Off to play with the G-Kids and Kangaroos Down Under

On Christmas Day my wife Carol and I travel to meet our daughter and her family in Australia through January 4. As noted at the outset of this blog, our daughter, son-in-law and our four young granddaughters (ages 2, 5, 7 and 8) have been living in Malaysia since last January when my son-in-law was transferred there for a couple of years for his work.  We were fortunate enough to visit them last spring in Malaysia and they all came back home for about 6 weeks this summer but we haven't seen them for months now and we are very excited about this trip to be with them.

First we fly from Minneapolis to Los Angeles (4 hours) and then at 8 p.m. that night we fly from LAX to Sydney (15 hours) arriving at about 7 a.m. local time on December 27.  We lose a day going over the International Dateline on the way there but get a day back on the way home.

After a 5 hour layover in Sydney we fly about a 1000 km north to Sunshine Coast and then rent an 8 passenger vehicle and drive about 35 km (on the wrong side of the road) to Noosa.  Below is a map of the east coast of Australia showing the relationship between Sydney and Noosa.

And this is a map of the Noosa area:

We will arrive in Noosa about mid-afternoon on December 27 and our daughter, son-in-law and the G-kids arrive early on the morning of the 28th so we're hoping to be mostly over our jet lag when they get there.

Noosa is known for its beautiful beaches, lush green hinterland, stunning coastal national park, pristine river and laid-back lifestyle.  The surfing at Noosa Heads is supposed to be excellent.  Here is a picture of one of the beaches and I think our hotel, where all 8 of us are staying in a 4 bedroom suite, is on the hill behind the beach. 

After four days in Noosa we all fly back down to Sydney on December 31st.  Sydney is known for its New Year's Eve celebrations:

Our hotel is about a quarter mile from Darling Harbor so it should be quite an evening.

We stay in Sydney until the night of January 4th when our daughter's family flies back to Malaysia and we return home.  However, on the way home my wife and I are going to stop off on the island of Kauai for three nights before arriving back in Minneapolis on January 8.

I bought a Fuji x100s camera a couple of months ago so that I wouldn't have to lug my heavy Nikon DSLR with all of its lenses with me on this trip.  I've been shooting a lot with the Fuji and it is a remarkably versatile camera with a fantastic lens.  If you're interested, here's a link to the camera review by Zack Arias that sold me on getting the x100s -->  http://zackarias.com/for-photographers/gear-gadgets/fuji-x100s-review-a-camera-walks-into-a-bar/.  I plan on posting lots of pictures as we go and hope you enjoy this blog of our trip Down Under and to Kauai.