December 2, 2013 - February 1, 2014
Our first night in Sydney we dined on delicious Italian food and wine with the Smythe's, the Austin's, and Lavena and Pete. We then headed down to Wollongong to visit the little cuddly creatures at Symbio Wildlife Park and enjoyed a sushi dinner with Simon, Kaz, Jacqui, and Aaron.
We began our big road trip to the west coast which was quickly halted the first night in Yanga National Park when our car ended up stuck, down a muddy road, beyond a closed gate, with a sign reading "road closed". Too bad that gate wasn't locked ;) The drive across the Nullarbor was long and although we didn't see much wildlife, the pine palms were cool and the coastline spectacular. Devin was pretty excited about the first curve in the road in 90km. After seeing the Great Australian Bight, we camped at Cape Le Grand and hiked over to our (almost) private amazing white sand beach at Hellfire Bay. The next morning we climbed to Frenchman's Peak.
Our next stop was Leeuwin-Naturaliste National Park. We spent the day wine tasting in Margaret River at Leeuwin Estate, Voyager, Vosse Felix, and Cullen wineries.
In Fremantle we had lunch at Little Creatures Brewery and had dinner with our lovely friends Ben and Carla :) We camped that night and hopped the ferry the next day to Rottnest Island. Oh the quokas!! They are the cutest animals. We swam, snorkeled, and cycled our way around the island. So beautiful! Jenny was the only one on the beach wearing a wetsuit :)
In Perth we met up with Chris and Niki for dinner and enjoyed Jenny's first pavlova on our way to Kalbarri National Park. We attempted to hike the 8km Nature's Window and the Loop, but turned around at the 3km mark suffering from heat exhaustion.
Coral Bay was amazing! The beach was beautiful and the snorkeling off the beach was great. We did a couple of dives and snorkeled with a Manta ray. Loved the warm tropical waters!
We continued north to Cape Range National Park which was a little more remote but equally beautiful. We loved the snorkeling along the Ningaloo Reef...we saw lots of turtles, sharks, coral, and rays. The kangaroos were cute too :)
Christmas in Toongabby with Lavena, Pete, and Pete's family! So lovely, complete with a turducken!! We saw the little penguin parade at Phillip Island, then spent a couple of days in Melbourne to see the Ashes Test Match, shop, eat, and drink. We celebrated New Year's with Nikki and Rod in Sydney with a great view of the fireworks over Sydney Harbor.
Next stop Canberra. We caught up with another good travel friend from Africa, Tim, for a hike :) We met up with Pete, Ange, Tess, Gareth, Tim, Lucy, Tamara, Cormac, Iain, Natalie, Carla, James, Naomi, Nick, and all of their babies. Whew!!
We saw a Big Banana, a Big Merino, and made a stop over in Brisbane to have dinner with Chris and Dom before flying off the the Whitsundays. We sailed, went diving, and relaxed for three days.
Heading back through Wollongong and Sydney, we met up with the entire Gong crew (and all of their babies), took Rishi to a cricket match, then headed to the Blue Mountains to spend a couple of days with Jo and Joel (and their babies). Canyoning, pizza oven, wine, and Trivial Pursuit...amazing fun!
We ducked back down to Canberra for one day of wine tasting before Australia Day at Tanya and Rob's house, followed by a BBQ with Chris, Rachel, Nikki, and Rod, drove back to the Blue Mountains for more canyoning fun, including abseiling, saw the Lumineers in Sydney, and back down to Wollongong for dinner with Naomi and Ben. Such a whirlwind around the east coast but totally worth it!