Aus-some I

(A week since we are home and I haven't updated the blog! Been caught up in our life with a bang, with dh being awfully busy and now travelling to Delhi and kids just being the way they are. But no more ex-cue zs- here goes...)


Ah the awesome Australian holiday- it was too perfect to be true! But then thats what dreams are made of- family, some friends, the most awe- inspiring natural environs, some friendly natives and ummm, thats it!

It started off with dd taking charge and drawing up a contract to be signed by the whole family- the behaviour code for each family member- Dad was supposed to stay cool and away from his work, me was not to embarass the family by my laughing or giggling, dd herself promised she'd be Ms Congeniality and ds was not to kiss anyone's (especially Mom's/dd's/ other girls') hair with those 'sicky sounds'! Well we all signed as said but ...

We visited Sydney, Cairns and the Gold Coast town of Surfers Paradise and it was truly a Rainforest and Reef holiday!

Sydney was especially fun as we were guided in our dear friends who took time off from work to shepherd us through the sights in and around Sydney. That way there was plenty of time to travel at leisure at our highly relaxed and kid-friendly pace, soak in the sights AND catch up on all those years' news as we were meeting after about 16 years! And yes, I must admit, I spent a lot of time peering at various sinks just to test out all my learning of the Coriolis force, as this was my first time in the Southern hemisphere!

Bondi beach was really to die for- The beach front was inviting and as the weather was rather nippy, the beach was practically empty too. No sunning bodies to step around. The only nuisance were the loud pesky gulls. The waters were cold and there was a sharp breeze but thankfully, the sun shone through in that typically Australian majestic way. Bathing in the water was out of the question, especially as we were at the begining of our holiday and were slated to go on to other, warmer beaches. We took a long walk to the rockiest part of the beach and had fun exploring all the tiny and intersting marine life in the rocks. How I wish we could have done the longer walks too! We did also meet some divers who had emerged from after 70 minutes under water!

We were truly sejuiced and Bondi was the best possible start to our beach holiday. We rounded the day off with a trip to the local Koala park where we saw Cassowaries, Kangaroos, Wallaroos, Wallabies, koala bears, Lorikeets, Parakeets, Cockatoos, a solitary splendid Dingo, penguins, and of course, the Kookobara himself! Momentarily (?) forgetting my promise not to laugh like a hyena gone terribly wrong, I cackled hideously that I was finally in the presence of the Kooko bird! 'Laugh Kookobara laugh Kookobara' brought back too many memories- from the music teacher at nursery school- Mrs. Carvahlo, to other points in life when one wasn't happy at all and yet schooled oneself to laugh and appear gay. After seeing all these fantastic creatures, little wonder that ds asked whether we would be going to Dinosaur Park the next day!!!

The trip to Hunter Valley vineyars was long and filled with lots of fun. Went to Tyrell's and had a fun picnic lunch as we were a very hungry bunch and all the food was just too little! Believe it or not, we actually came upon an imposing baobab tree on the estate- making me go all mushy about the Little Prince and dear friend Rafiki. After fortifying ourselves thus and admiring all there was to see and sip, we all trooped after dh who found a convenient and extremely family friendly golf course. Dd was the caddy and ds was the 'ball picker' while Hari and I followed. As a concession to us, dh restricted his 'game' to four holes. A great game - golf!

The Blue Mountains, on the next day, they were really out of this world- the Scenic way with its Skyway and Railway was truly impressive, and the walkway was really the top joy. The sweet water of the Marrangaroo spring had us rushing back for numerous sips. The miners' relics were so well grown over by the rainforest, that it seemed part of the forest ecology and not a mere secondary forest. The old gum trees were verily hoary and awe-inspiring. The all pervasive bush was reined in by the older influences of the myth of the Three Sisters who loomed large and provided the most impressive backdrop for the primal forest. We all ran down to the bottom of the first of the three sisters and huffed and puffed our way up! While Rachna and dd were exploring other views and look-out points and dh and ds were at Echo-point, I just shut down all my senses to imbibe the atmosphere and dream the Muggadah dreaming.

And that brought us to the end of our Sydney stay. It was delightful in a zillion ways that I haven't written about here- largely due to the warmth and love we got from Rachna, Hari, Tara, Ela, Tapas and briefly- Jeevan and Ushmi too! We also met with some other friends and friends of friends- yes, very friendly! Ds did not, quite expectedly, keep his promise of eating things other than potato, and every evening I was making the daily spud for his comfort. And yes, we also had the reassurance of the AMUL- the Taste of India, wherever we went, courtesy the well-stocked local Indian store!