. Pop pop was the most successful in throwing it and having it return, upon which he took a lengthy bow and encouraged much applause from the group. Everyone, including Mee-maw gave it a try.

Whip cracking was a popular activity. It was much harder to do that it looks. You have to get the right arm motion to get the whip to actually make the cracking sound. Zach and Andrew really got into. So did I and proceeded to hit myself in the face with the stupid thing. Judy on the other hand seemed to not have much problem with it ... I suspect its from all the practice she's had at home (Get it? Blogs are great ... always the jokes at Judy's expense). Look at the photo ... that face says "I thought I told you to ...".

Another fun activity was sheep shearing, which Judy was able to participate in, and watching the dogs herd the sheep. The boys got a kick out of watching these dogs round up the sheep. A couple of the sheep went after the dogs and the boys were ready to see a big face-off ... dog vs. sheep. The sheep quickly got in line and the big fight didn't materialize.

The big highlight of the day for the boys was the chance to get up close with a kangaroo. The farm had 3 kangaroos that they kept. We weren't supposed to be able to see the kangaroos, but Judy asked if the boys could go it with them. They nicely accomodated the request. We took several photos including one with the Travel section of the Columbus newspaper (They will run pictures in the travel section if you submit them). The boys were even able to pet the one kangaroo which wasn't bothered at all by us being there ... the other two let us get close, but not touch them.

After the farm visit, we continued on to UllaDulla which is a coastal town about 3 hours south of Sydney. We took the scenic route which was really beautiful. Lots of rolling hills and forest along the way which provided great views.

We spent the day yesterday in UllaDulla. In the morning we attended a church service with about 200 members from the Australia church. In the afternoon, we spent a day at the beach. The water was freezing cold, but the boys got in it anyway. I couldn't believe they could take the temperature of the water. They played a game for a while where they were apparently challenging the ocean ... we heard lots of growls and saw lots of fist pumping and ice cold waves came crashing in on them. They would run away (fall down half the time) and then be back challenging the ocean again. We also explored some tidal pools for shells, crabs and other little sea creatures. Finished the day with a good ole fish and chips dinner and then a "dirty Bingo" night with the church members. Dirty bingo is played by having prizes for each time you get a Bingo and then once the prizes run out, you go and take prizes from other people. Sort of like the gift exchange at our Christmas party each year, but without the fighting :) It was a lot of fun and the boys got lots of little gifts they loved ... I made them actually give some of them away to the Australian kids or we would need 3 more suitcases to get home.

We're headed down to Melbourne today to visit some family and friends. More later ...

A Day with the Wildlife

Because I didn't get to write a post this morning, I've written two. This one and another one below with our trip to the Blue Mountains yesterday. I also added some pictures to my older posts as I finally figured out how to add more than one picture to each entry.

Spent a large part of today at the Sydney Wildlife Park. This was a great little park that focuses strictly on animals found in Australia. The boys really seemed to enjoy seeing all of the animals. We saw all the snakes and lizards which prompted lots of me shouting out "Crikey!" (Think Crocodile Hunter, Steve Irwin), or "There's a real Ripper!". We were able to get pretty closeup to some Koalas, Kangaroos and Wallaby's too. We also saw what is considered to be the world's most dangerous bird, the cassowary. It looked like "Buckbeak" from the Harry Potter movie. It was actually a really neat looking bird. About the size of an emu (with similar feathers) with a beautiful blue color on its head and this large horn type of thing on its head.


At the park there was an Aboriginal man playing the digeridoo, so had to see that again, of course. His name was Leon. Sounds native, doesn't it? The boys had their picture taken with him. He would play people's names through the digeridoo when he played. He played Susie. He played Carmen. He played John. I wanted to tell him my name was Christopher James Aloysius McGuillicutty, Constantius Hoban III and see what he would do.

Judy really wanted the boys to have a close encounter with a Koala. You could get pretty close to them but weren't allowed to get close enough to touch them. The park offered the opportunity to stand in front of one and have your picture taken for $20. For Zach and Andrew, that would be $40 just to stand in front of a koala and take a picture. They couldn't hold them or even touch them. I said it wasn't worth it, and Judy was a little upset with me for being cheap. I told her that I could accomplish the same thing by having the boys pose as if they were near a Koala and then I would Photoshop the koala into the picture. I posted my picture below... why would you pay $20 for a picture when you can get these kinds of real-life results by doing it yourself?

We're off to a new city tomorrow. Going to a town called UllaDulla for a couple of days and then down to Melbourne.

Blue Mountains

Friday we spent a good part of the day in the Blue Mountains. This is an area about 2 hours NW of Sydney. We jumped on a train in Sydney and made the trip out. It was worth the travel as the area was really spectacular. In some ways, the trees resemble what you might see in West Virginia or western Carolina, but what added to it was huge cliffs of sedimentary rock that surrounded the basin. I've attached a couple of photos.

One of the highlights was that we were able to travel on a skyway cable car across the valley of the mountains. When we approached the area to get on the cable car, we were kind of nervous. It was really windy and as we saw the cable car approach, it was really swaying back and forth and you could hear some of the people in it scream out a little as the car made its approach into the station. We went for it anyway. It was an impressive ride as we were easily several hundred feet in the air, travelling across the valley.

Once on the other side, we got on the world's steepest railway. It was a short, but extremely steep ride part way down the mountain. At one point, I know the incline was at 52 degrees. The rail cars were similar to the type that are used in coal mines as this used to be a heavy coal mining area in Australia. After completing the railway, we took another cable car back up the mountain. Again, with great views in all directions.

We continued exploring the mountain area as there are a lot of great lookout spots that have been developed over the past 100 years. We could catch a bus that would go from stop to stop and take you to the various points of interest. We took in the major lookout points, did some short "bush walks" throughout the day. At one point, Andrew and I went down a bad trail. It wasn't really much of a trail and after going down it some I decided to turn around. We then found the right trail and made our way back to Judy, Zach and Pat.




We took the train back to Sydney which was an experience in itself. We first had 4 kids sitting across from us who were really loud and immature. I think the youngest girl had eyes for Zach and was trying her hardest to get his attention. She was probably 9 or 10 and the other 3 with her were 15-18 years old. Zach didn't pay her much attention though. After they got off, another girl got on and proceeded to make a very loud cellphone call to one of her friends explaining how another friend just found out she was pregnant but the apparent father denied it was him. She exited and another teenage girl got on who was a total depressive. She curled up in a ball and stared out the window with this blank expression. I think I must be getting old, but its really sad to see how many kids in western society are so lost in their lives.

Anyway, we made it back safely and had a late dinner. Andrew crashed before they served the food and we carried him to the taxi and back to our hotel room for the night. Really long day, but felt like we really saw a different part of Australia. Definately worth the effort!