Day Eight: Friday

Day Eight: Driving North, Jarvis Bay, Kiama Blowhole, Sydney at rush hour and Dinner with Family.

Today we checked out from our resort on the South Coast and drove up toward Sydney. We stopped to catch a few sights that we missed on the way down: Jarvis Bay and the Kiama Blowhole.

First off it straight poured down rain all night and all morning. It was nice to fall asleep to the sound but made for an interesting drive up the coast. It was also unbelievably windy. The rain let up for a few hours, fortunately, this was during the time we were seeing these two places.

Jarvis Bay is known for it's white sandy beaches, which is said to have some of the whitest sand in the world. While we were there it was wet from the rain, and hard to tell how spectacular it probably is during the summer. There were several nice beaches that we drove by, however, the wind was so strong we could barely hop out of the car to snap a couple of pictures before we jumped back in, for fear of being hit with sticks or debris that the wind picked up.

Further up the coast the weather was nicer and the sun even came out a little during our visits to the Kiama Blowhole.. which should be blowholes, because we discovered that there are two: the Little Blowhole and the Kiama Blowhole. We found the Little Blowhole first, it was pretty cute and also very cool. The perfect day for the experience because the wind was causing some rough waves that added to the strength of the blowhole(s).

Onward toward Sydney, with monsoon rains off and on, we found that Sydneysiders don't prefer to drive in the rain and thus start driving at a near crawl when the rain hits. Since we are from the rainy part of Washington, this was nothing but frustrating for us (well, for Blake since he was driving), particularly as we were trying to find our way through the packed streets of Sydney with really poor directions and two maps that together almost made a complete map of the area we were driving.

We found our way to the hotel, checked in, carried our luggage up four flights of stairs and headed back out the door to return our rental car that was parked in the loading zone. Which meant that we had to navigate our way back through Sydney in Friday afternoon traffic and avoid toll roads to the airport. It was an experience, let me tell you! Blake did fine, despite some worry about getting lost and the map that the hotel gave us when we checked in filled in the gaps that our other maps did cover (although not one map covered the entire area).

From the airport it was smooth sailing, or riding. We used their free wifi to figure out which bus/train etc to take back to our hotel. It ended up being quite easy and significantly cheaper than taking a taxi. Their subway system was great and now we knew how to get to the airport for our return trip!

We were meeting some of Blake's family that live in Sydney that night for dinner. We had just enough time to get the car returned, get back and get ready. Blake's grandma's family primarily lives in Illinois, with some family living in California, Greece, and Australia. They are originally from Greece and many of her relatives continue much of the Greek traditions. The family that we were meeting are second or third cousins of Blake's grandma, Bill and Theo (brothers). They are both 100% Greek, and also '100% Aussie born and bred' which makes an interesting combination, but certainly a pleasant one!

We met Bill and his wife Voula, Theo and his wife Anita along with their two kids Nicola and John, at a restaurant in Darling Harbour. Actually, Bill met us at our hotel, and we followed him throught the busy streets in the monsooning rain to the restauraunt. I couldn't have retraced our path if my life depended on it! Dinner was amazing and it was wonderful to get to know these members of our extended family and their heritage. We are pretty close with much of Blake's grandpa's family, so it was wonderful to get the chance to learn more about his grandma's family and their Greek heritage.

It was an absoulutely fantastic evening to a fairly wet and stressful day. We are so thankful that they could take the time to see us and we really had a great time with them all!



The white sandy beach of Jarvis Bay




The Little Blowhole




It was SUPER windy!




The (big) Kiama Blowhole





Not sure why you'd want to stand on
the lower observation deck!




Out to dinner




Me, Blake, Anita, Theo, John
and Nicola (in front)




Voula, Bill, Blake, Me




Darling Harbour and the Harbor Bridge at night