Australia - This is no small country!!

Onto the airplane in Hawaii and after a nice flight where they actually fed you without having to pay extra, we landed in Sydney Australia about 10 hours later.  Of course, crossing the International Time Line we left on Tuesday lunch and arrived Wednesday evening.  Other than trying to find a taxi large enough to fit all of our luggage, we quickly arrived at our hotel for the night.  Paul had booked us at the Holiday Inn in the Rocks.  I didn't know where we were but when I woke up the next morning and went for a 6:30 a.m. stroll by myself, I soon found out we were across the street from the harbour.  That was an hour in time that was pure magic.   Climbing up the stairs from the street, looking out to see the opera house (no - not the oprah house, the opera house!) across the harbour was just the cat's meow!!  I was pretty much alone as I walked down the harbour, the odd jogger and some staff sweeping up preparing for the day.  I wandered from one side, across the ferry arrival/departures and over to the opera house and stared up in amazement, feeling like Dorey and Nemo's Dad when they came to Nemo's rescue in the harbour!  By the time I walked back to the other side, it was already bustling with people.
I think Liam felt we had starved him in Hawaii so lucky for us, the hotel had a brunch that was free for kids.  We got our money's worth that morning!  Liam went back for at  5 or 6 helpings, at least 20 pieces of bacon, and anything else he could fit on his plate.  Erin and Andrew followed suit.  Our bare minimum plan was to drive from Sydney to Brisbane to get the lay of the land so Paul picked up a rental car and we headed out (of course after dropping a few suitcases off at the bus depot as there was no way any one car would hold all of our luggage and 5 of us!).  I had thought until that moment that Australia was this cute little country with cute animals, most of them poisonous, but cute nontheless.  Wrong on the little country part.  Sydney and Brisbane look relatively close together on the map, but they are not!  We drove about six hours.  Having no idea and no plan, we pulled into one of the places on the map that was outlined in thicker black than the others which gave us hope for more than one motel in the area.  We ended up in Port Macquarrie. It was dark and we couldn't see much.  Most hotels appeared to be full but we ended up in a very lovely place that fit all of us.  That's always a bonus when you travel in numbers greater than 4.  We had a nice sleep and a great swim the next morning, and of course, another huge breakfast for Liam to put him in a good space!   We hit the freeway which turned out to be a very slow freeway for about 5 hours.  With a name like the M1, one would think more than two lanes, but not so.  It was a long 2nd day of traveling but we pulled into our new city of Redcliffe, Queensland that evening.  Just about 20 minutes north of Brisbane, it is a very pretty seaside city.  Paul's clinic was setting us up for the 1st month for living.  The realtor met us at the house and we were blown away by how stunning it was.  The house backed on to a canal where all the people in the neighbourhood park their rather large boats!  The kids ran around and around because we hadn't seen that much space in a long time!  Oh my but we all slept well that night after a long day on the road.  It was great arriving to our new Regina for the next 6 months.  It's wonderful to think that we have connected to a new part of the world feeding a new sense of connection into our family.  I can't wait for Charlotte to come and and join us.  She is part of this connection at all times - I just want her to be here and see it all!  Cheers to Redcliffe!