I had four days off over the Easter holiday so we decided we
would rent a car and head out to Sydney as time in Australia is slowly slipping
away.
Our kids LOVE road trips especially Cian. In fact, he thought I had picked up the
car on Wednesday night so when I returned from work he barely said hi to me
before diving to the window to see the car. He was highly disappointed when he realized the car was not
there. I had to promise I would
bring it when we picked him up from school the next day.
On Thursday I bravely picked up the car from downtown
Melbourne. This truly is a feat of
bravery if anyone has been to downtown Melbourne as there are specific and
complicated downtown driving rules in Melbourne CBD and they are
terrifying. However, I did manage
to navigate my accidental detour through Queen Victoria market and back
home. We packed up the car and
picked up Cian and were off to Canberra (pronounced Canbra) to spend Thursday
night with our good friends Brent and Cassie in the nation’s capital. Before we left my research assistant
Marta said “Are you worried that Emily will vomit in the car again?” and I
confidentally scoffed that of course she wouldn’t do that, that was a one-time
thing and what happens in New Zealand stays in New Zealand.
We were barely an hour out of the city when Cian started
yelling “EMILY IS CHOKING!!!” and I turned around to see pink vomit pouring out
of Emily – a combination of the crackers and red juice her father had fed her
before getting in the car. We
pulled over to the side of the road and this time at least we had extra
clothes. So thankful that Emily
decided to christen our rental car with the smell of vomit for our 10 hour
journey to Sydney. Thanks kiddo.
The rest of the drive was mostly uneventful and we arrived
at the Winter’s house in the mid-evening, carrying our sleeping kiddos through
the dark night into the warmth of the awaiting bed. I had brought three different Australian wines to share and
the four of us stayed up until 2am chatting away, not missing a beat from when
we saw each other at Christmas.
What a true gift – instant friendship.
We knew we would pay for the late night but didn’t think
that the kids would wake up at 5am.
I woke up to the sounds of the children yelling “Mommy” and wandering
around in the hallway together in the darkness having no idea where they
were. I went back into the bed
with Emily and took Cian out to the couch where Keith was. Emily was falling asleep quite quickly
but I could hear Cian bashing around in the kitchen and was lying there
silently shooting daggers at Keith in the other room for not keeping Cian
quiet. Finally when I realized
that Cian was eating chocolate in the kitchen I came out and snapped at Keith
and sat Cian on top of him, only then realizing that my sound sleeper of a
husband had been asleep until that moment. We paid dearly for that late night but it was worth it.
When the kids woke up again around 8am Brent made coffee
(bless him for that) and a lovely breakfast and after that we checked out a bit
of Canberra including the riverfront and Questacon – the Australian science
museum. A noisy kids hands-on
science museum after a night of drinking and a restless night was too much for
me and eventually I took Emily to have a nap out in the car. Cian however was in heaven – he had
heaps of fun trying all the stuff – great idea Winters!
In the afternoon we headed up to Sydney and with daylight
savings here in Australia the sun is setting quite early (aroud 5pm) so we
arrived in the dark again. The
Holiday Inn was nice but the kids were INSANE from their previous night and it
was rough getting settled into the hotel and I was wired from driving in Sydney
in the dark. Keith told me to put
my feet up on the bed and relax and the minute I did that I started to feel
better…until I felt a tickle on my arm.
I thought it was the pillow but it happened again and I looked down to
find a big black cockroach. Both
Keith and I jumped away from the bed and screamed. He called reception and they were great – moved us to a new
room, got us set up and gave us free breakfast. We had a good night sleep and we were all in better spirits
the next day.
In the morning we headed down to our complimentary breakfast
buffet and the waitress brought me a latte and asked Cian if he wanted a hot
chocolate. You have not seen a
more excited kid about his special drink.
He was not moving from his spot because his special hot chocolate with
milk was coming. We planned out
our day and decided to head to Taronga zoo that day since the Duke and Duchess
of Cambridge were due the next day and the place would indeed be a zoo. As we were leaving the hotel Emily said
“Mommy are we going in the car…on an adventure?” It’s clear who’s kid that one is.
On our way to our apartment in Chippendale we stopped at
Bondi Beach. It’s not surprising
this is one of the nicest beaches in the world. It was beautiful.
Cian and I spent some time with our pants rolled up to our knee trying
to outrun the surf – it was great fun.
Emily decided it was too cold for her and she preferred to play in the
sand up by her dad.
We then tried to find our apartment and I drove through
downtown Sydney which is comprised of 100% one-way streets. There was one entrance into our
neighbourhood and it took us 3 tries to find it. Needless to say that once we parked there we didn’t move our
car until we left Sydney.
Once we dropped off our stuff we headed to Darling
Harbour. We thought a Hop-on
Hop-off Harbour cruise would be perfect for the attention span of our kids and
we were right. They loved going on
the boat, especially Cian. In a
head-to-head comparison of boats and planes – boats are the recent winner in
his mind. A harbour cruise is a
great way to see the highlights of Sydney. The weather was beautiful – warm enough to sit in the open
air part of the boat. We saw the
Sydney Harbour Bridge (where Cian though the people climbing it looked like
ants) to the famous Opera House (Emily: “I like that opera house!” “I like it.” – glad you like one of the
most famous buildings in the world Em).
When we stopped at Taronga Zoo we didn’t have a lot of time but had a
chance to see the seals and elephants.
Taronga Zoo is built on a hill so there are lots of ramps, stairs and
lifts. The best part though is the
Sky Safari that goes from the ferry dock to the top of the zoo. We did that with the kids as the zoo
was closing and the sun was setting and it was pretty spectacular. By this time though Emily looked really
rough. Her fair complexion shows
every remnant of illness and by this point she looked like a zombie. Again I was thankful we hadn’t attended
the zoo on the day the royals were going since I suspect the Duchess would have
felt obligated to stop and talk to our terminally-ill appearing child.
We headed back on our boat to the Circular Quay and the
Opera House. The Opera House is as
stunning as it looks in pictures.
It was nice just to take an evening stroll around it. We were hoping to stay up until 830pm
to see the Saturday night fireworks but we couldn’t justify that with the
zombie in the stroller so we headed back to the apartment.
The next morning the Easter bunny came and Cian found all
the eggs before Emily even really knew what was going on. He was very good though and shared the
eggs (pink and yellow for her and orange and blue for him). We headed back out to spend the morning
on the boat since we had 24 hour tickets and the kids were keen to hang out on
the harbour again. The walk to the
harbour was really nice – Sydney is a very walkable city. We walked by a very busy-appearing
Anglican church and realized that the royals were attending Easter service
there – that was as close as we got to the royal family. We took the boat out to Watsons Bay and
spent some time in the beautiful park full of large fig trees and looking out
on the ocean on a sunny Sunday afternoon.
We got takeaway fish and chips from Doyle’s which is famous for a reason
and that reason is deliciousness – it was fantastic. After we got back to Circular Quay we found the Sydney tower
and enjoyed the view after the 4D movie.
It was a full day and the kids were certainly ready for bed that
evening.
After the kids were settled my friend Ian Choy from medical
school picked me up to go out for dinner.
Ian is doing his fellowship in Sydney and I haven’t seen him since
medical school and was excited to see him and meet his new wife Jen. I always love it when you haven’t seen
someone for a while and it’s instantly easy – with that first big hug it was
like there had been no time between us.
We had a great time at a dumpling restaurant catching up and learning
about each other’s lives. A great
way to top off our trip.
The next morning we got out of Sydney early because my boss
had told me that it was a beautiful drive to head back to Melbourne through the
coastal highway. My rudimentary
math skills should have kicked in to say hmmm
it took 10 hours to get here in a straight line perhaps it will take
significantly longer via the coast…but it didn’t. The first few hours of the drive were stunning. If you have time it really is a
spectacular drive through coastal New South Wales. You travel over hills into these beautiful green valleys,
peaceful bays and expansive ocean views.
We traveled through several forests of gum trees and it was unbelievably
beautiful. Around 2pm I asked how
long we had left and that’s where we realized that “slightly longer” to my boss
meant 4 hours longer. The beauty
of the drive slowly evaporated with the sunset as driving through the Snowy
Mountains in the dark was not that enjoyable. Especially
because the frequent towns we encountered at the start of our drive started to
become more and more sparse in frequency and habitation. I suspect this is a hardship that never
befell the Duchess of Cambridge. We
passed several towns without a gas station until in Lakes Entrance we were
desperate and asked a hole-in-the-wall pizza place if there was a gas station
in town to which they replied “At this hour?” – it was 826pm. Thankfully there was a station open in
town so we could make it to Melbourne.
Just another affirmation of my motto: How can someone have an adventure
if everything is planned out? As
we finally made it home I silently thanked my children for being so
exceptionally good because we got in the car in Sydney at 8am and Keith and I
carried them out at 1230am. Despite the unforeseen length of this
drive I still love roadtrips with our little family of four. The sense of adventure, the
appreciation of the beauty of the scenery and the warm cocoon of time spent as
our little family.
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