Final Days in Australia

We consider our month in Australia something of a taster. We got to see a lot, but there is so much left to look forward to when we come back: Uluru, the outback, Perth, Melbourne, Tasmania... the list goes on and on.

We were given a few more days to explore Sydney when our flight back to Christchurch was cancelled due to snow.

Vivid Sydney

We were lucky to be in Sydney for the annual Vivid Festival. Vivid transforms the Sydney waterfront with a beautiful, musical and, well, vivid display of light installations.

Beauty in Brisbane

Self portrait in cubes

The weather was touch and go in Brisbane, so we spent a bit of time exploring the museums. My first stop was the GOMA, or Gallery of Modern Arts, which is conveniently located in the Southbank area next to the State Library, a Science Museum and the Queensland Art Gallery.

Brisbane

I don't know what it is, but there's something about Brisbane that I really like. Maybe it's the remarkably efficient public transportation system and free museums, or maybe it's just the way the river snakes through the city, making it curvy and beautiful.

Yeppoon & Rocky

Hand feeding the magpies at Tony's house

Just to warn you, every single photo in this post contain animals!

We stopped in Yeppoon again on our way south, to visit Tony and his wife Katie and hopefully do some fishing. Once again, the fishing was cursed and the weather went sour. Despite the rain, Sam and I enjoyed our time at Tony's place. His deck overlooks a small nature reserve and we were visited by lots of different birds. Some of them walked right into the house to look for scraps until Tony's dog Snoop chased them away.

Stanage

This whole "fishing trip" thing didn't really work out. The fish weren't cooperating. There were setbacks or disappointments in Yeppoon, Mackay, and Dingo Beach, so the guys decided to try one last spot, Stanage. From everything we heard, Stanage is a fishing hotspot. A lot of this information said the best fishing was by boat, but other sources said there was plenty to be caught by land fishing as well. Sam and Matt gave it their best, but Stanage was yet another in a long line of fishing letdowns.

That's not to say we didn't have a nice time! Stanage was a very isolated spot to visit, and we had some excellent sightseeing.

Dingo Beach

Dingo Beach was one of our favorite stops in Australia. We weren't originally planning to go there, but we were bored in Airlie Beach and it wasn't too far away. It is off the beaten path and not at all commercial. The long beaches are almost empty, and covered with chunks of coral.

Airlie Beach

From what we hear, Airlie Beach used to be a small, quiet place to sit on the beach beneath a coconut tree and take in the scenery. Now it's a strip mall, mainly an outpost for people heading to the Great Barrier Reef. We passed a few days here while we waited for the weather to improve before our reef cruise, and it was very beautiful on first sight, but without much to keep us interested.

Mackay

We spent our first afternoon in Mackay exploring the beach at low tide. We walked for a few hours, sunk in quicksand up to our calves, found a wheelbarrow rusting in a tidepool and saw about a thousand tiny blue crabs scuttling en masse across the flats.

Sunshine Coast to Yeppoon

After spending a couple days in Sydney, we used our JetStar vouchers to head north to the Sunshine Coast Airport. Sam's friend Matt was nearby and heading north up the coast, so we went along for the ride.

Sydney

We flew in to Sydney and spent a few days there before heading north to the Sunshine Coast Airport.

Lostralia

My apologies for the radio silence, but we've been on a road trip up and down the coast of Australia. I'll do a proper post (or 2, or 10) about this trip once we're settled again, but in the meantime, here is a picture of wild kangaroos. Enjoy.

Putting New Zealand on Standby

On our last night in Nelson, we joined Bill and a few others for a movie night at his house in the hills. Under the supermoon we watched an Australian film, Samson & Delilah, ate homemade mussel fritters and roast veggies courtesy of two of Bill's French helpers, and soaked up the warmth of a glowing bonfire. In fact, the movie has a few bonfires in it, so it had a nice effect.