Advice on Australian Itinerary

[AdamEfimoff]

You could go to the Blue Mountains from Sydney. Have you though about going to Royal Botanical Gardens

 

[AdamEfimoff]

I second this recommendation. When we went, which was at least five years ago, there were three pricing tiers. We chose the "middle" on which meant that we were in a less crowded seating section. I thought the experience was wonderful. You also have plenty of opportunities to see the penguins "up close" as you walk back to the visitor centre as there are normally stragglers still making their way to their burrows.

http://www.ripponleaestate.com.au/

 

[lffamDSon]

(e.g. if they liked trains, then there is the Workshops Rail Museum).

I'm not a huge fan of SeaWorld or Wet n Wild.

I would definitely put the Workshops on your itinerary! The workshops are located in Ipswich, which from the centre of the city is about a 40 min drive. Do you know whereabouts you're staying in Brissy?

Seaworld is probably a little bit of a let down compared to the US ones, but there are some pretty unique experiences there (like swimming with dolphins- so fun!) Hope this all helps!

 

[SafferMom]

Thanks everyone. We are now back from our trip. We had an awesome time. You have a wonderful country! I have been working on some journal posts of the details of the trip on another forum I am a member of. Would anyone like to hear how our trip went. Not sure a tourists view of your country would be interesting to you guys?

 

[zanzibar138]

I would love to hear how you went! I always love hearing about our country from an outsider's perspective!

 

[lffam]

Thanks everyone. We are now back from our trip. We had an awesome time. You have a wonderful country! I have been working on some journal posts of the details of the trip on another forum I am a member of. Would anyone like to hear how our trip went. Not sure a tourists view of your country would be interesting to you guys?

I'd love to hear about your trip. You may well have seen more of this country than I have !

 

[aussie shaz]

Yep, I'd love to hear about it too.

 

[Montanabel]

Thanks everyone. We are now back from our trip. We had an awesome time. You have a wonderful country! I have been working on some journal posts of the details of the trip on another forum I am a member of. Would anyone like to hear how our trip went. Not sure a tourists view of your country would be interesting to you guys?

Yes pls

 

[Aussie Wendy]

Waiting

 

[Tanzanite]

Thanks everyone. We are now back from our trip. We had an awesome time. You have a wonderful country! I have been working on some journal posts of the details of the trip on another forum I am a member of. Would anyone like to hear how our trip went. Not sure a tourists view of your country would be interesting to you guys?

Iwould love to hear about your trip we are working on trip fr 3 weeks next summer to Australia .

 

[SafferMom]

With pleasure @Tanzanite

Week 1 - Brisbane Area


After a very long time spent travelling we arrived in Pelican waters (4 hrs drive to OR Tambo (Johannesburg), JHB-SYD, SYD-BNE and then 1 hour drive to Sunshine coast) at my husbands aunts house that she loaned us for the 4 nights we would be on Sunshine Coast. My husbands cousins all live on the sunshine coast so they played host for us and we had a wonderful few days here - made even more special by the fact that my husband only started with his meetings the next week so he had a lovely long weekend of holiday.

Our first day was just spent in Brisbane doing our banking and walking around the Brisbane CBD, one of our cousins took the kids on the Wheel of Brisbane while we were in the bank which they loved. Much better than sitting bored in the bank!!

The second day we visited Caloundra, Point Cartright (including the lighthouse), had a lovely lunch at Mooloolaba Surf Club and then drove to Maroochydore and walked along the river. This are of Australia is truly beautiful and relatively undeveloped - definitely our style. That evening we were invited to a bbq in Beerwah by the cousins. They live on a lovely acerage just outside Beerwah. Even though our cousins are South African they have been in Australia for 22 years and are all married to Australians so it was great to meet some locals. It was the first time this trip we experienced the slightly "alien" feeling you get (I know we will experience it lots more in the coming years) when having a conversation with someone who has a completely different point of reference to you but everyone there was so kind and giving us all sort of info on Australia which we appreciated. I must say that during the entire trip all the people we interacted with were super friendly and we enjoyed meeting and chatting with new people.

Our last day on Sunshine coast our cousins took to us to spend the day on Noosa North Shore - breathtakingly beautiful. We also had a quick drive around the town of Noosa - can see why it is such a sought after holiday destination.


The next morning we left super early too meet up with our next hosts. They live in the suburb of Cleveland. We just dropped our baggage and rushed out the door to catch the ferry to Stradbroke Island. We were a little late and it being a Sunday there was no parking but our host noticed everyone was parking in the boat parking spaces and he assured us it would be Ok to park there (spoiler alert - it wasn't!

) Hopped on the ferry and had a wonderful day on Straddie (we already were getting into the habit of shortening words) We saw whales, dolphins, turtles, an injured seal and many many new birds (My husband and son are dedicated twitchers). When we got back to the car of course there was a fine $85! Truly embarrassing, only 4 days in the country and we had our first fine - our hosts had never had one in 7 years.



The next day we spent the day exploring Lamington National Park - another gem just on the doorstep of Brisbane. There is so much nature so close to the urban areas, something that is a big plus for us as we love being out and about. All of us love animals and our hosts were very good to show us of the local wildlife as possible. After Lamington we headed to a park in Cleveland were we would maybe see koalas in the "wild" and we were fortunate enough to see 3. We also got to see some wallabies that roam around a winery near Moreton Bay. We also popped into the local library - all I can say is WOW!!! And of course paid the fine.



The next morning was another early start as we were heading North of the river to another host family. By this stage my husband was busy every day meeting with colleagues and potential employers. Our next host family have been in Australia for 17 years and have 3 kids similar ages to my two. That day was just spent catching up with my friend and she drove us around some of the suburbs close to them (they live in Ferny Grove) and we also drove past a few schools she thought might be a good fit for my kids. I must say if we were to end up in Brisbane we would love to settle in this area - we felt quite at home here.

The next day we took the kids out to The Queensland Museum and QAGOMA - we paid no entry fee at either which was a relief to our wallets. Kids really enjoyed both outings and even though both places were crazy busy (school hols) there was lots of kids specific stuff for them.

On our last morning in Queensland our host loaned us his ute and we had a wonderful time doing a short drive up to Mt Glorious and stopping at a few of the viewpoints in D'Aguilar National park. It was a wonderful send off for our 8 days in Queensland.

 

[SafferMom]

Two days in Canberra

My husband had a meeting with a colleague at ANU (Australian National University) and him and his wife very generously offered to host all 4 of us in their home for 2 nights. We really only had 1 full day in Canberra as we arrived quite late the first evening and left early on the third day but we managed to squeeze lots in. In the morning my husband had his meeting - but instead of in an office the two of them went for a hike up Black Mt to the Telstra tower and chatted on the way. The kids and I spent the morning at Questacon - a must see if you have kids!! We arrived as they were opening and had a relatively peaceful 1.5 hours before it was jam packed with kids on their holidays - it didn't help that it was a very cold day so a day indoors must've seemed like a good idea for the parents. In the afternoon we met up with the hikers and drove out to Tidbinbilla Reserve where we spent a magnificent afternoon hiking around. We were so luck with birds and managed to see many new species as well as having 4 sightings of platypus in the various ponds in the reserve. By now the platypus had become a bit of an obsession with all 4 of us so it was wonderful to see them in their natural habitat.

 

[SafferMom]

Four days in Melbourne:



Now this is a city that I was so looking forward to seeing. We rented an Airbnb apartment in Docklands for the 4 nights we were in Melbourne as we don't know anyone who lives there. I must say I realised after 1 day there that this was a bit of a mistake as there is no way we would live in a tiny 2 bedroom apartment in the city if we moved there. I should've organised accommodation in a suburb so we could've gotten more of a feel of how it would be to live there. That being said we did sort of view this as more of a holiday part of the trip but after a few days of meetings my husband very quickly realised that Melbourne is seen as the centre of excellence for the kind of work he does so its a very good possibility we may end up living there.



Our first afternoon there we visited the Queen Vic markets which we enjoyed. We ate at a beautiful restaurant overlooking the marina - which we could walk to from our apartment. There was an AFL match at Ethiad (our apartment overlooked the stadium) so it was great seeing all the fans heading to the match.

The first full day my husband had no meetings so we would have a family fun day and we chose to visit the Melbourne Zoo - our original plan was to go to Healesville sanctuary but we didn't hire a car and realised it would just take too long. Our kids were very disappointed as this was something they had been looking forward too. But in the end the Zoo was a more than adequate substitute - it really is a world class zoo. We spent hours and hours there and managed to just sit and watch the platypus for a half hour. We were also curious about the Wild dogs they had there as I was unsure how they could possibly keep such an animal in an enclosure but the enclosure was massive and we were lucky enough to be there are they threw in a cow carcass and the four wild dogs fed. I must saw most people did not want to watch this. We wanted to try and tell them how privileged they were to be able to see such a rare African animal but we just enjoyed it by ourselves. They also a pride of lions in an enclosure and I must say they were magnificent specimens. They also had a speaker in the lion enclosure which broadcast the lions roaring throughout the zoo which was a clever idea - it really added to the authenticity. We did spend most of our time in the Australian animal section but as it was so cold most of them were sleeping - we never got to see the Tasmanian Devil at all! After the zoo we headed towards Federation square for a (very) late lunch but we ended up in one of the laneways and had wonderful burgers. Buy this stage it was extremely cold and rainy but we still had a look around Fed square and then made our way back to the apartment.

My daughter had requested some shopping time so we headed to the Emporium for a session of window shopping. We first stopped for breakfast pastries at Adriano Zumbos (we are Masterchef fans) pop up store in the Emporium. As an aside I have to say the coffee in Melbourne is amazing!!! In the afternoon I took the kids on the Melbourne Star to keep them busy while my husband was working.

On our last day we decided to explore the Melbourne Museum which I have to say was in a complete different league to the Queensland Museum. I must also say that Australian museums tend to display there treasures in slightly quirky way. There is always a general theme to a display but then there will be one or two objects that just seem slightly out of place to a non-Australian but I really liked stumbling across these. After the perusing the slightly bizarre but fascinating Phar Lap display we headed into the Melbourne Story display - we loved this it is very well done and gives a wonderful overview of the cities history. Other displays that we really enjoyed were - First peoples, Bugs Alive and the kids absolute favourite was the Wild gallery with all the Museums bird and animal stuffed specimens. So quirky and wonderful. They had these interactive screens where you could get info on the animals. My two spent almost 2 hours there. I also particularly enjoyed the Darwin display in the Evolution Gallery which also showcased some of the 5000 bird specimens the Museum bought from the estate of John and Elizabeth Gould. They travelled to Australia from the UK in 1838 to catalogue the birds of Australia and they collaborated with Darwin on On The Origin of Species all the while having 8 children - a completely fascinating couple (to me anyway)

Eventually I dragged the kids away from the Wild gallery and made the decision that I wanted to see St Kilda - specifically the penguins at the end of the pier. We hopped on a tram that would take us directly there - my husband hopped on the tram in the city and continued with us to St Kilda. But of course as the tram went along the weather got worse and worse and once we were in St Kilda it was freezing and raining pretty hard so we bravely walked along the promenade for 10 minutes and then found a restaurant for an early supper - abandoning with penguin plan!

 

[SafferMom]

6 Days in Sydney



After Melbourne we headed to Sydney to stay with my sister - yay!! We also got to meet my newest nephew (he is her third boy) who was 5 weeks old. We did not do much sightseeing in Sydney as my sister and her husband live very far from the city and I wanted to spend as much time as possible with her but we did manage to get into the city twice and see some of the sights.

The first visit was to the Aquarium which my little nephews particularly enjoyed - although I suspect they were more excited at the prospect of catching a train to get to the city. We also had a walk around Darling Harbour. The next day we met some other friends at Circular Quay and after walking around the Opera House we caught the ferry to Manly and walked around after which we had a long lazy lunch overlooking the beach and caught up with our friends and got all sorts of info on the move.

I must say that Sydney is one of the most beautiful cities I have ever been in but I don't think its the place for us to settle in despite my sister living there. The rest of our time there was spent relaxing with family but on the last day my sister took us to Featherdale Wildlife Sanctuary which was another highlight of the trip for the kids. It almost exclusively has Australian animals so suited us. Although there was no platypus the kids got to interact with an echidna which they loved and since we were there as the doors opened we didn't have to wait in a long queue for the koala photo opportunity. They let the kids gently pat the koala which they enjoyed. I must say again its a very well looked after facility and the animals and zookeepers all look happy to be there. They also have large aviaries with different bird species. But again we didn't get to see the Tasmanian devil but we did very well with all the other animals so came away very happy.

 

[Zosha]

It all sounds great SM and you definitely saw some of Oz's best sights!! I'm so glad you enjoyed the Sunny Coast and Brisbane area. It really is a fantastic part of Australia to live in! Do you think it's likely you will move to Aus?

 

[Aussie Wendy]

Yes poor old Brisbane Museum is tiny compared to Melb and Sydney and any anywhere actually and since a refurb I think they made it worse not better but anyway..glad you enjoyed your time in SEQ even if you end up living in Melbourne.

 

[Tanzanite]

6 Days in Sydney



After Melbourne we headed to Sydney to stay with my sister - yay!! We also got to meet my newest nephew (he is her third boy) who was 5 weeks old. We did not do much sightseeing in Sydney as my sister and her husband live very far from the city and I wanted to spend as much time as possible with her but we did manage to get into the city twice and see some of the sights.

The first visit was to the Aquarium which my little nephews particularly enjoyed - although I suspect they were more excited at the prospect of catching a train to get to the city. We also had a walk around Darling Harbour. The next day we met some other friends at Circular Quay and after walking around the Opera House we caught the ferry to Manly and walked around after which we had a long lazy lunch overlooking the beach and caught up with our friends and got all sorts of info on the move.

I must say that Sydney is one of the most beautiful cities I have ever been in but I don't think its the place for us to settle in despite my sister living there. The rest of our time there was spent relaxing with family but on the last day my sister took us to Featherdale Wildlife Sanctuary which was another highlight of the trip for the kids. It almost exclusively has Australian animals so suited us. Although there was no platypus the kids got to interact with an echidna which they loved and since we were there as the doors opened we didn't have to wait in a long queue for the koala photo opportunity. They let the kids gently pat the koala which they enjoyed. I must say again its a very well looked after facility and the animals and zookeepers all look happy to be there. They also have large aviaries with different bird species. But again we didn't get to see the Tasmanian devil but we did very well with all the other animals so came away very happy.

Thank you for sharing what a wonderful trip .

 

[chookie94]

As someone from Melbourne, it was great to read your thought on some of our attractions because (though me bias) I believe it is one of the best cities in the world. I am glad you enjoyed your trip so much.

The first full day my husband had no meetings so we would have a family fun day and we chose to visit the Melbourne Zoo - our original plan was to go to Healesville sanctuary but we didn't hire a car and realised it would just take too long. Our kids were very disappointed as this was something they had been looking forward too. But in the end the Zoo was a more than adequate substitute - it really is a world class zoo.

Melbourne Zoo is amazing and doesn't get the credit it deserves. People generally suggest Sydney Zoo because it has the most amazing view, but Melbourne Zoo is first class.

We hopped on a tram that would take us directly there - my husband hopped on the tram in the city and continued with us to St Kilda. But of course as the tram went along the weather got worse and worse and once we were in St Kilda it was freezing and raining pretty hard

This is Melbourne perfectly summed up!

 

[SafferMom]

Thanks so much for all the lovely comments.

It is now certain that we will be moving to Melbourne - it is definitely the best place for dh career right now, so now we are frantically researching suburbs and schools but it is all very exciting.

Its going to be great to be able to see all the places in Melbourne that we missed and since we have family in both Sydney (Which I really felt as though we did not do justice to) and Brisbane we will be spending time in both cities.

@chookie94 I agree with you on Melbourne zoo - we have been to many many zoos and wildlife sanctuaries around the world and I must say it was impressive. It just had a great "vibe"

 

[zanzibar138]

Sounds like a great trip, and glad that you enjoyed Melbourne since that's where you'll be moving to!

Feel free to join in on one of the Melbourne DisMeets when you've settled in