We are headed off the grid for a few days. We will be back on Monday with more posts.
Wednesday, April 2, 2014
Posted with Blogsy
Show Your Underwear, Save a Dollar
We're headed to the Great Barrier Reef right now and are at the airport frantically digging through luggage. Phone chargers, flip flops and underwear flying everywhere.
Our flight plan takes us on Virgin Australia first from Sydney to Hervey Bay, a tiny airport near Brisbane. From there, we take a puddle jumper out to Lady Elliot Island, our destination. We have been warned that in order to take the puddlejumper, we can only bring 10kg of luggage per person. At our hotel room in Sydney, we've carefully packed each bag, so they each weigh about the same. 10kgs is not much, but we make it work. We allotted ourselves only carry-ons to prevent accruing additional fees from checking luggage.
Our plan backfires when we reach the airport.
As we go to the check-in kiosk at Virgin, feeling very smart about our well-packed, carry-on luggage, we face a bold sign and a scale, announcing that you can only take 7kg per person as a carry-on and that anything over must be checked. Having faced $30 per bag charges from Virgin before, we throw open all our bags to consolidate. Our aim is to check two bags and carry the rest. It's a frantic and messy business, airing all our dirty laundry (literally) in front of strangers, just to save a few dollars. Sweating and stressed, we squeeze the bags shut and triumphantly approach the bag check line.
Within thirty seconds, the woman behind the counter checks our two bags, at no fee. Let me repeat that. No fee. All that effort and we could have just checked all four bags.
Sometimes you can win and lose in the same moment.
Blue Mountains and Airbnb's Blue Maison
We've left Sydney for the nearby Blue Mountains, an area of densely forested mountains two hours outside of Sydney, made famous by the blue haze that hangs over the mountains, caused by some combination of Eucalyptus leaves and the atmosphere. We hit a couple of stunning vistas before checking into our first ever airbnb experience.
Airbnb is an accommodation service. Individuals rent our their homes, a room, a guest suite or a treehouse. It's often less expensive than a hotel and has a more local experience. We are met by Isabelle, our lovely french hostess, who treats us like family and shows us our guest suite. She serves us breakfast in the mornings, lets us use her laundry and gives us the wifi password. I am utterly convinced this is the way to go. She recommends dinner at a place within walking distance that was a former car repair shop, called The Garage. It is one of the better meals I've every had.
So far, J'adore Le Montagne's Blu and airbnb.
Kai flirting with one of the "three sisters" the legend behind the beautiful rock formations
Rob enjoying happy hour from our home at Le Maison Blue
Off the Beaten Path- our first Walkabout
So, I'm sitting cross-legged in the dirt in a cave with eucalytus leaves shoved up my nose. As I look around at the other people with various green leaves and stems poking out of their nostrils, including my husband and kids, I'm wondering, what in the world have I gotten us into?
I had been searching for an adventure that would feel unique to Australia and a bit off the beaten path. I stumbled across this Walkabout in the Lonely Planet Guide. It is advertised as a day spent with an aboriginal guide, bushwalking in the Blue Mountains and learning about aboriginal culture, including visits to sacred sites with drawings thousands of years old. I booked it and now find myself questioning my judgement as the guide takes another deep breath in of Eucalyptus and pauses a good fifteen seconds to enjoy the euphoria of the leaves before speaking.
Evan, our guide, is of aboriginal descent. He is tall and lanky and he is as fair as Snow White. When he arrived to initiate us on our journey, I thought, we just got scammed. He looks nothing like the "authentic" guys in traditional clothing and painted faces playing the digiredoo on the boardwalk by the Opera House. Now here we are in the dirt with Evan, as he unravels a whole series of beliefs and assumptions we have about the Aboriginal people. He's deeply knowledgable, quite spiritual and very opinionated.
We eventually yank the leaves out and spend the day on the walkabout. It's fascinating on a number of levels. We're introduced to the flora and fauna and its medicinal values. We do spend time at a sacred site and learn about the cave paintings. Evan also takes us a wild tangent on the evils of cell phones, microwaves and the puppets in the Australian government. He is a good representation of worlds of thought colliding. He lives and breathes the knowledge and understanding of an ancient culture and yet exists in the modern world. I don't know if he's right or wrong, but I do love hearing the beliefs that are so contrarian to my everyday life.
At the same time, the kids have lost interest and are falling asleep on a rock. Evan pulls himself back on track and the afternoon moves quickly. The kids are especially fascinated by Aboriginal thoughts on approaching adulthood. Kai is also curious about the cave drawing of the man with a giant penis. It spawns hours of speculation later in the car.
Mia asks about the fairness behind aboriginal men taking multiple wives. She also probes as to why the women had to go live with the husband's family in another clan, rather than remaining close to her own family. Evan moves delicately through his answers, but I'm with Mia. It raises more questions than answers.
At one point, we are asked to participate in a traditional dance, while Evan beats sticks against a piece of wood. We all bounce around, but Kai is distracted. At the end of the day, when we go over the highlights as a family, Kai calls forward that moment. While we were all dancing, Kai was watching a leech wiggle it's way up Evan's shoe and sock. That explains Kai's vigilance and refusal to sit on the ground all day.
Five minutes before the end of the hike Evan stops us. He is saying his good-bye and requests permission to leave us so he can sprint the last five minutes of the hike. It's the oddest thing. Our guide literally said good bye before the end of the tour and sprinted away. Rob and I stare at each other, dumbfounded. Then, with the kids, we figure, if you can't beat 'em, join 'em. We chase after him, sprinting the last few hundred yards of the walkabout and end on a victorious note.
Beaches, Buses, Bondi and Butt-lag
I need to remember that on these long trips, Day Two is always the toughest. The excitement and adrenaline of the first day have worn off and jetlag is hovering at the edges, waiting for the first glimpse of fatigue to come roaring in.
For our second (and last) full day in Sydney, we decided to take the public bus out to Bondi Beach. Ever ambitious, there is a beautiful 2-3 mile cliff walk that stretches from Bondi to Coogee beach that we intended to conquer (or maybe just me. Rob tends to be far more practical about these things). As a side note, I do think it's a brilliant idea to take some form of public transportation while you are in a foreign city at least once. Even if it's not a great experience, it will make for a good story later. Our bus ride was relatively uneventful, but we got to pass through a lot of neighorhoods, parks and by beauiful churches that don't hit any Lonely Planet Guide.
We arrive at Bondi Beach and it's gorgeous. Lots of colorful characters and lots of tourists, like us. We plop down on the warm sand and survey all the people who are frolicking happily in the waves. As the water in San Diego never truly gets warm, we are skeptical of people in swimsuits who don't look like they are freezing. Finally, curiousity takes hold and we are all four in the water, splashing and body surfing. It is already one of my favorite moments of the trip.
Eventually, we get hungry. We make our way to lunch and I am still filled the fantasy of a family walk together. With much resistance, I coax the family into meandering to the first lookout. Shortly into the walk, things are devolve quickly as jetlag has turned my kids into these strange, unfamiliar forces of negativity. Simultaneously, Rob and I experience a sudden and unexpected loss of patience. The 500 yard walk to the cliff is like a landmine of petty arguments. It is a strange mixture of incredible landscape and scenic beauty agains a foreground of a family of buttheads. We capture the beauty and the moment and trek back to the bus-stop, where gratefully the bus arrives without a wait.
Back at the hotel, everyone diappears into a comfortable silence for the rest of the evening.
The bus
Monday, March 31, 2014
Flip Flop Slaughter
Disaster struck near the Opera House yesterday. Kai and I were strolling along and he gave me the flat tire of all flat tires. I took another step and almost fell on my face. I looked down and the straps had been pulled out of my flip flop. There was no resuscitating it. My poor flip flop had been killed on impact.
I hobbled across the way to the nearest convenience store. Mind you, at this time, all of these beautiful, well-dressed people are walking by, making their way to the opera house for a very refined evening, as I'm hobbling past them, dragging my foot made useless by lack of footwear. Add to that, my family is trying very hard not to laugh at my gait and failing.
I must not be the first person to have this experience as there are plenty of choices in the store.
At least I won't look like a tourist, right?
Sunday, March 30, 2014
A Lens on Sydney
We are in the heart of Sydney. Or, at least the tourist version of Sydney. We can see the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge from our hotel room and in between the two is the wharf for cruise ships and other ferries.
It's warm and balmy and we take our white, pasty tourist legs and american tennis shoes and go join the Saturday morning throng of people. Our plane landed at 8am in the morning and we are anxious for "real food" as Mia calls it. No matter how nice the airplane is, the food is never good. We find a farmer's market close by and dive into gyozas, sushi, meatball sandwiches and roasted pumpkins and feta cheese. It is heavenly.
Now it's time for serious tourist action. The camera comes out. The very one I bought the day before the trip. It's our first camera that's not a point-and-click. Actually, it is, but you can also zoom and it looks like you know what you are doing. As with everything in our family, the camera is now a major point of negotiation. The kids take control and there's a camera rotation between Kai and Mia, with Rob and I getting a chance to take pictures one in eight turns. There is a very skewed sense of equality. The kids instinctively know how to use the camera and are soon explaining the settings to me. Which is so much better than reading the manual.
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