Exterous' Australia trip

[Exterous]

We recently got back from a whirlwind trip to Australia. Over 14 days we walked over 115 miles, drove over 640 miles and flew over 22,000 miles. We stayed in 11 different places ranging from motels to Park Hyatts and Langhams. 7 different flights on 5 different airlines. Transportation involved planes, trains, subway, cable cars, bus, rental car, taxi, shuttle bus, boat, ferry, fins, and good old fashioned feet. The latest we ever slept in was 7:30am but there was a morning we were up at 3:30am and another where we were up at 4:30am to catch flights. It was the most endurance taxing trip we've ever taken and, by far, the most I've ever slept in planes or trains.

Was it worth it? Abso-freaking-lutely. Despite all the wonderful things we were able to see it still feels like just a tiny scratch on the surface.

We planned a long layover (22 hours) in LA to visit some family. National car rental in LAX has always been kind to me with included cars available for rental and that day was no exception. I had to tetris the shit out of our luggage to get it to fit in the super tiny truck but after a couple of minutes I was able to make it work



When booking the trip I wanted at least economy comfort and, preferably business class seats as my tall frame and broad shoulders spending 13.5 hours in an economy seat is the sort of thing that would make me give up state secrets. While United doesn't have the best seats for the flight they do have the best options for upgrading seats when using miles to book tickets. You can call and book a waitlisted business class saver award thats confirmed in economy that auto upgrades if they ever release business class seats. This auto upgrades even before those with higher status so when United releases award space no one else even sees it being released it just gets assigned to you. Its little known about and rarely used so it took 5 calls spanning 3.5 hours to get the flight booked correctly. If the upgrade doesn't clear United is one of the few airlines that lets you pay to upgrade your mileage booked economy seat to economy comfort. The flight back was available for Business class 330 days out while the flight there didn't upgrade till 1 week out.



We were on the 4th to last 777-200 flight to Sydney before the aging layout was to be replaced by the Dreamliner. At 2-4-2 for business class it’s not the greatest business class seat but far better than economy comfort and I got a solid 7 hours of sleep and, due to that 7 hours of sleep, arrived in Sydney pretty much already adjusted to the time change. The biggest draw backs were the tiny foot cubby and the rear facing seats that were available. Normally the curtain on these is pretty thick but this one was basically shear so we got to spend much of the flight staring at the first few middle rows of economy comfort. Still – a pretty good seat for $55 each (and more than a few miles).

We landed at 7:45 am and were greeted by a torrential downpour of rain which we walked through with our luggage to get to the hotel. Due to our stop in LAX it had been about 28 hours since our last shower or change of clothes so when we were able to check into our room at 9:30, shower and change it was a relief.


We're in Australia – can't you tell?

The weather remained problematic throughout the day with periods of rain and wind



Still we were able to get some decent weather at times








Seems a bit small for an ambulance

We also ran into a tourist scam while we were there. This guy flaunted his pretty colors in such a way that to get the best angle we positioned ourselves directly below one of his friends – who proceeded to poop on our camera while my wife was holding it



After an unsuccessful attempt to get some nice sunset pictures of the opera house we grabbed dinner and headed back to the hotel

 

[KMFJD]

time for a vacation from your vacation

 

[K1052]

I want a nap just after reading the first paragraph.

Though this clearly was a gettin stuff done sort of trip.

 

[herm0016]

i was on those routes when the 747 was replaced with the 777 just a few years ago. I think i did the west coast to syd flight about 15 times.

 

[KMFJD]

Did you fly straight to Uluru and stay there or did you make the mistake of staying in Alice Springs? 🙂

 

[Svnla]

Nice pictures.

I was in Australia (West side) and it was just like the US except the air was nicer, the streets were cleaner, the people spoke with a "British" accent, and they drove on the left with kilometer and liter as standard. The cops drove in pickup trucks (Helix brand - same as Tacoma in the US) and their hats were just like Chicago cops.

I saw something strange. There were some aboriginal Australians slept in the fast food stores and people just let them be. No on called the cops and they just lay and slept on the floor. It happened at a few places, not just one incident.

 

[Exterous]

The weather for the second day in Sydney was supposed to be wet cool and dreary again. Since our original plan was Bondi Beach related we made the decision to take the train out to the Blue Mountains instead. (We were originally planning on going to the Blue Mountains on the last day of the trip when we were back in Sydney) We had plans in the evening so it would be a shorter trip than we would have liked but the weather was supposed to be perfect in the mountains so off we went.




At one of the 3 sisters





Once there we used the bus to get around. They do have hop on-hop off style tours but, with the way the Aussie Opal card works our bus rides were free and went to almost exactly the same stops on the same time table.

The climb up and down the 3 Sisters viewing platforms was quite steep and narrow but otherwise the area was easy to navigate on foot. The scenic areas were pretty sparsely occupied with two notable exceptions. A huge tour group showed up at the main 3 Sisters viewing area while we were there and completely overwhelmed it. We quickly left. We also headed to Scenic World but found it to be extremely touristy and decided and the views wouldn't be that much different than what we saw while hiking so we didn't bother to get tickets (I suspect its geared towards those who don't want to or have the time to hike around to get the views)

On the positive side they had a 'Tester' for Placenta Cream. While both of us declined to dip our fingers in the white cream it smelled just like any other lotion


Hey look – its all natural!

We were back in Sydney in the evening and were down around the Opera House for some nice night pictures. Unfortunately the clouds quickly moved in behind the Opera House so our night shots of that didn't turn out nearly as well as those facing away from the Opera House









We then headed to the other side of Darling Harbor to get a mug from the Hard Rock café Sydney for one of my wife's coworkers. Along the way we came across this nice water feature park which contained numerous valves, manual pumps, water wheels, and louvers to control how the water got down to the fountains at the bottom. I am not ashamed to say I ran around for quite a bit of time playing with those features and was glad there were no kids to 'get in my way'



Afterwards we headed back to the hotel as we needed to be up and out of our hotel by 7:10am the next day

 

[Exterous]

time for a vacation from your vacation

Pretty much

I want a nap just after reading the first paragraph.

Though this clearly was a gettin stuff done sort of trip.

We tried to take advantage of travel times for naps but there was a bit of coffee involved in this trip

i was on those routes when the 747 was replaced with the 777 just a few years ago. I think i did the west coast to syd flight about 15 times.

United as well? Did you prefer the 747 or the 777?

 

[Exterous]

Did you fly straight to Uluru and stay there or did you make the mistake of staying in Alice Springs? 🙂

No Uluru 🙁 With so much to see and do it, among many other things, didn't make it into the schedule

Nice pictures.

Thanks! I wouldn't say it felt like the US although the accent wasn't as strong as I was expecting in a lot of places. In Sydney I think I heard the US accent more often than the Aussie one

 

[herm0016]

United as well? Did you prefer the 747 or the 777?

Yea, I liked the 777 mainly because it had the in seat screens and the ceiling is higher. The 747's they ran looked like hell. You could see every rib down the fuselage.

 

[Exterous]

Day 3 was a wine, cheese, chocolate and beer tasting tour of the Hunter valley with a morning stop at the Walkabout Wildlife Park. The park was great as there were plenty of free roaming kangaroos, walabees, emus and koalas to interact with. So, with a stupid grin on my face, I quickly picked a koala to walk over to and scratch. At first she eyed me wearily but as soon as I started scratching her back she closed her eyes and went back to sleep. When my wife came up and started scratching her she pooped at my wife. For those keeping track that’s two times my wife was pooped at in the first 3 days. I'm not sure Australia wildlife is overly fond of my wife

Hello my soft furry friend



Later, while I was busy scratching a Roo's back, I noticed my wife making an odd face. I turned around and came face to face with an emu who was no more than a foot away from me. Sadly it trotted off before I could get a closeup with my phone




After that one of the rangers started handing out a python snake to hold. While waiting my turn I noticed he was a pretty sedate snake – just kinda hanging out draped around people's shoulders. That all changed once the ranger draped him on me. Immediately his face came up to my neck and cheek and started flicking his tongue out. The ranger said "Oy! You must have a rally warm neck" and gently guided his face away from mine. Not to be deterred the python started wrapping his hind section around my neck and squeezing slightly. My turn holding the snake did not last as long as some other people's.

After we finished up at the Wildlife Park we headed out for the food and drink portion. We had some great Shiraz and Verdelho as well as being introduced to Semillion. At the cheese stop we were introduced to Fetta marinated in herbs and garlic and it was life changing it was so good.

Once we got back to Sydney it was off to the airport for our 9pm flight to Melbourne where we picked up our rental car and headed straight to an airport hotel on the outskirts of the city for the night

 

[Exterous]

Today we had a lot of driving planned as we were heading out on the Great Ocean Road to our motel for the night in Warrnambool. Its normally a 6 hour drive along the coast without stopping. Despite our early 7:30 am on the road start some early rain, traffic and a lot of construction along with our stops would mean we didn't make it to Warrnambool until about 8:30pm

Our first stop was Bell's beach where we hoped to catch part of the RipCurl surfing event going on. Unfortunately the weather wasn't cooperating for them either and the waves were too small for competition.



We headed along the road stopping at various lookouts and waterfalls



We've seen rock stacking on other trips but nothing like this. We saw a couple of slightly smaller versions elsewhere in Australia


Rock stacking is srs bsns in Australia

It was a pretty dreary morning but started to clear up around noon which was good because the best scenery was coming up.

These are from our stops at the 12 Apostles, and from taking the Gibson steps down to the beach










We received and saw a lot of comments about how the GOR could be a dangerous and windy drive but both us us agree that the Road to Hana and various drives in Ireland and Scotland were worse.

As a side note - does anyone know a good place that allows better embedding of panoramic shots?

 

[Exterous]

After we left the 12 Apostles area we stopped by Razorback ridge, Lord Ard Gorge, The Arch, The London Bridge and the Grotto for more amazing views.

The crowds were definitely dropping off around 3-4pm. We had the Grotto to ourselves for a couple of minutes. Places to stay aren't very close so I suspect many were already in the towns where they would be spending the night


Razorback


Lord Ard Gorge


The Arch


London Bridge (The middle part fell down a few years ago stranding 2 people on it for hours)


Grotto

We then turned north for a stop at a Cheese shop and chocolate shop to pick up a few things for dinner. Unfortunately the winery was closed by the time we were in the area but I had a backup store planned in Warrnambool to pick up some more local wine with a nearby grocery for additional items.

Getting back on the Great Ocean Road it was getting a bit dark and we still had a ways to go to get to our motel so we skipped the Bay of Islands. Well after sunset we noticed the sky turning a striking color so I pulled off to the side of the road for some pictures



After the stops at the stores we checked in to the motel and had a very classy dinner.



Can I get a refill on my Cup 'o Meat please? And I have the cheese spoon here if you want some more cheese.

 

[Exterous]

You could see every rib down the fuselage.

Seems about par for the course for United

 

[Svnla]

Thanks! I wouldn't say it felt like the US although the accent wasn't as strong as I was expecting in a lot of places. In Sydney I think I heard the US accent more often than the Aussie one

I think you have more time to spend outdoor but when I was at Perth for a few days, the downtown area (business district) was just like downtown Dallas, TX to me but cleaner (the air, the buildings, the atmosphere, etc.). I did not have much time to travel outside the city except a few strong trips by bus to places such as the Aquarium and such.

Since I grew up in the South of US, it was strange to me that there were not much blacks in Oz and there were more Asians than other minorities and Perth was overwhelmingly whites.

 

[kaerflog]

Thats some shit man. Beautiful pics.
Is it just you and the wife and is this a tour that you're on ??
Tours are nice but I hated waking up early every morning.

 

[Exterous]

With the potential for an interesting surprise I dragged my wife out of bed early so we could make the 45 min drive to the Bay of Islands before the 7:30am sunrise. We were the first ones at the Bay of Islands and didn't see anyone else the entire time we were there. While every place but the 12 Apostles wasn't very crowded it was spectacular to have the place to ourselves in the morning







The GPS then took us on some pretty interesting backroads on our way to the Grampians and Halls Gap. It was along these back roads I realized my wife had some surprising gaps in her driving knowledge as she just blew through a rural railroad crossing.

Me: So we are just blowing through railroad tracks without looking now?
Her: If there was a train crossing the gates and lights would come on
Me: Uh....there were no gates and lights. You have to stop or at least slow down and look
Her:…....Oh



In the Grampians we hiked a few of the trails before doing the Pinnacle hike. Prior to this all of the trails in Australia we had been on were right on with their distance markers so we decided to save the weight and leave our water and snacks in the car for our 4.2km hike there and back. This turned out to be a bit of a mistake as the marked trail ended up being over 8km. Still we got some impressive views of the area




I'm not sure I would want to live in the houses at the base of that man made dam

We were a bit surprised at how busy Halls Gap was. Australians take Good Friday very seriously (we were told by a couple of people that more shops were closed on Good Friday than Christmas) and apparently they all head to Halls Gap. The campgrounds were stuffed and, as we headed out on our 3 hour drive to Melbourne, we passed an impressive stream of vehicles heading into the mountains.

We dropped the rental car off at the airport and took a shuttle bus into the city. With a strong exchange rate and cheap hotels in the area we had some nice hotel stays coming up, although having spent the better part of the day doing some hiking our dirty attire didn't exactly match the other people waiting to check-in.



From hotel towards downtown Melbourne

 

[Exterous]

Thats some shit man. Beautiful pics.
Is it just you and the wife and is this a tour that you're on ??
Tours are nice but I hated waking up early every morning.

Thanks! Just the two of us but only 2 days were on tours - the wine\koala tour and the upcoming scuba diving

We kept talking about sleeping in the next day but the next day always involved something notable - like the chance to have a well known grand scenic view all to ourselves during sunrise, a World Heritage Rain Forest site, a flight, or Scuba diving so it was an easier than usual decision to wake up early

 

[KMFJD]

With the time change I never had a problem getting up early....I think I've been to every location so far and your pictures are amazing.

 

[MongGrel]

Nice Pics.

Thanks for those.

Got a kick out of Ambulance.

:thumbsup::thumbsup:

 

[Exterous]

The next couple of days we spent in Melbourne itself and that morning we availed ourselves to the included breakfast buffet that included a Lindt chocolate fountain. We went to the Queen Victoria Market and were able to pick up some nice souvenirs for very reasonable prices. The city also has an nice array of arcades to wander through







Street graffiti art is pretty common in Melbourne so we went down a few well known alleys covered in it




The huge Melbourne International Comedy Festival was going on while we were there so we saw a couple of Australian comedians perform. We had a great time even though there were some local\cultural references we didn't get

With many things closed on Easter Sunday we planned for Sunday morning to be laundry time. Partly to fit within tight domestic flight weight restrictions and partly to not drage giant suitcases around (as we are more likely to walk or take public transportation than a cab to hotels) we planned to do laundry in towards the middle of our trip. I had hoped the hotel laundry services would be reasonable so that we could do that instead of visiting an Australian launderette but the prices were absolutely shocking to me. One hotel was $9 per regular shirt. Not even a fancy shirt – those cost more. Yeah no thanks.
Laundry didn't take too long and afterwards we went to the Shrine of Remembrance which is dedicated to those who served in the ANZAC military forces. There is a surprisingly large free museum dedicated to their service underground. Normally the coverage of conflicts like WWII center on the major players so it was very interesting to get some in depth views of actions that are otherwise completely glossed over




With an included $130 USD towards dinner we had dinner at the hotel for the last night (The attached restaurant was closed but they had the same menu offering for the lounge that night). I had one of the best steaks I have ever had. A local angus flat iron steak perfectly cooked (outside slightly crispy with a perfectly cooked middle that was still nice and juicy) and was the best meal of the trip for me.



We didn't stay out too late as we needed to be on our way to the airport by 5:30am

 

[Exterous]

With the time change I never had a problem getting up early....I think I've been to every location so far and your pictures are amazing.

With so long there I am sure you got to see a bunch more. Glad you like the pictures 🙂

Nice Pics.

Thanks for those.

Got a kick out of Ambulance.

:thumbsup::thumbsup:

Thanks! After some thought the only thing I can think of is that the side seat folds down to make space for a stretcher

 

[Exterous]

It was about midway through the trip that I realized that cake causes Australians indigestion – or at least that’s what I have come to believe from all of the commercials citing cake as a reason to take indigestion pills.

Anyway, we encountered some issues with our flight and rental car. A really long story short - I would not recommend flying with TigerAir or renting with Redspot

More than a bit delayed we made a stop at a military museum – The Australian Armor and Artillery Museum where I learned about the atomic tank

http://io9.gizmodo.com/the-atomic-tank-survived-a-nuclear-test-then-went-to-w-1542451635



(My wife is always super excited for these stops)

We then continued up to Port Douglas



The afternoon was supposed to be a rest period at a resort but I wasn't catching any breaks today. I've done something I've never done before – I made the reservations for the wrong date! Fortunately they had a room available but couldn't get it ready for another 3 hours as their cleaning staff was already busy getting rooms ready for people who had actually made reservations for that day. So we headed into town to bum around for a bit.



Once we got back and settled we headed to the beach for the sunset. Nothing much interesting at first but then the sky started getting some really interesting striations in it

 

[Aharami]

A++. Will read again!

 

[KMFJD]

I liked Port Douglas...very nice town, steak I had in Oz was amazing as well....did you at least try a meat pie? They where excellent for a late breakfast...