Bush Fires, ghost sightings, and a homemade lasagna: Our Australamoon adventure

You may have heard recent reports of ghost sightings on various beaches across the South East coast of Australia. I’d like to take this opportunity to reassure you that it was in fact just me lying out in my factor 50 coat of armour. After the stress of organising a wedding, combined with various work handovers, our trip to Australia was a wonderful opportunity to just lie in the sun and unwind.

The stunning Great Ocean road scenery

But it wasn’t all sun, fun & factor 50, we had some serious road tripping to do. The Great Ocean Road was looking for some people to cruise down it and we were just the couple for the job. Unfortunately however, Europcar rental didn’t get the memo and supplied us with a compact Hyundai rather than a more appropriate sporty convertible number. Turns out the issue was related to our request for the cheapest car available. Who knew convertibles weren’t part of the budget range? 
 

Here we are with some stereo-typically Australian animals and birds. 

But I’m getting ahead of myself with all this talk of cars. We actually spent three days in Sydney before heading off on our five day road trip. So let me stick with blogging convention of chronological order and reverse back to the Sydney leg of our trip …

I have a theory (based on extensive research during the past 10 days combined with a 3 week trip, 4 years ago), that all Australian’s are really easy going and friendly because they live in such a great country. Like the nice man who checked us in at the Holiday Inn Darling Harbour when we arrived in Sydney. Despite the fact that we weren’t technically paying for our three nights accommodation (we were using my frequent traveller loyalty points), he still sent a bottle of sparkling wine and a plate of chocolate dipped strawberries up to our room to congratulate us on our honeymoon. But that wasn’t all. The temperature outside that day was in the blistering high 30’s so he was feeling particularly generous spirited and thought “hey, I like these Irish folk” so sent on up a second bottle of sparkling wine along with yet another plate of chocolate dipped strawberries a few hours later [1].

The cure to Al's insomnia ...

So it was with a belly full of chocolatey strawberries that Al & I got a water taxi from Darling Harbour to the Sydney Opera House for our guided tour. It was fascinating to see all areas of the opera house, including a short peek at a rehearsal. We even managed to get our hands on last minute tickets to the opening night of a show while we were there. It didn’t matter that the tickets were standing room at the back only – it was an incredible opportunity to see a show in the Opera House. Incidentally, it turned out to be a good thing that our tickets were standing only. We did cheekily sit in a couple of latecomer’s seats for the first few minutes of the show, but sitting down had the effect of lulling Al to sleep, if only until we were inevitably evicted by the true owners of the seats. Having to stand for the remainder of the show did help him stay awake and therefore aided him in actually seeing the show, which is always a bonus. The show, by the way, was not a hardcore opera but rather a short hip hop dance show (think diversity from Britain’s got Talent) called Blaze.

Check out Lynda's homecooked pavlova ;-)

 

Now as you might be able to tell, I am a big fan of Australia. I can absolutely see why some 3.5 million people have emigrated to Australia in my lifetime alone. However, no matter how much I adore the Australian lifestyle, I would note that the dining out choices are either overpriced or unhealthy. Based on the sheer volume of KFC’s, ‘Macca’s’ and Subways we drove past on our little roadtrip, I imagine they must have the highest number of take out joints per capita of anywhere in the Southern hemisphere. Perhaps demand for takeaways is so high because all the other restaurants are prohibitively expensive.  Either way, we were craving a simple, wholesome, homecooked meal. So it was really kind of my long lost cousin Ed to invite us over to his place for dinner while we were in town. His wife Lynda whipped up a delicious home-made lasagna with salad (yes, salad ... I never thought I'd see the day when I craved salad). Al is quite the lasagna connoisseur and he gave Lynda’s recipe a serious thumbs up (he would have said more but he was too busy eating). Delicious homecooked meal aside, listening to their lifestyle made me green with envy[2]. They live just ten minutes from Manly beach along with their three beautiful children. It was so interesting seeing first hand how different their life is from back home. Take the morning commute to work for instance. Ed likes to mix it up. Sometimes he cycles to work and sometimes he gets the ferry from Manly to circular quay after a morning swim in the ocean. I’d like to take a leaf out of his book but a morning dip in Sandymount beach just doesn’t seem as inviting. 

Our own day trip to Manly beach made me think about how life in Australia is basically the opposite of life back home. Children of all ages were thoroughly enjoying their Summer holidays, the heat wave and hanging out in the beach and surf. Back in Ireland, medical professionals continue to recommend that parents give their children vitamin D supplements due to lack of exposure to the sun.

Anyways, having both spent time in Sydney and Melbourne on previous trips to Oz, Al & I decided to do something a bit different this time and drive between the two cities, stopping in various coastal towns en route and culminating in the aforementioned cruise down the Great Ocean Road (See route on Google Maps here).  At the start of the second day of our roadtrip, our Jervis Bay motel manager expressed concern about our plan to drive along the Princes Highway to Narooma. Apparently the highway had a few closures due to bush fires. Al was unperturbed. He pointed out that the temperature had dropped significantly from the 40-something degrees of a few days ago, and besides, “worst case scenario, we have to take a detour”. In a rare un-opinionated moment, it didn’t occur to me to disagree with his logic. It was my turn to drive so I just hopped into the drivers side of the car and started adjusting the seat, mirror and choice of music. I should note at this point that I am a nervous driver and had never driven in a foreign country before.

Kudos to the Aussie fire brigade who do amazing work. Shame on arsonists.

About 25 km into our journey, I spotted two helicopters and quickly realised they were bush fire helicopters. The giant buckets dropping water on the smoky forest below was what tipped me off. Nothing gets past me. I turned to Al and said “Look. There must be a fire nearby”. His reply: “Don’t worry, it’s all grand”. 

I continued driving … right past a TV camera crew van parked on the side of the road. Then, going over a hill, I saw a giant cloud of billowing smoke rising ahead of me. “I really think we’re about to drive through a fire”.

“Ah, it’s grand, Sure the cars coming the other direction are fine. They’d close the road if there was a problem.”

I continued (as, to Al’s delight, did S Club 7’s greatest hits on my ipod). By this stage, the road was lined on either side with charred remains of forest from a very recent fire and the road itself was becoming increasingly smoky. I turned on my rear fog lights and continued until I reached a cross-roads. Although our main road remained open, the roads on either side were closed and lined with fire engines, water tankers and TV camera crew vans. I did what any sensible person would do. I pulled the car over, got out and took some photos for my blog. I then retired my driving for the day and Al gallantly took over to drive the rest of the way to Narooma. When we finally reached our destination and checked into our nightly dingy motel, we were asked where we had come from that day. When we replied that we had driven from Jervis Bay, the lady looked confused

“How did you get here? I thought the Princes Highway was closed. None of my suppliers have been able to get here the past few days”

I guess Al’s optimism paid off but we were lucky as the road had been shut for the previous two days and it seems there was no other way through. 

If only this were around when Al broke his arm a few years ago.

So having narrowly avoided a bush fire, our road trip was back on. And little did we know that it would present us with such a good opportunity to trace the lineage of the Cunningham family. Nearly every coastal town we stopped at en route to Melbourne had multiple streets, motels, bridges and even a medical centre named after the Cunningham family. I guess the Cunninghams were a pretty big deal around Lakes Entrance and Geelong in particular. 

Explain this Darwin ...

 And it was in Featherdale National Park that I truly understood what I had married into. While Darwin would maintain that we evolved from the ape, it seems that the Cunninghams evolved from the lizard type creature pictured on the left.

Anyways, after c.1,800km of driving and having stayed in six different motels in six days, we finally reached Melbourne in time for the Australian Open tennis. There’s not much more to say about this other than it was awesome. We saw Venus Williams, Novak Djokovic and Tomas Berdych all win their matches easily. However the highlight from an atmosphere perspective was Australian Sam Stosur’s match. Proving that a home crowd is not always an advantage, she lost the match despite leading 2-5 in final set.

Domestic AA battery & champion cheerleading at the Australian open

Our final Australian destination in our short 10 day trip was the quixotic seaside town of St Kilda. If you've been wondering where all the hippies and rastafarians went once the 70's ended, or where all the yuppies went after the 80's ended, they're hanging out with the kite surfers in this fantastic town which is brimming with atmosphere. This was my second visit to St Kilda / Port Melbourne. With its seaside location, plethora of water sports options, fun bars & restaurants, random street parties and laid back vibe, I daydream about one day living there. 

Left: Al getting his hippie on in St Kilda. Right: Luna Park, St Kilda

But no matter how much my head wants to move to Australia, my heart belongs in Ireland with my wonderful new husband, true friends and family. I may criticise Ireland but at the end of the day I do reluctantly love home too. Although not enough to go back there just yet. Adventurous New Zealand beckons - first call South Island. Watch this space for tales of our wonderous adventures with the Kiwi's.

Sarah

 

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[1] Note: We chose to ignore the possibility that this act of generosity may actually have been a clerical error of which we were the happy beneficiaries.

[2] Please note I was not actually green, this is just a metaphor. I remained my pasty white colour for the entire evening. Thanks are due again to my trusty factor 50, combined with my terrific Irish skin

The adventure begins … (Hong Kong)

A few photobooth snaps from da weddin!

It’s an image we’ve all seen before: the loved up honeymooners skipping off to the airport looking fabulous. Her in a cute new outfit, him striding confidently – both glowing radiantly …

Nothing like Al & I then! No, our look as we arrived at the airport to check in was more homeless chic than honeymoon glam.

Don’t get me wrong, we did manage to achieve a ‘his ‘n hers’ look of sorts with our matching grey palours nicely highlighting the sleep deprivation induced bags under our eyes. Al’s ‘unshaven since the wedding day’ look nicely complemented my ‘still haven’t washed out the hairspray from the wedding day, Medusa look’. And lest there be any doubt that we were really were a honeymooning couple (and therefore clearly entitled to a complementary upgrade to first class), I was carrying off my bespoke and ironically tacky “Mrs Cunningham” tracksuit top with sheer class.

Complementary upgrade unforthcoming, and after a 5 hour stopover in London and subsequent 11 hour flight onward to Hong Kong, our look of complete and utter dishevelment was complete upon arrival. And like all honeymooning couples we couldn’t wait to jump into bed. No really. We were  exhausted. Finally, we could get a good nights (well, days) sleep!

Grainy photo of fireworks taken on Al's phone

Still, we’d made it. The first stop in our two month round the world trip: Hong Kong. And it was New Years Eve! So after a few hours recuperation, we headed down to Victoria Harbour to watch the NYE fireworks - a pretty cool way to kick the trip off in style. And unlike the locals who queued for an hour to take a few photos of the first five minutes of fireworks before heading off to beat the rush, we made the seemingly unusual & clearly quite controversial decision to actually stay and watch the entire fireworks display (sure seeing as we were there and all). Though I wasn’t feeling well so we headed back to our hotel shortly afterwards.

Professional photo of Victoria Harbour fireworks

 

It soon became clear that what I had initially assumed to be a combination of jet-lag and post wedding exhaustion was in fact full blown flu. So after the excitement of a full 15 minute fireworks display, I spent the next 36 hours in bed popping all sorts of cold & flu drugs. As you can imagine, Al was thrilled at the exciting start to our married life together (“Can I have another glass of water please Al?” / “Could you pass me the tissues please Al” / “you couldn’t just pop to the nearest chemist for me could you babe?” etc.). Luckily for Al, my searing sore throat made it hurt to talk too much and my fever made me want to sleep incessantly. So Al ended up sight-seeing by himself that day – which I imagine must have made any requests for honeymoon discounts all the more difficult to prove.

On the third day of our honeymoon, I rose again … slowly, and armed with quite a large supply of tissues and drugs. And as the week went on, and my flu flew away, it started to feel more like a honeymoon :-).

I’ve now managed to type an entire A4 page (MS word, arial font size 12 in case you’re interested) on our trip to Hong Kong and have barely mentioned Hong Kongs many tourist attractions. So here’s my run-down of stand out tourist moments from our few days there:

Temple St Markets at night

1. Feel good retail therapy at it’s best - haggling with the street vendors on Temple St: I do love a good haggle - and no better place than Temple St markets at night. Having bargained a seller down from $80HK (c. €8) to $50HK (c. €5), for a pair of imitation Miu Miu shades, I was on a high. I felt confident I had won that particular exchange of minds. That was until another vendor, whose wears I’d browsed prior to my big purchase, started shouting prices at me, dropping further and further as I continued to walk by. I could have had the imitation Vivienne Westwood shades for $30HK (c. €3). Doh!

My attempt at an arty shot of big Buddha in Lantau ...

  


2. Getting the cable car up to Lantau to visit the quite big Buddha & Po Lin Monastery: Our guidebook says that the giant statue of Buddha facing the monastery is “among the largest seated bronze Buddha images in the world”. I must say that I thought it was really a quite big Buddha indeed. But I guess there must be bigger Buddhas somewhere out there who are either (a) not seated; or (b) seated - but made of a material other than bronze. My global quest to find the biggest Buddha has begun …

Left: The size of the door at the bottom of Buddha gives an indication of how awfully big Buddha is. Right: Al working the medium of perspective in front of buddha ("Buddha - not quite so big from a distance!")

3. A day trip to Macau to gamble the night away: The Macau peninsula is a one hour ferry journey from Hong Kong. Nowadays, it’s most famous for its casinos but what’s most interesting is the complete mish-mash of culture architecturally speaking.  A Portuguese colony for 400 years, Macau was only handed back to china in 1999, and the lucrative gambling industry only dates back 50 years. The shiny new casinos look completely out of place beside historic ruins and streets littered with a random selection of mostly Portuguese, but some Chinese style buildings. Standing on the steps of the famous Ruinas de Sao Paulo (ruins of a 17th century Portuguese cathedral destroyed by a fire in 1835), it seems impossible that so many architectural styles cluster within such a small area. There’s the ruin of the ancient Portuguese catholic church itself, behind which sit a few Chinese style cottages; the street ahead is lined with dilapidated shops and in the distance you can see what look like council houses standing beside giant moneyed Vegas style casinos. I’ve never seen anything like it. The streets are lined with bargain basement shops selling you cheap iphone covers and cured meats of all kinds, yet the casino malls are filled with  luxury stores like Gucci, Dolce & Gabbana and Louis Vuitton. We left Macau on the midnight ferry up €30 after some strategic roulette playing – that covered the cost of our tourist activities for the following day ;-)

Left: A photo looking up at the Ruinas de Sao Paulo. Right: A photo taken from the exact same spot but looking back down over the town of Macau. Note the random casino which looks like it was photoshopped into the background of the photo

Our view of Hong Kong at night from Victoria Peak

4. Victoria Peak: Worth the 45 minute queue for the tram journey to the top of the peak for the incredible views over Hong Kong. We went up at 5.30pm which meant we got to see the view both in daytime and at night. Night view with all the lights is more impressive!

Thankyou Mortons steakhouse in the Venetian hotel Macau!

 5. Blagging honeymoon freebies: Okay, so not a Hong Kong specific tourist attraction, but a key component of our adventure! The game is simple ... be vocal about the fact that we're on honeymoon and see what freebies come our way! Tally to date includes:

•  2 glasses of prosecco + chocolates in Shanahan's Dublin day before we left; 
• Chocolates in Hong Kong hotel; 
• a giant lemon souffle for desert in Mortons steakhouse Macau 
• Upgrade to bulkhead seats on flights to Sydney (it's not biz class but it's better than nothing!!)

That giant lemon souffle was a freebie honeymoon blag!

So that’s our Hong Kong adventure, and the first stage of our honeymoon complete. I still feel like I’m in a daze and, as clichéd as it sounds, the past 10 days (wedding, travel, Hong Kong) all seems like an elaborate dream. We’re both experiencing so many wonderful and amazing experiences and time seems to be flying by. I think I’m writing this blog so that I don’t forget all of this – the silly little details of our trip and the mental metamorphosis from Sarah Conry to this Sarah Cunningham I’ve heard so much about. Writing this blog will give me time to reflect as we go along on our round the world trip. If you made it this far down my blog you must be either my Mum or my Dad. Thanks for sticking with my ramblings! But don’t worry – it’s mostly for me to reflect back on in years to come (and partly to keep me busy during the 9 hour flight to Sydney – I’m typing this on our lil notebook laptop on our flight).

Am super excited about the impending Australian leg of our adventure; particularly our planned 5 day roadtrip from Sydney to Melbourne, and our trip to the Australian open tennis tournament.  I guess that means it’s time to say “G’day mates” …will type up my next blog entry on my next flight :-).

Till then,

Sarah (that’s 'Mrs. Cunningham' to you!)