All done

See a tasmanian devil (my favourite animal as a child) - check








Pat a kangoroo (btw - it's not dead) - check







See the pelicans being fed at the Entrance - check









Tomorrow back to Sydney and maybe visit the Bondi beach. Minna wants to see it.

Finally some sun

Three days left and we finally find a place where the sun shines. Terrigal, I had never even heard about the place. When we were in Katoomba for the second night, we browsed the Lonely Planet guide New South Wales to figure out where we would go next. The book recommended Terrigal. As the Lonely Planet recommendations have been correct for so many times we decided that we will go to Terrigal. We booked a room for three nights in Country Comfort which has an excellent location near the beach and near the Esplanade. There are some interesting tidal pools and lots of beach life. Tomorrow we are planning to go to the Entrance to see the Pelican Feeding and hopefully we will also se a tasmanian devil, my favourite animal from my childhood.

Govett's leap and the falls

One of the major views to the grand hole is from the Govett's leap near Katoomba. In the middle of the picture you can see a lookout to which we took a small hike. Kia was quite tired on the way back up.

Tin Can Church in Lowther

On the way back from the Jenolan Caves to Katoomba, we saw this funny looking church made of tin plate.

Jenolan caves

After a disappointing visit to one of the places Lonely Planet calls ghost towns, we headed to the Jenolan Caves. We took a tour (Lucas cave) which sent us into the mountain for 1 km walk, including 910 strenous steps. The guide was quite funny and had been working there for 38 years. After 910 steps in the cave, we had to climb the same amount of steps back to the Carpark 2.

Minna, Kia and three sisters

From Hunter Valley, we drove to the Blue Mountains. We expected excellent views as the Blue Mountains have some quite big holes in the ground. As soon as we arrived and found an accommodation from the Three Explorers Motel , conveniently located just a couple of hundred meters from the Echo Point, we went there to see the big hole and the Three Sisters. We climbed down the stairs closer to the first sister and you can see Minna and Kia quite high up above the tree tops.

Unnecessary sign

About 200 metres from the Cedar Creek Cottages we saw this sign. We thought it was unneccessary.

One more night

Minna liked Hunter Valley so much that she insisted to stay one more night. But she also insisted that we shouldn't stay in a standard hotel but we should have something special. We drove back to the Hunter Valley information center and asked about accommodation. They had a bulletin board for last minute accommodation deals and we decided to book a cottage from Cedar Creek Cottages and Stonehurst Wines. It was even recommended by the Lonely Planet guides. It was actually quite far from Cessnock so we decided to use the BBQ amenities at the cottage. We bought some chicken kebabs and wine and set up the grill.As we had not had new years sparkling wine yet, we tried the Stonehurst wine from the minibar of the cottage. We stayed in the Gardeners cottage which was one of the three cottages by the patch of Shiraz grapes. I have to say that it was one of the best accommodations I have stayed in. Excellent breakfast was included and some port wine for the evening. There were a lot of spiders and their webs in the garden but luckily Kia noticed the big one on the porch only after we had slept the night. She wouldn't have slept at all if she'd knew that there was a spider on the porch as well. Neither she liked the bug. We asked if we could stay for one more night in the cottage, but it was alredy booked for someone else for the next night.

Above the Hunter Valley

Finally my Manfrotto comes in handy. A picture from the Bimbadeen Mountain lookout. Mountain View Road is one of the things you must do at Hunter Valley. I don't remember driving this before so this was the first time for the whole family.

Evening snack in Hunter Valley

After some wine tasting and Smelly Cheese Shopping Minna and I had an evening snack. Kia also had some cheese which tasted like Kippari.

The easternmost point

After leaving Surfers Paradise, I wanted to see Byron Bay and the Cape Byron lighthouse. The weather was still quite windy and rainy but we were able to see the lighthouse, the surfers and the town itself. We were in Byron Bay for only a brief time but it felt immediately better than Airlie Beach. Of course Airlie Beach had the Reef but that's it. I would rather spend my holiday in Byron Bay, if the weather was any better. Now we just moved on. We planned to take the Watefall Road to New England Highway but it was impossible to find a motel with vacancies late at night. Eventually we drove from Byron Bay to Newcastle. Much further south than we had thought. I was tired and Minna tried to keep me awake. Surprisingly we found Battery energy drink, Made in Finland, from a gas station at Port Macquarie.We arrived at Raymond Terrace at 4 am in the morning and after a 5-hour sleep we headed towards Cessnock and Hunter Valley. Learning from the mistake we made yesterday, we booked a hotel immediately on arrival. We chose Best Western and tommorrow we will change into another one.

Just to let you know, Jesus

Our message, Jesus: We have moved. I guess this church in Surfers Paradise has moved and this is the way they tell it to Jesus.

No surfers and no paradise either

After spending New year's eve in Brisbane, we drove 80 kilometers south to Surfers Paradise. On the way here from the north we saw a lot of cars with surf boards on the roof. Now we know the reason: the beaches here are closed because of the rough weather so we have not seen any surfer for the three days we've been here. Constant rain only stopped for one day, which we spent at the Wet 'n Wild and, needless to say, got wet again.

We are staying in Courtyard by Marriott and the view from our 22nd floor room is magnificent.

The Great Barrier Reef

Until, we took a chance and booked us a trip to the Great Barrier Reef. After all, this was one of the things we wanted to do on this holiday. Once we got to the Shute Harbour, the FantaSea staff said that it's going to be a rough ride. the waves will be 2.5 to 3.0 meters high and most probably snorkeling will be impossible or inconvenient, at least. Not only because of the waves but also because of the tide. 25 knots is quite a wind.
We wanted to get out of Airlie Beach so we thought, what the hell, let's give it a try. We had no idea how the waves would feel like, lunchwise, so we had Travacalm, just in case. Some passengers didn't... Once we got to the Hardy reef, sun began to shine and there were some waves but not so big that they would prevent snorkeling. Kia stayed in the water as long as I did so she was very brave. And the corals were excellent, well worth the 470 AUD that the trip cost. We were snorkeling off a pontoon where we could rest while we were not in the water.http://www.fantasea.com.au/Reefworld/I just developed the underwater pocket camera pics so here are some not-so-sharp pictures of the Hardy reef. I was much more beautiful than these pictures show.

Wondering at the Whitsundays

The only accommodation we could book on Airlie Beach was the Whitsunday Wanderers resort. Tripadvisor says it's the 22nd of 24 hotels in Airlie Beach. http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review-g261596-d287864-Reviews-Whitsunday_Wanderers_Resort_Airlie_Beach-Airlie_Beach_Queensland.html
This is what I call "pöpelikkö" in Finnish. There were no general lighting in the resort so evenings were very dark and there were fallen palm leaves everywhere. We paid 3 nights beforehand, and that was a big mistake. At some point we were also considering to leave one night early, without the possibility of compensation. The first night Kia couldn't get sleep because some animal entered our room through the 2 cm crack under the door. She said that it jumped around. A kangoroo, perhaps. It was actually a grasshopper and it made an awful noice until I made it "leave to America".
It rained for two days and we almost had it...

No Fishing, except on Christmas

Who would have the heart to drive these ladies away on Christmas Day?

Close encounter with koala

Kia's dream came true. Taronga Zoo offered a possibility of a photo shoot with koalas.

Christmas in Sydney

The clothing wasn't a problem after all. Sydney, also, was chilly. We didn't really have any Christmas spirit and the only thing about Christmas was a box of Panda chocolates. Apparently you can bring candies and chocolates into Australia even though other food items are prohibited. Novotel at Darling Harbour was quite OK and we had a two room suite.

10 hours in Tokyo

Chilly Tokyo presented us with a problem: What to wear because the destination was Australia, in summer. We took the Narita Express to Shinjuku, walked around and went back to the airport. I had changed 100 euros for yens and half of it was spent to one-way tickets to Shinjuku... So the other half was needed for return.

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