Coxen Travels Ink ... Australia 2014

Coxen Travels Ink ... Australia

We plan to use this blog so that if you are so inclined you can follow us on our new journey.  We are now retired from our careers as educators and free to do as we wish.  Now as part of our adventures it is my plan to try as many beers as possible!  I am devoting a section of this blog to rating those beers!

Beers

4 Pines Stout  - 4

Burleigh Brewing Co. - My Wife's Bitter - 1

Cascade Stout - 5+

Coopers Dark Ale - 5

Coopers Mild Ale - 4

Coopers Pale Ale - 4

Coopers Sparkling Ale - 4+

Coopers Selection Celebration Ale – 5+

Coopers Vintage Ale - 4+

Furphys – 4

Hawthorn Golden Ale - 4+

Hunter Beer Company - Hunter Ginger - 4+

Hunter Beer Company - Kolsch - 4

Hunter Beer Company - Staked Magpie (Vanilla Porter) - 6

Hunter Beer Company - Sticky Beer - 3

Jack of Spades – 4

James Squires – Nine Tails Amber Ale – 4

James Squires – One Fifty Lashes Amber Ale - 4

Knappstein - 5+
Lord Nelson Brewery -Quayle Ale - 4
Lord Nelson Brewery - Nelsons Blood - :-( they were out

Matilda Bay - Ruby Tuesday - 2

Montheith’s Black Beer - 4

Murray's Rudeboy Pilsner - 4

Murrays Dark Knight Porter -  5-

Pikes Sparkling Ale - 5

Tooeys New - 1

The Constable - 3

White Rabbit Dark Ale – 3

I know it is a 5 point scale, but the Staked Magpie, a vanilla porter was just too good!

Round the World Trip .... Australia

August 1 - 3
After arriving in Port Lincoln around 3:30 pm we were met by Debbie and Clare.  We went to the top of Winter Hill that overlooks the area and got a great view!  Then we headed to Debbie's.  We meet Gerry. Clare and her family came over for dinner and we met Paul and Madeline.
Saturday we headed out on our first adventure.  We started out the day watching Madeline playing hockey ..... field hockey.  Next door there was a football (Australian Rules) game going on, Gerry kindly took the time to explain the game to me.  There actually are a few rules.  We then visited Mikaro (a private nature reserve). We saw no less that 20 Koala's in the trees,

Koala in a tree

we also saw a whale off the coast and Galah's (to many to count), Emu's,

Emu's

Port Lincoln Parrots

Port Lincoln Parrot

and a species called surfers. 
Sunday we were off again this time to Coffin Bay and Coffin Bay Park.  We saw starfish, jellyfish, but walked into and area with lots of kangaroos! We even saw one with a joey poking it's head out of mothers pouch!

Kangaroo, look for the joey ...

  A great day!

August 4 -7
We spent the day at school.  They work hard here in Australia we left for work at 08:00 hrs and the great part is it took only 10 minutes to drive there.  Once at the school the staff was awesome greeting us and showing us around.  We dropped in on a few classrooms and read some Canadian stories we had brought with us.  Robert Munch is popular.  We were lucky enough to catch a Governing Council meeting in the evening and so arrived home around 21:45 hrs.  The meeting was very much like ours and the parental involvement the same as ours as well.
My birthday on the 5th and the staff was kind and sang 'Happy Birthday' to me at morning recess!  We read to several classes and then went out to dinner at the Marina to celebrate my birthday.

Pat eating her first oyster!

On Wednesday and Thursday we visited 'The High School' and 'Port Lincoln Primary'.  We had a great tour at both and had a good discussion with the respective principals. We have become in demand to read and talk to classes at 'Port Lincoln Junior Primary'. Thursday we moved from Debbie's to Clare's.  At Clare's we experienced fresh oysters!

August 8 - 10
Our hosts were awesome and took us up to the 'Flinder's Range'.  We spend the first night at Devil's Peak B&B.  What a GREAT spot at the base of Devils Peak.  We did a small hike there and saw a few kangaroos and Wattle bushes in bloom (Australia's national flower).

Wattle in bloom

The second night we were Glamping at Irika Safari Camp at Wilpena Pound.

The Group on the Safari Tent deck!

  Wow!!

August 11 - 14
Monday was a Pd day here so while Pat stayed in bed (she is sick), I went off to show the flag.  The pd was much like ours several schools had gotten together and brought in a speaker from Adelaide.  She was good, but the hall was very cold!  Winter is so short here the buildings do not have central heating like in Canada.  Yesterday was really our first crappy day since we got here, rainy and cold.
Tuesday Pat is off to a quilt shop with Clare and Debbie!  I am not feeling that great either so stayed in bed!  It is a beautiful day so we headed off to Whalers Way.  It is a very rugged coastal region that was awesome!  The coastline and the waves were spectacular!

Wednesday we went over to Paul's school and read and spoke to his class.  We read the Cremation of Sam McGee and the kids loved it.  We also got a tour of the school from the principal.  She has a Play School that is a really great idea as the parents need to come in with their children instead of just dropping them off.  They also had a boys class that was for boys that were not making it in the regular program and it seemed to be working fine.
Thursday is our last day here in Port Lincoln as we are off to Melbourne tomorrow.  This flu has really got to me so I spent the day in bed.  Pat had a busy day at the school reading to classes and showing the school secretary how to 'Mail Merge'.

Aug 15-22

Saturday we headed off to Sovereign Hill!  What a great place, Sovereign Hill is an old gold mining area and was the scene of the first gold rush in Australia.  We had a great time visiting an old gold mine and listening to the stories of the period actors. 

Sunday we headed for Melbourne.  We first visited the Esplanade Market.  It was small and while it had some interesting booths it was disappointing.  We then headed to the Victoria Market.  It was much larger, but still it was rather predicable with what was available.  We then headed off to the Footy Game, which was the main reason we went into the city on a Sunday.  We saw Melbourne play a Sydney team.  The game was one sided with Sydney winning the day.  The MCG was a great stadium and the Footy Oval is huge!

The MCG in Melbourne

Monday we headed west on the Great Ocean Road (GOR) we stopped at every possible viewpoint and place of interest.  We made it to Port Campbell.  Along the way we saw 5 koalas

and the Twelve Apostles.  We then headed back on a faster road.

Tuesday we headed to Geelong.  We spent some time shopping; I finally found a power cord that I had left at home in a camera shop.  The girls went to a reportedly very good Quilting shop.  We then had lunch at the Lord Nelson pub.  We then headed back along the coast and lots of great scenery.  We say one of the planets three black light houses.

Wednesday we decided to do the rest of the GOR.  We drove the fast way to Port Campbell and then did the short detour to see the Twelve Apostles

12 Apostles

at a different time of day.  We continued along and stopped at London Bridge

London Bridge

, Loch Ard gorge and the Grotto. 

The Grotto

  Eventually we ended up in Warrnambool.

Thursday we went back to Melbourne.  We parked at Victoria Market and then took the free City Centre Tram to get around.  We saw Captain Cook’s Cottage (It was brought here from England and reconstructed).  Had lunch in the Young and Jackson Pub.

August 22 – 26

Friday we had an early flight from Melbourne to Sydney from the Avalon Airport, that way we did not have to drive all the way to Melbourne.  We arrived in Sydney at 07:30, picked up a car and headed for Surfers Paradise.  It was a long drive, we arrived around 21:00 hrs. The apartment is very nice and the location even better.

Saturday it was raining so we did some shopping in the local area.

Sunday we decided to go see the Glass Mountains, named by Captain Cook.  They were interesting in that they were old volcano throats and so have not eroded at the same rate as the land around them.  They were not spectacular, but interesting.

Monday we headed out to Byron Bay, we had fond memories of it from our last trip.  It did not disappoint.  The town was fun and the beach as spectacular as we remember!

Tuesday we decided to slow down a bit, we went and wandered the beach and the downtown at Surfers Paradise.  The shopping area is very nice and the beach appears to go on forever.

Wednesday the promised rain did not arrive!  We decided to visit Tambourine Mountain.  It was GREAT, the village and shopping was interesting and the views from the mountaintop were awesome!  A kookaburra showed up so we could get a good picture.

Kookaburra

We finished the day by going to “Australian Outback Spectacular’.  It was touristy, but the food was good and the entertainment better.

Thursday the rain arrived in the night along with the wind, but was gone by morning.  We walked to the beach in the morning and got haircuts and had coffee and watched the surf.  The surf was huge thanks to the storm and the beaches were closed.  In the afternoon we drove to the Harley Davidson dealership and another quilt shop. 

August 29 – September 4

Friday we left Surfers Paradise and headed to Coffs Harbour, the new apartment is GREAT!  We had lots of time as it was only a four-hour drive so we visited the Byron Bay lighthouse.

Byron Point Lighthouse

It is the most eastern point on the Australian Continent picturesque and a good hike.  Along the way we saw two Wallabies.

Wallaby at Byron Point Lighthouse trail

We then continued south on the coast passing through Ballina and Ullmara.

Saturday we decided to go down to the harbour.  Once there we discovered a boat race was starting.  We rushed over to find it just finishing.  We then headed to the Coffs Harbour  botanic garden.  We saw all kinds of different flora, including a Mangrove swamp.

Sunday we knew that there was a market down by the harbour.  From yesterday we also knew there was to be another race at 11:00 and a second at 13:00 hrs.  This time they left the harbour and raced out to and island and back, maybe ten times.  Very cool!  We enjoyed the market and also discovered a protest-taking place.  The harbour was an exciting place today.  Once back at the resort we spent a few lazy hours on the beach.

Monday – It is a beautiful day so we went to the pool till 13:30 hrs.  Then headed to Nambucca Heads.  It was a beautiful location where we had a pub lunch and then did some exploring.  Garnet got wet when he was not looking and a rogue wave got him.  We then headed to the town of Mackville for a quilt shop.

Tuesday – Today we headed inland to experience the world heritage status rainforest at Dorrigo.  Jacquie and Kerry decided that we should take the scenic route up to Dorrigo, and then take the easy way back, so….5000 hairpin turns and some beautiful sealed road, lots of gravel, some one lane bridges, some beautiful scenery, and 2 hours later, we arrived at the top of the world.  Before we could get Garnet some ginger beer for his motion sickness, we stopped to enjoy Dangar Falls

Dangar Falls

at the entrance to the town.  We then rolled down Main Street and parked at a fabulous looking quilt shop that promised great fabrics.  She, however, decided that this was the week to take a vacation, so she missed the big sale.  Oh well.  The boys, meanwhile, were entertaining themselves in Juan’s café and the Smallest Motorcycle Museum in the World.  Having found his ginger beer, Garnet was back on track and up to his usual antics.  Then it was on to the rainforest.  Once we were there, Kerry and I realized that we had been there 17 years ago.  The view from the top of the canopy is amazing.  Despite the snake warnings in the information video, we walked down to Crystal Falls in the forest.

Crystal Falls, just as nice as it was 17 years ago

The interesting thing about this is that many of the plants that you see in Home Depot tropical dept are growing wild and free here.  The Falls were worth the effort, both down and up.  We were then on to Belligen and back to our hotel.  We made two stops.  One was at the Old Butter Factory to see some amazing wood artistry in bowls, trays, toys, etc.  The other was a stop by the side of the road to see 5 emu in a paddock.  One of them declared its opinion of Garnet, and then left the others to see if he was correct.  We finished the day with a big toast to the bell and the official celebration of our retirement.  We are happy with our decision to move on.

Wednesday – Visited the Seelylookout, where we had a great view of Coffs Harbour!  We spoke to the banana farmer and visited Woolgoolga where out on the point the waves were huge!  We watched then for awhile in the wind.

Thursday -We decided to drive up to 'The Pub with No Beer'.  Fortunately they did have beer!  In fact they have a microbrewery that has several GREAT beers check out the Murray beers above.  Along the way we visited Bowraville.  It was very quaint, but it had a fabulous military museum with some fellows that were great to chat with. 

September 5 - 11
Friday - Drove down to Hunter Valley from Coffs Harbour.  Stopped along the way in ?? and Port MacQuarie.  In ?? we visited and aboriginal center that had some great art work.  In Port MacQuarie we went to a zoo and saw Snow Leopards (no not an Ozy animal), but also saw kangaroo's, koala's (got yo touch one), cassawary's,

emu's, wombat, crocodiles, etc.  The new digs are even better than the last and they were awesome!
Saturday -We decided to to exploring and started out for Maitland.  Along the way we saw a market so dropped in, as well as a stinky cheese store so had to go there too!  Found a couple of quilt shops fortunately there was a pub

Pub in Kurri Kurri

across the street from the second one so it was the best of the two.  After Maitland we visited Kurri Kurri, it is notable as it has a lot of murals in the town, each mural has a kookaburra somewhere so it is like 'Where's Waldo'!  We then visited Neath.  Finally, into Cessnock and Wollys to get groceries.
Sunday - We began the day heading off to Maitland for their market day.  It turned out to be more of a flea market.   We then headed off to Wollombi.  It was a small town with lots of character.  
Monday - We were off to Sydney to spend the day and see Bob Dylan at the Opera House.  Driving in Sydney is crazy, but we managed to park under the Queen Victoria building.  Then spent the day working our way towards the Opera House for the performance.  Along the way we visited 'The Rocks', the Sydney botsanical garden a pub or two.  Bob was ok, the Opera House is very cool.
Tuesday - we had a slow start as we did not get home till 01:00 hrs last night.  We headed out after 12 and tried to visit several places most of whom were closed.  We did visit an outlook that gave us a great view of the valley and then went to a beer tasting at Hunter Brewing Company.  The beer was good, but the vanilla porter 'Staked Magpie' was amazing!! I had to give it a 6 out of 5 .... well!

Wednesday – Today we were picked up at 10:00 hrs and headed out on a wine tasting adventure.  We started at ‘Mountain View’ where they grew all their own grapes and made their own wines. It was a small operation but very nice.  We then headed off to ‘Ernest Hill’ where they were also a small operation who grew their own grapes and made their own wine.  We then went for a fabulous lunch and a chocolate shop afterward!  It was then off to ‘Tulloch’ they are a large operation that brings in grapes from all over Australia.  When they went for a cheese tasting, it was great and finished up at ‘Gun Dog Hunter Wines’.  It was a small operation that buys their own grapes.  We are a little tired, yes just tired after the grueling day of sampling at least 40 different wines!

September 11 - 18

Thursday – We drove into Sydney dropped us at our new accommodation; Goertzen’s at theirs and then got ride of the car.  Garnet and I rode the train back into the city and met up with the girls at our accommodation.  We then walked down to Darling Harbour and explored and had dinner.

View of the Opera House from our harbour Tour

Friday – We got up at a decent time and headed out to ride the ‘Hop On Hop Off’ bus.  We rode the bus down to Circular Key and then up to ‘Saint Andrew’s Church’ to hear the organ.  Once there we found out the show is on Mondays (@#$%&).  We headed down to the Rocks and went for lunch at the “Hero of Waterloo’ pub.  It is the oldest pub in Sydney and one that had a tunnel under it so the press gangs could take out pressed men.  Fortunately, we escaped the press.  We visited a mall in the Rocks and it turned out to be the one where you learned to shear sheep Cameron!  From there is was over to Circular Key to go on our harbour cruise.  It was awesome!  The sun came out and wow!  We stayed on for the ride from Circular Key to Darling Harbour. As a result we were able to go under the Harbour Bridge and see the view back towards Circular Key and the Opera House.  We then caught the Hop On Hop Off again and did the rest of the route.  We said goodbye to Garnet and Jacquie who are flying home in the morning.

Saturday – We got up bright and early so we could use the last of our Hop On Hop Off pass.  We wanted to do the Bondi section which is a separate route, but included in the original purchase price.  RAIN!  It lasted the whole trip and stopped when we got off back in Sydney.  Oh well, some things you just can not control.  We got off the bus by Hyde Park as it was 10:50 hrs and the Anzac Memorial has a daily ceremony at 11:00 hrs.  We headed over to the memorial caught the ceremony and had a look around. Last Post and Reveille sound just the same here down under, and still make my spine tingle, just like at home.

Sunday – Today the weather has been absolutely great.  We decided to head down to The Rocks and check out the market down there.  It was good and we made several purchases (just stuff we absolutely needed).  We then decided to go find the Glenmore Hotel,

it was the hotel we stayed at last time we were in Australia.  We had lunch on the roof with a great view of the harbour.  While heading upstairs we discovered that the room we had stayed in is now a dining room.  When I quizzed the staff they said the hotel was renovated two years ago.  It is no longer a hotel at all.  Kyle the great view of the Opera House still exists from that very special location you discovered!

Monday – We started the day planning on going to the Pipe Organ Concert at St Andrew’s Church.  But once again we got there and it was not happening.  The other part of the plan for the day was to visit ‘Sea Life Sydney’.  It was open and was not disappointing.  Pat got to see her platypus.  We saw many other interesting species; like sharks,

saw fish, sea horses, rays, penguins

and many others.

Tuesday – We spent the day at the ‘Australian National Maritime Museum’.  It takes and entire day and wow!  We visited the ‘James Craig’ a tall ship, then I climbed the lighthouse, we then visited the ‘HMAS Onslow’, a submarine, and lastly we toured the ‘HMAS Vampire’, a destroyer.  We then toured around the displays in the museum seeing displays on such people as Captain Cook and Matthew Flinders.  There was a great display of photographs by Bryant Austin, he does life size whale pictures. (http://www.studiocosmos.com/limted_editions_about.html)  The display was fabulous.  A great day!

Wednesday - Our last full day in Australia :-(  Today we went to the Hyde Park Barracks Museum.  It is well done and gives you the idea about what it might have been like to be a convict during those times.  We learned there were no Coxen's transported to Australia as a convict.  We then headed down to Circular Quay, we don't seem to be able to get enough of that place.  It was then into the Rocks and over to the Lord Nelson Hotel and pub for lunch.  Too bad we left it for the last day!!
Thursday - Off to the airport at 11:30 hrs.