sf 2 oz

Apologies that all has been quiet on the blog front..it's been a very busy month! We got engaged in the Whitsunday Islands on February 6, then headed to the US for about 10 days and returned to Sydney to be with Mike's parents who had been cruising around Australia and New Zealand. Phew!

So, for the engagement details.. Mike and I had been planning a long weekend in the Whitsundays for a few months and after much debate on where to stay, settled on Peppers Palm Bay. It looked gorgeous and all things considered, we got a pretty good deal given Summer is the low season in Queensland (hot wet weather and stinging jellyfish).

After landing at the airport on Hamilton Island, we went to catch the ferry (or so I thought) to travel to the resort on Long Island. We were stopped by a woman holding a sign that read Mike's last name and then whisked to an air conditioned van. This was all pretty special treatment for the ferry, I thought, before figuring out that we were doing a helicopter transfer! WOW. We got on the helicopter with another couple and were at Long Island within 10 minutes or so. 

Let me just say, the Whitsunday island are gorgeous...islands covered with rainforest, nestled together right off the coast of Australia. And there's tourism, but it all feels relatively quiet. Peppers was wonderful. Each couple has their own cabin or bungalow, there's delicious brekkie and dinner and a really nice pool (important since we couldn't swim in the ocean safely).

Back to the story. After we explored the resort a bit, we went for a swim in the pool. Then Mike non chalantly suggested taking kayaks out before dinner. We headed over to a secluded beach area and after padding around, went up to the beach to walk around. Then, he asked me right then and there to marry me! He had carried the ring in a dry bag with his camera..sneaky. We went back to the resort where there was a table set for two, right on a veranda by the beach. We had so much fun celebrating, talking and calling people during dinner. 

For the next day we had booked a scenic flight out to the reef to go snorkling and to Whitehaven Beach, which claims to have the purest sand in the world. We felt like VIPs with all these special flights! It was a spectacular day..couldn't stop smiling. Getting to see the Great Barrier Reef from the air was spectacular. It's hard to believe that there's 2,000 km of this up the coast of Australia, especially after seeing all the life underwater. Oh yeah, and it was a perfect sunny day. Lucky us!

The last day we sat by the pool, went on a rainforest hike (which I would not recommend doing in Queensland summer) and kayaked again..this time with handreels and bait. I caught two fish and Mike caught one - the fisherwoman reigns! We threw them back. 

We'll never forget the time we had tog ether in the Whitsundays. Hopefully we get the chance to visit that private beach by Peppers again during our lifetime!

Upon arriving in Melbourne for the Australian Open we quickly realized that people here don't watch tennis, they watch "the" tennis.

Well, we really enjoyed the tennis. I was actually surprised at how exciting it was to see such a high caliber of players battle it out on the court. The first day we had tickets to Rod Laver arena and watched some highly ranked players like Rafael Nadal and Andy Murray...we also got a peek of the Williams sisters playing doubles! The second day we bought grounds passes for $20 each and ended up seeing some great tennis PLUS Roger Federer warming up. It was also a fun atmosphere with beer gardens, live music and sponsor tents everywhere. This whole experience is making me want to see Wimbledon..hmmm.

A lot of our Sydney friends were actually in Melbourne as well - some for tennis and some for other stuff. We had fun during the evenings going to dinner and bars. We even got to celebrate Jess' Dirty 30 at Coda Bar + Grill followed by karaoke in Chinatown (which I think the girls enjoyed more than the guys).

The last day we were in Melbourne was Australia Day, which appears to be a day off from work for people to be patriotic, BBQ, go to the beach and do other Aussie things. Officially it commemorates the first explorers to arrive at Sydney Cove in 1788, the hoisting of the British flag there, and the proclamation of British sovereignty over the eastern seaboard of Australia. We didn't really have a typical Australia Day as we were busy exploring a few other parts of Melbourne including St. Kilda and Chapel Street. Oh well, 4th of July is still better!

On Boxing Day after watching the start of the Sydney to Hobart sailing race, we hopped on a plane to Hobart, Tasmania (better than traveling 4-5 days at sea!). We'd been looking forward to this trip for a while, so it was great to land and begin exploring a new place. We had the evening in Hobart to walk around and have dinner before heading off the next day up the east coast to the Freycinet Peninsula.

I had reserved a campsite right on Richardson's Beach in Freycinet National Park, which I felt really lucky to get given the campsites are given away via a ballot system for the Christmas/New Year period. We set up camp and enjoyed some local Tassie beer - Moo Brew - on the beach. Mike grilled some steaks/mushrooms/onions for dinner and then we watched the sunset by our tent.

The next day we went on a 12km hike to Wineglass Bay and Hazards Beach. Hazards Beach was empty and the water crystal turquoise blue - it was paradise. We walked the length of the beach in awe at the lack of people during the 'busiest' time of year for tourism in Tasmania. We went down to check out the campsites at the end of the beach and after not much discussion decided this was where we wanted to spend our thrid night.

After returning to our campsite at Richardson's Beach, we jumped in the ocean and then took (cold) showers. We decided to drive up the coast because we did not want to miss seeing the little penguins in Bicheno and the beer drinking pig at Pub in the Paddock in Pyengana - both came highly recommended.

It was a lot of driving for one evening, but so worth it. Feeding the pigs - Priscilla and Priscilla Babe (the younger one) - was hysterical. Priscialla even burped after she slurped the beer down! We did learn that the pig beers are mostly water with a little beer for taste. After eating some pork sausages at the bar (why order anything else?) we headed back down the coast to Bicheno for a 10pm tour to see the little penguins. They come out of the ocean when it gets dark to a grassy area with various burrows to feed their young and sleep. We saw hundreds of the little guys - it was really neat.

The next day we packed up our campsite and put together a few backpacks with gear for our night at Hazards Beach. We arrived after a few hours of hiking (thanks to Mike for carrying the big pack!) and got the prime tent spot. We spent the afternoon swimming, watching the wildlife and walking around. At dusk there were wallabies hopping around and one was pretty bold and got really close to us. It was an increcible camping experience..one we'll never forget.

We ended our trip in Hobart, which was a lot of fun given all the activity on the waterfront from the Sydney to Hobart race. We walked around looking at all the big racing boats and even got to welcome a handful of finishers! The Taste Festival was also going on so we had fun trying local food while sitting outside under the almost full moon on our last night. Hands down, I think it was definitely the best time of year to be in Hobart with all the race activity, food/wine and warm weather.

Tasmania is so pristine..as with the other places we've been, I'd love to see more and wish we could have stayed longer.

Last weekend we traveled to South Australia to enjoy some wine and wildlife! Inspired by a trip that our friends Chris and Jess did about a year ago, we spent time on Kangaroo Island and the Barossa Valley, one of Australia's most famous wine regions. 

We flew Tiger Airways to Adelaide on Friday afternoon. Tiger offers incredibly cheap fares (20-30 dollars), but you definitely get what you pay for.. there's no online check-in and the service is notoriously bad. Oh well, it got us to Adelaide in one piece! After checking into the airport hotel we took the bus into Adelaide to walk around. There really wasn't much to see there as a visitor except for some interesting old buildings and churches and the University of Adelaide was quite pretty. Our favorite part of the city was where we had drinks and dinner - Apothecary 1878, which I had read about it in the Good Food Guide in advance. Mike had an authentic mint julep in a special pewter cup and after drinks we headed down to a brick wine cellar for a yummy dinner.

We had an early flight the next morning to Kangaroo Island, which we were okay with given our motel was slightly creepy. There was a hot tub in the middle of our bedroom and the curtains didn't quite blind the fluorescent sign outside (a la Kenny Rogers Chicken from Seinfeld). We were picked up by our wilderness guide after arriving at Kingscote Airport and within minutes of being on the road we saw a koala in this big dead tree and a black tiger snake (apparently the 4th deadliest in the world, eek!).  Our guide first took us to a forested area where we saw koalas hanging out in the trees. After morning tea we headed to Flinders Chase National Park to see Admirals Arch and the Remarkable Rocks. Then our guide Peter, who has been a sheep farmer on Kangaroo Island for 30 years, made us a delicious BBQ lunch. In the afternoon we ventured to Seal Bay, a nature reserve and breeding area for Australian seal lions...it was cool to get relatively close to these animals.

With temperatures at 37C (99F), we were all pretty hot so we waded into the water at Vivonne Bay, which was rated Australia's best beach 2002. The water was so turquoise blue and amazingly clear! Peter then drove us through his farm on the way to a local sheep dairy where we got a cheese tasting and tour. It was fun to see the sheep's milking routine and understand all the work that goes into producing cheese and yogurt.

After about nine hours of touring we were driven to our B&B called Seascape Lodge. It was a wondeful place overlooking Emu Bay. After we went swimming at the beach, we had drinks on the deck and the owners made us a three course meal followed by a yummy brekkie the next morning. We felt very spoiled and it was difficult to leave and get on the plane again.

Although, after getting back to Adelaide the fun didn't stop! We drove about an hour out of the city to the Barossa Valley. We visited four fabulous wineries, Two Hands, Hentley Farm, Rockford and Turkey Flat. A lot of the wineries had a really nice rose, which I was loving given the weather. Our accomodation was a self catering little cottage originally built by German emigrants in the mid 1800's. Mike killed a HUGE spider right when we got there, so I was a bit worried about the bug situation the whole time.

The next day we visited two more wineries, Bethany and Teusner. Teusner doesn't have a cellar door so we had a private tasting in the wine production area and liked it so much we purchased a case. On the recommendation of Chris and Jessica, we drove about 30 minutes outside of the Barossa to Wombat Rise, an animal sanctuary for injured or orphaned wildlife.  They had lots of birds including Galahs, Cockatoos, Kookaburas and Owls plus twenty kangaroos, several wombats and more. I got to cuddle a wombat and play with several young kangaroos!

It was a busy weekend, but I feel like we really saw a lot and had some unforgettable experiences. You'll see in the photos that Mike has some facial hair.. nope he didn't forget to shave, he's growing a mustache (aka mo) for Movember. More to come.

Last Sunday we checked out Sculpture by the Sea, a display of over 100 sculptures by artists from Australia and around the world on the Bondi to Tamarama coastal walk. Set against such a beautiful backdrop, all the sculptures seemed pretty incredible. We'd never seen such a cool fusion of art and the outdoors, plus it was perfect photography material for Mike. Hope you like the pictures.  

Over the weekend we also went to two Halloween parties and a Mexican Fiesta. Friday night we decorated cupcakes and ate lots of candy, Saturday we carved pumpkins and watched an awesomely bad scary movie about genetically altered sheep in NZ (thanks Jennie and Thor) and Sunday after the sculpture walk we took care of our appetites with homemade fajitas and margaritas at Chris and Jessica's place. We are very lucky to have such wonderful friends here!