Sidney and Kimber were in Norway the week prior to our departure, returning from Oslo on Monday. We departed Wednesday, July 25th, so their body clocks were truly confused.
We left from Houston, flying through Los Angeles, Auckland, New Zealand and finally landing in Brisbane. Our initial flight from Auckland to Brisbane was cancelled, so we got put on a flight one hour later from Auckland and were able to watch the sunrise over Big Bay and out through the inlet to the Tasman Sea. We also had a nice breakfast of Butter Chicken Pie and some coffee, and a good breakfast sandwich while waiting. Pies soon became a staple during our trip, but more on them later.
We arrived in Brisbane and stood in the passport queue for over an hour. Mind you, we have now been traveling for over 30 hours, and we have crossed the International Date Line, so it is now the afternoon of July 27th. We were quite tired by this time, but were welcomed by the passport control officer with a friendly "G'Day!" We then collected our bags and took a taxi to pick up the camper van, which took another couple of hours. We went for basic groceries on the way to the caravan park, then got checked in and set up. By the time it was said and done, we had been going for nearly 40 hours. Sidney was quite a trooper.
Day 2 - We started our Australian Adventure at the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary. We had read about this place and the opportunity to "cuddle a koala" and decided it was on the top of the list of things to do. The day began with meeting Sidney's favorite bird, the Peregrine Falcon. This particular bird, named Maverick, is one of the more recent additions to the Sanctuary and is not normally brought out, as he is quite shy, but the handlers did a special favor for Sidney. She loved the opportunity to see him.
We also fed and hung out with kangaroos and wallabies and saw maybe 75 koalas, as well as many other animals. Kimber's favorite was Barak the Platypus (not named after Obama). We hung out and watched his antics for a little while. We also all got to take part in the Koala Cuddle, with each of us having a turn to hold the fuzzy (and smelly) little guy. He was very soft and also weighed more than any of us expected!
We attended a "Birds of Prey" demonstration which included a sea eagle, a wedge-tailed eagle, a tawny frogmouth, barn owls, and several other raptors native to Australia. During the presentation, the handler had one of the birds fly up the rows of the audience to demonstration the flying capabilities in tight quarters and we all literally got buzzed by the bird - actual wingtip contact!
After the park, we started our drive south. We stopped and got the rest of our groceries and learned an important lesson of shopping - go to the butcher shop, bakery and veggie shop first before going to the grocery store. There are usually both located around every grocery store, and there are some really yummy "prepped" items that are more interesting than the stuff at the grocery store.
We drove down the Gold Coast and through Surfer's Paradise on our way south. The area looks like a miniature Miami with the tall buildings and beaches, but is also very crowded. We were surprised, however, to see flying fox bats gliding around in the afternoon.
Our stop for the night was in Pottsville and was very close to the beach, where we watched Olympics and had a nice dinner before turning in.
Day 3 - Kirk got up early to take pictures of the sunrise along the beach in Pottsville. After breakfast, Kimber and Sidney joined him for a walk along the beach for about an hour before heading south to Byron Bay. We originally planned Byron Bay as one of our stops, but fortunately did things a little differently, as there was a huge music festival in Byron Bay. The place was crawling with hippies in VW campers, and there were tents everywhere. We worked our way through the town, then parked about 2 km from the Cape Byron Lighthouse. We walked to the lighthouse along the hiker's trail, seeing three humpback whales and a pod of dolphins as we walked along the high cliffs above the sea. The lighthouse itself was very nice and afforded great views of the area. 
Afterward, we walked back to our camper and had lunch before hitting the road. Along the way through town, we saw a guy riding a bike with a surf board under one arm and another surf board tied to his back. It is a wonder we didn't run off the road we were laughing so much!
We then headed to Coff's Harbour, seeing lots of wild kangaroos, wallabies and kookaburras along the way. When we got to Coff's Harbour, we were in for a treat at the campground, as there was a "bouncy pillow" right beside our campsite. A bouncy pillow is basically an inflated rectangle about 30 feet long and 12 feet wide that kids can bounce on. Sidney bounce until well after dark.
Day 4 - Now one would not have thought the three previous days could be topped. Oh, and at this point everyone is still waking up way early (5:30) this morning. So we went out for breakfast. Kirk had toast with egg and bacon (which is really fried ham). Kimber had a rolled breakfast that had bacon, avocado, spinach, aioli, and tomatoes. It was the best, after Kimber picked the tomatoes out to give Sidney. Sidney had pancakes with ice cream (this was straight off the menu). After our delicious breakfast, we walked to the Pet Porpoise Pool Marine Park. We started by playing with the five dolphins that live there. And by play we mean "get wet playing catch with and rubbing dolphins." Sidney was grinning from ear to ear. This was followed by a kiss from an Australian seal and from one of the dolphins. The seal kiss was fantastic. Only a little moist but soft and whiskery.
Day 5 - We started the day with a drive down the coast a little to the Sea Acres Rainforest Conservation center near Port Macquarie. There were amazing strangle figs and a beautiful mix of palms, trees and other vines. We ate lunch in the parking lot, then headed on. We passed by an unlucky traveller whose travel trailer apparently became detached from their car while in motion. It did not appear to have hit anyone, but was stopped at a rather odd angle in the trees.
Our next stop was the Cassegrain winery. Along the way we passed Rawdon Creek Nature Reserve just south of Port Macquarie. We don't know the source of the name of the reserve, however, Kimber's maiden name was Rawdon and this is a fairly uncommon name so it naturally was of interest to her. Once at the winery, Kimber tried various whites, a rose, and a couple of dessert wines, and Kirk had some reds and desserts. We ended up buying 7 bottles, with the intention that most would make it home. Oh, and Sidney had a white grape juice, but decided not to buy it because it did not have a full enough body and didn't flow well over the tongue (in other words it was too sweet).
We stopped for the night in Forster, which boasts to have the best oysters in Australia. We bought two dozen straight from the farm and which Kirk and Sidney split evenly. They confess the flavor was outstanding. There were also saw lots of pelicans, which are one of Kimber's favorite birds.
It was cooler as we travel south, and the temperatures at night were as low as 40F. While it is nice for sleeping, it did make showers in the camp shower houses a bit cold.
Day 6 - Our first stop of the day was Seal Rocks and the Seal Rocks Lighthouse. We drove down a narrow, wooded road to get to Seal Rocks, but the view suddenly opened up as we went down a steep hill to the open expanse of the sea. Once at the seaside, we had to maneuver the RV down a narrow road with low trees (which we did without incident!) to get to the beach. The waves were huge as they crashed between the rocks, almost giving the appearance that they would certainly be several feet high before getting to the beach, but the bay widened some and the waves settles to a gentle two or three feet.
We walked up to the lighthouse, observing a blowhole along the way. Again, the views were phenomenal. Kirk had considered a stay at one of the keeper's cottages, but it did not work right with our schedule. It was very easy to understand from the way the water foamed as it crashed through the rocks below why the lighthouse was necessary.
We tried to find a national park that was touted to have "the largest moving sand dunes in the Southern Hemisphere", but our GPS lady led us astray. After trying a couple of different places, we gave up and finally headed toward Sydney. There were mountains north of the city, as well as high winds, which made driving our "bus" a bit of a challenge. We also had a bit more trouble with our GPS as we got close to our campground. She led us onto a tollway and back off again, costing us a quick $30 in tolls.
We finally got to our campground, which was located in Lone Cove National Park north of Sydney. There were lots of different birds - kookaburras, parrots, lorikeets, whip birds, and owls. Sidney enjoyed the fact that the lorikeets landed on her arm if she stretched them out and stood still, but standing still for very long presented a bit of a challenge for her. We settled in for the night to watch the Olympics, but couldn't get the channel on our television (more on that in Day 7!)
Day 7 - Our main plan for the day was the Toranga Zoo in Sydney. We took the subway in to Sydney and got off at the stop just before the Harbour Bridge. We got off and walked across the bridge into downtown so we could have a nice "first view" of the Opera House. We then took a ferry to the zoo, taking in more nice views of the city.
We took the subway back to our RV park, where Kirk was able to make an inquiry about television service. The person at reception told him that many RV's have signal boosters that actually cause interference to the television signals when you are in a large city and the television towers are close. He recommended we temporarily disconnect our antenna and use a pair of rabbit ears which he graciously provided! Problem fixed - Olympics back on!
Our next post will include more from Sydney, then Canberra to Melbourne. We hope to have it posted soon!
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