Belair National Park

So. I've obviously been a little sporadic in my blog posts. We took another trip, and now we leave the country in four days!! So there is kind of a lot to do, and blogging has slipped down my priority list. I will probably continue to blog after we get back to catch up, if anyone is interested after we return!

The hot weather (well. . . all 2-ish weeks of it that we got) has ended. It's back in the low 60's and rainy until we leave. I guess that's God's way of preparing us to go home??  Anyway, today, we took what is probably our last day trip during our time here.

We went to Belair National Park, which is just southeast of the city center.

Fortunately, it was accessible by bus, and the views on this bus line were very pretty! It was a a very scenic ride, with both ocean and hill views. The park was also very pretty. It wasn't as hilly as others we've been to, and it reminded me of wooded areas in the States.

We had a little contest going to see who could spot the most koalas! Most were sleeping, given the time of day we were there.

The 'who can spot the most koalas' competition got a little intense, and we ended up canceling it. . . but we saw probably 10ish koalas in our time there. It is still amazing to me that we can just look up, and there they are, right in the tree.

Australia also has the most amazing native birds!!

The boys love the 'duckies' almost as much as the fancy birds, and they liked seeing these little ducklings. The boys are such softies when it comes to baby animals :)

It's not uncommon to see burned trees here. Bush fires are quite common here. Eucalyptus trees are EVERYWHERE (they are kind of like the oak or maple tree equivalent in the US), and apparently the eucalyptus oil is a fire accelerant. However, for reasons I don't really understand, these fires don't wipe out a forest the same way they do in the US. It's pretty common to see a burned-looking tree, with leaves growing out of it, as if nothing had happened. I need to research this a little more. . .

As the afternoon wore on, we kept our eyes open for kangaroos, which we'd never spotted in other similar parks we've been to. Kangaroos are nocturnal, and they start waking up in the late afternoon hours. We ended up seeing around 10 kangaroos as well! 

Most seem to lay in the grassy scrub areas to sleep during the day.

  I think this is one of my favorite pics I've taken in the last 5 months.

We are still very much in awe of all the great things we have gotten to do here. This trip seemed like a great way to end our time in Australia.

More blog posts to come. . . but maybe not until I'm back on US soil!

And you think Americans start celebrating Christmas early. . .

I'm taking a quick detour from our Sydney trip to talk about. . . Christmas! One of Adelaide's signature events is their annual Christmas Pageant, which we attended today. On November 10. Yes, that's early. But with no Thanksgiving to celebrate (and they barely celebrate Halloween), why not start the Christmas season early??

This is definitely a 'go really early or you won't get a seat' type of event. Fortunately, almost everyone lets the kids sit at the front, no matter when they show up. Australians sure are nice!

We were surprised to see Star Wars characters!

It was (quoting Eli here) a "skin meltingly-hot day" (actually it was only 71 degrees, but this Aussie sun is so intense!) but I'm sure Chewbacca was sweltering.

A big difference between this parade and others I've seen: clowns. There were a LOT of clowns in this parade. Probably over a hundred. 

 

I believe I remember reading somewhere that you can actually apply to be a clown in this parade, and it's a really big deal to get selected! Unfortunately, 50% of the Bardwells have a strong reaction to clowns (and it's not a positive one) but in the light of day, they were OK.

Eli's favorite float was this one: it had a ball track where the balls rolled along.

 This was Micah's favorite: penguins racing down a slide!

Fruchocs. This means nothing to people in the US, but Fruchocs are the best thing ever invented. They are worth a trip to Australia just to try them. Here's Mr Fruchoc!!

Now you KNOW it's getting serious when the 3 wise men on real camels show up for the parade!

And. They did it. The nativity on a float.

I'm so glad Mary and Joseph could take time away from raising our Lord and Savior to wave at the bystanders.

Of course, why end the parade there, with the actual reason for Christmas (although cheesily done) when there is SANTA?? Actually, it was kind of fun to hear all the kids get excited to see him. I guess on November 10, his availability is pretty wide open. 

Sarcasm aside, this was a very nice event, and I'm glad we braved the crowds to do one more signature "Adelaide" event before we leave in 2 weeks!

The Bardwells Take Sydney 2: Opera House!

Let's be honest. As an American, when you think of Australia, probably one of the first pictures to come to mind is that of the Sydney Opera House.

The Opera House sits right on the Sydney Harbour. This was not that far from our hotel, and a very popular tourist spot. This is one of the few places we've been where our American accents didn't really stand out! We didn't take an official tour of the building (they were all pretty lengthy and, frankly, I was the only one who would have been that interested), but we walked around the building and saw it from many different vantage points. 

Some fun Opera House facts:

It opened in 1973.

Estimated number of years to build: 4

Actual number of years to complete the build: 14

Estimated build budget: $7 million AUD

Actual budget: $102 million AUD 

It hosts 3000 performances a year, and over 8 million visitors. And we were 4 of them!

The building actually looks quite different close up. We found it was difficult to get a good picture up close.

The roof is covered in over 1 million of these tiles.

The Opera House is right next to the (almost as famous) Harbour Bridge.

I'll post more about this later, but we climbed to a vantage point on the Harbour Bridge and got some great shots of the Opera House. 

Here are the boys practicing their opera singing: 

 And now trying to squeeze the Opera House:

 

And trying to flatten it. Good times with boys in Sydney!

The Bardwells Take Sydney 1: Bondi Beach

Last weekend, we ventured out of Adelaide to visit Australia's largest city, Sydney! Sydney is about a 2 hour plane ride from Adelaide. And about 5 times as big: Adelaide has around 1 million people, compared to Sydney's 5 million!

On Saturday, we visited the city's most famous beach, Bondi (pronounced bond-eye) Beach. We actually took the bus past the beach, down the coastline, and then took a beautiful (and not too long) hike ending at Bondi.  We started our walk at Clovelly Beach, which was a cute little beach with lots of rocks to explore. Ironically, it also seems to be popular to have a pool right next to the ocean here!??!

The boys rockin' the rocks :)

We continued on towards Bronte Beach (just left of center in this pic), with Bondi on the far right.

Overall, Sydney was much hillier than we expected. There was a lot of up and down on this hike, but it made for some beautiful views!

We made it to Bronte Beach, and it was definitely time to get in and enjoy the waves on this hot day!

After a swim and lunch, we continued our walk to Bondi. There were so many stunning views that I could post another dozen pics at least as pretty as this one.

There happened to be an art display along the shorelines between Bronte and Bondi Beaches, called Sculpture by the Sea, so we enjoyed some art on our walk!

 I have no idea how they got some of these pieces to the edge of a cliff. . .

Kitty. . .

And finally, we made it to Bondi Beach. Along with half of Sydney.

The boys LOVE the waves!!

A successful day in Sydney. . . and more to come!!