Day 21 - The Blue Mountains and Katoomba

March 7th – The Blue Mountains & Katoomba This morning we all woke up and ventured to The Blue Mountains – the whole crew went including Carolyn, Julia, Mitchell, & Anthony – as this was going to be our last day on vacation (sob). The Blue Mountains are about 1 ½ hours west of Sydney. We started our tour by visiting Echo Point in Katoomba. Here we could see great views of the Three Sisters and across the Jamison Valley. We did the “bushwalk” to the base of the Three Sisters – very steep stairs but beautiful view! Here are some pictures from both vantage points.

We then had a wonderful picnic compliments of Carolyn and headed over to Scenic World where we took the steepest incline railway in the world down to the rainforest floor. It was a 415 meter descent straight down through a cliff side tunnel (the coal miners built this railway back in the day but now it is used for tourists). Below is one of my favorite pictures – we were about to take the railway down - you can just barely see Anthony’s eyes but you can tell he is excited/scared! Here is also a picture on the way down – you can kind of tell how steep the incline is. And finally a picture of the boys on a model of the railway at the bottom.

We then walked about 2 km through the ancient rainforest and took the cableway back up to the top. At the bottom we learned a lot about the coal miners who mined the area - very tough life and a lot of deaths.

Great scenery and bushwalking – if you have time I definitely suggest going to the Blue Mountains! You can even get there by train from Sydney if you don’t want to rent a car.

Our day ended with a home cooked meal compliments of Peter – I am so upset we are leaving tomorrow –I can’t believe the 3 weeks ended so soon! Tomorrow we head home on the flight schedule from hell! We fly 10 hours from Sydney to Seoul, spend the night in Seoul, fly 12 hours to Seattle, have an 11 hour layover in Seattle, fly to JFK, then finally fly home to Raleigh where we will get home around noon on Monday March 10th. We hope to change this so stay tuned!

Day 11 - China Town, Darling Harbor, Arrival into Cairns

Today we are flying to Cairns (pronounced CANS) for a 3 day diving cruise on the Great Barrier Reef. Prior to our departure, Carolyn, Julia and Anthony took us back into Sydney to China Town and Darling Harbor for some more sight seeing and lunch. We road on the Monorail which Carolyn says was basically built for the “terrorists” as there is really no reason for it.  It was fun to see the city from that view point though! Well we have officially logged 8 days in Sydney. Based on several responses from local Aussies, we have done an amazing amount of sight seeing during our time here. We can not thank Julia, Carolyn and Peter enough for their gracious hospitality and expertise.

We flew Virgin Blue Airlines to Cairns (a domestic flight obviously) but b/c of this they had different rules about luggage – specifically the weight of our luggage. We flew over here with two rolling pieces and two duffel bags – the duffel bags had our dive gear as well as gifts – the rolling pieces were for our clothes and stuff. We kind of knew about the weight restriction so Nathan and I shed as much as we could part with into the duffel that had the gifts in it (now empty) and left it at Carolyn’s as we are flying back threw Sydney before going home. (Yes we were able to fill the extra duffel bag completely and still I was worried all morning that the other bags would be too heavy – I swear our stuff has multiplied!) I was worried b/c I heard they were very strict on weight – and rightfully so – when we got to the check-in and find out that the limit was 20 kilos per person (not bag as we had thought) – we were OVER by 21 kilos!!!! Thank god the two people behind the counter were women and Nathan was able to use his amazing southern charm and wit to talk the women into letting it pass (jokes about his wife’s shoe addiction, all her shopping, and inability to pack lightly, blah, blah, blah) actually worked and we didn’t have to pay a dime!!! I don’t know how he did it - but boy were we lucky! (Sidenote – I just want to say to defend myself that the 21 kilos over was basically the dive equipment and had nothing to do with my luggage or shoes thank you very much!) We arrived into Cairns on Monday evening whereby we took a taxi to the hotel.

Views from our hotel room in Cairns, Australia





We will spend the night in the hotel prior to our Tuesday AM departure on our 3 day cruise. Since we will be out in the middle of the ocean for the next 3 days, we will not be able to post our next blog until Friday, but I promise to tell you all about it when we have our first internet connection! Definitely check back – we have been told there might be “killer jellyfish” on the reef and Nathan hopes we see some big sharks! (Last note for the day – we would have had pictures for you from our adventures today BUT Nathan DELETED them all as well as most of the beautiful pictures I took from the wedding last night!@%@&! Needless to say he is not allowed to touch my camera ANY MORE!!!!!)

Day 10 - Darling Harbor, Gift Fair and Wedding Ceremony

Happy Birthday KIRK D (Kristen)

This morning we woke up and went down to Darling Harbor for the Australian Gift Fair. What a bonus – we can write off a portion of our trip as I made a couple contacts with some Australian gift manufacturers. Here is the proof we were here


After market, Carolyn, Julia, Mandy and I strolled through Darling Harbor admiring the water, architecture and large number of tourists (Carolyn calls them terrorists ). We concluded with some lunch and shopping in the harbor.

Later in the evening, we headed out to Gladesville to the “Banjo Patterson House” for Andy & Josie’s wedding. Upon arrival, Mandy was informed that she would be responsible for coordinating pictures. Later we found out that Mandy was chosen for this task for her assertiveness and “soldier like” behaviors (and most of those people have only known her for a couple days). Say it Ain’t So!!!

The wedding ceremony and cocktail hour were held outside overlooking the beautiful harbor. After pictures, Jim (father of the bride) personally welcomed each and every guest before welcoming the guests into the house for a spectacular dinner, toasts, cutting of the cake and a little late night dancing. The celebration ended around midnight.

Here we are with the bride (Josie) and groom (Andy). Congratulations and Best Wishes to you both.

Day 7, 8 & 9 - Wild Past Couple of Days

Sorry everybody – the last couple of days have been a little crazy! So I left off at the Hen’s Party on Thursday night the 21st. The Hen’s Party was in Balmain and had a 50’s Grease theme (hence the scarf around my neck – hey it was the best I could do – I found out about the theme on the night before I left at midnight!) (The Bucks started at the Victoria Room in Darlinghurst but that is the most I got out of Nathan so I have no more info about them.) Anyway, we started out with dance lessons at the Pub then we played some games and finally on to drinking and more drinking and then drinking some more. I learned a valuable lesson on Thursday night which was a girl from South Georgia (Albany no less) can NOT out drink a Kiwi!!!! Piki, sister in law of the bride, must have bought 6 rounds of tequila and other shots, on top of the champagne, wine, cosmos, and beer we had that night! We finished at The Empire Room in Kings Cross but I honestly can’t tell you a lot of details b/c I can’t remember –all a blur!

Josie (the bride and me at the hen’s night)


Piki (the Kiwi and cause of my MAJOR “Headache”) and Mandy


The reason for our headaches! All the girl’s were feeling REALLY bad on Friday!

Hence why I couldn’t blog yesterday b/c I was in recovery until around 6pm. But of course since I am married to the least sympathetic man on the planet (god bless him) I “boned up” and got out of bed at noon – went to McDonald’s and then we all went to see the Sydney Olympic Park. The Olympic Park was amazing b/c Sydney didn’t have any of the facilities they would need for the Olympics so they built everything for the event. So all the buildings including the stadium, pool, village, etc were built within walking distance of each other -great concept that couldn’t be done in most cities b/c they wouldn’t have that much land available in one place - but surprisingly Sydney did! Unfortunately I was very sick and couldn’t really enjoy itL! I blame Piki (the New Zealander) for my awful headache and when I see her at the Rehearsal Dinner I will let her know!

Nathan outside the main stadium at Olympic Park

Sydney did some really cool things at the Olympic park including naming all the previous sites – here we are posing with Atlanta.

I (barely) pulled myself together for the Rehearsal Dinner at the Woolwich Pier Hotel, but I’m glad I did. The views were unbelievable. We had an early night though and went home by 10 pm to have a good night sleep.

View from the balcony at Woolwich Pier Hotel

So we woke up this morning and drove down to the Paddington Market – what a wonderful time! I HIGHLY recommend this to anyone traveling to Sydney – it only happens on Saturdays from 10 – 6 and has wonderful artists, jewelers, and clothing vendors. I am so glad we woke up early to go! We went from there to the Bolmain Bowling Club to meet the bride, groom, and other wedding attendees. The “bowling” game was cool and nothing I had played before. Great beer drinking and bonding activity. – oh and I beat the pants off Nathan as I am a very good bowler!

Our party of bowlers.

Carolyn picked us up from bowling (the hostesses with the mostess for sure) then we got hher Mum and we all went back to Carolyn’s for a barbeque. We grilled lamb and the most wonderful sausages I have ever eaten. We also had a fabulous dessert called Pavlova – I would make it for you guys when I get back but it sounds WAY too complicated! We had a nice relaxing dinner and now I am going to bed before 3 am – thank goodness! Tomorrow we are off to the Australian Gift Fair (so we can write off this tripJ) and to the wedding! Good Night and Rest in Peace!:)

Anthony, Peter, Julia, Mandy, and Mum

Nathan the mean griller! (Yes that is water he is pouring on the grill – don’t ask)

Day 4 - Featherdale Zoo and North Sydney Beach

We started out today at Featherdale Wildlife Park. I will have to admit that when we were in the States and Julia suggested this over Taronga Zoo I was a little worried. Taronga is in EVERY book about Sydney in the Top 10 places to see. Julia suggested Featherdale b/c it is only Aussie animals as opposed to Taronga which is like a normal zoo – zebras, giraffes, elephants, etc. Also, she said Taronga Zoo is great if you have a whole day, but when time is limited Featherdale is great! HERE IS MY POINT (yes I have one) if you are going to Sydney and are on a time schedule Featherdale was amazing! The animals weren’t really in cages so you could walk right up to them (except for the dangerous ones like tazmanian devils, wombats, and crocs – of course). We got to feed kangaroos, pet koalas, and see the most beautiful birds. The park attendants were very friendly and one even climbed into a cage for us to get a blue tongued lizard so we could see it up close (that picture is for you Ellen!)

In the afternoon, we met up with the rest of the family (Julia took Mitchell out of school and Peter knocked off early) to drive down to the Northern Beaches from Mona Vale to Palm Beach. I can’t even name all the beaches and lookouts we went too – Peter and Julia really went out of their way to show us these amazing views. I know we wouldn’t have been able to see all this without their hospitality – and it was such a beautiful drive. The one cool think that Australia does that I think other places should do are the pools –they have built “pools” on the side of the beach that fill up with ocean water during high tide (there is a drain as well so the water is always being recycled). This is cool b/c you can swim “in the ocean” and not have to worry about being taken out to sea – the water is pretty rough and they told us there are a lot of rip tides. You also don’t have to worry about the sharks! After some time at Palm Beach, we went back to Mona Vale and got fish n chips at their favorite place and took it to a park near Pat’s place (Peter’s mum). We had a relaxing dinner then the boys played some ball and we had a last walk on the beach. What a fantastic day!