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Published: April 24th 2010
Australia
We had allocated 3 months for 'down under' and the plan was to spend a couple of weeks in each city starting in Adelaide and working our way up the east coast and finish in Darwin. We decided (unlike New Zealand) that hiring a car or campervan wouldn't really work out well for us in terms of cost and it would mean too much driving so we opted to train, bus and fly from place to place. Flying worked out to be an excellent decision as the domestic flights in Australia are dirt cheap (Jet Star Airline puts Easy Jet to shame) and instead of a 12 hour bus journey in the wicked hot heat we were able to fly from place to place in cool comfort all in a couple of hours.
Unlike the America and New Zealand blogs we have decided to do the Australia blog all in one versus breaking it down state by state. The main reason for this was that as much as we were looking forward to Australia, as far as we were both concerned, it wasn't going to be the absolute highlight of the trip for us and as such we
Great Barrier Reef
This was one of the highlights of Matt's diving, he came across this turtle which slowly and calmly swam right by himhadn't really planned to do as much as we did in New Zealand. Therefore this part of the blog will be a bit shorter than the others. With that said, we were very surprised at just how nice Australia actually is (much better than our expectations).
We flew from Christchurch in New Zealand to Adelaide via Sydney and arrived in Adelaide late evening (around 10pm). We then caught a bus from Adelaide airport and arrived at the hostel that we had booked at around 10.30pm. Unfortunately, it was the worst hostel we had encountered so far in our trip (imagine the toilet scean from Trainspotting and you get the idea) and we really did not want to stay a second longer than necessary but as it was now 11pm at night we thought we would have no choice and would have to stay overnight and then look for another hostel in the morning. Noble Knight Matt, however, went for a wander to see if any other hostels were still open and found a small pub across the road that offered accommodation. The lovely lady at the pub offered us a private room for the same price as the dorm
in the other hostel and also only charged us for 5 nights of the 7 we booked in for. A right result! The great thing was that we had not paid any deposit at the other hostel so we did not lose any money.
We ended up staying in Adelaide, which is Australia's fifth largest city, for 2 weeks in total as a heatwave hit the day after we arrived and therefore we couldn't get out and about as much as we wanted to. For 6 days straight the temperature hit 42 ºC which is 107.6 ºF! With no air conditioning, it was quite unbearable, especially at night and we took to showering very regularly just to keep our body temperature down (10 times in one day was the record). We ended up hiding inside the library during the day as they had air conditioning and free internet. Honestly, you could feel your skin burn just being outside for a few seconds.
Once the temperature dropped to a more managable 27 ºC which is 80.6 ºF we were able to get out and about. We strolled around the river and botanical gardens, browsed around Rundall Mall, explored Chinatown
Adelaide park
Taken while strolling down the river and Central Market and visited the Australia Museum and local casino.
From Adelaide we headed to Melbourne on the 'Overlander' train as it was much cheaper than flying and we would get to see some of the diverse range of landscapes in Australia such as rugged mallee scrubland, fields of golden crops, vast open plains and gently rolling hills. The train passed through classic Australian country towns including Murray Bridge, Bordertown, Nhill, Dimboola, Horsham, Ararat and Geelong on its way to Melbourne. The journey should have taken 10 hours in total but after various signal problems en route, the journey ended up taking just over 13 hours. We (finally) arrived in Melbourne around 9pm and caught a bus straight over to the beach resort of St Kilda which is just outside the city centre.
We decided upon a 2 week stay in Melbourne, spending one week in St Kilda and one week in the city centre. Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria and is also the second most populous city in Australia. St Kilda is an inner city suburb of Melbourne and is 6km south of Melbourne city centre.
Our
hostel in St Kilda was above an Irish pub and offered free breakfast every morning and discounted evening meals each night which was good. The hostel also hosted a free poker tournament while we were there which Matt took part in but he went out quite early in and didn't win any money! The hostel was about a 5 minute walk from Albert Park where the Melbourne Formula 1 race track is so that was a must see.
Unfortunately, we arrived in Melbourne on Wednesday 20 January 2010, a couple of months too early to actually attend the Melbourne F1 race which took place on Sunday 28 March but we did get to walk around the entire 5.303 km circuit, pit lane and garages.
We took some long walks around St Kilda and the neighboring areas to take in all the sights. We spent some time at the beach, visited the historic Luna Park Amusement Park and also stopped quite a few times in Albert Park and watched the various cricket matches that were happening. Generally, we spent a week relaxing and taking it easy!
A week later we jumped on the tram and headed into town.
We were staying right in the centre of town for the second week so everything was within easy walking distance.
The town centre hostel we stayed in looked grubby from the outside so we were initially worried and after checking in and walking to our room on the third floor we saw that the first two floors were basically an open plan space (like a big gym) split into little cubicles partitioned by MDF walls which didn't go all the way up to the ceiling so you could see into other rooms from the top bunk! Luckily we were on the third floor which had recently been refurbished. Each corridor could only be accessed with a security card and our room was immaculate. It had its own air conditioning unit and a really comfy bed.
Whilst in Melbourne we visited the museums and art galleries and also walked around the Sydney Olympics Olympic Park which, even being 10 years old, was very impressive. They are still developing it with new stadiums, etc so we just hope London does nearly as nice a job! We also went to the MCG (Melbourne Cricket Ground) and caught a days worth of
cricket. It was the Ladies National Final and it was free entry so we spent the day chilling in the sun watching the cricket.
The Melbourne Tennis Open was also running while we were in Melbourne so we visited the Rod Laver arena to get a few pictures. Unfortunately, we didn't arrive in time to get tickets but did watch the Federer v Murray final on TV in a restaurant nearby.
We also went to the local casino a couple of times and Matt actually walked out $35 up one night after playing roulette and getting 6 red/black's on the trot correct so we ate well that night. :-)
From Melbourne we flew to Sydney where we stayed in the Kings Cross area for 2 weeks in total. We were initially worried as we had heard some bad stories about the area (red light district) but we found the area to be quite plesasent plus it was cheap and where much of the hostel accommodation was situated. Whilst here we did the obligatory viewing of Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Sydney Opera House which were both very impressive.
We explored Sydney and surrounding areas such as
Darling Harbour and the Rocks and took in all the sights. One place we visited a few times were the Botanic Gardens as from our hostel we had to walk through them to get to the Sydney Opera House and Harbour Bridge.
Walking through the Botanical Gardens was amazing as there were thousands of bats in the trees and even in the middle of the day the sky and trees were filled with them and the sound was amazing.
There were also lots of spiders in the gardens which were facinating to look at (but not touch!). We were walking down one of the paths one afternoon and Matt stopped dead in his tracks staring at a bush as he had found a spider about the size of his hand. We took pictures of some of the spiders we saw so apologies in advance to anyone not great with spiders as there are quite a few pictures of them on here.
When Matt left his job at ACT Teleconferencing, his work colleagues very kindly clubbed together and got him/us a great gift of a jet boat ride around Sydney Harbour plus dinner afterwards. (Thanks again guys!) We
The Overlander train
This was the train we caught from Adelaide to Melbourne (all 13 hours worth) had been looking forward to that for quite a while and when the day came around at last, we got to the harbour and watching the boat coming in, we thought rain was on the way as the people getting off the boat were absolutely soaked and were wringing out their clothes! No, there was no rain, they were just soaked from the ride!
After donning our "waterproof kagool", we climbed aboard the boat and headed out into the harbour. As we were slowly going along towards the Opera House the driver turned round and started to explain the saftey instructions to us all. It was at this point we realised we were in for a bumpy wet ride! He proceeded to explain that once we were away he would be going around the harbour and bays for about 45 minutes and every time he swung his hand in the air you had to all count down from 5 and hold on for dear life!
When he turned back round and hit the accelerator it was like an aeroplane taking off - we were jammed into the back of our seats! The boat tore off at a crazy
Albert Park
If you look carefully you can make out the route of the F1 track fast speed and after a couple of minute he stuck his hand up - we counted down from 5 and held on tight! We were going at about 60mph (the engines have 800 horse power) and we were spun round 270° creating a MASSIVE wave that drenched us all. He then gave us some information about the part of the harbor we were at and then carried on to a different location. This went on for 45 enjoyable minutes and needless to say, when we got off the boat we were soaked to the bone! The kagool they provided turned out to be as much use as a chocolate teapot! They were so not waterproof! Whilst dripping wet, we went to the restraunt (Dianna attempting to dry herself on the hand dryers in the toilets!) and had a lovely dinner - we would like to say thank you again to all of Matt's colleagues at ACT for the excellent gift.
Whilst in Sydney we also visted the famous Bondi Beach. We packed up a lunch for the day and headed for the beach and were very lucky as it was fantastic weather that day. We chilled out on the
Albert Park F1 Track
The pit lane and garages beach for the afternoon which was great. The only disappointing thing was that as the weather was so fine, the sea was very calm and there were no waves. This disappointed Matt as he had hoped to hire a surfboard and ride some waves.
From Sydney we flew to Brisbane where we stopped for 2 weeks. Brisbane is the capital of Queensland and all the central streets are named after the Royal family. We stayed in a nice small hostel in Fortitude Valley run by a lovely english couple and situated close to the Brisbane river. The hostel even had a big wild water dragon who lived on the wall in the garden! In fact, while in Brisbane we saw a lot of huge water dragons running around which was cool. There was not as much to see and do in Brisbane but we needed time here to sort out our Thailand visa as Brisbane was the last place with a Thailand Embassy on our route through Australia.
Whilst in Brisbane we visited Lone Pine Koala Sanctury which was founded in 1927 and is the world's oldest and largest koala sanctury, with over 130 koalas. When we got
Albert Park
In the pit lane to the park we were amazed at how well it had been set up. Once inside we consulted our map of the park and found they had various shows and feeding sessions so we planned our day with our first stop being the wild lorikeet feeding. The keepers filled up these little dishes with food and passed the dishes out to people to hold as the lorikeets came down to feed. There were loads of them and they came down and sat on the edge of the dishes to feed so you could easily stroke them and get pictures with them. Matt even had one land on his head which apparently, he says, was quite painful as they have very long and sharp talons. Next we headed to the Bird of Prey show which was brilliant with lots of cool birds of prey catching food and showing off (Matt very nearly got whacked in the head by an eagle). Next we ventured further into the park and came across the Koalas, hundreds of them split into different pens around the park. They had a baby pen, a teenagers pen, a male pen and a senior citizens pen. They all seemed
very happy and relaxed and were very cute! Next we headed to the kangaroo pen which was a huge field with hundreds of kangaroos roaming about. You could walked freely in the field and also buy bags of food to feed the kangaroos of you wanted to. We bought a couple of bags of food and sat in the field with kangaroos all around us and fed them and petted them - it was so cool! Dianna fell in love with a one eyed kangaroo which she named 'one eyed Willy'. Also in the park were bats, aligators, platypus, dingos, tasmanian devils, wombats, farm animals and kookaburras. It was a great day and we had a lot of fun.
We also spent an afternoon over on the South Bank in the free man made swimming area which was great fun and a good way to cool off.
It was in Brisbane that we discovered sushi - something Dianna did not think she would like as she does not like raw fish. Turns out it's not all fish and Brisbane is awash with sushi shops so thought it rude not to try it. We ended up trying all sorts
Albert Park
Check out the skid marks of flavours as it was very cheap.
From Brisbane we flew to Cairns where again we stayed for 2 weeks. We were really looking forward to this part of the trip as we had booked (as a treat) into an apartment rather than a hostel as we found a great online rate, the same price as a hostel plus we had booked a 3 day / 2 night diving trip in the Great Barrier Reef.
We spent the first couple of nights at a hostel (as they offered free airport pick up and free luggage storage for while we were on the diving trip). We hired an underwater camera to take with us on our diving trip so when it was delivered to us the night before our trip, we spent a few hours in the swimming pool at the hostel messing around with the camera and learning how it worked. Great fun!
The diving trip in the Great Barrier Reef was such an amazing experience. We spent 3 days and 2 nights aboard Pro Dive's 'Scubapro III' diving boat.
We were picked up from outside our hostel by the Pro Dive team at 06.10am (urgh!)
Albert Park
Matt sitting on the start/finish line (he burnt his bum whilst taking this pic as it was VERY hot that day) and taken to the shop to check in and sort out our equipment (flippers, masks, snorkels, stinger suits, etc. Once that was done we were taken by bus to the harbour to board the boat. As soon as we climbed aboard we were ushered into the galley for a welcome meeting and a spot of breakfast (and blessed coffee for Matt!).
By 10.00am we had arrived at our first dive sight and our first expereience of the Great Barrier Reef. After an amazing first dive, we had lunch and the boat moved on to the next site. By 13.00 we were back in the water for the 2nd dive of the day. Coffee and cake greeted us after the 2nd dive and after a few hours of chilling out, our third dive took place around 16.00. After a great dinner it was time for the last dive of the day, the night dive. As Dianna was only snorkelling for the trip and not a certified diver, she was not able to go in the water for the night dive but as Matt is certified, he was very excited about his first ever night dive which he enjoyed emensly.
We were woken at 06.30am (urgh again!) the following day for a 07.30am dive which was amazing because of the diversity of fish, etc at that time in the morning. Some fish are off to bed and others are just waking up! A hearty and well needed breakfast of bacon and eggs followed the morning dive and before we knew it, we were back in the water for the second dive of the day at 11.00am. It was during this dive that Matt saw the sea turtle in the picture on this blog. After lunch, we were back in the water for the third dive of the day at around 15.00hrs and it was this dive that Dianna managed to capture the picture of Nemo! After dinner, another night dive for Matt at around 19.00hrs and it was during this dive that he was lucky enough to see Brian the Turtle, a giant turtle the size of a dining table. Unfortunately, no pictures of Brian as it was too dark. On the top deck, Dianna watched facinated as Matt jumped into the sea with the waters teeming with sharks - she just prayed for his safe return!
On our
Albert Park
This was one of the corners on the track last day in the Great Barrier Reef we were woken at 05.45am (triple urgh!) for our last morning dive at 06.15am. After another hearty breakfast we were back in the water again at 09.00am. This time Dianna did not enjoy it so much as everywhere she swam, the waters seemed to be full of jellyfish. Luckily she was wearing a full stinger suit. The last dive of the trip took place at 11.30am and by 15.30hrs we had arrived back at the harbour.
We were dropped back at our hostel by the Pro Dive Team where we collapsed into bed and prompty fell asleep! We were due to meet up with the other passengers and crew for dinner and drinks in the evening but we slept right through to the morning!
It was without doubt, one of the most amazing experiences of our trip and we definately want to come back and dive the Great Barrier Reef again one day.
We spent one more night at the hostel and then moved on to our apartment down the road the folowing morning.
When we arrived at the apartment hotel and checked in, we were amazed to find
Albert Park
This is the view from the edge of the lake in Albert Park that we had been upgraded from a studio apartment to a one bedroom apartment for free! We were delighted when we got to the room - it had a kitchen, lounge area, dining area, separate bedroom, bathroom and laundry room. It was better than our flat at home. Even better, when we opened the patio doors, we had our own garden, table and chairs and a hot tub! We were in heaven! Needless to say, we spent a lot of time in the hot tub and really enjoyed the freedom of having our own space! The great thing was that we had a washing machine and dryer in the apartment so we could get everything in our bags washed for free!! The hotel also had a gym and Dianna took advantage of this to try and get in some practice for her Race for Life 5km run she is doing with her sisters in June and managed to run 3km without stopping the first time she tried! Horray!
We did leave the apartment now and again - Cairns has a great swimming lagoon down by the harbour where we spent a couple of afternoons chilling out. You can't swin
St Kilda
This was taken in Albert Park in the sea as the water is full of jellyfish.
Hurricaine Ululi hit the Queensland coast while we were there but luckily it did not reach Cairns. We left Cairns a few days later and flew to Darwin where we spent the last week of our Australia trip. We stayed in a lovely hotel with great swimming pool and spent the week relaxing by the pool. We also went to the swimming lagoon, an area by the beach where the water has been netted off so that jellyfish can't get in and you can swim safely. Whilst in Darwin, we got to watch some amazing lightening shows every evening (plus occassional thunder and torrential rain).
We certainly enjoyed our time in Australia and have to say, enjoyed it much more than we expected to. It is not as pretty as New Zealand or as exciting as Vegas but it has a certain appeal.
Next stop, Singapore!
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Mummmmmmmaxx
non-member comment
Down Under!
Love the pics - Have you posted home my Koala and Kangaroo????!!!! Its lovely to see how well you both look. Have you pre-warned Claire about the Spider situation - don't want her going into Cardiac Failure!!!!!! Love and kisses xxxxxxxxxx