Random Pictures From Australia

Here are a few pictures from our trip I thought you might find interesting.

These are Port Jackson shark eggs. They are in a corkscrew shape. Imagine laying that type of egg- ouch.


I like these frogface/frogmouth birds. I'm not sure why, but I do. One way they protect themselves is to blend into the tree branch. They do look like they could be part of the tree.


Again, I don't know why I got a kick out of this, but I did. This is the Australian crosswalk sign.

Cute Elyse :)

Elyse standing on Sydney.

As we were waiting for our ferry to Manly Beach Toby got the girls to sit by these Aborigines selling their CD of techno didgeridoo music and posing for tourists.

One more picture of Manly Beach. I just think the clouds are cool.

Our trip to Sydney was wonderful. I am so glad we took this opportunity to visit another country/continent while we are in this part of the world.

Manly Beach

On our last day in Australia we went to Manly Beach. Although we weren't planning on swimming, we thought we'd have lunch and play in the sand. To get there we took a ferry from Circular Quay. it was a bit bigger than the other ferries we had ridden on and it was pact with people who had the same idea as us.


We had lunch at a beachfront restaurant. Here is Anastasia looking cute as always. (actually her eyes look a bit crazy in this picture...)

After lunch it was Anastasia's nap time so I strapped her into the carrier and walked up and down the beach while Toby and Elyse played in the sand.

I got a lot of opportunities to take pictures since Anastasia wasn't wanting to sleep; I was walking the entire time we were there. I took a lot of pictures of the beach and the clouds turning darker as a storm was rolling in. I will spare you from seeing all of them. Here are just a couple. Can you spot Toby and Elyse?

After the first few drops of rain fell we headed back to the ferry. Right by the ferry terminal there were some rides for kids. Elyse got the last ride before the rain POURED down. (Actually it began to pour while she was on the ride, but they kept it going). After the ride we got on the packed ferry and headed back to the hotel. Although it rained, it was a good way to end our trip.

Just for Fun

While in Sydney Elyse and Anastasia had a blast playing on the coach. We pretended it was a boat or a car or an airplane. It was one of their favorite things to do inside the hotel room.

Anastasia's other favorite thing was climbing into our suitcases. I had been using them to block Anastasia from outlets, etc. But that didn't last long when she figured out how to climb on them.

For whatever reason Darling Harbour was shooting off fireworks from the center of the harbour every Saturday in April. The first time caught us by surprise, but the second Saturday we were there I asked Elyse if she wanted to see them and she said yes, so we had a Mommy Daughter date.

We had a couple hours after dinner to wait for the fireworks so we wandered around the harbour. People had carts set up selling flashing things in anticipation for the fireworks. We stopped by one of the carts and Elyse picked out a flashing tiara. These pictures don't do it justices. It's pretty darn cool.

From our walk to the Powerhouse Museum I had remembered there was a playground within walking distance of the harbour so we headed that way. Elyse had so much fun on the swings. This is a treat since not many playgrounds in Singapore have proper swings.

About 15 minutes before the fireworks began we headed back to the harbour and ran into a busker. He had potential- fire, good music, etc. but he had some crude humor (which off course went over Elyse's head, but I didn't appreciate it) so we left before his big finale and got a seat on the water's edge for the fireworks.

Right when the first firework went off Elyse was in my lap crying :( After a little while she calmed down and I think she enjoyed herself. We were very close making the fireworks very loud, but it was an amazing show. Although she cried I do think Elyse had a good time. I know I did.

Taronga Zoo

When we returned to Sydney we were at the same hotel, but just a different view. This time we looked out onto the harbour.



On our first day back to Sydney we decided to head to the zoo. To get there we took another ferry and got to see another side of the Opera House. I will spare you from looking at all the pictures I took, but here is one of them:


The zoo is on a big hill so to save our legs we took a cable car to the top and worked our way down.

The zoo had some great exhibits, but we concentrated on the Australian ones. We did get to see a platypus which I guess is a big deal; usually the hide. I tried to get a picture, but it was dark and they said not to use a flash so the picture did not turn out so well, but trust me the platypus is so cute and fun to watch swim around. Among the other animals we saw, we saw a wombat:

and a Tasmanian Devil:

Within the zoo they had a kids area which had farm animals in it and a playground. Elyse and Anastasia had a great time exploring the area. Elyse even made a friend.

For lunch we had a great view of the harbour and had a few visitors join us.

Elyse had a good lunch so she was able to pick out a dessert. She picked this huge cupcake.

After lunch we saw some more animals and then headed back to the hotel. It was a great day.

Wentforth Falls

On our way back to Sydney we decided to stop at a town called Wentworth Falls named after a large waterfall. We located the falls and decided we would be able to hike down to it. It was a great day for a hike and Elyse did very well.

Enjoying nature:

I don't know if you can see it in the picture, put at the top of the falls there are some stepping stones to walk across the top- you'll see them in another picture.


The path was wide and walkable. There were a lot of steps, but we made it.

This was part of the falls that lead to the big drop off (see above).

A small waterfall next to the big one.

I kept saying we should go a little more, a little more before turning back (If we conintued it would have taking us all day, plus the hiking -"bush walking as it's called in Australia- got harder past this point.) We stopped at the last bend around this cliff in this picture.

It was worth it to get this shot.

Happy Easter!

Some how I didn't get a picture of the girls together on Easter, but here are some individual shots from some Easter festivities. (more to come)

Not sure about this smile...
First time with her hair done. You can also see her one and only tooth:

He is not here; He is risen!! HAPPY EASTER!

Scenic World and Echo Point

After Featherdale we continued into the Blue Mountains and found our way to the town of Katoomba. We got a service apartment again which was wonderful! I had picked the town of Katoomba because Scenic World and The Three Sisters were there.

We had arrived in the evening and decided to stay in for dinner so we ordered a pizza and had a low key evening. In the morning we woke up to rain and mist (boo!). We decided to wait until after Anastasia took her nap to explore as a family, so i decided to take a walk down the road to Echo Point to see what I could see, if anything.

At Echo Point (5 minutes walking from our townhome) was the look out point to see the Thee Sisters, 3 massive rock formations overlooking a beautiful valley, but all I saw was this:

I was so bummed since the whole reason that we came to the Blue Mountains was to SEE the Blue Mountains and we couldn't. Ugh. On a happy note I did see wild cockatoos flying all around.

On my way back from my walk I was met by the rest of the family. Anastasia looked so cute all bundled up:

Although we couldn't see anything, we decided to go to Scenic World and go into the valley on the worlds steepest incline railway. If we couldn't see it from afar, we could at least venture into the mist and see 5 feet into front of us.

This railway is 415 metres long and has a vertical drop of 206 metres at 52 degrees. Here we are getting ready to descend.

Here is the view from the bottom looking up.

At the bottom I was sooo happy to see this...

The mist cleared and we were able to see! At the bottom of the valley there were walkways through the forest. It used to be a mine so they had interesting facts about the old mine and some statues of mine horses, coal cars, a real miner's house etc.

To get back up to the top we road a cable car:

Here are the Three Sisters from where we ate lunch.

After lunch we headed back to our townhome for naps and then we walked down to Echo Point to see the sights.

We admired the view and then walked a bit into the valley. It was beautiful. I am so happy the mist decided to lift. It turned out to be a beautiful day :)

Featherdale Wildlife Park

We decided to take a short trip out of the city and head to the Blue Mountains. We rented a car and headed off to Katoomba (the city we would be staying in). On the way we stopped at Featherdale Wildlife Park. This park wasn't that big, but it was worth stopping for. Animals were roaming around out of their pens so you could interact and feed them.

When first entering we were met by a little kangaroo (or a wallaby - I'm always mixing them up).

This bird reminded me of an old man. I can't remember the name of it- something like Frog face. Elyse seemed intrigued. (*I just found out the name: Frogmouth)

A Kookaburra: Whenever I say this name I start singing the kookaburra song. Cool bird, annoying song (once you have it stuck in your head.)

Although most of the time koalas are sleeping, this placed always had a koala that was awake that people could pet all day long. Very cool.

I got to pet the koala too.

After the koala we bought some food and fed the animals that were wandering around.

I felt like Anastasia wasn't getting enough "airtime" so in this picture you can see she was there too:)

Did you know there are penguins in Australia? Well there are! Isn't he cute?

Next stop- Katoomba!