An American Girl in Australia

Airlie Beach and Whitsundays

2006-01-15T05:30:34Z

We just got back from our two day adventure living on a racing sailing yacht and sailing around Whitsunday islands. We had such a great time. The crew sailing the ship was fantastic and really put the boat through it's paces. It was a bit tough at times to hang on to the side because the boat was sometimes at a 40 degree tilt. We had 15 guests and 3 crew people on the boat. Everyone was very nice which was good because living on a boat consists of really close quarters. There were 14 boys (English and German) that all had to share one bathroom! There was even a family from Adelaide on our trip. They were so nice and even gave me some leads on soccer teams I could join when I move there. I plan on meeting them when I go to Adelaide next week.

My favorite part of the trip was yesterday when we got to snorkle in the great barrier reef. It was so beautiful words would not do it justice. There was all sorts of coral in every color of the rainbow and all these beautiful fish swiming around me. It was breathtaking! I got to see all the real versions of the characters in Finding Nemo. Let me tell you the real versions are so much better. All you can hear when you are under the water is a scratching kind of sound similar to the sound Rice Krispies makes when you pour milk over it. That was the sound of the fish eating the coral. I think this was the best experience of my entire life. I'm hooked and I now want to get my diving certification.

We also got to stop at this famous beach called Whitehaven. It has this name for a reason, the sand is pure white becuase it's made out of pure silica. The water was so clear as well. It was definitely paradise.

We're staying the night here in Airlie beach and meeting some of the poeple that were on our boat tonight for some drinks. Tomorrow morning we get on the bus and spend the whole day traveling up to Cairns, our last stop on the east coast.

Airlie Beach and Whitsundays remains copyright of the author mvencato, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Hervey Bay

2006-01-13T01:53:34Z

Yesterday we spent the day in Hervey Bay. Our hostel was on the marina side of town so we set off on the long walk to the center of town, about 2 miles. The town is very long and narrow with one main street. It's about 3 miles long and about a half a mile wide. It took us about an hour to get there. Hervey Bay is a small town consisting of mostly retirees. The town has a really nice bike/walking path that follows the beach. We took that and stopped about three quaters into our walk to do a bit of sun bathing. This was my favorite beach. I really don't like waves too much so this beach was perfect. Fraser Island makes a wave break so that the coast of Hervey bay is completely calm. Frasier Island also makes a barrier for sharks and jellyfish so it's safe to swim. The water was also the perfect temperature about 80 degrees. It was so nice. Lisa felt the water was a bit erie because it was such a calm ocean. This is a great place for families with small children. There were a bunch of toddlers having a great time in the water.

We ended our day at Hervey Bay with a bit of shopping (this seems to be a recurring theme) and some dinner. We hopped on a bus at 8 last night for Airlie beach where we arrived this morning. We are about to board our boat for our Whitsundays tour. We'll be back Sunday afternoon.

I have a bit of time so I thought I would list a couple of things I've discovered here in Australia.

1) I can't tell if the toilet flushes backwards or not becuase the in all the toilets I've used the water goes back to front. It is cool that there are two types of flushes on each toilet to save water, a small flush for a number 1 and a big flush for a number 2.

2) Contrary to popular belief not a lot of people wear kaki.

3) Koalas do not drop out of trees and attack you, but I have yet to see one in the wild.

4)G'day is only used for saying hello never for goodbye, it's not like Ciao in Italian.

5)Austrlians think my accent is cool. Did I mention they have good taste .

6) People from Sydney make fun of people from Melbourne and people from Melbourne make fun of people from Adelaide. It's kind of like New Yorkers making fun of New Jersey, New Jersey making fun of Pennsylvania, and everyone makes fun of Delaware.

That's it so far. I'm sure the list will grow as I get down to the south.

Hervey Bay remains copyright of the author mvencato, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Hervey Bay and Frasier Island

2006-01-11T07:49:29Z

Lisa and I ended up in Hervey Bay about an 8 hour bus ride north of Brisbane two nights ago. We arrived in the evening and checked into our hostel. The next day we were picked up by our tour bus and the tour guide Steve for our 4 wheel drive 2 day bus adventure tour of Hervey Bay. Our group consisted of 24 people mostly our age or older. There was a family, a couple on their honeymoon and a couple of other couples, and some people travelling on their own. They were mostly English or Irish. Lisa and I were the only Americans. We took the ferry out to Frasier Island and it took about an hour to get there. From there we boarded our bus and started inland from the beach. Frasier Island is a world heritage site and it does not have paved roads. There are just some old logger tracks cut out of the forest and a lot of sand so 4 wheel drive is required to get around. For the next two days Steve showed us all the sites the island had to offer. We got to do a bush walk through a mixed wood forest, climb the only rock formation on the island to spot some sharks, travel through a mini desert to get to a beautiful secluded lake where we swam, and ended our tour swimming in water so clear you could see all the way to the bottom. It was like glass and the sand was so fine and white. Throughout the tour Steve told us all about the plants and animals that lived on the island and a bit about the history. I was really excited to learn about plants and animals I have never seen before. We camped in the nicest tents I have ever been in complete with beds and a wooden floor. I could have done without seeing the giant spiders everywhere but I guess you have to take the good with the scary. Everyone on our tour turned out to be so nice and friendly. We made a lot of new friends. It was such a great experience that I would definitely go again. The island looked like it could be the set for the TV show lost. I felt like a castaway.

So tonight we're back at the hostel on Hervey Bay for the night. Tomorrow night we head to Airlie beach and start another tour on Whitsundays for some snorkeling.

Hervey Bay and Frasier Island remains copyright of the author mvencato, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Brisbane

2006-01-08T21:19:49Z

We spent the day in Brisbane yesterday and walked around Australia's 3rd largest city (it only took us 2 hours to walk completely around it). It's divided by the Brisbane river that runs throughout the city. We started off walking in the wrong direction and walked through industrial and sketchy neighborhoods to get to a place with some restaurants and bars. We were a little disappointed because the area we walked through was not nice at all. Even the cute area the inforamtion person told us to go to was a bit depressing. We decided to go home over the Goodwill bridge. Once we got there the area around the Goodwill Bridge is absolutely stunning. That's when we realized we had gone the wrong way. We walked along the Brisbane river and took in the stunning architecture of the public space. It is really well done I was thouroghly impressed. The park was even completed with a man made beach. This beach was more like a pool with some sand and tropical trees around it overlooking the river but it was cool just the same. Australia really could teach the US a lesson in public parks and landscape architecture. I feel as though the US does not understand the importance of having beautiful public spaces. We tend to build these beautiful billion dollar buildings and just throw a couple of trees and a shrub in the courtyard. Here tehy put a lot more emphasis on outdoor spaces. Maybe it's the weather and people are more inclind to be outside.

Over the Goodwill bridge is the botannical gardens. They included a mangrove forest where you could walk among the mangroves on a floating bridge. It was very impressive. We came back to our hostel from the opposite direction and saw the University. The campus was really nice. Just outside campus is a bunch of cute shops and eateries. Since it was Sunday a lot of places were closed. We were so exhausted from the night before that we went to bed pretty early in preparation for our 7 hour bus ride today.

Brisbane remains copyright of the author mvencato, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Byron Bay and Surfers Paradise

2006-01-08T05:06:05Z

We've spent the last two days in Byron Bay and Surfers Paradise. Byron Bay is a small beach town about 14 hours drive North from Sydney. I really liked it there, the beaches were beautiful and the main street was really cute. We didn't do much there because we were exhausted from our overnight bus ride. We just enjoyed the waves on the beach while working on our tans. It was all very relaxing.

Surfers Paradise is much larger than Byron Bay. The coastline reminded me a bit of Miami with the large highrise hotels overlooking the beach. The city did have a nice pedestrian walkway kind of like the commons in Ithaca but bigger and louder. The waves here were a bit rougher as well even though we were only 2 hours north of Byron Bay. Lisa took some surf lessons and I laid out and worked on my tan. I'm a bit red now so I could use a break from the strong Australian sun. The wind kicked up a bit in the afternoon and I was getting sandblasted. The good news is that I now have really soft skin . Last night in Surfers we signed up for the Backpackers bar hopping tour. It was 25 bucks and you get to go to four clubs and dance the night away. We had fun but I was wearing bad shoes (as usual) and I spent most of the night looking for a place to sit. It did make me feel a bit old since the mean age of people out was about 20.

Today is just a day to catch up on some laundry and see a bit of Brisbane. It looks like a really nice city.

Byron Bay and Surfers Paradise remains copyright of the author mvencato, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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A lazy day in Sydney

2006-01-04T09:08:44Z

Today was overcast and a bit chilly. Lisa and I slept in and just spent a lazy day walking around and doing some shopping. I'm desparate to find some new flip flops. Mine are crap. We ended up at Darling Harbor at the Outback center. They have a diggereedoo (I don't know how to spell it) demonstration where a guy teaches you all about playing and the history of the instrument. It was really informative and fun. Lisa and I tried to play one but it's a lot harder then it looks. All we could do is make this sort of farting noise on it. Not quite so nice . That's about it today. We're leaving tomorrow night for a fun 14 hour bus trip to byron bay. I'm looking forward to the beach. I hope the weather warms up a bit.

Since our time in Sydney is coming to a close I thought it would be fun to list some of the things that happened to us that pissed us or other people off at the time but are sure funny now.

1) At the airport the girl at the desk sent our luggage down the shoot witout putting tags on them. She then sent down a little note to the guys loading the baggage "Hey there, can you put these tags on the two backpacks, thanks". Thankfully we did get our bags.

2) Seeing the remnants of a fight at the zoo... who would fight at the zoo??

3) Going to Manly beach and hanging out on the harbor side of the place thinking that was the only beach. We ended up finding the oceanside an hour before we had to leave. We've learned to stop at tourist info spots and get a map before we do anything.

4) Locking ourselves out of our room at 8pm New Year's Eve while in our towels. Thankfully the manager was downstairs at the bar getting drunk and came up to let us in.

5) I was woken up at 4 in the moring New Year's Day by one of our drunk roomates banging on the door. When I get up to open it for him he says to me "about f###ing time" and walks in. He does not remember doing that.

6) Standing in a 20 minute line to go to the movies and when we're the next ones up to pay decide that we don't want to see a movie anymore.

7) While walking down George street from the Rocks and Italian tourist asks us where the bars are at the Rocks. Just coming from there I point west and Lisa points North and we both say no I'm sure that's the way. We proceeded to fight with each other about which way it was. Poor guy I'm sure he was sorry he asked us .

Well Sydney has been interesting. I'm looking forward to seeing more of australia.

A lazy day in Sydney remains copyright of the author mvencato, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Sydney the week continues...

2006-01-03T10:38:59Z

I love the Sydney Aquarium! It makes me want to start a salt water fishtank of my own. Lisa and I took a walk down to Darling Harbor and the aquarium yesterday since it was crappy weather. The line to get in was enormous but we stuck it out and got in. I'm so glad we did. On top of all the really neat sea life they had on display they have a series of underwater tunnels where you can see seals, sharks and other sea creatures in their habitats. There were huge sharks with sharp teeth swimming right over my head it was amazing! I wish everyone could have seen it. I did get a great picture of the shark as it was coming toward me...scary!!! The last exhibit was a huge fishtank that mimicked the Great Barrier Reef's environment. It had a huge glass veiwing area where you could sit and watch all the colorful fish swimming in the tank complete with background music. I could have sat there for hours. My favorite fish was the clownfish becuase I love the movie Finding Nemo so much.

The weather had cleared up while we were in the aquarium so we decided to take a walk down to the Rocks. The Rocks is an area in Sydney where the first British convicts and settlers landed and began to settle Austrlalia. There is a lot of old architecture there. It's a really neat neighborhood filled with tons of interesting Australian History. There were live bands playing in a couple of bars so we did a bit of a pub crawl to listen to them. The first band we saw consisted of a guitar player/singer and a drummer. He was taking requested so I requested Creedance the song Proud Mary. It was really funny becuase the singer lost his australian accent when he sang. He also played some older Australian bands which I had never heard before like Dragon. It was good. We even had a drink at the oldest bar in Sydney. It was very fun. We ended our day back in the hostel and got a good night sleep becuase we were waking up early to go to Katoomba a town at the foot of the Blue Mountains.

We got up at 7 this morning and hopped on a train heading for Katoomba. It was about a 2 hour ride. The town was really cute filled with antique shops. It was a half hour walk to the park. We did about a 7k hike around the park. We did a cliff walk where we saw beautiful views of the mountains and then down into the vally which is a rainforest. I was so beautiful I found it hard to believe I was actually here.It could have been a movie set. We ended our hike by walking up the Giant Staircase. This is a 900 step staircase leading up the side of the mountain. It was tough but we made it. I totally exhausted now. I'm about ready for bed. Tomorrow we've planned a lazy day. We're staying in Sydney and running some errands. Thurday night we leave for Byron Bay.

Sydney the week continues... remains copyright of the author mvencato, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Sydney

2006-01-01T23:09:10Z

Sorry it's taken me so long to get this started but I've been busy trying to organize myself and seeing all the sights Sydney has to offer. Our flight was very long but pretty uneventful. I actually got some sleep on the flight from England to Singapore. We arrive in Sydney at 6 in the morning and jumped on a train to the center of the city. Thankfully our hostel is only 3 blocks from the station so we didn't have to lug our heavy bags too far. I'm really impressed with Sydney, it's clean, safe and the people are so friendly. The architecture is really beautiful as well. My favorite place here is teh Royal Botannic Gardens. It's a bit like central park, however the grounds are maintained amazingly and it's on the waterfront over looking the Sydney Opera House and the bridge. We've been spending a lot of time there.

We also went to the Zoo for the day. The Zoo is really neat becuase you have to take a ferry to get there (which is a trip in itself... amazing views of the harbor) and once you are there you take this sky lift to the Zoo entrance (more amazing views). The zoo was different from the ones back home. It had a lot of native Australian animals like kangaroos, koala, echindnas etc... but my favorite exhibit was of the roosters and the spotted deer . The giraffe pen overlooked sydney at the top of this hill. I got a really great picture of the giraffes head and in the background is Sydney Harbor. While we were at the zoo we witnessed three very odd things... 1) by the giraffe exhibit we sat down to rest and some guy comes up the path screaming at some person threatening them as he's walking away. 2) about thirty minutes later an ambulance drives by us as we're walking. We follow it and see some guy on the ground holding his head with a bunch of people around him. 3) As we were walking by the seals we overhear two zoo workers say they had to get extra security to break it up. Well we surmised from these three incidences that there must have been a fight at the zoo. How ridiculous is that! Fighting at the zoo is like fighting at Disney Land it's the happiest place on earth! It this guy fights at the zoo I wouldn't want to meet him on the street!

We also made it to Manly Beach... a famous beach about 7 miles outside of Sydney by ferry. We had a little troubel figuring out where the beach was but once we found it it was amazing. The sand is so fine here. The waves were really cool too... people were surfing. That trip allowed us to work on our tans.

The weather up to that point had been terrific in the 80's sunny with a nice cool breeze. We couldn't have asked for better days. The sun is really strong here and my head got pretty badly sunburnt one day... I have bought a hat. Yesterday was absolutely horrible... I think it must have reached 45C which is about 110 fahrenheit. It was humid and you would just sit and sweat. We couldn't move at all yesterday the heat was oppressive so we spent the day in our hostel with fans blowing hot air at us or in the mall across the street from us. It was so hot that my chocolate santa bars have melted into liquid. The heat finally broke last night around 3am when a thunderstorm hit. Today it is drizzling and only 20C about 68 Fahrenheit. Over a 20C degree change overnight! We were planning on heading to the blue mountains today but due to the crappy weather we're postponing it until tomorrow. The Blue Mountains is a national park just 2 hours outside of Sydney. We're going to the town of Katoomba to see some famous landmarks like the 3 sisters. Today we're going to really expore the town, we're planning on going to the Rocks, Hyde Park and the aquarium today.

I'll try to update this a couple of times a week. it will be hard once we start our journy up the east coast but I'll do my best.

Sydney remains copyright of the author mvencato, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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