Our Honeymoon Downunder

A little excerpt of our honeymoon downunder...

September 29th to October 20th

CHINA

Shanghai International Airport

We had a layover in Shanghai. Arrived to catch a gorgeous sunset.

Definitely loved their Shanghai dumplings...lol

Too bad we ate so many so fast that we didn't take any photos of the dumplings.

Somewhere to go the next time we fly overseas.

AUSTRALIA

Love it! Didn't see spiders or snakes outside of exhibits and zoos.

Sydney, NSW

Sydney reminded me of home. Just another North American city with some historic buildings.

You know you are in a foreign country when you hear the accent and of course the Sydney Opera House.

Rich & I met up with Derek & Cindy for dinner the first night we all landed in Sydney. That was nice.

That first day turned out to be a holiday and almost everything was shut down. We later discovered, it was further shut down in NSW because of a playoff game....hahaha...if only we can do that for hockey!

We lucked out and got free transit passes from our hotel. So we max'd our travelling on the ferry system (like the sea bus, but so much better).

It's too bad we were only there for 2 days...we didn't get to see much outside of the harbour area, but it was a good taste of the city.

Food was nothing too special, though their deep fried seafood baskets are awesome...more about food later...

Cairns, QLD

So it's pronounced CANS. Talk about a surfer town...hahaha

There's really not much there, but strip mall stores and an asian style night market...lol...indoor flea market style.

We extended our stay there by 2 days.

Rich cursed right left and centre about driving on the WRONG side of the road on the WRONG side of the car....hahaha

We did a day tour north...

We were on a river cruise, saw a crocodile (tour guides haven't seen one in 5 weeks, so we lucked out)

We fed rescue kangaroos

Walked around the tropic rain forest on an eco-tour

Visit Cape Tribulation Beach

And just had an amazing 4wd tour of the northern coast...gorgeous beaches

We took a day out to go visit the Great Barrier Reef...

We boated out to the far edge of the reef where they had a stationary platform for tours, Marine World

From the platform we snorkelled, took glass bottom boat tours and had other options that Rich & I didn't do

Though it was choppy, we had a blast and burnt our asses off...oops

We had kangaroo, wallaby, crocodile and oysters for dinner, Australian style here in Cairns.

I love kangaroo...oysters, always loved! Wallaby, too tough, though tasty. Crocodile, had it before...so nothing special.

We are quite spoiled living in Vancouver...lol...so much experience with food.

Bowen, QLD

Rich had to stop here...need I say more...it was only for a drive by on our way to Airlie Beach

Airlie Beach, QLD

Rich drove from Cairns to Airlie Beach

I was a tad disappointed about Airlie Beach...I heard so much, but it was just a nicer beach bum town

People didn't even beach on the beach...they beached on the man made lagoon that was literally steps from the real beach

Turns out, it's drawing near to jelly fish season, so that explained a few things.

We took a day out and boated around the Whitsunday Island...where the large boat beached itself on Whitehaven, the famous 9 mile long white beach. It was gorgeous...so much fun.

 By this time I was fully into vacation mode...while in Cairns, I was stressing out about things at home...so it was hard for me not to get snappy with Rich.

Bagara, QLD

We only stayed a night here before heading down to Brisbane...break up the 14 hour drive south...

Brisbane, QLD

We only stayed the afternoon and night, so we didn't see much.

But it was like a smaller version of Sydney...which is another version of a North American city.

Surfer Paradise | Miami, QLD

Rich took off golfing with Steve the first day we arrived here. I got to wander around while they get our room ready.

It's a very nice place where people actually beached on the beach! Weird to see a lot of skate boarders, of ALL ages, some of them look OLD.

Stores...shopping...either it's expensive high quality items, or it's cheap ass crap stuff...

Quite interesting city. Reminds me of Granville Street clubbing district with the expensive Burrard & Alberni Street area that has Hermes and Tiffany's. Food was visually like Yaletown, but it was more a food court style service (or in the case of Aussies...no customer service).

Hackett-Kehoe Wedding

The wedding was sweet and homey, so not like any of the weddings we have been too.

It was a no fuss wedding held on a dock, over hanging the beach. NO rehearsal.

Simple & sweet wedding ceremony, followed by photos of the wedding party and cocktail reception for the guests.

There were speeches, slideshows, bouquet toss (no garter toss), cake cutting (no first dance) and a casual family style buffet style dinner.

Dinner was served and if you wanted to eat you can grab a plate then look for seating at any of the tables, tall boy tables or lounge area.

There was some dancing, but lots of mingling and socializing.

Marion's dress was so sweet...her sash was hand made from one of the friends from Bowen Island.

Australia Zoo (north of Brisbane, QLD)

OMG! I love this place! Adonia, Kevin, Rich & I spent all day here!

There are 2 areas where you can walk amongst the kangaroos and feed and pet them.

I got to hold a koala for photos and see them sleeping in the trees in various areas around the zoo.

There were lots of Australian animals to check out, like crocodiles, snakes, wombats, Tasmanian devils, etc.

We even saw the Africa and Asian exhibit. I got to feed a Siamese Elephant.

We saw the zoo's main show...amazing...crocodiles, tropical birds, a condor...loved it.

We also saw the tiger show...amazing how domestic-cat-like they are, and how they are NOT.

Brisbane, QLD

After the zoo, we were starving...forgot to eat lunch...and it was dinner time when we were heading back south.

Ended up stopping at a five star hotel for all you can eat buffet...dressed like we came back from the zoo, where everyone else were dressed up.

Quite funny, but hey, we are on vacation and we paid $69 per person, so no one complained.

Rich and I binged on oysters, oysters and oysters. Street price for oysters at restaurants was $28-32 for a dozen. Richard and I probably cleared over 200 oysters, on top of everything else we ate. It was sooo yummie!

Byron Bay, NSW

The end of our trip was relaxing on the beach in Byron Bay for a few days. Three Couples (including Rich & I) stayed together.

The boys took another day off to go golfing...

The gals and I shopped around town and organized a dinner one night. I helped!

Appy: Cheese plate

Appy: 4 dozen Oysters with 2 Moreton Bay Bugs (kinda like a lobster, but tastes a bit more like a crab)

Entree: Smoke Salmon Carbonara Pasta

Dessert: Ice cream in waffle cones

Evenings on the beach was amazing!

Food

Food in Australia is nothing special, unless you are enjoying the local seafood. Food in general is unsalted and unseasoned without sides. You have to order sauces, like ketchup (tomatoe sauce) or tartar sauce for yor fish & chip basket. It's also on the expensive side. Luckily the hotels Rich booked were more like apartments / condos with kitchens, so we did shop the in supermarket most of our meals.

Kangaroo is yummie and highly recommended. Its like venison.

There's no such thing as customer service. Not surprising as there's no tipping and min wage is $16-18 per hour and increases with your age.

Hotels

Rich did an amazing job booking our hotel rooms at the various stops.

We had ocean front view for each one of them.

In Surfer Paradise, we had the 24th floor ocean view suite, which was simply breath taking! 

KOREA

Seoul, South Korea

Rich was disappointed that we didn't actually land in Seoul...next time...lol

Honeymoon is now over. Sigh!

I enjoyed not having a care in the world and wished it went on  bit longer.

I would have loved to have more time to explore more of the different places we visited, but a taste was good for future trips down.

With so many friends living and visiting Australia, I'll be returning sooner rather than later and probably more often.

It's nice to be back home though. Didn't enjoy living out of a suit case that much. Didn't enjoy the food there as much either, so coming home to food here is great.