VanLaar's Australia Holiday- December 2005
We flew from Vancouver to Sydney, via Honolulu - an 18 hour flight. Spent two days in Sydney and flew across the country to Perth - a 5 1/2 hour flight. We stayed there 9 days and flew across the country again to Cairns, via Ayers Rock in the middle of Australia near Alice Springs. We spent 5 days in Port Douglas, just north of Cairns, and then flew back to Sydney, and home the next day.
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Just arrived in Sydney.
We took one of the many ferries that crisscross the harbour.
Our hotel in Sydney - Sir Stamford, near the Opera House
The view from our balcony of Circular Quay. This is a transportation center, for busses, ferries and the train. We thought their transportation system was excellent, and cheap!
We flew to Perth, and stayed with Brian and Liz Bosveld, who live in .
They took us to their beach to do some wakeboarding and tubing.
This lemon tree was on their neighbours' property.
Richard and Ingrid Onderwater live near the Bosvelds, and attend the same church. We really enjoyed visiting them and seeing where they live.
We met lots of friendly people in Rockingham church.
Their elementary school. Each classroom has it's own building, and hallways are outside!
They don't have yellow school busses here.
Brian and Liz took us on a road trip to Albany. We saw lots of beautiful beaches, vineyards, dairy and beef farms, caves, rainforests and even wild kangaroos and emus.
Can you see the kangaroo?
Jewel Cave. It was unbelievable. There were so many stalagmites and stalactites. Click here to find more info about the cave.
Beach after Beach - all empty.
Most red tingle trees are hollow at the bottom, like this huge one.
Brian and Arnold climbed to the top of this tree that had rebar drilled into it. It was 61 Metres high!
We were treated to lots of quaint restaurants and bars for coffee, lunches and supper.
A "flat white" and a "latte". Coffee was expensive in Australia, because it's all espresso machine made. It's delicious, but you only get one each!
This beach has our vote for the most beautiful beach - Little Peoples Bay, just outside of Albany.
We visited Andrew and Helena Bolhuis who live close to Bunbury. Helena showed us her church/school.
Andrew and Helena have a Macadamia and Orange Tree Farm. These young orange trees are just starting to flower.
David Bolhuis shows off this play house his Opa, Dirk Onderwater built for them.
This stream runs below their farm, and they irrigate out of it.
We flew across Australia again, landing near Ayer's Rock on the way. Can you see it in the background?
Our condo in Port Douglas, near 4 mile beach. Beach Terraces Resort.
The inside.
No-one can swim in Port Douglas from October until April because of all the deadly box jellyfish present in the warm water offshore.
Lots of farming in the rich volcanic soil near Cairns. First time we've ever eaten freshly picked bananas.
Snorkeling on the Great Barrier Reef was fantastic! We couldn't get enough of looking at God's beautiful world under the water. There were so many fish, in every colour, and the coral came in all colours. We rented a camera, but most of these pictures were taken by Wavelength. You can see their website here.
This is one picture we took ourselves.
