Looking back (mostly boring details)

We did a lot of research leading up to this trip and found a lot of amazing info on various blogs and websites so we're hoping to return the favour by posting some of the more boring details about what we took and a quick look back at things we'd change.

Things we'd do the same:

• hire Dave as your travel agent, just kidding, he likes his day job but he did do an amazing job researching the places we stayed and finding things to do so thanks to him and to all of the people that wrote all of the reviews and blogs that helped us out - Thanks! 
• 4 to 5 days in each place was a good pace for us.  I feel that we covered a lot of ground while at the same time never felt too rushed.  I realize many people prefer to really get to know one place or two rather than just the highlights but we were aiming for variety and a decent overview.  With our kids it would have been too crazy to go any faster.  
• our neighbours gave us a tube of German laundry soap (REI) and this stuff was AMAZING!!!  My new mission is to find somewhere to get this in Canada.  You use a chic-pea sized gob and it works in top loaders and front loaders (or at least that's what I think the German label said).  We did many loads of laundry, it worked great and we gave them back at least half of the tube. 
• we both LOVED our main packs.  Dave and I each had an Osprey Farpoint 70 backpack.  Dave had the M/L size and his pack had his and Avery's clothes and kit bags.  My S/M sized pack had Trent and my stuff. 
• Eagle Creek packing cubes - I bought 4 sets when they were on sale last year.  Jet Setter had them at my door the next morning - it was crazy fast!  I can't say enough good things about packing cubes especially when you have people sharing bags.  We use them EVERYWHERE we go now and I absolutely love them.   For the kids and I all of our pants/shorts/pajamas went in the full cube, shirts/dress/swim in the half cube and socks and undies in the quarter cube.  Dave's clothes are bigger so he had 2 more generic brand ones along with the 2 bigger eagle creek ones from the set.  The quarter cube from his set was used for cables and tech junk.   Each person has their own colour so it makes finding stuff really easy.  
• first aid kit - I bought this one when the kids were little and it lived in the diaper bag/stroller.  It is a nice compact one and has lots of the basics covered.  I added salt (for leaches), more band-aids, advil (children's and adult), gravol (children's and adult), reactine, tums, simethicone and loperamide just in case.  Next time I'll probably add in eye drops since I did have to go out to try to find some late one night.  
• small spray bottle - years ago we went to Florida in August and they sold spray bottles at every tourist attraction for a ridiculous price.  We went to Walmart and picked up a small one that you'd use for ironing and have used it many times since.  A few spritzes feels like heaven on a hot day. 
• collapsible coolers - these were great for picnics and for transporting food when we changed cities
• Inflatable Booster Seats for the kids - these are technically not certified for Australia and Canada but the are legal in the U.S.A., Europe, N.Z. and possibly more places.  I'm a bit of a car seat nerd and have dragged car seats through airports and onto planes for years but even I was not looking forward to carting two boosters around Australia so we went with these.  The clips are a bit finicky at first but the belt fit on both kids in all of the cars we tried them in was great.      
• The RAV FileHub that we used was good to be able to copy all of the photos at the end of every day, but it was a little finicky, and not everyone could use it without training.  It would be nice if there was a device dedicated for synching files and backing them up to the cloud.
• The NRMA membership we got saved us at least $300, maybe more.  We technically were not allowed to have it since it is for residents, but they didn't check that diligently so if you can find a way, try it.  The same goes for our membership to the royal botanical society.  We got great seats for way cheaper than anywhere else.  I also joined some hotel clubs that had little perks here and there.
• If your phone has a replacable battery, buy a bunch if can't last a day of heavy use.  Either that or buy a battery pack to charge on the go.  Very useful!
• We used a power bar and a USB hub for 220v conversion and recharging.  Not bad, but most of what we recharged was USB anyway, so if you can find a USB hub that works on 220v, that may be worth it to avoid a rat's nest of cords.
• If you can change your skin colour to avoid having to apply gobs of 70spf sunscreen twice daily, that would be awesome.

Things we'd consider changing:

• splurge for two Australian SIM cards.  I'm cheap and figured one was enough.  In the end we should have got two.  The WIFI in some of the places was painfully slow and it was a pain to rely completely on one device.  Occasionally we would use Dave's as a hot spot but it drained his battery pretty quickly so we didn't do it too often.   
• I've never bothered with ear plugs, eye shades or those fancy U-shaped pillows but on our long trip home I have to say I was pretty envious of those that had them.  
• pack rain covers - Grandma had a fantastic rain cover that came with her day pack but Dave and I didn't.  Dave would put his jacket over him and the camera bag which kept it dry but it would have been better to have had pack covers for our day bags as well. 
• better roller suitcase(s) - in addition to the two big backpacks we also had two carry-on sized suitcases.  They mostly contained the boosters, shoes, food, snorkels (maybe could have skipped those...) and Christmas gifts.  Rolling suitcases kill my shoulder and I hate them but the kids were pretty good about hauling them around most of the time and they can't carry much in a backpack at their age.  I would like to travel lighter and ditch at least one of them but if that isn't possible I'd look into buying something lighter and perhaps try one of the ones with 4 wheels (although I'm not sure if those would actually be able to handle sidewalks and cobblestones....).   Presumably the kids will be a bit bigger by the time we try another trip so we can load them up with backpacks as well. 
• Bring a little package of spices, salt, pepper, and cooking basics if you do your own meals.  Most places have pretty sparse supplies and it isn't worth it to buy big containers of it when you are there.
• Most credit cards and bank cards charge a 2.5% foreign exchange fee (ie robbery).  The Chase Bank Marriott rewards card is the only one in Canada that does not do that.  The rewards are useless, but you can save hundreds on fees.  We ordered one but too late to have it arrive on time.
• Bring along a car charger to USB adaptor just in case your rental doesn't have a USB port.

I think that covers most of it, hope it is useful to someone.  I'll update if I think of anything else.  If someone actually wants my detailed packing list I'm more than willing to share.

Happy Travels!

The Long Way Home (January 2nd, the day that went on and on and on....)

We were up at 8:00, finished packing and walked to the train station (much easier going down).  The line ups at the international terminal were much bigger than the domestic ones we'd been spoiled with over the last month but we eventually got through.  We took off at 12:25pm on January 2nd and arrived in Vancouver at 7:40am on January 2nd.  I think Dave and I might have slept a couple hours and the kids weren't much better.  In Vancouver we got off the plane, zig zagged through what seemed like the whole airport to get our bags, clear customs, then recheck our bags, walk through another endless maze to finally get on the exact same plane which had moved to a different gate.  We even had the exact same seats (minus Grandma who caught a flight to Calgary).  After sitting that long a walk was probably a good idea but it was a bit of a blur.

The flight to Toronto was also pretty uneventful followed by another airport stroll and a last quick flight to Ottawa.  Avery finally crashed just before landing and we had a hard time waking her up to get off the plane.

Our brother-in-law and Curtis were nice enough to come pick us up and welcome us back to the cold.  The kids had a blast playing with Sir John A. MacDonald.  I tried to get a picture of all 3 of them but all my camera phone got was 3 blurs so we just have the posed ones.
 

If you can't tell from the last picture - they were a bit wired at this point.  We were home 27.5 hours after getting up in Sydney with only a couple hours of sleep.  All things considered I'm shocked it went as well as it did.

Some final stats -
- 31 days
- over 5000 photos
- over 500 videos
- 36700 km flown
- 3300 km driven on not-right side of the road
- 260 km by train
- 170 km by boat
- 40430 km total (355 km more than the circumference of the Earth)

It was an amazing adventure.  Now to start saving & planning for the next one :)

Last Day - Taronga Zoo

Many people we spoke with highly recommended the Taronga Zoo in Sydney.  Having been to a few zoos we debated it a bit but after hearing that they had platypuses we had to go.

To get to the zoo you take a 20 min ferry from Circular Quay which means more views of the Harbour Bridge, the Opera House, and Fort Denison, where they would imprison the worst convicts of the bunch.

Bridge walkers

Once you get to the zoo it has a gondola that takes you up to the top of the hill that the zoo in built on.  On the way up you get an amazing view looking back out over the harbour with the Bridge, Opera House and downtown Sydney.  It also means that most of the day is spent walking downhill which is nice especially since it was 31C and humid.

The highlight of the day was the platypus house.  It was the one classic Australian animal that we hadn't managed to see anywhere else.  Platypuses are nocturnal so they have them indoors and have the lighting set up so they think it is nighttime during zoo hours.  They have a large double sided tank in the middle of the room and then another tank along one whole wall.  It took a little while to finally spot one but once we did it stuck around for several laps of the tank.  Eventually another started doing laps in the other tank as well so we had lots of chances to check them out.

Overall it was a nice zoo and I can see why many people recommended it.  The enclosures weren't as large as some of the ones we had seen at the Australian Zoo but there was effort to make them look natural.  They also had a large variety (lemurs, giraffes, elephants, zebras, chimpanzees, pygmy hippos, lions, tigers, gorillas, etc).

Komodo Dragon

Ringtailed Lemur

A Tasmanian devil

A gorilla family doting on their newborn

The kids had a great day and once again Avery showed off her amazing ability to find whatever creature was hiding.  She has always loved look-and-find books so I guess this shouldn't be a shock but it still amazes me.  We'd be staring at what looked like an empty enclosure for minutes and she'd run over and say "look at the x up on that tree there".  Every zoo was the same thing, it was amazing. It was also particularly useful at this zoo because when it's this hot the animals are usually hiding in the shade.  As much as the rain that we had on some of the other days made us a bit soggy it did make for excellent views of the animals by comparison.

We stayed until closing and then headed back on the ferry.  We then decided to go out for supper to celebrate our last night.  We did a short walk from Circular Quay to the Rocks which is the oldest part of Sydney and found a great Italian restaurant.  After dinner we did our last minute souvenir shopping and then back on the bus up the hill to the hotel.


Avery bought a flower necklace.  The flower looks like the one from the frangipani tree.  We saw these trees in many of the cities and Avery picked up many of the flowers off of the ground along the way.

Trent bought a boomerang with a platypus and a kangaroo design on it.

New Years Eve!!!

On New Years Eve, we wanted to go back to Manly beach for some more fun in the sun before we had to go home.

We took the ferry over again, and tried to fit a couple hours of beach into the morning.  We wanted to get back in time to try and get a nap in, so the kids (and us) could make it to midnight.

On the ferry to Manly

Kids gone wild

The day before, we had walked to Little Manly Cove, which is a bit more of a hike.  Today, we tried the bigger, more popular beach closer to the wharf so we could fit as much in as possible before lunch.  It wasn't nearly as busy as the day before.

The water was nice, but the sand is not as good as the more northern beaches in Australia.  The kids and Dave had fun making sand pyramids, and decorating them will shells, stones, and all the glass we could easily find buried in the sand.  There was a lot!

Building some manly pyramids

There is an awful lot of glass on the beach here!

December 31st frisbee!

Decorating the pyramids with shells, stones, and glass.

We grabbed a quick lunch at the wharf (finally some good Mexican food in Australia from Guzman Y Gomez!), and headed back to Circular Quay.

On the ferry back from Manly

On the way, we spotted Paul Allen's private mega-yacht, Octopus.  We had seen his boat in Cairns too, but it seemed to follow us down to Sydney (as did the Rhapsody of the Seas cruiseship).  I guess even mega rich people want to see the fireworks too.

$160 million Octopus

We got back to the hotel, had a quick nap, and Grandma ran out to find some food and drink for the big night.  We had got tickets to the fireworks by signing up to be members of the Sydney Royal Botanical Society.  For all the other venues, you needed to line up early (there were thousands of people waiting at 9:30am, when we headed out to Manly), or pay hundreds of dollars for tickets to a party that we wouldn't appreciate.  This was a good hack, and a great way to get close.  We showed up just before the gates opened at 5:00, and made our way down to the front for some pretty impressive seats.

This is the spot we got.  Not bad!

The Botanical Gardens were amazing!

We brought wine, but forgot the glasses, so this is Cathy's Pop-Top wine.

As we waited for the the show, we spotted helicopters (news, and police) hovering, and there were some displays by stunt planes, fireboats, and a boat parade we could watch.  We also played some games on the lawn, had snacks, and went for a wander in the gardens.  We never got a real chance to look at the Botanical Gardens, but I regret it now.  The brief walks we did through the one tiny part were mind blowing.

Lots of police and news helicopters.  At one time, we could see 6.

These stunt planes entertained for a while while we waited for midnight

Good to know they were watching, but it was very loud!

Tick tock!

The lawn filled up, but wasn't too crowded.

Some Yahtzee to pass the time.

At 9:00, there was a smaller fireworks show put on for the kids, and it lasted 5 minutes or so.  It was pretty cool and a good way to test my first time trying to photograph and video fireworks.  I really wish I had a tripod of some sort, but it was all going to be handheld.  Ah well.

After the kids show, it was some more waiting, and the crowd started getting larger.  There were probably 3000 or so people on the lawn by the time midnight rolled around.  It was all very civilized.

How else do you drink a beer and relax at the same time?



Still awake!

Trent ready with the GoPro

At midnight, there was a bried countdown, and the show started!  It was a good long show, and I tried hard to both video it, and experience it at the same time, which is why the video is a little shoddy, but it was pretty cool to be outside in the summer for New Years with family on the other side of the world.  We posted to facebook and wished everybody back in Canada and the US a happy new year, even though it was only 7:00am their time.

After the show was done, some of the other parties near us kept going, but we started back to the hotel.  I was fearing the worst in terms of transportation and crowds, but the walk to the bus station was very orderly and quiet, and at the bus station they had lots of people helping guide us to the right place.  We waited 5 or 10 minutes, were the last ones on the second bus out, and got back to hotel by a little after 1:00am.

Done for the night - waiting for the bus.

The most orderly mass exodus I've ever been a part of.

The kids did great, and I'm glad, since this will be one of the highlights from a great trip!