(Sorry
this is a very very long entry, I don't blame you for not finishing it,
but I encourage you to read the whole thing so you get an understanding
of the pictures. )
I'm back
from my amazing trip across down under! As some of you may have heard
my parents came out to visit us in Australia for a month. Their plan was
to start in Brisbane and make their way down the East coast and across
the Southern coast of the country to Western Australia. Ryan surprised
me with a ticket to meet them in Brisbane and experience the drive with
my parents. It was such a blessing to experience most of Australia with
my parents and one of the best tour guides in the world, my dad. We
probably saw more of Australia than most Australians and everywhere we
went he knew all the facts! This trip was one of my greatest memories
not only because we were left with seeing some of the most beautiful
sights in the world, but it also brought us home with a much bigger view
of God.
Let me
just start off giving you a bit of structure of where we went on our
trip.... (If you can see a map of Australia while your reading it might
give you a better understanding of our trip.)
My
parents and I landed in BRISBANE only a few hours apart. Brisbane is
located in the southern corner of Queensland on the east coast of
Australia. I didn't have much time in the city of Brisbane but its
surroundings were different from what I expected. It was much more
tropical with palm trees and humidity. We drove several hours north of
Brisbane to NOOSA HEAD, and here we saw only the beginning of beautiful
coastlines.
As we
made our way back down the coastline through Brisbane we stayed the
night in SURFER'S PARADISE. It resembles very much Miami, Florida.
The next
morning we continued on down the GOLD COAST to TWEED HEADS and BYRON
BAY. Byron Bay is near the top of my list of most beautiful places in
the world. It was just breathtaking standing at the top of the hill
overlooking the valley and onto the South Pacific Ocean. It was a valley
of green pastures filled with grazing cows and farmland.
Our next
stop was COFF'S HARBOUR. Here we saw the Big Banana. Australia is
filled with tourist attractions of what they call "The Bigs." Many towns
all along Australia have a "Big" - a huge structure that often
represents something that is special to that particular town. In this
case it was bananas.
After
several more hours of driving we landed in a little town called
HARRINGTON. That night we stayed in an old saloon. Quite an experience! I
felt like Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman. Although it was a bit run-down I
must say it did have its own charm. The seas were raging the next
morning as we woke up and started our trek down to SYDNEY.
We spent
a couple days on the outskirts of Sydney in a town called MANLY. Sydney
reminded me very much of San Francisco the way it was crowded with
houses on the green hills amongst a large bay covered in fog. It is
located on the eastern coast of New South Wales. We took a ferry from
Manly to Downtown Sydney. The night was beautiful as the sun was
beginning to set as our boat landed adjacent to the Opera House. We
walked along the harbour, toured the opera house and had a nice italian
dinner while being serenaded by two men with a guitar and harp. The
next morning we took a bus tour to see all that we could of Sydney from
the ground. To see all of Sydney from an ariel view we took a tour to
the top of the Sydney Tower. Here we saw a 360 degree view of the whole
city. We even spotted a rainbow across the bay.
Before
we made our way to the Capital we spent the night in GOULBURN. We had
dinner at a wonderful little diner called the Paragon. My dad had the
best meal of his life here. An omelette with scalloped cheesy potatoes.
Unfortunately I didn't have the same meal but it sure looked tasty!
CANBERRA,
the Country's Capital, was our next stop. This wasn't my favorite city
although the colors of fall were quite vibrant. In each capital city of
the states it was our goal to visit the parliament buildings. Canberra's
parliament building was a bit boring compared to the rest. It felt
similar to being in a hospital with not much character or detail.
Fortunately, I was able to snap some great shots of the beautiful fall
trees.
My mom
and I were finally able to do some shopping at the Markets in MELBOURNE,
the country's "fashion capital." Walking along the streets and shops
felt like walking in Europe; especially with the toilets in the middle
of large intersections. Melbourne is the capital of Victoria and is near
the southern most point of Australia. Melbourne is one of the more
industrialized cities in Australia. Each building was modern in
architecture; except for the the Melbourne's Parliament Building. It was
filled with detail and character.
Driving
just outside of Melbourne we stopped for the night in GEELONG. We had
seen Thai Restaurants all throughout our trip and my parents and I
really wanted to try it since we hadn't before. Our hotel that night
happened to be connected to a little Thai Restaurant. So we hopped in
and took a seat ordering a peanut and curry chicken dish with coconut
rice and a prawn, beef and curry dish. Delicious!
After
Geelong we began our journey along the GREAT OCEAN ROAD. This is one of
the most beautiful drives in the world. It stretches 250 km from the
surfing mecca of TORQUAY to WARRNAMBOOL. We stopped along the road to
spot any surfers and sure enough there they were with their wet suits
and Kombis (A painted, "hippie"-type van that surfers live and travel in). We saw these vans everywhere we went.
We made
another stop along the Southern-most point in Australia, CAPE OTWAY. As
we were driving along the side ride I spotted a koala up in one of the
Eucalyptus trees. This was the first koala we saw unless you count the
stuffed koala my mom spotted in a tree a few hours earlier:) Yes, we
really saw a stuffed koala in a eucalyptus tree out in the middle of
nowhere; several in fact. Some one was playing a joke and we were all
fooled. Nevertheless, we saw a real one a few hours later. We had
difficulty taking pictures at first because the koala was sleeping and
it's head was facing down, hiding behind a tree branch. But who would
have thought that my mom could speak koala! Every time she made a
screeching sound the koala's head popped up giving us the perfect
opportunity to take pictures.
Continuing
further along the Great Ocean Road, we arrived at the TWELVE APOSTLES.
These were 12 rock formations that are continuously being eroded by the
ocean. They make a spectacular coastline view. You become marveled at
the view and reminded of the vastness of God and His creativity and
beauty. You CANNOT ignore the fact that there is a God after seeing
beauty and you CAN'T help but praise Him after seeing this beauty.
Onward
toward a little town called MT. GAMBIER where we stayed for the night
before we made our way towards ADELAIDE. The next morning was extremely
foggy making it very difficult to drive but I was able to get really
cool photos of the fog creeping over the landscape as the sun was
rising.
We saw
several "Bigs" during our trip but one of the favorites was "Larry the
Lobster" in KINGSTON SE, South Australia. He sure was big!
Adelaide
is located in the lower right corner of South Australia. My Parents and
I didn't see much of Adelaide because we needed to stay on time, but it
might have been one of my favorites of the big cities. The whole
downtown was surrounded by a park with big beautiful trees and walking
paths making it such a unique city. The streets were very spacious and
the buildings were old and filled with beautiful architecture. It was
also much smaller than the other big cities making it less crowded. It
is also called the city of churches for its vast amounts of different
churches on every corner in the city.
I told
many people that we were going to drive across Australia and most
reactions were "You're crazy!" "You're driving across the Nullarbor?!"
Yes, we did! It is wasn't as bad as people told us it would be. It was
actually quite a pretty drive. The scenery seemed to change nearly every
mile with its different Eucalyptus trees and bush. Nothing like what
you would expect the outback to look like.
The last
town we stayed in before we drove through the Nullarbor was PORT
AUGUSTA, and there was pretty much nothing after that except for little
towns of like 5 people maybe.
You'll
see in some of the pictures that we stopped at the Great Australian
Bight. It's a coastline that looks like someone took a big bite out of
it. The water was amazingly blue and the high cliffs literally took your
breath away.
Before
we hit the longest straight stretch of road in Australia(146km), we
spent the night in EUCLA, an itty bitty town on the border of South
Australia and Western Australia.
As the
NULLARBOR ended we drove down south to a small town called ESPERANCE. It
was a fascinating beach town because it had an archipelago of nearly
100 small islands off the coast. The water was as blue as could be
rimmed with pure white sands. Although we caught it on a rainy day this
town is still near the top of my list of most beautiful places.
Ten
hours later we made it to Perth where we had dinner with a wonderful
Christian family Ryan and I know and a nights sleep before we headed
onto Geraldton.
The rest
of the description of the trip will be continued....I figured that if
anyone actually did make it this far in reading I would give them a
break and a chance to look at the pictures before explaining our next
journey around Western Australia!
Thanks
so much for reading, I hope you got a little glimpse of what Australia
is like and left with a little bigger view of God as well. I hope you
began to see the splendor of His handiwork and creation that echos the
truth that He is truly Glorious!
"The
Heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of His
hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they
display knowledge. There is no speech or language where their voice is
not heard. Their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the
ends of the world."
--- Psalm 19:1-4
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