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Published: December 23rd 2009
Australia
We will be visiting this amazing country for 5 weeks.
Our itinerary is as follows:
Sydney - 5 days
Melbourne - 2 days
Drive thru the Great Ocean Road - 3 days
Adelaide - 2 days
Kangaroo Island - 2 days
Alice Spring - 2 days
Outback Tour - 9 days (24th December to 1st January)
Darwin - 3 days
Brisbane - 3 days
Fraser Island and some other beach towns close to Brisbane- 8 days
On January 14th we fly from Brisbane to Christchurch, a city in New Zealand.
SYDNEY
We arrived to Sydney on December 9th. Unfortunately Rustin caught a cold on our last day in Honolulu, Hawaii and I got it a day later. Therefore, almost 3 days in Sydney were spent lazing around in our backpackers hostel, trying to rest and get rid of our cold. We also used this time to finalize our planning on exactly which places we were going to visit in Australia.
Our hostel (backpacker hotel with dormitory, bunk beds, style rooms, shared bathroom) in Sydney was very cool and a great first experience with hostels in Australia. The rooms are pretty spacious and very
clean, inside the room you get big lockers to keep your bags and belongings safe. There were 3 showers, 3 toilets and 4 sinks to share and they are never crowded. All the hostels usually have a shared kitchen. The kitchen in this hostel was huge with like 6 stoves and 6 fridges, and very modern. We used it to cook in Sydney pretty much 80% of our meals. The hostel also had a pool, sauna, rooftop floor with a nice view of the city, it had a cinema that would play 2 different movies every day, big common areas with pool table and some arcade games. Most hostels have different activities every day that suit the budget backpacker. Doesn’t all this sound very cool? It is, for a “cheap” hotel and that is why most of the time we are planning on staying in YHA hostels which is like a chain and they have very good standards for hostels and facilities all over the world. Look at some of the hostel pictures we posted…
The second night in Sydney we went to one of the planned activities for the day which was an Aussie (Australian) BBQ in another
hostel of the chain. $5 dollars for a big Kangaroo burger and a free drink! Yes, you read right…. KANGAROO burger! Kangaroo burger are actually pieces of Kangaroo meat that look and taste like a juicy and soft steak, so it is not a patty. We chatted all evening with a cool group of 3 guys. It was our first experience with such a multicultural group in Australia: a guy from Germany, another from Canada, one from France and us two. It has been like that ever since, meeting people from all over the world but we have noticed there are many Germans, Dutch and Canadians traveling in Australia. As a matter of fact we haven’t met any Latin or American people yet! … and I am starting to doubt we will meet any…
The third day we went out to the Sydney Opera House, which is beautiful to look at. We walked by the Sydney Harbor or Bridge that is another of the emblematic things in Sydney (right next to the Opera House) and to The Rocks area of the town which is like the historical area and buildings.
While in The Rocks we stopped to have an
Australian beer in a historical hotel bar where they produce their own beer. We were invited to sit with 3 Australian guys that were having some drinks. That was a really cool experience to finally sit and have a talk with Australian people!
The rest of the days in Sydney were spent planning our trip in Australia, booking rooms and flights and walking around Central Sydney.
MELBOURNE
From Sydney we flew to Melbourne. This is the second biggest city in Australia and it is very pretty and modern. Our main reason for going there is because our Great Ocean Road tour departs from here. We walked around the city for a day and went to bed early. The next day at 6.45 a.m. our Great Ocean Road tour was going to start.
GREAT OCEAN ROAD
The trip along this road is considered to be one of the most beautiful in the world… and we definitely think so. Judge yourself by the pictures we are posting!
Our first stop in the tour was the beach town of Torquay… this is the town where Quicksilver, Roxy, Rip Curl and Billabong were all born! So
all these companies are Australian….. I had no idea! It is probably the biggest surf town in Australia and they hold one of the most famous world surf competitions every year.
After this, we spent a day and a half just driving by the road and stopping in the most beautiful spots of the Road. Breathtaking views……..We also stopped by a few beaches to take a swim, which we only did one time because the water was probably 17 degrees Celsius cold (62 Fahrenheit)! Too cold for us but refreshing and it does wake you up.
Our first day on the tour we saw our first wild koalas!!! That was really exciting… No doubt anymore that we were in Australia! Koalas spent most of their days sleeping and hugging a tree but we saw a few actually walking down the tree with their 4 feet.
The first night we slept in Princetown, population 17! It was a good experience and we talked to some of the local people… whose English is very hard to understand, especially for Xiomara. They have a funny accent.
Some of the second and third day we spent it in the Grampians National
Park which is close to the Great Ocean Road. It is full of kangaroos, which you can see in the pictures, there were really big groups of them super close to the place we were staying at. We laid in the grass looking at them interact, eat grass and make funny kangaroo noises. They are all wild but very friendly and super cute creatures.
In the Grampians National Park we also hiked a beautiful mountain, which was mainly all rocks. Xiomara got pretty scared going up the rocks but she made it to the top! And the view from there was impressive.
In our tour we were 24 people and we all got along really well. There were people from Germany, Switzerland, Holland, France, Japan, Canada, Austria and Spain. We even got offered some houses to stay with them when we will go to Europe on our backpacking trip. Everyone was very nice and we had a lot of fun with our group.
ADELAIDE AND THE BAROSSA VALLEY
Adelaide is a pretty town in the south of Australia. It was the biggest city from where to go to the Barossa Valley, which is were most
of the Australian wine is produced. We did a full day tour to the wine country of Barossa Valley. It was a day packed with wine tasting and learning about wine. We went to 4 wineries and tried different wines there.
KANGAROO ISLAND
This is an island 1.5 hours from Adelaide. More than two thirds of the island are all protected National Parks. It is an island full of wildlife. It was very amazing to be here because we were able to see more kangaroos and wallabies (a type of kangaroo but much smaller and darker in color) that are almost extinct in the mainland and some koalas too!
But the highlight of the trip was seeing wild Australian Sea Lions, New Zealand Fur Seals and the Ferry Penguins! We went to areas in the island where you can watch them in their natural habitat interacting with each other and you can get really close to them too. It was pretty incredible… I thought I was going to have to go to Antarctica or Galapagos Islands to see this! But it’s right here in Australia.
Enjoy all the pictures of these pretty animals… it was really
special moments for us. You won’t see any pictures of the little penguins because we saw them at night and it was too dark for pictures. Oh!, and I have to mention that some of the seals and sea lions look like they are almost dead, because they are sleeping. These animals go out to fish and eat for 3 days non-stop and then come back, sssooo tired, all they do is sleep.
The other highlight of the trip was doing Sand boarding… so it is like sledding or snowboarding but on sand! Part of the Kangaroo Island is like a little Sahara Desert and there are sand dunes, really pretty ones. And you go up the hill and go down on a board that slides super fast! It was a lot of fun and by the end you are full of sand everywhere.
*** All these tours that we are doing are recommended by the hostels were are staying at, so these are companies that cater to the backpackers and budget travelers. Most of the people are between 20 and 38 years old. These are cheaper companies but the tours are very informative and full of
fun. So during the tours we do fun activities to get to know each other better.
It is also very funny because since it is a more budget tour and the food is included in the price, everyone in the tour tries to help the guide cook the meals and we all wash the dishes together. During the tour we also sleep in dormitory style rooms or sleeping bags in the same area. So you are really bonding with everyone all the time. It is easy to make new friends from all over the world.
Tomorrow morning (December 24 here, December 23 where most of you are) we leave on a 9 day outback excursion! We will be hiking through some beautiful national parks and sleeping under the stars in swags. These are like a sleeping bag with a foam mattress attached. So we wish everyone a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year’s! We will update our blog when we reach Darwin in 9-10 days…
~by Xiomara
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Rod
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Merry Christmas
Merry Christmas to both of you!!!! Miss and love you two and glad to see that you are having a great time! Just in case you were wondering.......we got more snow last night.