It was an early start at the hotel in Sydney where we were down at the breakfast buffet by 6 in the morning. Everyone seems to have slept quite well and were super-excited for the day ahead. The hotel has the most impressive Nespresso machine with multiple levers and milk frothers. Emily and Thomas had a successful interaction with the pancake maker (for once) and … Continue reading A Day of Travelling
Matthew, Emily, Thomas and I took the bus this afternoon to head to Sydney. It was a mid afternoon trip and was reasonably uneventful. The kids read, watched and entertained themselves. Bron had packed some treats for the drive which was consumed non-stop. On arrival in Sydney it was Matthews job to direct us from the airport to the hotel. I had had a previous … Continue reading Day 1 – Off to Sydney
For our final night we stayed at probably the “kitschist” and pinkest hotel in Japan. It is a popular wedding destination and had pink lights and decorations all around. They even had a princess theme with Cinderella’s chariot and glass slipper on display. The breakfast restaurant had a sea of bright flowers with a white piano set in the middle. For a final day, I … Continue reading Day 7 – Final tour
It’s our last full day in Japan – and the week seems to have flown. We had another 8 am start and we checked out of our hotel in Kyoto and headed to Nara. Nara is the sister city to Canberra, however it appears it’s not that big of a deal here. Nara is best known for its deer population and we walked through the … Continue reading Day 6 – Deers, Castles and Shopping
Our luck with the weather finally ran out today. As we awoke and looked out the winter the heavens had opened and it was pouring down. For most of the morning (till about midday) there was a steady stream of rain – enough that we needed umbrellas – which made trekking around the different locations difficult. Our first stop was at the Kiyomizu Temple which … Continue reading Day 5 – Day in Kyoto
For the first time this week the weather was cloudy and it looked like rain. We left our hotel at 8 and spent a couple of hours driving to Koka Ninja Village. It was a mini “theme park” that was located in a town that used to be inhabited by Ninjas. They had a house that used to be resided in by ninja, equipped with … Continue reading Day 4 – Ninjas, Towers and Rain
We had an early start today and needed to be down at breakfast by 6.30. Unfortunately it was too early for even our preferred coffee shop to be open. So I enlisted the help of Google Translate to try and order a proper coffee to our liking at the hotel. Fortunately it worked. We spent a couple of hours on the bus heading out to … Continue reading Day 3 – Mt Fuji and a very Japanese Experience
We got picked up from the hotel at 9 by our tour guide. Our first stop was the Imperial Palace, which is the official residence of the Emperor of Japan. The previous emperor was the first ruler in the history of Japan to abdicate his throne, which is now occupied by his son. The palace, in itself, is not visible from the road or any … Continue reading Day 2 – Tour Around Tokyo
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
