Australian Summertime

Hello, everyone! It’s been a while. We hope you all had a lovely holiday season and are off to a good start in 2024!

We are heading into our final week in Australia. It hasn’t been the educational and cultural experience we had in South America, so we are considering our visit to Oceania a vacation within a year of travel. And it’s been a fun vacation!

We spent Christmas week in a cozy little house in Melbourne and did all the things. We went to the Moonlit Sanctuary and got up close and personal with some Australian animals.

We spent a day at the Legoland Discovery Center and SeaLife Aquarium.

We conquered the world’s coolest climbing gym. (Why don't we have one of these in Seattle??)

We worked on our skills at O'Briens Ice House. (We're basically professional skaters now.)

And we watched the SUPER CUTE Penguin Parade on Phillip Island. It’s a parade of hundreds of little blue penguins returning to the beach after a day feeding in the ocean and then waddling to their burrows. (No pics were allowed, but I swear we did it!)

Being away from home certainly did not dampen the kids’ Christmas spirit. They built a Christmas tree out of couch pillows and left notes for Santa.

And Santa came! Turns out there is no stopping that Christmas magic, even when you're halfway around the world.

Then we were off to Sydney! We stayed in North Bondi and just loved it. Ginny and Ryan did the Harbor Bridge Climb the night we arrived. I climbed it with my Dad about 20 years ago, so I just love that they did this!

We mostly just hung out in Bondi but the five of us did venture into Sydney one day to take a look. The kids got their portrait drawn by an awesome Taiwanese artist on the Circular Quay.

They were not impressed with the harbor and the Opera House (fair enough) but loved playing tag in the Royal Botanical Gardens.

Of course we visited the Taronga Zoo, but spent most of our time on the amazing obstacle courses.

Ryan and the kids did, however, feed a giraffe for good measure.

The rest of our stay was beach time. Ryan and the big kids took surf lessons, while I watched anxiously from shore quietly chanting “no sharks no sharks no sharks.” I was so proud of both kids for enduring repeated assaults from the unsteady waves.

The kids just love the beach, so they loved Sydney. And my life is better when they're happy, so I really loved Sydney too!

From Sydney we flew north to Hervey Bay, bussed to the ferry, and crossed to K’Gari.

K’Gari is the largest sand island in the world and is home to hundreds of wild dingos. Two rules on the island: no swimming off the coast (too many sharks) and no running (dingos like to chase). The kids loved it there, mostly because of the pool and plethora of kids to play with.

Despite many protests, we eventually removed the kids from the pool and took them on a hike outside the dingo fence that surrounds the resort. We saw dingo paw prints in a creek bed, but sadly no dingos. We hiked along the beach back to the resort looking for more signs of those wily canines, but ended up just looking for stingrays in the water instead.

The following day, we rented a 4WD and drove the sand roads to Lake MacKenzie. The white silica sand was an incredible sight, and the water was crystal-clear and bathtub warm.

We swam, floated, and built a sand village. But, despite pocketfuls of bacon, no dingos wanted to play. (Kidding about the bacon.)

We left K’Gari this morning sun-kissed (okay, we’re a bit burnt) and ready for Cairns! Northern Australia just endured Cyclone Jasper, and I am grateful we still get to visit. Many of our plans have changed due to damage and flooding, but we’re going to make the best of our visit to this lush and beautiful part of the country.

Missing you all,

Madeline