Mom’s Port Douglas Vacation Goals:
I won't get stung. I
won't get sunburn. I won't get eaten by a shark.
These are the words I woke up to a few mornings before my
mom arrived in Australia knowing that we were going to the Great Barrier Reef
known as the deadliest ocean in the summer and the safest waters in the
winter. This is due to the box jellies (the most dangerous living
organism in the world), the terrifying crocs, and the strong sun due to the
depleted ozone layer. In winter, the box jellies move upstream to lay
their eggs and die, the crocs don’t dare enter the cooler ocean water, and the
sun is not as brutal as the hot summer months.
3/29/12 – Melbourne, Australia
MOMMY ARRIVED in Melbourne ready to go -- No naps, No
stopping, and a full packed day. What a super trooper! I think we can qualify
her as an adventure-er, but this trip will be the true test. We spent the
afternoon touring the entire city of Melbourne, winding our way through hidden
alley ways filled with graffiti art and cafes, the smell of coffee wafting in
the air and the sound of trams whizzing by in the background. We hopped
on the train out to my school area and I gave her the full Carey tour,
including my “lovely” house... Tommy’s apartment seemed like a luxurious
penthouse in comparison!
We had dinner at the best steak restaurant in Melbourne
called Rockpool Bar and Grill which was phenomenal! A couple of local
Aussie beers were the perfect remedy for a good night of sleep, or so I
thought. After hopping from train to tram to tram to feet to train to
feet to bed, you would think my mom would be totally knackered out, but she was
bright eyed and bushy-tailed at 2am ready for breakfast. I guess she will
need a bit more time to adjust to Aussie time!
P.S. My mom said she witnessed
my frugality tonight as she caught me snatching the leftover condiments from a
room service tray left out in the hallway. I gave them to Tommy and told him to
put them in our fridge at home. Nothing wrong with that! The beauty of staying
in a hotel with my mom: FREE stuff everywhere! Tommy walked down the hallway
and grabbed all the shampoos on the housekeeping cart as I stuffed my bag with
soaps and conditioners.
3/30/12 – Melbourne Day 2
Today we walked along the river in Southbank, across from
the city on another beautiful day of 82 degrees. My mom clearly brought the
good LA weather with her because we have gone from fall/winter back to summer
weather and the forecast remains the same for the entire week! I have been
bundled from head to toe for the past two weeks, but as she flew in I greeted
her in shorts and flip-flops! Life is good. Today we caught the train out to
Lilydale, which is the closest stop to Yarra Valley (a beautiful wine region
out in the country), and visited Domaine Chandon. My mom is deathly allergic to
wine because of the sulfites, which my dad was lucky enough to find out on
their first date, so instead of doing a full wine tour we decided to take a day
trip to the one champagne vineyard in the region for a tasting and lunch. It
was so beautiful and delicious AND OF COURSE nobody can say no to a little
bubbly!
We returned back to Melbourne just in time to meet Tommy after work
and hop on a tour through the beautiful Mornington Peninsula and across the
bridge to Phillip Island. Phillip Island is where you view the adorable
Penguin Parade! We signed up for the deluxe viewing platform, which is
significantly closer to the penguins, and we lucked out because 70% of the
penguins went waddling right by us! We also were lucky enough to witness
the space station pass overhead. Yes, we saw the space station travel over us
as we awaited the penguins. It was truly a spectacular site. The penguins
were absolutely adorable riding in the waves, waiting for their entire pod on
the beach, and finally waddling to their little nesting holes in the
surrounding hillside! The penguins only come out at dusk so we did not
arrive back to the hotel until after 11pm and were not looking forward to our
4:30am pick up for our 6am flight to Port Douglas! A nice nap by the pool will
be well deserved!
3/31/12 – Port Douglas, Queensland
We have arrived in Port Douglas! Turns out the luck
keeps on rolling our way as we found out that it had been raining cats and dogs
the past few weeks with terrible flooding, stranding people in Port Douglas,
but of course we were greeted by nothing but pure sunshine! We took a
beautiful drive from Cairns through Palm Cove to Port Douglas all along the
gorgeous coast! It was nice to have a full day to explore the town and
relax by the pool.
Flying in over Cairns and Port Douglas
4/1/12 – Port Douglas – Great Barrier Reef
We went out on the Aquarius this morning for a snorkel
adventure. The pristine boat was a beautiful new catamaran that holds only
twenty-three people on such a large space but we only had thirteen people total
including the two crew! Mommy and I took advantage of the inviting
hammocks up front for our hour ride out to Low Isles. Low Isles is an
island out on the lower reef of the Great Barrier Reef. It was a
beautiful ride across to the gorgeous, remote island where our snorkel
adventure began. Our first snorkel was off of the island. We saw
many beautiful corals of different electric colors, some funky fish, and a few
massive 100-year-old clams made up of the most stunning color patterns.
We broke away from the group to explore a bit longer and out of the corner of my
eye I spotted a sea turtle hidden within a cave of coral. The turtle had
the most vibrant colors of orange, yellow and green making up its shell and
body, and we followed it for five minutes before heading back to shore.
Back on board the anchored Aquarius, we filled our bellies with a delicious
lunch, and had a special group of visitors swim up behind the boat. My
mom was the first to spot one of these lovely friends as she called me over and
I yelled, “SHARK! “ We had five White Tip reef sharks all swimming around
behind our boat; they must’ve known it was lunchtime. I threw them in a
couple of shrimp off my plate as we watched the fins part the water on the
surface. It was pretty exciting to watch but a bit scary knowing they
were all around us in the murky water! Once again my mom stepped up to
her adventure-er role, as she was the first to jump right in with them! I
followed quickly behind and we shrieked as the sharks swam below and around
us! Luckily they were more scared of us than we were of them, but the
five-footer gave my heart a bit of a pounding!!! We quickly kicked our
way over to a coral reef near by, and just as I was looking down at the
different corals, a nine-foot hammerhead shark dashed across the reef beneath
me! Now this was definitely terrifying, and my mom was thrilled she did
not see this because it was enough having just one of us a bit on edge.
As we swam back to the boat I clung to her hand and kicked as fast as my legs
could across the dark, ominous, murky water below, almost certain that another
shark was going to swim up for a bit of a nibble. It was an awesome
experience, but not one I would care to repeat! A hammerhead spotting is
very rare so I lucked out seeing it, and lucked out even more that it was not
hungry! As we made our way back to Port Douglas we stripped out of our
full body stinger suits that probably made us all look like a group of seals
ready to be eaten…what a wonderful thought after swimming amongst sharks.
It was such a wonderful day, and we thought the excitement was coming to an end
as we pulled into the harbor, but we still had one more fellow to watch out
for. Swimming on the surface through the harbor just happened to be a big
mean eating machine…a CROC! No wonder why you aren’t supposed to swim or
wander around after dark around here! A croc spotting in the harbor is
very rare so it seemed like we were really lucking out! I love traveling
with my mommy she is such a good luck magnet!
4/2/12 – Port Douglas - Daintree Rainforest
Today we decided to take a break from the ocean and head
to the rainforest. We went on a small group tour with just eight of us to
the Daintree Rainforest for the day. The tour started at Mossman Gorge
where we saw an EXTREMELY rare spotting of a platypus! Most Australians
go their whole life without ever seeing a platypus, yet we were lucky enough to
see one swimming up the river in the middle of the rain forest. After
taking a bit of a bush walk and learning about some of the different flora and
fauna, we made our way over to a river cruise in which we spotted ten baby
crocs, two mommy crocs and one BIG daddy croc. It was pretty adorable
getting to see all the newborn babies up on the logs.
My tummy was growling just in time for morning tea.
We enjoyed locally grown tea and coffee at Thorton Beach. We actually
drove through the tea plantation on the way in which they grow morning tea on
one side and afternoon tea on the other!
We made our way to Cape Tribulation, which was a very
exciting and unique visit because it is the one place in the world where you
can be in two World Heritage sites at the same time. This is where the
Daintree Rainforest meets the Great Barrier Reef. When we went to visit
the bathroom before lunch a HUGE spider called a Golden Orb met us and it was
taking up almost the entire entrance of the women’s bathroom!
YUCK! To give you an idea of its size, open up your hand and spread out
your fingers--that is about how big the spider was! It was quite the hot
day, so after we finished having a great BBQ lunch, we hopped into a watering
hole where we were safe from the crocs! We took one final bush walk on a
pretty rugged trail in which we saw a red belly black snake (extremely
poisonous), a musky kangaroo ret, a forest dragon (looks like an iguana), a
beautiful praying mantis, and many other unique plant species.
Of course
the best part was saved for last as we stopped at an ice cream factory that
uses all of the fresh fruit from the plantation to make homemade ice cream
flavors! I enjoyed three small scoops of the different flavors:
blueberry, passion fruit and waddle seed (tastes a bit like a mocha).
They were all delicious and the perfect treat to fill my belly before the long
drive back to Port Douglas. What a great day!
4/3/12 – Port Douglas – Great Barrier Reef
We ventured back out to the reef today, but this time we
decided to visit the outer reef. WOW! That is all I can say over
and over again. Imagine crystal clear water and the most beautiful
vibrant colors of corals and fish, and then add the turquoise water and unique
sea creatures, and that is the Great Barrier Reef. The outer reef was so
beyond spectacular! Today we went out on the Calypso boat that holds
80-100 people, but we lucked out with only 23 of us! We visited three
different sites on one of the outer reefs called Opal. I dove the first
two sites while my mommy snorkeled, and I joined her at the last site for a
snorkel together. The first site was by far my favorite with crystal
clear gorgeous water and a fantastic reef. On my second dive I saw a
shark, four turtles swimming right around us, Nemos (clown fish) in the
anemones and seven huge napoleon wrasse fighting each other by charging and
hitting heads. My dive instructor said that was one of the best dives he
has seen on the outer reef because it is so rare to see so many turtles and on
top of that a shark and other cool marine life.
My mommy snorkeled on her own while I dove. She had
to buddy up with two other people, those are the rules, but she was quite
independent and managed to swim off and explore. Bad mom! She had a ball and
was just as excited to share her first snorkel with me, as I was to share my
first dive with her. She said when she first dropped into the water she
felt like she had been dropped into one of those Great Barrier Reef
brochures. It was too good to be true!
At the third stop, I snorkeled
with mommy and we spotted a lot of Nemos swimming in the anemones.
We swam over an area that was over 50 feet deep and we could see the
bottom clearly! Amazing. This last site was cool because we could
see that we were right on edge of the reef where it drops off to over 1,000
feet. That is one spooky and eerie feeling. Each day keeps getting better
and better!
4/4/12 – Port Douglas
Today was our first day without a tour and we did not know
how we were going to entertain ourselves! We took a long walk on 4 mile
beach and up to the highest lookout in Port Douglas; what a hike! On our
way back to the hotel, we stopped at the local bakery for their famous fresh
bread and grabbed delicious coffees at the cute little beach shack famous for a
great brekkie!
This was our first day of relaxing by the pool, reading our
books and having a chill day. I have made my mom go go go since the
moment she touched down on the runway, so it was nice to finally slow down for
a day!
4/5/12 – Port Douglas
Today was another relaxing day by the pool. We
explored more of the town and enjoyed a delicious dinner at one of the great
local restaurants.
4/6/12 – Port Douglas
On our drive to the airport this afternoon, we saw
hundreds of wild kangaroos out on the fields, and even spotted a croc in a
swamp on the side of the road! As the sun was setting over Cairns, our
plane took off for an easy flight back to Melbourne. Tommy was excited to have
us girls back for Easter weekend.
4/7/12 – Melbourne, Australia
We arrived home very late last night only to arise this
morning at the crack of dawn for a full day Great Ocean Road tour. The
three of us were the last pick up leaving us the last three seats on the
jam-packed bus. Boy did we luck out! The three seats open were
single seats along the left side of the bus with the best view of the
coastline! We bumped and bruised our way along in the fast moving
mini bus. I thought we were in a high speed chase at the speed we were racing
along. I am pretty sure we are lucky we did not get thrown off the
cliff. Tommy had the best seat of the three of us, as my mom was on the
wheel with her knees up to her chin in the small space, while I had the large
and in charge woman’s leg half way across my seat because she could not fit in
hers. Does not get more comfortable than that!
Unfortunately we were not able to stop at the famous surf
beach, Bells Beach, because they were actually holding the annual surf
competition with Kelly Slater and all the big Gods of surf! Pretty cool,
but a bummer we could not watch for a bit. The positive to this was that
we got beautiful booming surf rolling into the cliffs as our view for the
entire drive. Our first stop was in Lorne (pronounced Lawn), a quaint
beach town where we enjoyed morning tea in the sun looking out along the
beautiful coast. On our way to the next beach town, we stopped in an area
heavily populated by eucalyptus trees to see if we could spot a few koalas in
the wild. Not only did we spot one, but also we spotted over a dozen
chilling out in the trees above, and one so low on the tree that I could walk
right up to it and lift it off the tree if I dared. The sharp threatening
claws kept me from going in for the big hug, but the orange construction fence
did not stop me from stepping over to get a closer look… As we wound our way
along the car-sickening coast, we made our way to Apollo Bay for lunch.
This was another great beach town where we chowed down on some of the best fish
and chips I have ever tasted! It was only a quick stop before we were
back on the road heading to the highlight destination, the Twelve
Apostles!
The Twelve Apostles were truly an incredible site to
see. They are a collection of spectacular limestone stacks that rise up
out of the Southern Ocean off Port Campbell National Park. Only seven of the
Twelve Apostles are still standing today, but somehow Tommy counted eleven of
them…hmmm. The sun came out from behind the clouds to give a heavenly
shine down on the beautiful natural rock formations creating some great picture
opportunities for us! The tour continued on to Loch Ard Gorge and London
Bridge, which has actually fallen down. All the sites along the tour were
absolutely gorgeous, but it was a VERY long day. The three hours home on
an uncomfortable bus were not pleasant but it was worth the prior ten hours of
beauty. Exhausted, Tommy turned around to give us his insight of the tour
and the quote of the day, “Honestly, what made this tour so great were the
sights.” Well you don’t say!
4/8/12 – Melbourne, Australia
HAPPY EASTER! Australians actually celebrate Easter
on Monday, so the three of us were probably the only ones opening Easter
goodies this morning. To celebrate the holiday, we headed over to St.
Patrick’s Cathedral for Easter mass where the Archbishop of Melbourne was
giving the sermon. It was such a beautiful Catholic church right by
Parliament. What better way to break my lent of no sweets than a
scrumptious chocolate buffet! We filled our bellies with hot cocoa, scones,
finger sandwiches, and chocolate, chocolate and some more chocolate!
Mommy and I boarded the Dawn Princess for our six day
cruise to Tassie and said Bon Voyage to Melbourne (and Tommy—he is a working
man!) as we watched the sunset in the distance and clinked our champagne
glasses filled with bubbly from our visit to Domaine Chandon. The deep,
raspy voice of Louis Armstrong singing “What a Wonderful World” played through
my iPod as we sailed out to sea. We
definitely could have used a couple of “bed belts” to strap us down as we rocked
back and forth through the evening as we headed to Burnie, Tasmania over night.
Needless to say the sea rocked us to sleep like babies!
4/9/12 – Burnie, Australia
Burrrrrr! Burnie was freezing cold, not such an
interesting town, and the one street of shops were all closed because it was
Easter Monday. After a quick walk through town and a trip to the chemist
for some meds for my SICK mommy we hustled back to our beds on the ship to
bundle up and watch some movies. Yes, my mommy is sick with a really bad
respiratory infection, but at least she can try and recover relaxing at sea.
Tonight we watched a Movie Under the Stars up on
deck. We bundled with multiple wool blankets, had popcorn and watched
Secretariat on the big outdoor screen, which we both quite enjoyed.
4/10/12 – Hobart, Australia
We arrived at noon for our first of two days in Hobart.
We wandered through town to Salamanca Street with all the great
shops. Our first stop was the Irish pub where we sampled some of Tassie’s
local beers. We continued on to browse through many of Tassie’s handmade
goods. My Mommy bought me a beautiful locally handmade wool sweater and
scarf to keep me warm in Melbourne’s coming winter. We went on a long
walking tour up to Battery Point and back along the coast before indulging in
an iced chocolate at the cute café on the corner. It was a great day of
exploring.
4/11/12 – Hobart, Australia
Today we were supposed to be taking a private tour to Port
Arthur, but our tour guide left us and took another couple! So
rude! We were so bummed, so we decided to make our own way there and
rented a car. Well this turned out to be another bust… After
dealing with a woman who spoke terrible English, spending forty minutes to fill
out basic paperwork for the car, we were brought a manual car. Well,
clearly she did not understand our request for an automatic! So, after a few
minutes of shuffling about an automatic car was waiting for us in their back
lot. The guy who drove it out of the spot just wanted to check under the hood
real quick. Thank gosh my mom changed her own oil as a kid because she
noticed that this car had no oil and only after we decided to say no thank you
to this car rental shop, the mechanic said that the car we were going to drive
needed a full service anyhow! Things were just not going our way this
morning. Of course this is nothing that a bit of shoe shopping can’t cure
to make us feel better! We walked off the bad luck and made a new plan to
visit the Cascade Brewery, Australia’s oldest brewery. It was a beautiful
building right at the base of Wellington Mountain, and we enjoyed 5 of our 6
beers from the tasting paddle. After downing our beers, we were feeling a
little bit adventurous and decided to try and walk back to the ship.
Three miles later, we had finally made it back and felt it was only fair to
treat ourselves to some iced chocolates! YUM! We definitely turned
the day around after a bit of bad luck in the morning.
4/12/12 – At Sea
Today was our one-day at sea and we lucked out with some
good weather! We spent the day tanning on our balcony, watching movies,
and we sat out on the back of the ship reading our books in the sun.
4/13/12 – Sydney, Australia
Even though both of us have sailed into Sydney Harbour we
were not going to miss the spectacular sail into Sydney early this morning.
This is probably one of our favorite ports in the world to sail into. We
always sleep with our balcony door and the curtains wide opened, it is such a
wonderful way to cruise listening to the water throughout the evening, so we
heard the pilot boat greeting our ship just outside of the headland break
waters just before dawn. It was a crystal clear morning, but a bit chilly so we
bundled in our comforters and enjoyed the first view from our balcony. As we
approached the Sydney Opera House and the Sydney Harbour Bridge we made our way
up to the front of the ship. You can never tire of the view!
We had an easy disembarkation and off we went to Manly
Beach. Boy oh boy, do I miss Manly! I felt like I was back at home as we
walked the Corso and took the ferry across to the city to go to the Rocks
market. We made it back to our hotel in time for a rest on our deck
before finishing the day at The Pantry, my favorite dinner spot in Manly!
4/14/12 – Manly, Australia
We spent today sunning and reading on our deck and
watching the surfers riding in the waves on Manly Beach. We of course
went back to The Pantry for dinner and had a spectacular table for two by the
window to watch the sunset.
4/15/12 – Manly, Australia
Gina!!!! It was so nice to be in my old stomping
grounds, Manly, especially because it meant I could see Gina! We had a
wonderful lunch with her at the Manly Grill, and ended up sitting at the table
chatting and laughing for a few hours before we got kicked out! It was so
nice to see a familiar face and friend, and it definitely will be hard going
back to Melbourne without her!
4/16/12 – Manly, Australia
Today was a hard day because it always so hard saying
goodbye to my mommy. We took a final walk along the beach on our favorite
walking path before it was time to say goodbye. There is nothing better
than one on one time with your mother. These are memories never to be
forgotten.
I have to say that I was so
impressed with my mommy throughout the entire trip. She was a true
adventure-er just like me! From the moment she landed I had her running
from place to place, tour to tour, even when she was extremely sick! She
was the first one to jump in with the sharks, and up for any adventure or
challenge I presented to her. What a great trip we had!
Daddy, you are next! Please come visit. I have great
adventures in store for you!!!
Of course it was hard having my birthday away from my
family. I know most of you must
think that I should be a pro at this by now having been across the country from
my family for the previous four years at Bucknell, but what you all don’t know
is that the Parent’s Council Meetings also fall on my birthday weekend meaning
that my dad was with me at Bucknell for the previous four years. That would make this my first birthday
without someone in my family.
Luckily I had Tommy to save the day! 
I actually have always hated my birthday, besides the
wonderful presents of course because anyone who knows me knows that I LOVE
presents! I just hate the idea of
getting older. I used to always
tell my mom and dad every year that I wanted to stay 7 forever, or 17 forever,
or 21 forever, but somehow I keep getting older. I just don’t like the idea of growing up. Well, Tommy made it a wonderful
day! Even though it was a work day
for both of us, Tommy woke up extra early to make me breakfast in bed, and
spent an hour decorating the apartment with balloons, banners and
streamers. It was so sweet to see
all the effort he put in to make the day special. I was greeted at school by birthday wishes from a few of my
students who remembered that it was my birthday; this was so sweet and made me
feel quite special. The best
surprise of all was when a beautiful bouquet of flowers and a huge box full of
cupcakes arrived at the school reception from my amazing parents and my GREAT
friend Gina! Even from across the
world, my parents were with me on my birthday. The day ended with a special birthday menu set up by Chef
Tommy which was unbelievably delicious, especially the yummy ice cream
cake! I really am a lucky girl! 
We were picked up this morning at 4:40 to be driven to the
Yarra Valley. It was quite an
early start but well worth it… We
were driven out to a winery called Rochford Latitude, which is conveniently only
an hour drive from the city. We
had to go so bloody early because Tommy set up a sunrise hot air balloon
surprise, which was fantastic! We
went up when it was still pretty dark and as the sun started to rise everything
started coming into view and changing colors. It was spectacular.
We had to help blow up the balloon and when we landed we helped take the
air out and fold it all up. It was
actually quite hard work and I was sweating by the end. 
It was very cold in the morning so I
was happy to be extremely bundled up and only my toes were a bit cold, but I
was appropriately dressed like a snow bunny! It was such an exhilarating feeling flying over the valley
in this huge balloon, especially over such a gorgeous area. We lucked out because apparently the
balloons could not go up for the entire past week, and this was the first day the
balloons were permitted to go up again because of the weather and wind. We were told that we could not have
asked for more perfect conditions and it could not have been a clearer day for
us. WOO! 
Following our float across the sky, we returned to Rochford
Estate for a champagne brunch, which was DELICIOUS! It was actually quite comical! Our hot air balloon pilot gave us a bit of history about how
hot air ballooning all started and how the tradition was to bring a bottle of
champagne on every trip to give to the farmer who owns the land that the
balloon lands on, and they actually still do that. Everyone drinks champagne to celebrate the flight, which we of
course did to join in on the fun tradition! The pilot is supposed to say a prayer before every flight
because back in the day at the start of ballooning, the Irish people said that
was the only way they would allow the balloon to enter God's space up in the
air. Well our pilot explained how
this would be just a bit disconcerting for passengers to see; the pilot down on
one knee praying before he takes everyone up, so instead our pilot prefers to
pray after by taking the champagne cork, dipping it in his glass and crossing
all our heads with the champagne.
It was hilarious! 
I just have to mention that I am thrilled to say we are
finally starting to make more and more friends! Tonight we went on a double date, tomorrow we are going on
another full day double date, and next weekend is already booked up! FINALLY! Contact with other people was much needed…
The Mornington Peninsula is another wine region just over
an hour down from Melbourne towards the coast. It is the peninsula the divides Melbourne Harbour from the Bass
Strait coastline. Not only are
there beautiful beaches, but the peninsula is also filled with rolling green
hills that are filled with cute towns, shops, cafes, and best of all WINERIES! 
A companion of Tommy’s from work,
Steph, offered to take us on a full day trip to the Mornington Peninsula with
her boyfriend David. Of course the
wineries were all amazing with the gorgeous ocean views, but we also went on a
full day tour of the area! We
visited the town of Portsea which is at the very tip of the Peninsula and has
the most expensive mansions in the area. We stopped in the quaint town of Sorrento where the ferry runs
across the harbor over to Torquay, we visited the Ashcombe Mazes and raced
through the hedges to see who would pop out first (me of course!), and we
started our morning off soaking in the luxurious hot springs followed by a
delicious breakfast with an ocean view.
It was such a fun and relaxing day!
