Category: Australia

The last leg of our Oz travels took us to Brisbane and the Queensland area. We weren’t drawn here for any particular tourist sights, but more to see some old friends. We were so lucky to be able to stay with our friend Chris and his family. We met Chris 18 years ago when we were all babies volunteering in Guyana. We didn’t consciously plan for this stop to be at our midway point in our travels, but in hindsight it was a real refresher to be in a family home with a routine, full kitchen, and WASHING MACHINE!

We took their local recommendations for some sightseeing in Brisbane, which has an incredible transit system that includes a Sea Cat with stops all along the impressively developed river area.

One morning Chris took us on an urban mountain walk up to a cafe. We loved hearing the calls and laughing of the kookaburras.

One of the only things on my ‘must do’ list was to go for a run with Chris, and we completed this in spades! I ran my first ParkRun 5km, then the next day did a 15.9km trail race. It was great to connect with the local running community.

We had a day with our friend Trina who moved here with her family 11 years ago. She took us to sites along the Gold Coast, including Surfer’s Paradise and the hinterland area of Tamborine Mountain. Thanks Trina for a fabulous day!

It seems everyone wants to hear about snakes and spiders in Australia, and we can report that we saw 2 different snakes and quite a few huge spiders in our travels here, none of which cared to interact with us.

I’ll leave you with a few pictures of the sights of Brisbane, and a family pic from last night when Chris and Sophiaan planned a birthday celebration for RobO. We hope that one day we can reciprocate the warm hospitality.

We are at the airport, ready for an adventure to a new country… New Zealand!

This week found us on the island of Tasmania, the south eastern island off of mainland Australia. The first order of business was to recall my Scottish lessons of driving on the left hand side of the road. This time there was no stick shift so it would have been a walk in the park. Well, I don’t know if it was just my KIA, or all Australian vehicles, but I immediately found out that the signal light lever and windshield wiper lever are on the opposite sides. As I pulled away from the curb the wipers were awkwardly squealing over the driest pane of glass in the southern hemisphere. This manoeuvre is rumoured to be known as a “Canadian Salute”. I’m glad I can contribute to the stereotype.

Regardless, we were off to Swansea, a small seaside town that had a lot of charm, beautiful beaches and was near Freycinet National Park which is home to Wineglass Bay, which DawnO was excited to hike.

Wineglass Bay was a scenic 4 hour trek that was definitely worth the steps.

We made our way back to Hobart to return our car, but not before I found an iced coffee truck to refuel my weary bones.

We spent a couple of days in the Tasmanian capital, Hobart, and both found we were reminded of Victoria, BC. It is a laidback, artsy city that had a really relaxing vibe to it. Our first night found us at a park where we enjoyed some live music and had our pick of over a dozen local food tents. We even ran into someone we met in Mexico during our day of the dead trip last October. What a small world.

We left Tassie on a jet plane bound for Sydney. Little did we know that it happened to be Australia Day. Imagine our surprise when I looked up “things to do tonight” and a national party was about to be unfolding 3 metro stops away from our hotel.

They were filming a national celebration at the Opera House going out live across the country with bands, aerial displays and fireworks. They even had choreographed water cannons going off in the bay. We were in the middle of it all watching on one of the several big screens they had showing the broadcast. It was quite a spectacle.

The next morning we decided to do a walking tour of the area which included walking across the Sydney Harbour Bridge. In the afternoon, we took a ferry to Manly Wharf which meant would pass by the Opera House and see it from a different angle.

Today was forecasted to be 39 degrees so we decided to head to Bondi beach to soak up the sun and jump in the South Pacific waters.

Tomorrow we head to Brisbane where we will get to reconnect with a friend who volunteered with us way back when we lived in Guyana!

We’ve had just over a week in Melbourne (pronounced ‘Malbun’ here) and have loved every second of it. We stayed just south of the city centre in an hip area called St Kilda. It was great to jog along the beach some mornings and spend an evening enjoying the sunset views from the pier.

Our main reason for coming here at this time was to go to the Australian Open tennis grand slam.

For 4 days we were ‘eat, sleep, tennis, repeat’. For the sake of our aging memories I’ll list the matches that we attended:

• Monday:
  • Tiafoe def. Rinderknech 7-6, 6-3, 4-6, 6-7, 6-3
  • Bencic def. Ostapenko 6-3, 7-6
  • Kostyuk def. Hibino 3-6, 6-3, 6-1
  • Passaro def. Dimitrov 7-5, 2-1 Ret.

• Tuesday:
  • Raducanu def. Alexandrova 7-6, 7-6
  • Monfils def. Mpetshi Perricard 7-6, 6-3, 6-7, 6-7, 6-4
  • Shapovalov def. Bautista Agut 3-6, 6-4, 6-4, 7-6

• Wednesday:
  • Machac def. Opelka 3-6, 7-6, 6-7, 7-6, 6-4
  • Alcaraz def. Nishioka 6-0, 6-1, 6-4
  • Fernandez def. Bucsa 3-6, 6-4, 6-4

• Saturday:
  • Swiatek def. Raducanu 6-1, 6-0
  • de Minaur def. Cerundolo 5-7, 7-6, 6-3, 6-3
  • Svitolina def. Paolini 2-6, 6-4, 6-0 (watched on the screen in the grounds)

Some highlights/stories from our time at the AO:

• We sat right beside the coaching boxes for most of the matches during the first 2 days. It was really interesting to see the interactions between the players and their teams. During the Monfils match we were surrounded by Monfils fans but sitting beside the other guy’s box. At one point his agent had tried to tell a fan to stop cheering so loud which, no surprise, just fuelled the loud fan’s fire.

• We were sooo hot in the direct sun during that 5 hour match but couldn’t bear to miss any of it. Eventually we snagged 1 seat in the shade and traded spots every few games to get some relief.
• We sat behind some Raducanu superfans who wore shirts spelling out the letters of her name. Seeing their rollercoaster of emotions during the close match was very entertaining.

In between the tennis action we took a day tour to the Great Ocean Road. The morning started out overcast but burned off for beautiful blue skies.

We were lucky to see koalas and kangaroos in the wild.

In the afternoon the road hugged the coastline which was featured in the movie Point Break.

One afternoon we followed a walking tour of the downtown core and saw all of their historic arcade shopping areas. It is true that the coffee culture in Melbourne is on point. We finished the afternoon (of course) watching more tennis at a downtown big screen.

Today we met a friend of our friend Messele from home. Tebeje and Messele organize a grassroots charity that funds Ethiopian children to go to school. We love hearing about their work and love that 100% of the money goes to the cause. If you are looking for a spot to give a meaningful donation we can connect you. Tebeje showed us around an Ethiopian Epiphany festival and treated us to lunch and coffee. It was so nice to meet him and hear more about the city from a local.

Now we’re having a couple of relaxed days in a flat with a pool before we head south to Tasmania. No doubt we’ll continue to be looking at tennis updates along the way. After this immersion we are sure ready for our Med Hat tennis season to start up!