Family holiday part III -Road Trip-

Here it comes the 3rd and the final part of the superb family holiday…
Where was I? O-yes… I woke up the next morning without a clue of the time or the reason that actually had woken me up. Maybe subconsciously I still remembered the flight to Adelaide, which was the start of our coming road trip in South Australia. I rushed to the living room to discover that I would have less than 15 minutes time to get myself organised and hop on a cab to pick up my family on the way to the airport. Believe it or not, I made it on time and my parents were not even that angry to me :) …only few pretty “direct” voicemail messages from my mum.

Marko had flown to Adelaide already with earlier flight, after having little trouble to find the right airline company. Although missing the flight he was supposed to be, he still made it to the next flight and so we all met happily again in Adelaide airport.

The first mission after our arrival was to rent a car. After getting quotes from 5 different car rental companies we drove away with silver Subaru Outback. My only request for the car was that it had air-condition, but I should have had another one: FULL INSURANCE! I will get back the latter one later.

As the weather was warm (+31) and sunny our first stop was naturally by the water. We had some Mexican food for lunch on the wharf in a place called Santa Fé (the food wasn’t as great as in my fav Santa Fé in Helsinki). After, we went for a walk on the beach and up we go again…

For this part of the holiday I didn’t have pre-booked anything. The whole idea was to drive from Adelaide to Melbourne in 5 days and experience the beautiful coastal South Australia and have a stop-over where ever-when ever we felt like one… well one thing I discovered after the first night; - We were not the only ones!

At 7pm we started to wonder where to stay that night and after the first doomed attempt to get a cabin from a caravan park we discovered the dreadful truth that the whole city and surroundings were fully booked till end of the month! After 25 useless phone calls to different motels/B&B/caravan parks etc. I really started to realise that the next night would most likely to be spent in our Outback Subaru, until I rang this one caravan park somewhere in Clayton. A helpful man promised to organize 2 vans for us that night, without linen or towel though, but I was more than satisfied to have a bed and roof on top of my head!

In that point we were still unaware what was about to happen… Clayton was about 1,5 hour drive from Adelaide and soon we all discovered the new meaning for the words “middle of nowhere”.

It was already getting late and the sun had gone down hours ago. Every 5 kilometres there were signs warning kangaroos and other outback animals, but no road signs regarding Clayton. Suddenly we saw a gigantic kangaroo jumping and crashing on the right side of our car. It all happened so sudden and there was nothing Marko, who was our driver could have done. For one second everyone stopped talking. And then: What happened? What hit on us? Is everybody alright? Where is the animal? Is it still alive?

After recovering from the first shock and the fact that everybody was ok (meaning the people) we venture to get out of the car. No sign of the roo, so guess he get of with a fright as well. The car looked fine except the one missing part on the right hand side on top of the back tyre. (Great explanation, eh?)


Kangaroos are so stupid. You barely see them during the day, but when it gets dark and when they see some sudden light they instinctively run towards the light and BANG! This is the result.
The first night of our road trip and we got hit by one. What a great start!

Eventually we found our way to Clayton and the place we were going to spend our night. A place totally middle of nowhere and people staying in trashy caravans that looked like the ones from the 80’s. No bed covers, blankets, linen… and this yucky rotten smell. Just one night I repeated in my mind as I falled asleep.

The next morning we woke up early and continued our trip towards the vineyards in Mclaren Vale. This time we actually found a decent motel, which included even a spa with disco lights. That day we visited few other small towns close by and one wine tasting, yummy.

On the third day we continued ‘the amazing world of vińo’ and started the morning with a tour in Fox Creek’s vineyard. We said good bye to the Mclaren Vale and drove away with a box full of red.
That day we had to do some serious driving to keep up in our schedule. We drove by the salt lakes, saw the tackiest tourist attraction in South Australia ‘Albert the giant Lobster’, and again had major problems to find accommodation.

Day four we decided to take more relaxed. As it was again sunny day we decided to spend half of the day on the beach. As my mum was still recovering from a sun burn and went exploring the ‘not that exciting’ city of Portland, the rest of us went to burn our skin some more on the beach.

The next stop was Warrnambool, a bigger city and the starting point to the Great Ocean Road. We stayed there the night, saw some penguins and get annoyed with flies that seemed to be everywhere in that city. Later that evening we went out for a dinner in an Italian pizzeria and visited a funfair, returning to our accommodation with many price teddies.

Day five was definitely scenically the highlight of our road trip. It was time for one of the ‘100 things to see before you die’ The Great Ocean Road. The temperature kept on rising that day and from 8am the thermometer was up to 38 degrees. On our way we also witnessed bushfires that causes some serious damage every year around Australia. The Great Ocean Road runs 241 kilometres between the cities Torquay and Allansford. The scenery was breathtaking and no wonder that most of the car advertisements are shot there. The only downside of the great experience were hundreds of flies that kept on harassing people, plus the heat was almost unbearable when it got up to 39 degrees.

We drove that day all the way to Melbourne, because again we had a trouble to find accommodation on the coast. Also some people (not mentioning any names: MUM) was on a rush to hit the shops in Melbourne the first thing in the morning.

Our road trip was almost completed and excluding the encounter with a kangaroo everything went great. The biggest thank you goes to our driver Marko!

But no rushing… Im not finished yet. Saturday we spent shopping around Melbourne. Checking out the Queen Victoria Markets, where the last souvenirs were bought and visiting the huge outlet stores that the city is known for. We also had a nice dinner “the last meal together” by the Yarra river and admired the Christmas windows at David Jones’ which were still repeating the X-mas of the Wombat (so cute)!

The next morning it was time to say good bye to Marko who stayed in Melbourne and fly back Sydney. We also got to hear the dreadful news about the lease car. It figured out that our cheap deal didn’t include the full insurance and therefore we had to pay AUD$1,900 (1,155€) excess fee. Later we found out that even our travelling insurance wouldn’t cover it. My father was thrilled!

Sunday, the final day my family being in Australia went by so quickly. The whole 3 weeks have just flown by and the hardest part was still to come; saying good bye… Before that we had a great lunch in Darling Harbour together and watched some more videos from our trip and ate lot of cakes :) The best holiday I have ever had and all the memories from our adventurous trip will make me smiling many years to come.









Koala posing (Great Ocean Road)









Sunset (Warrnambool)









Yarra River (Melbourne)









Jaakko, me and Marko (Melbourne)
Below: Mum and Dad

Family holiday part II -New Year's Eve-

First part of the Family holiday was completed. Two more to come. From Surfers we flew back to Sydney on Friday late morning. Everybody felt a bit sad on our way to the airport especially when the weather turned that day to be perfect. My dad was the most quiet one in the taxi, looking outside watching the beautiful sandy beaches and the sparkling water that could be seen everywhere. When I asked what was he thinking he answered that he would love to have a small place by the sea, maybe a tiny boat to get around and that would be enough to wish for. I replied; Dad lets do it :)

The flight took an hour and before we noticed we were back in my home town, Sydney. This time, for the next 3 nights my parents were staying in a hotel in Rushcutters (which is 5mins with a taxi or bus from the city). That day we spent by watching all the videos we had recorded so far (hours already) later that night we went to have a dinner in nice Italian restaurant in Rocks.

The next morning we got up early and hit the Christmas sales. We had to buy a new suitcase for all the shopping we did and the biggest shopper this time surprisingly was my dad!!! Im so proud of you. You will look great in the golf course :)

Sunday came so quickly and it meant that the New Year’s Eve celebration would take place that night. That night there would be 4 millions Australian dollars worth of fireworks exploding in the sky (tax money). If you haven’t booked accommodation to stay in Sydney it was impossible to get one, because Sydney is THE PLACE TO BE during the NYE! Marko also came to Sydney and decided to follow the other pack packers next to the Harbour Bridge and secure his spot already starting at 9am. He stayed there that day 16 hours in total and even the fireworks were indescribable he told me that he would never do that again. Especially when travelling the day before 12 hours in a bus from Byron Bay to Sydney.

Earlier that day we went to the Taronga Zoo with my family with the tickets my Aussie mum gave us as for Christmas present. The zoo was located only 15mins by bus from my place on the top of the hill, in the spot you could see the whole city and harbour bridge. Everybody agreed that it was the most beautiful zoo we have ever visited.

Spending few hours while watching the animals and walking around, it was enough activities for that day. We took the ferry back to the city, my family to the hotel and I went home to get ready for the celebration. Julian (my Aussie mum) had invited us all to have a dinner and watch the fireworks from our place. There wouldn’t be better spot to watch them in whole Sydney (expect from the balcony of the party I was invited and went later that night). Dinner was beautiful and fireworks spectacular. We had a great fun together and stayed up drinking sparkling Shiraz (my new fav drink) till 2am. After 2am my family decided to get back to the hotel, because we would be flying the next day at 1pm to Adelaide (to start the 3rd part off our holiday, called ‘the road trip’). I decided to continue the night and go to check out the party I was invited in Kirribilly.

As I arrived there after walking an hour (cuz it was faster than wait on a taxi) people were already starting to make their way back home. The party was held by Piers, Tim and Matt and the dress code was simply: white – tennis. I was the only one who showed up wearing simply BLACK ;) After partying some more with Julia I made my way back home soaking wet collapsing in my bed way too late (or should I say early) without setting my alarm clock on … big trouble!!! (because I thought my phone got broken, but the next day discovered that only my battery was dead)... Yeah, Yeah I know what you all are thinking: BLOND! Hold you breath! To be continued…

Family holiday part I

Hyvää Joulua – Merry Christmas – God Jul och så…

Christmas finally arrived here in Sydney and also the day I’ve been counting days for the past few months – my FAMILY arrived!

17^th December I woke up at 6am feeling excited, fresh and ready to welcome my mum, dad and my brother to Sydney. I took the train to the airport and as I walked towards the Kings Cross station I was amused to watch all the people going out from the night clubs and finishing their ‘big night out’ (looking not as fresh and cheerful). I can’t even describe how good it felt to meet my folks after half a year being apart. In one point when waiting them to come out from the passenger area I was feeling so emotional that I had to fight against my tears, but the actual embracing was nice and happy.

After dropping off the luggage to their apartment in Woolloomooloo we headed to the city and spent the rest of the day on the sea, enjoying the sun and getting familiar with the city. Finnish Chamber of Commerce organized its annual Christmas cruise for all Finns living or visiting Sydney. The weather was perfect, which was great surprise as it had been raining the past few weeks. We also got to eat some Finnish Christmas food and Karjalan piirakka, that I have been graving for the past months. Later on we went to my place with the whole family and I got to show my current home and the neighbourhood.

I still had to work from Monday to Thursday, so during the daytime my folks were exploring the city by themselves, visiting Watson’s Bay, Monorail, the Royal Botanic Gardens and other basic tourist stuff. During the evenings I joined them for dinners and on Tuesday we all came to my place and had dinner with Julia and Chris, so my parents could see the people I spent most of my time with.

On Thursday evening it was finally time to start our X-mas holiday and fly to Surfers Paradise, which is one hour flight from Sydney to East Coast, in Queensland. After a small hassle in the wrong airport we managed to catch the right flight, relax in the plane and start ‘the perfect holiday’; 16 days together with the family in Australia!!!

The holiday started nicely as we found out that the flat (Q1) I rented from some guy in the Internet happened to be in the world’s highest residential building (324m), five star accommodation with ocean view, swimming pools, gym, saunas (after 6 months felt soooooo good) spa, central location and 1 minute from the beach… not bad!

The first days we took pretty quite, because everybody was feeling tired and my parents and brother was still recovering from the jetlag and all the shopping in Hong Kong. Few days went pass just hanging on the beach (testing body boarding) and by the Q1 pool. Me and Jaakko also signed in an open water diving course the next day as we arrived and were busy with discovering also the under water life. Unfortunately my brother got stung by a jelly fish on his upper lip the first day we started the course so I was the only one to complete the 3 days course and now I am a certificated open water diver, jeiiiiii!

Christmas Eve this year was a bit different than last year in Finland. This year I was busy with diving from 8am. In the afternoon my diving instructor Adam took me and my brother surfing, which is SO hard btw. Later on we cooked a Christmas dinner in our flat, which didn’t include anything typical Finnish Christmas delicatessen. A typical Australian X-mas meal consists of seafood on BBQ. We made some steak with cream & garlic potatoes, avocado salad and for the desert oven baked cinnamon apples with ice cream, yummy! The best Christmas gift I could ever ask was to get the whole family to Australia, but even thought we made a deal; -no other gifts this year, I still got an iPod Nano, diving course, money… too much! I guess I have been an extremely good girl this year.

The next day we decided to explore the underwater world with the whole family and visited the famous Sea World. The weather wasn’t the best one as it was raining at times, but we got to discover all sort of sea creatures. We also visited the shark bay and got to see the most feared predators in Australia through the glass. You could even dip into the water to swim along with the sharks if you wanted to, but we saved that for the next trip ;)

Later that evening Marko joined our trip and came to Surfers to stay with us for the rest of the days. Unfortunately the weather started to go worse and Queensland had its coldest Boxing Day in the history, but hey 22 degrees is better than +2’c I reckon ;)

One day we rented a car and drove all the way to Brisbane, which is located around an hour drive from Surfers. My dad got to try out the local golf course and as the rest of our gang headed to the city shopping he got taste of Aussie golf culture. I also did a little test drive with his golf car, which was a new experience for me heheh. Brisbane was relaxed city built around the river. Reminded me a bit of Jyväskylä :)

Eight days flew by so fast and before we even realized it was time to say good bye Surfers Paradise and return to Sydney. The first part of our holiday was completed and a great success. And we only had one bigger argument (Anniina I bet you are proud of me). Loving my family!!!