Australia

The next couple of days were travel days for us.  First, we traveled back to Adelaide from Kangaroo Island.  Before we left, we visited the extremely picturesque beach at Stokes Bay.  Walking among narrow rock passageway we arrived at the beach.  There were some kids playing in the protected pool having a great time.  We had lunch near the ferry terminal.  Fish and chips are popular here but we hadn't actually tried them yet.  These were delicious.  We caught an afternoon ferry back to the mainland in order to make it back for dinner with John & Phillippa's kids.  We were treated to a fantastic sunset. We had an early start the next morning to catch a plane from Adelaide to the Gold Coast.  We noticed .lax security is on domestic flights.  You can even bring liquids through security on board with you. Our friends have a condo in the tallest residential building in Surfers Paradise.  The 70th floor vantag...

While lounging around this morning, we were treated to a group of dolphins playing in the waters just down from our house.  David's eagle eye spotted them but the 100-400 lens really allowed us to see all the fun they were having. Early afternoon, we headed to  Kangaroo Island Spirits  for a tasting of some of their award winning gin.  Our hostess was from Wales here on a work visa.  She definitely was enthusiastic about KI, choosing it for its great climate and lack of flies!  The gin varieties were interesting and David found a couple to take back home.   Flinders Chase National Park  is on the opposite end of the island from our house.  There's really not much between it and Antarctica,  which means a good southerly breeze can be quite cold.  This state run park is huge with several day hikes and attractions for visitors.  We walked down to above the rocky shoreline via a series of steps and boardwalks....

Did I catch your attention?  Not there are not African lions on Kangaroo Island, but there are sea lions.  More on that in a minute. We planned on KI being a little bit of rejuvenation, taking mornings slow and not cramming a lot into the day.  We brought food for all of our meals both because there aren't a large number of dining options near us and we didn't want to be out driving after sunset to avoid any possibility of a road mishap with a kangaroo. After breakfast and time spent looking out at our fabulous view, we headed to  Raptor Domain  for their show featuring their birds of prey.  Two bird handlers brought out a number of birds, some of which we were able to hold and touch, to show the variety of birds found in Australia.  All but the eagle were allowed to free fly.  There were a couple that were still out in the trees when the show was over.  There were several owl species, a buzzard that looked more like an eagle, a bird tha...

John and Phillippa mentioned when we arrived in Australia that we might be able to put our new photo skills to work (see tlmhawaii.blogspot.com) taking pictures of their kids.  Today was our day to shine.  We went to the beach right below their house and tried lots of different locations with lots of different poses.  This is the one I like the most: After the photo session, we packed up to go to Kangaroo Island.  We had a 3:00 p.m. ferry to catch which gave us just enough time to stop at the  Smiling Samoyed  for a bite of lunch.  There is actually a Samoyed in residence checking out all the guests.  We sat outside and listened to music while noshing on a wood fired pizza. We drove to our ferry for our 45 minute passage to the Island.  We made a quick stop for some last minute groceries before heading to  Cliff House  on Snellings Bay.  There appears to be more sheep on the island than either kangaroos or ...