Merry Christmas!

圣诞快乐!
Hyvää Joulua!
Merry Christmas!
God Jul och Gott Nytt År!
Selamat Hari Natal dan Tahun Baru!

Blue mountains

Compare to mountains in China, the blue mountains are less spectacular. However it is still a wonderful get away from the city like Sydney. During the week people are busy for work and school, at weekend they can take 2 hours train to enjoy the nature.

Blue mountains are 300 meters above the ground level. It consist of number of tropic hiking tracks. There is also tourist hop on-off bus available. You can choose any hiking path you want deep into the mountains, the hiking may take from 45 minutes to 2 hours. If you feel tired, you can always hop on the bus to the next spot. The bus runs every 30 minutes intermediately.

The blue mountains are famous for its peak "Three Sisters".

(The three sisters)

There are 3 types of cable cars going into and across the valley. You can also access the mining location via the cable car.

(Water falls)

(Blue mountains)

A nice camping and hiking get away.

Melbourne

Mammy's Malaysia exchange buddy Marie family lives in Melbourne. This time shall pay a visit to them too :-)

Melbourne locates at south of Sydney, 1 hour flight away. It is considered as the culture and sports center of Australia. Each year Australia Opens and F1 car tracing are held here. Melbourne and Sydney are called as "rivalries" ;-) Perhaps it is bit like Shanghai and Beijing? That's why Australia sets its capital Canberra out of nowhere but in the MIDDLE of Sydney and Melbourne to ease the tension :-)

(View from airplane to Melbourne)

Marie family live in new suburb of Melbourne. Car journey to the city center takes about 30 minutes. This living area is brand new, most of the houses are just constructed. There are still quite a few under construction. It is wonderful to have own house! Let me think of our own project, when will it be ready? Perhaps next Christmas???

(Australia style??)

For the first time in life, we tasted Kangaroo meat. Hmm, actually it tastes pretty much same like beef. What about reindeer's meat? Tuomo always says it tastes like wool socks (villasukat :-)

(Kangaroo dinner)

Any beautiful city must have water around, the same applies to Melbourne. High school canoe club is in action, very much British style.

(Melbourne "eye"?)


(City center runs through by the famous river)

It took 15 minutes for Bobo to get comfortable of the new thing "beach". This time it's real sand not play yard's sand box :-) In the end it was so fun and didn't want to leave...

(St. Kilda beach)


(Sea food)

As one of immigration country, of course you can always find China Town in each major cities of Australia.

(China town)

General to say, Melbourne is a city more European alike. It is much younger and newer and cheaper than Sydney. Melbourne's winter is colder too. Well, perhaps the only thing Sydney can be proud of is the weather.

Taronga Zoo

Taronga zoo locates on one island near by the city center (same as Helsinki zoo Korkeasaari). From Circular Quay it takes about 15 minute ferry journey to reach. The zoo is designed that visitors walk from top of the island while enjoying the well kept animals. It has wild Australia, Asia and Africa etc. different parts. It's so well designed and brings lots of convince for the visitors, especially families with children. Cable cars are the fastest way to reach the top of the hill.

Because of the famous Koalas, Kangaroos and wombats, the entrance tickets are quite expensive. Even for a daily pass including ferry and cable car costs AUD44 (Euro25, RMB250) one person. It is good idea to plan for the whole day there.

(Ferry to Taronga zoo)


(Cable car to the top of the hill)

All the animals are fun to watch :-)

(Watching kangaroos)

(Baby giraffes)

(Chimps hiding under shades)

(Sleepy koala)


(Sydney city viewed from the zoo)


(Peaceful bay)

With lunch, snacks and resting stops, at the time the zoo is about to be closed we didn't even get chances to see newly comers - giant elephants. It is pity the zoo door closes too early at 6pm. Well, till next time...

Sydney

Nini's mammy is my high school classmate and best friend, actually we shared the same table :-)
Few years ago, the whole family immigrated to Australia and settled down in Sydney. We seldom meet nowadays, the last time we saw each other was summer 2006 in Shanghai . Finally we are going to meet again...

Nini's home locates at Sydney north suburb area called Hornsby. It takes about 35 minutes by local express train from the city center.

Once you are in Sydney, of course you must visit the Sydney harbor. To my surprise, the opera house is actually yellowish. Often I saw pictures of it with white surface, perhaps because of the good lighting. I was told the outside surface is actually made of shells, that's why it is yellow.

(Bobo and Mammy)

Sydney city has very good rail system. You can access most of the places via metro and local railways. During rush hours they are packed with people for work. The ticket price is not cheap, rush hour ticket price is bit higher than other time of day. Therefore for travelers, it is the best to avoid that period time.

(Townhall's big Xmas tree)

David Jones is the biggest department store in Australia. During Xmas time, it establishes a Santa village for children to meet the Santa and take photos. But of course it is not free ;-) Since Santa lives in Finland, Bobo has many chances to meet him and receives gifts.

(Department store David Jone's Santa village)


(Street Kangaroo)

Sydney's city center is pretty much like other big cities with high skyscrapers, department stores, shopping complex and offices. And the city is not a cheap place to live either, a normal restaurant lunch menu costs about AUD30 (Euro18, RMB180). It is the most expensive city to live in Australia.

Summer sun is really strong, it is advised to apply UV30+ sun block before going out. Even the sun is behind the clouds, you still can feel the heat.

Little little traveller

Less than 2 years old Bobo is already a pro-frequent flyer :-) Before she was born, Bobo has already traveled to France, Belgium, Holland and China (of course inside mammy's tummy :) Bobo had her first air voyage at age of 4 and half month. She went to Stockholm Sweden to visit cousins. In additional every year, Bobo goes to visit grandparents in Shanghai 2 to 3 times as well.

Mammy counted her passport's visas and stamps, hmmm... Bobo has already flew 16 times airplanes. Wooow, most of them were long haul cross continent flights.

Mammy recall her first flight was a short distance trip to nearby city via a propeller airplane at age of 12.

After this Christmas Bobo will turn to 2, Mammy and daddy decided to pay visit to Australia. Mainly to visit three good friends of Mammy, and enjoy some sunshine. As you know it is summer down there...

(little experienced traveler to AU)