Come Fly With Me – Currently in England

After Viet Nam part of me looked forward to normality back in my life but with normality comes little excitement and the pleasure you feel after pushing yourself over your limits and emerging unscathed on the other side. Australia beckoned and yet it lived up to all my expectations. The scenery, the people, and the weather all met the visions I had as a kid of the land down under. Is this a good thing? Perhaps secretly I had hoped it to exceed my expectations, selfish I know and my own fault for not setting the bar a little lower.

We have checked all the boxes on our OZ check list. We have been to Perth, Adelaide, Melbourne, Canberra, Sydney, Brisbane, and Cairns. We have driven through the outback, rode horses in Snowy River (as in the movie), We have driven the Great Ocean Road, been in the federal parliament, experienced the New Year fireworks from the base of the Opera House, lay on famous beaches (Bondi, Manly, Byron Bay, Surfers Paradise ect.), snorkeled on the Great Barrier Reef, saw Russell Crowe and his band in Coffs Harbour, and have seen Steve Irwin the Crocodile Hunter live and in person doing a croc show in his zoo!

I walk away knowing we did this large country justice with the exception of the Northern Territory and Ayers Rock. At the temperatures we have had I may have melted if attempting to visit these last few places. Still, I know exactly where to point my toes next time they land on Aussie soil.

We flew into Perth from Vietnam via Singapore. We flew what seems to be our regular airline Singapore Airways (god bless them and their business!). Only after flying another airline do you realize how they have won so many awards as the best in the world. Perth was a great city and home to the majority of Western Australians. Western Australia is larger than most countries and the people of Perth regard it as that, feeling far removed from their neighbouring states. We went on the hop on hop off city bus tour that gave us a really good idea what was around and the driver was very friendly who engaged us in conversation during a particularly long stop. They have river and ocean beaches and the only place in Australia where you can sit and watch the sun set behind crashing waves. We went and did this while posing for our Christmas card photos and let me tell you it was windy and cold! The photos turned out well though!

We stayed in Perth a week and Annamarie seemed to long for Viet Nam because our first meal in Oz was in a Vietnamese restaurant! A short train ride from Perth was Freemantle, a quaint little town and a great place to spend the afternoon. The one thing that struck us right away was the amount of black flies always in your face. They always go for your mouth, eyes or up your nose! Swatting flies is affectionately known as the “Aussie Wave.” Covering the vast outback by land didn’t seem an appealing challenge so we opted for a cheap flight with Virgin Blue to Adelaide.

Adelaide was pretty and had plenty of fountains and gardens in the middle of roundabouts. We stayed in a crumby hostel where the bunks were made for little kids. I’m surprised they didn’t give me sheets with cartoon characters on them! Adelaide will be forever remembered as the place I met “Bridges” the trusty Wicked Campervan that would be our home and means of travel to Sydney! Wicked is a company who take hippie style vans, equip them with basic camping gear, and paint them up in barely legal artwork. Ours was thankfully don in the Opera House and Harbour Bridge (hence the name bridges). It also had the slogan: I’m looking for someone really bad…honk if you’re really bad! Needless to say there are a lot of really bad people in Australia and I am no longer paranoid that my driving is bad! From Adelaide we went slightly north before hugging the coast to the Great Ocean Road. The detour was in aid of a visit to the Barossa Valley and more specifically, Wolf Blass. We pulled up in our van and were offered as much wine we could drink…. for free. The service was excellent with individual, relaxed manner and very informative. Luckily I spat so I could keep driving but what a treat!

The Great Ocean Road made up our next leg of the journey. We had heard regrets from other travelers who said they had done the road at warp speed, so we decided to take a couple of days to do it justice. It was a beautiful scenic coastal drive with a brown sign every kilometer directing you to another jaw dropping scene. Our highlights were The Arch, The London Bridge (part of it has collapsed so it resembles the Arch now), and The 12 Apostles (which there are now 11 thanks to the crashing waves turning one into a pile of rubble). A barrage of pounding surf over the centuries has caused these formations and the colours remain stunning. Deep blue water and orange sediment in the cliffs make this a special memory in our trip. Thanks to a few choice spots to camp in remote areas that felt a little too close to the Blair Witch for comfort, we were pleased to make our way to Melbourne!

Now many travelers we have crossed paths with swear by Melbourne and have fallen deeply in love with it. They aren’t alone as it was voted the 3rd best place to live in the world (Vancouver being 1st). I’m afraid it just didn’t do it for Annamarie and me. We saw the prison where Ned Kelly was tried and hung, we went to Chinatown, we hung out in the main square, saw the strange art building, walked the shopping streets, and did a complete driving tour even taking in the sporting grounds. There was just no connection made which encouraged us to make tracks to Sydney. I would like to think if I had stayed longer it may have grown on me but until then I must remain alone in my views.

Leaving Melbourne I became excited about acting out a childhood fantasy and ride a horse in Snowy River. For all those who have read the poem and seen the movies I wanted to be The Man from Snowy River. The land is untouched and full of ranches perched on rolling hillsides. The scenery is phenomenal and just what I had always pictured the life of an Australian to be. Before the ride we camped in the Snowy River National Park and at dusk had our first encounter with kangaroos. Wild kangaroos! Apologies for those of you who have seen us maxing out on the photos but they were so close and incredible animals to see up close. After a cold night spent in the van we drove up to Gelantipy and had the pick of the horses. I of course chose a good sturdy mountain horse incase I needed to go over a steep ridge chasing a stallion. Aside from the scenery we spotted our first koala. A wild koala. Not to be called a koala bear as it’s not related to bears but is infact a marsupial (has a pouch). I have to admit they are really cute and Annamarie wants one, as all they do is cuddle, sleep, and eat. We loved the ride and look forward to the next opportunity to play cowboy. We drove a pretty rough road through the national park and emerged on the other side not far from Canberra.

Canberra was a delightful surprise. I won’t repeat Annamarie’s tales but I will summarize. It is a purpose built city made specifically to house the federal parliament, as Melbourne and Sydney couldn’t reach a compromise. Because it’s purpose built everything makes perfect sense, from the location of things, to the road network. Many people think it lacks character but I found a connection here more so than Melbourne. Manicured lawns and a beautiful lake make it very easy on the eyes. We had a day tour of the Federal Parliament building and can I just say I was interviewed on national news in the entrance hall, on my views on the Christmas decorations inside parliament. If any of you are interested I said as Christmas was a religious holiday and Australia is a multi-cultural country, the one understated Christmas tree in the corner was enough to recognize the day without making too much of a statement. It was so cool inside as it had the luxury of building it in 1988, so it’s very modern and an architectural treasure.

We left Canberra and stayed on the path to Sydney. When we arrived we drove around Bondi beach and got the feel of that. We couldn’t stay anywhere with the van so we pushed further north. We found a nice place on the water just south of the City and could see the high rises in the distance. We then had to drop the Van off in Botnay Bay on the 23rd of December and look for a place to stay for the holidays. Annamarie stumbled on a fab last minute deal on a downtown apartment for not much more than what we would pay for a hostel. I was a bit dubious but when I saw the digs I thought a mistake had been made. It was incredible! It had a rooftop pool and gym; in the apartment it had a living room/dining room/kitchen, TV, queen bed, huge closet, washing machine, dryer, and a dishwasher! To us weary travelers this was paradise compare to the places we have been staying over the last 4 months! Christmas went by smoothly. Annamarie and I exchanged gifts bought from the dollar store and I made Christmas Lasagna and drank eggnog. New Years was an experience never to be forgotten. For those of you who saw the fireworks in Sydney on your television we were standing at the base of the Opera House. They were by far the best display I had ever seen, and the boats all lit up in the harbour were stunning. The atmosphere was buzzing and had hardly any trouble with only 60 odd arrests, better than anywhere else in OZ. The two weeks went by and we relished our time with home comforts and a pause from the hectic pace of traveling. All things must come to an end and we had to leave a great city that reminded me a lot of my hometown of Halifax.

We managed to score a good deal with Thrifty for a car rental for two weeks and thought to head north and get as high up as possible to explore the Great Barrier Reef. We got all the way to Cairns in 4 days, which was some driving! We really liked Cairns and although touristy and on the edges and bit tacky, it had a relaxed feel. People were there to chill and it was contagious. We had come for the reef and a local gave us good advice to go further north out of Port Douglas where the reef is less trafficked and the colours more vibrant. We zoomed out there on the boat the Silversonic, and did a total of 3 snorkeling dives at three different sites. I would waste words trying to explain it and feel the worse for not painting an accurate picture. All I can say is the feeling it gave me to be miles from land but an arm stretch away from living coral and tropical fish was euphoria. I could have stayed a week just floating there, a spectator on the daily life of the reef!

When we reluctantly got back in the car and headed out the realization set it that when we returned to Sydney our Australia adventure would be over. Although sad we looked forward to the New Zealand adventure to come.

It seems that many travelers who come all the way to Australia from the corners of the globe tend to fly into Sydney and travel up the east coast never venturing further. I feel blessed to have covered so many kilometers and seen so much of this big country in 7 weeks. The downside is we were now on the east coast in the middle of summer so Aussies and tourist alike had donned their swimmers and sunnies and hit the beaches. We found it extremely hard to find a place to stay as we headed south from Cairns. Airlee beach was packed which made it had to do the quintessential boat trip in the Whitsunday islands. Noosa was full as well, Brisbane didn’t have a single bed spare, and in surfers paradise we got stung for $70 in a crappy room in a crappy hostel. We had a similar problem in Byron Bay and a few other popular places. The result was us exploring these places in the day and going to a lesser-known place to sleep. We stayed in Coffs Harbour twice (home of Russell Crowe who was performing in the local pub when we were there. We stayed in Newcastle (which reminded me of industrial Newcastle in England). Bundaberg was another destination and we found a lot of backpackers working here as fruit pickers. If I had the choice I would have worked in the Rum distillery. Needless to say the only highlight I can think of was our trip to the Australia Zoo. Steve Irwin owns it the legend that is the crocodile hunter! He was there doing a live croc show which is really lucky as he is rarely there. I grew up watching this guy…what a nut, and a pleasure to see in person.

On our return to Sydney we managed to drop the car off early and move our flight up a few days. We had planned to stay in Sydney for a few days but as we had spent 2 weeks there already we felt there was no need for the extra days. So begins the story of our problems with Air New Zealand with them charging for this pleasure. As this is a story I will no doubt touch on in the next blog surrounding New Zealand I will leave it here. In Summary, Australia was fab and I will surely return!