Our Last Day in Australia :(

Today was very laid back, which is a great way to spend the last day. I woke up at 8am, which is the latest I've slept in this entire time. My parents went for a walk around the city, and I went for a jog across the Sydney Harbour Bridge. The greatest part about my run, was that I passed by all the places we frequented on our trip. I started on the bridge overlooking Circular Quay and ran clear to the other side of the harbour, just taking everything in.

We had breakfast at the hotel and got ready for the beach because the sun was out! We took a ferry over to Manly beach and spent a little over 5 hours lounging in the sand. It was very windy today, so were covered in sand by the end of it all. We were going to eat dinner on the beach, but decided to get cleaned up and have our final meal here on Circular Quay where we spent a lot of our time.

Before we went to eat we went on the bridge over the Quay and took a few final pictures of the bridge and opera house with the sun setting. We then found a restaurant that sat right by the water's edge. My parents both got Burgers for dinner, because they had been craving them the entire time and couldn't wait even one more day. We watched the sun set behind the buildings and reminisced about some of our favorite moments. I ended the night with one final scoop of Lychee Gelato. I decided I'll miss the lychee the most since we can't really find it in the U.S.

We just finished packing up and will go to bed in the near future. I can't believe we leave in the morning. Australia is so amazing, I wish I could spend more time here. And I'm definitely not excited about coming back to the snow.

Hunter Valley Wine Tour

First of all, I was told their were some problems viewing the pictures from my first album. I believe I fixed the problem, so please let me know if you are still having trouble seeing the pictures.

Today we went on a wine tasting tour in Hunter Valley. The morning started off rainy and gross again, but the sun came out eventually and stuck around for the rest of the day. We went to three different wineries (we ate lunch at one), a Smelly Cheese Shop and a chocolate shop. We were encouraged to at least try every wine, but when you try 8-12 different kinds of wine at each place and you take a couple sips of each you can end up feeling a little wobbly by the end of it. For me, the wine tasting just reinforced the fact that I prefer red wine to white. We also tried several dessert wines which are very sweet. I liked them, but one or two sips was plenty. I couldn't imagine drinking a whole glass of it.

On our tour there were two other American couples and two girls visitng from Hong Kong. The American couples were an older couple from Pasadena, CA and a young couple from Kansas City, KS (of course). We have now on three occasions met a person from Kansas. The girl we met today actually knows our old neighbor Stacey Buck. It's a small world.

We got back around 6:30pm and had a dinner "booking" at Peter Doyle's for 7:30. Doyle's is a famous seafood restraunt that sits right out over Circular Quay (pronounced "Key"). We were seated on the outdoor patio, and I had the Harbour Bridge Directly in front of me and the Opera House on my right. It was pretty incredible. I ordered the Crocodile tail for dinner! It was very very good. I wanted to be a little adventurous considering our days here are numbered, and I'm sure crocodile in the states isn't quite the same. We wandered around a little after dinner taking it all in.

Tomorrow we plan to spend the whole day at the beach. The forecast is sunny and in the high 70s to low 80s. I know it will be my final dose of warm weather for a while, so I'm going to take full advantage. For those of you who live in Indy, I'll see you soon.

I climbed it!

First of all, I realized I forgot to mention that eardrum did NOT perforate on our flight from Cairns. Both of my sisters asked about that, so I thought I should let you know.

Today we started off with the Sydney Bridge Climb. We did the discovery climb which gave us a little more information about the building of the bridge and the structure while we climbed it. We all had to put on gray jumpsuits so we wouldn't distract drivers on the bridge, and we also had to leave everything behind. No cameras, watches, wallets, jewelry, etc, were allowed. Anything that could be thrown from the top had to be put in a locker. We were secured in the entire 2.5 hours it took us to climb up and back. We were very fortunate to have a small group of only 5 climbers compared to the usual group of 14. Also, we saw a wedding take place at the top which made it a little more exciting. Overall, we really enjoyed it, and we came back in one piece.

The weather was pretty good up to that point, we only had a slight drizzle on our way down the bridge, but by the time we reached the bottom it was a steady rain again. We went to Manly Beach despite the forecast and walked around the beach and shops for a while. The beach isn't the most fun when you're carrying an umbrella, but we enjoyed the views. Hopefully we'll go back to Manly beach on Tuesday before we leave for the States.

This evening we had dinner with one of my Dad's friends from work. We went to a little Moroccan restaurant and had their Valentine's Day menu. It was a six course meal including scallops, chicken, salmon, veggies and dessert. We enjoyed every bit of it. We're heading to bed now so we are nice and rested for our Hunter Valley Wine tour tomorrow, and then only one day left :(

Have a wonderful Valentines Day.

Back Home again in Sydney

We started our day in Cairns. We had a little time before our flight left, so we ate breakfast on a patio looking out over the Marina and shopped around for a few little souvenirs.

Traveling domestic in Australia is very different than in the States. Security is extremely lax. We never showed an I.D., when going through security you can't tell which bag belongs to each person, so anyone could easily walk off with your bag, you can bring as many liquids as you'd like, and you get to leave your shoes on. My dad said that when we go to board our flight back home, there will actually be American officials that do their own security check because our country doesn't trust other airports. Which after my experience, I'm glad to know we double check the flights entering the U.S. We also flew back with the entire Sydney Roosters team again. They won their game in Cairns so the local passengers were excited to have them on board.

When we arrived back at our Marriott hotel in Sydney, it felt kind of like we were home. The sights and streets all seem very familiar after our 5 days here last week. We went to church at St. Patrick's Church Hill which was a very decorative little church. I love that we sang some songs I know even though we're on the other side of the world. That's the beauty of the Catholic Church.

After church it was raining again, so we found an indoor place called the Belgium Bier Hall for dinner. Half of the menu was a beer list, so I got a Hoergaarden, and my mom actually ordered one too! Anyone who knows my mother knows that is unheard of, but she actually drank most of it without my help.

The evening was pretty low key overall. We are currently sitting in the Lounge at the hotel (where internet is free). We brought some Tim Tams and milk at a convenience store for dessert. Tomorrow we do our Bridge Climb in the morning and were heading to dinner with some of my Dad's friends from Lilly. Hopefully if it's sunny we can head to the beach too.

Journey to the Rainforest

We took a long trip to the rain forest today. We were picked up at our hotel at 7:10am by a shuttle and traveled throughout the day with 10 other tourists. Our driver, Mario, drove us all the way up the eastern coast of Australia to Daintree National Park which is up in the mountains. The drive itself was very scenic as we had the ocean to our right and mountains on our left. We passed a few very small towns along the way (they even put Haubstadt, IN to shame), and tons of sugar cane fields.

We made several stops in the rain forest, the first being Mossma's Gorge which includes small river that flows down from the mountains. We walked through the trees, took some pictures, and then swam in the river. Well, dad and I swam in the river. My mom's job was to hold up towels for us to change clothes since there were no changing rooms nearby. Who knew we were so adventurous? :)

Our next stop was the Daintree River. We cruised along this river for about an hour. Out tour guide explained a little about the plant life and helped us look for crocs, although we didn't see any. It was all beautiful, and extremely humid. After our cruise we took one more walking tour through some other parts of the forest and then rode to our lunch destination. We arrived at a roofed area, in the midst of the trees, overlooking a creek. It was right out of a storybook. "Mario the tour guide" became "Mario the Chef" and grilled us some Baramundi steaks for lunch. We also had salad and fresh fruit including papaya, guava and watermelon. While looking around the creek after lunch, we saw a turtle, a freshwater eel and some other fish.

From lunch we traveled even further north to Cape Tribulation which is a large beach just off the rain forest. While walking through the trees we spotted a bird that is native to the area. I think it's called an "orange-footed something"? But I'm sure my dad remembers if you'd like to know the real name. Our final stop was in a region of Mangrove Trees. There we saw the coolest tree I've ever seen. This tree was actually a network of vines that had suffocated its host tree. The host tree died and disintegrated, leaving behind only the vines and a hollow space. I have a picture of it if you'd like to check it out.

Also, on that last walk we saw a spider called a Golden Orb. Now I'm terrified of spiders, but my dad got a picture of it. The spider we saw was a baby, but this species can grow up to the size of a baseball hat (basically as big as your face). AND it spins a we that is so strong it catches birds to eat! Mario said that a human can push against a golden orbs web and it will spring back instead of breaking. This is why my fear of spiders is rational.

We got back to our hotel around 7pm and were pretty worn out. We grabbed some dinner (Mom ate Indian food for those who can appreciate that) and another round of Gelato, and we headed in for the night.

HOWEVER, my ear has really been bothering me ever since our plane was landing in Sydney. It hurt really bad during our descent and since then has been a little uncomfotable. Tonight it started hurting really badly again, and I thought it may be infected (since I have a sinus infection I'm currently not treating). We went to a 24 hour med check and found out my eardrum is very red and swollen, but the doc thinks it's just too much pressure built up behind my ears. He gave me some drops with an antibiotic and anti-inflammatory medicine, but warned me that MY EARDRUM MAY PERFORATE WHEN WE FLY TO SYDNEY TOMORROW!! I kind of wish I didn't know that might happen, because he said it will be painful, but we're hoping the drops will prevent it, so keep your fingers crossed.

Happy Friday!

A Day on the Reef

Today we traveled to the Great Barrier Reef! Wow was it amazing. It was an all day event. We met our boat at the Marina with about 50 other tourists at 8:00am. It took us about 2 hours to get to the reef, but this time flew by. My dad and I had signed up to Scuba Dive, so we spent part of the morning going through an instructional class. We also took some time to "hire" a underwater digital camera for the day(which means we rented it).

The boat slowed down near the smallest island I've ever seen. Literally you could have walked all the way around this island in about 10 min. My dad and I were in the first group to dive. There were three first-time divers and one instructor. We suited up in our "stinger suits" which protected us from jellyfish, put on some fins and goggles, and headed toward the beach. In the shallow water we put on our air tanks and tested out some skills we had talked about on the trip. It is really weird to breathe through a tube like that. And my instincts kept telling me to take a deep breath before going under even though I knew I'd still have oxygen underwater. The four of us linked arms and began our adventure.

We linked arms the entire time so no one got lost. The water wasn't as clear as we thought it would be, and it would only take a few seconds to lose the group in the water. I was on the end so I could take pictures, and at first I was clinging to my Dad's arm, terrified of the unknown. I kept reminding myself to breathe (which takes some thought when you're underwater), and eventually I got into a steady rhythm. As we swam through the coral I loosened my grip to the point where I almost lost my dad's arm. The sights were amazing! The fish were swimming right next to us. We saw giant clams, sting rays, anemones and clown fish just to name a few. We stayed under for about a half hour and then returned to the boat.

Once on board we met up with my mom again, who had taken a submarine ride to check out the reef. We ate lunch, and then my dad and I went snorkeling along the shore for almost an hour. Snorkeling was neat because we were closer to the surface and the colors seemed brighter in the sunlight.Around 2:15 all the passengers boarded the ship and we headed back to the coast of Cairns. It was a very relaxing ride which included champagne and music like "Enya."

We went back to our hotel and cleaned up for dinner. We should have been exhausted, but I think we were still on a high from the day's experiences. We ate at Outback Jacks. As an appetizer we tried the Kangaroo and Crocodile plate. Both meats were a first for me, and I have to say the Kangaroo I could do without, but I really liked the Crocodile. It's a little like chicken, but it also has a seafood-like texture that's hard to explain. After dinner, we walked around the nighttime shops in Cairns and got some Gelato.

It was a pretty amazing day to say the least. It's on my bucket list to see the Reef, so it feels very good to cross that off my list.

Just a note, I have a new favorite fruit. It's called "lychee." I don't think I can ever get it in the States, so I'm just trying to soak in as much as possible while I'm here. Let me know if you've every heard of it or know where I can get some at home.

Again, all of our pictures are on a different site and if you'd like to see them, please don't hesitate to email me. mnruberg@gmail.com

Pictures

If you'd like to see my album from this trip, email me at mnruberg@gmail.com and I'll add you to the list of people who have access to the album.

Our First Day in Cairns

Our flight left today about 9:15. For the most part it was uneventful. However, we were sitting behind three men wearing uniforms of some sort. As the clueless Americans we didn't realize that these three men were famous Rugby players who played for the Sydney Roosters in the NRL (yes, it's really Roosters). When we got off the plane there were news crews waiting to greet the teammates who were coming to Cairns for a big match next week. Any Australian would have been ecstatic to sit so close to these star athletes, maybe these guys were lucky we had no idea who they were and didn't bother them.

We arrived in Cairns today around 11:30. Now we are only 15 hours ahead of EST if anyone's keeping track. We decided to keep it low key today because our next two days here are going to be all day tours. We laid out by the pool for several hours. It is really hot here. I think this is the closest to the sun I have ever been and it's very intense. We had drinks from the bar, a light lunch and just caught up on some reading. It was very relaxing.

Around 5:00 we cleaned up and went to eat dinner. We found a nice seafood place and ate on the patio overlooking the Marina. It was a nice day to catch up on some rest. I can't wait for the Great Barrier Reef tomorrow. I'll fill you in later.

I've started only uploading my pictures on to a site where you can look at all of them at once. I'll post the site and password later this evening.

A sunny day in Sydney

This morning we were eating breakfast at the hotel and we ran into Shelley Zabel. This means nothing to most people reading this, but Shelley went to grade school with Maria in Kansas. What a small world. After breakfast, my dad headed off to the Lilly offices for a couple hours while my mom and I walked around the Botanical Gardens downtown. IT was the usual beautiful flowers and scenery, but the one really unique part about it was the amount of bats in the park. Yes, bats. Actually they’re called “flying foxes” which sounds even more terrifying. Apparently they migrate to the area each year and live in the palms in the Garden. I was led to believe that bats are nocturnal, but these guys were flying around like crazy making all kinds of noise. It’s something that was neat to see once, but I have no need to experience again.

After the gardens we walked around The Rocks until it was time to meet up with my dad again and head to our afternoon lunch cruise. We signed up for a Tall Ship Cruise on Sydney Harbour. The boat itself was a sailboat that was built in 1922. We ate lunch on board and helped with the sails as we coasted around the harbour. It was quite an experience. The ship had an amazing history which seemed more enjoyable than the usual, commercial harbour cruises. We also got to work on our tans a little, which is much needed.

We got ourselves cleaned up and headed toward the Opera House to see a play called Optimism. We stopped along the way and had a drink at the Opera Bar while looking across the harbour toward the Bridge (which we still plan to climb on Sunday!). The play was based on Voltaire’s Candied, but was very modernized. There were a lot of neat aspects about the play including some of Votaire’s deep philosophical ideas, but there were also some crazy sets and costumes. Overall we really liked it.

On our way back to the hotel we ate dessert at a little café right on the water. We each had a pastry and some gelato which was delicious. Right now we are packing up our suitcases because we leave for Cairns in the morning. Our flight leaves at 9:15 so we’ll get an early start on the day.

Have a great Tuesday.

The best cure for a Super Bowl loss is Bondi Beach

Today was full of lows and highs. We started off heading to a local bar at 9:30am to watch the Super Bowl. There were several other Americans there, and surprisingly there were several other colts fans. We sat at a table with a couple of Marines who were visiting the area. One of them was a catholic boy from Kansas, so we found plenty to talk about. Unfortunately the result of the game was not what we hoped (as you know). But enough about that.

After the game, THE SUN CAME OUT!!!! We finally had an opportunity to go to the beach! There are several beaches to choose from around here, but we decided on Bondi Beach which is just a bus ride away. It was wonderful to feel the sunshine and listen to the ocean. We were only there for a few hours, but I think we'll go back there once more before we leave. The sad part of the trip was that I forgot my camera. The excitement of going to the beach made me a little forgetful I guess.

We just finished dinner in the Lounge at the hotel. It's free and delicious, so we eat here often. We have nothing set in stone for the rest of the evening, but we might head out on the harbour for a drink and some fresh air. If anything exciting happens, I'll be sure to mention in next time.

It's still raining here, but it beats the snow there

To start off our day, we attended mass at St. Mary’s Cathedral. Wow…it’s beautiful. After church we headed over to The Rocks and had a snack outside during the brief period of time that it wasn’t raining. There were several vendors, but we chose to get a large ear of corn which was delicious. From there we headed towards Darling Harbour and thought we’d get some ice cream along the way. Just then, the best thing that could have happened actually happened….two men with a big Nestle cooler offered us FREE ICE CREAM!! It was like they could read our minds. I didn’t think the day could get any better, but it only went up from there.

Once we arrived at the Harbour, we decided to check out Wildlife World, which holds all the wildlife unique to Australia. It had everything from spiders (which I despise) and snakes, to wombats and cassowaries. I got within reach of a koala bear (or a “koolala beear “as I used to say) and a kangaroo. I also saw a wombat and wallaby (which looks like a kangaroo only smaller) for the first time. The Cassowary that I mentioned above is the world’s deadliest bird according to the Guinness Book of World Records. They have killed a number of humans with a single kick of one of their long legs! But enough lessons about Australian wildlife. Next we headed to the Aquarium since it was still raining. It was a great preview of what we’re going to see at the Great Barrier Reef in a few days.

For dinner, I had Barramundi (another first) while looking over the harbour. We went back to the hotel for a little cat nap and then headed back out to the IMAX for a late showing of AVATAR. I loved it! And I didn’t think I would. The 3D thing was amazing, and I thought the plot was okay too. I renege any negative comments I may have made about the movie in the past.

It’s a little after midnight now and we’re heading to bed. Maybe after the Super Bowl tomorrow morning we’ll be able to go to the beach finally. Enjoy your Sunday. GO COLTS!

P.S. I should mention that we’ve had a few issues with our adapters and are unable to use our hair appliances, which has been interesting to say the least. My hair does alright in the humidity, but it’s been pretty funny to watch my mom’s hair get bigger and frizzier all the time.

Rain Rain Go Away

Today was rainy. We've been told by the locals that we will most likely have rain through Monday or Tuesday. We are still finding lots to do, but we are all anxiously awaiting a trip to the beach.

We started off early, as we are still adjusting to the time zone, and headed out The Rocks for some souvenir shopping. We all pulled out our umbrellas and browsed around the tents. Luckily my Dad packed three umbrellas he found in our garage, unfortunately what he didn't realize was that our family owned an umbrella with an American flag on it :) Once he pulled off the navy blue sleeve we immediately noticed it was no ordinary umbrella and laughed out loud when we saw the bald eagle, American flag, and the quote "Freedom is not Fee" pasted on top. Since the alternative was to get soaking wet, we used it anyway, which means we failed miserably to blend in.

After The Rocks we had a few hours to kill before we needed to start getting ready for the opera. We decided to walk about 2.5 miles to the Power House museum. They had exhibits about space, the 80's, all things nuclear, transportation through the years, industrial design, and they even had an exhibit about people who suffer from vision conditions. We decided to take a cab back since we were all exhausted at this point, and head to a late lunch at a bar around the corner from our hotel.

And then it was time to head to the Opera house which is about a mile from our hotel. The Opera house is beautiful, the opera itself was very neat, but I wouldn't say I'm dying to see another one any time soon. Their voices were incredible, the sets were extremely extravagant, and the orchestra was amazing, but to me, the plot was lacking a bit. According to the subtitles, they just kept repeating the same phrases which made a couple of the arias a little long. By the time it was all over, we crashed pretty hard.

For those of you who have a copy of our itinerary, we rescheduled our Bridge Climb due to the rain. We're going to do it next Sunday instead. Our plan for Sunday is church, maybe an Aquarium or Australian Wildlife exhibition and a late night night showing of Avatar at the IMAX. G'Day for now.

What Happened to February 4th?

We left Indianapolis at 2:30pm Wednesday, February 3^rd, and after 30 hours of traveling, and more specifically after 15 hours on a flight from L.A., we arrived Friday, February 5^th around 9:30am Sydney time (which is 6:30pm on Thursday in Indiana). Our Flight accommodations were incredible! We each had our own space to spread out. Each seat leaned all the way back and had it's own TV with a wide variety of movies. Once we arrived, we grabbed our luggage, which is no easy task with amount of things we brought, and took a cab to our hotel. This was my first experience in a car driving down the opposite site of the road, which is a little disorienting especially when you aren’t sure what day it is.

Sydney basically feels like any American city, but it’s nice to be in the middle of summer on the ocean. Today was a little overcast, and about 80 degrees out. We couldn’t check into our room right away, so we walked around downtown to stretch our legs and get a lay of the land. We got rained on a little, but the warm fresh air was much needed. We made our way over to Opera house and looked out over the harbor. We also wound up purchasing tickets to see an opera tomorrow night – La Traviatta!! This will also be a first for me, and I can’t wait.

Once we checked in, we cleaned up, Little Debbie finally took a nap, Monica and Dad hit the pool/hot tub, and we all freshened up for a night out. We went to an area called The Rocks, which is a similar atmosphere to Broad Ripple only 3x bigger and street vendors everywhere. We ate at a small casual Italian place where I learned that in Australia, “entrée” really means appetizer. We wandered around after dinner, looked at some galleries and took a few pictures of the Opera House and bridge.

It’s only been about 12 hours since we got here, and we’re already having a wonderful time. More adventures coming soon. Have a great Friday, ours was a blast.

Headin' West (or it could be considered East) of Indy

We're getting ready to pack up the car! It all seems pretty surreal at the moment. I'll do my best to post blogs about our adventures, but I'm not really sure how easy internet access will be. We'll miss you all! Have a great two weeks!