There’s no Place like Home…There’s no Place like Home…

Monday morning we were all up by 4:45 am and heading to downtown Canberra to begin the ANZAC Day—April 25^th—Celebrations. This day commemorates the landing of Australian and New Zealand forces on Gallipoli, Turkey during World War I. It was a long battle and ended with the joint forces leaving the site eight months later, but the story is retold every year to remind Australians and New Zealanders about the sacrifices made to preserve freedom…and to ensure that the story is passed down from generation to generation.

The dawn service was held at the foot of the War Memorial, and by 5:30 more than 10,000 people holding electric candles had gathered for the stories, the hymns, speeches and laying down wreaths in memory of the soldiers…and with the exception of the hymns people remained silent and respectful throughout…there was no side chatter only silence. Near the end a single bugler standing at the top of the steps of the Memorial played the Last Post and Reveille—very, very moving.

 
Following the service we walked down ANZAC Parade—the mall-like boulevard from the Memorial to the Lake along the axis I mentioned in the Day 2 post. Along the Parade are memorials to the Armed Forces and Services. In particular we stopped by the Australian Navy Memorial and the Australian Nurses Services.

After breakfast back at Sarah and Andrew’s—Andrew and I made omelets for everyone as a treat—we rested up a little and close to noon-time we headed to one of the local clubs—similar to a community center only based on local rugby teams and it includes a restaurant, lounge, sports bar, poker slots, and an auditorium.

 
ANZAC Day is the only time in the year where the clubs are allowed to play “two-up”, a simple gambling game where three coins are tossed in the air from a paddle—it looks like a wide paint stirring stick—and people bet on which two will be up…heads or tails. The bets are made between individuals in the room—if you want to bet $10 on heads you walk around with a $10 bill against your head until someone says they will match you for tails. The person betting on tails holds the money and when the coins are tossed in the center of the room (only one toss for the whole room) they either hold the money if two or more tails come up or pay off if it is heads.



Play was happening between 11 am and 6 pm…and since there was plenty of beer flowing it got fairly active. We stuck around until 3 pm and I did walk away with $30 more than I had walking into the club.

Tuesday we toured around Canberra a little more and spent several hours in the Old Parliament Building—since the opening of the new Parliament Building in 1988 the former site has been turned into a museum about Democracy. It was a great tour providing quite a bit of Australian history. The photo above looks back across the mall and the ANZAC Parade to the War Memorial.

Sarah then said that a tour of Canberra would not be complete without a visit to Koko Blacks Chocolates…an experience in truffles, mousses, hot chocolate with cream swirls, ice cream with espresso and chocolate shavings, and cakes and shortbreads. It was a nice way to end our travels in Canberra.



Wednesday was a bit slower with a morning trip to a local Italian coffee shop, some errands to local Town Centers and another quick stop at a vineyard within the ACT (Australian Capital Territory). For our last evening in Canberra we had Andrew’s parents, Paul and Judy, and his sister Kate join us for a wonderful dinner at a very nice restaurant. It was a great way to end our time in the ACT.

Early—another 5:30 am departure—Thursday morning we were on the road with Andrew and Sarah traveling to Sydney. Our original plan had been to arrive early enough to participate in a walking tour of the city, but traffic congestion was much worse than we’d planned so we missed the tour and walked around on our own.

Since we were too early to go to our room we spent the rest of the morning walking around The Rocks—a point of land between the Opera House and the Bridge that in whaling days was a “sailors haunt” and now is a center for restaurants, pubs and shops.

After lunch we were able to get into our room and were pleased to find we had an outstanding view of the harbor—Sarah had found an online site for last minute deals and I had booked a two bedroom suite for less than the cost of what two hotel rooms in Boston would cost for a night. Here are some of the photos from our room…

        
We toured the Museum of Sydney in the afternoon…another great perspective on the development of the city from penal colony to a thriving cosmopolitan city.  Dinner was at a very nice tapas restaurant in The Rocks area…it allowed us to really share the meal together.

Friday morning we had a quick breakfast and then Sarah and Andrew dropped us off at the airport for our journey home. With crossing the dateline it worked out that we left Sydney on a flight at 2:45 pm on Friday and arrived in San Francisco almost four hours earlier (11 am on Friday). A couple of hours layover and then we were on our way to Boston and back to our Connecticut home just before midnight on Friday—over 23 hours of traveling in about ten hours of adjusted time…


 

The end of another great adventure!

For your moment of Australian Zen click on the kangaroos below and then click on the photo again in the web album to bring up the video…

Australian Zen

Chicken Rolls and Bubbly…at the Top of Oz

Day 8

Friday morning we were up and on the road relatively early (certainly early for vacationers) heading for Jindabyne, New South Wales. The Walkers (Andrews parents, Paul and Judy) have a holiday place in Jindabyne that overlooks the lake (which was created by the damming of the Snowy River) and is just below the snowline for the surrounding three ski areas…a destination resort for skiers in the winter along with other four-season activities.

We met up with Paul and Judy at their place and then went exploring Thredbo—one of the ski areas. It was a good excuse to walk around the village and then to stop for a coffee and some “snacks”.

Coming back down from the ski area we also made a side stop to test out some of the locally made schnapps at the Wildbrumby Distillery. They have tasting opportunities of the craft and it was enough to convince me to start filling my duty-free quota for the return to the States (some of you will undoubtedly have the chance to test some of these in the future).

The rest of the afternoon was spent with the guys heading off for a little bit of fishing in the river (and since Paul and Andrew were the only ones with licenses I limited myself to a little bit of casting…just for the experience but with no luck), and the ladies going to an outdoor sculpture exhibit along the lake’s shore.

The fishing location was beautiful and Andrew’s luck was running high when on his second cast he landed a beautiful rainbow trout (it puts to shame some of the cigar size trout that my fly-fishing friends like to catch…not to mention any names…I’m just saying…). As the photos show the trout went from the river… to the smoker… to being an appetizer on Melba toast in about two hours.

Separately, as we were walking along the river’s edge we needed to be careful of wombat holes—similar to a woodchuck hole…only about three feet in diameter. We thought we saw some rustling near one hole and then as we came upon another we found a wombat outside his hole getting ready to dive in. He was curious about us and waited for me to take his picture (and I have been told it would not be unusual for him to have charged me if he felt threatened.) The picture doesn’t really show you his size which is about that of a good sized pig.

Some wine, some trout, a lovely pasta dinner…all topped with some schnapps made a nice start to the holiday weekend (Good Friday is a national holiday in Australia and ANZAC Day being on the following Monday made this an extra long holiday weekend).

 

Day 9

Waking up on Saturday morning there was a nice view of the lake from the deck at Paul and Judy’s place…foreshadowing the coming of a great outdoors day.



After breakfast we headed for Charlotte’s Pass—a ski area on the adjoining valley to Thredbo. At the end of the road we were able to park, pack up and begin a walk/hike along the maintenance road to Rawson’s Pass, and then up the summit trail to the top of Mt. Kosciuszko…which at 2,228 meters (7,310 ft) is the highest point in mainland Australia.

Along the way we crossed over the start of the Snowy River…which was a good photo spot for all of us climbers.

When we reached Rawson’s Pass you could see many of the other holiday climbers that had already made their way to the peak (and a partial moon next to them).

We made our way to the top and settled in for a little bit of lunch. Judy had made Chicken Roll sandwiches and Paul had carried up a bottle of bubblies in his backpack. We finished the meal off with some chocolate Easter eggs and then got some photos of us all on the Top of Oz.

As we made our way back into the bush at Charlotte’s Pass Paul and Judy pointed out the uniqueness of the Snow Gum Trees—eucalyptus trees—and how they have different colors in their bark. Very unique and colorful. Our outing was a 9 km (~ 5.5 miles) hike in each direction or 18 km round trip (~ 11 miles), so we were all fairly knackered [worn out] by the time we got back that evening.

 

Day 10

Sunday was spent traveling back to Canberra…with a quick stop when we saw some emu in a field near the road.

That afternoon we went to a see the Canberra Raiders take on the Newcastle Knights in a National Rugby League (NRL) game. It was a fast paced game and we had a great time…at least through the first half while the Raiders were ahead, but then in the second half they collapsed like the Red Sox after the All Star break (or like they use to).



It was early to bed since we were getting up for an ANZAC Dawn Service the next day…that part of the Adventures to follow later.