The Styches' Whirlwind Tour of Australia

Finally!  Here is my super belated post about our three fun-filled weeks with Alex’s parents.  We kept busy traversing the country, squeezing in as much as we could while they were here.  It was a wonderful adventure; we had a great time showing them around Australia and Alex & I even got to see a few new places along the way. 

The fun started in Melbourne where we were all fresh and eager to see the sights.  We wandered around downtown for several days visiting the Eureka Skydeck for its unrivaled views of the city, Victoria Markets for their amazing selection of products and produce, and the city laneways to experience the café culture for which Melbourne is famous.

 

From there we rented a car and set out on the Great Ocean Road.  Along the drive we hit Bells Beach to see surfers riding huge waves (in freezing water on a chilly day – seriously, these people were crazy, you couldn’t have paid me to get in that water), stopped at the famous Twelve Apostles rock formation, and enjoyed the brief moments of beautiful scenery when the, misleadingly named, Great Ocean Road actually ran along the ocean (the majority of the road was inland and ocean views were sporadic and not as plentiful as any of us had hoped). 

After the GOR, we continued driving west and caught the ferry to Kangaroo Island, an hour and a half south of Adelaide.  We were all excited for the Styche parents’ first taste of Australian wildlife so we set out on what the lady at the info center referred to as ‘the best walk in South Australia’.  It was perhaps a bit ambitious, and I will concede that the walk was more of a hike, but we had no idea of this when we started.  We all survived, but some of us, I won’t name names, fared better than others, and Mr & Mrs Styche would have you believe we tried to kill them off.  Here is a photo of the gorgeous beach at the end of the hike and one of Mrs Styche with Alex before the walk took a turn for the worse.

After our morning excursion, we headed towards the coast to see Admirals Arch and the Remarkable Rocks.  At the Arch, the fur seals and the flies were the more notable attractions.  The seals were so cute sunning themselves on the rocks and frolicking in a shallow pool and we spent the better part of an hour just checking them out. 

On our way back to the carpark the flies were horrendous, leading to this awesome photo.  Alex was trying to avoid them by closing his hoodie as far as he could and Mr. Styche was ninja swatting the flies out of the air.  The Styche craziness was just beginning (and little did I know, it was contagious!). 

The next day, after an awesome night at the most quaint, out of the way cottage that Mrs. Styche found, we set out to see sea lions at Seal Bay.  The sea lions that live on this beach can only be found on KI and are incredibly protected.  We were able to walk onto the beach, with our guide, and get very close to the hundreds of them that were sunning themselves that day.  We learned that they spend three straight days at sea diving repeatedly for food then come back to the beach for three days to feed their pups and save energy before setting out and doing it all over again.  During our hour on the beach, several mama sea lions came in from sea and were greeted by their pups.  And one little pup, who was adorable and reminded me of a puppy, kept going to the water’s edge every time a new sea lion came in only to be disappointed over and over again then decided to follow our group back up to the boardwalk.  It was an amazing experience, and one that we’ll get to do again with my Mom and cousin while they’re here!

We were all pretty busted from our Great Ocean Road drive and Kangaroo Island excursions by the time we reached Adelaide so we didn’t get up to too much the day and half we had there.  But we did take the Styche parents to the Rundle Street Mall, for a photo with the pig statues that I love, and the Botanic Garden for Mr. Styche to enjoy their beautiful rose garden, which was in full bloom.

Clare and Barossa Valleys were next up and we had a wonderful time in both.  In Clare we visited many of the same vineyards that Alex and I found on our first trip to town and Mrs. Styche booked us to stay at the Skillogalee winery, which was a treat as it had the most beautiful gardens and terrace. 

In Barossa we visited Seppeltsfield, Penfolds (Ron we were thinking of you!), Wolf Blass, Peter Lehmann and Rockford wineries.  All of them were interesting in their own way but Rockford was my favorite – it was housed in a gorgeous old stone building and they produce wine the way they would have back in the 1800s.  All hand-picked, hand pressed grapes and you could taste the care that was put into the wine.  It was amazing but they don’t distribute in the US yet so you guys are going to have to wait before you’ll get the chance to sample it (or travel over and visit us sometime before this trip is done). 

After Barossa we drove back to Adelaide to catch our flight to Brisbane.  Brisbane wasn’t to be our final stop that day though, we picked up a car at the airport and drove four hours to catch the ferry to Fraser Island (yeah, Mrs. Styche planned an awesome, but hectic, itinerary).  Fraser Island in the largest sand island in the world and you can only get around it in four wheel drive SUVs on craaaazzzyyy one lane sand roads.  Inland the speed limit is 30km/hr (though you rarely go that fast because you’re bouncing around hoping the car doesn’t fall apart) but on the beach you can go 80km/hr (it is more like a highway than a beach because no one swims off Fraser Island due to the rip currents, jellyfish and sharks that all pose serious risks – there were even planes taking off and landing on the beach). 

 

The first few kms of the ride were the roughest and had us wondering how badly we really wanted to explore the island…

But Alex was a rockstar behind the wheel and he chauffeured us to all the sites; Lake McKenzie, with its beautiful clear water, Eli Creek & the Mahenko wreck (where the Styche craziness rubbed off on me a bit).

Besides sand, the island is also famous for its dingoes.  They were everywhere and weren’t afraid of people.  One even followed our car from the lake 10kms before giving up on us losing any food from the car for it to scavenge. 

 

By the time we reached Brisbane, Alex & I needed a day to catch up on emails and outside life (though I totally failed to get any new post up on my blog after spending more than four hours responding to a backlog of emails) so we chilled at the hotel while Mama & Papa (M&P) Styche explored the city.  The next morning, on our way to Surfers Paradise, we went and visited Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary where the Styche parents both got to hold a koala and pet kangaroos.  It was really cool for them, and us, to be so up close and personal with Aussie ‘wild’life. 

 

 

Surfers Paradise was a brief, relaxing stop on our way to Sydney.  We didn’t do too much there besides enjoy the beach so a highlight was definitely when Mr. Styche met the Gold Coast Meter Maids.  The Meter Maids are famous in Surfers because they are city-sponsored girls who walk around and feed any empty parking meters so people don’t get tickets.  I would try and describe them to you but I think this photo is worth a thousand words ;)

Last, but certainly not least, was Sydney.  We had five days in the city and everybody made the most of it.  We walked around the Opera House and saw a live performance, M&P Styche went on a sunset harbor cruise, we explored Darling Harbour, The Rocks, Bondi Beach & the Botanic Gardens plus we ate a number of amazing meals (the last Alex & I will probably have for a while). 

Mr. & Mrs. Styche took great care of us and didn’t let us want for anything while they were here; we were well fed, given tons of hugs and spoiled with nice hotels.  So we figured the least we could do is provide them with one nice surprise during their visit, and it came in the form of dinner with the Blakes.  As you may recall, Mr. Styche & Mr. Blake were roommates back in London back in the waning days of their bachelorhood, and we met the Blakes while we were in Perth, where they live.  Unfortunately, the Styches’ didn’t have time to get all the way to Perth while they were in Australia so the Blakes flew to Sydney to join us an evening – which was incredibly awesome of them.  Despite being terrible with secrets, Alex & I both managed not to keep dinner with the Blakes under wraps until we ‘casually’ bumped into them outside of Starbucks in Darling Harbour.  I think Mr. & Mrs. Styche were genuinely surprised and had a wonderful time catching up with their old friends.  Here’s a photo of them at dinner in Darling Harbour.    

Like all good things, our fun with the Styches’ had to come to an end.  It is crazy how fast three weeks flew by but we had a great time and can only hope they had as much fun as we did (and that we didn’t scare them too much with our weirdness, remember we haven’t been around other people for like seven months!!).  …Mom & Becca, consider that your warning ;)

We're Still Alive

I know I've been MIA on the blog for almost a month now (seriously, time is flying by so quickly?!) so I wanted to post and let you guys know we're still alive over here.  The past few weeks have been a whirlwind - the Styches were here for three amazing weeks, during which we traveled all over southern Australia, and now we're in New Zealand for a short two week adventure (which is absolutely incredible) before heading back to Sydney to meet my Mom and cousin for another crazy family trip...

I have funny stories from the Styche visit and stunning photos from New Zealand to share but no time, or internet bandwith, to get a full post up right now.  We fly to the north island of NZ on Monday and I'm going to try to get a belated post up while we're in the Auckland YHA.  Until then, know we're having a wonderful time and miss everyone back home!

Another Road Trip?! You know it!

I know I’m posting rapid fire today but I figured it was better than doing just one and having it be the longest post ever.  I had two full days on the train with no reading material so I had plenty of time on my hands to regale you with tales from our most recent travels.  Alex got a new IT book that he can’t stop reading (I’m proud of him for doing something constructive while we’re here, but seriously, I don’t think I could handle hearing one more ‘interesting’ fact about subnetworking) and there’s only so many hands of cards we can play (esp. since Alex is an ungracious winner, to put it nicely, and lately it seems like he always wins) so I was able to get caught up on everything.

After Perth, we still had ten days to kill before Mr. & Mrs. Styche arrived for their visit so, rather than go back east, we decided to rent a campervan and head up the west coast.  It was a spur of the moment decision we made after hearing yet another rave review about Ningaloo Marine Park.  We knew we probably wouldn’t make it back over to Western Australia so we figured we’d better check it out while we were here.

Our campervan rental was actually a campervan this time and it was quite spacious.  It was a little bit harder to drive (and, shockingly, Alex actually let me drive a bit this trip) but at night it was great not to be smushed into the back of a cramped truck.  Here’s Alex, caught snacking before dinner, in our accommodations for the week.

 

We’d read several west coast itineraries so we had a fairly good idea of everything we wanted to see on our road trip.  Our first stop was Kalbarri National Park, where we planned to check out a rock formation they call ‘nature’s window’ but first we made our way along the coastal cliffs, which were quite scenic.

The flies were insane, there were so many and they all seemed to hover around our face, so we made a hasty stop along the coast before cruising through town on our way to the national park.  Nothing we’d read mentioned anything about the actual town so we were surprised at how idyllic it was.  This is the view across from main street in downtown. 

When we got out to the national park we were surprised to learn that the road to everything we’d come to see was an unpaved dirt track, not unlike the one we barely survived on our way to Kings Canyon.  Now I promised you last time we took a road trip that we weren’t going off roading anymore and you’ll be proud to know that we did not.  Seriously, we took our 100+ km detour in stride and kept on driving!

Shell Beach was next up, though it was quite a bit farther north so we didn’t make it there until the following afternoon.  It looks like just another gorgeous Australian beach but the entire beach is made up of small shells not sand.  It was very cool (though not so nice to walk on).

 

From there we continued on to Monkey Mia in Shark Bay.  Shark Bay and Monkey Mia are deceptively named since we didn’t see sharks or monkeys and the place is home to a dolphin resort.  And it was awesome!  We got there just before sunset and ran down to the beach with a bottle of wine to unwind from our two non-stop days of driving (well, riding mostly for me but you know what I mean). 

While we were sitting off, I spotted these wild dolphins swimming around the harbor just off the beach.

The next morning we got up to experience the dolphins first hand.  Every day, the resort (I say resort but it was more like a campground with a pool and a few cabins) has several wild dolphin feedings and you can go into the water and they swim right up to you (though, like a strip club, no touching is allowed). 

They know all the dolphins by the marks on their fins and they feed them each a specifically limited amount of fish to ensure they still hunt naturally. 

 

 

The dolphins seem to be as keen on this ritual as all the people who flock to the beach everyday to participate.

After enjoying our time with the dolphins, we got back in the car and continued on to Coral Bay, in the Ningaloo Marine Park.  We drove north for a few hours before turning off and spending another hour on a narrow paved road, in what looked like the middle of the desert, then we went over a hill and boom, there it was.  The town was small, consisting of only a beach, two campgrounds, one small resort and an even smaller shopping center; it was immediately clear what the main attraction was.  Our campground was right across the road from the beach so, excited to finally have reached our destination, we went there straightaway and were amazed by how clear the water was.

What makes Ningaloo so special is that you can just walk into the water from the beach with a mask and snorkel and see gorgeous fields of coral.  The color was more muted than the Great Barrier Reef but the coral was much, much larger and more intact.  The water was cold and we got there too late to rent equipment so we decided to go on a kayak/snorkel tour out to the edge of the coral reef the next morning.

Our guide, Corey, was cool and he led us, along with two other couples, on our outing. 

Visibility was 40 meters so it was like being in a giant fish bowl and we saw colorful fish, a reef shark and a cute turtle.  (These are stock photos of Ningaloo from the disc we bought, but they capture what it looked like and what we saw.  Did you notice the shark in the first photo?  Once I figure out how to turn GoPro video into a still photo - which our guide assured me was possible - I'll put up a few more photos from our snorkel).

My favorite part was just the vastness of the coral.  In the GBR, you have bommies of coral sprouting out of the sand that you can swim around and, in some places there are a bunch of them together, but here the ocean floor was just covered in coral, everywhere you looked, for a depth of three to five meters in some places.  The stag horn coral was massive compared to anything we’d seen on the east coast and they had these big pieces of coral that looked like lettuce that grew to more than six feet in diameter.

After our tour, we had a quick lunch then jumped back in the water to see more coral.  We were like little kids swimming around pointing things out to each other excitedly.  I saw a black tip reef shark but it swam off into the distance before I could swim over to Alex to get his attention.  We’d been out there nearly an hour, drifting with the current back to the beach, when Alex pointed out that we had one zebra fish that had been following us the whole time.  I’m not sure what the little guy expected from us but he tailed us the entire way to the other end of the beach until we got out of the water.

The next morning we went out one last time before we had to get in the campervan for the drive back to Perth.  We stayed out there until we were shivering and I couldn’t take it anymore; both of us sad to have to leave such a wonderous place. 

On our way back we passed over this massive, dry riverbed.  It was totally dry on our way up so it must have rained a bit while we were in Coral Bay.  (I will add that this is what most riverbeds looked like in the Northern Territory and Western Australia.)

 

I’ve mentioned road trains in the past and WA was no exception.  Except this time we passed the biggest road train we’d ever seen, it took up both lanes and had its own police escort!

Another sight I am excited to share with you is the famous horizontal trees in Greenlough.   The constant strong southerly winds ‘burn off’ the growth on one side and the weak trunk is unable to support the tree so they tip over and then continue growing sideways.  All the trees in the area had a distinct lean, though only the gum trees appeared to actually tip over and grow horizontally. 

Our trip was wearing on at this point and Alex had had enough (maybe if he’d have shared the driving more evenly – I drove 2 km, literally just 2 km, that day – he wouldn’t have been so cranky).  As you can see here, by this point he was less than impressed with me asking him to stop so I could take photos.

After stopping at our favorite local wineries along the way to pick up a few bottles, we spent our last night in the campervan in Swan Valley.  It was a good end to another good trip and we made it back to Perth safely the following afternoon.  We then had the evening to relax before we got on the train the next morning for our last train trip, the fun two-day ride back to Adelaide.  This train ride was more sociable with lots of fun people to chat with as we rode along and the time went by quickly with Alex studying and me catching up on posts. 

We’re now back in Adelaide for three nights before flying to Melbourne on Monday to meet the Styches at the airport.  Mrs. Styche has a rigorous itinerary planned for the next three weeks (with stops in Melbourne, Kangaroo Island, Adelaide, Barossa Valley, Clare Valley, Frazer Island, Brisbane, Surfers Paradise and Sydney) so I am not sure when I’ll be able to update you guys on all the fun we’re having but I’m going to try not to get so far behind again.