Day 6 : Travel to Gold Coast

This morning I woke up at my homestays house and had a quick "brekkie" of toast and creamed honey (like peanut butter). We learned of the marriage equality Supreme Court ruling and had another deep conversation about the differences in the U.S. & Australia. Bob & Marilyn both came to the car park to drop me off, I think Bob was curious to see all the Americans in one place. He's a funny man. On his way he got stopped for a breathalyzer, something that is common in Australia, even in the morning. Marilyn & I missed it because we went to see the "jetty" which is the sea harbor. 

We boarded the bus to head north to the Gold Coast. Weather wasn't the best, but we made it through both of our stops without downpours of rain. Our stop in Byron Bay was for a pizza lunch and some quick shopping. This town was most definitely a surfer/hippy town. There are quite a few "large" items along the Pacific Highway. Our tour guide said that once one person did it, everyone else wanted to as well. Here is a quick pic of one in the rain. 

We then boarded the bus for Surfers Paradise in the Gold Coast. Many kids come here for their "schoolies" which is like spring break in the U.S. This city was compared to Miami by a few Australians - many clubs and a large night life. It is also home to amusement parks and Indy races. We checked into our hotel and spent a little time at the pool before leaving for dinner. Tonight it was at the Hard Rock Cafe - typical Ameican food was a good change of pace from my lamb dinners the past two nights.

Day 5 : Coffs Harbor

The day today was spent at a local high school. It was for students in years 7-12. Our morning started in the library where our students were paired with members of the school's SRC (student representative council). They gave a tour of the school while the principal walked us around. The school is shaped like a boomerang and was a combination of indoor and outdoor areas. There were approximately 750 students who attended Toormina school, but since it was the last day of there term maybe half the students were there. Schools in Australia are on a year round cycle that starts in February of every year. They have a 2 week break at the end of every term and then a six week summer break around Christmas. 

The school day runs from 9-3:20 and the kids have six classes. Each class is 50 minutes and there is a 20 minute morning tea after second hour and a 40 minute lunch after 4th. They do not provide lunch at all, just a small snack bar kids can purchase food from. They were surprised to hear we have a hot lunch program. 

There were many similarities between their school and ours. They had Smarboards in many classrooms and computer labs. Their electronics class was really impressive and they made some really cool projects with their laser cutter. The kids mostly wore uniforms, but the principal stated they can't really enforce the rules for kids to wear them. Rather they provide one uniform to eaxh student and will make a phone call if the child doent wear it, but not much more. She also explained that students pay fees (ex. $50 for electronics class) but those aren't always paid either. The school population is about 17% Aboriginal and they have many refugees from Middle Eastern and African countries. 

I asked about their foreign language requirements and they recently changed it to a native language in year 7, but used to have options like Italian or French. Now they learn Gumbungee which is an Aboriginal language. 

The kids spent the day learning about the Aboriginal culture. They rotated through stations to learn about language, dance, sport, nature, and arts/music. The boys got to try the didgeridoo but the girls are not allowed to even try. Instead they did some beading skills. 

Lunch was a sausage on a piece of bread for a bun. They don't use ketchup but "tomato sauce" or they put BBQ sauce on their meal. 

After spending the day at the school, the local Rotary Club took us to some lookout points to get a better view of the city. Along the way we saw many banana and blueberry crops.

On the way down the cliff, our bus driver was on the lookout for kangaroos. We had only spotted a small group on the side of the highway quickly on our way to Coff's Harbor, so we really wanted a closer look. We also looked for koalas, but learned they are very difficult to spot. We pulled into a location where kangaroos are common and saw many at once. They ranged in size, and would hop away if we got too close. 

I was surprised as we drove away how many there were throughout the neighborhood. We headed back to town to meet up with our Homestay families after seeing the Kangaroos.

My evening at Marilyn's was much like the night before. Lots of food, wine and conversation.  We had lamb both nights, once a roast the other more like a pork chop style. Plenty of cooked vegetables and then Apple pie again for dessert. 

Bob & I watched two games on the TV for the rest of the evening. One Aussie Rules football game (the Swans) and the other was Rugby League. They call it all football and tend to watch on Friday nights. 

Random Facts!

Bathrooms:

All called "toilets" most say "male" or "female"

All toilets have the half flush and full flash option (some of our kids didn't know how that worked)

Road Signs:

Lots of road signs encourage drivers to stop & rest. "Stop. Revive. Survive." Fatigue is one of the leading causes of accidents in Australia. Not much to stop and do along the way like in the U.S., and not uncommon to run out of gas on a trip across the country.

Roadsigns, "over taking lane" very often

Phrases:

"sweet as" or "sweet as bro"

Aluminum is said AL- a - min- e- um

Mate

Cheers 

"Listen up just for a tick"

Eski = Eskimo cooler 

Stubby holder = can coozie 

Chilly bin = cooler in New Zealand 

American stores:

Aldi

Subway

Shell

BP

Dominos

McDonald's

Hungry Jacks (Burger King)

Anytime Fitness

Gloria Jeans

Target. Is not the same as Target

Aussie stores:

Woolworths

Big W

Exports:

Sugarcane refinery below. There are tons of little trains that lead to the refinery.

You know sugarcane is ready when the flowers on top bloom

Macadamia nut 

After 2017 no automobiles will be produced in Australia

Animals:

Emu and kangaroo are the national animals and on the seal. Neither animal can go backwards so country motto is "forward"

Cane toad is poisonous

Housing:

Queenslander house is up on stilts to allow airflow and help keep house cool.

History:

1770-1840 penal colony for the United Kingdom. Prisoners were given a sentence of 7 years, 14 years or a life sentence. After it ended they could stay and work the land.

Gold rush then caused mass immigration from around the world. This caused the Chinese to migrate and create businesses to support miners. This upset some people so they created a White Australia policy which was in place for 100 years and prohibited immigrants from Asia because they were taking jobs from white settlers.

After both world wars many settlers again came to Australia. Many refugees today come on boats to Western Australia and are often caught by the coast guard. 

Day 4 : Travel to Homestay

(Sydney Harbor Bridge)

Woke up this morning in Sydney and packed up the bus for a long trip up the east coast of Australia to our Homestay families. Most of the kids will be in pairs or more with a local family. Each leader (there are five of us) is assigned our own home. People to People supplied wifi hotspots to our group so they are pretty quiet. We made a stop on the way and picked up snacks - lots of fun choices, but expensive! My diet coke was over $4!

Upon arrival in Coffs Harbor, we got to meet our Homestay families. I was paired with Marilyn who lives in the next city over. She explained her family to me on the way to her home and let me know her ex husband, Bob, would be joining us  for dinner and her current husband is out of town. They were both super sweet and we spent the evening laughing and talking about the U.S. & Australia. Bob was full of questions about politics in America and I did my best to answer them all honestly. We also talked about everything from the Amish and aboriginals to the various places we have all visited. We had lamb for dinner, which I don't know that I've had before. For dessert we had apple pie with custard. I couldn't explain frozen custard to them very well - what we had was like the custard you'd find in a Bavarian donut. 

Day 2 : Sydney Opera House & Harbor

Our morning started with a backstage tour of the Sydney Opera House. The design of the opera house was open to a worldwide contest in 1955 and there were 233 entries from 32 different countries. The idea that was ultimately chosen was disregarded early on, but a late judge asked to see all 233 when he arrived. On the tour they stated it was not meant to represent oranges (what I have always been told), but rather the design was to be left up to interpretation. They host concepts of course, but also many other events including sumo wrestling and recently had a Bollywood wedding in the building. We asked the approximate cost to rent for an event and the guide said about $17,000. 

The exterior of the building is all off white tiles that are self cleaning. They Sydney Opera House was the first building in the world to tile a curved surface.

After our tour, we walked to an opal museum in downtown Sydney. Australia is home to the world's largest opalized fossil collection. Most opals are found in central Australia, an area that used to be under water thousands of years ago. Opal is Australia's national gemstone and they mine 95% of the world's opals. Black opals are more rare and therefore more expensive. Our guide told us about an opals he mined that was about the size of a football and the profit was $175,000. They shape opals by hand, no machine can do this job as they try to bring out as many colors as possible in there process.

The Sydney Harbor boat tour gave us a great view of the city. We had a buffet lunch and then spent much of the time on the top of the boat taking in the sights. The weather was perfect for the cruise, not too hot or cold. The homes along the harbor are HUGE and pricey. Much of the land is currently being developed into tall skyscrapers.

After the boat, the kids had some free time in an area called "The Rocks" which is the oldest part of Sydney. An Aussie couple approached us to ask about our group (this happens quite a bit), but this time there response was great. Upon learning we were from Wisconsin, the lady was so excited to tell us that she was there one and just LOVED Wendy's.

We made a quick stop at the New South Wales Art Gallery to see aboriginal art before dinner and a glimpse of the opera house at night to end our day.

Day 3 : Full On

Full On is an adventure team building group based out of New Zealand that runs programs for People to People. After breakfast, we rode up about 2 hours west of Sydney into the Blue Mountains. 

Along the way, we got a peak at the countryside of Australia. We searched for kangaroos (& wasaroos = roadkill) along the way but had no luck. 

We got to the Full On site and they had the kids immediately working on the power of positive thought. The leaders there were amazing and really got the kids realizing how important it is to change the way you view a challenge in order to be successful at it. 

All of this motivational talk was leading up to the first major activity of the day.....board breaking. We learned two ways to break a board and then everyone took a turn. The kids cheered on one another and helped them overcome their fear of failure as they went up to the front. 

Following board breaking, we grabbed a bag lunch and loaded back on the bus and up to the mountain repel. We put on our gear and took a hike into the caves. One group went up to the top of the cliff while I waited with another group in the caves for lunch and eventually our turn. 

I don't think words can express how beautiful it was at the top of the cliff. The kids went down about four at a time. There were a lot of nerves, tears and pep talks to help them get ready. Sam & I waited to go last, which was helpful as we helped the other kids face their fears. The top of the cliff was quite small, once harnessed in, you had to slowly start to walk backwards and let a little rope go at each step. Your feet touched for maybe 20ft and eventually, you were just free hanging in the middle of thin air slowly going down to the bottom. 

After the whole crew was done, we loaded up the bus and went back to the Full On site to debrief and have dinner. 

Day 1 : Cricket & SkyWalk Tower

After 33 hours of travel, we arrived at our destination of Sydney, Australia. Believe it or not, but the 15 hour flight across the Pacific Ocean wasn't too bad. They break up the time by feeding you plenty of meals & snacks as well as providing plenty of movie choices on the TV set on the seat in front of you. We flew in on the longest runway in the Southern Hemisphere which was partly paid for by NASA as they wanted a runway that space shuttles could land on in the Southern Hemisphere if necessary. So far they have not had to use it and since the NASA program has cut down dramatically it may never be used. 

After arriving in a new country, we had to get through customs. In Australia, this was a multi-step process that took a bit of time with our group of 52. The dogs at customs are trained to find a variety of items, in the group I was with a cute little beagle attacked a Slim Jim that one of the girls forgot she had in her bag. 

We met our Delegation Leader, Dion, and our bus driver, Brett, after clearing customs and boarded the bus to immediately start our day around 7am Monday. 

Our first stop was over to the cricket grounds where we watched an informational video that explained some basics of the game before they took us to practice our skills. The two gentlemen that helped our group were fantastic and I really learned a lot. However, I'm not very good at the game! Cricket matches can be extremely long. Like 8+ hours! We practiced pitching, hitting and running before moving along on our tour of the stadiums. 

We were very lucky to have some back stage access to the rugby stadium on our tour and saw areas like the club seats, locker rooms, etc. This stadium is home to the Sydney Swans, an Aussie league football team. They just happened to be practicing while we were there, it would be like seeing the Packers or Brewers practicing on their field during a tour. The rugby types are confusing as there are multiple types. The Aussie rules football has the four posts and point values chance based on which posts you kick the ball through. After the stadium tour we went across the street to the park & practiced rugby skills. The way you pass the ball changes with the type of rugby you play, so we tried all of those with our "athletic trainer."

Lunch was spent at a local mall along the Sydney Harbor. We had food vouchers to spend at a variety of locations. This cute harbor had a Ferris wheel and lots of walking areas for people to check out. 

Our next stop was up on the tallest building in Sydney, the SkyWalk was much like the Willis tower in Chicago, but I'll need to check the height comparison. Of course here they use the metric system and C for temperature, so it can be challenging to understand how high, far or hot something is. After taking a fast elevator up, we had fantastic 360' views of the city. Our group split into four for the next big step in this trek. We had to put on fashionable jumpsuits and get hooked into harnesses before being brought outside and waking around the outside of this building. It was scary, but also pretty amazing. There were two areas with glass bottoms that our guide brought us out on while pointing out parts of the city.

 

We went to dinner at a cook your own steak place. It took quite sometime to get over 50 people to cook their steaks, but once we finished we headed back to the hotel to get the kids on wifi & into bed finally for the night.