A BOOMERANG

One of the tourist items I just had to have! A real Australian Outback made Boomerang! The markings are those of the Aboriginal people. But the purchase was actually made at the Market City in Sydney. Market City was quite an expierence just in and of itself. It was truly the best place that we found anywhere in Australia for buying every torurist item you woulfd ever want to buy for the friends and relatives that you left at home.

Coins of the realm

Here are the coins that they use in Australia. No PENNYS, no Quarters. No dollar bills, but they had both $1 and $2 coins. As you can see from this picture, the 2 dollar coin was actually smaller that the one dollar coin. The paper bills started at $5 and were differnt sizes and colors. They all had something that looked like a cellophane window in them to help stop counterfeiting. I really liked how some of their money there was structured. The bills were larger if the amount was larger, which I am sure would be helpful to those raised in U.S. public schools. The 5 cent pieces (I don't think they call them nickles there) were about the size of our dimes and the 10 cent pieces were more the size of our quarters. Their 20 cent piece was about about the size of our half dollars and the 50 cent piece was the size of a silver dollar only with 12 sides on the edges. I never really knew how much money I had in my change pocket. But the Aussie's were for the most part understnding of my dilemma with figuring it all out.

Market City in Sydney

Market City in Sydney (like a giant Australian swap meet). With everything in there you could think of from groceries to furs. And of course as I mentioned earlier, the BEST place for "tourist junk" in all of Australia!

View from Marriott Circular Quay, Sydney

The view from our room looking west out over Sydney Harbour toward the sunset. It always surprised me to see the soon come up in the east. I guess it is the growing up in Southern California that has swayed my reality of where the sun should come up and where it should set.

Bondi Beach in Sydney

The surfers were out catching some waves as we walked along Bondi Beach in Sydney, NSW, Australia. We thought that there was only two two beaches in the Sydney area, but there are really 12 beaches, it is just that 2 of them Bondi and Manly are very well known.

Marriott Surfers Paradise Resort

The view from our balconey ~

It seemed like in spite of ourselves, we just fell into good things on the whole trip. When we flew into Coolangatta, (via Jet Star) we took a bus that dropped us off at the Marriott Resort in Surfers Paradise and they (Marriott) told us that they had upgraded our room to one with not only an ocean view, but also with a balcony that over-looked the huge pool (which was almost like a snorkeling water park with its own mini-coral reefs). Spectacular. . . really! After that week in Surfers Paradise was over, we went up to Brisbane, we checked in at the Hilton Brisbane (with a reservation for the Conrad Brisbane).

All I had was a confirmation number and the certificates for the room (neither of which helped them sort it all out [until the NEXT day]). They were somewhat concerned that the error could have been on Hilton's part so they upgraded us to an Executive Suite (which included free pre-dinner drinks and a free breakfast brunch in the morning). This was really nice and the Executive Lounge Brunches actually had two Concierges there, which served you tea and juices and then cleaned up after you as you finished each course. I have been to expensive brunches before that were nowhere as nice as this one was! The lounge was a three-story area that covered 21, 22 & 23 floors. This looked like they took two sets of rooms on top of each other on those floors and turned them into the lounge and then staffed it from the center one. Even though NOT the Conrad Brisbane, it was a place I would certainly recommend to anyone traveling in Brisbane.

MAN MADE LAGOON (Surfers Paradise) QLD, Australia

This is the man made lagoon at our hotel (the Marriott Surfers Paradise Resort). Complete with a reef sand beaches and hidden caves that had a bar inside of them.