Sydney Here We Come!

While it was not part of our original plan or itinerary, Clive and Johanna have convinced us we cannot come to Australia without visiting Sydney. They have also most generously offered to watch the kids for us so we can have a little romantic getaway...in one of the world's most beautiful cities! Be still my heart...I am SO EXCITED!! Add to that the fact that Rob and I have not had two nights away from the kids...in a beautiful hotel...in a romantic setting...FOR YEARS!

This was a very last minute decison, and we are going to be flying by the seat of our pants with very little pre-planning. So far so good, as we booked our hotel on a site Johanna recommended that allows you to stay at a "mystery" hotel for very steeply discounted rates. So we rolled the dice with the booking, and ended up with the 5 star Westin Sydney! Johanna and Clive have stayed there before and say it is amazing, very centerally locatated to most attractions we would want to visit on a short trip. I went online and looked at the rooms and they look absolutely beautiful. And the room rate was 1/3 of what you would pay if you booked it normally! I love it when a plan comes together...

So we leave tomorrow morning (December 29th for us) and will return the afternoon/early evening of December 31st...just in time to ring in the New Year with our family. I can't believe the trip is flying by so fast, and it is only one week from today that we will be headed home. :-( But for now I am just going to focus on our newest adventure, and live life in the moment.

Woo Hoo...can't wait to see Sydney!

Merry Christmas (just a few days late) 2009

Saying we had a wonderful Christmas seems like such an understatement. We had a wonderful Christmas Eve, and beautiful dinner. We then got the kids to bed early (they were ready...could not wait for Santa to arrive), and got to work being Santa's little Elves. Hours of wrapping, and assembling, and wrapping and more assembling and we got to bed around 1AM. Clive and Rob spent over 3 1/2 hours just assembling this awesome foozball table. Total troopers.

When we were done the tree was ready to go, and we were pooped. Excited knocks on the door at 5AM had us up, even though we were feeling quite a bit like zombies. The children's excitement soon rubbed off and with paper flying and "Woo Hoo's and WHOA's" filling the air it seemed Santa hit the nail on the head. All of the wished for gifts seemed to have arrived, along with a few they had not wished for, but were thrilled to get. It was a very blessed Christmas morning. There was even a bright red Radio Flyer tricycle under the tree for Paige, and I think that brought back memories of Christmases Past for all of us.

After the gifts were opened and the paper cleaned up we got dressed and attended Clive and Johanna's church. Beautiful music and a wonderful message brought the focus back to what the day is really about, our Lord's birth. We had a wonderful service, and then returned back home for a huge "American" breakfast, with eggs and bacon, pancakes and delicious fruit. With a super full tummy and a previous night of 4 hours sleep I fell asleep on their outside couch. Just add the tropical temps, a cool breeze, and some classical music on the iPod (thanks again for the headphone loaners Sharon!), I was out like a light for a loooooong winter's nap!

That evening we were treated to a beautiful and traditional Aussie/New Zealand Christmas dinner. Huge oysters, prawns (shrimp) as big as your hand, and tender, delicous lamb chops were on the menu...along with potatos and veggies. Yum!

So Merry Christmas from the Warren family from Australia. It is surely a Christmas we will all remember the rest of our lives!

And meanwhile...back in Orange...

Three week trips to Australia would never be possible if it were not for our dear friends Debbie and Dan watching our furry son, Cisco. They have graciously been our official "dog-sitters" since day one for Cisco, and we are so very blessed to have them.

This one she called "Who Needs Reindeers?" Tee Hee

Knowing how much we miss him, Debbie has started a tradition of emailing pictures to us on our trips. This time she sent us a bunch of awesome pics...but as our internet is spotty I will only post a few.

Luckily Aunt Deb does not let Cisco develop those extra Holiday love-handles. He loves to go for bike rides with his harness on. I have a feeling when we get home he will sleep for several days straight!

Thanks Dan and Deb for taking such good care of the Dude, and especially for sending us the pictures. It put a smile on all of our faces!

Aboriginal Art

The first night we were in Port Douglas we walked around the quaint little town and visited some shops. The most interesting one we saw was a shop that carried all kinds of Aboriginal Art. The things here were so beautiful, and have become quite sought after so they consequently are quite expensive.

Everything in this shop/gallery was hand carved and/or hand painted. The patterns and colors are just beautiful.



We learned here there is one kind of boomerang for decoration, and another type for used for hunting. The proprietor of the shop told us if the boomerang comes back to you it's not considered a good throw, as it should have hit the animal you were after while hunting and stayed right there.



Several people in our party gave a go at trying to make music with the beautiful Didgeridoo, but with little luck. This is a much more difficult instrument to play then it first appears. The girl running the shop played it for us, and the sound it made was beautiful and haunting.

The colors and shapes, the beautiful patterns were amazing...some appearing very primitive, but on closer examination the work seemed very complex. Absolutely gorgeous.

Just some of the man-made wonders we have seen so far!

Australian Christmas Day 3

Our third day in Australia was mainly a travel day. We got up and got packed, and drove an hour to the Brisbane Airport. After parking our car at an offsite carpark and getting a bus to shuttle us to the airport we checked in with Jet Star Airlines (a domestic Australian airlines) and had a nice lunch at the airport before flying to Cairns. The flight was about 2 hours, and the 10 of us made it there very uneventfully.

We were picked up in Cairns and driven via shuttle to Port Douglas, about 45 minutes from Cairns. The drive was just beautiful, very scenic winding roads through where the rainforest literally meets the ocean.



This is Sebastian looking so grown up to his old Auntie...on the drive from the airport to Port Douglas.

The beaches here are just beautiful, but there is pretty much no one on them as it is "stinger" season and the water hides beautiful but deadly jellyfish. There are small areas of ocean that are basically netted off and available for swimming, or you can wear a stinger suit in the ocean that is made of nylon rash guard type material. We all had to wear these when we were on the Great Barrier Reef.

The quick driver and the winding coastal roads took some getting used to, as we were on the "wrong" side of the road! I kept feeling like we were going to have a head-on collision.

Clive and Johanna had arranged for us to have a 4 bedroom apartment type hotel room. Complete with kitchen, a beautiful balcony that became a wonderful breakfast spot and even a clothes washer, this worked out to be the perfect accomodations for our two families...all 10 of us! Besides the apartment being great, "Club Tropical" also had a wonderful waterfall pool that the kids loved.



One of my favorite things about the hotel was the fishpond/courtyard. There was a beautiful large fishpond in the middle of the buildings, with large concrete stepping stones scattered across the length of it. This was really the best way to get to your room, so you would step across the stepping stones, surrounded by lily pads, large koi fish and beautiful flowers. Every time I crossed it I felt a little like being in a fairy tale!





We ended the evening walking around Port Douglas, visiting the shops and having a wonderful dinner. We even met George..."the Groper". More on that next!

Just a quickie

What do these 4 pictures have in common? They were all things we did (and just a few of the things we did) this last weekend in Cairns and Port Douglas. I have literally hundreds of pictures to go through, and stories to tell. We just got back to Hope Island last night (Monday) around 7PM, and besides the fact that we were all completely exhausted we had no internet coverage, so I could not go online. The internet problem has been resolved, and we are now going to be "home" for several days, so look for some posts from me in the upcoming days.

Johanna has a crowd of children and "Mums" coming over this afternoon for a Christmas play and swim in their backyard, so this post will be brief. Just wanted to give a quick update on some of what we had been doing.

If you want to see a VERY HAPPY 10-year old, just come to the Rainforest Habitat in Cairns, where you can not only see the most amazing local creatures, but hold them or pet them as well! Clive is good friends with the owner Michael, and we had a beautiful "breakfast with the lorikeets" before touring the facility. The topper of course was the kids getting to hold a koala to have their pictures taken. She was SO sweet and very soft, and I think we would have stayed there all day if we could. They also got to feed and pet kangaroos, and several other "local" animals. The birds in this facility were amazing...in every color and variety.

Yes, this is me, snorkeling on the Great Barrier Reef. Easily in the top 10 of most amazing experiences of my life, the beautiful fish and coral were a sight to behold! Rob got adventurous with Clive's encouragement and actually went scuba diving here, the first time in his life he had gone scuba diving. Many, many more pictures to come on this!

We took the Skyrail through the rainforest with a few stops to walk around and hear about the area from rangers stationed there. Trees that are hundreds of years old, amazing plant and bird and wildlife, and spectacular views. I know I've said AMAZING about a hundred times...but God's beauty in these locations is almost beyond description.

We took the train from Kuranda back down out of the rainforest, back to Cairns. This train was actually built over 130 years ago, and is quite an AMAZING engineering feat. Travelled right next to a waterfall, and heard the history of this train. Just beautiful.

We also had some incredible meals, went to a butterfly sanctuary, and more...all in really 2 days! I'll update again later today and go into a little more detail...as the pictures literally are worth 1000 words.

Till then...Good Day Mates!

Hyatt Sanctuary Cove

On our way back from lunch on Thursday we stopped at the Hyatt, Sanctuary Cove. Gorgeous hotel, and the locals can buy a membership that allows them to use all hotel facilities and get huge discounts on stays, restaurants, etc.

There are beautiful birds everywhere, and you hear unusual bird songs wherever you go. This bird Johanna told me was actually considered quite a pest, very messy and dirty. But it looked really cool!

This lagoon pool is amazing, and huge! A swimming pool with a white sandy beach surrounding 75% of it. Very quiet here, with just the call of tropical birds in the air. Complete and total paradise! We will come back here with the kids for an afternoon before we leave.

This map was on a wall inside the hotel to give you an idea of the surrounding area. Just to the left of the word "You" is the pool I just mentioned. Clive and Johanna live to the right side of this map, in a community called Hope Island, just minutes from this hotel.

As I write this it is early Friday morning here. We are going to pack up and head to the airport in Brisbane this morning, for a 12:30 flight to Cairns. From there we will travel to Port Douglas and spend 4 days visiting the Great Barrier Reef and other sights. Don't know how much (if any) internet access I will have there, so might not be posting again until our return on the 21st or 22nd. We are super excited about this next adventure, and hear it is an adventure of a lifetime! We just cannot believe how quickly the days are flying by!

Australiah Christmas-Day 2

Today was another beautiful day, probably because we got a great night of sleep for starters. Johanna and Clive have a guest suite that makes you feel as if you are in the nicest of 5 star resorts. You get up and walk out into their beautiful home, that opens up to a comfortable and beautiful outdoor living space, complete with dining area, outdoor seating area, and kid/toy/trampoline play area.

We had a nice relaxed morning, and then got showered and ready and while Nina (their nanny) stayed home with the kids to eat lunch and swim and play we went out to a beautiful lunch at a local restaurant right on the water. "George's" is a Greek/seafood restaurant and had the most delicious food.

This was the view from my seat at the table where I was enjoying garlic prawns and Morton Bay Bugs, which are like a half sized lobster. Absolutely delicious!

Some beautiful New Zealand wine and we were in heaven. Great food, great wine, and awesome conversation.

On the way home we stopped by the Sanctuary Bay Hyatt, which is an absolutely gorgeous hotel. I have a few pictures of that, but will do that in another post as the internet is being super slow tonight and only letting me upload 4 pictures at a time.

Another wonderful day!

Australian Christmas-Day 1

Topping the list at one of the easiest travel experiences I have ever had, our trip over was really a breeze! Hoover dropped us at the curb at LAX, and while we were in line waiting to check in a kind employee opened up the ropes and took us to the front of an empty line, "because we were travelling with little ones". After we checked in our GINORMOUS bags we went and grabbed a bite to eat in the airport and got on board the plane.

(This picture was taken just moments after getting off of our flight in Brisbane. Happy Travelers!

Virgin Australia was great, with it's funky mood lighting and funny antimated safety briefings. The in-flight entertainment was really great, with tons of current movies, TV shows, games, etc. They served a hot dinner and glass of wine after take off...we watched a few movies and tried to get some sleep. The kids slept great. We awoke a few hours before arrival, ate some breakfast and watched another movie and we were there! 7100+ miles, and it was not bad at all.

Arrived into Brisbane around 6:30AM, and after an hour getting through customs we were in Clive's car headed to his home. The drive from the airport to their home was around 45 minutes, and when we arrived Johanna had a chilled glass of Champagne and a delicious hot breakfast pie waiting for us. Yum! We got the full tour of the Raharuhi's beautiful home...and the kids of course wanted to immediately get in the pool. Beautiful weather, low 80's with a nice breeze, an amazing outdoor living area where we can sit, watch the kids swim and play, and just CHILL OUT.

Spent the day relaxing and trying hard to stay awake as we had been up for such a long time. Went to a cool fish/seafood market and got a whole snapper for dinner. Clive and Johanna took us around and showed us some local spots, including a waterfront parcel they are considering putting their next home on.

Came back to their house and Rob and Johanna went to work in the kitchen and made an incredible dinner. By 9PM we were completely bushed, and fell asleep as soon as we hit the pillow.

An awesome first day!