Cody surprised his Dad, Scott at the back end of their trip to Australia with a whale shark diving trip in Exmouth, Western Australia, which is one of the most remote places on the planet. Perth is already a world away from everything and Exmouth is at the far northwest corner of Australia (a 15 hour drive from Perth). Luckily Qantas has a flight from Perth to Exmouth, which we took on a Sunday afternoon.
We stayed in a small dorm room for 2 nights for $25/person per night (just a bunk bed and a bathroom, but more than adequate).
We got there on Sunday afternoon and drove our rental car up to a gorge up some windy dirt roads and explored the thriving metropolis of Exmouth and had some dinner before heading to bed early.
Monday morning we had a full day Whale Shark Snorkeling tour that we had booked with 3 Islands. I'd highly recommend this company. They have their own spotter plane, give you plenty of food while onboard (included), and, in addition to snorkeling with the whale sharks, we were able to do 3 separate snorkel dives. We saw stingrays and tons of fish. By the end of the day, we were exhausted.
The next morning we got up at dawn and drove out to Turquoise Bay and Oyster Stacks (amazing places to snorkel) before catching a plane back to Perth.
Toni and Scott used 150,000 Delta Skymiles each (300,000 miles total) to fly from Salt Lake City to Sydney, Australia (thru Los Angeles) on V Australia in business class. Cody and Eliza got a babysitter for the kids for 2 days and took the opportunity to meet them in Sydney to check out the city. We booked our tickets from Perth to Sydney for 20,000 American Airlines Aadvantage miles each roundtrip.
We took a cab from the airport to the Park Hyatt Sydney (that we had booked using 22,000 Hyatt Gold Passport points and normally goes for $1,100-1,200 per night) to drop off our luggage.
We took public transport to Milson's point and walked back along the deck of the Harbour Bridge. Instead of doing the bridge climb, which we understand takes ~3 hours, most of which is safety instruction and waiting for the tour group to walk up the steps, we opted to climb the steps up the Pylon (only $9) and gets you 3/4 of the way to the top of the bridge anyway. The views were excellent, we could see 360 degrees and the weather was gorgeous.
We walked back to the end of the bridge and then down through "the Rocks" area and into Circular Quay, where we had some lunch at one of the cafe's in the area.
We then made our way on foot over to the Sydney Operahouse and booked our tickets for the night showing of MacBeth. We also spent some time wandering through the botanical gardens which were beautiful. Scott and Cody spent a couple hours in the afternoon swimming in the rooftop pool while Eliza and Toni had a brief afternoon nap (gearing up for a long night). By the time the play started, we were all dragging, being exhausted from the early start to the day and all of the walking and exploring we had done. Toni and Scott were especially tired due to the jet lag. Macbeth was good, but we were all past the point of being ready for sleep by the time the show ended. We struggled to get ourselves back to the hotel from the opera house on foot after such a long day.
The Park Hyatt Sydney was a pretty amazing hotel. We couldn't get over its perfect location nestled right below the Harbour Bridge with great views of the Sydney Operahouse. The room was very modern with views of the opera house right from the balcony. All 4 of us shared a room, which was probably against their rules, but it worked out great.
Our appointment for the guys at Telstra (Big Pond) to come by the house and set up internet was scheduled for January 20, 2012. Eliza sat home all day anxiously awaiting this coveted prize. The ability to Skype and FaceTime or even email home for that matter is something that makes being so far away from family and friends a lot easier. It had been a while since we were "off the grid". The installers never showed up, didn't call, and we never heard anything from Telstra. A few days later I decided to call to see what happened and to re-schedule an appointment. After 45 minutes of being on hold and no real apologies forthcoming, they admitted they were having trouble with their employees blowing off appointmets because it was too hot, or for some other meaningless reason. The next appointment I could have was February 15. Angered, frustrated, and used to getting my way with U.S. customer service reps, I confidently told them that this was unacceptable. 90 minutes and 4 managers later, I was in the same place, being asked if I wanted to re-schedule the install on February 15. Just before I agreed, the agent hung up on me. Another call, another 45 minutes of hold, and finally I'm back on the schedule. February 15 rolls by without any phone call or installer showing up (I even called on February 14 to verify that they were coming by). After calling them back at the end of the day after it was clear that they were not coming, they asked me if I wanted to reschedule for the next available date...March 14. Yes, put me on the schedule, but I want to speak to a manager. Can you guess if I was successful? Well tomorrow is our appointment...here's hoping that we are connected sometime this century.
Trying to fully experience Aussie culture in its fullest form, we went to our first "football" game with our friends the Kemps, Portwoods (expats from Canada with TOTAL), and Walkers (Rio Tinto expats from Utah). We also met up with the Baileys.
So, here's the deal with Australian Rules Football ("Aussie Rules" or "AFL")...2 teams, 1 going in each direction, you advance the ball by picking it up and running with it, in which case it is fair game for the other team to brutally tackle you. If you are running with the ball, you have to give the ball a bounce every 15 meters which can be a bit awkward since it's football shaped. You can also pass the ball forwards or backwards to one of your teammates, but you can't actually throw the ball, you have to "handball" it, which means you hold it with one hand and bump it with the other (almost like an underhanded volleyball serve). While all of this is going on, it is pretty much open season on whomever has the ball and it gets pretty rough. The other (and more common) way to advance the ball is to punt it it to one of your teammates. As long as the ball travels more than 15 meters and your teammate catches it, the other team can't tackle you and you "mark" the ball where it was caught. This slows the game down a bit and takes some of the craziness out of it. If you catch a punt, basically you can choose to run with it or stop. Once you run, the free-for-all action starts up again and the other team comes after you. If you stop and mark the ball, nobody can take it from you. After a ball is punted the players go all out to catch it, sometimes they even jump up on another player's shoulders and spring off to get some extra height off their jump. To score, you have to kick the ball between the goalposts (like American football except the uprights go all the way into the ground). If you kick a goal, it is 6 points. If you are close and slightly miss to either the right or left, there is a 2nd goalpost on each side and you score 1 point for slightly missing. There are some other rules, but that is it in a nutshell.
Sawyer with Paige Kemp. Paige is in 4th grade but is in Sawyer's class at school (both 3rd and 4th graders). We also live just around the corner from the Kemps. They have been amazing friends to us.
Eliza holding a "zonked out" Nash.
Ryder with Sienna Portwood.
Our new favorite team...the West Coast Eagles. He scored a goal on this one, which is a pretty long goal. The reason the other team has backed off is because he caught a punt there and "marked" the ball.
We tried to do this a week earlier, but when we showed up to the lesson, there was nobody there. We eventually called the guy and he said the beach was too busy with a surfing competition and he decided to call it off. "Sorry mates, I forgot to call you". He was expecting us to say "No worries," but we aren't that Australian yet.
