An American's Guide to Easter in Australia

Brown eggs made pretty

Shortly after we arrived in Australia 2 years ago the room mom in my daughter's class organised an Easter Egg hunt for all the kids.  Her email invited us all down to the beach after school and asked each parent to bring a bag of Easter eggs for the hunt.

I searched high and low for Easter baskets (and finally found one style at the fake Aussie Target).  But the big plastic Easter eggs were elusive.  I emailed the room mom to ask where to get the eggs.  Her reply was something like this, "Each parent should bring a bag of chocolate eggs.  They are available at all the shops."  Duh.

Easter eggs=chocolate eggs.  And they are everywhere.  The shops are packed with choco eggs, along with choco bunnies and the occasional choco bilby.  But good luck finding any other Easter candy.  No peeps (gasp!), no jelly bellies, no reese's eggs, no pastel M&Ms. 

When we showed up for the egg hunt my kids were ready, armed with their bright green cheap-o Easter baskets.  (I was really wishing I had brought our cute personalized Pottery Barn ones).  To my surprise they were the ONLY kids there with baskets.  A few kids had plastic grocery bags.  Some used paper lunch sacks.  Others just used their pockets to hold their loot.  I got several comments about our "American" Easter Baskets and it was painfully obvious that I was missing the nuances of Easter- one of the biggest Aussie holidays.

So here are a few tips for Americans celebrating Easter in Australia.

*Easter is a long weekend here.  Everything is closed on Good Friday.  And for good measure  Aussies take Monday off too.  This year, Anzac day is on Monday.  So Tuesday is a public holiday, too.

*Little kids (generally Kindy and Year 1) will have Easter hat parades at school.  You will be expected to supply a variety of arts and crafts items to decorate the crazy hats.  After the Little Princess' parade they sang a few songs, including "Aussie Easter Oi Oi Oi" and "Disco Inferno".  (The musical selections at these school functions always baffle me).

*The Easter Show has nothing to do with Easter, other than they both come at the same time of year.

*Little girls will not be dressed up in fancy new dresses on Easter Sunday.  In fact the whole "Easter Dress" concept is unheard of here.  We got lots of strange looks that first year when we went out to breakfast.

*Aussies don't dye hard boiled eggs.  If you want one of those PAAS kits with the little coloured tablets you better have someone send one from the US.  And, there are no white eggs to speak of here.  But fortunately, brown eggs work just fine.

*Sadly, Easter is a secular holiday here.  Everyone celebrates Easter, but there is hardly a mention of Jesus. 

Two hard at work.  One supervising.

So tonight, on this night before Easter, we dyed our brown eggs and watched the Veggie Tales Easter Carol.  We talked about the true meaning of Easter and left a carrot out for the Easter Bunny.  Tomorrow there will be a treasure hunt and lots of choco eggs too.  We'll go to church and the Easter Show.  We're a little bit Aussie, and American too.

Happy Easter, Oi Oi Oi!

Jervis Bay

Last weekend we took a family road trip down the south coast of NSW to a beautiful area known as Jervis Bay.  It's about 200 km (125 miles) from Sydney.  All the brochures state it is an easy 2.5 hour drive.  I guess they mean it is 2.5 hours if you have only adults in the car and you leave at 11:15 am on a Tuesday.  Friday afternoon with three kids makes the trip a lot longer.  About twice as long in fact.  But, after 5 hours in the car, we arrived at this lovely holiday apartment in the town of Vincentia.

There is always a flurry of excitement when we arrive at our destination.  The kids run around, check out their room, open all the cupboards, explore the place and, in general, send me into a panic that something will be broken before we even unload the car. 

Luckily, no knick-knacks were harmed on this holiday!

We were up bright and early Saturday morning and set off to explore the town of Huskisson.  We had an uninspired breakfast at the Husky Bakery- which is only worth mentioning because they had an actual McDonald's playplace in the back of the cafe.


We had just enough time to book a dolphin watch cruise on The Extreme.  We thought the fast 1.5 hour trip would be perfect for the kids.  So we headed to the dock, armed with motion sickness tablets and armbands for the Little Princess.  We were all amazed to see large pods of dolphins jumping and swimming right next to the boat.  Of course, the dolphin watching was overshadowed a bit by the melt down and near panic attack suffered by the Little Princess.  She completely lost the plot (as they say here) and was terrified by the boat ride.  Afterward I asked her if it was all worth it to see the dolphins up close.  Her reply was a resounding, "NO!"  Oh well, I thought it was thrilling.

Jervis Bay is known for it's gorgeous beaches.  Hyams Beach claims to have the whitest sand in the world.  It is nearly pure silica and squeaks when you walk on it. 

The next day we took some time to explore Booderee National Park.  We bushwalked to Green Patch via the Rock Platform and saw lots of Neptune's Necklace in the tide pools.  The views were stunning (Would you expect anything else?  This is Australia!)


We also spent some time at beautiful Murray's Beach.  We saw more dolphins and even a stingray swimming very close to shore.  The water was absolutely crystal clear and still warm even though it is early Autumn.  It was a perfect place to spend the afternoon.  None of us wanted to leave.

But, as the weekend drew to a close we had to load up and head back to Sydney.  I wish we could go back during whale watching season, but I'm afraid that won't happen.  Too many places to see and, sadly, not enough time.

Jenolan Caves

At the end of January we spent a beautiful weekend up at the Jenolan Caves.  It is such an easy and fun getaway from Sydney.  We stayed in the Jenolan Cabins, which were cosy and in such a picturesque spot. 

 Bright red parrots and several wallabies were our neighbors for the weekend.  The kids loved running around the rolling green hillsides.  I was a little nervous about the "eco toilets" but am happy to report that they were not at all unpleasant.  

The only good thing about having a little baby who wakes up before the sun is that you get to see some gorgeous sunrises. 



The landscape in this part of the Blue Mountains is so pretty.

Of course the reason we made the trip was to see the Jenolan Caves.  We took guided tours of two different caves.  The temperature inside was a cool 13 degrees (c).  We weren't prepared for that!  The kids were fascinated by the giant stalactites and stalagmites. 

 

The Jenolan Caves were magical and we had such a great weekend up there.  Looking forward to many more weekend getaways during our final months in Australia.  So much gorgeous country to see here.

The First of The Lasts

For the past 2 years our Spring & Summer Sunday mornings have gone something like this:

-Wake up and shovel some breakfast into the kids' mouths
-Watch them wiggle into their speedos and rashies and swim caps
-Chase them around to get the suncream on
-Double check to be sure goggles and towels are in the bag
-Dash out the door and across the street to be on the beach for roll call
-Then I watch as they swim and paddle and run and race

 I love Nippers.

We're heading back to the U.S. for a few weeks and will miss out on the rest of the Nippers season this year. 

And this time next year my kids will be in America doing whatever it is American kids do in February.  Soccer?  Baseball?  (Seriously I don't even know).  But they won't be here, on this beach doing Nippers.  And that makes me a bit sad.  It's the first of the lasts.

Aussie Aussie Aussie

Today, Wednesday January 26, is Australia Day- a public holiday commemorating the landing of the First Fleet in Australia. 



The city of Sydney puts on quite an impressive series of events to mark the day.  Who wouldn't want to see a Ferryathon, or witness a flyover, or ride on a vintage Sydney bus?  Not me!  That's why last year I thought it would be a good idea to drag my two sticky kids, my sweet agreeable mother-in-law, and my own pregnant self into the city for Australia Day.  After fighting the crowds, waiting in lines, and cramming onto over-crowded public transport we eventually gave up and headed home- feeling exhausted, deflated and a bit defeated.






When I saw my friends' photos of a fun-filled day at the beach I realised I'd made a mistake.  And so I vowed that this year would be different.

I spent the last week waiting, hoping one of my lovely friends would organise some great Australia Day party.  But as Tuesday afternoon rolled around it became painfully obvious that if there was going to be a party I would have to get it started.

Twenty minutes and ten text messages later we were in business.  Six families threw together a last minute BBQ that turned out to be one of the best beach days "evah!'

It was an awesome way to end our Aussie summer. 

Horsing Around in Centennial Park

 Today the Little Princess and her sweet friend went horseback riding right in the heart of Sydney. 

Centennial Parklands features trails, ponds, formal gardens, grand avenues and a large equestrian centre. 

The girls each had a private lesson and then went out on a ride through the park together.  

What a beautiful day in this beautiful city with those two beautiful girls.

1-1-11

Last night we watched this:

And today we enjoyed this:



May your new year be just as exciting, beautiful, warm and relaxing.  Cheers to 2011!

Lights of Christmas

I love summer and I love Christmas so having them at the same time this year was a real treat.  The lights of Christmas shone beautifully on St. Mary's Cathedral.  We enjoyed viewing the nativity, listening to Christmas carols, watching the puppets in the windows at David Jones and eating ice cream. 

The Christmas Tree in front of St. Mary's

 

The Little Buddy, cooperating as usual.

 

 Amazing light show projected onto the cathedral.

 

Merry Christmas Sydney!

Spit to Dobroyd and Sailing With Justin Bieber

Since I slacked off and didn't organise a get-away for us while my sweetie is off work this week, we decided to holiday at home and do some of the things we've always wanted to right here in our own backyard.

This morning we got up bright and early and set out to walk from The Spit to Manly.  This is an ambitious bushwalk- about 10k-and we had all three kids in tow.

About 2k into the walk we came to a lovely little beach called Clontarf.  And- BONUS- it had a playground we've never been to.  Summer mission #3- check!



After a bit of a play we were back on the track, heading past Castle Rock Beach and Grotto Point.  The views were typical Sydney views- which is to say they were absolutely stunning.


The track was pretty challenging; especially since I had the bubby on my back and the little buddy spent most of the walk on his dad's shoulders.  Did I mention there were A LOT of stairs.  Yes, there were.


As we made our way up to the Dobroyd Scenic Lookout I began to think that 5.5 km was plenty for one day.  The kids agreed.  And wouldn't you know there was yet another playground behind the reserve.  Make that Summer Mission #4! 

While the kids played we grownups decided to call a taxi to take us back to our car.  The rest of the Spit to Manly walk would have to wait for another day.



But when you're a family of 5 taking a taxi isn't as easy as it seems.  The cab company had a bit of trouble locating a seven seat taxi with an infant capsule.  We waited, and waited.  Finally I made an executive decision.  Send the dad back to the car in a regular taxi, and he'd come back and get the rest of us. 

So off he went.  Of course, when he arrived at the car he quickly realized he didn't have the keys with him!  So, back to the playground he came, picked up the keys, took the taxi back to the car, and finally, came back to retrieve us all.

Now you'd think that would be enough of an adventure for one day.  But no- there's more.  I had arranged for my hubby and I to take sailing lessons this week, and today was the first one.

We were both a bit surprised when we showed up at the sailing school and met our instructor who appeared to be a 13 year old Justin Bieber look-a-like. 

But, I'm happy to report he was actually quite competent.  The lesson went smoothly, we didn't damage anything, and they said we could come back tomorrow for the second installment.

Whew!  Next time I plan a holiday at home I think we will just make plans to plop ourselves on the beach.  In fact,  I think I'll pencil that in for next week.

Lounge Lizard

Playground Mission #2

Hit our 2nd "new" playground today:  Manly Lagoon Reserve.  So much fun! 

 

 

Joy to the World

What a perfect night for Christmas carols.  

Beautiful weather, heaps of people, lovely music, candles.  

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas. (In a Southern Hemisphere kind of way).