Ayers Rock/Central Australia Outback

for more see below pictures....

We have had a really great week visiting Ayers Rock (also called Uluru) and we are now in Gold Coast in Queensland staying in the beach area called "Surfers Paradise".

The trip from Ayers Rock was pretty long, its a very remote area and one we debated on booking for a long time. The resort out there is really all there is, and so you only stay for a couple nights at most which makes it a lot of work!

The remoteness is what makes it even more unique, the seclusion and the landscape is really like nothing we could have imagined. It truly felt like we landed on an uninhabited planet.

We went out and toured around the area a bit and went out to a viewing area at sunset to watch as the "rock" changed colours. The first day we went out and decided to walk around the rock and take a little hike to the cultural center on site. We recieved stern warnings on the bus from the airport about dehydration, poisonous snakes, poisonous spiders, dangerous dingos, biting monitor lizzards, extreme UV hazzards and everything else that can bite, burn or sting. The problem was that no one had mentioned anything to us about the flies...

When we stepped off the bus we were literally swarmed by flies. Flies in our mouths, ears, noses and everywhere else they could find. We were all constatntly orbitted by flies and looked like we were waiting for rice bags from the UN trucks as we swatted, ran, rolled, jumped and did everything we possibly could to evade the miserable little flies in 36 degree heat in the middle of the outback. Dave thought he was attracting them the most and was definitely Lord of the Flies. It all ended after a 2 km dash down the "scenic walking trail" to the cultural centre where for just 10$ you can buy fly netting to wear. We wore the fly nets eveytime we stepped outside again to ensure not one more fly was ingested.

The "sunset" was definitely a highlight as being out in the outback in that environment as the sun set was very tranquil (for about 2 minutes because of a "Mommy" or a "Daddy" interuption ha ha).

The national park and Ayers are World Heritage sites.

We spent today at our pool here at the hotel. The next couple days we are taking the kids to some of the theme parks, and we even have some childcare all lined up for the spa and dinner!

Bye Bye Sydney!

Time to leave Sydney tomorrow. For anyone who has never been here - make sure you do. Sydney has been amazing! It has everything anyone could ask for. Good weather, shopping and scenery. Great zoo, amusement park and playgrounds for the kids. A drunk midget falling down in the train station for me. What else could you want?

On Friday we took the ferry over to the zoo which was a real highlight. Its on the north side of Harbour and overlooks Sydney Harbour and Opera house and feels like you are in a jungle. We have walked every mile of downtown Sydney. We got a guided tour from our friend Belinda and her Dad Alan of the botanic gardens, the shopping district (the Queen Victoria Buiding is Shannon's favorite) and the Opera House. We spent the day yesterday with Belinda's very LARGE family having lunch on the waterfront at Circular Quays. We had a great afternoon with them and they really are great people. Thanks to all of them!

Today we went over to Manley Beach which was beautiful! On the way back we had some 20 ft swells near Sydney Heads and the boat felt like it may flip, but we made it back OK. Today was Shannon's birthday, so we gave her a mini party with her very own Dora the Explorer cake (Kate's pick).

Off to Ayers Rock in the Outback tomorrow.

Sydney update

Hi! We have had a great couple of days touring around Sydney. Yesterday we spent at Darling Harbour, a great area in Sydney that has restaurants and stores and also the Aquarium and Wildlife Center and Maritime Musuem. We took the ferry over which the kids really enjoyed.

As you can see in the pictures, Sydney's "Wildlife World" was a big hit with the kids too and we got to take our picture with a Koala and pat him. I am attaching some pictures from the ferry and the Wildlife World.

The weather has been great, 27 degrees for the past couple days.

We had a slight stroller malfunction and spent a bit of time today touring a "suburb" in search of "BabyKingdom" to buy a replacement (yes we have just added another stroller to our fleet at home!). Still managed to salvage the day (for me at least) shopping along Pitt Street.

We are meeting up with our friend Belinda and her kids Sam and Amelia tomorrow and headed to the Taronga Zoo.

Talk soon

We have arrived!

just an update to let you know we made it! i am attaching a picture of the view from our hotel room here in Sydney (and a couple of the kids on the plane and at the airport). Sydney is amazing and just what we imagined. As you can tell from the view in the hotel room its great. We spent yesterday walking around the Rocks area and Circular Quays. Dylan was awesome the entire flight, Kate not as much but overall did great considering how long the trip was . We mananged to stay awake until 5pm and up at 4am so should be adjusted to the time tomorrow.

Talk again soon!

YVR

9:30 in Vancouver. Kids were great on the 1 hr flight in the middle of the day, so i see no reason why they won't be the same for 17 more hrs in the middle of the night after a 4 hr layover.

Kate's Take

Dylan's Take on the Trip

Heading Out

We're headed out on the 11th for Sydney (finally) for a glorious 17 hr direct flight. Can't imagine Dylan and Kate will get bored in a mere 17 hrs, but we'll bring their ipods just in case...

We have ended up with two extra seats so we have two whole rows (kind of a home made executive class that fits right in to the global economic crisis) so I may bring the midget.