Australia Day 1: The Adventure Begins!

Hello from Down Under! My daughter and I are starting a grand adventure to explore the east coast of Australia.

It’s been a very very long night and a long-feeling day. We chased the moon across the Pacific Ocean last night and landed in Sydney just as the sun arose. Our flight took an extra circle near the airport, meaning we got to look around a bit at the city skyline in morning hues before we finally landed.

Pacific Ocean, south of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

There are just a few photos from today, as we drove a few hours south from Sydney to start our coastal exploration.

Austinmer Beach, Austinmer, New South Wales, Australia

Austinmer Beach, Austinmer, New South Wales, Australia

Thirroul, New South Wales, Australia

East Kangaloon, New South Wales, Australia

south of Wildes Meadow, New South Wales, Australia

If you zoom in on the map a bit (hint: use the button to show Google’s navigation controls), you might notice that our trip includes a brief trip through Canada.

When planning this trip, I discovered that there’s a non-stop flight from Vancouver to Sydney that is quite reasonably priced. Any trip from Seattle’s airport would have involved a transfer somewhere in California. So … we drove from our home up to Vancouver.

It turns out that the Vancouver Airport and Air Canada are a delightful pairing for a journey like this. I expect to repeat this travel hack on future big trips.