Weekend Camping and Hiking at Wilson's Promontory

Shae, Miia and I went camping and hiking out at Wilson's Promontory National Park on the South coast of Victoria a few weekends ago. We had bbq's, saw wildlife (including kangaroos, walabees and a tiger snake!), hiked to our campsite with full gear, and had a great overall weekend. The hike was spectacular, great coastal views en route to our site at Oberon Bay. The hike back on the other hand was pretty intense. Mostly uphill as we walked back a different way.

Pics:

1) The drive down

2) Me cooking the bbq like a true Aussie

3) A few 'roos

4) Shae, Miia and I on the hike to Oberon Bay

5) View on the hike

6) Spider-Brady

7) Cool rock formation

8) Me in front of Little Oberon Bay

9) Little Oberon Bay

10) Footprints of other hikers

11) Oberon Bay (look how wide the beach is!)

12) Tiger Snake in trees (look close)

13) Cool green caterpillar

14) View on the way back

15) Misty morning

My First Aussie Christmas

Pics:

1) Santa on a firetruck

2) Tree on Christmas morning

3) Shae, Miia and Lena on Christmas morning

4) Aussie animal chocolates with real bits of Emu, Kangaroo, Koala, Wombat

5) Christmas Morning: Shae and Miia bought me Home Alone!!!

6) Shae's Christmas Cake, Miia's Gingerbread house, and my little snowman in a stubby holder

7) The lunch table and Les getting excited

8) Me at the lunch table

9) Shae's Family: Luke, Les, Julie and Shae

10) My Aussie Christmas: Shorts, 'thongs,' and a can of VB in my nice Australia stubby holder

11) Nothing brings families together like poker on Christmas!

My first Christmas in the sun. Well it wasn't as sunny as I'd hoped, but it was still an overcast day at about 25 above or so. Not too shabby. I made sure to where 'thongs' and shorts, and I kept my beers cold in a stubby holder. Seriously though, Shae's family was great. They made me feel very welcome and at home. Shae's Mom Julie asked me at one point if it felt like Christmas, and that's when I realized it did. Sure I missed all of you back home, but they really made the day special. We woke up early Christmas morning. Shae, Miia and I exchanged gifts. Miia's friend Lena was also there for Christmas, so that was nice. The more the merrier after all! We drove off to Shae's folks' place, had a gigantor Christmas lunch (lunch is the big meal in Oz), and everyone was pretty impressed at how much I ate. I explained that not only do I do that normally at home, but I'm also travelling, so when I get an amazing meal like that, I take advantage of it. The day was great, more gift openings, drinking with the boys, walking the dogs, etc. A nice Christmas dinner with the famous prawns followed by the big poker game and goodbyes. All in all an amazing and memorable day. No doubt about it, as long as you spend Christmas with good people, it makes all the difference.

Great Ocean Road and the Twelve Apostles

Pics:
1) Great Ocean Road Sign

2) Great Ocean Road

3) Ocean View

4) Koala

5) Twelve Apostles

6) "

7) Alice and I at the Twelve Apostles

Just before Jordan headed home in December, we wanted to go up to Melbourne to visit our friends Alice and Jamie that we met in Thailand. As it turns out, they don't live right in the city, Alice, in fact, live about 10 minutes from Shae's Mom and Dad in close to Drouin. But either way, we had to drop off our wicked van (tough to say goodbye), so we needed to go to the city anyway. Didn't really get to much of a chance to see Melbourne itself, but both Jordan and I got a good vibe from it. Definitely a cooler place to be than Sydney. I can see why people compare it to Vancouver, it's got a laid-back feel like that. Not like the hustle and bustle of Sydney. Anyhoo, we met up with Alice and Jamie, went out in Melbourne one night, drank Kokanees (Jordan and I were shocked to find Kokanee, of all Canadian beers, in a pub in Melbourne), then we spent a few days at Alice's family home. Her family was great, welcomed us into their home, and in return, Jordan and I did a bit of farming. Of course, that's when my hayfever started acting up. We spent one night out in Anglesea (beachy resort area, where Jamie has a summer home), then drove the famous Great Ocean Road. We were a little hungover the day we drove it, which isn't too good considering it's just as windy if not windier than the Trans Canada between Banff and Kamloops. We stopped at the side of the road, saw koalas in their element, and enjoyed the scenic views of the road. At the end of our daytrip: The Twelve Apostles. There aren't twelve anymore, but they're strange rock formations off the coast of Victoria, some of which formed bridges up until quite recently, but are spectacular nonetheless. But don't be fooled, beauty comes with a cost. The flies were at their worst today, I thought I was going to slap myself silly.

East Coast with Wicked Van

Pics:

1) The Whitsunday Islands

2) My first Aussie burn...not good

3) Aussies don't get the term 'cougar,' but I thought this was a hoot

4) Me on the van watching the sun set

5) Sign at Australia Zoo: Home of the Crocodile Hunter

6) Koala

7) Croc

8) Me playing Croc Hunter

9) Surfer's Paradise

10) Byron Bay

11) Ocean view from most Easterly point in Australia

12) Lighthouse at Byron Bay: The most Easterly point in Australia

13) Big Golden Guitar in Tamworth, the country music capital of Australia

14) Big Bighorn Sheep in Goulburn

15) Australian Parliament in Canberra

16) Wicked Van "Deluxe Thoughts"

17) Wicked Van front

We rented a camper van to drive down the East Coast in. Turned out to be a great idea, we had a great time. Jordan learned to drive stick for the first time (don't forget we were driving on the wrong side of the road) and we had our home and transportation all in one. We stayed at roadside turnouts all over the country, visited our friends in Byron Bay area, chilled at beaches, went white water rafting in Tully, kayaking in the Whitsunday Island area, etc. Don't have a lot of pictures to be honest, but our route was as follows: Cairns-Mission Beach-Airle Beach (Whitsunday Islands)-Hervey Bay (Fraser Island)-Brisbane-Gold Coast (Surfer's Paradise)-Murwilumbah (visiting friends we met in Thailand)-Byron Bay-random country towns in New South Wales-Canberra-Bateman's Bay-Rye in Victoria (where we visited Shae). I know, lots of places in two weeks, but we made it work. We had a blast in any case. Best beach? Byron Bay. Beautiful girls everywhere (some didn't like to wear tops either, and although Jordan and I were offended, we dealt with it), squeaky sand, beautiful water temps, etc. Didn't learn to surf only because there had been shark warnings in the area.