Sydney Harbour

Crikey! What a trip we had to Australia! We decimated our yearly holiday allowances to take a solid three weeks to explore a small piece of the huge continent. We teamed up with our usual traveling family, the Boys, for some adventures down under; Tim’s family (parents, sisters) live in Australia and so Wendy and Tim had already planned on making the trip in early 2018, and we tagged along, as did Jenn’s folks!

We had a long way to go, we weren’t sure how the kids (or us!) would handle the travel. Bermuda to New York, to L.A., to Sydney took us basically 24 hours of actual in-air flying time (2.5 + 6 + 15 hour legs!), plus layovers. With the time changes (Sydney was 14 hours ahead of Bermuda at the time), we ultimately left Bermuda on a Saturday early afternoon and arrived in Sydney first thing on Monday morning. The flights went very well, thanks to comfy clothes, iPads, Fly Tots, and a nice plane (Boeing 787 Dreamliner) for the long-haul from L.A. to Sydney!

The plan was to set up in Bribie Island for the lion’s (croc’s?) share of the trip (home to Tim’s parents, Diane & John). We’d use the small town as home base and head out on various day trips and adventures from there. We could hardly miss out on visiting Sydney during our first trip to Australia, however, and as the bustling city is about 1,000km south of Bribie (not exactly a ‘day trip’) we decided that we would fly there first and then road-trip it up to Bribie!

Sydney was pretty awesome – we could have stayed for much longer than the few days we were there, lots to see and do! Peter and Helen had been there for a few days before we arrived, so they had a chance to set up at the AirBNB and scope out the nearby amenities. We hit the ground walking after arriving Monday morning, taking a stroll down to nearby Darling Harbour for lunch, then we jumped on a ferry for a closer look at the Sydney Harbour Bridge and Opera House. We didn’t take the time to go into the Opera House, unfortunately, but a walk over the bridge later offered a pretty majestic vista of the building set in the cityscape. After a morning park excursion the next day, we took in the kid-approved Powerhouse Museum, then caught a surfboard-friendly bus over to the iconic Bondi Beach for our first taste of the amazing Aussie beaches (although the water was a bit cool for our liking…! 😉 ). That was all for us in Sydney, however… our brief introduction was amazing (we’ll be back!), but it was time to hit the pavement… road trip!!

Road Trippers!

After filling our bellies at the highly-recommended Bill’s for breakfast (though I was still a bit full of my Kangaroo dinner from the evening before…mmm!), we headed west out of the city to start our somewhat meandering 1,200km / 15 hour journey that would eventually get us north to Bribie. To avoid a marathon driving session, we stretched it out over a period of about four days to enjoy some sights along the way. The first day, we went west to the Blue Mountains to enjoy the aptly-named Scenic World and the Three Sisters mountain; we later overnighted in a fake Fairmont hotel that reminded me a bit of the hotel in the Shining…! Having survived the night, we headed north through the Aussie wine country known as Hunter Valley, where those not driving (or underage!) did a little tasting and filling up the remaining space in the minivan with wine of all varieties (thank goodness each of us only had a small suitcase each, unprecedented for the Wilsons!). Diane and John were kind to set us up with their friends (John & Nola) in Dunbogan, where we spent the night and the first half of the next day; we searched for wild Kangaroos (found some at a nearby campground, along with a Monitor lizard!) and enjoyed the spectacular beach across the street from their house. The low-light of our road trip, however, came that evening – Good Friday – when we arrived in Bellina and comically discovered nothing was open and were forced to eat McDonalds for dinner in our less-than-ideal motor inn room (complete with a jacuzzi tub in the bedroom… classy)! We made up for it in Byron Bay on the following (and final) day of our road trip, where the kids found their first of several skate parks of the holiday (good thing we brought their scooters across the world!), we had a lovely breakfast at Folk, some beach time at Byron Bay beach, a taco or two from Chihuahua, and finally the last push on the highway through Brisbane and into Bribie, arriving in time for dinner with all the Oxenfords (including Tim’s sisters), which was of course a ‘line of pizzas’, the official first-night dinner of every Oxenford-Boys-Wilson vacation! We really enjoyed the drive, plus I’m happy to report that the kids (and grandparents) were very well behaved. 😉

The next morning, Easter Sunday, I found myself down at the beach before sunrise – maybe still a bit of jet lag contributing to the early rise but I think it was more that it’s just easier to get out of bed when you don’t have to go to work, you know? That coupled with the fact that we were staying a mere 2 min walk to the beach! I was eventually joined by the family and we hung out there for most of the morning, which became something of a ritual for the remainder of our vacation. Other things that also became the norm while in Bribie: wonderful meals and cocktails at the Oxenfords (Jenn has become somewhat enamoured with Gin, thanks to Tim’s sister Cassie and her awesome bartending skills!), trips to the nearby skate park with the three kids, and chillin’ like a villain. Vacation is good.

Kangaroo tracks

Ruby!

So, I had mentioned it was Easter Sunday – apparently in Australia, as the kids discovered the following morning after returning from the beach, Easter is actually celebrated on Easter Monday instead…! Who knew? The kids were happy to find little footprints on the floor, and each of them had received a basket with all sorts of chocolate goodies, including an Easter Bilby (Australia’s answer to a bunny)! Whew – didn’t miss out on Easter after all.

After Easter, we went on the first of our adventures since arriving in Bribie to the Lone Pine Koala sanctuary, we were all pretty excited to check out the Koalas and all the other Australian animals. Beyond petting a koala or two, there were lots of kangaroos and wallabies that were happy to be petted and fed by hand in their enclosure, which the kids loved. The sheep dog show was amazing, and there were plenty of other cool animals throughout the park, too. I’m pretty sure the koalas were the favorite of the day, though!

The day preceding our next adventure was a chill one for the guys and kids – we did a little ‘guerrilla planting’ of some new trees / plants on some public land adjacent to the Oxenfords. In the meantime, the ladies took the day to venture to a few surrounding areas to hit some local markets and shops, including the Eumundi market, the Ginger factory, and a local woodworking shop, a fave of Tim’s mom Diane, the pack leader for the day! After dinner, Jenn and the kids and I hopped in the van to take a little drive to the home of this year’s Commonwealth Games, Gold Coast.

It was mere coincidence that the Games were on while we were in Australia, but Jenn thought it best to take advantage of the opportunity and she scored tickets to the triathlon events before we left Bermuda. We all enjoyed our little side-trip, we hung out with a few fellow Bermudians while cheering on Bermuda’s national hero Flora Duffy en route to her gold medal, took in a few sights in the ocean side city, and were back in Bribie within a few days.

Future TMNT member

We returned to Bribie on Friday, which happened to be Peter & Helen’s anniversary, and it was the day before they were set to leave – we arrived to a party / open house in full swing at the Oxenfords! So, we did a little day-drinking before a fantastic meal at the Bribie Island Surf Club (one of our only meals out while in Bribie!). They were off the next day to Perth to catch up with some of Peter’s family – sans the rest of us. We had a nice relaxing morning the following day as resumed our beach routine before the girls accompanied them to the airport and went to do a little shopping. The kids and dads stayed behind with Diane as she put on her ‘turtle lady’ hat and brought us to the beach.

Diane is known around Bribie (and maybe beyond!) as the ‘turtle lady’ as she is responsible for the safeguarding and tracking of the seasonal loggerhead turtle egg-laying and hatching along the local beach. She is certified each year to lead the effort, and she does a mighty fine job with it, as we can attest! Anyway, the afternoon the girls were doing the airport run, Diane took the rest of us down to the beach as a nest she was tracking had some hatchlings run overnight and she has to check the next to make sure they all get out and do a count of the eggs. Sure enough, after we arrived to the nest site, Diane dug down and found a few stragglers that needed minor assistance to start their journey to the sea and beyond! It was a simple thing, but still so amazing and and undoubtedly a rare experience to witness these hatchlings drag themselves to the ocean and battle the waves with their tiny fins to begin their lives in the ocean. We were lucky to be in the right place at the right time! Jenn and Wendy were able to see this for themselves a few evenings later when we were twice lucky and were able to witness a few more hatchlings from another nest do the same thing. Ahh-mazing.

As the vacation days were slipping by, we kept ourselves busy on Sunday nearly getting hit by a tree at the local open-air market (ok, we saw it happen but weren’t too close), got our education on at the Seaside Museum, had some lunch at the local art center, and went looking for some soldier crabs (to no avail, little buggers). We finished the afternoon with some ice cream and closed out our last weekend in Australia with yet another fine meal and a beer / wine or two.

the Oxenford-Wilson crew

With another relaxing weekend in the books, we started our final week of vacation at the Australia Zoo on Monday and had a day full of animal fun! Steve Irwin did it up right, the zoo was amazing. Saw an amazing show with some pretty cool birds and a giant croc at the Crocoseum, we got to feed a giraffe up close, Wendy took a wombat for a walk (yes, this is something you can do), and of course a few more kangaroos needed some feeding!

The next few days we were in chill mode once again, the dads and kids went to the Maleny Dairy nearby for a tour and some (actually really good) milk while the girls went and picked out some really nice handmade pottery by Michael Pugh. Perhaps in search of some inspiration he departed his shop but had left it wide open, the ladies wandered in to pick out what they wanted, but sadly Mr. Pugh did not return! (They had to make a follow-up visit in order to make the purchases…!) We were also intrigued by all the different candy available in Australia, so we had a bit of a candy tasting one afternoon before setting the kids loose on the nearby skate park and beach to burn it off.

That pretty much wrapped up our time in Bribie, and what a time it was! Amazing beaches, hospitality, company, weather, adventures, drive-through liquor stores… couldn’t ask for anything more. It was a very chill vacation, and given that we were there for a fair bit I’d nearly gone full Bogan!

Toast

The day before we were set to leave for home, we spent an afternoon in Brisbane, starting with a pool party at relatives of John’s, they were so nice! The kids had fun in the pool with all the other children that were there, which worked out great. As we had booked a hotel room near the airport to help ease the morning logistics, we had an evening to wander around the Southbank area of the city. As the Commonwealth games were happening at the time (they were in Gold Coast officially but a few events were in Brisbane), there were open-air restaurants and concerts in the area, so we grabbed a snack and hung out in front of an outdoor big-screen to watch some of the Games before making our way back to the hotel.

But our adventures weren’t quite over yet, thanks to a delay with our flight leaving Brisbane. We were happy to be on the same flight as Flora Duffy’s parents, Charlie and Maria (Flora was there, too!), we had a nice chat while we waited to board. Flora was fortunate to be connecting to her home in Colorado as we and the elder Duffys ultimately missed our connection to NYC and had to be rebooked on a later flight. Ultimately we weren’t able to get back to Bermuda until the following day, but we had a nice dinner at our hastily-booked hotel with Charlie and Maria. The flight was early the next day (6am wake-up call), and after some tense moments and confusion with the flight bookings we were all safely on the flight back to Bermuda.

The jet lag the following week was well worth the trip, would do it again for sure. Until next time… enjoy the photos from our trip below!