Australia: Sydney, Sunshine Coast, Kangaroos, Australia Day

We arrived in Australia on January 25

and AJ was so happy that he stripped on the beach near the airport!

Our friend Bo who hosted us in New Zealand said "You know, I have a cousin in Sydney, Australia, and I think you all would get along very well.  Want to stay with her family while you are in Sydney?"

Let's see....Sydney = one of most expensive cities in the world + offer for free lodging with a cousin of one of our favorite people = YES!  Yes, we will stay with total strangers if they will take us ;)

And take us they did!  Introducing the Thierry and Sophie Blanc.  They and their 3 young girls continued teaching Rachel and I how to be awesome hosts.  They were simply fantastic!

I am still amazed at this family taking in 6 people they had never met and never even talked to.  We coordinated everything via email and text messages.  God made these people out of something special, and we have come to truly love and respect this family.

We stayed in a huge tent in their backyard....

Played many fun games...

and as parents we were thrilled that Sophie taught AJ how to do the dishes! ;)

But in all seriousness,

Our first full day in Australia was January 26 which was Australia Day (the day Australia celebrates its country).  If you asked our family to vote on a single 'favorite' day of the trip, this day would get a lot of votes.

We started at Symbio Wildlife Park where we saw koala bears close up...

AJ loved the peacock (not sure if the peacock loved AJ)...

"Laugh Kookaburra, Laugh Kookaburra...."

And finally.....KANGAROOS!

This goose was MEAN!!!  Sarah is laughing here because the goose is just so darn mean and annoying.  When we first got to the kangaroo area, AJ was petting a little kangaroo and this goose came up and bit him on the elbow.  He talked about that for months (but would laugh about it when he told the story).

And my personal favorite....

Can I take a kangaroo to Sophie's house?


So, we started the day with kangaroos in Australia.  Next?  How about shrimp on the barbie?   Thierry was busy cooking those up when we got back to their house for lunch.

And to top off the day we went to a park for a concert.....

...playing and swimming (that is a beach in the background)...

....fireworks...

...and great company with an absolutely wonderful family....

Sophie wrote about this day on her blog back in January.  She is one of the most talented writers I have ever met and writes about faith in such a beautiful way.  A number of her posts the past 7 months have been topics of conversation for our family and 'wake up' calls for Rachel and me.  If you are a blog reader, add her to your list.  Here is the link about our days with them in January (she has some great pictures of that day that we don't have...link opens in separate window):

http://littlegumnut.blogspot.com.au/2013/01/australia-day-in-cronulla.html

Sunday, January 27

We packed up for our trip north, said goodbye to the Blancs, and attended church at Hillsong Church in Sydney.

After church we went to the Sydney Opera House and saw a kids show...

The kids (especially AJ) had fun in some of the 'kid stuff' areas they had set up there...

Notice the rainy skies?  There were major rains happening in Australia starting on that day....especially north of Sydney (where we were heading!).  We had planned a leisurely drive over the course of a couple of days to the Sunshine Coast north of Brisbane.  But we heard that floods were possible and road closures highly possible.....so after sleeping one night a bit north of Sydney we drove all day Monday to arrive in Coolum Beach 1 day early.  We are glad we did because flooding ended up closing all the roads the next day we used to get north.

The picture below is of the flood in progress as we drove north that Monday.  I pulled over to take this picture because the sign and the building in the background are just too funny.  Retirement lifestyle sign in front with a crematorium in the background.  LOL!

Fortunately, the flooding did not impact the Sunshine Coast (north of Brisbane).  But the heavy weather created quite a stir in the ocean, closing Coolum Beach (where we stayed) for the first 4 days we were there.

Rachel and AJ found out that the waves can come in fast and furious as they went to the bottom of these steps and came back up unexpectedly wet!

Coolum Beach:  We had planned on learning to surf on this beach but due to the rough seas, the surf school was unable to operate for 4 or 5 days.  Fortunately, 20 minutes north we found a community called Noosaville which had a beach open for surfing...and that is where spent much of our week.  No regrets about staying on Coolum Beach as it was a nice community, but if we had to do it again we would find someplace up in Noosaville as that area is just fantastic.

One lucky break was going to the beach during this week.  The day after Australia Day Weekend, kids in Australia went back to school so prices for all the apartments / hotels moved to 'off season' pricing.  We got this great 3 bedroom, very spacious apartment about a 1 minute walk from Coolum Beach for just over $100 per night.

V and AJ acting like Mary and Jesus...

Our first few days in Australia were fantastic, and things kept getting better for the remainder of our 17 total days in Australia.  The next post is all about serving and surfing on the Sunshine Coast....

Til then,

God bless