What we did in between
G-day Mates!
You all might be wondering what I did in between the two blogs I wrote, so I thought I should probably give you an overview. Traveling in an RV might not be everybody's choice of travel (more on this in my blog about what it’s like to travel in an RV (-: ), but one of the advantages is that you can move every morning without the hassle of packing, checking into hotels, unpacking etc. Because the trip down two thirds of the Eastern coast of Australia covers such a vast distance, we had to drive south for several hours almost every day. I can’t give you a very detailed paragraph about all the places we visited, because they were just small tastes, glimpses of Australia, it’s culture and beautiful landscape. The good thing about only getting to see a small part of Australia and all it’s splendors, is that now we are prompted to come back for another adventure soon. But, I have seen and done enough to write a decent sized blog. So let’s get started!
This is a list of the top 3 things we did (at least in my opinion), not including our time in Sydney.
1. Going to the beach, again, and again, and again.
Going to the beach was lot’s of fun. While my brothers enjoyed learning how to buggy board, my mom and I would sit on the beach and read. Occasionally I would jump in the water and try my hand at buggy boarding. But I failed terribly every time and landed face first in the sand. Which as you can imagine wasn’t very fun, but it gave everyone a good laugh.
2. The Lone-pine Koala Sanctuary
The Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary is one of the most famous koala sanctuary's in Australia, and it sure lived up to it’s reputation. We spent a lovely day there. We started out by going to see the koalas. We listened to a presentation about them, which taught us many things. For example, many people think that koalas sleep so much because eucalyptus leaves, which make up most of their diet, act as a sort of drug. Causing the koalas to get “high” and drowsy. In truth this is not the reason. Eucalyptus leaves are not very nutritious, most of the leaf is made up of water, so you don’t get that much energy from them. That is why they sleep so much, to conserve energy. In mating season the koalas tend to be awake more during the day and the males make a deep croaking sound as one way to attract females. Unfortunately we were just on the tail-end of mating season, so most of the koalas were sleeping. That didn’t make them any less cute though! Especially when I got to hold one and take a picture with it. Other than learning about the koalas, we got to feed and pet kangaroos and wallabies. As well as watch herding dogs, like the kelpie and border collie, round up sheep, and see how sheep are sheared by hand. At the end of the day I went into a gift shop to purchase a snack, I noticed many pictures of younger versions of well known celebrities holding koalas on the wall and asked an employee if they had visited lone pine. “Yeah, all of them visited before they were famous, when almost no one knew who they were.” They lady said as I paid for my snack. Anyway, my family and I had a great day at Lone Pine and we saw so many more interesting animals.
3. Bonsai Tree exhibition Canberra
After we visited the National Museum of Australia to learn about the aboriginals, we drove to the Arboritorium. The building was stunning, made out of wood which spiraled and curved inwards gracefully. It is perched formidably on the hills outside canberra. A Beautiful wooden play structure sits on the platform around it, and a magical bonsai garden lies within. Bonsai is the art of growing a miniature tree. Bonsai comes from Japan, and like many other Japanese things, has to be done very precisely. I was immediately entranced by the miniature tree’s and I listened in awe as some volunteers explained to me how to take care of a bonsai tree. You really have to take care of it like it was your child. Pruning it daily, nurturing it. The specific mixes of soil vary depending on what tree you are planing to grow. I was very surprised to learn that a miniature bonsai tree can theoretically be grown from any different species of tree. Though some are more popularly used than others. Imagine a huge sequoia tree being shrunk down to the size of your arm! Sadly we arrived right before closing time, so I didn’t get to spend as much time there as I would have liked.
In addition to this list, we also often stopped at savory pie restaurants, trying to find the best one. I can send you the name and location of our favorite spot if you are interested.
Now I’d like to go over the 4 different kind’s of places we stayed overnight with our RV.
1. Holiday Villages
The holiday resort parks were the most luxurious of places we stayed in. Every one we stayed in had a swimming pool and a bouncing pillow. One even had an exercise park and mini golf. The holiday resorts we stayed at were often pretty empty because family’s usually stay in them and no one was out of school yet.
2. The Permanent Residence
The permanent residence parks where always mostly made up of stationary caravans connected to homes. Most people there lived in these homes full or part time. I felt that people staying in these parks tend to stay in there caravan-homes most of the day did not ‘socialized’ with visitors. On the bright side WIFI was usually great in these parks.
3. The Nature Reserve
I enjoyed staying in the nature reserves the most, because I think I interacted with more people in these more rural places. Many of these people were retired couples with exciting stories to tell about there previous travels. These places also all had kangaroos jumping around the grounds.
And last but not least…
4. The Gas Station
We only stayed in a gas station once, and as strange as it sounds it was’t that bad. We stayed in a big parking lot behind the gas station where big trucks usually spend the night. We were right next to a gas station store, which had bathrooms and even a shower as well as several fast-food restaurants (Subway anyone ?) though we didn’t eat there. It was a bit nerve-racking to try and cross the parking lot to get to the showers in the morning without getting crushed by the huge, I mean Ginormous trucks that surrounded our, tiny (in comparison) RV.
Another thing we did, a lot, during the long drives from place to place in Australia was stop at a myriad of different savory pie shops. Often on local recommendation. We kept track of our favorite shops, and I would be happy to send anyone interested a list. (Our absolute favorite shop was a little shop in the town Ulladulla, just south of Sydney, called Hayden’s Pie Shop. The pies were absolutely scrumptious).
That is a basic overview of our time in Australia, and I am sad to say I won’t be able to go into much more detail because in the meantime we have already left Australia and are now on our 3rd week of travel in Thailand. I will be sure to post about that very soon.
Bye!
Liv the Explorer
G-day Mates!
You all might be wondering what I did in between the two blogs I wrote, so I thought I should probably give you an overview. Traveling in an RV might not be everybody's choice of travel (more on this in my blog about what it’s like to travel in an RV (-: ), but one of the advantages is that you can move every morning without the hassle of packing, checking into hotels, unpacking etc. Because the trip down two thirds of the Eastern coast of Australia covers such a vast distance, we had to drive south for several hours almost every day. I can’t give you a very detailed paragraph about all the places we visited, because they were just small tastes, glimpses of Australia, it’s culture and beautiful landscape. The good thing about only getting to see a small part of Australia and all it’s splendors, is that now we are prompted to come back for another adventure soon. But, I have seen and done enough to write a decent sized blog. So let’s get started!
This is a list of the top 3 things we did (at least in my opinion), not including our time in Sydney.
1. Going to the beach, again, and again, and again.
Going to the beach was lot’s of fun. While my brothers enjoyed learning how to buggy board, my mom and I would sit on the beach and read. Occasionally I would jump in the water and try my hand at buggy boarding. But I failed terribly every time and landed face first in the sand. Which as you can imagine wasn’t very fun, but it gave everyone a good laugh.
2. The Lone-pine Koala Sanctuary
The Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary is one of the most famous koala sanctuary's in Australia, and it sure lived up to it’s reputation. We spent a lovely day there. We started out by going to see the koalas. We listened to a presentation about them, which taught us many things. For example, many people think that koalas sleep so much because eucalyptus leaves, which make up most of their diet, act as a sort of drug. Causing the koalas to get “high” and drowsy. In truth this is not the reason. Eucalyptus leaves are not very nutritious, most of the leaf is made up of water, so you don’t get that much energy from them. That is why they sleep so much, to conserve energy. In mating season the koalas tend to be awake more during the day and the males make a deep croaking sound as one way to attract females. Unfortunately we were just on the tail-end of mating season, so most of the koalas were sleeping. That didn’t make them any less cute though! Especially when I got to hold one and take a picture with it. Other than learning about the koalas, we got to feed and pet kangaroos and wallabies. As well as watch herding dogs, like the kelpie and border collie, round up sheep, and see how sheep are sheared by hand. At the end of the day I went into a gift shop to purchase a snack, I noticed many pictures of younger versions of well known celebrities holding koalas on the wall and asked an employee if they had visited lone pine. “Yeah, all of them visited before they were famous, when almost no one knew who they were.” They lady said as I paid for my snack. Anyway, my family and I had a great day at Lone Pine and we saw so many more interesting animals.
3. Bonsai Tree exhibition Canberra
After we visited the National Museum of Australia to learn about the aboriginals, we drove to the Arboritorium. The building was stunning, made out of wood which spiraled and curved inwards gracefully. It is perched formidably on the hills outside canberra. A Beautiful wooden play structure sits on the platform around it, and a magical bonsai garden lies within. Bonsai is the art of growing a miniature tree. Bonsai comes from Japan, and like many other Japanese things, has to be done very precisely. I was immediately entranced by the miniature tree’s and I listened in awe as some volunteers explained to me how to take care of a bonsai tree. You really have to take care of it like it was your child. Pruning it daily, nurturing it. The specific mixes of soil vary depending on what tree you are planing to grow. I was very surprised to learn that a miniature bonsai tree can theoretically be grown from any different species of tree. Though some are more popularly used than others. Imagine a huge sequoia tree being shrunk down to the size of your arm! Sadly we arrived right before closing time, so I didn’t get to spend as much time there as I would have liked.
In addition to this list, we also often stopped at savory pie restaurants, trying to find the best one. I can send you the name and location of our favorite spot if you are interested.
Now I’d like to go over the 4 different kind’s of places we stayed overnight with our RV.
1. Holiday Villages
The holiday resort parks were the most luxurious of places we stayed in. Every one we stayed in had a swimming pool and a bouncing pillow. One even had an exercise park and mini golf. The holiday resorts we stayed at were often pretty empty because family’s usually stay in them and no one was out of school yet.
2. The Permanent Residence
The permanent residence parks where always mostly made up of stationary caravans connected to homes. Most people there lived in these homes full or part time. I felt that people staying in these parks tend to stay in there caravan-homes most of the day did not ‘socialized’ with visitors. On the bright side WIFI was usually great in these parks.
3. The Nature Reserve
I enjoyed staying in the nature reserves the most, because I think I interacted with more people in these more rural places. Many of these people were retired couples with exciting stories to tell about there previous travels. These places also all had kangaroos jumping around the grounds.
And last but not least…
4. The Gas Station
We only stayed in a gas station once, and as strange as it sounds it was’t that bad. We stayed in a big parking lot behind the gas station where big trucks usually spend the night. We were right next to a gas station store, which had bathrooms and even a shower as well as several fast-food restaurants (Subway anyone ?) though we didn’t eat there. It was a bit nerve-racking to try and cross the parking lot to get to the showers in the morning without getting crushed by the huge, I mean Ginormous trucks that surrounded our, tiny (in comparison) RV.
Another thing we did, a lot, during the long drives from place to place in Australia was stop at a myriad of different savory pie shops. Often on local recommendation. We kept track of our favorite shops, and I would be happy to send anyone interested a list. (Our absolute favorite shop was a little shop in the town Ulladulla, just south of Sydney, called Hayden’s Pie Shop. The pies were absolutely scrumptious).
That is a basic overview of our time in Australia, and I am sad to say I won’t be able to go into much more detail because in the meantime we have already left Australia and are now on our 3rd week of travel in Thailand. I will be sure to post about that very soon.
Bye!
Liv the Explorer