Barry's Bay, New Zealand!

We knew there was one other Barry's Bay in the world, and it happens to be in New Zealand. My parents were spending a month there before coming to Australia, but I forgot to tell them about the other Barry's Bay, in case they were able to find it. So I was pleasantly surrprised that, when they arrived here, they mentioned that they happened to drive right past it on their travels! So, here is what Barrys Bay, NZ looks like:

Canberra

On Tuesday, 25 March, after the girls and John had gone off to school, my parents and I went to Canberra for the day. The morning was fine - sunny, a few clouds, but it started to rain by the time we left and it rained all day. We stopped in Bungendore for a coffee, and when we got out of the car my mother approached a woman to ask where a nice cafe was, and then said, "So, do you think the sun will come out today?" The woman replied, "I hope not, I'm a farmer!"
The first place we went to in Canberra was the Royal Australian Mint. They were undergoing renovations, so we couldn't do the proper tour and look down at the machines at work, but there was a nice display of the history of coins and coin-making in Australia, and we were able to strike our very own $1.00 coin.
We went to the CBD next and wandered around a large mall, too bad about the weather, because it would have been nice to see some of the outside of the city, not just a shopping centre and from the car windows! We did go to the War Memorial, which was really good. It would take one really full day to see it all, there were so many artifacts, photographs, and lots of well done dioramas. We drove around the old Parliament Building and past the new one, and drove up and down the streets with the embassies on them. The USA and Israeli embassies both had traffic barricades around them, like the American embassy in Ottawa, and most of the others had locked gates and security cameras. We were able to drive right up to the Canadian High Commision, which also shared a driveway with New Zealand - no worries there!
Canberra is an interesting city, Bill Bryson has a lot to say about it, including, "It's a very strange city, in that it's not really a city at all, but rather an extremely large park with a city hidden in it." It's not very walker-friendly - not that we had a chance to walk around at all, but everything is very spread out. I think he is mostly right. It is beautifully laid out, with views along Anzac Parade from the War Memorial across to the parliament buildings, but there were no nice little enclaves like other capital cities, with restaurants and shops; it seemed very sterile. I kept comparing it to Ottawa, with all of its little neighbourhoods and knowing you will always end up on a main road going somewhere to find something, but there was none of this in Canberra, except right down in the middle in the City Centre. I will go again, and John wants to see Canberra, so we will keep you updated on our impressions of the Australian capital!

Easter Weekend

We had a nice Easter weekend. My parents returned on Friday from a short trip around NSW and Victoria, and John's sister, Bernadette, came down from Sydney on Saturday. The weather has cooled off a bit and we got some rain on Saturday. Sunday was a beautiful day, however, and in the afternoon we took a drive up to North Durras, a little ways north of here, and did a bush walk along the north side of Durras Lake - beautiful woods, quiet lake, very nice.














Afterwards, we found our way to a place called Big Bit Lookout, on the other side of the highway from Lake Durras, and along some winding, unsealed roads. On the map, these looked like they would be just ordinary unpaved roads, much like the ones all around where we live in Ontario and which are very driveable, but these were rutted, and rocky and some were really steep! We were only averaging 20 km/h, but it was worth it when we got to the top. The maps advertise this lookout as having "Spectacular '360 degree views from Big Bit Lookout including view over Durras Lake" and they were right. I felt like I was on top of the world. There were beautiful forested mountain ranges away inland to the west and we could see Lake Durras and the mouth of the Clyde River to the east.
The descent was very steep - I kept the car in first gear and my foot on the brake - until we got to the main unsealed road out to the highway. We enjoyed a lamb roast on the barbeque with roast vegetables and couscous for our Easter dinner.

On Monday, we were planning on going up to a place called Kangaroo Valley, about 130 km north of here and labelled as Australia's most beautiful valley, so we headed up in two cars - Bernadette was going to go home from there - but we got 50 km out of Batemans Bay and the traffic was just backed up. Eventually, we heard on the radio that the Princes Highway around Kangaroo Valley had traffic jams up to 25 km long. So, we changed our minds, and Bernadette just went on home (taking 7 hours for a usual 4 hour drive), and the rest of us backtracked a bit and went in to Merry Beach (where we had spent Australia Day) and Pretty Beach. The kangaroos didn't disappoint us, there was one field with about 50 in it on our way in, and at Pretty Beach there were at least a dozen in the brush alongside the track down to the beach. I don't think I will tire of seeing kangaroos this year, I could just watch them for ages.














(look carefully for the two kangaroos lounging in the grass!)

Birdland Animal Park

Birdland is an animal park in Batehaven, the town just to the south of Batemans Bay where John's school is. It is a nice small park, locally owned and run, with just animals of Australia. We went on Sunday, 16 March. It is a lot like the Mogo Zoo in that we were able to wander around where we wanted, at our own pace, and go back to our favourite displays. We saw koalas, but as it was in the afternoon, they were sleeping. We are going to go later on in the year in the morning when they have a keeper bring the koalas out and we will be able to hold them, but that is for another blog!














There were lots of birds, but we get a lot of them in our own back yard, so that wasn't the most exciting thing. The best thing was a kangaroo enclosure that we could go right into, and be with the kangaroos. We went back twice, and spent the best part of an hour just enjoying their company. These are very tame creature, used to being fed (they sell little bags of animal food at the entry to the park), so they came right up to us and we were able to pet them. One had a large joey in her pouch, complete with the legs and tail sticking out, and one mother had a tiny joey in her pouch that would occasionally stick it's head out - barely covered in fur and still slightly pink - very cute. Natalie was able to pat the mother and joey at the same time - what an experience!














We also saw other varieties of kangaroos, including the large red kangaroo from northern Australia, wallabies, and tiny kangaroos. There were emus and ostriches, wombats, echidnas, goannas, lizards, etc. At the end of our visit was a demonstration by one of the keepers of two diamond pythons and a baby wombat. She brought the pythons out first, a male and a female, to a large grassy show area, and told us about them and we were allowed to hold them. She onlylet adults hold the male, so John and I took our chances and held the big snake - I had never held a snake before, but it was amazing, the snake was so strong, I could feel how it was twisting around. Really neat experience. The girls declined the offer. The baby wombat was brought out next, a 14 month old whose mother had been killed by a car. The park takes in these orphans and rears them until they are old enough to go back to the wild. I held the wombat too, just like a big baby!



http://www.birdlandanimalpark.com.au/

Eurobodalla Regional Botanic Gardens

Natalie, in Year 4, had a class trip on Tuesday, 11 March, to the Eurobodalla Regional Botanic Gardens, 5 km from Batemans Bay, and I went as a parent chaperone. This is a botanic gardens that is specifically for plants of this region, the south coast of New South Wales. We were divided into two groups, and my group spent the morning learning about ecology and botany, and took apart a flower to look at the insides with a hand lens. The children were then able to plant some grass seedlings that will later be used for schools and other institutions that require a nice grass for slope stability. After lunch, our group was then divided into 3 smaller groups and each went walking around the grounds with a guide looking at different tree species, plants, leaves and flowers, and signs of animals (nests, burrows, holes in trees, and sounds). It was beautiful and familiar being in a forest, but the trees were all unfamiliar - no maples or oaks, not even north american pines or spruces. Just lots and lots of eucalyptus trees, of which there are hundreds of varieties here in Australia. http://www.esc.nsw.gov.au/community/gardens/index.html

















This is a banksia flower, it's about 20 cm tall. http://www.abc.net.au/gardening/stories/s1164522.htm

The Clyde River

Sunday, 9 March was a glorious day, actually, the last two weeks have consisted of one glorious day after another, hot and sunny. So, on that Sunday, we took our exchangee's boat (which is in the safekeeping of a neighbour) up the Clyde River, with the said trusty neighbour as our captain! The boat could only take 4 people plus the captain, so a carload of 4 drove the ten minutes to Nelligan (the site of the kayak races, remember?) and the rest went in the boat, and we switched passengers for the way back. There were a couple who were happy enough in the car both ways, so John and Rachel got to go up and down the river. This blog will be about driving to Nelligan and boating back, because that is what I did, and until John starts blogging again, most things will be from my perspective! So I took the car to Nelligan with two of our neighbours and my father. The girls, John and my mother went in the boat. As you recall, Nelligan is a cute little town on the river, with a nice grassy park right along the river's edge. We brought picnic supplies and set ourselves up in the shade of a big tree to await the sailors. When they all arrived we had some fish and chips from the local restaurant and ate out in the sunshine. We spent an hour or two just lolling on the grass enjoying the company and the lovely day, before the trip back down river. The Clyde River is a wide, gentle river, shallow in spots, and lined in areas with oyster farms; Clyde River oysters are famous. The boat trip took almost an hour to get back to the town of Batemans Bay, under the bridge and to the boat ramp at the marina. It was a wonderful day on the water, nice to see some of the scenerey around here from the water, and not just from the roadside.

Braidwood

We went to a small town called Braidwood on Saturday, 8 March (John was taking his first surfing lesson down in Broulee, I'll get him to blog about it). By we, I mean myself, Rachel, Natalie and my parents. It's 60 km inland up the King's Highway towards Canberra, and it is an old mining town. It was settled in 1830 and gold was found there in 1853, after which the town became the centre of the goldfields in the surrounding area. Many of the original miners' houses are still there, and most of the main street has the original buildings. It has one of those nice wide main streets with angled parking along the side, lots of cafes and fabric stores, antique and junk shops, and art and craft shops.

Sydney 3

Sunday, 24 February saw us up early yet again, much to Rachel's dismay, as she likes to sleep in on the weekend. We took the bus back into the city and went to St. Patrick's Church in The Rocks for mass. We met up with all the exchange people at Centrepoint Tower (http://www.sydneytoweroztrek.com.au/) at 11:30 and went up for our lunch in the revolving restaurant. I've eaten in a revolving restaurant before, at the CN Tower in Toronto, but that was a while ago and I can't remember if I felt queasy, but this time I definitely did feel queasy! Not really sick, but just not right. There's something a bit odd about being so high up (and this tower was one-quarter the height of the CN Tower) and moving slowly around. And eating, to top it all off! The food was great, John tried some oysters, I couldn't bring myself to, but we both tried the kangaroo meat, which was very good. We went around twice before heading down, the day had started out cloudey but cleared up nicely for a good look around. We could see the mouth of the harbour, the airport, and lots of the harbour. Then it was back to Abbotsford one last time and the 4 hour journey back to Batemans Bay.




























My parents had left Sydney on Saturday morning and headed inland, they met up with us on Sunday evening when we got home. They actually arrived a few hours before we did, but were entertained by some of our wonderful neighbours. They are in Australia for 5 weeks, and will be using our place as a home base and travelling around a bit, but also enjoying a bit of what the south coast of NSW has to offer.

Sydney 2

On Saturday, 23 February, we were up early and off to the city centre, by bus this time, to catch the boat for our harbour cruise that was leaving at 9 am. It was a lovely old wooden boat named Radar:














There were about 70 us board, current exchangees and their families, some former exchangees, and the organizers (all former exchangees). We had a tour guide that pointed out places of interest along the way, such as the swimming pool where a famous Aussie swimmer started swimming in the 1970's. This pool was right down on the water's edge, and just had a canvas shell and was filled with harbour water. More than a few of the pools in Sydney use this technique for their water supply. Various bridges were pointed our, including the famous Harbour Bridge of course, and also the ANZAC Bridge and Iron Cove Bridge. Cockatoo Island has an interesting history, it was once used as a prison http://www.cockatooisland.gov.au/ We boated up the river first as far as we could, then headed back. The properties along the harbour are also fantastic. Here is a sampling:



























































What amazed me, was that some of these places had their own little sandy beach, right in Sydney Harbour. We sailed under the Harbour Bridge and past the Opera House. Our lunchtime break was on the north side of the harbour at Clifton Gardens. There was a long pier, and an enclosed swimming area; not like the pools, but just along the beach with a net extending down form the pier to keep the sharks out! We had a lovely barbeque lunch; the kookaburras were waiting in the trees, and one of our leaders told us to watch our plates because last year a kookaburra came swooping down and grabbed a piece of chicken off someone's plate. Not one minute later there was a commotion and a kookaburra had done the exact same thing! The piece of chicken as almost a big as the bird as he sat there on the pavement with his prize.

Sydney Harbour Week had just started that day so the harbour was full of all manner of watercraft, especially sailboats. It was just beautiful. They had a lovely windy day for it, too.




























When we disembarked, John and I and the girls wandered around an area called The Rocks, where the original settelment of Sydney was. Lots of nice old buildings and housing areas. We even stumbled upon a little piece of Canada in the shape of the embassy, Canada House, on Harrington Street.
























We headed back to Abbotsford and 'home' after that and had a really nice barbeque dinner with our hosts and an early bedtime.

Sydney 1

We spent the weekend of 29 February to 2 March in Sydney for a gathering of other exchange teachers to Australia. Not just from Canada, but also the States, England, and Germany.

We arrived in Sydney on Thursday night, to the home of a couple who have been on two exchanges, one to Colorado, the other to Calgary, and who billet current exchange families in Australia when needed. They have a lovely house west of the city centre and close to the Parramatta River, which becomes Sydney Harbour closer to the downtown. On Friday morning we took the ferry from their place to Circular Quay, in downtown Sydney. It was a Rivercat, or a catamaran ferry, full of tourists, business people and students heading to school - just another ordinary day for them, going by water to where they need to be for the day.














My (Susan's) parents had arrived in Sydney on the previous Tuesday, so John headed off to his teachers' conference and I met my parents at their hotel in the CBD. Very neat meeting up with one's parents halfway 'round the world! We spent the day around the city, firstly having coffee in the Queen Victoria Building, which is just beautiful:
















We went to Australia's Biggest Yarn Store (you would have loved it, Wendy!) as my mother is working on an Australian themed tapestry of a couple of Eastern Lorikeets and needed some supplies. We hit Dymocks, a nice big bookstore, where we had to tear the girls away from the Harry Potter displays (they even had one of the movies showing). We went to the Strand Arcade, another great example of Victorian architecture - mosaic floors, intricate ironwork, and woodwork. It makes me wonder that if Australia has such great examples of this in its major cities, did a place like Toronto ever have such arcades? Our histories are so similar, I think we probably did, but they were bulldozed for more modern structures. It's a shame, really, because they are so beautiful.


















Anyway, we walked through Hyde Park and to the Australian Museum. I often think that museums in major cities are all pretty much the same, but I am pleasantly surprised each time I visit one that they are not. This was no exception. The first room we came to was a skeleton room (yippee!). It was fantastic, full of complete skeletons of all sorts of animals, including a whale right in the centre, and southern hemisphere animals, which are unfamiliar to me. There was also a human skeleton on the skeleton of a rearing horse, and a vignette of a human skeleton sitting in a easy chair with a book on its lap under a Tiffany-style lamp, a dog skeleton, complete with leash, was sitting next to the chair, a bird skeleton was in a cage, and a cat skeleton was chasing a mouse skeleton into a hole in the skirting board. Here are the pictures:




































There was a mineral exhibit, and an exhibit of Australian birds and insects - I now know what the Sydney funnel-web spider (deadly) looks like, in case I encounter one (small chance). There was a great interactive children's area, and to finish off some exhibits of the Aboriginies, including history and art.














We walked through the Botanical Gardens on our way back to Circular Quay, where we met John and the rest of the teachers for a nice dinner at Rossini's, overlooking the quay.

Tuross Head

On Sunday, 24 February, we spent the afternoon exploring Tuross Head, 50 km down the coast from Batemans Bay. It was a beautiful, hot day, but windy. Tuross Head is a headland with lakes on either side extending about 5 km inland. To the north is Coila Lake, which is blocked off at the ocean by a large sandbar, and Tuross Lake to the south, which empites into the ocean. The town itself it a quiet place; I wondered what people who lived there did for a living! It turns out that most of them are retired, and a lot I suppose work in Moryua, 10 minutes to the north. There were no business or industrial districts, a small shopping area, no schools, no churches, and a couple of restaurants down by the water. We didn't go to shop, however! We wandered around on the Coila Lake side for a while, the sand was beautiful, but the water was quite wild. There was a steepish slope down to the ocean, not like the gentle low-grade beaches closer to home. It was too windy to do much, so we went back to the car and drove higher up on the headland. There was a nice grassy park area up top where we stopped and had a nice picnic of tea, egg sandwiches, and cookies. The shore below was quite rocky so we went down to explore. Rachel did her usual thing and just sat on a big rock looking out to sea with the wind blowing her hair. John and Natalie did more exploring; Natalie really enjoys clambering around on the rocks and looking for rockpools. At the top of this park was a memorial to soldiers in the two world wars, nice with an Australian flag flapping in the wind.











































On to the other side of the heads, and down to that beach we went.














Here is where we discovered our first jelly fish. There was a little girl who ran out of the water crying, and upon talking to her parents, we learned that she had been stung by a jellyfish, and we looked at the sand around us we and saw that there were dozens of these lying around! And here we were just casually strolling along in our bare feet, thongs in hand, with the odd wave lapping over our feet! The jellyfish here are not the deadly Box Jellyfish that are found further north in Queensland, but a type called Bluebottles, or Portuguese Man-o-War (due to their shape). They still impart a painful sting, though. They are much smaller that I though they would be, the body of the one in the picture is about 10 cm across, but the blue trim is a beautiful indigo colour. Their tentacles, however, can reach up to 10 metres! Check out http://www.australianfauna.com/bluebottlejellyfish.php


We went to Sunday mass down here in Tuross (this was how we determined that most of the population are retired - they were almost all grey-hairs at mass!) Then we went to O'Brien's Boatshed, down on the waterfront at Tuross Lake, for some fish and chips. This is one of the few places here that you can see a sunset over the water, since most of the waterfront faces east, but this little part of the lakefront faces west and we were sitting right down at the water's edge. Lovely end to a great day.