Advertisement
Published: June 10th 2012
I don't think we could have had a more enjoyable honeymoon! For Victor and I, it involved traveling half way a cross the world to an exciting new continent. It involved snorkeling in one of the Seven Natural Wonders of the world and it involved exciting new cities, romantic beach resorts, tropical rainforests, and trying a variety of new things! Australia is seriously the coolest place to visit! Like true lovers of travel, we decided long ago that traveling somewhere exciting for our honeymoon was the priority over spending a lot on the wedding. We decided to visit the tropical coast of Australia, but Victor kept most of the details of our honeymoon a secret as a surprise for me! It was the best decision we made, because it was THE BEST TRIP WE'VE EVER TAKEN, and after all the trips we've taken after that we still agree. I don't know if it was the wedding bliss we were both feeling from just getting married 2 days prior, but everything was perfect and love was in the air every day of that trip. And let me just say that the people of Australia are the nicest, most down to earth people
you will ever meet. I thought I was being biased, until I heard the same thing from several other people that have gone there, so it's deffinitly true. This is important because the way that people act, treat you, and talk to you can really make or break a trip.
September 13, 2010. Our flight was like this: TX to Los Angeles to Sydney to Cairnes Australia. It took us 2 days, but it was alright because we were flying on an Airbus A380 with Quantas. That's a huge two story airplane! It had two floors, each person had spacious seats and individual entertainment systems. First thing we did when we landed in Sydney was take a train straight to the city. We were so excited to see Sydney! Victor purchased a gray Sydney hoodie because it was a little windy. We ate meat pies, then walked to the Opera house which is an iconic building in Australia that hosts symphonys and other performances. We saw the Sydney Harbour bridge which was huge. I noticed a lot of different birds around. On our walk we also saw a musical performance by the Aboriginal people of Australia using a didgeridoo,
which is a pipe style instrument you blow into to make music. And after walking around and seeing what a nice city Sydney was, we took the train back to the airport to catch our flight to CAIRNS.
When we arrived in Cairns it was night time. This was the first time a travel company ever picks us up from the airport. It was nice to have that assurance and know you were getting to the right place. It was a short drive to Cairns Beach Resort, and the one thing that stands out a lot in my memory was seeing kangaroos hopping around on the side of the road. The lady told us that Kangaroos are left alone to hop around just like deers are in America! Check in was easy, everything was just so pleasant, and we could hear the beach waves from our bedroom window. After a nice night of rest and catching up with the current time zone in Australia, we embarked on the most exciting trip to the Great Barrier Reef. I had to keep repeating it in my head because I just couldn't believe we were going there! We ate breakfast first at
Coolums across the street which has a nice beachy feel to it and cool "wooden hand" chairs. We were picked up at the resort by Quicksilver, the award winning company we were snorkeling with. The trip was from Port Douglas going out into the ocean on a 1 1/2 hour cruise ride. It included all the gear you needed, lunch and snacks, and a semi submersible ship to observe the ocean from there. Again, everything was very pleasant. The cruise ride was very relaxing and we couldn't wait to dock at the docking station and finally visit this famous unique Natural Wonder of the World!
We docked, we grabbed our snorkel gear, and we jumped into the water almost immediately! It took a while to get the hang of using the snorkel breathing tube, the water kept getting in and I was afraid to choke, but when I finally got it I was swimming like a little fish along with Victor! The Great Barrier Reef is amazing to explore, the corals and fish are unique here and beautiful. The pictures I took with my underwater camera don't even capture the beauty I saw there. Best of all it was
fun, there was nothing boring about this trip. When we wanted to take a break it was already lunch time, and the lunch was buffet style with options such as crab, lobster, pasta, and salad. We decided to take a trip on the semi submersible ship and saw a whole lot more like turtles and other fish and corals. Just writting about it makes me nostaligic to be there again, and it makes me wonder if snorkeling in other places of the world are just as nice as it is here.
Day two started with breakfast across the street again at Coolums. The food there was very delicious. And this time we took a trip to the Kuranda Rainforest. We had to get to the train station first and then take the train up to Kuranda. We felt like the majority of the people on the train were of an older generation, but we didn't let that stop us from enjoying the experience. We saw beautiful water falls and passed lots of tropical trees and beautiful views of the ocean and beach. When we got to Kuranda we visited an animal park where we saw crocodiles, exotic birds, lizards,
kangaroos and my favorite: the extremely cute Koala! And I got a chance to cuddle him! It was kinda costly, but it's because of how hard it is to keep them awake for the cuddle picture since Koalas sleep all day for their whole lives, but it was so worth it to try because they are sooooooo CUTE! They really are cuddly, and I didn't want to give him back to the park lady. We hand fed some nice kangaroos, then we had lunch at one of the many resteraunts at the Kuranda. Then after walking around some more and admiring the tropical atmosphere we used a sky rail to get back down to Cairns. Overall I thought it was a nice expereince.
On a different day we decided it'd be fun to rent a car and go downtown to Cairns city. The funny thing about the car rental was that Austrailans drive on the opposite side of the road, like the British do. But Victor was a pro at it! I felt like we were driving wrong the whole time, but that meant we were driving right! haha. We drove to Marlin Marina to go parasailing which we
First time Para sailing
Parasailing in Cairns Austrailiaboth have never done. It was an independant company operated by Stephen and Lisa Singleton. Other options were to jet ski and ride the float. At the end after we took turns with other people parasailing, the guys gave us a free ride on the float. Victor flew off the float and it was very fun... until we found out that there were crocodiles in the water and then I got so scared!
We went back to the resort to wash up and get ready for an elegant evening out. We drove back to the city to watch a magic show at the elegant Cairns Casino downtown. First we ate at Cafe China inside of the casino which was great, and then watched a magic show by Sam Powers. I actually got a chance to participate and go on stage! He asked me to varify that the locks being used in his disapearing trick were valid, solid locks. Because I did that I got a free DVD to take home as a gift. We had a really nice night on that last night in Cairns.
On our return flight we stopped again in Sydney where we were staying
Cairns Casino
Nice evening out at the Casino over night. We took a night stroll around the harbour and took some beautiful pictures of the famous bridge and building at night. I highly recommend you take pictures of Sydney at night because with all the outside lighting they come out really neat! In the morning we we took a flight back home, and stopped in San Fransico for a quick trip to the Golden Gate bridge, which will go on a different blog!
I love Australia. I'd actually move there in a heart beat, so if anyone can find any work for us there I'd be happy spending the rest of my life in Australia. Their down to earth attitute won us over as soon as we landed. I'd highly recommend you take a nice relaxing trip there. Even if you are traveling solo or just traveling for fun this is a great place to go and there are so many wild things you can do there that we didn't do. There are tons of bungee jumping options, surfing and surf teaching camps, and you could visit other places to the south and west of Sydney. Love love love love Australia!!!!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.538s; Tpl: 0.015s; cc: 33; qc: 133; dbt: 0.1696s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.6mb
