Australia Pictures

Our Trip Down Under

After a late start in Mumbai and a quick stop in Sydney, we arrived in Brisbane late Saturday night. Our friends, the Perry’s are just finishing up a one-year assignment in Australia. Early the next morning we all flew to Hamilton Island for a four-day trip to the Whitsundays. We stayed at Daydream Island Resort & Spa, one of the islands located in the Whitsundays. It was a beautiful place with an incredible living coral reef aquarium full of tropical fish, live coral species, sharks, sting rays, anemones, sea cucumbers and star fish. We were able to watch the barramundi and shark feedings after breakfast each day. We also enjoyed several of the lagoon style pools, hiking through the rainforest, and the outdoor movie screen that the island had to offer. The highlight of our trip was taking a day-long cruise to the Great Barrier Reef. As such a trip is not very kid-friendly, we booked the kids into the Skipper Club for the day, which they loved. We adults travelled to Knuckle Reef via the Seaflight, operated by Cruise Whitsundays. On our way to the reef we were fortunate to get a quick glimpse of a humpback whale migrating north. Once we docked at the reef, we all went snorkeling. It was fun, but we decided that the views might be better if we tried scuba diving. This was a new experience to us all and it was incredible! It took a while to get used to breathing under water without panicking, but we managed and had a great time. Bryan, Shawna, and I enjoyed our first dive so much that we decided to go for a second dive later in the afternoon. Chris was suffering from an ear infection again and chose to sit the second dive out. We went further down on the second dive and were able to gently touch a few parts of the reef. It was an experience none of us will ever forget. We returned to Brisbane on Wednesday, caught our breath and then headed to Byron Bay on Friday. We stayed at Sandcastles Resort where lorikeets come to the patios each morning to eat. We saw seven at one point. Friday we checked out Surfer’s Paradise, a beautiful beach area. The guys took a jet boat ride while Shawna and I took the kids on an Adventure Duck ride. Adventure Duck is this bus/boat thing that the kids each got to drive. Very fun! The following day we went to Minyon Falls then hiked to the eastern most point of Australia. After a long walk up many, many steps we came to a stunning lighthouse. The views were spectacular. Sunday was Father’s Day and we went to the Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary. It was great fun. Anna got her picture taken with a koala bear and the sanctuary asked if they could use her picture in their new advertising display. We were so proud. It was the perfect Father’s Day gift for Chris. We also got to feed emus, kangaroos, and wallabies. The kids enjoyed the train ride and the playground before we left. On Monday we rode the City Cat into Brisbane for souvenir shopping and spent the afternoon playing in a really cool tree. The City Cat is like a bus system only it uses large catamarans on the river that runs through downtown Brisbane. Check out the pictures. Our last day in Australia was spent hiking the rainforest to Springbrook Falls. It was really beautiful and great exercise. Later that night Shawna and I went to dinner and a show. We left early the next morning and made it back home around 11:00pm. It was exhausting, but we had the time of our lives and are so thankful to Bryan, Shawna, Evan, and Kaden for providing us with this experience. Until next time, take care!