By Our last couple of months have been pretty amazing! We’ve spent Christmas and New Years Eve in Australia for the first time, we’ve had some really important visitors, and it’s the middle of summer!
…hold tight for another long post on what we have been up to Down Under.
The beginning of December marked the beginning of silly season in Sydney. The month was filled with Christmas parties, and I went to everything from rooftop parties to club parties and yacht parties. Wow, Christmas parties in summer is definitely something!
We even had a Kidsmas Christmas party at work, and I must say that we don’t do anything halfway at the agency. There was a petting zoo, face paint, a ball pit, a creative area, a magician, and of course Santa came to give out presents. Thumbs up!
But the highlight of December was when my parents came. They were to stay in Australia for a month.
We had been looking forward to their visit for some time, and the reunion was nothing but amazing. We hadn’t seen each other for about 8 months, so you can imagine the thrill when their taxi stopped outside on our little street. Both kids were hugging their grandparents for some very long minutes and a few happy tears were shared.
We had been looking forward to showing our new home and city to my parents, and the first couple of days were spent sightseeing in Sydney and just catching up on hugs and kisses.
It was the first time we’d spent Christmas on the southern hemisphere, and it was a different experience all together. For me my Christmas memories are centered around winter, with lots of candles, the smell of Christmas trees, streets filled with Christmas lights and all the traditional food we usually get.
So during December we struggled a bit getting into the Christmas mood. Our Christmas tree was a self-assembled plastic tree, we were wearing shorts every day, and the Northern European darkness – which is part of the Christmas ‘hygge’ (‘cosiness’) – was exchanged with many hours of sunlight.
But we had brought some of our Christmas accessories from Denmark; Christmas socks and a little Santa blackboard to write the date on. Some things that we knew at least Carla would remember from last year.
And on Christmas day it all came together in perfect harmony.
When the smell of my Mom’s Christmas duck spread from the oven throughout the house, and the excitement from the kids filled every inch of the living room, it really felt like Christmas!
On Christmas day we had lunch at the Sydney fish market, which was a huge success and for sure a new holiday tradition.
Full of oysters, sashimi and prawns we returned to discover Santa had been to the house while we were away, and presents were piled up under the Christmas tree.
All in all Christmas was amazing here in our new home. And the greatest of all gifts was to be able to spend it together with my parents.
Traditionally, we always spend the day after Christmas with my family, great grand parents and cousins, and we hadn’t missed the yearly family Christmas lunch ever before. We missed everyone at home, but we had our very own Christmas lunch here. Soren made some of the traditional dishes, and I think granny Jane would have been proud!
After Christmas we went on a 2 week road trip in the southern Australian state of Victoria. It was a perfect trip with a mix of everything from koalas, beautiful coast line, deep forest, gold mine towns and wine regions. We were even a bit surprised ourselves about the diversity and richness of experiences, even though we planned the whole thing. During those 2 weeks we covered more than 3,500 kms and many hours of driving. We had planned it so that only the first and last day we designated driving days, while all other days were a mix of sightseeing and some driving.
Our first stop was a 9 hour drive from Sydney, and I must admit that we were a bit anxious as to how the kids would handle that trip. But once again they showed us just how amazing they are. They didn’t complain even once, and when we finally got to our destination they ran around and played for a couple of hours, full of energy.
The first stop was Raymond Island, an island known for it’s many free-living koalas. And sure thing, on the first morning while the rest of the family was getting ready to go out and look for koalas, my dad went outside the house and spotted a koala in the neighbor tree. Raymond Island offered beautiful nature with many koalas and kangaroos.
Other than nature and relaxing walks there was nothing much to do there, but the mainland was just a five minute ferry ride away, so we went for a drive in the area as well. We had a picnic by the water and a stroll at the harbour of Metung.
From Raymond Island we drove to Walkerville, barely a place that deserves it’s own name, but a few houses grouped together in an area close to Wilson’s Promontory which was our real destination.
On the way to Walkerville we spent some hours along the Ninety Mile beach, and the kids were pretty excited to play in the sand for a while.
Wilsons Promontory was a playground for outdoorsy types (like us, but without kids?! ;-)). There were loads of hiking trails and natural beauty, and we had to make some hard decisions on where to go. It was only realistic to do a few walks, so we ended up doing two very different ones. The first one was supposedly a wild life walk. Well, since we were there at the heat of midday we only saw two half sleeping kangaroos.
The next walk was more rewarding on the vistas, but also much more hard work. It was a beautiful (and very warm!) walk, which ended up at an amazing ocean lookout.
We left Wilsons Promontory having seen some, but definitely not all.
From Wilsons Promontory we left ‘nature exploring’ for a few days, and changed gears to Yarra Valley and wine tastings. We had rented a beautiful old stone house on Airbnb and it was the perfect setting for exploring the region. Which, by the way, was beautiful in itself. A couple of days were spent with delicious lunches full of cheese, charcuterie and wine. And not to forget a visit to a chocolate factory wisely located in the middle of the wine fields. There was something for everyone 🙂
When we left Yarra Valley the natural next stop would have been Melbourne, but traveling with my parents, who do not appreciate city life (at all!), we drove straight through, and directly to the Great Ocean Road. It is the most visited place in Victoria, and I had somehow expected to be driving in a huge line of cars. We were there over New Years eve, and everywhere we had read about it, the amount of tourists in this particular period was highlighted. But except from when we visited the Twelve Apostles, there weren’t really many tourists. At least not the numbers we had expected.
On New Years Eve we were staying at a house with views of the ocean, and in true spirit of my childhood New Years traditions we went to a local fish market, and we stocked up on a pretty much all their different fish and sea food.
As the name give away the Great Ocean Road is a beautiful drive along the coast, but we were able to take an inland route for some part which went through the most amazing forest, and I’d recommend everyone to do a combo like we did.
Back on the ocean road were some pretty spectacular views, with the Twelve Apostles as the main draw.
From the Great Ocean Road we went inland again, and our next stop was the Grampians National Park. The house we stayed in was the most spectacular one of all of our accommodation in terms of views, and what we hoped would be wildlife. So from sunset until it became pitch dark we couldn’t take our eyes from the plains in search for kangaroos. It was only very few we actually saw, but the view was indeed mesmerizing.
It was also the perfect playground for the new boomerang that my dad had bought, and we almost broke a window, cut down a tree, and lost the boomerang in the little lake 🙂
The national park itself was also very rewarding. We took a drive and had some amazing views. However, the best of the park would have only been accessible by walking, and we have saved that experience for another time. For this visit we were happy with the views from lookouts close to the road (and not least the views from where we were staying).
There were many many highlights on the trip, but one things that comes to mind every time someone asks about it are the old gold mining towns of Maldon and Bendigo. And when I say old gold mining towns, it is actually not correct as there are still active mines there today. But nevertheless, the feel to these town were definitely that of old times, and you could easily imagine life in the old days when walking their streets.
We didn’t stay there, but rather in Rutherglen, which is also a wine region – known for full bodied reds and ports. While we were there the temperature hit 45 degree C, which was pretty extreme, and it was difficult to do much but stay inside in air con.
Once back in Sydney we spent the last days with my parents visiting the Taronga Zoo, lunching at the fish market, and while I was at work the rest of the family also went to Manly and Shelley beach.
It was a very tear filled last day when my parents were leaving. We had had such a great time together, I mean when do you ever get to spend a month with your parents? Most times it’s an afternoon, a dinner and a half day of quality time. So with a month, we became so close, and it was so hard to see them leave. But the sad feeling is a good thing, because it shows how much we love each other – that’s what we tell our kids, and we tell them, that in stead of missing someone, we look forward to seeing them again.
When that is said, I had been working from home on the morning my parents were leaving to spend as much time with them as possible, and when I walked to work after they had left the only thing I told myself was ‘do not cry, do not cry’. And then the first thing that happened when I got to the office was someone who asked me how I was, and I started crying… So much for self control… 🙂
My parents left about 4 weeks ago, and now, as summer is on its highest, and in true Aussie style, the kids have started swimming lessons every Saturday morning in Victoria Park – a 5 minute walk from our house. It’s a pretty great way to start the weekend!
This week we had our 6 months’ anniversary in Sydney. It has been a busy half year of starting a new life in a new country. But it is beginning to feel like our true home, and I’m so overly happy and excited for the choices we have made with our lives. We are true to ourselves and our dreams, and it’s the greatest feeling of freedom ever!
GoCargus 