12 Amazing Days in Australia

So, as many of you already know, Damian and I spent 12 amazing days in Australia at the beginning of this month. We were originally supposed to go in March for our anniversary but we had to postpone it due to Damian's deployment... no big deal because we still got to go and had an amazing time!!! Australia is really big... I think we sometimes forget how big it is and forget it is even down there, but it is a very large country and very spread out. We traveled to Cairns (pronounced "Cans"), Melbourne (pronounced "Melbin") and Sydney (pronounced as it is actually spelled)! For those of you not familiar with the land down under I have provided a map for your viewing pleasure to see where we were. Sydney was a 10 hour flight from Tokyo (and only 1 hour time difference for us)- not too bad. We spent a few days in each city and were able to see so much. Also, keep in mind we were there at the beginning of May which is the beginning of Autumn in Australia.... This was hard to get used to as I was ready to break out my summer clothes, pastels, white pants, etc and it's basically how the beginning of September would be for us Northern Hemisphere dwellers.... Oh and one more thing... yes the toilets flush in the opposite direction, but after the first flush it didn't phase us anymore!


Cairns

Sea Temple

We stayed at a little beach town outside of Cairns called Palm Cove. It was really cute and our resort was walking distance to all the restaurants/shops along the beach. As we were checking in they made sure to tell us we could not go swimming because it was still jellyfish season (*not so fun fact: box jellyfish are extremely venomous and a sting can be fatal), and also that we could not walk on the beach at night because of a recent crocodile sighting! What a bummer! It was a really nice resort with lots of trees and a lagoon pool that went around the entire courtyard. It was really nice. We were a little way back from the ocean, but could still hear the waves at night. We got all settled in our room and saw we had a bottle of wine compliments of our amazing Travel Coordinator from Down Under Endeavors. I have to give them a big shout out because our trip was so incredibly amazing and they booked every last detail for us. I highly recommend this to anyone wanting a custom vacation. I truly cannot say enough amazing things about this company! 

The kangaroo whisperer...

Ok, back to the fun stuff... the first day ended up being a free day for us due to a tropical storm on its way. We decided to go to a local zoo owned and operated by a family in Cairns. It as only a 15 minute walk from our hotel so we headed off to Cairns Zoo. The biggest reason we were going here was to cuddle a koala, but there was lots of other great animals to see there as well. This was actually a great first day to our trip because we got to see a lot of the native animals in the zoo before heading out in the wild to see them. 

Buster!!!

Let's talk koalas for a moment... they are marsupials, NOT bears even though they are referred to as "koala bears." They are pretty docile creatures and spend most of their day sleeping and eating eucalyptus (eucalyptus tree is also known as a gum tree) which gives them all the nutrients and water they need. There is a law that koalas cannot be cuddled for more then 30 minutes a day so they really only let you hold them for a minute. Damian and I each got our picture taken with "Buster" the koala who was very cute and very cuddly and then we got a family photo of the 3 of us. They also had a "maternity ward" at the zoo for the baby koalas and the moms- wicked cute! There was a rescue koala at the zoo named "Buttercup" and she only had 3 legs because she was hit by a car, but she lives at the zoo where she is safe and they actually breed her as well! At the zoo we also were able to feed kangaroos which came right up to you and ate out of your hand! We also saw cassowary birds (see below for description), crocodiles, snakes, lizards, wombats, wallabies, and dingos... oh my!

Daintree Rainforest

Afternoon tea by the river

The next day we were off to the Daintree Rainforest for the day. It was a few hour drive from where we were staying but we had lots of stops along the way! It was a pretty cloudy/drizzly day as the tropical storm neared, but what does it really matter if it rains when you're in the rainforest!?! We had a great tour guide who was very knowledgeable of the wildlife and also Australia history and the local area so he had lots of great stories to tell us on our ride. First stop was a riverboat ride down the Daintree River to look for all sorts of wildlife... crocodiles, birds, etc. Because it was a cool day we only saw a few baby crocodiles on the shores as the bigger ones were keeping warm below the surface. We saw some great birds... king fisher, herons, and an ibis. After the river cruise we headed into the rainforest for a little "walkabout." It was really quite beautiful and lush! We had a few other stops as well to see the beautiful scenery. We also stopped along another river and had some tropical fruit tastings... some we liked and some not so much as well as afternoon tea, which I grew quite fond of. 

Cassowary Bird

The Cassowary bird is a very interesting bird and very important bird to the rainforest. Unfortunately they are endangered mostly because they are hit by cars in Australia (see road sign to left). They are so important to the rainforest because they eat some 400+ species of plants, berries, and seeds found in the rainforest and they help to disseminate them around with their droppings. Without these birds, many different types of plants in the rainforest will also become extinct! Although we didn't see any in the wild during our time in the rainforest we knew what to look for because of the one we saw at the zoo.

On our last day in Cairns, we went out to the Outer Great Barrier Reef! We left in the morning and the seas were still very rough from the storm that came through the night before... it was a very quiet ride over on the large boat. It took about 2 hours to get from Cairns out to the Outer part of the reef and Damian and I both needed to take some medication to help calm the seasickness. There were about 60 people on the boat and it was rather large. Half the people SCUBA dived and the other half (us) snorkeled throughout the day! We went to 3 different reef locations and it was all incredible!

The afternoon was better as the sun came out and the water was clear and the coral was absolutely breathtaking. The pictures do not do it justice, but are still pretty cool.
The Great Barrier Reef is truly a natural wonder of the world. I have snorkeled a bunch of times before but never right in the middle of the ocean so I took a floaty noodle with my just in case. It was a little bit exhausting since the waves were still pushing us around, but once you got your face in the water it was all worth it! Trivia Question: What is the only animal you can see from space? Answer: Coral. I love that little tid bit of trivia!

The following day we spent the morning walking on the beach and lounging at the pool, then off to the airport to head to Melbourne which was at the southern part of Australia and much cooler weather!

Melbourne

3 hours later and we landed in Melbourne and it is about 30 degrees cooler than Cairns and raining to boot! According to Luxury Travel magazine, the Langham Hotel in Melbourne is the BEST Australian Hotel for 2013... lucky for us that's where we were staying! Not only was it an amazing hotel, but it was right in the heart of the city and walking distance to everything! We had beautiful views of the river and the riverwalk which was a nice gift from our travel agent! We were tired from traveling and went out for a quick dinner then to bed... the next day started bright and early at 0400!

Up at 0400 on a sleepy Sunday morning in Melbourne to go on a hot air ballon ride over the city. Melbourne is one of the only cities in the world that you can actually do this directly over the downtown part of the city. Silly me, I assumed we would get there, hop in and away we would go.... nope we got the FULL experience, from setting up the balloon, to filling it with air, and then afterwards getting to help break it all down as well. Sort of neat to be there for the entire process. It took quite awhile to fill the ballon and then we were airborne around 0600. It was chilly up there too, but the heat from the hot air kept us warm intermittently! It was a 60 minute flight over the city and we were flying anywhere from 800-2000 feet... it truly is a science with figuring out the winds and where to land etc... There was 10 of us in the ballon and the "driver." Depending on the weather and wind conditions they have over 35 launch sites and landing sites all over the city- pretty neat! It was incredibly to be flying over the city as the sun came up that day. We landed in an open field on the other side of the city and as we were coming down we could see people coming out of their houses in their bathrobes watching us... it was fun to wave to the kids from up there!

We were done with our hot air balloon ride and it was still early Sunday morning so we went to get some breakfast on the river then walked around downtown Melbourne. There were a bunch of street fairs with crafts etc. It reminded me a lot of Seattle with the cool rainy weather and the VERY relaxed attitudes of the people. There was also a "free trade" expo set up that we walked through which was pretty neat... Damian almost bought a pair of sneakers made from recycled plastic bottles... haha! We hung out in the Federation Square area with some coffee and enjoyed some good people watching until the afternoon when we had our next activity scheduled! Federation Square had a bunch of folding chairs that you could grab and sit in... AND free wifi!!! Looks like Damian was quite comfy...

Late afternoon we were off to Phillip Island, about 90 miles southeast of Melbourne to watch the Penguin Parade! We have NO pictures from this Penguin Parade because you are not allowed to take pictures of the penguins since the flash hurts their little penguin eyes! At sunset each night the littlest penguins in the WORLD come ashore in groups to cross the beach and head to their burrows. These little penguins are only about 1 foot tall and weigh around 2 pounds! Seriously the cutest things I have ever seen! Damian and I had VIP seats for the Penguin Parade which meant we got to go to a special bleacher section and watch them pretty close-up waddle across the beach. They cross right around sunset as this provides them protection from predators! The conservation efforts there were pretty impressive as protecting these little penguins was the highest priority. They even count them each night as they come across the beach... the night before we went there was 834 penguins crossing the beach! It was pretty funny watching them "run" across the beach! Very unique experience, once in a lifetime kind of stuff here people! On the ride home we watched a movie on the bus called "The Sapphires" which is based on a true story about a singing group of Australian Aboriginal girls who went to Vietnam to sing for the U.S. troops during the war. I highly recommend this movie!

The next morning we headed off on a food & wine tour of Yarra Valley which was about 1 hour away from Melbourne. We went to countless wineries and paired our wines with lots of cheeses, lunch, and some sweets! At the end of the day we had done 32 wine tastings!!! There were a few full glasses mixed in, but mostly just a few sips each! We had some really great wines at a few of these wineries that we wrote down so we could try to get some once we are settled back in the U.S.! Our favorite vineyard was the Debortoli Winery which is family owned (from Italy) and they also have other wines in other parts of Australia that we could taste! They had more whites than red but we were pleasantly surprised with each one. The BEST part of this winery was the cheeses. There was a delicious marinated goat cheese and then we finished off our tasting with a dessert wine paired with blue cheese, which we usually do not like, but with the wine it was divine! Remember how it is Autumn in Australia at this time of year so the vineyards were all a beautiful golden color!

After our long day of wine tasting we headed back for a quick nap at the hotel and then met up with Damian's friend Mike (from high school) who lives in Melbourne! We had dinner in Chinatown and then went to an uber trendy hipster bar that was pretty much in an alley and the seats were made from wooden pallets! Very cool!

The next day Mike and his friend picked us up and took us off the beaten path to Treefern Gully up in the mountains outside of Melbourne for a little rainforest hike adventure! This area was the inspiration for the 1992 movie "Fern Gully." Within the forest was an area known as William Ricketts Sanctuary. He was a man inspired by the aboriginal people of Australia as well as a strong connection to the earth and created these extremely unique and powerful sculptures out of clay that he incorporated into nature. There were hundreds of his sculptures that were on top of rocks and tree stumps and looked like they belonged there. We then went to the top of Mount Dandenong to see the valley below and the city in the distance.

Thanks Melbourne, it's been fun!


Sydney

The next morning we were off on a quick flight to Sydney for a few days! Once we arrived at our hotel which was in the historic "Rocks" area of the city we didn't waste anytime exploring! Sydney Harbor is absolutely massive, but we were right in the middle of it all and only a few blocks away from the iconic Sydney Harbor Bridge and Sydney Opera House. Our first night we walked down to the Syndey Opera House to explore and watch the sunset from the Opera House Bar. 

The next morning we headed off to the Sydney Harbor Bridge. The bridge is known to be like your "uncle" who get's in all your family pictures.... this is true as no matter where we were in the city you could see a little piece of the bridge sticking out. The bride is the largest steel arch bridge in the world! Built in 1932, this bridge has 6 traffic lanes, 2 rail lanes, a bike lane, and pedestrian walkway... nothing has been added since it opened in 1932.... think about that for a minute... How incredibly progressive of the designer/builders to make it so big. This bridge is truly magnificent if you think about how they built it- without all of the equipment we have today and this bridge will most likely out last the newer bridges being built now! The bridge climb took all together about 3 hours... there was safety briefings, you had to change into the jumpsuit, go through a metal detector, take a quick breathalyzer test and prepare for the climb... We all had safety harnesses and headphones so we could hear our guide as well. Everything had to be attached to you... sunglasses, hats, etc. You could not bring you own camera or anything in your pockets! Once we were up on the bridge the climb wasn't that bad at all... amazing views, a lot of stairs, and a few very steep ladders! At the top we got to make a free 10 sec video... sort of cheesy, but I had to share anyway!

If you ever make it to Sydney put this on your list for sure! After the climb we went out for lunch and beers... Damian had a Kangaroo Burger (yum?) and I stuck to a yummy veggie pumpkin and goat cheese pizza!

Later in the evening we went on a sunset dinner cruise of the harbor. It was great... champagne, wine, good food and amazing views of the city from the water...

The next day we didn't head out on our tour until late morning so we spent our morning in the Sydney Botanical Garden enjoying a nice stroll and some coffee. We wandered through these beautiful gardens for a few hours and finally made our way back to the hotel for our next and sadly our last Australian adventure. We were off on a very unique wildlife tour!

This wildlife tour was so awesome! First of all there were only 4 of us and a guide which definitely made the experience even better and personalized and it was extremely interactive! We had to drive a ways to get out into the bush at first, but then we were able to get out and walk around looking for wildlife. During the late afternoon we spotted emus, deer, wallabies, and kanagaroos... then we all got out of the vehicle and walked looking up in the trees for koalas. Our guide finally spotted one after looking for about an hour and we were able to see it clearly with binoculars! It was so high up, but it was awake and moving around a little... so cute! We also got to check out a GIANT wombat hole where they sleep during the day! I called out to Mr. & Mrs. Wombat, but no one answered... go figure!

Next we headed out to a giant field where we patiently waited for the sun to go down and all the animals to come out and play. Many of Australia's animals are nocturnal so a daytime tour would have been a waste of time! Once it got dark we all go "torches" or as we call them in America... flashlights! They were giant flashlights and we were all hanging out of the vehicle shining the lights and looking for beady little eyes to pop out at us... you wouldn't even believe how many animals came out at night! It was almost overwhelming because everywhere we shined our lights there were a bunch of animals! Damian and I spotted a mother wombat and her baby which was so cool to watch them. We were able to get pretty darn close too without scaring them away- the lights didn't bother them very much.

The kangaroos were just about everywhere we looked! And we were even able to catch 2 of them "fighting" or playing around! You can even see the one standing on his tail while he kicks the other one... such a classic kangaroo move! ha! One of the best things about being out in the wide open bush away from the rest of the world was the stars... they were so bright and the milky way was like I had never seen before. Our tour guide pointed out the southern cross and a few other constellations. We turned our lights out for a bit and just took it all in. It was an awesome ending of a great vacation and adventure together!

So many people have asked us what the best part of our trip was and honestly it is hard to say... we did so many different and unique things that you can't really compare them to each other. We went from the beach to the bush.... from above the city to below the ocean... a truly unforgettable trip!

Upon arriving back from Japan- our SIL was waiting at the airport in Tokyo to greet us... stay tuned for our adventures with her!!!