Also we would like to announce a new blog that will be our “permanent” blog:  Wheeler Wanderings

This will hopefully stay updated to let you know of our comings and goings.

Best,

Tompaul & Lisa

We started our foray into Sydney by looking for a certain bookstore on Oxford St. (we found it later in Newtown; it had moved). We lunched (packed) in Hyde Park, then set out to fill our hunger for knowledge.  First up, The Australian Museum.  It was part Natural History Museum, part Australian History, part random.  It was showing the exhibit Wildlife Photog of the Year 2010, which we had already seen in Cape Town.

First we checked out the obligatory dinos. There was a whale skeleton, but we had been there and done that.

Then, showing remarkable sense of self, they had an exhibit specifically focusing on extinct animals of Australia.  Our favorite was the Tasmanian Tiger.  It was more dog than cat and actually a marsupial.  They had footage of the last known Taz tiger, and it was sad. The critter below is only a statue.

Then of course we have the gargantuan marsupials.  I think I could have fit in its pocket, totally!  The Diprotodon’s nickname is the giant wombat, but although it is giant it is not a wombat.

They also had a lovely interactive exhibit about sea creatures of Australia. The image is projected onto a table and you can interact by touching the creatures or the water.  It did come with its own warning (that we would have put in Signs of Australia but w/o the context it would have been confusing).

I think our favorite part was the Aboriginal exhibits.  They highlighted art, culture, the effect of Europeans in culture, the lost children, and the desire for independence.  It was the most informative exhibit I had seen on Aboriginal life/culture/recent history.

Below to the left is a model of a mission church in the outback.  Over the pulpit there was a looped presentation on Christianity and the Aboriginals.  Most striking is the creation story and how that intrigued aboriginals, but it also focused on how they kept their beliefs alive, and the effect of Christianity.

We did not photograph it (for obvious reasons) but there was an interesting exhibit of art related to the Lost Generation of Aboriginals.  Those who were taken, adopted or otherwise “lost,” and art depicting the pain.

Then we entered the exhibit describing the fight for freedom.  Below you see a bus that showed a 15 minute movie about the freedom bus rides.  Also I am standing by a model of a cell used to imprison aboriginals.  Aboriginals were many more times more likely to die in prison than other prisoners.

The video focused on Charles Nelson Perkins (aboriginal activist, football player) who was the first indigenous aboriginal to graduate from Sydney University. He was a key player in the Australian Freedom Rides.  One thing that struck was an interview with a white dude.  He talks of how he was protesting because of Jim Crow.  Then a visiting American commented, “Look at what you are doing to the Aboriginals.”  The pure blindness to the oppression of the Aboriginals in Australia was startling.

A favorite quote from the movie was after a protest in a small Australian town. Things turned nasty.  The bus had to come back to this town because it was broken down.  A mob met them of “respectable” town folk.  Some of the Aboriginal girls from that town were with the protestors and just as things began turning nasty a girl asked one of the men, “What’s your last name?”  ”Oh that’s my last name too!  What a coincidence.  Maybe you should ask your dad how he spends his Friday nights.”

The last exhibit we visited was the Skeleton Gallery.  What I find most amusing is that you can rent this out as a venue. There were many interesting poses.  It was cool to see the horse and rider.

I think this was my favorite:

After the Australian Museum we hit the Art Gallery of NSW.  They had a lovely exhibit on the Teracotta Warriors (we missed it previously in Atlanta) so we checked it out.  There are no pictures (again for obvious reasons) but what struck us was the amount of detail in each warrior.  Each warrior took 160 or more days to make.  They were the most realistic art at the time, painted down to the strands of hair.  It was absolutely stunning.  The artifacts found in the tomb were stunning and detailed–and the Emperor was a bit crazy. He started planning this when he was 13.

The basement of the Art Gallery had Aborginal Art, traditional and contemporary.  The contemporary was the most striking.  Highly recommended!

If not everyone gets this post, no worries, the pictures are kinda cool.  Tompaul and I, in our neverending quest to seee all things historically Adventist, decided to go up to Avondale (the Adventist college in Australia) and pay a visit to Sunnyside (Ellen G’s home nearby).  A friend invited us to a morning church, casual come as you are, they serve brekkie with actual COFFEE, which reminded us of Gracepoint (our home church in Nashville).

We woke up early and drove up to Avondale about 2h north of Sydney in the town of Cooranbong.  Church filled a need I forgot I had and we had haystacks (mmm, haystacks) at Kim and her husband’s house.  They went off to do some heavy duty yard work ministry and we went off to see good o’l Ellen’s house.

I love how Ellen White ended up in Australia.  People were being dumb, she realized she wasn’t wanted and said, “Go suck on some Wham (click the link people, its not the band).  I don’t have to stay in cold boring Battle Creek, MI.  I just got an invite to go down under where it’s warm…see ya!”  Some of her best work was done here…welcome to Sunnyside.

Like all of Ellen’s homes, it was spacious, had plenty of land, and space for people to chill.  My favorite thing (which I don’t have a picture of) is her dressing gown.  She gave it away when she moved back to the States and it was colorful and bright.  Not so drab and dark as we usually think.

The best part about Sunnyside is…the South Pacific Islands Museum.  This is actually an award-winning museum in the back yard of Sunnyside (from the outside it totally looks rinky dink, but inside wow).  It focuses on the Seventh-day Adventist church’s involvement in the South Pacific.  It has some pretty amazing stuff.  Many of the missionaries were given gifts from the islands they worked in and they were donated to this museum.  It has some of the best carvings, idols, haircombs, original costumage and stories I have seen.  Let’s check it out…first up a communication drum from the island of Ambrym, decorative yet functional!

This one got me….several bird of paradise plumes.

Here are some traditional costumes from one of the Solomon islands, I wish I had written down which one.

This was one of my favorite things.  A long boat from the Solomon Islands that was used to ferry the Duke of Edinburgh (yes, Prince Phillip) to the island as a ceremonial welcome.  You can’t see it but one side says “SDA.”

Okay the museum was full of cool things, it was free and really nicely done.  They painstakingly detailed which group the gifts were native to, and what they were used for.  If they were idols they described who and what.  I was actually surprised.  It is worth checking out.  One of my favorite things was a clipping of the Fuzzy Wuzzy Poem.  Not the Rudyard Kipling one…but the one describing the Papua New Guineans who carried Australians to safety in the second world war.  No known injured soldier was ever abandoned by the PNG “fuzzy wuzzy angels.”  If you wonder how PNG feels about the fuzzy and the wuzzy the word papua is a description of their poofy hair.

Here is an excerpt:

Many a lad will see his mother

and husbands see their wives

Just because the fuzzy wuzzy

carried them to save their lives

From mortar bombs and machine gun fire

or chance surprise attacks

To the safety and the care of doctors

at the bottom of the track

After this random bit we traveled to Newcastle where we set up camp and went swimming.  Here is a view of the beach from our campground. We went to the pool, swam in the beach, and went beach walking.  It was HOT as hades there.

The beach was nice, the waves were perfect for jumping.  I gave Tompaul my credit cards and license to put in his trunks…but there was a hole in the pocket.  The only thing was lost?  The credit card, the one where we don’t have to pay a fee for international usage, the one that we needed.  This led to a 6-hour experience of Lisa trying to get a replacement and some dummy at Capital One not knowing that Sydney, NSW is not in America.  Because when the card did not come I called back and was told they don’t send cards out of the U.S.

Nevermind.  The beach was awesome. We walked for hours.

For dinner we went to the foreshore and searched out a highly recommended restaurant named Scotties.  The inside is a fancy resturant, but that window on the side is the key to some of the best burgers in the world.  I got a veggie burger as big as my face.  If you have ever shopped for veggie burgers you know they are not regular size.  This one was home made, huge, and had avo.  We made the mistake of ordering the large fries, which were amazing, fresh-hand-cut, and wrapped in butcher paper, making one feel special.  There were so many the package was big as a small child.  My only complaint was the shakes were slightly lackluster.  But EVERYTHING else was to die for.

Tomorrow´s blog? Sydney, baby.

Our first stop was the Gibson Steps.  There were lovely pictures of people at the turn of the century (not this one) having a picnic…which it is lovely…until the tide comes in and you die.  This is the view from the parking lot.

Tompaul being photogenic.

The rock formations…which were breathtaking, and you could get closer than to the twelve apostles.

Where’s Lisa?

Now it’s time for the mother of all sights.  The 12 Apostles!  Some things in travel are better than you can ever seen on a postcard, e.g. the Grand Canyon surpassed my wildest imagination. Some things are as you see them, like Big Ben, and some things are less.  The 12 Apostles is better in picture than in real life.  Not that you shouldn’t see them, the picture is just better (probably ’cause it was taken from a helicopter, without people, at the right time of day with the sun glinting off the limestone).

Actually the 12 Apostles was where we saw the most Japanese tourists ever.  Tompaul has a theory that Japan is too small so they rotate the people out for vacation.  There was even a public toilet that was a hole in the ground.  Almost made me long for Africa, except not.

Next up was the Loch Ard Gorge, which I had never heard of but found spectacular (just as our friend Lynelle predicted).  The curves and the colors were breathtaking–maybe if they had just named it something snappy like the 7 Dwarfs or Christ’s Manger more people would come to visit.  This again reminds me of Roanoke, which was originally called Big Lick.  Oddly enough no one could convince the railroad to come to town, so they renamed it Roanoke.  Then N&S set up shop.

Crazy tourist.

See wasn’t that lovely?

Next up we took a stop at Port Campbell.  The visitor’s center was interesting.  There is a bay where ships have safe docking and the visitor’s center focused on the many ship wrecks in the area. We decided to go on a quick overlook hike (was only about 1.5km).  The scene was lovely, here is the swimming hole of the port.

And then an intriguing bit of waves that seem to start in the middle of the ocean, only 5-6 yards wide, going out until eternity.  That one we couldn’t figure.

Then we walked through bits of desert and saw birds.  It was good, until we hit road.  There was no “loop” as promised, it just stopped on the road.  Unsure of what the deal was we started to walk back to what we thought was the right direction along a deserted road.  Then a car passed us.  And we kept walking.  We had only a small water bottle ’cause it was a “loop” and we walked and walked.  Finally the one car that passed us drove back, saw us and stopped.  She asked if we were lost, we explained, she knew exactly where we came from.  She was on her way to yoga but wanted a nice peaceful moment beforehand (I thought yoga was peaceful).  Anyways she was an angel.  On the way back to our car (which was a good 7 minute drive) she showed us her second son’s dairy farm (below).

Then we pumped up the air-conditioning and drove to our final stop, London Bridge. It had two arches that one could walk upon, until the first arch crashed. That’s right, people, London Bridge came falling down.  Good times.  It actually crashed, not killing anyone, but leaving them stranded on the far side until a copter could rescue them.  So now they call it the London Arch.  Do you think you can just change a name because it doesn’t resemble a bridge?

Soon it was time we hightailed it back to Sydney.  We drove along the incredibly boring Hume Highway.  There were a few highlights though.  How else would I have seen the paper mache Ned Kelly?  Man who was a criminal but gained fame by making himself some homemade armor, having a shoot out with police, and then died–now played by Heath Ledger who is also dead (which makes me even sadder).

Or the infamous Dog on the Tucker Box?  The poem is dumb and sounds like the dog did something wicked on the Tucker Box.

Here Tompaul is before the start of the Great Ocean Road, smiling because he doesn’t yet know how windy the road is and what joy that will bring for those who are prone to car sickness.

The only kangaroo we saw was road kill.  Are kangas the possums of Australia?  Warned about but never seen?

One of our first stops, a lovely waterfall and hike outside the town of Lorne.

It was quite the rainforest.  So many cockatoos, parrots, and beautiful foliage.

There were many warnings: No jumping on the bed, No rafting, Mimes should stay away from falling trees because no one will care, and of course the evil ox that spews snakes.

We then drove back into town to eat supper by the beach.  I have to say this was one of the better pizzas on the trip.  It was well done, plenty o’ crust, pineapple.  Again we did carry out and ate on a bench by the beach…which may have been a mistake.

Have you ever seen the movie The Birds?  I am slowly getting into bird watching.  BUT the birds at this beach were, well VICIOUS.  We sat down and soon calls issued out from all over that new meat (I mean people) had arrived.  There was a full-out WAR over us.  Side one Cockatoos and Side two the seagulls.

I fed a couple of the birds then as we got up to leave this sweet cockatoo decided my toes were bits of pizza crust and bit them several times.

The town was actually quite dead so we pressed on, and found the best campsite ever…Kennett River Caravan Park.  They advertise free wireless and koalas, so how could one go wrong.  It was one of the best wireless connections we had in Australia as a whole.  True to their word there were koalas doing their two favorite things–nibbling and snoozing.  Koalas are the cat of Australia, sleeping more than 20 hours a day.  Sweet.

We had a good night.  Sleeping like koalas.  As we packed up in the morning we were greeted by the king parrots. Here is one who was looking for grub.

Our next stop was a small town down the road with a sweet hike .  As you can see the view is amazing, but apparently people also paraglide.  For some reason the owners want you to pay before you jump…

Finally we got to Melbourne.  In reality Melbourne was a late addition to the trip.  It was only after visiting our good friends Lynelle and Gary and listening to them drone (I mean exclaim) on and on about Melbourne.  Plus they were married in Melbourne and I have always LOVED their wedding pictures.

Tompaul (aka mastermind of the trip) found us a lovely room in the Albany.  Rumor is that U2 recently spent a night their on their Australia leg of the tour.  Here is our room…it was as lovely as it looked!

So after settling in, showering, and just getting adjusted after forever on the road we decided to hit the town.  We decided to start in St. Kilda.   To get there we took a LOVELY tram, as you can see below.  Essentially you have to pay cash for all trams, or get a day pass.  The machine is at the back of the tram, and it was a little difficult putting coins in and swaying too and fro.  Some of the trams were decorated with advertisements.  Oprah was recently in Australia (as you can see by her very own tram).

St. Kilda is a lovely “resort town.”  In reality it was a suburb of Melbourne in the old days, when everything seemed so far away because you had to hitch up Bessie and Nellie to go anywhere. And you would go there to get out of the city.   Now it is just a short tram ride down.  It was bustling.  The day was brilliantly hot and we enjoyed walking around people-watching.  As you can see the beach is sweet.  The area itself reminded me of Miami with the art deco vibe, awesome boutiques, and amazing food (which we will get to in a minute).  Miami, except way nicer.

We walked along the boardwalk and Tompaul got some fab pictures (here are just a few).

Teenage guys (and a token girl) chillin’ on the pier.

Melbourne in the distance.

The tea rooms on the end of the dock, also called St. Kilda Pavilion.  The original one was destroyed in a fire (arson), so they rebuilt it as it once was.  This reminds me of my street in Roanoke…we had a tree in the middle of the road, and it died spectacularly by falling on someone’s house.  So what did we do?  Plant a new tree in the middle of the road.  Not saying that the Pavilion shouldn’t of been rebuilt, more of a comment on human nature.  We like things how they are, and this is lovely.

Long before the Sydney Olympics there was the Melbourne Olympics, 1956.  A breakwater at the end of the pier was built for rowing, or sailing or some water sport.  The Fairy Penguins decided this was an absolutely lovely city to live in, and how it was super sweet for the featherless inhabitants to build them their own place and they took up residence.  We only found one fairy penguin, and he was molting (it was hot and I would have molted too).  And so began my foray into birding (thank you, Heather!).

After the pier we went and looked for bookstores (of course!) and food.  To be frank at this point we were non-plussed with our food options in Australia.  Botswana was better (okay, plus the Koonses live there and Heather is a fab cook).  But Melbourne was a different beast.  While looking for food and books (what else is there in life?) we noticed the lovely decorations of the shopping areas.

Finally we settled on BlueCorn.  Maybe because they promised Mexican food, and we have not left a mexican food resturant untested.  So it wasn’t Mexican, it was fusion Mexican.  And I would eat there every day of my life if I could.  We ended up with takeaway (because it was cheaper).  Note the food below.

The appetizer was spicy chips (granted, when we ordered we were in Mexican mode and thought chips as in chips, not chips as in “fish and chips”) which were amazing!  We each got a burrito.  Mine is pictured: pumpkin, eggplant, and corn filled with rice, beans, coriander (cilantro in the U.S.) and olives with sides of guac (ahhhhhhhhh, guac) and salsa.  Tompaul got jalapeno, corn and beans.  We both ate until we could eat no more…and were sad we couldn’t.

Before retiring for the night we stopped by the grocery store to grab cereal (Australia has not met the complimentary brekkie, or wireless for that matter)  and lunch fixins.  Tompaul found this apparent tribute to a) Calvin and Hobbes or b) contradiction:

Rise and Shine!  After waking up and investing in a 1.5L water, slurpees, and all-day tram tickets from 7-11 we hit the town.  First we investigated the botanical gardens on our way to walking to downtown (yes I did mention all-day tram tickets, but exercise is rad).  So far we have hit every botanical garden known to man, as well as every bookstrore, 7-11 (real or not), and every Mexican restaurant rumored.

This is one of my favorite statues, the Phoenix, which is actually in the Queen Victoria Gardens.

And this is a view of Melbourne as we approach the Plaza. The funky patchwork design building on the bottom left is the Australian Centre for the Moving Image.  We greatly enjoyed the exhibits, including one on Walt Disney “Dreams Come True” looking at the Disney fairy tale genre.

Across the street was St. Paul’s Cathedral.  It was absolutely lovely.  My favorite was the new lantern added over the lecturn to give the illusion of light.

Also the stained glass doors were fab.  Each corner represents a one of the gospels.  This was one of the few cathedrals where light was prominent.

Outside there are the obligatory statues, and birds desecrating them.  Just remember if you do something great it will be made into a statue and then a bird will find a nice handy loo.

Because the previous night was so yum, and because we still hadn’t found Lynelle’s favorite bookstore, we headed back to St. Kilda.  Her favorite coffee shop was no where to be seen, and the bookstore (while not as fab as McKays) was still worthy.  I got Skippy Dies.  Then we found a vegetarian restaurant that looked promising.  I enjoyed the quote over the door.

I got the Malaysian Noodles with peanut sauce and a samosa, Tompaul ordered off the buffet with dal, korma, and a spinach roll.

I think we licked the plates.  While eating we saw a tram restaurant go by.

So I leave you with this image from Luna Park.  Tomorrow?  The Great Ocean Road and wherever it may lead.

The excitement turned to panic, however, when I spotted cars driving down the highway. In car after car, the driver’s seat was empty! Did I need to reexamine all my religious beliefs–was this THE RAPTURE? Then I remembered that our rental car, like all the others, had the steering wheel on the right, and we were actually driving on the left. Whew–God was in His heaven, and all was right with the world. Well, except for the world’s skinniest car lanes as we tried to get out of Sydney toward Woollongong.

The pedestrian zone of Wollongong, swarming with hipsters, skaters, and other youthful types. It sounded like a good Australian-named place to spend the night.

Yes, Virginia, there are slurpees in Australia. The selection was limited, but beggars can’t be choosers.

(It’s Lisa now).  The next day we hit the road for our road trip to Melbourne.  Armed with a Lonely Planet Australia tome and a handy atlas we were ready for sight-seeing.  We took Route 1, for better or for worse (it was both actually).

This is blowhole point in Kiama, just a bit south of Wollongong.  It was one of the nicer stops, a bit touristy but more like Maine in the summer.  We got ice cream cones, and made the mistake of getting them chocolate dipped.  The dipping was overzealous, meaning we couldn’t break through before the ice cream started melting like nobody’s buisness.

We stopped at a couple beaches but the next one I liked was MollyMook Beach so we will skip the endless pictures of beaches and get to the good stuff.  Mollymook was a lovely little resort type town that had a nice beach.  We took a long walk on the beach, sat, walked in the water.  It was awesome.  It was a cloudy day (our days in Australia were either super sunny or cloudy) so no swimming.  The rocks and waves were sweet.

We stayed at some random hotel on the Princes Highway, where we had a 300KB limit for internet.  After one blog and a few Google phone calls it was totally blown.  As you will see later we recommend camping during Aussie road-tripping.  Hotel rooms go for 100 bucks a pop and they look like old mom and pop joints from the ’50s.

The next day was a sunny day…

We are on our way to Eden and using the local info centers and our Lonely Planet we found this nice lookout.  The view was amazing.

Then we got to Eden.  Eden totally lives up to its name.  The water is crystal clear and the beaches are pristine.  We walked downtown and ate ate Cuppaz Cafe.  We got the veggie burger (it had a nice slab of sweet beet with it) and one order of chips (that is one order people!)

Downtown had lots of helpful historic signs.  If it wasn’t for this sign I wouldn’t know what was sold there in the 1860s and who sold them!  It reminds me of historic signs in Grand Turk…if you have been there you know what I mean.

Beach from Eden.  I can see Adam and Eve in my mind’s eye.

Is this the snake?  No it’s my love!!!  Anyway…Eden has two beaches surf and quiet (for floating, swiming etc).  I would totally go back.  We then headed on towards Melbourne.  Our next stop was 90 Mile Beach on the way to Gippsland.

To get to the beach you cross this bridge.  In the middle, note the bird house type thing…that is the beach.

This is one view of the beach (to our right).  We are looking good!  The beach stretches as far as the eye can see. There is a lovely walk/hike you can take in the brush by the ocean.

This is the town of Gippsland, getting ready for bed.  We were staying in a “hotel” about 20 km down the road.  The hotel in question is below.  It is located above a bar circa 1870 Wild West.  At this juncture we felt we had to get camping gear.  The problem is we didn’t know where to go.  Target, Woollies, KMart all had super expensive gear–not that great.  Then in the morning as we went out to grab brekkie we crossed the street only to see the camping store (by the yellow van below) having a sale. Again, we felt like we’d zapped back to the 1950s–great service, right on Main. We got one tent, two sleeping bags, and a tarp for 200 bucks–what we spent for the past two nights and sub par lodging. To top it off we invested in our first pair of high-class binoculars (on sale of course).

Hopefully tomorrow we can pop up another blog about Melbourne (yes we are a month behind).

1. Taco Bell

2. Free Refills

3. Free WiFi

4. Good Mexican Food

5. Dr. Pepper

Top 5 things we have loved on our trip:

1. The people in New Zealand are wonderful.

2. Good Cheese

3. Sunshine and Warmth

4. Beaches Everywhere We Go

5. Getting Stamps in Our Passports

In Australia they have aggressive PSA campaigns and I swear there are signs warning you to mind everything.  I mean everything.  One thing that I noticed was the aggressive campaign to keep drivers awake.  Except with me it reminded me I was sleepy and everytime I saw one of these I yawned.  One time I almost fell asleep immediately after.

Then of course there was the signs reminding me to be a patient, good girl (I mean driver).

Then we have a personal favorite that was predominant around the Great Ocean Road.  If you haven’t figured this out by the time you are on the road then by the time you see this sign everyone is in trouble.

We stayed in some random places in Australia that seemed perfectly acceptable there.  They still have old fashioned “hotels” above bars downtown in small towns.  In case you get lost after enjoying the bar, note the helpful hand to show you where to go.

This one seemed a bit harsh, but I guess they don’t tolerate idiocracy.

Vanity plates are all the rage.  While they have more laws in Australia than I have ever seen they are pretty loose on the license plate front.

I  think the sign speaks for itself.

I am surprised the stick person doesn’t have a walker or hover-round.

Botswana has a huge anti-alcohol campaign.  On payday (fourth Friday of the month) people get paid and those who are smart do not go out.

So when I first saw this ad I thought it was for a hair product…oh wait it’s called Lovers Plus?

Don’t let the suave dude fool you. That yellow drink is your ticket to AIDS. Sober’s cool, kids!

‘Nuf said.

Again if you MUST litter be courteous about it.

We were not let through…

We don’t know what it says but it seems crossing the railroad track with donkeys can lead to disaster…or it is about a small house?

This one is apparently about soccer, Legos, Star Trek, and AIDS.

Yay! I was worried.

Okay…so the creepy Cadbury mug is giving the dude a front massage.  Why?  What is it selling again?  I don’t want it….kids don’t let strange mugs give you hugs.

This is the winner.  It sums up Africa…sometimes there is no power but you still are going to want your Damn Fine pizza.