The flight from Hong Kong was relatively short and we both slept for most of it. We arrived on time and worked our way through immigration and customs – which was all a breeze – and we were out in no time. Given the distance between Narita airport and Tokyo city (and our hotel), we decided to take the train. The one thing we were … Continue reading Day 1 – Tokyo Food Tour
For the first time in over 20 years Bron and I are going away on a week long holiday without the kids. With equal measure of excitement and apprehension we finally bid farewell to all the kids and made it to the airport in Canberra. As I write this we are in Hong Kong airport having made it here via Melbourne. The flights were all … Continue reading And we’re off
A 7 day trip to Japan from Tokyo to Osaka organised by All Japan Tours Continue reading Trip to Japan
We drove out to Uluru this morning after breakfast to complete our walk around the base. We started with a Ranger guided walk along the Mala trail, which started where the rock climb used to be. The ranger talk was uninspiring and tedious, however he did explain some of the rock art and what it meant. We left the tour and made our own way … Continue reading A Day at the Rock
It was a lazy start today and we didn’t go down to breakfast till almost 9. There was crisis in the resort with no internet, phone or any digital services. It was particularly distressing for passengers to Sydney whose flight had been cancelled by Qantas with no way for them to get in touch with the airline. We did two lots of dot painting classes … Continue reading A Day of New Experiences
It was another early morning start in the freezing cold for us today. The bus collected us from the hotel at 5.30 and we headed out to the Field of Lights. The Field of Lights is an installation of 50,000 lights on the foothills of Uluru by British artist Bruce Munro. It is an incredible display and we had access to different vantage points. From … Continue reading Field of Lights
We had to get up really early at 3am for a trip to the King’s Canyon. Distances in the NT are unassumingly large and it took us 3 hours to get there. We got to see some spectacular changes in the color of the sky as the sun rose. I have never seen the sky such bright red just before sunrise. Matthew, Ben and I … Continue reading King Canyons Tour
We had an early start today and needed to be down at breakfast by 6am as we are heading to Uluru. We were all packed and ready to go and the kids got one last hot chocolate from their favorite server. The drive from Alice to Uluru is about 450 kms with only one turn along the way. You get to realise the vast expanse … Continue reading 1 Turn for 450kms
It was a public holiday in Alice Springs today for the Alice Springs Show. We went for a drive in the morning but most of the shops and museums were closed for the public holiday. One of the museums that was open was the Kookaburra Wreckage Museum. The Kookaburra was a flight manned by Bob Hitchcock and Keith Anderson who flew from Sydney via Adelaide … Continue reading The Alice Show
We spent the day at the Alice Springs desert park to learn about native animals, birds and also indigenous culture. We started the day with a bird show where the official star was the wedge-tailed eagle. It swooped in from a distance at great speed and looked majestic. The unofficial star was a little willy wag tail that apparently shows up at every show to … Continue reading Desert Park
The resort we are staying at is right next door to a golf range and the kids spent an hour this morning collecting golf balls that had gone astray. When they came to the room excited with what they had found, I thought it would have been a handful. How wrong was I, they had connected over a 100 balls and laid them all out … Continue reading Pioneering Women
After a quick lunch in town we joined the second half of our tour, which was to see the sights around Alice Springs. We started with a visit to Anzac Hill with sweeping views across the township. The flags were all at half mast yesterday to commemorate the passing of the last Anzacv soldier from Alice. Viewing from high gives an interesting perspective of the … Continue reading A Town Like Alice
It was an early start today with the bus picking us up at 7 in the morning. It’s fortunate that Bron visited the Beanie festival over the weekend and got us all warm beanies. We definitely need it in the mornings. The first stop was the John Flynn memorial. John Flynn was sent by the church in the early 20th century to investigate the needs … Continue reading Gaps, Chasms and Upside down Rivers
So we finally made it to Alice and as a bonus the person who was meant to have the window seat never showed. Matthew and I had the entire row to ourselves and allowed us to spread out a bit. A unique sight at Alice Springs airport is the parking lot of planes that are not being used. During COVID lockdowns airlines had to decommission … Continue reading Fawning over Megafauna
Woke up at 4 this morning to a text from Qantas that our flight to Alice Springs had been cancelled. They had instead booked us on a flight to Darwin arriving at midnight and then over to Alice after a 5 hour stop over, the following day. I rang Qantas and joined the queue to get to talk to an agent. Given everyone was up … Continue reading Nothing like a crisis to kick things off
First family adventure in years. We are heading to the NT to take on the splendor of Ayers Rock. Bron left earlier with Thomas and Emily while the rest of us will join her next week. Continue reading And they’re off
Broken Clouds, 28°C 49-560 Kamehameha Hwy, Kaneohe, HI 96744, USA #Experiencing Hollywood Hawaii has really unique and rugged landscapes and has almost all the different climates patterns except Arctic and Desert. Moreover it is a really short distance from beaches to mountain tops and lakes and rolling hills. This makes it a great location for Hollywood and a number of famous movies and TV Shows … Continue reading Experiencing Hollywood
Scattered Clouds, 31°C Honolulu, HI 96818, USA #Pearl Harbour We had booked a whole day tour of Pearl Harbour and USS Missouri today. It was a fascinating experience. Whole I knew a little bit about the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour in WWII, I had no idea how large the attack was and how much it impacted the US. It was amazing planning by the … Continue reading Pearl Harbour
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