Our favorite beaches...

Well our time in Australia is coming to a close here fairly soon. We have about a month left and are very busy trying to plan for some last minute trips, parties, packing, cleaning, etc. The year has really gone by fast, before we know it we will be back home in Colorado. One of the great things we have enjoyed this year are the amazing beaches and coastlines in Australia. So we thought we would share a top ten list of some our favorite beaches we have been to. (We included a few from New Zealand as well). Who ever coined the phrase life is a beach, must have been from Australia!



1. The "Twelve Apostles" along the Great Ocean Road.



2. Sunset over the beach at Marino Rocks viewed from our friend Dave's balcony.



3. The beach from Innes National Park on the York Peninsula contains the remains of an old shipwreck "Ethel".



4. Wineglass Bay in Tasmania is spectacular. You hike about two miles up to this rocky overlook where you can see the hourglass bay and beach down below. It is another two miles down to the beach which has crystal clear blue water.



5. This is one of the many great beaches just north of Cairns in Queensland. They have the poisonous "box jellyfish" during the summer months.



6. The Coorang National Park along the coast of South Australia contains miles and miles of wide empty beaches.



7. Johanna Beach along the Great Ocean Road, just outside the town of Apollo Bay.



8. Another great beach in Tasmania is the Friendly Beaches outside the town of Bicheno. We hiked out to this beach from a great nature conservatory were we saw some Tasmanian Devils.



9. New Zealand has some great beaches as well. This was one of the beaches on the north island near the capital city Wellington.



10. Moreaki Beach in New Zealand on our way to Christchurch on the South Island. They have some great boulder shaped rocks on the beach.

Kangaroo Island...

Our latest travel adventure took us to the remote island of the coast of South Australia, Kangaroo Island. Kangaroo Island is a very isolated part of South Australia. It was fairly pricey to get to, as they only have a private ferry operating to get there (you could fly if you wanted to from Adelaide). The island is one of the nicest parts of South Australia we have seen. Great quite beaches, wonderful wildlife, neat natural features, and great scenery. The island is about 50 miles wide, by 150 miles long.



Australian Sea Lions up close on the beach at Seal Bay. The are quite docile animals and laze around on the beach.



We took a great scneic drive down to the cape of Hanson Bay.



A sea pelican wandering near the beach at Pennshaw point.



The Remarkable Rocks in Flinders Chase Park. They are aptly named and are a bizarre formation of wind and water weathered and shaped rocks high on a sea side cliff. The rocks are covered in a orange color from a certain type of lichen moss. They were fascinating and we spent a good part of the afternoon climbing and walking around the large area of rocks.



The north part of the island has great sea side roads with magnificent views out into the ocean. We went down to several nice beaches and bays.



We hiked down to a underground cave that looked out into the ocean at the western tip of the island in the Flinders Chase area.



We saw a lot of wildlife, and had to stop many times for them as they crossed the road. Here is an echidna hiding in the bush.



Kim took a great photo of the scrub brush trees.

Dreamtime Story...

This is a series of five Aboriginal Dreamtime stories illustrated by the incredible paintings of Ngarrindjeri artist, Jacob Stengle. These paintings were commisioned for the Department of Enviornment and Heritage and are on display at the Flinders Chase Visitor Center on Kangaroo Island, South Australia.

This story tells about the creation of Kangaroo Island. It is of the Ngarrindjeri people, whose country land in Australia extended from the upper Murray River to Cape Jaffa in the South East. The story is passed down from many generations about the great Ngurunderi and his two wives.


NGURUNDERI AND PONDI



As Ngurunderi paddled his bark canoe along the small stream, he was able to spear a very large cod which he named Pondi. The great fish struggled so fiercely that it widened the river with its tail and flooded the nearby swamps and billabongs by spilling the water over the banks.

THE RUNAWAY WIVES



Ngurunderi was searching for his runaway wives in the southern end of the Coorong. He searched for many years and continued searching as far south as the lakes, continuing all the way to the beach along the Murray River until reaching Encounter Bay. Here he finally found his wives laughing and splashing in the shallow water.

THE PAGES



Ngurunderi finally found his wives who had deserted him and was full of anger. He summoned a great storm that caused the waters to rise and drown his wives. His wives spirits were formed into the two rugged and rocky islands known as the Pages.

THE LAST WALK



When Ngurunderi's anger subsided he realised what a dreadful thing he had done to his wives. He fled over to Kangaroo Island, full of remorse, to try and cleanse his soul. Here he rested in the scrub among logs, gum trees, yaccas, and sheoks. The morning sighing sound among the trees helped him to temporarily forget about his terrible actions.

THE FINAL ACTION



Ngurunderi rested a long time on Kangaroo Island. The time had come for him to return to his heavenly home. His final action on earth was to leave instructions for his people to follow his steps to the western end of Kangaroo Island and pay respects to the rugged Pages Islands. In remorse for his wives, he leapt from a cliff into the sea and drowned, but his cleansed spirit rose to the sky.