Day 10 – Leaving for Home

Finally, it is time to say goodbye. Today is our 10th day and we are flying back to Singapore. Felicia is sitting on my left watching TV and Elkan on my right playing monopoly on his iPad. Me? Writing this blog on the plane now so I can just post them up when I reach home later this evening at 1130pm.

Not sure if we are going to have another difficult farewell at the transit gate later. I guess not cos there are Tracy and Meijie with us. (And I have filled Elkan’s bag with so much goodies and his IPad full of our holidays photos!) Thanks Meijie and Tracy for taking such good care of us when we were there in Australia. You guys are the best baby-sitters!

Over 2’000 photos and 150 video clips were taken this trip. 20 travel blogs were recorded on the road every day. Life today will be a big contrast tomorrow. Elkan will be going back to school next Monday. And I will be diving into piles of work waiting for me in office tomorrow morning. We had so much fun in the last 10 days. Yeah…this is what I call “work hard, play harder”!

Will see both of you soon. Sleep tight tonight and see you guys in the Aussie Dreamland.

Day 9 – Sydney (Museum and Paddy’s Markets)

Today is our 2nd last day in Australia. Theoretically, it is our last activity day as we will be leaving for Singapore & Hong Kong first thing tomorrow morning. We cancelled the Blue Mountains tour. I reckon the group had enough of wildlife, sea and forest. We decided to spend our last day exploring the city. Finally, we have some “free-&-easy” time.

Tracy went off to meet her Australian friend. We dragged lazybones Meijie to the museum to see more bones! Felicia and I wanted to bring Elkan to see those gigantic dinosaurs skeletons, fossils, rocks and stuffed animals.

The Australian Museum is modern, high-tech and visitor-friendly. Exhibits are well-spaced and designed. There are a lot of digital screens, giant projection walls and tables for kids to interact with the content. It has a rich collection of Australia’s culture and nature gems.

Opposite the museum stands one of the world’s largest cathedrals – the 106m-long St Mary’s Cathedral. Interestingly, it started it’s first service in 1833, works on the cathedral’s spires weren’t completed until 2000! No photography is allowed inside the cathedral. I managed to take a couple of shots before I was caught. Sigh, I would love to show the beautiful Birmingham-made stained glass windows.

Finally, we arrived at the last stop for our trip – the Paddy’s Markets. Armed with big canvas shopping bags, we spent 2 hours, combing this huge 1000-stalls market for souvenirs and food stuffs for our families and friends back home. It reminded me of the old Shanghai’s “XiangYang Markets”. Most of the vendors were either Chinese, Vietnamese, Malaysians and Thais.

Unlike the Perth’s Fremantle Markets, I thought Paddy is too generalised and overly-commercialized. It was boring and monotonous. Shops were selling the same things. (The only good thing was the competitions kept the prices low. We got good bargains here.) There were only a couple of specialty shops selling local-made crafts. (Below is another shopping place “Queen Victoria Building” where you get the top luxury premium brands)

Day 8 – Sydney (Paddington Markets and Bondi Beach)

The return bus trip from Gold Coast was longer than our first. The driver took a different inland route (with lots of gravel roads and turns) and that prolonged our ride by another 2 hours. Surprisingly, the 17-hour ride was much more comfortable than I expected. Perhaps we were better prepared (and equipped) this time. Elkan and I slept uninterrupted throughout the bumpy night.

Daybreak – We drew our curtains and saw a golden vast land – meadows, farms and lakes. Dawn is exceptionally beautiful in Australia. A spectrum of colours lighted up at the horizon. Cottons of low clouds changed colours from violet to pink. Silhouettes of trees swayed gently in the morning breeze with threads of sparkling golden light illuminating its intricate forms. It felt like watching the creation of a beautiful embroidery on a silky canvas. We were witnessing the best art show from Mother Nature.

Sydney was all sunny and blue sky. No rain, no gloomy sky and certainly no more volcanic ash clouds. We parked ourselves in a backpacker’s hotel right in the city centre. Due to the strong Australian dollars (AUD$1 = HKD8.45), everything seemed so expensive. Despite the high prices, food came in big and generous portions. To my amaze, the Chinese, Korean and Japanese food were “genuinely” tasty!

After a delicious Japanese lunch, we decided to take a long 45-minute walk to Paddington Saturday Markets to check out the stalls. There were a lot of shops selling handicrafts, paintings, photographs, fragrant oils, clothes, bags and palm-reading services. There were even stalls that were just selling sliced bread-with-homemade jams. That simple and tasty!

The markets closed at 4pm and we headed to another world’s famous attraction. Known as one of the world’s greatest beaches, Bondi offers big white powdery beaches and great swelling waves for surfing. There weren’t a lot of people in winter, mainly tourists like us. There were a lot of shops and restaurants by the beach. By 5pm, the sky turned dark and shops were closing. We didn’t have enough time to check out the Bondi Markets and the Bondi Openair Cinema.

We went back to drop our bags at the hotel. The ladies and kid continued shopping around Chinatown and George Street. Meijie and I planned a boys’ night-out to check out Sydney’s notorious (legalised) red-light district, Kings Cross Road. We told the ladies that we might be back late.

Honestly, I was a little disappointed. I was expecting to see a raunchier and dodgy street. Most joints were small and looked less vibrant than our very own Joo Chiat street. Two of us felt kinda out-of-place here. We decided to end our long day and headed back to our hotel. (Ha… The ladies weren’t back from their shopping yet,)

Day 6 – Gold Coast (Whale Watching)

Every year between June and October, Antarctica whales travel up north to Australia to breed. Gold Coast is one of the last safe havens where females give birth to their calves before they return to the colder southern waters in October. We are in Gold Coast at the perfect season to witness the courtship of whales out in the wild.

The whale-watching operator is very experienced and they guarantee 100% whale-sightings. We have done a few dolphin watching trips in Hong Kong but the sightings were usually very rare and far. Whale-watching in Gold Coast is a very rewarding experience. In our tour, we came very close to the whales – not 1 or 2 but at least 4-5 whales (each 12-15m long!). We also had close encounters with the dolphins. Spotting the whales was easy and it didn’t take long before we spotted one – the Humpback Whale is an acrobatic animal, often breaching (leaping out of water) and slapping the water. To protect these gentle giants, Australia has strict laws on whale-watching. Operators must keep a distance of at least 100m.

We learnt so much about these magnificent animals. Between the 50s-60s, Humpbacks were hunted to the brink of extinction. Thanks to the whale recovery program, Humpbacks are now sought by whale-watchers today and not butchers. Their numbers have recovered significantly from 5,000 to 80,000 today. Humpback’s average lifespan is between 50-85 years old but new studies reveal that some can live beyond 100 years.

Day 6 – Gold Coast (Sunrise)

(Photo Taken: 5:30am Sunrise at Gold Coast, Australia – Meijie, Tracy and I woke up at 5am to catch this year’s longest/slowest lunar eclipse. In the end, we were more intrigued by the golden sunrise than the bloody red moon.)

Day 5 – Gold Coast (An Unforgettable Wild Bird Day)

After spending 5 good days on the road with my son, I discovered so many good things about him. Elkan is a very sensible and doting son. He is full of love, surprises, sensitivity, humor and pranks – a perfect boyfriend/combo for any girl out there.

Our father-&-son bonding grows stronger by the day. He chatted to me like a little adult. I thought he was pretty mature for his age. I brought him to the toy shop today and wanted to get him a cheap video-camera. Just before I was about to make payment, he pulled me aside and said he has another camera back home. He doesn’t need an additional one. I was surprised cos’ all kids love new toys. When I told Felicia about this, she told me Elkan knows the money he spent came from the long hours we spent at work. He doesn’t like being alone at home and wants us to spend more time with him. He thinks if he spends lesser, we can make lesser money so we have more time to be with him.

At this tender age of 6, Elkan is a wonder boy. He is my joy, my “happy-power” and my pride. I am happy that I managed to get away from work for 10 good days out here in the outback with him. Afterall, I promised him a vacation of adventures. I hope he remembers every moment we spend together. (If he can’t recall the details, that is fine cos I left him a blog of happy photos and memories of our lives. To me, these worth much more than hand-down heirlooms.)

This is going to be quite a long blog with lots of photos and activities. Cos’ today is a very special day for me. It is my birthday. Many thanks to Felicia, Tracy and Meijie – they planned a pretty wild “bird-day” party for me. (Yes, you can take that literally!)

We will be spending 5 days in Gold Coast and we planned a “perfect travel itinerary” for Elkan and ourselves.

Day 1 – CITY LIFE – Shopping and Beach along Surfers Paradise
Day 2 – FUN RIDES – Theme Park (Movie World) + Night Tour in the Forest (Glow Worms and Stars Observatory)
Day 3 – NATURE – Wildlife, Forest and Mountains (Tamborine Mountains, Lamington National Park)
Day 4 – SEA – Watching WilSunrise + Whales Watching
Day 5 – ADRENALINE – Sky Diving, Bungee Jumping, Shark Caged Diving, Jet-Sking

Today is our 3rd day in Gold Coast. We will be heading up into the mountains. We started the day early at 8am. Greeting us at our hotel’s lobby was this cool-looking dude (Darran) and his powerful land rover. Awesome! This is exactly what we need for a perfect adventure! A powerful 4-wheel drive through those rocky terrains!

In no time, we hit the dirt roads. Humps after humps, the kid and adults were screaming (with joy) in the car. The ride in the land rover was 10 times more exciting than any mechanical rides we did in Movie World! Darran was super-entertaining and funny (and he made us feel really safe and comfort inside his car). At one point, the car was tilting at 40-degree!. The next moment, we sped across a small stream, created a big “Angel Splash”. What a joyride!

Here are my Top 6 favorite moments:

NUMBER 1 – GALLERY WALK
45km inland from the coast, there is a big community of 6,000 people living up on the Tamborine Mountain. “Gallery Walk” is an colourful suburb (it is the Art & Craft centre of South-East Queensland) where there are lots of interesting shops selling paintings, sculptures, ceramics, porcelain, glass, jewellery, woodwork, fabrics and toys.

NUMBER 2 –TAMBORINE MOUNTAIN NATIONAL PARK
Queensland’s first national park in 1908 – The Tamborine Mountain National Park offers visitors some wonderful walks in a beautiful unspoiled environment. On entering the rainforest in Tamborine National Park, we took a short gentle 1.5km hike (30 minutes) and headed down to Curtis Falls.

Along our trail, Darran showed us a few exotic (but dangerous) Australian plants – plants that have razor-sharp leaves, plants that have leaves that sting, trees with strangling vines and giant trees with legs and “things” hanging between the legs. Of course, I cannot remember all their real names. Darran gave them interesting nicknames (like the “Big Boy”, the “Koala’s Jacuzzi” and the “Japanese Koala”). The “Japanese Koala” is actually a big lump of termite nest wrapped on the tree trunk. Why Japanese? Cos’ a Japanese tourist mistook that “lump” as a Koala bear.

NUMBER 3 –LAMINGTON NATIONAL PARK 
Our next stop is Lamington National Park. It is an Unesco World Heritage site and is well-known throughout the world for its natural beauty, rainforests, birdlife, ancient trees, waterfalls, walking tracks and mountain views. We took a spectacular drive up to the Green Mountains. There, we walked along a series of rope-and-plank suspension bridges (Tree-Top Walk) 15m above ground.

NUMBER 4 –MY SURPRISE BIRTHDAY PARTY AT THE RANCH
My entourage threw a surprise party for me at one of the mountain ranches where we had lunch. Darran played well too, acting along with them. I enjoyed my road-trip so much that I didn’t notice the special table clothes and the hanging birthday decorations! (Not till one of the guides came to me and pointed to the hanging birthday flags!) Darran brought out the cake and they polluted the peaceful countryside with a loud 30-sec annual anthem. No striptease, dodgy karaoke or sleazy hot lady in cowboy suits, just a couple of cowboys and my loved ones. I have the perfect birthday party out here in the wild, high up in the mountains! Lovely!

After lunch, Darran gave us a crash-course how to handle the whip and Elkan’s favorite new toy – the Boomerang! Check out the photos – we were pretty good with our Boomerangs. I kinda suck in the whip (whipped myself a couple of times accidentally) but Felicia mastered it pretty well. She was quite a natural with the whip. Shit, that is bad news for me. Ouch!

Oh yes, I mentioned about the “Wild Bird-Day” in my blog title… Scroll down and check out the wild bird feeding party – the ever-friendly Australian Crimson Rosella birds.

NUMBER 5 –WILD BIRD FEEDING
Wild bird feeding began at O’Reilly’s back in the 1930’s when Bernard O’Reilly was rehabilitating an injured Crimson Rosella. On release, the bird returned daily for supplementary feeding. He couldn’t keep a secret and invited all his friends! Soon visitors to Lamington National Park were also ‘flocking’ to enjoy the experience.

We have done this in Perth 10 years ago. Lots of Crimson Rosellas (Red and Blue) and a couple of King Parrots (Green and Yellow). The birds flew down from the trees and perched on every possible spots on our bodies. Very friendly birds and certainly an enjoyable experience with these cute birds. (Can’t imagine doing this with our black crows back in Singapore!). Poor Elkan, he played too much Angry Birds and he was terrified of these birds.

NUMBER 6 –FINALE AT THE PEAK
Towards the end of our trip, Darran drove us to the peak of the mountain (1000m high) where we had a 360-view of  Gold Coast. What a beautiful sight before we descend the mountain! Stunning view!

For those who are interested in our tours – you may contact Darran directly at: Southern Cross 4WD Tours. Tel: +617 5574 5041. Email: info@sc4wd.com.au. Darran’s award winning company is highly rated at Trip Advisor and other websites. Yes, he is funny and witty! Make sure you get him to do those stunts in his 4-wheel-drive.