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Published: October 8th 2008
Among Sydney's Sky
At the top of the Bridge Climb with the famous opera house in the back. We're at the stage of our trip where, for the first time in nearly three months away, we are getting closer to home rather than farther away. Since July 12, when we boarded a plane from Rochester, NY to New York City to connect to our flight to Casablanca, Morocco, we have been moving in a constant "away" direction. Now, in Australia, we have rounded the corner, and will be moving "toward" home. To new jobs and a new city, getting back to our family, friends and dogs. It's an exciting and bittersweet time of the trip.
We have grown accustomed to the constant moving and culture changes and challenges of each passing country. Now that we've reached our tenth country of this trip, these challenges have all but ceased. Australia and New Zealand are, compared to the countries we've been visiting, similar to America. And when we get to Fiji, we will basically be staying in one place -- the beach -- for a few days to decompress before our 27 hours of flights and connections home. So it only gets easier from here.
Australia conjurs up many images of the Outback, the Bush, beaches, laid-back people,
Bridge Climb
With downtown Sydney as our backdrop the Crocodile Hunter. We wish we could say that we experienced it all. However, due to our time constraints of only having 9 days here we couldn't. Plus the fact that this is a vast continent with the majority of the population living on the periphery, makes travel to and from different locations here difficult, time-consuming, and very expensive. So we had to limit ourselves to just the Great Barrier Reef area and Sydney. If you're going to limit yourself to two places in Australia, you could do a lot worse.
Getting to our first stop was exhausting. First, we had a long overnight flight from Singapore to Brisbane and then on to Cairns. We arrived in Cairns in early-afternoon of September 29 and had an overnight bus to catch to Airlie Beach at midnight. That makes two days in a row of trying to sleep in barely-reclining seats with no legroom. So Cosmina, smart as she is, recommended -- INSISTED, really -- that we get a room for the eight or nine daylight hours we were to be in Cairns so that we could catch up on the sleep we missed while in flight. I married a very
Greyhound Australia
En route to Airlie Beach, Queensland smart woman.
We got a cheap room, and even though it was of negligible cleanliness, we spread a fresh sheet over the mattress and got a good nap. When we woke up, we got our dinner (free with our hostel room) at the pub next door. We then strolled the seaside area of Cairns and eventually made our way to the very nearby bus depot for our midnight departure.
After a sleepless flight the night before, we slept through most of what should have been an uncomfortable and equally sleepless 10-hour overnight bus trip. We were only roused three times for thirty-minute food and bathroom breaks. By morning, we were in Airlie Beach.
Airlie Beach is a beautiful large town on the coast of Queensland (known in Australia as the Sunshine State, actually). It has the feel of a coastal California village, only with more backpacker hostel and pubs that give it a college dorm-party atmosphere. Airlie Beach is mostly used as a gateway to the very scenic Whitsunday Islands and Whitehaven Beach (thought by many to be the most beautiful beach in Australia).
When our first try for a cheap room came up dry, we
called around and finally got a double room at the Koala Budget Hotel for our four nights there. It wasn't a bad deal. For about US $55 we had two beds, a kitchen, A/C and a location in the center of town. It seemed pretty clean and had a nice bathroom. We were happy.
The rest of the day we spent scouting around the different tour companies to find the best deals for SCUBA, snorkel and boat trips to Whitsunday Islands. What we ended up with was a reasonable deal for two separate days at sea (with different companies) -- one day to the Barrier Reef and one to Whitehaven Beach. We also booked a kayaking trip for the following day.
The next day, October 1, we were picked up right in front of our hotel and brought to the Salty Dog Kayaking dock. We met Ol' Salty himself, our guide from New Zealand. We spent about an hour and a half paddling from the mainland against the current (!) toward our first stop among the Whitsunday group, "White Rock", an island of about a couple acres with a big rocky outcrop in the middle and a beach
of big chunks of dead coral rather than sand. Very scenic, but it took us a few minutes to recoop from the exhausting paddling. Luckily, the ride back (WITH the current) was a lot easier, and with Cosmina taking over steering duties on the return ride, things went a whole lot smoother.
We returned around noon, got a deli sandwich for lunch, and headed to the Lagoon for some sunbathing. In Airlie Beach, as in Cairns, there isn't really a beach, per se, but a very, very large inground pool (maybe and acre or so) made to look like a beach, right by the sea. It is a popular place to sunbathe, so we grabbed a patch of grass nearby and took turns taking a dip in the lagoony goodness.
All that relaxation worked up an appetite, so when dinnertime came around, we headed to a nearby steakhouse for what's known as the "Kangaroo and Croc Combo". We were under no illusions that this is what Australians eat on a daily basis and figured its strictly for tourists. Being tourists, we ate with gusto, and it was actually quite good. The croc was like chicken, but a tad
Merely for the View
Climbing the rocks with our bare hands and feet was not easy, but Aaron managed his way to the top and it was all worth it. chewier. The kangaroo was like a tender steak. Both had their own marinades and were awesome!
On the walk back, and against Cosmina's wishes, I bought our first jar of Vegemite (the "yeast concentrate spread" loved by Aussies and made famous to Americans by the Men at Work song). While we were going through our illnesses in South Africa, our very sweet hotel proprietress encouraged us to try a similar product called "Marmite" (she said it would give us good nutrients and help our stomachs), and we really didn't like it very much. One theoretically spreads it on a slice of toast or a cracker, takes a bite and declares, "Yum!". We did not. It is like a tiny peanut butter jar filled with a paste the color of shoe-polish, smells like feet, and tastes like very oversalted veggies. But the Aussies here love it, and wear it like a badge of honor, as if eating it proves that they're a real Australian bloke. We met a really nice Aussie couple while hiking the Great Wall of China who kept a jar of Vegemite and some crackers in their daypack just in case. Auusies love it that much! I
think part of them enjoys the fact that everyone else is repulsed by the fact that they love it so much. Anyway, we bought some, took it back to the room and had a snack. It actually wasn't too bad and we are now already halfway through the jar. It is definitely not for everyone and certainly an acquired taste.
Knuckle Reef of the Outer Great Barrier Reef was our destination for the next day. A large boat called "Seaflight" would whisk us and about 150 others to a large pontoon diving-pier anchored next to the reef where we could snorkel, eat, waterslide, and (for a little extra) take an intro SCUBA dive. We knew it would be kind commercial and did resemble a small cruise ship. We knew there would probably be better places to dive and the coral here wouldn't be the best, but being that neither of us have SCUBA-dove before, we figured this would be a well-run operation to test it out.
It took us about three hours to get to the Reef. During this time, we relaxed, watched some information and safety videos, were served a breakfast of tea coffee, pastries as well
as Vegemite. We noticed that almost every person around us had some Vegemite on their plate. Keep in mind that this is leftover brewers' yeast ... for breakfast! The staff was very professional and friendly throughout, and they made us feel that we were in good hands.
We arrived, and since our dive time-slot was a half hour away, we were the first in line for lunch. We gobbled down a quick and delicious lunch. Then, the moment of truth .... without knowing what we were doing, wetsuits and SCUBA gear were strapped onto us in record time. When we stood up, the weight from the tank and the belt weights (to keep divers from floating to the surface) made it difficult to move around. We were lead down some stairs to the water, where we were given last-minute instrustions. Four of us paired with two instructors (we each were with a different instructor)and were lead to the water. Basically, we held the instructors hand and let them control our depth. We just hung on and prayed our eardrums wouldn't burst.
After a few minutes of pressure equalization, we felt perfectly normal and at ease. I felt so
Coco Net
Protects people's heads from apparently hazardous and sometimes fatally falling coconuts. No Joke! relaxed that the instructor let me go for a few minutes at a time. The combination of the beautiful fish (parrot fish and a giant Maori Wrasse among other colorful fish) and reef, the feeling of weightlessness, and the disbelief at what I was doing combined into a feeling of euphoria. Because Cosmina was skeptical of how waterproof our "waterproof" camera is, we didn't take any pictures (except for the pictures that the underwater cameraperson took of us -- and we paid for). Even if we had, you can't adequately capture the view and feeling you get when you're down there. I definitely want to get my certification now and go back to an even nicer part of the reef.
After the dive, we did some snorkelling for a while, and then lounged, went down the waterslide a few times, and soaked up the perfect, sunny weather. We enjoyed our few hours there, but were plenty exhausted by the end of it. We worked up an appetite for something delicious, so we went to a local kaiten-zushi (sushi on a conveyor belt) restaurant and watched the empty dishes stack up. For a nightcap, we joined the backpacker crew at
Crocodile and Kangaroo
The white meat is crocodile and it tastes somewhat like chicken, while the red meat is crocodile and it tastes like tender beef steak. a local bar for some karaoke. I belted out my best shot at Billy Joel's "Only the Good Die Young" and Cosmina was my only groupie.
Some things in Australia are unbelievably similar to in the US. For example, when they crank Bon Jovi's "Livin' on a Prayer" at a bar here, all the 20-year old fratboys here wail away to a song that wasn't even out when they were alive ... just like in the States! Oh well, at least they appreciate a classic.
We had a day off the following day, so we basically hung out by the lagoon. It was intermittantly overcast, so the highlights of our day were a fish and chips lunch and a little internet time. When we came back to our hotel, I opened up our daypack, to take out a folder. A big cockroach, who'd apparently hitched a ride in the bag, climbed out and across the bed. Cosmina let out a scream that would've made Jennifer Love Hewitt proud as I played exterminator, turning over the bed until I finally found and killed our six-legged guest.
The next morning, we set out with a group of about 35
Karaoke Night
The girls were all over him!
people on the sailing catamaran "Camira" to Whitehaven beach. There was almost no wind that day, so the motor did most of the work to get us there. We made a stop along the way at a cove where there was supposedly some reef. With my jellyfish "stinger suit" on -- it is the beginning of jellyfish season here -- I took to the waters without Cosmina. Not only was the reef awful, but I actually got a small jellyfish sting on one of the few parts of my body not covered with stinger-suit: the base of my thumb. I never saw it coming. The stinger wasn't attached, so when I got back on board I just put ice on it and I was OK.
When we finally made it to Whitehaven Beach, we were treated to a beautiful sight. White, talcum-soft sand and turquoise water that could've been a screensaver on someone's computer ... or a Corona commercial. Unfortunately, because of the lack of wind, we were behind schedule and only had an hour to soak it in. Cosmina and I took a long relaxing walk along the gorgeous shore, and only waded in a little, for fear
of more jellyfish encounters.
Once the hour was up, we set off for a sunset sail (or motor) back to Airlie Beach. The weather made it a nice boat trip. Despite the lousy snorkelling stop which was a TOTAL waste of time, it was a pretty nice, relaxing day. We enjoyed making some new friends, Jim and Elizabeth, a couple from Australia. He is a New Zealander who lived in the States (Boston and Colorado) and now resides in Australia. They both had some interesting stories about Australia, New Zealand and the US. We had a great time chatting with them.
The next morning, we hopped on our Qantas flight to Sydney. Luckily, we had already booked a private room at our hostel, "Wake Up!". It is a clean place with laundry, travel services and a very central location right by the trains that suited us well. We also are right in Chinatown, so we went to one of the local chinese restaurants for some good food. We told them to chop up whatever was hanging in the window and serve it on rice, and that's exactly what they did. It was pretty tasty.
We spent the
First Time Scuba Diving
With my instructor on my left. next day hitting the tourist trail, which start precisely at the Sydney Opera House. Dramatically perched on a finger of land reaching into Sydney Harbor, it couldn't be a more perfect place to stroll around. After inquiring into opera tickets at the box office, laughing when quoted the prices for two seats, and doing an about-face back down the stairs, we continued along the harborside and through the botanical gardens to Mrs. Macquaries Chair, a scenic outlook that gives you a great view of the Opera House, the Harbor Bridge and the rest of the Harbor. They we hopped a half-hour ferry to the suburb of Manly at the mouth of the Harbor. It really was a great way to see the Harbor area as a whole and appreciate what a great seaside location this city has. It is truly one of the world's most beautiful.
In Manly, we found a little coffee shop right in the ferry terminal (I think it was called "Chocolate by the Bald Man") that specializes in different chocolate desserts ... and the emphasis is on chocolate! Everything comes with a dish of melted chocolate on the side for dipping. We had a truffle
Brave One
But still holding his instructor's hand, loosely. the size of a tennis ball between the two of us and a cappucino. Wow! We spent a couple hours strolling the beautiful beach pathway and enjoying some of the performers of the local music festival we happened to catch.
As you can tell, if you've been reading the blog regularly, we are big animal-lovers. Any time we can pet, ride or kiss an animal, we usually take it. So when we got a coupon for 25% off at the Sydney Wildlife Park including a free picture with a koala, we jumped at it. We got there around noon the next day (October 7), and enjoyed all of the great exhibits of local birds, butterflies and mammals. Some of the higlights were the really cute wombats (they almost don't look real), the kangaroo exhibit featuring a guide intermittently teaching kangaroo facts and playing the didjeridoo (an Aboriginal instument). We finally made our way to the group (pod? flock? herd?) of koalas napping on a tree. We got to pet them and have our pictures taken with them. Apparently, in the state of New South Wales, it is illegal for toursits to hold koalas (not so in other states), otherwise
we would've had an armful. Unfortunately, Cosmina bent down to pick something up, bumped into the tree and almost knocked a couple koalas out of the tree. They aren't easy to disturb, though, and went right back to sleep.
We made our way to "the Rocks", the area of Sydney at the base of the Harbor Bridge that is the oldest neighborhood in Australia. It has a very New England/Boston kind of feel to it. Lots of smart stores, restaurants and pubs frequented by equally smart-looking people. We got a quick snack of pizza and made our way to the Harbor Bridge Climb.
As we've travelled, we have at times included the price of things we've done or eaten. This is usually because they are incredibly cheap and we want to remember just how incredibly cheap things were ("Remember that 30-cent beer we had in Thailand? How about that $15 hotel in Morocco?). Sometimes we are so amazed at what a good deal things are in certain countries, that we just have to share it with you, our cherished readers. The Sydney Harbor Bridge Climb is NOT one of these things. The Climb falls under the category of
"Let's just do this because we may never be back here again and we'll just forget how much this actually was." But our friend Anna Haritos said it was amazing so we had to do it.
It may have lacked in thrift, but it was an amazing experience. The Harbor Bridge is the longest metal single-span bridge in the world and crosses the Harbor connecting Sydney with North Sydney. The bridge climb takes you over the bridge ... and not the part that the cars go over, but you climb up and over the steel arches above the bridge. The amount of detail in the planning and safety precautions for this excursion are amazing. You first sign a waiver (of course), then take a breathalyzer test, then empty everything from your pockets (lest they fall onto the cars below). You are then issued a jumpsuit and every other accessory you have (eyeglasses, hat, handkerchief) must be clipped to the jumpsuit so it too does not fall. You are then issued a headlamp (we did the night climb after dark), a radio and headphones so you can hear your guide, and a strap that you will clip into a guidewire
as a safety measure to keep you secured to the bridge at all time. The whole process took about 45 minutes, and then we made our may up to the bridge. We posed for a few pictures along the way (to be paid for later) and enjoyed the amazing view. Since we started out at sunset, we were treated to a migration of hundreds of bats leaving the Opera House to feed. Some flew right over us. Then the sun completely set and we had the best view of the twinkling lights of the entire Harbor area. What a view! But it didn't compare to the view we received as we were almost at the end of the descent. A group of four drunk Aussie guys on the ground decided to moon our group while yelling up at us to jump. Altogether, it was a great time ... and we actually did get a group photo at the end (in addition to the CD images we had to purchase).
Today was all about relaxation. We took the train and bus to Bondi Beach (Sydney's most famous) and laid out in the sun for a few hours. It was a
Rainy Lagoon
One giant swimming pool at no cost little cold at first (Sydney isn't nearly as tropical as when we were in Queensland) but quickly warmed up. We came back and enjoyed another Kaiten-zushi near our hostel for dinner.
Tomorrow we leave for New Zealand where we hope to rent a car to explore this country we've heard so much about from so many people. Can't wait!
You can check out our Thai cooking class pictures at www.baanthaicookery.com and click on the day 9/19/08.
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Vanessa
non-member comment
Wish I was there
Looks like you had a blast in Australia. I will def. be visiting. What an experience! YOu guys looked really relaxed. Good for you... Love you both! V