We arrived in Sydney at around 11:30am local time. Along with the 4 and a half hour flight that we took from Fiji, we had crossed 4 times zones, so we were flying in sort of real time. Once we arrived at the airport our gate lead us right into a concourse with restrooms to the left and the Duty Free Shop to the right.
I felt like the journey from the gate through the immigration process would be good documentary material, so I started up the GoPro camera. I filmed Elizabeth flashing up the change from the Duty Free purchase and followed her as she went through the security check point.
The process had been easier than any that I can remember going through. We walked up to a kiosk and scanned our passport. We answered whether we had tuberculosis, and if we had been to African or South America, in the last 30 days. A ticket was printed out and we proceeded to the next gate, which was sort of a cross between the subway and the metal detector at the TSA security. We entered our ticket into the slot, looked forward, so that a camera could automatically take our photo, and moments later were were on to baggage claim.
During my filming, of Elizabeth walking down the stairs a female TSA agent with a dog walked passed us and told us that we weren’t allowed to film. “Oh sorry,” I apologized and put the GoPro and gimble into my bag and carried on to carousel 2, so that Elizabeth could pick up our large suitcase.
I was approached from behind by a large, male, security guard, who was tan, with a crewcut hair style and wire rimmed glasses. “Can I see your declaration card?” He asked. “Sure,” I said. “Why did you mark, ‘yes’ on the first box? Are you carrying any weapons or firearms?” “No, I replied, “But I am bringing in my prescription medication for bi-polar and these granola bars and walnuts.” I slowly pulled out the granola bars. “I don’t need to see them.” He said.
“I’m going to need you to delete the footage that you took from your camera.” He said sternly. I nervously pulled out the camera and gimbal, and struggled to adequately press the correct part of the screen to bring up the gallery, as I could feel his no nonsense look pierce through me.
“This is a new gadget, so I don’t really know how to work it yet.” I said with a slight tremble in my voice. After a few missed clicks on the touch string I managed to delete the two videos. “What did you shoot before this?” he asked. “I shot a video of her flashing up money.” “How far did you shoot for? Let me see the video.” He continued. I played the video from him and he thought that the 30 seconds of footage was harmless.
He said that we could go, so we continued to the exit. While I can understand the need to keep the airport security process secretive, I will was a little shaken by the turn of events. I had only been in Australia for 15 minutes, and I already felt unwelcome.”
It was sort of empty in the immigration area, so we were able to continue through to the next checkpoint. Elizabeth had lost her declaration card at some point along the way and she was worried that she might not be able to enter. I assured her that she would just need to fill out another one and it would be fine.
We came up to the desk of a middle aged gentleman with a mustache that looked like a cop from a comedy movie. I showed him my passport and card, and declared my meds and the walnuts and he handed Elizabeth a new card to fill out. As she filled it out another person arrived from Japan without her card filled out. The kind gentleman asked her why she didn’t fill it out and she said that she didn’t have a pen. He asked if she knew English. Then He told her that there were Japanese cards against the wall lined up on ledge with pens. He seemed so kind and helpful in the situation and felt like this was the kind of guy that I want to represent Australia.
Once Elizabeth had her card filled out and we handed it off the the guard. He told me to go over to the stop sign and the lady there would check out my nuts. We both knew that what he said was hilarious and he backed up and said, “Your walnuts.” “I didn’t know that you were going the be THAT thorough,” I retorted. “Sometimes we are,” he joked back. The lady approved my granola bars, walnuts, and pills, and sent us on our way, and into Australia we went.
Our next stop was a bag check station, where they rent out pocket wifi units for a company called POCWifi. We walked around a corner and there it was. We gave the woman at the desk our passport and a few moments later she handed us our unit and we were on to the rental car desk. We arrived at the desk and a man with glasses helped us. For some reason we didn’t have a specific car reserved, so he told us that we would have to wait for him to secure one. He told us to come back in 15 minutes.
That 15 minutes easily became an hour, but we finally the key and we were ready to head out. As we exited the airport there was a large Christmas tree with gold silohetted animals hung on the branches. It was funny that it was 80 degrees and humid and still we were on the verged of Christmas.
We continued down the sidewalk as we watched as cars were driving on the opposite side of the road from what we were used to. We walked into the garage and before our eyes in space 20, was a small silver Toyota Yaris. We got settled in and had the GPS queued up and we headed out onto the highway. Now, getting into a new car that doesn’t have the steering wheel on the right, can take some time to get used to. Even the fact that the blinker stick was on the right instead of the left was something to overcome. But being on the opposite side of the road during what felt like rush hour traffic was unnerving.
It was like I was driving for the very first time. I was completely on edge and Elizabeth was just making it worse. She was tired from barely sleeping on the flights and just was to lay back and rest, meanwhile she was nervous about me driving off the road. Getting from the Airport out to the M1 freeway required going through lots of tunnels and switching to different freeways. Going through the worst, because all the cars felt really close together and I couldn’t get a feel of how I was in the lane. I had never been so close to the drivers on the right, so while trying to avoid them, I was getting too close to the drivers on the right.
We traveled on the highway for about 40Km, but then somehow got diverted to going off the highway and into a residential area. We followed the GPS directions, but for some reason, we kept going in circles passed a koala park. I was totally frustrated and I couldn’t wait get out of the car, so I declared that we destine to stop and see some koalas.
It was really strange that there was sort of a makeshift zoo in the middle of a neighborhood. There were lots of high eucalyptus trees growing around the property and there is no way that you would know that there were koalas and other animals in the park. The large sign in the front said, “Koala Park”, but there were statues of a kangaroo and an emu on the ledge of the sign.
The fee to enter was $28 AUD, which seemed a little steep for what looked a little like a roadside attraction, but I wasn’t bothered as long as I could take a break from driving. We went to the ticket booth and the attendant told us that there weren’t any shows left for the rest of the day. The last one was at 3:00 PM and it was already 3:25! Wow, we couldn’t believe that so much time had passed. The park was open until 5, so we were be able to walk around for about 90 minutes, and hopefully get to pet some animals. She gave us a bag of feed, which was sort of a mixture of grain, hay, and little pellets. She told us that while we couldn’t feed the koalas, that we would be able to feed the kangaroos.
We entered into the park which was paved like a sidewalk and began walking around and see what sort of animals were out and active. We walked down a hill and found a trainer who was about to feed some goats and sheep. We approached the pen and started taking pictures. I asked if he was going to feed them, and he said that we could help him if we liked.
There was probably 10 goats and sheep that all looked really young. Eight of them needed to be bottle fed, and they were hungry so, they walked right up to you if you had a bottle in your hand. They were jumping around and doing what ever it took to get something to drink. There was always one or two that would try to get in from the side and the trainer told us to just push them aside.
Once we finished feeding the goats and sheep, he told me that at 4:45, they would be taking the koalas in for the night, so we would have one last time to give them a pet. This was pretty cool, because the girl at the front gate made it seem like we wouldn’t get to interact with the koalas, and we were a little bummed by it. We followed the path down to the kangaroo pen.
We entered the pen and looked around to see about 10 kangaroos, sort of just laying around. We were told that if we went up to them, that we could pet them on the back and they wouldn’t be bothered. We went up to two that were sitting in the corner of the pen, and pours a little of the feed from the white bag into our hands and slowly brought it up to their mouths, hoping that we wouldn’t get bit. They seemed pretty mellow and it is probably due in part to the fact that people are coming up to them all day, petting them and feeding them.
We went around to try to feed one off to the side, but he didn’t seem to be reacting. He was just laying down, basking in the afternoon sun. Around a few bushes we found three more laying in the shade. One of them was a mama kangaroo with a joey in her pouch. Elizabeth was so excited to see him pop his head out and move around inside the pouch. Another of the kangaroos nearby could have been the father. I don’t know enough about kangaroos to know whether or not they have close family units, but I felt like when we started to get closer to the mama, the other kangaroo seemed a little concerned.
The mama kangaroo started to get bothered with our presence and started hoping away to a place where it would be more difficult for us to harass her inside some bushes. After a bit we decided to check out some of the other animals and we noticed an emu was poking it’s head over one of the fences on the other side of the kangaroo pen.
There was a maintenance worker who was doing some work on one of the pens. And we asked him if we could feed the emu from the back that we were given. I guess that maybe the feed is okay for all of the animals to eat? He said that the emu would eat it, but that it might bite, so we needed to be careful. He said that the bit actually wouldn’t be as bad as we would expect, so we went over and I gave it a little pet on the neck. Elizabeth came over shortly after and started feeding the emu from the back of feed. The maintenance worker said that the emu had been hand raised from a baby and so it was used to human touch. He said that the woman that was in charge of raising her was named Emily, so they decided to name her Emu-Lee
Looking at the clock is was still around 4:00pm, so we still had about 45 minutes until we needed to meet at the koala pen. We headed around more towards the front of the park. There we saw a peacock and some bats in a cage labeled flying foxes, who hanging upside down and looked to be sleeping. We continued down the trail, and rounded the corner to find the koala pen.
Inside the walled patio slept two koalas, who were clung to eucalyptus branches. There was a half wall between use and the koalas, where if one of them decided that it wanted to get aggressive, it could just jump across and get us. They were pretty drowsy, so maybe it wasn’t a concern. Considering the huge sign out front and the sign from the highway, we sort of expected a little more from a place that was branded a koala park, than two koalas. Elizabeth would go on later to ask if there were more koalas that they would adopt or rehabilitate, but the trainer made it seemed like these were them. Not to diminish the experience thus far, but for $28 AUD per person, we thought we’d see a few more koalas, or at least get to hug one.
Across from the koalas were some fairly noisy adult goats, who were in a pen with a goose. It seemed an odd match, but I guess if they all get along together than why not. Elizabeth tried to feed the goats some of the kangaroo feed, but because the fence holes were so small, they had to try to stick their tongues through to get the food that they wanted.
After feeding the goats a little, we went back around to the other part of the park, where we saw some ponies, dingos, wombats, and wallabys. None of the animals, were close enough to get a good photo or pet, but we could sort of see them from a far. The more that we walked around the more, we noticed that you could see houses behind the fences and that while we were starting to get to the outskirts of Sydney, we were still very much in civilization. We were still going to have fun and take photos, even if we weren’t out in the bush, like Steve Irwin.
It was getting closer to 4:45, so we stopped in to see the kangaroos one more time. Elizabeth found what looked to be a younger kangaroo, who was hopping around and looking for a little food, that he knew was in her little bag. They had a little playful exchange, where the kangaroo would try to take her bag and she would give him a little and try to pull it back. It was pretty cute. Elizabeth got up and started walking around, only for this kangaroo to jump around and start following her a little.
Around 4:45, we walked over by the koala pen once more, to see if we could get a little interaction in, before the went in for the night. There was about 10-15 people waiting around, and I thought it was a little odd, because I didn’t see anyone around in the park previously.
The trainers came by shortly afterwards and started taking out the eucalyptus branches that were masking little poles that the koalas were actually clinging on. The trainer that we helped feed the lambs, carried our a koala named Joy. He told us that if we wanted to pet her, that we needed to pet her on her lower back because apparently koalas, don’t have nerves on their lower back. He explained that if you let her on the head, she would get stressed out, so if 15 people pet her on the head, who knows what sort of chaos would ensue.
I was one of the first to pet the koala and of course, I pet her a little higher on the back that was advisable and I was rebuked by the trainer. Shortly after another trainer brought out the second koala and opened it up to pet her as well. People started asking questions about koalas in the wild and how climate change was effecting their habitat and lessening their numbers. Unlike in the US was people still question global warming, this crowd accepted the facts.
The goats behind were getting restless, which meant that it was time for the park to close and for all of us to go home. I made sure to wash my hands an extra long time as to remove any sort of animal bacterial that could cause illness. Then we headed back to the car to continue on to Hardy’s Bay.
I don’t know what it was about the detour, but I was super calm about getting back in the car and heading back on our way. Everything sort of got back into focus we headed towards Gosford, which was about 20 minutes away from Hardy’s Bay. Gosford is a small suburban city, that is one of the larger hubs in the area for commerce and we hoped to find a restaurant and grocery store.
On our way to the grocery, we found a small park near the lake, where they were having a little food truck festival. We found parking down the way, because every space was taken within at least a two block radius. We walked a long the water and observed the reddish orange sun and smoke from the wild fires nearby. There was definitely that smell of chard wood in the air.
The food truck festival had all of the standards that you might find in Southern California, but a few that you might not. They had a wood fired pizza truck, churros, wafflos (which looked like belgium waffles wrapped around ice cream, with fun flavors like you might see in a crepe truck.) I knew that whatever I got, I might be taking with me on my race the next morning, so while Elizabeth got a veggie pizza, I got some gnocchi. I don’t know if it was any better, but it tasted pretty good.
We sat and watched the blood orange sun set over the mountains in front of us, as it colored the lake below. We sat on a ledge separating the sidewalk from the water and watched the seagulls and pelicans swim back and forth, deciding whether or not to eat the fish in the shallow water below or see if any of the humans would toss down some food.
After a little while, we walked back down towards the car. We commented as we saw an inflatable water park that seemed a little like an obstacle course for older kids and teens. It was closed at the moment but the air was warm enough that it might be open soon.
Along the way to Hardy’s Bay, we stop off a grocery store to pick up some simple breakfast items, like fruit and protein bars that I could eat before my race in the morning. It was odd seeing food items that looked similar to those at home, but had different names and labels.
We turned down the street where the AirBnb was and it was like going up the hill of a rollercoaster. When we reached the top, we looked down in front of use to what looked like the first drop of of a coaster. I don’t know that I had ever gone that far that steep in a car before and I was actually worried that I wouldn’t be able to walk back up in the morning for the race. We arrived at the AirBnb a little before 8 and since I miss remembered the number, we pulled into the wrong driveway. Frank, our host, walked the few driveways down and advised us to go back up the hill a bit more and he would show us the apartment that we would be staying in.
Frank was retired and in his late 60’s or early 70’s. He was married and had a few children that lived closer to Sydney. He had worked in Sydney for a number of years at the airport and would sometimes commute the 90 minutes or so, from Hardy’s Bay. Frank said that the house, which was built on large stilts (assuming so that you had a great view of the bay) was purchased as an investment property 30 years ago, but they had lived there for the last 10 years. When his wife retired, they wanted to make some extra money, so they built a little apartment under the original house in front of the driveway.
Frank told us that he had people that ran the race stay with him last year and they just walked up the hill and back after the race with no problem. I said something that implied that I didn’t think that I could make it up the huge incline that early in the morning and he offered to drive me down to the starting line. His wife had come down with the dog to introduce herself and the dog wandered around to the side of the house, before being called back as they wished us a good night.
As we walked in, we were greeted by a nice, one bedroom apartment. As stepped passed the sliding glass door, there was a bedroom to the immediate left and a dining room table to the immediate right, that was set with placemats in cased we planned on doing any dining. As we continued ahead, a sofa with a coffee table in front of it faced a flat screen tv, and directly across was a small kitchen with an “L” shaped counter. There was a refrigerator with bottles of water and milk for tea or coffee inside, but laid bare otherwise. The counter next to the sink, had a hot plate, and an electric coffee pot. Just above was a shelf with bottles of alcohol, some of which were decorative and some of which were unopened. I couldn’t be sure, if these were available for consumption, but because I had my race in the morning, I didn’t feel like it was such a great idea, to break into the liquor.
I started getting everything ready from my bag for my race in the morning, until the completely emaculate space was littered with my luggage. Elizabeth watched some television that was detailing the bushfires for a little while before heading to bed, and I joined her a few minutes later.