Purplelake: Australia - Sydney & Uluru

In Feb, 2019, we went to Sydney, Australia for my sister's funeral service. We took the chance to visit Uluru as well:

The arrival of the casket at the funeral home

The chapel at the Woronora Cemetery

My stister's casket lies inside the chapel

It is a small service with her best friends from church and her families

The cemetery is very peaceful, about half an hour drive south of Sydney

Beach at Botany Bay, Sydney

We drove 1.5 hrs south to Kiama from Sydney

Kiama is a pretty town on the ocean

Unfortunately, its most famous sight, a giant blowhole, fell silent today due to wrong wind direction

Lighthouse at Kiama

We found some actions at another smaller blowhole which faces the ocean at a different direction

Got to try one of the famous Aussie burgers! The verdict: Delish!

Miles of beaches at Kiama

Beautiful lookout at Minnamurra Point. On the left is the Minnamurra River converging with the ocean on the right.

Grace, my older sister, wants to get in the action by soaking her feet in the warm Aussie ocean

While the rest of us just looked on and kept dry

Three beautiful ladies in front of Nan Tien Temple, a big Buddhist temple built in the middle of nowhere near Wollongong

Two handsome brothers also posing in front of this temple

Temple comes complete with a pagoda

We finally saw our first Koala up front and personal at the Koala Park Sanctuary Sydney

At designated show time, we can line up and get close up shots with the cutie

According to the handler, Koala sleeps up to 22 hours a day!

If you are brave, you can pad the Koala a bit

There are sheep shearing shows in the park as well. I didn't know until now that shearing is such a difficult task, especially if you have to do it for a living

A wild sulfur-crested cockatoo is trying to get some free food inside the cage

Mary feeds a little lamb, little lamb,...or is it how the nursery rhythm goes? It's fun to bottle feed a baby lamb but they would soon ignore you if the bottle runs dry

Sunset at Kata Tjuta - a park with 36 giant red rock domes in the middle of Australia. We flew here from Sydney. People often visit both Kata Tjuta and Uluru together since they are only 50 km apart

There are tons of sand flies all over. We took this photo in between being swamped

Super Moon rising over Kata Tjuta

Sunrise at Uluru - the sacred rock of Australia's aboriginals

Just be at awe with this gigantic red rock in the middle of a flat dessert. No wonder the locals regarding this place as sacred.

Temperature often soars past 40 C. When that happens, the park will close the trails to the public use often as early as 11 am! In that case, all hikings have to start right after sunrise.

Up close, you can see the pits and holes in the rock, a result of erosion and temperature extremes. Climbing Uluru is discouraged by the Aboriginals (although not yet banned) for their sacredness.

We got an over the head type of bug net as quickly as possible.

The waterfalls happened after rare raining events here have discolored the rock face with black algae growing on it

We fell for the gimmick of "Field of Light" in the desert which is very disappointing

Expensive, overblown, and very restrictive on time

Sunrise over Uluru (view from Kata Tjuta)

Sunrise over Kata Tjuta. Overhead bug net is a must! These sand flies can sense people's moisture and are attracted to crowds since it is so dry in the desert

Walpa Gorge hiking trail in Kata Tjuta park

A rare family portrait of the Wu's siblings and spouses

These specks are the sand flies attracted by our body moisture

On the Valley of the Winds hiking trail in Kata Tjuta

We pulled over to take this photo on our way to watch sunset at Uluru. Little did we know that we had developed a flat in our rental SUV and the mayhem that followed we'll remember for a long long time

My third sunrise over Uluru with the moon still hanging in the air

The hue of the red rock color changes constantly throughout the sunrise

Learning Didgeridoo, an Australian Aboriginal long horn musical instrument (check the link here to see how it sounds: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fWUTYcRm9Vo )