After the hike we headed towards Sydney, it was about a 2 hour drive and after finding our hotel, we did what all travelers do after two months on the go…we rested! But not for long because Jill was intent on seeing as much as she could of Syney in less than 48 hours.

Our hotel was in a great area called The Rocks. It was within walking distance of basically everything we wanted to do. First on the list was seeing the Harbor Bridge and the Opera House and walking around the Circular Quay District.

After visiting the sites we walked around the city through the main shopping districts (this was totally Tim’s idea). Since it was December 23rd, there were loads of people out shopping and running errands. We enjoyed being out and about in all the Christmas excitement.

Because we were dragging a bit, we decided to watch a movie  and chill out while still feeling we were out of the hotel room. What would any self-respecting person watch in Australia? The Australia movie with Nicole Kidman, duh! We did and the theatre was nearly empty and I’m pretty sure I heard snickering from locals sitting below us, but we enjoyed the movie and more importantly the oportunity to sit on comfy chairs for over 2 hours while being entertained.

We ended up getting dinner that night at Sushi Train. It was our first time at a sushi joint where the sushi is on a moving conveyer belt and you pull off what you want to eat and pay per plate. We felt like really city folk…but we like being coutry folk.

After sunset we went back to the Quay District, the Opera House, and the Harbor Bridge to see the city all lit up. It was really beautiful. I (Jill) think the Opera House is prettier at night when it is all lit up.

On Christmas Eve (the next morning), Jill went running through the Royal Botanical Gardens and around a bay or two in the Harbor. Afterwards, we struck back out into the streets to do some shopping and more exploring. After not to many stores and realizing we couldn’t handle the Christmas crowds, we headed to St. Mary’s Cathedral and the park that connects to it (name?). The picture of a walkway in the park is below and it reminded me of Central Park in some spots.

St. Mary’s was beautiful. We walked around it and sat for a few moments in the very ornate cathedral before moving on to the Royal Bontanical Gardens. Jill wanted to show Tim how cool they were from her run.

On our way to the Gardens, we stopped at the New South Wales Art Gallery and wandered through it looking at the work of international and Australia artists as well as some beautiful Aboriginal pieces. The above photo is a picture we sneaked when no one was looking!

Once we got to the Gardens, we exclaimed about the huge grey bats (fruit bats) that live in the garden and hang from the trees. Eewww….but kinda cool.

After cleaning up a bit, we headed down to Darling Harbor, to enjoy Christmas Eve. We bought tickets to U2 3D at the IMAX theatre, which boasts the largest screen in the world. Who can pass that up? Not us.

The movie ended up being really fun. It was like being at a concert only we had the best seats in the house. They did a great job making us feel like we were right there in the middle of everything.

After the movie, we hung out for a bit in Darling Harbor before walking over to the Syndey Tower (much like the Sky Tower in New Zealand) with plans to go to the bar on top and look out over the city and get drinks…no such luck. The bar was already full and they weren’t letting hopeful and pathetic tourists up the elevator. Oh well.

We headed back to Darling Harbor and got drinks looking out over the harbor and listened to some live music (that was way too loud). We ended the evening by taking the last ferry from Darling Harbor to the Circular Quay. The ferry took us under the Harbor Bridge and we viewed the Opera House lit up over the water. It was a great way to wrap up our time in Sydney (for now).

Final Day of Travel – We had no idea how many people traveled on Christmas Day. The Sydney airport was jam packed. Everything went smoothly though, and we caught our 10:45 am flight to Papeete, Tahiti. We disembarked walked around the corner at the Fa’aa Airport in Tahiti -feeling like the trip had come full circle – and got on the next plane headed for LAX. The picture below was taken of the sunrise as we were flying to LA. We caught a commuter flight from LA to SFO to spend our 2nd Christmas day (thanks to the date line) with the Kimmel family.

We arrived safe and sound after a couple delays on our last leg of the trip. We were greeted by Jill’s family (notice in the photo below that Tim is standing a bit far off; to put it nicely…he smelled). It was so nice to be home, though the conclusion of our travels is bittersweet. We count it a blessing that the conclusion is bittersweet because we have been blessed with wonderful travels full of adventure, discovery, lots of laughs.

We hope that everyone had a fabulous Christmas and we can’t wait to reconnect with all of you. Thanks for your prayers and support.

Who’s ready for trip number 2? We’re game:)

Well, we can’t believe it but we are on our way to the airport right now to catch a 10:30 am flight from Sydney to Papeete, Tahiti and from Papeete to LAX. We’ll arrive at 8:30 am today in LA…wierd, but fun that we get a very long Christmas.

We will post about Sydney when we get home. We mostly wandered around this big beautiful city and took lots of pictures.

To say the least this trip has been wonderful and we want to say thanks for following along with us.

Enjoy your Christmas and we’ll see or talk with you all soon. Much love.

We drove around and ended up at the Tacking Point lighthouse. The lighting was amazing so we  hung out there for a while and just enjoyed the beauty of God’s creation…and of course, Tim took photos like a madman.

Jill went for another beach path run the next morning and then we hit the road again knowing we had quite a few kilometers to kill before reaching Katoomba in the Blue Mountains, west of Sydney. The drive was very green and extremely uneventful.

We arrived in Katoomba at around 5pm, checked in to the local YHA, and went to the lookout point for the Three Sisters. They are a series of three very regal rock formations rising up out of an expansive valley. We walked down to the rock formations and half way down “the great stairway” – lots and lots of steep stairs leading to the valley floor. We only made it half way down because we didn’t want to climb back up:)

This evening we ended up in a small cafe drinking hazelnut hot chocolate, eating decadent cheesecake, and playing a rousing game of checkers.

Tomorrow we’ll do a bit of hiking and then head into Sydney for our final 36 hours in Australia and abroad for that matter. Wow! We’re not sure we’ll blog again before we catch our flight to Cali. If we don’t blog before Christmas, we will afterwards.

We are having a great time and are already reminiscing about how much fun we’ve had and all the memories we’ve made. Until next time…

By the time we got settled we were pretty hungry and since we had been to this spot during Quarter at Sea we decided to go back to a Mexican restaurant we ate at six years ago. It is a pretty good attempt at Mexican though nothing beats California Mexican in our book!

The next day Jill went for a run along the beach path while Tim wandered around taking pictures. We ran errands the rest of the morning to get groceries, etc since we’d be “on the road” for over a week. That afternoon we set out for the David Fleahy Wildlife Park to see all the cool Australian animals, birds, and reptiles. Jill has been looking for koalas every time we land in Australia. The park was great because it wasn’t too big and there weren’t very  many people. Plus we got to see the crocodile feeding and hold a snake! Yikes!

We also got screamed at by a bird that felt we were getting to close to the fence as she had a little birdie on the other side. The only bummer was that the local wombat decided to stay in its hole and not come out. We waited (no joke) f0r a half an hour hoping to catch a glimpse but no such luck.

After giving up on the wombat, we headed back into town and rented surf boards so we could surf early the next morning. Thanks to our fully furnished apartment and our early grocery shopping we were able to make dinner and relax in the apartment after a tough day of being tourists.

A lightning storm came in as we were making dinner. The apartment had slidding glass doors which all slide back so you have one “wall” that basically opens completely to the view of the city. Tim got some great shots of the storm and our dinner.

On friday, Tim woke up early and caught a very beautiful sunrise before waking Jill up for a morning surf. We got out to Duranbah Beach around 7am and we both headed out. Tim made it past the inside current, but Jill couldn’t even stay on her feet as she was being swept sideways. No surfing for Jill, but lots of playing in the sand and enjoying the morning sun.

Oh, by the way Friday, the 19th was our four year wedding anniversary and all anniversaries are meant to start with beautiful sunrises and surfs. The rest of the day included more surfing and hanging out at Snapper Rock before it was time to hit the road yet again. This time we drove 40 minutes south to Byron Bay.

We arrived at Byron Bay in the early evening and decided to immediately drive to Cape Byron and the beautiful lighthouse located there.

We walked out to the easternmost point of Australia (photo op, of course) and up and down lots and lots of stairs. We drove a bit more exploring the legendary surf breaks of Byron Bay before heading downtown to celebrate our anniversary over a bit of Thai food and Coopers Sparkling Ale (this is for you Miss Kelly Power – soon to be Mrs.).

Saturday started with Tim surfing at the Pass in Byron Bay with beautiful waves and fifty of his new Aussie buddies. The water was too cold for Jill so after a couple of hours we headed back into town to rent spring suits. Back to the water! Tim surfed again and Jill finally got her whiny booty into the water.

After what became four hours of surfing for Tim, we got lunch in town and walked around a bit enjoying the plethora of shops and laid  back surfer community. JJill went for a brutal run from town, up lots of stairs, to the lighthouse and back and then guess what we did???? We surfed again. Shocking, we know.

That night we had dinner back at our accommodations (community kitchens are very common here and we are thankful) and ended the night by watching Lord of the Rings. We actually recognized places in the movie that we visited while we were in New Zealand.

Sunday morning, we surfed again and then waved goodbye to the beautiful waves of Byron Bay. On the drive south we stopped at Broken Heads beach just south of Byron Bay. For those of you who know the Shelter surf dvd, quite a bit of the surfing was filmed at this beach. It is a bit of a mecca for Tim so it was fun to stand on its shore.  Now we have to re-watch the dvd when we get home (so much to do).

As we continued our drive down the coast, it seemed that about every five minutes or so we would see another point with fabulous swell wrapping around it and really good surfers tearing it up. It was quite impressive and made the drive very slow until the road veered inland.

Arrival Day – We were lucky enough to reserve a Bread and Breakfast at an extremely good price and arrived there in the afternoon. It wasn’t the nicest place in the world but it was run by a local and we basically had the place to ourselves. Very early on we discovered there fabulous public transportation which consists of a bunch of vans that drive back and forth on all the roads. All you have to do is wait about a minute and flag one down. It cost about a dollar to get most places. We took our first ride, after settling in, to get groceries. Dory, who ran the place, told us that we can go to all the local resorts and use their facilities… hmmmm… sounded good to us. Our firs resort was Breakas which is about a 5 minute walk. We enjoyed drinks as the sun set over the bay… not too shabby if you ask us.

Day 1 – We enjoyed our included breakfast before setting out to our second resort. We walked 5 minutes the opposite direction from the last resort, caught a free ferry, and arrived at Erakor Island. We explored the small island, snorkeled, read, and had lunch before moving on to our next resort.

Resort #3 was the most expensive resort on the island, so we felt we must partake in the splendor of cascading horizon pools, scheduled activities, swim up bars, and cheap catamaran rentals. We actually first went to the resort to just rent a catamaran. After doing so and attempting to venture out into the open waters (which we were quickly told not to do) we sailed around the lagoon for 2 hours. A new activity (is this a good activity) was invented during that time which we have dubbed “The lazy mans snorkel”.

It involves holding on to the back of the catamaran with snorkel gear on and being dragged over clear tourquoise water filled with fishies, starfish, and coral. You see way more of the lagoon then you would see with your own legs. For all interested you might want to start practicing because we are currently the world champions. We’re hoping to make 2012 olympics. The rest of the afternoon was spent relaxing by the pool, playing volleyball in the pool, and Tim even got to enjoy a rousing game of soccer organized by the resort’s activity team. Good times were had by all…

Day 2 – We decided to venture further away from the ocean (can you beleive it?). We took a bus to the Cascade Waterfalls. Somebody had mentioned that this was a must see and we were very glad we went. It turned out to be a beautiful series of pools and small waterfalls that stretched over approximately a kilometer. We had some fun playing around in the falls at the top, and then slowly meandered our way back down, going from pool to pool.

We rock jumped, slid, climbed and swam. Have we mentioned that we have really enjoyed our vacation from our vacation? On the way to the bottom we took a side path, which ended up leading to a beautiful lookout point, where we took some sweet glamour shots.

We didn’t have small enough bills for a bus ride, so we hitched a ride on the back of a beater truck back into town. By this time it was around 3pm and Jill was hungry… for those who know Jill, this is a definite cause for ALARM!!! We ended up at a very cool authentic local place on the strip called Jill’s Cafe, The American Way!!!

Okay, so it might not be local cuisine, but it was good food and the thick chocolate mint shake was by far the best we have had so far on this trip.

After appeasing Jill’s appetite, we took another free ferry to the island of Iririki where we hoped to rent another catamaran. It ended up being too late so we found a nice lookout point and had a drink overlooking the bay. After wandering around the island we happened upon a tennis court… Yippppeeeeee!!! We rented rackets and the flattest tennis balls you have ever seen. We had a great time playing as the sun was going down. We worked up quite a sweat and cooled off in one of the 3 different horizon pools on that side of the island. To top it all off, as we were leaving, we caught a gorgeous sunset.

Day 3 – Our last full day we started off with the normal breakfast routine before setting out on a walk. The jaunt took us along the shore where there were some pretty good point break possibilities (if there had been some swell). Along the way we acquired another companion, a very sweet dog, which accompanied us and showed us the way to yet another resort in Paradise Cove.

We snorkeled and relaxed before walking back towards Resort #1 (Breakas), where we ate a delicious lunch overlooking the white sand beach. Tim was able to talk to a local villager who let him rent his sons surfboard. He surfed for a few hours with 2 local teenage boys from the village (Ponga). The surf was small, fun, and broke on shallow reef. To top off the day we perfected the trifecta and went back to Resort #3 (Le Legoon) and lounged around and played in the pool. I am pretty sure we were the only over 16 year olds playing pool games, such classics as “find the coin I just threw in the pool” and “I bet you can’t hold your  breath this long”. We spent our last evening relaxing back at the B&B as we were tired from so much fun in the sun.

Departure Day – Our flight didn’t leave till the afternoon so we decided to make the most of our morning by heading into town (port vila) and back out to Iririki Island. We rented a catamaran for 2 hours and sailed around the island and through the main bay and harbor. It was great because the wind was pretty consistent, the sailing area was larger, and we got to practice our lazy man’s snorkel.

Because the thick shake was calling to Tim from Jill’s Cafe, we lunched there again. Why mess with a good thing. After lunch we headed back to the B&B, grab our bags, and head to the airport. We caught a bus right away, but the driver had to stop by his house real quick to grab something. It ended up that he needed duct tape to secure the back window. He probably could have used the tape on a number of other things on the van. We were also not allowed to open the door because it required special handling. He ended up being a really nice guy and we got to the airport safe and sound. Oh, he did drive rather slowly and use the ebrake to slow down… public transportation adds adventure. After getting in line to check in, our bus driver hurried up to us with Tim’s wallet in his hand. It apparently had slipped out of his back pocket as he exited the van. We were so thankful he found it, as we wouldn’t have realized it was gone until Brisbane.

They say Vanuatu has the happiest people in the world and we would agree. Everyone was extremely friendly, courteous, and helpful. We were also told by many locals that it is a very safe place, you can feel free to walk at night which is rare for many third world countries. We thoroughly enjoyed our time in Vanuatu and are glad this random little island fit into our trip.

Check out how casual they are about where airport staff take their breaks.

Much love from the Whitacres. No Comment except for the 19 comments to follow.

We walked through the city enjoying the energy of all the bustling people coming and going in the city. There are beautiful churches and buildings here as well as the Brisbane City Gardens. We walked and walked. It was fun because everyone seemed to be out and about doing their Christmas shopping and enjoying the warm night.

We ended up at the Queen Street Mall, an outdoor walkway with lots of shops and restaurants. There was a big, beautifully lit Christmas tree that reminded us it is December. Somehow, that fact gets lost on us in all the heat and humidity:)

We stopped and watched an acrobatic performance in the middle of the Mall. Jill is always very enamored with acrobatics (see photo of childlike wonder).

To top off a wonderful evening of aimless wandering, we sat in a coffee shop and beat our sweetooth cravings over the head with decadent mud pie and a chocolate carmel slice accompanied by coffee. Yum! We love vacation.

Tomorrow we fly to Vanuatu, a small series of islands off the coast of Australia. We have no idea what our time there will hold, but we’re looking forward to more island living and hopefully some good snorkling.

Yes, I am aware that she is just a dog, but she’s also my buddy buddy friend and I miss her dealy. I know she is doing very well and having a fabulous time at Luna’s house which makes me happy.

I miss her “talking” when she first wakes up in the morning. I miss her jumping straight up in the air when she’s excited. I miss her obsession with fetch and the b each. I miss our runs around Pomar even though she’s not good at heeling. I miss how she lays directly under the sink when I try to clean up after dinner.

Okay, I’ll stoop the drama now, but I just couldn’t hold it in any longer.

Peace.

The final leg if the journey was by rental car from the Brisbane airport to Nooda Heads, which is about a 2 hour drive north. After locating our YHA room we wandered the streets for a bit, did laundry, and slept.

Noosa Heads is a fun, touristy beach community. It has beautiful beaches and lots of fun shops and restaurants as well as a nearby National Park.

On Thursday morning, Jill got up early and took a run through the Noosa National Park. She ran along the coastal trail to Hell’s Gates, a lookout point, and then through the middle of the park through the Australian “bush”. She kept looking up into the trees because there were signs saying that koalas lived in the bush…no such luck, but she did suprise a large “lizard”. Actually, they suprised each other. The body was about 2 feet long and the tail 1.5 to 2 times the body length. Luckily, it was just as scared and scampered up a tree….yikes. When she got back to the hostel, Tim was wide awake and ready to begin the day.

The day began with a repeat of Jill’s run so Tim could explore the National park as well. We duplicated the coastal track and stopped at various beaches along the way to go swimming in the welcoming warm water. We enjoyed watching people trek out to various beaches carrying long and short surfboards only there was no surf…literally. I guess floating on surfboards in lake-like conditions is still a fun activity for those on holiday.

We  hiked. We bodysurfed. We saw a beautiful pod of dolphins right off the Hell’s Gates point. We  hiked. Have I mentioned how stinkin’ hot it was? We hiked. The breeze helped cool us off and so did the intermittent swimming.

Once we staggered into town from the endurance trek (recall this was Jill’s second trip through the forest), we found refuge at a smoothie bar and enjoyed a rest. Next is was lunch and what could be better than pizza? Nothing.

The rest of the afternoon we rested, blogged, and meandered through the shop entrenched streets of Noosa. We got dinner back at the hostel and hung out in the bar listening to a crazy, but talented Aussie play the guitar and rap. Good times.

On Friday morning, Jill went for one last run in the Noosa National Park and then dragged Tim out shopping for a wee bit.

Our final Noosa activity was renting a Hobie Cat and going sailing for an hour. It was very fun and Tim is quite the sailor. Jill steered for a bit, but gave up when it came time actually turn the boat in the opposite direction. The wind was light, but steady and it was really nice to be out in the water. We sailed to the first point of the National Park and then tacked back and forth enjoying the water.

It was time to hit the road again…Brisbane, here we come.

We accompanied our gracious host, Nick Pauls, out to a nearby village where he was getting to know the people. It was about a twenty minute walk and included crossing a river. Jill had been trying to be the model of modesty but the river crossing meant hiking her skirt up to get across.

After crossing the river we had to get up the steep and very slippery river bank. Lucky for us some of the villagers were standing there because we “whiteskins” were sliding all over the place and not making much progress. They let down shovels for us to grab hold of and then pulled us up. We’re sure they were pretty amused by the whole thing.

Once we got onto the village, Nick ran into one of the men he knew and he was drying his latest coffee harvest so he took some time to explain the process to us. He also showed us a drum he is working on and the inside of his hut.

Next we went to visit another man Nick knew named Kukalu, but it turned out that he was away for the day. We did get to meet his wife though and she was very sweet.

We had a great time getting to visit a village and we so thankful that Nick invited us to tag along.

The rest of the day was spent reading and relaxing although Jill did get to go for a much needed run on the highschool “track”.

It rained hard with a beautiful and powerful thunder and lightening storm on Monday night. We woke up to muddy streets and a much higher river. We were so thankful that we had visited the village the day before because the river had risen significantly and would no longer be crossable.

Tuesday morning we were invited to tag along as Nick drove a friend of his to the nearby town of Kainantu so he could catch a PMV (public motor vehicle: truck or van stuffed with more people and bags than you can imagine). After dropping Nick’s friend off we hit the town…we visited a few stores, the cultural center and an open air market. The town had a lot of people in it. Most of them were either selling food, yarn, or soap or appeared to just be hanging out.

Although it was good to get out and get another taste of the real PNG, it was a bit out of my (Jill) comfort zone and I was pretty thankful when it was time to drive “home”.

The Pehrson’s invited us for lunch on Tuesday, so after Kainantu we went to the home. They were really nice and we had a great time hanging out with them and getting to know them a bit.

For a bit of a history lesson, the Whitacres worked in the Arop village during the 80′s doing translation work. They left the village in the late 80′s and a family called the Nystroms took over the work. Tim and his family left PNG and returned to the States in 1991. In July 1998 the Arop village was destroyed by a tsounami, over half of the village was killed. As a result the village was relocated to a more inland location where now the Pehrson’s have joined the Nystroms in the translation work. The village where Tim and his family lived is no longer in existence though earlier this year many of the survivors went back to the original village to remember those who died ten years ago.

The Pehrson’s showed us lots of pictures of the new village and even some of the memorial service at the former village site. It was great to get the update and to see how well things are going there. One of the reasons we hesitated on going to PNG originally was because we wouldn’t get to go out to the village or connect with that piece of Tim’s childhood, so meeting up with Ben and Mandie Pehrson was a huge blessing for us.

Our last afternoon we relaxed some more, took another walk around Ukarumpa getting more photos to show Tim’s family, and Jill went running again. After another fabulous homemade dinner at the Guest house we packed our things and headed to bed.

We flew to Port Moresby around 8:30am in a little Cessna 206 (5 seated airplane). It was an extremely smooth flight (Tim had prepared Jill for the worst flight conditions by telling stories about how he and his sister, Linda would be curled up together crying in the back of the plane because the turbulance was so bad). It turned out to be a great flight because Tim got to sit in the co-pilot’s seat and talk to the pilot during the flight (only increasing his desire to pursue his pilot’s license one day).

Also because the airplane is not pressurized it stays fairly low allowing great views of the country. We were able to see the patchwork like gardens on the village hillsides, the forest/jungle stretching on for miles and miles, rivers, waterfalls, and marshlands. I (jill) was hoping for a crocodile to make an appearance but no such luck. The coolest thing we saw from above were isolated villages that would appear our of no where and be near to nothing. It made a very clear explanation as to why there are over 500 languages in PNG and still so much tribal warfare.

We are so thankful that we were able to visit PNG and Ukarumpa. Now that it is over we can’t imagine having passed up the opportunity after being “in the nieghborhood”. It was great to see where Tim was born and where he lived and caused trouble for the first ten years of his life. We had a great time meeting people who remembered he and his family and new people who were extremely welcoming and hospitable.

The best part was that at around 6:30am on Wednesday morning Ben Pehrson dropped by the guest house to give us a DVD of all the photos they had showed us the day before. We are looking very forward to sharing those with Tim’s family in a few weeks.

Here is a gallery of more PNG pics from the last 2 days. Enjoy!!!