Dance of the Chinese Dragon

Kindergarten teachers danced underneath this dragon during the Chinese New Year Celebration at school. Anna (the other American teacher) had made this dragon about two years ago.

Dragon Dance

The dragon is another popular symbol for Chinese New Year. It is a symbol of strength, goodness, and good luck, and supernatural forces. Here the kindergarten students are trying to "feed" the dragon with lucky red envelopes.

Chinese New Year Celebration at school

Here our some of the boys in very beautiful Chinese outfits.

Chinese New Year Celebration

The Chinese New Year's day was a holiday from school (last Monday). The next day all of the school had celebrations. Here I am with some of my students in "Chinese costumes" Although the purple one looked more Korean to me.

Bondi Beach, Sydney

Our last day in Australia! We were back in Sydney and went to Bondi Beach. It was a gorgeous day, and it was sad that the holiday was over!

Alice Springs Reptile World

Even though Alice Springs is the unofficial capital of Outback Australia , most tourists visit "Alice" only to get to Uluru.

We stayed a few days and noticed that Alice has charm all its own, albeit mostly of a small-town kind. Here I am holding a lizard at Reptile world.

Kings Canyon

The beginning of the rim walk at King's Canyon. The effect of the sunlight on the sandstone is both mysterious and serene.

Lost City

This is a maze of rounded sandstone formations which they have named the Lost City. We then crossed a bridge to a fern-fringed pocket of water holes called the Garden of Eden. Unfortunately, Marissa and my camera both died about the same time, so these are the only two shots we got of the beautiful Watarrka National Park.

Back to Australia

From Ayers Rock we took a bus to Alice Springs. We stopped at Kings Canyon. Anyone who saw the movie The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert" may remember the stony plateau the transvestites climb to gaze over the plain below- this is the place. The sandstone walls of the canyon drop about 330 feet to rock pools and centuries-old gum trees. The dramatic canyon rim walk about 3 3/4 miles long, started with a steep (but short) walk up the canyon.

Gung Hay Fat Choy

Gung Hay Fat Choy translates: "Best wishes and Congratulations. Have a prosperous and good year." I was invited to attend the Chinese New Year's Eve dinner at one of Deni's uncle's house. There were about 20 people and they were very gracious to me. I had a wonderful time, and the next few pictures show the dinner celebration. We have off from school today (Monday) for the holiday, and then on Tuesday the children will celebrate the Chinese New Year in School.

Chinese New Year's Eve Dinner

There was a massive table, laden with food. As Deni explained to me, it's like our Thanksgiving. This dish is swan - I tried it and did not care for it.

However, I brought something to the celebration - lasagna! The previous day, Deni, Regina and I had gone to Bandung a somewhat "cosmopolitan city". There I was able to purchase all the ingredients and Regina, her mother-in-law and I made it. Her mother-in-law was amazed at the noodles, and kept shaking her head as I layered on the three different cheeses.

food at the children's table

During the 15 day celebration traditional foods are served. Noodles should be uncut, as they represent long life. The noodles are on the right.

Taboos of Chinese New Year

Two of the little ones at the Chinese New Year Eve dinner. One of the taboos of Chinese New Year:

Sweeping or dusting should not be done on New Year's Day for fear that good fortune will be swept away. After New Year's Day, the floors may be swept. Beginning at the door, the dust and rubbish are swept to the middle of the parlor, then placed in the corners and not taken or thrown out until the fifth day. At no time should the rubbish in the corners be trampled upon.

200 year old chair

Deny's relative was quite proud of this piece of furniture. He explained in Bahasa and Tasha translated that it was 200 years old and that the wood is well polished. The seat is marble. The only new item is the rattan weaving in the back. This is the seat outside in the courtyard that Tasha and I are reading "Little Women".

outdoor courtyard

This is the courtyard of the house. Everyone else was inside, as Tasha and I read. The pond to the right is stocked with koi.

Ayers Rock Resort

Ayers Rock Resort not only is in the township of Yulara (19 miles from Uluru) it is the township. Marissa and I stayed in the "hostel" part of the resort - which meant a cinder block dorm room housing 20 women! We had the market in the resort- we needed to take a shuttle to get to it. I was intrigued by the Australian name for Rice Krispies.

Valley of the Winds hike at Kata Tjuta

Kata Tjuta is about 31 miles west of Uluru. Marissa and I witnessed sunrise over both Kata Tjuta and Uluru. Then we went for a 4 1/2 mile hike through the rock domes and valleys of Kata Tjuta. This is the first lookout point along the trail.

Kata Tjuta (The Olgas)

Some people say that Kata Tjuta is even more spectacular and mysterious than Uluru and I agree. Kata Tjuta translates "many heads" and the 36 momentous red domes bulge out of the earth. The tallest dome is higher than Uluru and this group of monoliths is more important in Aboriginal Dreamtime legend than Uluru.

walk like an aboriginal!

Can't imagine balancing this on the head, walking through the outback and looking for "honey ants" to grab to eat.

That is stalks woven into a "bun" to wear on your head to help balance the scooped out wooden bowl.

Notice the woman in the background with the netting - flies, mosquitoes and all sorts of insects were constantly swarming around.

utensils and bush food

The large scooped out "bowl" is the container for foods and water that the aboriginal woman used. The walking stick is on top of the flat rock that the women used to grind the various seeds, nuts and bugs for food.

Thorny Devil

This Australian lizard was picked up from the side of the road by our tour driver. His body is covered in thorns, hence the name. However they claim that this lizard is completely harmless.

Amazing Animal Fact: If rain lands on the Thorny Devils back, it runs down the creature finding its way to its mouth where it is consumed.

Rock paintings at Uluru

These rock paintings were one of many that are at the Rock and Kata Tjuta.

Mutitjulu water hole at the Rock

Hard to imagine that in the midst of the outback is a water hole. The serenity, and quiet atmosphere suggest that Uluru has something spiritual about it.

Aboriginal Tour

These two sisters were our guides for a Kuniya walk at Uluru. They spoke the Anangu language and another woman, translated for us. We visited the Uluru cultural center, the Mutitjulu water hole at the base of the Rock, learned about bush foods, and saw rock paintings.

Uluru (Ayers Rock) at sunrise

While Uluru is not the biggest rock in the area (Mount Conner is three times bigger) or the most picuresque (Kata JTjuta is much more impressive) there was an indescribable sense of place to Uluru.

Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park- Ayers Rock

Next stop - Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park.

We headed to the outback for the next couple of days. Incredible, and very different scenery than the rainforest and ocean we had just left.

Kuranda Scenic Railway

After we had taken the skyrail to the rainforest village of Kuranda, we took the scenic railway back to Cairns. This train snakes through beautiful vistas of the Barron Gorge National Park. This is just one of the waterfalls taken from the train. This railway was built by hand over 5 years in the late 1880's by 1,500 men.

Marissa feeding the red-legged Pademelon

Marissa was the brave one here - I had no desire to get close to this animal.

Red-legged Pademelon

They are marsupial rainforest kangaroos.
Red-legged pademelons are the only ground dwelling wallaby that lives in Wet Tropics rainforests.

Marissa thought they were adorable. I did too - from far away. They have some strong claws!

Kuranda Koala Gardents

Part of this small wildlife park houses kangaroos. You can walk among them and "get up close and personal". I was fascinated how this long-legged joey still fit in its mother's pouch- although the head dangled upside down and outside!

Australian Butterfly Sanctuary - Kuranda

Over 1,500 tropical butterflies- including this electric-blue Ulysses. Though rather small, the lush enclosure was filled with vibrant butterflies.

Birdworld - Kuruanda

Beautiful eye-catching macaws, a pair of cassowaries, and Australia's largest collection of free-flying birds is found here in Birdworld. Marissa had an interest in having the birds on her, I was more than happy just to take the photos!

Wet Tropics

This is one of the massive kauri pines that is part of the Word Heritage area. This it at Red Peak one of the stops where you have to change gondolas during the skyrail ride. They have boardwalks around the station for the ground view of the rainforest. From this level it was easy to spot ferns, orchids and many butterflies.

Sykrail Rainforest Cableway

The next day after snorkeling in the Great Barrier Reef, we went to the rainforest. This skyrail is about a 4 1/2 mile journey. Although it was a rainy day, we could see the coast which was breathtaking, while the lushness of the rainforest was also stunning.

Great Barrier Reef

Fish alongside the catamaran at the Great Barrier Reef. I just love the color of the water.

Michaelmas Cay

"A picturesque reef sand island surrounded by magical coral gardens teeming with an incredible diversity of marine life. Michelmas Cay is a protected seabird sanctuary playing host to 20,000 migratory seabirds" ..So said the advertisement for our catamaran cruise to the Great Barrier Reef. In reality - it was a very tiny sand island with squawking seagulls that reeked of bird droppings! There were so many other people snorkeling that day that you were more likely to bump into another person rather than marine life. However, it was still a beautiful day and to be snorkeling at the Great Barrier Reef was a dream come true.

Cairns

After Sydney, we flew up to Queensland and stayed in Cairns (pronounced Cans). This is a unique place for two reasons. First Cairns does not have a usable beach. Therefore, what you see is their "lagoon" built along side the beach. Second, and more importantly, this is the only place in the world where two World Heritage-listed sites are next to each other. The Great Barrier Reef and the Wet Tropic Rainforest. We were fortunate to explore both sites.

Sydney Harbour Bridge

Christmas Eve morning Marissa and I climbed to the top of this Sydney icon. It cloudy and misty but the view was spectacular and the climb was exhilarating. They started allowing people to climb the bridge about ten years ago. We traversed the suspension arch, winded our way through a tangle of hatchways and girders suspended above the traffic, and finally climbed between the arches to the summit. We wore "Bridge suits" and were harnessed to a line. We were also breath-tested for alcohol and were not allowed to take anything up with us - including a camera.

Christmas in Sydney

Sydney is a very clean, environmentally friendly city. Many of the ornaments around the city are solar powered. Often times decorations and trees would be found tucked into side streets or open areas between two large building complexes.

Christmas Eve morning, as my daughter and I walked around the city at 6:00 a.m. there was a coffee shop that gave us an early Christmas present - the coffee was on the house!

Sydney Opera House

The quintessential icon of Sydney on a beautiful sunny summer day!

Greetings from Australia!

This made Marissa's trip! She got to hold a koala. Over the next few days I will be posting more about Australia.

Happy New Year everyone!

Bushland near Sydney

This is part of the bushland that I walked through on the Sydney Harbour walk. Off in the distance you can see (barely) the city of Sydney.

Sydney Harbour National Park

The Sydney Harbour National Park stretches around parts of the inner harbor and includes several small islands. I took the Manly to Spit Bridge Scenic Walkway while visiting Manley. It had a little of everything- spectacular cliff views like this one, views of busy Sydney Harbour and bushland that is in prime real-estate territory.

Christmas tunes in Manley

It appeared to be just a group of friends getting together to make money! They performed in the "center" of Manley and people were more than happy to donate money or take pictures with them.

Cooking with gas

Went to a small museum right along the beach in Manley. There was an exhibit about the historical role of women. It was very clever and poignant.

Chinese Garden Sydney

Another view of the Chinese Garden's in Sydney. The day was crystal clear blue with not a cloud in the sky. The temperature was a delightful 73!

Chinese Gardens in Sydney

My daughter's plane was stuck in Vancouver, Canada for 2 and 1/2 days. I toured sites in Sydney during those days that would not necessarily appeal to her. The Chinese Gardens were a lovely, quiet oasis from the concrete of Sydney.