Australia in 5 Weeks

We have been roaming for just over 2 months now and have wrapped up our travels through Oceania. For the last 5 weeks, we have been making our way through Australia. We could have easily spent 5 more weeks there and still not see everything. While 5 weeks sounds like a good amount of time, its easy to forget that this continent is roughly the same size as the U.S.

Flying out of Christchurch, New Zealand, we arrived a few hours later in Sydney. Australia's largest city reminded us a little bit of of NYC with its skyscrapers, cultural diversity and constant hum of activity. We spent our first full day getting to know the city by walking all around. We hit all the major landmarks including: the Sydney Opera House, the Sydney Harbor Bridge, Circular Quay, the Rocks, the Royal Botanic Gardens, Hyde Park and St. Mary's Cathedral. By the end of the day, we were pretty exhausted and the walk back to our hostel seemed twice as long as we remembered from earlier in the day.

The next day we decided to take a day trip out to the Blue Mountains. From Central Station, we hopped on a train and made our way through the suburbs into the country side. While on the train we caught a glimpse of our first kangaroo and our excitement amused an Australian gentleman sitting across from us.

Our first view of the Blue Mountains was pretty spectacular and made it hard to believe just a couple hours ago we were in the heart of the city. After making our way across the sky gondola at Scenic World, we rode the world's steepest railway down to the base of the valley. We spent the remainder of the day hiking along the top of the cliff edge and taking in beautiful scenery.

We were pretty beat from all the walking and hiking so we decided it was time to check out some of the beaches around Sydney. We spent a day at the iconic Bondi Beach as well as Manly Beach. Bondi was exactly what we heard: crowded, touristy, over the top and never ending shops. It reminded us a lot of South Beach actually, and since we knew what to expect, we fully enjoyed it.

As we jumped off the bus, we could see some large grandstands filled with people and a massive crowd. By chance, we had showed up as the Vans Bondi Bowl-A-Rama skateboard competition was taking place. We made our way through the crowds and tried to get a view without actually having to buy tickets. We were able to catch most of the masters competition and saw Tony Hawk take first place. It was awesome getting to see him skate in person as well as some of the other greats like Steve Caballero and Bucky Lasek.

Photo by Dean Tirkot. We are way in the back somewhere.

This is my picture of Tony Hawk.

The next day we caught the ferry across the harbor to Manly Beach which was nice and chill compared to Bondi. We had some local Coopers ales and a picnic on the beach before heading back to the city.

From Sydney, we flew down to Melbourne, Australia's second largest city and its cultural center. Per our usual style, we explored the city by walking all around it. The Queen Victoria Market was one of the highlights we stumbled upon. It is the largest open air market in the Southern Hemisphere and had everything you could possibly want from fresh fruits and veggies to aboriginal art sold by an aboriginal man with a pompadour that would have made Elvis jealous. We went back for the night market as well which had lots of food stands and live music.

We still hadn't been to any Australian wineries which simply wouldn't do... Australia is the country that gave the world screw top wine bottles and boxed wine after all. On a side note, the screw top is the greatest invention ever when you are backpacking, forget your bottle opener is in your carry on and TSA confiscates it. So we decided to make a day trip to the Yarra Valley which is best known for its Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. During the tastings, I would swirl the wine around the glass and gave it a good sniff... pretending my knowledge of wine is much more sophisticated than being able to decipher red from white... damn you rosé. We also made a stop at White Rabbit Brewery which made some nice craft beers like Barley Wine which was amazing.

While researching Melbourne, Christine had become infatuated with Little Penguins which come up the beach every night in a "penguin parade" on Phillip Island. We also wanted to go camping in Wilson's Promontory National Park, known for its beautiful rainforests, unspoiled beaches, and abundant wildlife. During this trip, we have figured out that we don't like tours as much as just doing things on our own. That way we are able to see exactly what we want and go at our own pace. So we decided to rent a camper and hit the open opposite side of the Australian rode. Christine wrote about our experience in her post, "We Believe in the Experience."

We spent our last day in Melbourne checking out the street art on Hosier Lane and a neat museum exhibit about the evolution of moving pictures and video in Federation Square.

From Melbourne, we flew up to Cairns. We didn't really enjoy the city very much. Cairns seemed kinda dirty. However our hostel, Tropic Days, was very chill and Cairns Botanic Gardens was a highlight. We also took a day trip to do some snorkeling on the Great Barrier Reef and to the little rainforest hippie town of Kuranda.

We purchased a hop on hop off bus pass with Greyhound Australia which we would be using to make our way down the east coast. As we traveled to Mission Beach, we learned there were two cyclones, Gillian and Hadi, that would be hitting Queensland. In all our trip research, we had completely overlooked cyclone season. It was described to us as a sudden hurricane that spins in the opposite direction.

There was close to nothing in Mission Beach, especially since we were already seeing rain from the cyclone and the beach was not looking so attractive. They do have wild cassowaries in Mission Beach which is a prehistoric looking, flightless bird, but we also didn't see any of those either.

We headed for Airlie Beach the following day which is known for sailing the beautiful Whitsunday Islands off its shore. Unfortunately, Cyclone Hadi was also sitting off its shore and the marina was closed. We spent 4 nights hanging out in our room waiting for the wind and rain to stop. It may have been a blessing in disguise since I was feeling a little under the weather and this forced us to rest. It's difficult to accept that kind of logical silver lining when your plans are being blown out the window by a cyclone.

Shipwreck not from Cyclone Hadi but used for dramatic effect

The sun finally came out the day we were leaving Airlie. We spent the day walking along the shore and lounging at the lagoon. Our bus didn't leave till 7 that night and was a 15 hour over night stretch down to Rainbow Beach. We got as much sleep as possible in the cramped bus seats and were actually happy that we had saved a night's accommodation by sleeping on the bus.

When we arrived in Rainbow, the sun was shining and life was good. Up until this point of the trip, we had stayed in nothing but hostels... some nice, some not so nice. There weren't many options in Rainbow and we decided to stay in a quaint hotel, Debbie's Place. Deb ran the place along with her guard dog, a shitzu named Susie that refused to be house trained and wore diapers every day. Deb was hilarious and once she got talking there was no telling where the conversation was going. She told us how she traded in her ex-husband for Susie and then showed us pictures of some of her travels in the States where she took pictures of Buster, a small, stuffed bear, in front of all sorts of different landmarks and doing things like driving a life guards ATV. Apparently Buster made a break for it in the San Francisco zoo, and she never saw him again.

Deb even checked us into a nicer room at 10am since we had been on a bus all night and the room we booked wasn't ready yet. That evening she told us to turn up at 5:40 to see the most beautiful view of Australia. We couldn't turn that kind of offer down and we showed up having no idea what to expect. She drove us up to the Carlo Sand Blow where we watched the sun set from the top of the giant sand dune with the town down below us. It really was one of the best sunsets we have seen on this trip.

We spent the next two days on a tour of Fraser Island, the largest sand island in the world. There are no paved roads on the island, and we were on a large off-road bus with about 20 other people. We made stops at Lake Mackenzie and Lake Wabby and hiked over giant sand dunes and through the only rainforest to grow on a sand island all on our first day. We were told the fresh water lakes were some of the cleanest in the world. Our driver, Warren, made sure to mention that Fraser Island was world heritage listed at least once every hour. We spent the night at the Eurong Beach Resort which was clearly built in the 80's and never updated since for posterity's sake.

The following day we were back in the bus and driving down the beach. We stopped at Champagne Pools which are protected from the crashing surf by natural rock formations. We also saw the Maheno ship wreck, a fresh water stream where some of the local Aussies were partying it up and the highest point on the island, Indian Head. We even saw some wild dingos! Warren had some good stories about people almost getting mauled by dingos and then being saved by another person at the last second... he failed to mention what exactly to do if you should find yourself in a similar situation and aren't so lucky. Don't go off on your own... "the dingo ate your baby!"

Noosa was our next stop down the coast. It was a chill surf town with a big national park protecting most of its coastline. We hiked from our hostel on Sunshine Beach along the coastal trail through the national park to Main Beach. There were a lot of nice surf breaks along the hike. In Main Beach, I rented a long board and Christine lounged on the beach. The waves weren't huge but I struggled to control the 9'4" log in the water, taking several nose dives and feeling pretty beat up by the end of the session.

We met a really interesting Australian couple at dinner one night in Noosa. They had met while traveling in Pakistan. Since then, they got married and have travelled all over the world together, and continue to do so even now with two young boys. Unfortunately, we didn't get their names, but the woman was a doctor and the man a physical therapist. They lived in an aboriginal community providing health care to the locals. We spoke for a good while about everything from Seinfeld to Obamacare. They were two of the most interesting people we had met, and they even offered to pay for our dinner (food is extremely expensive in Australia). Unfortunately, we had already paid the bill, but we couldn't believe their generosity to make such a nice offer to some travelers they had just met.

From Noosa, we took a day trip to the Australia Zoo which is the late Steve Irwin's Zoo. It was an exciting and interactive experience and now one of our favorite zoos. The crocodile show was awesome, we got up and personal with some kangaroos and there seemed to be a real emphasis on conservation and protecting the animals. Christine realized her dream of holding a koala too. We also checked out the animal hospital they have on site where anyone can bring in hurt wildlife. Crikey!

We made our way to Brisbane, Australia's third largest city. We decided to try out Air BnB and booked a room in someone's home. The couple, Anthony and Sam, had great reviews and were located in an awesome location in one of Brisbane's oldest neighborhoods. It looked like the city had sprung up around the neighborhood. We had a great experience with Anthony and Sam and it was nice to feel like we had a home to stay in rather than a hostel or even hotel.

Over our few days there, we put on our walking shoes and made our way around the city, taking in the Botanic Garden, the South Bank park, Gallery of Modern Art, Westend, Chinatown, and the whole downtown area. We even tried two of the most popular Vietnamese restaurants, Trang and the Vietnamese Restaurant, and judged them based on their pho. The Vietnamese restaurant was the winner just in case you find yourself looking for good pho in Brisbane.

Falling to Earth at GOMA

We also went to a rugby match while in Brisbane. We saw the Sydney Roosters take a last minute victory over the Brisbane Broncos. The game was exciting and fast paced as we tried to figure out exactly what the rules were. Some rowdy blokes around us screamed expletives as the players bashed into each other to round out the entire experience. I have to say, I could get into this game.

Our last stop in Australia was Byron Bay, another little surfer town. Our hostel was located directly across from the beach making our stay there even nicer. While there, we checked out the lighthouse, the most easterly point of mainland Australia, saw a couple pods of dolphins and lounged on the beach. The waves seemed pretty big so I decided to stick to body surfing after my stellar performance in Noosa.

We also took a day trip to Nimbin, which is a little hippie town where alternative lifestyles flourish and the people are left alone by the local authorities. We were on the Happy Bus tour which was an experience in itself. The bus must have been built in the 1960's or 70's and we quickly wished we had seat belts as we bounced out of our seats down the tight twisty roads at bus tipping speeds with an old undecipherable hippie behind the wheel.

And that was Australia in 5 weeks. We really enjoyed our time in the land down under.

We made our way back to Brisbane to catch our flight to Bali and start our adventures in Asia.

 

Down Under

"...our neglect of Australian affairs is curious. As you might expect, this is particularly noticeable when you are a resident in America."

I could not agree more with Bryson. For most of us, Australia is a land of exotic animals, beautiful beaches, and surfing. All of which sound enticing for a nomad like myself but not enough to satiate my curiosity about this incredibly vast country. I needed to know more about this interesting place and reading Down Under helped me dive in head first.

I initially saw this book at the Sydney airport while waiting for our flight to Melbourne. I had never heard of Bill Bryson prior to this but the title and a peculiar picture of a pink map of Australia in an ice cream cone on the cover was appealing. Therefore, I added this book to my "must read" list while traveling. A little more than a week later, I stumbled upon a second hand copy at the Kuranda Market at a backpacker friendly price. The shopowner had little persuading to do as I walked out with my bargain buy.

We had a few rainy days and long bus rides while in Queensland which I welcomed as reading days. Bill Bryson immediately captivated me with his dry sense of humor. He presents the historical facts of Australia in an effortlessly sarcastic way. He pokes fun at the Australians while admiring their country at the same time. He does his research, presents the facts, and takes you on a trip down the unbeaten paths of Australia. This is a laugh out loud book, and sometimes at the most impromptu times.

Bryson does not neglect the aspects of Australia's past which are hard to swallow. He presents the history and shame of Australia in a way that most Australians are too embarrassed to admit. He addresses the convict history and the controversial injustice of the Aboriginees.

After ripping the country apart it seems as if his affinity towards Australia is impossible. To put it simply Bill Bryson has a love/hate relationship with Australia. This book is as dry as the country! Down Under was published in 2000 but the information presented is certainly pertinent today. Down Under is a must read for anyone who wants to know more about how this strangely hot, vast, and dry country thrives.

 

 

Kangaroo Prosciutto?!?

We took a self-guided day trip to the town of Kuranda, located about 45 minutes outside of Cairns. It is situated in the rainforest and is best described as a laid back hippie town. The town is filled with small markets that close promptly at 3 PM. There are plenty of hemp stores, tie dye clothing, and people with colorful dreadlocks around every corner. While we were there, we went to one of Lonely Planet's top rated restaurants for lunch, Petit Cafe. Jon had the lovely idea to order a crepe with kangaroo prosciutto. I must admit that ever since we landed in Australia I have had a frank disgust for red meat and pork but for some reason I thought that having kangaroo prosciutto would make me more of a "serious foodie traveler". I saw what the crepe looked like on another table and I thought that it was asthetically pleasing and possibly tasted "good". So therefore we ordered it...

Let me make this clear, I like kangaroo (the animal). We have seen quite a few since being in Australia and I love them. These big furry beings hop around on the side of the highway regularly. Honestly, when we decided to order the crepe with kangaroo prosciutto on it, I had no idea what I was thinking. So like any adventurous traveler I took a bite. First, I looked at it and all I could think of was the love I had for these marsupials. I still wanted to be like the revered Andrew Zimmern and so I took another bite...biggest regret ever! I hated it! It was horrible. We had to order something else for me!

Kuranda is a quaint town and a nice daytrip from Cairns. We learned more about the didgeridoo then we ever knew before. We even got to practice playing one.

It was an educational day trip and all I know is: at least I tried kangaroo while in Australia!

 

Rough Seas and the Great Barrier Reef

As the big dive boat violently rocked back and forth, bashed through rolling waves at full throttle and the sea spray rained down on us, I began to question just how resistant I was to sea sickness. It turns out... not as much as I previously thought.

We have spent the past couple days in Cairins, Australia. As some of the locals have told us, there's tons to do here as long as you get out of Cairins. Needless to say, we were excited to get out on the reef today.

Naturally, we picked the cheapest tour boat we could find, a large boat that carried around 80 to 100 divers and snorkelers. As we left the harbor, we realized just how rough the seas were going to be. I had only been sea sick once before at a young age and had this misconception that I had the sea legs of an old sailor. When I started to fidget in my seat, hug my knees and the feel the blood drain from my face, Christine looked at me with a concerned expression. Luckily I asked her to grab me a "souvenir" bag as the crew put it right before losing it. My only solace was that nearly half the boat seemed to be in the same condition. It should be noted that Christine does have the sea legs of a sailor and was completely fine the whole ride.

When we arrived at our first dive site, there was nothing I wanted to do more than get off that boat and into the water. Unfortunately, the sea wasn't any calmer at the site. Christine and I stuck together since it was so choppy and the current was pulling pretty hard.

Even though the snorkeling conditions were less than ideal, we had a great time after getting comfortable in the water. The Great Barrier Reef was amazing, huge and teaming with sea life. Our second dive site was even more beautiful than the first too.

One of the highlights of the day was seeing a large sea turtle that we were able to get really close to. Unfortunately after downloading my pictures, I realized that the fish eye lens on my go pro doesn't focus underwater so most of the shots didn't turn out too great.

Is this thing on?

We are planning on snorkeling the Great Barrier Reef again in Whitsundays and will hopefully have better conditions there. Some precautionary Dramamine may be in order just in case though.

 

We Believe in the Experience

We decided to trade in our hostel accomadation for a campervan...more like a campercube. We considered doing this in New Zealand but it was just not feasible. So when we had the opportunity to do this in Melbourne, we refused to let it pass us by. Tour buses really aren't our thing and public transportation can't take us to all the unbeaten paths. The cube gave us the flexibility we wanted while putting our home on wheels.

Ohh you think that print is bad?....well at least we didn't get this one we saw while we were in Lake Tekapo, New Zealand.

OR any of these interesting vehicles....

The company is Wicked Campers and they pride themselves on their colorful, funny, and usually also crude campers.

Jonathan drove on the left side of the road and kept his cool even after I had a freak out because I thought we were on the wrong side of the road.... which is just embarassing!

The tent was on top of the cube and when it was all set up it looked like this:

Pretty cool, eh?

We took the cube to Phillip's Island where we saw koalas in their natural habitat and little penguins emerge from the ocean and waddle to their homes for the night. They are the smallest of their kind and it was the cutest thing ever! We couldn't take pictures of them, so I encourage you to click the link above for a visual. The next day we drove to Wilson's Promontory or "The Prom" which is a national park with loads of kangaroos, rabbits, wombats, and we even saw a fox. Our camp ground was close to the Tidal River pictured below:

We did some hiking up into the mountains. I conquered my irrational fear of heights by standing on the summit of Mount Oberon!

We spent two nights at the campgrounds before making our way back to Melbourne and returning the car.

I am really happy that we decided to rent the campercube because we were able to move at our own pace while seeing the beauty of Australia. We are now in Cairns and looking forward to the Great Barrier Reef. Stay tuned for more of our adventures.

Life begins at the end of your comfort zone!

 

One Month on the Road

As of today, we have been on the road for a little over one month... living out of our backpacks, staying in hostels, pinching every penny and loving every minute of it. Sure, there have been some challenging times like a cancelled connection from Sydney to Auckland, but as Christine likes to remind me, "happiness is instant flexibility in a sea of constant change."

For our first three weeks, Christine and I made our way through New Zealand. We really packed a lot into those couple weeks too. After spending a few nights in Auckland, we decided to buy a pass for one of the backpacker hop on hop off buses in order to maximize what we could see.

We made our way around both the North and South Island and feel like we really got a taste of what New Zealand has to offer. We met some great people from all over the world on the bus and made some friends along the way.

Our New Zealand itinerary included:

Auckland - Largest city in New Zealand, Sky Tower and some amazing Asian food... laksa!

Waiheke Island - Cool little day trip from Auckland with a bunch of wineries and bohemian vibe

Paihia and Bay of Islands - Remote beaches and quaint, sleepy towns.

Cape Reigna - New Zealand's northern most accessible point, scenic views, sand boarding and driving down 90 mile beach.

Auckland (had to stop here again on our way south) - Exploring the suburbs after getting on the wrong bus.

Hot Water Beach - Amazing rock formations at Cathedral Cove and digging hot geothermal sand pools on the beach.

 

Waitomo - Black water tubing 60 meters below the surface with glow worms overhead.

(Will insert good photo of us in the caves someday when I can get it off a USB stick)

Rotorua - Maori cultural experience, hot springs and geysers that reek of sulfur.

Hongi - traditional Maori greeting

Taupo - Fantastic lake but crap weather resulted in missed opportunity to hike the Tongarirro Crossing.

River Valley - White water rafting grade 5 rapids and drinks with new friends.

Wellington - New Zealand's capital. Seemed like a cool city but everything shut down around 6:00pm.

Kaiteriteri - Ferry to South Island. Great beaches and laid back feel.

Westport - Fur seals and surfing in the Tasman Sea.

Franz Josef - No time to hike the glacier so we settled for drinks with friends.

Wanaka - Small lake town with some great views on the drive in.

Queenstown - Adventure capital of New Zealand. Running in the park, nightlife and exploring the mountain.

Tekapo - Tiny lake town and a nasty wind storm.

Christchurch - The earthquake, abandoned and ruined buildings, botanical garden, city on the rebound. Spent the night in a decommissioned prison.