Australia Trip, October 19-November 4, 2007

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Friday, October 19th, 5:45pm, JFK
Well, we got to the airport and got through security so fast that now we have to wait another hour. This is so exciting…

Sunday, October 21st, 5:30am, In the Air
Well, we will be in Brisbane in an hour. It’s been a long-ass flight, but not too bad, although the plane hit something when we were taking off in LA and popped one of the tires as we were just getting up in the air. Shelley is sitting far away from us because they changed her seat when she checked in. Our first flight was late getting in from JFK because of all of the traffic. We actually sat in the runway in New York for an hour and it was so cramped inside the plane. I have only slept for about two hours but feel fine. It must be from the excitement. I have befriended my seat mate (the one they gave Shelley’s seat to!) and she is very nice and funny. She lives in Mission Beach, which is a two-hour drive south of Cairns. Once we get to Brisbane, she has to take another two-hour flight and then someone is picking her up to drive two more hours…

8pm….
It’s been a long day…and none of us have barely slept. Our plane landed safely, though we had to sit on the plane for another hour because they had to tow us all the way in to the terminal, because of the tire that was damaged when taking off. Going through customs wasn’t bad and we had no problems getting our car. Shelley drove because I didn’t think I would be comfortable driving on the other side of the road. It was very strange the way everything on the car was on the opposite side..By the time we got out of the airport, we headed towards our apartment, getting lost a little along the way..It was too early to check in, so we went and got something to eat at a place called Stix (which was in the Chalk Hotel) (here’s a hint about ordering certain food and drink in Australia…if you order iced coffee, you will get something that’s almost like a milkshake with ice cream over espresso and real whipped cream..not bad, but not what I had expected) and then drove out to the Long Pine Koala Sanctuary to get our first taste of the famous Australian animals. I LOVED the kangaroos, of course, and we got to walk around and feed them. The koalas are absolutely adorable and they had a lot of them. We got to pat them, too. Their fur was actually kind of coarse and not soft, like you would think. They also make a loud mating noise…kinda funny. The only thing was a little annoying was the overabundance of flies…

Afterwards, we headed back to the apartment to check in. The place that I had booked for us online was called the Kangaroo Point Holiday Apartments. After booking the place, I was starting to read some bad reviews about the place, so I was a little nervous that it was going to be a dump. To all of our surprises, the place was awesome! I went for a quick swim in the pool while Jason and Shelley sat around the pool talking. After awhile, we all went to take showers, then headed to the southbank parklands to have some dinner and walk around to see the sights of Brisbane…very nice little place right along the river, with a man-bult swimming lagoon (which was being renovated) and lots of cool restaurants. So far, Australia is turning out to be just what I had imagined all of these months obsessing about it! And Brisbane itself has me pleasantly surprised…



Monday, October 22nd
We woke up early to go on our first tour, which was the Rainforest Hike, up in Springfield National Park. The bus picked us up around 8am and there was only seven of us on the tour. The company that we were booked with was called Bushwacker Eco-Tours. Our guide, I think her name was Rhianna, was really nice. After being picked up (we were the last ones), we headed down to the Gold Coast area, which was an hour south of the city. We were supposed to be picking up some other people in Surfer’s Paradise but when we got to their hotel, they weren’t there, so we drove for a while longer, heading up into the mountains. Our first stop was the walking track which led down to the Natural Bridge, which is this beautiful cave-like structure that has a waterfall coming through it. Totally cool!

The next stop was way up to the top of the mountains where we hiked through and down to the twin falls, which was actually only one waterfall, since there’s a bad drought going on right now and rain has been scarce. The other waterfall was just a slight drip…We stayed down there for about 20 minutes, while a couple people took a dip in the water (which was pretty damn cold) and then headed back up to the picnic area, where Rhianna was waiting with a lunch. While we were eating, we saw some cool birds like a magpie, which can be dangerous if you come near them when they are protecting their nests. We also saw a paddymelon, which looked like a squirrel-sized kangaroo. He was scared of us, though he kept running away and then coming back when he thought we weren’t looking.

Our last stop was to see the man-made glow worm cave and to feed the beautiful wild red rosellas. I was never a bird person, but after hand-feeding these wild birds, I can say now that I look at birds and really appreciate them. Jason was loving it the most. The glow worms were really cool, too…then we had to stop at the gift shop and buy stuff…

Afterwards, we were headed back to the city, hitting some traffic along the way (though for people from New York and Los Angeles, this traffic was a joke). We couldn’t decide what to do for dinner when we got back and wound up just getting food delivered. It was absolutely disgusting, from some Tibetan restaurant.

Tuesday, October 23rd
Even though Fraser Island is about three and a half hours away from Brisbane (and that’s just the southern part. It’s about 75 miles long), we had to fit in a trip, so I searched the internet forever trying to find a day trip there from Brisbane. I finally did and booked it for us. We were picked up before 7am, then the van stopped at the transit center downtown before everybody boarded again. It was about three to three and a half hours by the time the van dropped us off at a service center in Rainbow Beach. There we were able to buy stuff, get drinks, get some food if needed….while waiting for our big four-wheel drive that was going to take us the rest of the way. When he pulled up about fifteen minutes later, it was a monster truck that fit about 20 or so people. We all got in and were on our way to the barge which was going to take the truck and all across the 10 minute waterway to the amazing sand island. On the barge, we were able to get out and look around until it got near the island. Once across, the truck pulled off the ramp and we were on our way up 75 mile beach, which is actually considered a national highway. Even small airplanes land on it, right next to cars. We unfortunately didn’t see any planes landing or taking off. Only 4wds are even allowed on the island since it is all sand and you have to be trained how to drive on the beach before you can actually do it. So we drove for about 20 minutes or so until we got to the eulong resort, which was where we were going to have lunch. They had a separate buffet that was set up for the people on the tours. To be quite honest, that was one of the nastiest meals that we had on our whole trip.

After lunch, we were off in the 4wd into the center of the island. It was very bumpy and fun driving through the sand. The pathways were narrow and our driver, Mark, was very good at steering through it. He was also very funny. Our first stop was Central Station, where we got to walk on a boardwalk through a rainforest alongside a clear water creek…very beautiful.

Next stop was Jason and Shelley’s favorite: Lake Mackenzie, a fresh water lake that was absolutely amazing. The pure water was about the cleanest you could find and Shelley and Jason went swimming. I didn’t because I didn’t bother to bring my bathing suit, so I walked about knee-deep, taking pictures for other people. We got to see a wild dingo on the beach, which was the highlight of the whole day for me, as Fraser Island is known as being the only place where pure-bred dingo still live in the wild. After almost an hour, we headed back to the 4wd, which went back to the resort for a quick stop before heading back home. Once we got back on the 75 mile beach, the tides had gotten quite high and the 4wd was having a hard time getting through on the sand. I’m not gonna lie, it was getting us a little nervous…finally, after Mark struggled to get the van through, he went up to the inland road, which was a straight-shot, gravel-laden, loud, vibrating wide road that led straight back to where the barge was.

Once back across, we were dropped off in Rainbow Beach again and our other driver was there to take us back to the city. On the way back, we stopped off at a place called Matilda’s or something like that, and had some dinner. It was like a truck stop, but I had one of the best veggie burgers that I have ever had there! We got back home around 10pm. It was a really long day, but well worth it!

Wednesday, October 24th
Today was our last day in Brisbane. We woke up, got ready and headed up the Sunshine Coast and into the Glass House Mountains to the world-famous Steve Irwin Zoo. This zoo is tops, with a total emphasis on animal preservation and conservation. There is a lot of interaction with the animals…very educational. The croc show gave out a lot of great information about crocodiles that a lot of people just don’t know. We spent about four hours there and saw the whole place, then rushed back to the apartment, where Jason and I took a quick dip in the pool, before getting ready for our last night, which was going to be spent down the gold coast at Dracula’s Cabaret Restaurant. I had found this place somewhere on the internet and knew that we had to go. It was a building shaped as a castle, and as you came in (about ten guests at a time), they took you up the elevator and then you would board the ghost train, which were little cars that took you through a little maze where people and things would jump out and try to scare you. Then, some scary woman would kick you off the ride, screaming “Get off my ride!”. You would then be escorted into the theater by the host (who was also in the show), order your meal and be served. About halfway through the meal, the performers would come out on stage and talk, making jokes and laughing at people from different places. For some reason, Australians like to make fun of people from Tasmania.

Then, the show started. It was a bunch of strange acts that seemed to have anything to do with each other, like two guys playing ping pong matrix-style with a black light and someone singing a rendition of Gwen Stefani’s “What you waiting for” while coming out and going into this shadowy canvas. It was quite different….but we are planning to go to their other location in Melbourne when we go back to Australia in 2009, so I would definitely recommend this place.

When we got back to the apartment, we were beat and went right to bed. The first leg of our journey was coming to a close. In the morning, we would be off to the north…stay tuned…

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Photos

The plane
Our plane ran over something in Los Angeles, but landed okay in Brisbane

Lots of roos
Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary