Australia Discovery Down Under Trip Report

[BetaCygni]

Cast & Crew
Me (50 something Disney fanatic), DW (50 something vacation lover), DS (17 Disney fanatic), DD (17 Disney fanatic) – Twins!

Pre-Trip Planning
I’ve always wanted to visit Australia and with DS & DD off to college next year, this is a good year to have one last exciting family vacation. I was originally going to do all the arrangements myself; DW & I visited New Zealand soon after we were married and I had a fun time planning that trip.

I had a basic outline (Sydney, Uluru, and Great Barrier Reef), so I started researching hotels in Sydney. Since we’d stayed in such nice hotels on our Adventures by Disney trip to Ireland last year, I took a peek at what hotel the ABD trip used. In the process, I looked over their itinerary. Wow! They were packing in twice the activities I thought I could arrange on my own.

Based on how much fun we had on last year’s trip it became a no-brainer to go with ABD again. The relaxation began almost immediately. I knew they would take care of the smallest details and we could just enjoy being together in wonderful Australia.

I didn’t relax for too long since there were flights to select. The ABD trip starts in Cairns and ends in Tasmania. We are flying from the S.F. Bay Area and Tasmania is a long way from there!

Most of the direct flights from the west coast to Sydney (SYD), Australia fly out of LAX. We didn’t want to fly to LAX first and then take a 15 hour flight (plus another 3+ hour flight to Cairns), so I looked around for something else. NOTE: United has one 15 hour non-stop flight from SFO to SYD, but it is about $500 more expensive. That really adds up with 4 people!

I found an Air New Zealand non-stop flight from SFO to Auckland which was only 13:10 hours followed by a 5:40 hour flight to Cairns. The total time is about the same, but the longest leg is a couple of hours shorter.

To get back we figured it was too far to fly in one day, so we decided to stop in Hawaii overnight. Since it was just an overnight stay, it seemed like the perfect time to try out the Disney Aulani Resort! It was a Disney trip after all! I’ve really wanted to stay there, but since we usually go to another island when we go to Hawaii I’m not sure when we’d be able to.

I wanted to get a non-stop flight from Australia to Honolulu (HNL) and I found a Hawaiian Airlines flight from Brisbane (BNE) to HNL (NOTE: They now have a flight from SYD to HNL). So we just needed to get to Brisbane. Hawaiian doesn’t fly to Hobart (HBA), so I found a Virgin Australia flight from HBA to BNE.

We were all set. We’d stay overnight at Aulani and the head for home the next day relaxed instead of flying/waiting in airports for 24+ hours straight. Not to mention we could have some chocolate milk dipped french toast stuffed with bananas & peanut butter at the ‘AMA‘AMA restaurant the morning of our final flight! I booked that before we left.

The ABD Australia trip has two afternoons and evenings on your own in Sydney. We looked into the Harbor Bridge climb, but it is very expensive so we decided to skip that. We could get our high altitude thrills on the trip when we go zip-lining in Tasmania!

I’m active in an astronomy club and one of the things that attracted me to the ABD trip was they have a star-gazing session when we are at Uluru. I’d only been to the southern hemisphere once (the NZ trip with DW) and I wasn't into astronomy then. I was really anxious to see the Magellanic Clouds and DS & DD had never really seen the Milky Way, so the Uluru outing would be great. I made sure the week we picked would be one without a bright moon.

Back to planning for Sydney. I found out that there is an Observatory in Sydney which was established in 1858. They have a planetarium show and you can look through telescopes if you book a tour ahead of time. Luckily there were still some openings for the 3rd night of our stay in Sydney, so I booked it before we left. It would be interesting to find out more about the southern sky and constellations. The observatory is about a 25 minute walk from the hotel.

We also looked into restaurants for the nights we'd be dining on our own (one night in Cairns, two nights in Sydney, and one night in Hobart). We really like the ABD trips because of this. It gives our family a chance to decompress away from the rest of the people on the trip and build some lasting memories together.

We scoured our guidebooks, Trip Advisor, and Yelp. The most important dinner was the one in Hobart since it was my birthday! Based on my research, the best choice was the Restaurant Tasman at the hotel we are staying at (Grand Chancellor). It overlooks the waterfront, has a kids’ menu (just in case ), and can make cakes.

We knew that the Disney guides would give us some suggestions, but we think it helps to do some independent research ahead of time. For example I found a good restaurant (Fish at the Rocks) near the Observatory that would be convenient for the night we go there.

The other astronomy related item I investigated was the Southern Lights (Aurora Australis). I found some websites which have information about it:

http://www.think-tasmania.com/aurora-australis-the-southern-lights/

http://www.ips.gov.au/Geophysical/2/4

http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/ovation/

Our best chance to see them was at the Freycinet Lodge in the National Park in Tasmania since it is the farthest south (and dark), but if there was a big solar eruption, we might have been able to see them at Uluru. So I planned on checking those sites during the trip. Hopefully we’d get lucky. Stay tuned

Spoiler Alert
Some spoilers about the trip are in this report, so don’t read it if you want to be surprised. Just skip to the end for our conclusion (pssst it was a great trip!).

 

[BetaCygni]

Day 0-1 (Monday/Wednesday July 21-23, 2014)
This was our travel day and it was a long one. We took BART to SFO for our Air New Zealand Flight from San Francisco to Cairns Australia via Auckland, NZ. Our flight left SFO about 45 minutes late, but we made it up in transit and the plane ride was only 12 hours instead of 13. We all got some sleep, although DS only fitfully. We got dinner (I guess supper because we ate dinner in the airport before boarding) and breakfast on the plane. The fruit plate for breakfast was great with a yummy muffin, yogurt, fresh fruit, and OJ.

The seats on the 777-200 were VERY close together in economy class. They tilted WAY back which was better for sleeping, but made it very hard to get into and out of our seat!

We had about a 90 minute layover in Auckland which was a nice rest, then a 5:30 flight to Cairns. This time we flew on an Airbus 320, with more comfortable seats. We arrived at around 11 AM.

We got through customs easily and as we exited, there was one of our Disney guides (Suzanne who was from Australia) and our driver (Helen). They both welcomed us to Australia and we were in a van to the hotel within minutes. The adventure begins!

It was a quick 30 minute drive to the Palm Cove resort. Helen was a fountain of knowledge about the area, having lived in Cairns most of her life.


When we got to the resort, we were greeted by Matt, our other Disney guide. He gave us a gift bag with ginger beer (non-alcoholic), chips, and Tim Tams!


One of our must have’s (Tim Tams) was off the list right away!

He gave us a list of menus for some of the meals on the trip and asked us to make our selections now to make things go smoother later. The welcome dinner to meet all the other Adventurers was @ 5 PM. An early dinner would give us a chance to get to bed early and adjust to the time change.

We went up to our room, which turned out to be a 2 bedroom apartment complete with kitchen and laundry! I guess it is a timeshare. The laundry was nice—this was a two week trip (including travel days and our extra day in Hawaii on the way back), so every chance we could do laundry was a bonus.

We all walked to the beach and I turned on my GPSr to try and find a nearby geocache. It took a long time for it to figure out it was in the Southern Hemisphere, but after about 5 minutes it locked on and in another 5 I had the cache in hand! Our first Aussie geocache!

The beach looked good for running, so DS, DD, and I went back to the room to get into our gear. We ran for about 30 minutes barefoot in the surf. It was fun; the other side of the Pacific Ocean!

We took showers and then caught up on email in the lobby where they have free Wi-Fi.

The welcome dinner was outside in a pavilion. We got our lanyards and a family picture with Perry the Platypus. Today’s theme was G’Day Mates!



We had a chance to talk with our fellow travelers while waiters walked around with hors d'oeuvres. Dinner was served family style with three courses. I tried the kangaroo, but it was so tough and chewy it was like chewing gum! L Dessert was yummy with cream puffs and a chocolate tart/brownie.


Our guides: Matt & Suzanne

Then it was off to an early bedtime (7:30 PM) to rest up for tomorrow’s adventure to the Great Barrier Reef!

 

[BetaCygni]

Day 2 (Thursday July 24, 2014)
Today’s theme was Reef Adventure. We all tried Vegemite for breakfast at the hotel. Yuck! The rest of the buffet was tasty. We were on the bus by 8 AM for a 30 minute ride to Port Douglass. Matt put on some Australian Rock and Roll music as we followed the coast road north. There were a few beaches along the way and they were almost completely empty.

We had a 90 minute ride on a huge catamaran out to a floating platform right next to Agincourt Reef. That is along the outer edge of the Great Barrier Reef, right at the continental shelf. It drops off 2000 meters beyond that.


It was choppy on the way out, so the ride was pretty bumpy. I used ginger pills that I brought along (they also offered some on the boat). DW used some over-the-counter motion sickness pills.

We were split into two groups. Our group was snorkeling right away and the other was going to eat lunch first. They provide masks, snorkels and fins. You could also grab a floating noodle. We got lycra suits (normally an extra cost) that covered our whole bodies. These protect against jellyfish and sunburns. There were no jellyfish the day we were there.


We got a 45-minute snorkel with a marine biologist. It was helpful to have a noodle to float with while listening. It was a little hard to hear her in the back, but that was okay. There were lots of very cool coral of all different shapes and sizes. However, compared to the shallow coves I’ve snorkeled in Hawaii, I would say there weren’t as many fish nor as many different kinds.


We did see two sea turtles and giant clams.


I’d never seen a giant clam before!



The biologist also brought up an empty conch shell for us to look at.



After snorkeling we went back on the boat to grab lunch. It was pretty picked over by then, but they did a pretty good job of keeping everything in stock. We sent ourselves a postcard that was postmarked on the Great Barrier Reef for a souvenir when we got home.

After lunch we went through the underwater observatory to look at the fish. We also took a ride on the semi-submersible sub (included in the price). That is well worth it. You get to see large expanses of coral that I’ve never seen before. Very spectacular.

One of the dads in the group went on a 10 minute helicopter ride over the reef (extra cost).

The catamaran ride back to shore was much smoother.

According to the schedule, we were supposed to go to Hartley’s Crocodile Adventures that night for crocs and dinner, but the guides switched that to tomorrow night to give us another early bedtime to adjust to the time change. That was a good idea.

We got back to the resort around 5PM and were on our own for dinner. We drove by the row of restaurants and shops in Palm Cove on the way back to the resort and the guides made suggestions for where to eat. We ended up eating at Il Forno, a pizza place. It was pretty good. We finished up with some yummy ice cream at Numi’s.

We could see lots of stars from our room. I wanted to try and see the Milky Way tonight, but everyone said it was too dangerous out at the beach at night because of salt water crocodiles. I’d just have to wait until we got to the outback.

We were too tired to exercise. Forty-five minutes of swimming, including lots of treading water to listen to the biologist, was enough.

 

[BetaCygni]

Day 3 (Friday July 25, 2014)
Today’s theme was Aboriginal Spirit. We went to the gym before breakfast and ate the leftover pizza from last night before heading to the buffet breakfast. Today we visited the Tjapukai Aboriginal Cultural Park. Our bus driver was named Paul (Hockey) and he only had one arm. To set us at ease, he let us know that he was the first person with a disability to climb the north face of Mount Everest!

http://www.abc.net.au/local/stories/2008/06/12/2273190.htm

When we arrived, we all got our faces painted.



Then we went to an outdoor stage to watch a show with music and dancing, including a dance about kangaroo hunting:



They also made fire:



Next it was off to learn spear throwing using an atlatl (they had a different name for it).

DW did the best of all. She hit the hay bale twice!



That was followed by learning to throw a boomerang.



DS & DD did very well and almost caught them when they came back!

After that we got a demonstration on how to play the didgeridoo:

Then he asked if anyone wanted to try. My hand shot up.

After a few minutes of trying I was able to actually make the sound! The instructor was impressed. I guess all that harmonica playing paid off! DD was able to do it too.

I wasn’t sure I was going to be able to try it, but one of my goals for the trip was to play the didgeridoo. Disney magic comes through again!

Then we got to paint our own boomerangs that we could take home as souvenirs.


We left the boomerangs there to dry (they would be picked up later in the day) and boarded the bus to the village of Kuranda for shopping and lunch on our own. DD wanted to hug a koala so she and DW headed for Kuranda Koala Gardens. Queensland is the only state in Australia where the public can hug a koala. That was of her “must-do’s”.



DS & I went off to do some shopping and have lunch. I was looking for a souvenir that had opal on it, but quickly learned that opals are super expensive. Eventually I found a key chain with a map of Australia on it embedded with some colorful opal chips. $6 AUS. Perfect!

We also found a geocache in Kuranda that was down by the skyrail station. On the way back to the meeting place, I bought some Tim-Tam Fudge. Yummy!

The group got all back together after our wanderings and boarded the Skyrail back down to Caravonica, which is near the Tjapukai Park. The flight over the rainforest was spectacular.

At the bottom, while we did some shopping at the gift store our guides went over and grabbed our boomerangs which were dry by now. DS bought a t-shirt and I bought some flakes of Australian Gold in small vial.

We took the bus back to the resort, freshened up and then headed back out to visit the crocs and have dinner at Hartley’s Crocodile Adventures. It was after hours, so we had the place to ourselves. First we got a boat ride through the lagoon where most of the crocodiles lived. Our guide, Duncan, was a real character. He loved to talk about crocodiles. He had a chicken carcass on the end of a pole and dangled it over the crocs that swam up to the boat. As they leaped at it, he’d pull it away. Eventually he’d let one of them have it.

We got a chance to hold a crocodile and a snake. Cuddly!



We all got a picture with a Koala bear. Awwww. I guess its cuter than a python.



Before dinner, servers walked around with plates of fried crocodile. It was very tasty. Even better than chicken! J The dinner and dessert were very good. We sat on a platform overlooking the croc lagoon.

Back at the hotel, we did 2 loads of laundry using our washer/dryer in the room. There were 3 laundry soap packets, so I saved one for the Freycinet Lodge in Tasmania. They have a public laundry room.

 

[BetaCygni]

Day 4 (Saturday July 26, 2014)
Today’s theme was Uluru Power. Bag pull was at 5:30 AM, so we were up by 5:00. The hotel restaurant opened early for us so we could eat breakfast. We were on the bus to the Cairns airport by 6 AM. Flying within Australia means very easy security: you can bring liquids and you don’t need to take your shoes off. It is a three hour flight to the Ayers Rock airport. As we approached we could see the large rock formations (besides Uluru/Ayers Rock) in the area. Very impressive.

The bus that picked us up was driven by a park ranger who would be our guide for the next two days. He was very knowledgeable and said they undergo extensive training to learn the history and geology of the area. He explained how the local aboriginal tribe was granted title to the land around Uluru in 1985 with the National Park being leased back to the government for 99 years. The local tribe members are called the “traditional owners” of the land.

We visited the cultural center and learned about the different foods the Aborigines eat as well as men and women’s law. The law is what guides the lives of the people. They have always done selective burning to avoid huge bush fires that kill everything. By burning certain areas, they attract game into that area as the plants renew themselves, sending out fresh shoots.

The aborigines don’t think people should climb Uluru, but it is not prohibited. The guide said that 33% of the visitors to the park climb Ayers rock (mostly solo travelers), so the government and the tribe are hesitant to outlaw it since many of those people may not come otherwise. It is very steep and gets slippery in the rain (the trail is closed for rain and high wind). There is chain supported by posts to aid climbing.



We hiked to a watering hole and saw some petroglyphs on the ceiling of a shallow cave. The guide explained that the aborigines used drawings like that to teach their children. It was like a chalkboard in a classroom, so they were not meant to be permanent. He also told us an aboriginal myth about a snake. Some of large features on Uluru illustrate the story.


At the watering hole he explained how the Aborigines would count the number of animals who went to the watering hole and wait until the last one was leaving before catching that one so the others wouldn’t be wary the next time.

We drove around the other side and hiked to locations where men and women from the tribes in the surrounding area used to meet. Uluru means “meeting place”.

After that, we drove back to the resort and had a lunch of pizza and salad served family style at a huge table everyone sat around.

Before dinner, another adventurer, DD and I went running around the resorts in the area with Suzanne, one of the Disney guides. We stopped at a small hill for a great view of Uluru.


She is a dedicated runner and recently completed the Dopey Challenge at Walt Disney World! We ran about 30 minutes, but DD & I wanted to go longer, so we ran all the way around the back side of our resort for about 15 minutes.

The group all had dinner together in the hotel restaurant. This was one of the meals we picked at the beginning of the trip. I had a very yummy chocolate and strawberry sorbet. The rest of the family had the first of many chocolate “mud cake” desserts.

After dinner we met in the lobby to walk away from the resort to a concrete platform for our outback Star Party. Wow! This was definitely one of the highlights of the trip. It was perfectly clear and you could see the entire Milky Way. A local astronomer had set up two (8-10”) telescopes and pointed them at the spectacular deep space objects you can only see in the Southern Hemisphere like Omega Centauri, the Carina Nebula, the Coalsack dark nebula and the Magellanic Clouds. I brought my 10x50 binoculars along and got good views of them through those. I asked him about aboriginal constellations and he said they didn’t connect the stars into patterns, but instead used the dark areas of the Milky Way to find a great emu in the sky.

I had planned this trip to make sure the Moon wasn’t up at this time of night and it really paid off.

 

[BetaCygni]

Day 5 (Sunday July 27, 2014)
Today’s theme was The Sails of Sydney. Today our bags had to be out by 8:30 AM, so we could sleep in a little. A full buffet breakfast (including pancakes cooked to order, etc.) at the resort was included in the tour. DS ordered pancakes, but they forgot about his order and he had to leave without them. L We got on the bus at 9:30 to drive to Kata Tjuta, one of the other large rock formations in the area. The driver was the same park guide as yesterday, and he told us more about the area. Kata Tjuta is a series of sandstone domes and means “many heads”. We stopped at an overlook for pictures and then hiked up a gorge with a small stream running through it from a spring.

There were some birds flying around but no other wildlife. We didn’t see any large animals in the park. The area is semi-arid (not a dessert), so the animals usually congregate around the major watering holes. There was a drought for several years in central Australia, but it broke about a year ago and there had been higher-than-average rainfall recently. That meant the outback was green and there was plenty of food for the animals.

We stopped on a platform at the head of the gorge for more pictures.



All of the sandstone in the area is very red and there were large aggregates of other rocks imbedded in it that looked very unusual.



After stopping at one last overlook, it was time to head to the airport. For lunch there were wraps, Pringles (they seem to be big in Australia), and a drink (another preselected meal) waiting for us after we checked in. It was a 2.5 hour flight to Sydney and we arrived in the late afternoon. After collecting our bags, we boarded a bus that took us to Mrs. Macquarie's Chair.



This is an overlook that has a great view of Sydney harbor including the opera house and the bridge. By then it was dark and the lit-up cityscape was spectacular. We were met by a local man who had brought Lamingtons— a popular Australian dessert consisting of sponge cake with frosting and covered in coconut. Yum!



From there it short drive to the hotel for a buffet dinner with everyone in a private room. After dinner, the kids went off to movie night in a room in the hotel while the parents stayed behind and talked. The kids selected “The Incredibles”.

 

[BetaCygni]

Day 6 (Monday July 28, 2014)
Today’s theme was Quay to the City. DD, DS, and I were up early (6:45 AM) with Suzanne to run out to Mrs. Macquarie's Chair and back before breakfast. On the way back we went through the Royal Botanical Garden.

Breakfast was the buffet at the hotel and it was very extensive. They even had ice cream! The theme was Christmas in July so they had a tree with decorations out front and a Santa Claus figure on top of one of the food tables.

Our first activity of the day was biking along the waterfront at Circular Quay and then uphill to the Sydney Observatory. Our guide from the bike shop told us lots of interesting local history as we rode. Then we had about an hour on our own at the Quay for some shopping until it was time to board a ferry boat for our harbor lunch cruise. We went over to Darling Harbor and back with lots of great views along the way.







After the cruise, we walked to the Sydney Opera House for a one-hour tour. The history of how the opera house was built and how it is used today was fascinating.



It was designed by a Danish architect who won an international competition. Some building techniques using pre-stressed concrete had to be invented to actually build it. It was way ahead of its time.



We got back to the hotel about 4:45 PM and we were out by 5PM to find the “Safe City” geocache over south of Darling Harbour. That turned out to be a long haul (45 minutes of walking) and everyone else got grumpy. Anyway, I finally found it and dropped off the “Fortress-Conqueror” travel bug that I had brought with me (it was originally from Germany) and grabbed another one that is in a race back to France against another travel bug. (I learned when I got back the other one is already in France, so the one I found is way behind ).

Then it was a 15 minute walk to the Harbourside Shopping Center. By then we were very tired and picked a local gourmet burger place called “Gril'd” that turned out to be very good. We all had ice cream for dessert. I ordered a milkshake that turned out more like an ice cream drink. It wasn’t thick like American milkshakes.

It was a 15 minute walk back to the hotel and we got there by 7 PM. Then it was another early bedtime so we’d be ready for our surfing adventure tomorrow.

 

[BetaCygni]

Day 7 (Tuesday July 29, 2014)
Today’s theme was Let’s Go Surfing. Breakfast at the hotel buffet again— the bread pudding was yummy and we found out that Rice Krispies are called Rice Bubbles in Australia. Who knew?

Off on a bus at 8:30 AM to Bondi Beach. First we went to the local Lifesavers clubhouse and learned about the long tradition of volunteer lifeguards. The Bondi Surf Bathers Life Saving Club was established in 1907 and is the oldest club of its type in the world. The guys and gals in the club who were instructing us this morning work for a local surf shop which provides wetsuits and boards. We were split up into three groups: the younger kids were in one group and the adults (along with DS & DD who are almost adults) went off to another area where we split up into beginners and more advanced.



DD had just gotten back from a Girl Scout/Outward Bound trip to Costa Rica where she had been surfing for 5 days so she did very well, getting up many times.

I’ve only tried surfing once in Hawaii a few years ago and learned you have to be very agile to get up smoothly to a standing position while on a moving surfboard. Not an easy task. I got up a couple of times, but was never really that comfortable. I had a lot of fun, but I think my surfing career has come to an end. I’ll stick to boogie boarding from now on.

DW was happy to surf in on her knees and enjoyed just being in the water. DS did better than either of us, getting up several times. DS & DD are off to college next year, most likely somewhere along the California coast. It will be interesting to see if they take up surfing. Hmmmm.

Afterwards we had lunch at the Returned Service League Club. The profits assist returning servicemen and women as well as local charities. We picked this lunch menu at the beginning of the trip. I had the excellent chicken schnitzel, and for dessert I went for the chocolate mud cake with ice cream. Double Yum!



We got back to the hotel around 1:45 PM. Some families were doing the Sydney Harbor Bridge Climb. We had the tour at the observatory at 8:15 PM that I booked before we left and I’d made a dinner reservation at Fish on the Rocks which is close by.

We took a taxi to dinner. It was cheaper than I expected, only $13. Dinner was great. We all had the delicious spaghettini with seafood. The service was great. We were very early to the observatory since is just up the hill from the restaurant, so we sat on a bench and reviewed DD’s pictures in her camera. It was a lot of fun reviewing our memories so far.

Before the tour, we were let in for a few minutes to look around. They had one of Edmund Halley’s log books on display. Wow, that is very rare!



We then joined the tour and were split up into two groups. Our group went into the planetarium first. The astronomer guide also told us that Aborigines didn’t use stars to trace out constellations. They used the dark patches in the Milky Way to find emus and snakes.

Then it was time to view through the telescope. Unfortunately, some high clouds came in and we only saw Alpha Centauri (a triple star), The Jewel Box Cluster, and Saturn. Then we watched two movies in their theater: Extreme Places in the Solar System in 3-D and Seven Minutes of Terror about the landing of the Curiosity rover on Mars.

So somewhat disappointing, but a nice evening out with the family. We were lucky to hail a cab right away near the restaurant and got back to the hotel around 10 PM.

 

[BetaCygni]

Day 8 (Wednesday July 30, 2014)
Today’s theme was Mania for Tas. Bag pull at 5AM. Ugh. We got a box breakfast in the lobby and were on the bus to the airport at 5:30 AM. It was a 90 minute flight to Launceston Airport in northern Tasmania. From there it was about a 30 minute drive to Hollybrook Treetops Ziplining. Our bus driver was from Hobart and would be with us the rest of the trip. He knew a lot about the history of Tasmania and told us interesting facts along the way.

Hollybrook was really a first-class operation and tons of fun. They have a custom harness and rope system: once you are clipped into the line at the beginning, you never unclip. You are suspended by two ropes so you don’t spin around. They use an auto-braking system controlled by the guide who goes first to the next platform, so you don’t have to wear a leather glove and worry about braking.

They provide rain suits, gloves, and eyeglass holders. There is a practice run on a short section just outside the building.

It was cold and windy, with some light rain, but that just added to the adventure. We had to walk about a quarter of a mile to the rim of a canyon carrying our pulley, which probably weighed about 15 lbs. That was a bit of a slog, but after that it was pure excitement.

The ziplines go through a eucalyptus forest in a river canyon and you are as high 23 meters (75 feet) above the ground in the trees and a little higher as you go over the river. They said they ultrasound the trees every 5 years to make sure they are okay.



On one section, they attach a rope to you with a quick release so you can go part way to the next platform and pose (including upside down) while they take pictures. Then you pull the release and go onto to the next landing.



They gave the pictures to the Disney guides, so they showed up on the trip website after we got back.

The last two runs were 200 meters (650+ feet) and 400 meters (1300+ feet) long above a rushing river. On the 400 meter run, we got up to 80 km/hour (50 mph). What a rush!

On the last little short run to the ground, they had you “trust” your gear and just fall off the platform, not grabbing the ropes. I went with my eyes closed and as I was swinging around, I almost took out the guide. Oops. J

DW & DD had gone ziplining before, but both agreed this was the best. It was a first for DS & I. We both thought it was a blast. I probably won’t do it again (I’d rather hike around in the woods then be trussed up in all that gear), but I’m really glad I went this time.

Another Magical Disney Experience!

We drove onto the Freycinet Lodge, our base of operations for the next few days. Along the way we watched “Finding Nemo”. Very appropriate for this trip.

It had stopped raining by the time we got there. The lodge cabins are cozy and set into the woods on the edge of the resort. Even though the cabins have two rooms and can sleep 4 (queen bed in main room and two singles in the other), DS & DD got their own cabin.

Dinner was a buffet at the lodge. There we learned a new trick: the Tim Tam Slam! You bite opposite corners off the end of a Tim Tam and then suck a hot drink (like coffee or hot chocolate) through the cookie until the liquid just reaches your lips. Then you quickly eat the cookie. We did it with hot chocolate and it was incredible. The chocolately gooeyness just melts in your mouth.

After dinner, I walked down to a darker area of the resort with my binoculars and was able to observe the rest of the deep space objects on my list except the Large Magellanic Cloud. I couldn’t get a good enough southern horizon. While I was out, I was visited by an Australian possum who was very friendly. Too friendly. I guess he was looking for a handout. They are cuter than American possums, but I shooed him up into a tree.

 

[BetaCygni]

Day 9 (Thursday July 31, 2014)
Today’s theme was Adventure by the Bay. It was very windy almost all night and when it stopped it started raining. Luckily the rain stopped just before we had to go to breakfast. Disney Magic! J



We had a buffet breakfast at the lodge. We were supposed to go sea kayaking this morning, but it was just too windy. The guides said it would be more like wind surfing. Instead we went on this afternoon’s scheduled hike this morning. First we hiked around a lighthouse which gave good views of the surrounding area, and then it was on to the main hike which led to an overlook of Wineglass Bay. It was a beautiful view from up there. According to the guide, Queen Elizabeth II once had high tea on the beach.

The trail was fairly steep with lots of steps, so be prepared for that. We took some pictures and then headed back down. In the parking lot was saw a couple of wallabies hanging around. They are like the parking lot squirrels back home, but much bigger!



Back to the lodge for a private lunch of open faced grilled sandwiches, fruit, veggies, and carrot coconut soup. I’m not a big fan of coconut, but the warm soup was welcome because it was windy and cold on the hike.

It was still too windy for sea kayaking, which Matt said happens about 30% of the time. Our bad luck, but he & Suzanne told us they have a surprise activity after dinner to make up for it. Hmmm.

We had the afternoon off, so it was a great time to do laundry. There were 3 washers and 3 dryers. It was $4 for reach and you could exchange bills for $1 coins at the front desk. While getting the coins, I bought some souvenir coasters with a map of Tasmania and some of its animals on them for my brother. He said I’m probably the only person he knows who will go to Tasmania, so please get him something with a Tasmanian Tiger on it. The tiger is now extinct. The coasters had the tiger on them so I was all set.

We did just one load of laundry for everyone so we’d have enough clean clothes for the rest of the trip. You could buy soap, but I had that extra packet from the Palm Cove resort so I used that.

Before dinner, we headed out on our mystery adventure. In the nearby town of Bicheno there are a species of penguins (The Blue Penguins of Bicheno) that are out at sea all day eating and then come back to shore to their nests at night. The males build nests to attract females. They come in after sunset, so we watched them waddle up the rocks and sand to the short bluffs above the beach by dim lights and flashlights held by the guides. We weren't allowed to take our cameras, but the penguin guides were shining lights right into the faces of the penguins so one of the Disney guides got a picture. I guess they don't want a lot of flashes going off.



The penguins are about 12” tall, making them automatically cute as they waddled along. Once they saw us, they stopped and waited until we moved along. They were very patient. One went through someone’s legs into the bushes behind us, but the rest just stood there (probably annoyed).

We drove back to the lodge for dinner. Matt and Suzanne had showed us the dinner menu at lunch and asked us to pick what we wanted. The adult menu was too fancy for me, so DD, DS, and I all ordered from the kids menu. By then, I was feeling pretty stuffed from all the rich food on the trip, so I just ordered salad and spaghetti for dinner. The three of us ordered banana splits for dessert that were super yummy! They have good ice cream in Australia.

Tomorrow is my birthday and I wanted eat dinner at the hotel in Hobart, so I talked to Matt afterwards about booking the reservation. He got a gleam in his eye and said he didn’t know it was my birthday (I assumed that Disney knows everything about us like the NSA does ). Anyway, he said he’d call in the morning and try and book us a table.

 

[tufbuf]

Thanks for the trip report!!! Great pics! Makes me all excited for our ABD Australia next year!

 

[BetaCygni]

Day 10 (Friday August 1, 2014) – my Birthday!
Today’s theme was Little Devils. Breakfast buffet at the lodge then on the bus for today’s adventure. The guides led everyone in singing Happy Birthday to me which was nice. Then we all did a special Birthday Mad Lib that was hilarious when it was read at the end. It was a letter from my aunt about my birthday. The final line was:

Hugs, and Tim Tams,
Your Aunt X

Hugs and Tim Tams was a phrase used often for the rest of the trip. J Later the guides gave the Mad Lib to me as a souvenir.

Our first stop was at Kate’s Berry Farm. Kate was originally going to be on vacation starting today, but she stayed an extra day just to be open for us. She started her farm in 1988 and has achieved success through hard work and perseverance.

The Disney guides bought me a birthday boysenberry ice cream complete with candle! Another round of Happy Birthday. What a great birthday so far!



We bought some mixed berry jam to take home to my parents and DS bought a breakfast ice cream for himself.



When we got back on the bus, it was time for the “Bus Olympics”. They pitted one side of the bus against the other to see who had various items from our trip (like a boarding pass for Qantas airlines). The side that passed the item up to the front first got one point and got to give a sour ball (that the guides had picked up at Kate’s Berry Farm) to someone on the opposing side. Our side got the first 5 or 6 in a row, then it started to even out. At one point “the birthday boy” got one. Man, that was harsh. The skin on the inside of my mouth was peeling off for hours afterwards. Yuck. I think our side won, but anyone who got a sourball (except maybe a couple of people who claimed they liked them) was a loser. DW & DD got picked too. All in good fun.

The next stop was Frogmore Winery for lunch, which consisted of tapas of various types: seafood, cheese, chicken, etc. After lunch there was wine tasting for the adults upstairs and chocolate tasting for the kids. DW wanted to do both J, so she cut out early from the wine tasting. We don’t drink a lot of wine, but I confirmed that I like Pinot Noir and not Chardonnay. Later I went back downstairs and got to try some of the leftover Cadbury chocolate. It was good, but not as good as Ghirardelli.



The last stop of the day was Bonorong Wildlife Sanctuary. That proved to be the highlight of the day (besides getting a birthday ice cream that is J). They had really interesting animals there. First one of the volunteers brought out a “baby” wombat (10 months old) that was about 18” long and very squirmy in the cold. She said when they are fully grown (1 meter/3 feet and 40 kilos – 88 lbs.) they can run faster than Usain Bolt (which I checked later and is true even with their stubby legs). I asked if the she could be released into the wild and she said there is no problem for wombats going back into the wild after being cared for by humans. In the wild, when they get big enough, they kick their mother out of the nest! In the wombat enclosure they had just put some bowling balls for them to push around. Apparently they like it.



Then we got to see their Tasmanian Devils. They are about the size of a very small dog. They are scavengers, so they aren't aggressive towards humans. Their eerie cries in the darkness that settlers first heard that earned them the name “devil”.

One of the volunteers fed them wallaby and chicken. Currently Tasmanian Devils in the wild are being decimated by a facial tumor cancer, so these won’t be let out since they are uninfected. They are often hit by cars while feasting on road kill, so some drivers carry gloves to move road kill off the road to help the devils.



Then she brought out a koala that we could take pictures with while she held it. She said that koalas are most closely related to wombats. They just have a lot more fur around their body and especially their face so they can keep warm in the trees. Wombats stay warm by burrowing underground. Koalas are not native to Tasmania since the wrong kind of eucalyptus trees grow there. But they have one since who doesn't want to see a cuddly koala?

Last we got to feed the kangaroos by hand. They gave us some feed in a small bag and we went into their large enclosure. There were over 100 kangaroos. Many of the females had joeys in their pouches.



They were very docile and would eat out of your hand like a horse. Well, not exactly like a horse since they would gently grab your hand with their front paws while they ate. Their fingers reminded me of the ones on a raccoon; they were thin and jet black.

It was a lot of fun feeding them. This was an especially big hit with DD who had “seeing a kangaroo” on her “must do” list for this trip. We never saw one hopping in the wild, but we did see one hopping away at the sanctuary.



I left the enclosure after I ran out of food and the baby wombat was back out to get a bottle feeding.

Afterwards we drove to the hotel in Hobart. On this part of the drive it was type for the second event in the “Bus Olympics”. This was more of an individual event. The guides called the name of a town and you had to decide whether it was real or made up. There are a lot of strange town names in Australia and the ones made up by the guides were hilarious, whether you were fooled or not. “Ugly Tom” is a real place in Australia, but “Ground Beef” isn’t. J Luckily no sourballs this time.

When we got to Hobart, we took a short detour through the Salamanca Area we would tomorrow. As we exited the bus, the guides gave us each $5 AUS to buy a small gift for a white elephant gift exchange tomorrow night at our farewell dinner.

When we arrived at the hotel, Matt told me that we were all set for dinner at the hotel restaurant. After checking into our rooms, getting our bags, and freshening up a bit we went to dinner. I was greeted by a special birthday card from our guides…



…along with a special Mickey Birthday pin to add to my lanyard! What a wonderful and thoughtful surprise.

Dinner was yummy, but we all skipped dessert since we’d been eating ice cream (2 of us anyway) and chocolate all day.

 

[sayhello]

Sounds like a great trip so far! Looking forward to more of your Report!

Sayhello

ETA: New posts while I was reading! Yay!

 

[BetaCygni]

Day 11 (Saturday August 2, 2014)
Today’s theme was Ghost Walkin’. The last full day of the trip! We got up early to exercise in the fitness center of the hotel, and after a buffet breakfast we were out at 9 AM for our shopping trip to the Salamanca Market. Before we headed over there, we got a geocache (“Heading South”) that was right in front of the hotel by the water.



The shopping was fun. It was like a flea market. I was surprised how many things you could buy for $5 AUS or less. There were a couple of bands playing in different locations to keep things lively. DS bought a purse made out of yarn, DD bought a Ginger-“dead” man with crosses instead of eyes. DW bought a Tasmanian tiger plush doll and I got a tea towel with a large map of Tasmania on it showing all the great things about the island and a much smaller “island” of mainland of Australia called “a small island off the northeast coast of Tasmania”. Australia was labeled with all bad things like the “most shark attacks”, etc.



I assumed we’d be eating lunch at the market so I hadn’t done any research about where to go. However, no one really saw anything they wanted so we went back to the hotel to get out of the cold and then back out for lunch. We hoped to go to a pizza place that others on the trip had gone to last night, but it was closed for refurbishment. Instead we lucked onto the Harbor Lights Café. The food was great, and we all found something we liked. DS had pancakes and they came with vanilla ice cream! I guess ice cream for breakfast is a thing in Australia. Go with the flow I say!

After lunch everyone relaxed at the hotel while I went out to grab the last geocache of our trip only a couple of blocks away. Success! That’s it for geocaching down under.

The farewell dinner and ghost tour was at the former prison at Port Arthur. It was about a 90 minute drive. On the way over we watched the first half of Wreck-it Ralph (picked by a vote). It was damp and dreary at the prison, which was appropriate I guess. We walked around and looked at the signs describing each building; many were ruins. They were restoring the main prison building so that was surrounded by scaffolding and off limits.

The Commandant’s house has been restored and had interesting displays about life at Port Arthur. Then we went back to the visitor’s center and walked through the exhibit about the life of the prisoners. The guides gave us a playing card (e.g. the 5 of clubs) that represented an individual prisoner. Displays in the exhibit were labeled with each card so you could find out what crime the person committed, what work they did at the prison, whether they got into further trouble, etc. It made the exhibit much more interesting. They also had some leg irons you could try on.



Then it was time for the ghost tour. This one was not like the one we experienced last year on our Adventures by Disney Trip to Ireland. There was no 2nd guy jumping out of the shadows to scare us. Just lots of stories about ghost sightings at the prison. It was creepy, but by the end I thought it got a little boring. As much as I don’t like to be startled, I think I enjoyed the Ireland one more. Go figure.

The finale was the dinner at the prison insane asylum. We had picked our menu choices at the beginning of the trip and I was glad I picked soup for the first course since I was cold from all the tramping around the damp prison grounds.



Before dessert we did the gift exchange. There wasn’t too much stealing to begin with, but about halfway through, some items got stolen. I stole a mug with “Hugs and Tim Tams” on it for the 2nd time, so that was locked. DS got soap which no one wanted. DW ended up with a Tasmanian Devil painting. DD got her item stolen a number of times and at one point had a crazy knitted cap with eyes and feelers on it, but that was stolen and she ended up with a glass peacock.



Then we had dessert and watched the traditional Adventures by Disney trip slide show with each day’s activities. It was lots of fun to watch a revel in our exploits day-by-day. Lots of laughing and "Awws" all around.



It was quite dark at the prison, so on the way back to the bus I looked at the Milky Way one more time. Riding back to the hotel, we watched the end of Wreck-it Ralph. Yay, the good guys win again!

 

[BetaCygni]

Day 12 (Sunday August 3, 2014) – Double Day
Today’s theme was Good on Ya Mates! We slept in since our flight didn’t leave until 1:30 PM. We were too tired to use the gym this morning, so we had breakfast at 8:45 AM. We were the last family to leave and the guides were on the same flight as us to Brisbane. They were flying on to Cairns to start all over again on Wednesday. We were continuing onto Hawaii for a one night stay at the Aulani Resort on Oahu!

I called this “Double Day” because we left Australia at 6:35 PM and arrived in Honolulu at 7:50 AM the Same Day!

We drove to the airport with the Disney guides in a van. While we were waiting for the flight, they gave us the final Pin of the Day (Good on Ya Mates!) with Goofy! They’d heard that I’d been disappointed so far that Goofy wasn’t on any of the pins since he is my favorite character.

We did some last minute shopping in the airport, but surprisingly there were no Tim Tams! L Oh the horror… I found a coaster with just a Tasmanian Tiger on it made from local wood. It was very nice-looking, so went ahead and bought it as an extra present for my brother. He really liked it:

It was a 2:35 flight to Brisbane and it was uneventful until the approach to the runway. We were very close to landing when the pilot gunned it and pulled up. Uh oh. We went around again and this time the landing went as planned. After we landed, the flight crew came on the intercom and explained that the runway wasn’t clear. Yikes!

We originally had a 2.5 hour layover, and now were down to 2 hours and we had to travel to the international terminal which was pretty far away. There is a train that goes there on its way into town. We’d gotten a train pass on our Virgin Airlines boarding pass, but it looked like we’d just miss a train and it was another 30 minutes until the next one. Another 30 minutes down the drain.

At least we’d been able to check our bags all the way through to Honolulu so we only had our carry-ons to worry about. The next train came and we got on board and then it just sat there. A train official came on our car, then got off. A few minutes later two federal police officers came on and told a guy he had to get off because he didn’t have a valid pass. He argued with them for about 10 minutes before finally getting off. Another 15+ minutes gone from our layover time.

We finally got to the terminal and had to go through security again, which took a while. We finally got through and they were already boarding the flight! We rushed to spend our last $AUS. I ended up putting $5 in the Rotary charity box. DW & DD bought Tim Tams (Yay!), and DS ended up with $20 AUS as a souvenir.

The plane left 20 minutes early since everyone was on board. Like the rest of the long flights on this trip it was almost full with a few crying babies and guys snoring that made it hard to sleep even with ear plugs. Out of the 9:15 duration of the flight, we all got a couple of hours of sleep at the most.

We got to Honolulu a few minutes early and picked up the rental car. I’d looked into reserving a Taxi, but the cost of a taxi back and forth to the airport was more expensive than renting a car and paying for parking. It was a nice easy 30 minute trip and it felt good to drive after being driven and flown around for a couple of weeks. I had spent a lot of time resting with my eyes closed on the plane, so that helped and I had no trouble driving. We arrived around 9 AM.

We used valet parking (same cost excluding the tip as regular parking) and then turned our bags over bell services. A greeter escorted us into the lobby and offered us ice water flavored with citrus. Very nice. As we entered the great hall, two more greeters gave us welcoming leis (flowers for the ladies and Koa nuts for the men) and took us over the front desk. Wow. What great service!



As we were checking in they asked me if we were celebrating anything. I said it was my birthday a couple of days ago so they gave me a birthday button with Happy Birthday in Hawaiian and my name on it. As I walked around the resort the rest of the day, everyone was wishing my Happy Birthday!

We’d arrived well before check-in time (3PM) and our room wasn’t ready yet, so they gave us key cards to the lounge which has locker rooms, showers, and towels. We grabbed our swim stuff from our bags and went to the lounge to plan our day. The lounge was an air conditioned room that had videos going hawking the Disney Vacation Club (DVC).

I wanted to go in the pool right away but everyone else wanted to wait until after lunch. I got a wristband and towel and headed for the volcano! There are two water slides in the volcano: a single person, no-tube slide and a one or two person inner tube slide. Both were great. The single person slide is all in the dark and goes very fast. The 1-2 person slide has some open areas at the start then goes into an enclosed 270 degree final turn to the splashdown. Yee-Haw! After that, you have enough momentum to continue onto the lazy river using the same tube. Nice!



For lunch everyone else got a turkey wrap or chicken caesar salad at the Ulu café. I went to Mama's Snack Stop to get a Portuguese hot dog (yum!) and a real lemonade, not fizzy like in Australia. J I returned to the café to eat with the rest of the family. I’d heard that Aulani had recently added Dole Whip to menu at the Lava Shack, so DD & I headed over there. DS was going to wait until after swimming. It was self-serve so you could pile it as high as you wanted. The machine was acting up, but we got to work well enough to get our treat. Yum! Dole Whip in Hawaii!! Almost as good as having it at Disneyland!!!



After lunch we all went into the ocean, which is just steps away from the resort. They created a great swimming cove for the three hotels that front the beach in that area.





After that we all went to the volcano. DW and I went down the tube slide first and DS & DD followed, each in their own tube. We all took a lap around the lazy river. We were going to go down the single person slide, but that slide were closed for some reason, so we went back to the room. DS stopped at the Lava Shack on the way, but the pineapple side of the soft-serve machine wasn’t working at that point, so he got a smidgeon of Dole Whip and the rest vanilla. Not satisfying.

When we got back to the lounge I checked my phone and saw that I’d gotten a text from the resort saying our room was ready. We already had our room key so we went right up and called for the bags.



DW & DS relaxed in the room while DD and I headed for the fitness center. They had a lot of high-quality equipment. The treadmills had a video screen and you could pretend you were running through different landscapes. That made it more interesting.

Originally we’d had reservations to eat at the fancy (and expensive) 'AMA 'AMA restaurant, but we decided we’d had too much fancy food on this trip, so we cancelled that. We all went to Off the Hook to check out their menu. They had burgers, but DD and I didn’t want that, so we went to the ULU café and each got an Hawaiian Hot plate (Rice, veggies, and meatloaf). We bought them to go and went back over the Off the Hook to eat with DW & DS. On the way back to the room, I held back and sneaked a Mickey Ice Cream Sandwich at the ULU cafe for dessert. Double Yum. We have a rule in our family (it might just be my rule) that Dole Whip counts as a fruit serving, not dessert.

DD said she wanted to exercise the next morning, so we changed our breakfast reservation at 'AMA 'AMA for 8:30 AM and set the alarm for 6:30 AM.

I went to the Starlight Hui, but everyone else was too tired. The Hui was fun, lots of nice Hawaiian music and hula dancing. There were also two “modern” ukulele players who played a super-fast Dick Dale Surf Guitar song! They were impressive. At the end, Stitch, Mickey and the rest of the gang came out and they started a Dance Party. Great Fun!

 

[BetaCygni]

Day 13 (Monday August 4, 2014)
Today’s theme was Time to go Home! J

I was the only one who got up to exercise— DD was too tired. The fitness center as packed, but I found a stationary bike to ride for 30 minutes.



Our plane didn't leave until 1:45 PM so there was time for more fun in paradise this morning. It is hard to describe how great our breakfast at 'AMA 'AMA was on the lanai overlooking the beach. It was just getting warm with a slight breeze. Perfect conditions. The restaurant was pretty crowded, so I’m glad we made a reservation.



DS, DD, and I all ordered the Chocolate Milk Dipped French Toast. We’d been fantasizing about this ever since we’d read about it. It lived up to all the anticipation. The toast had caramelized banana and chocolate filling inside with three dipping sauces: chocolate, maple, and peanut. Excellent!



I ordered a papaya that came as a whole papaya, cut in half and peeled. Very yummy. DW ordered the fruit crepe and really enjoyed that too.

Then it was back to the room for final packing. DS had one more quest though: Dole Whip! He’d been foiled yesterday, but today the machine was working and he got his little slice of Disneyland in Hawaii.

There was time for a little souvenir shopping. I bought an Aulani Polo shirt to go with my Castaway Cay shirt I got on our Disney cruise. DD spotted a Goofy pin that said Aulani and had him snorkeling that I couldn’t resist getting to complete my pin collection for the trip: an extra Mickey Birthday and Aulani pin and my Hawaiian Happy Birthday button at the bottom of the lanyard. Complete!

The flight home went smoothly and my last planning decision for this trip really paid off. Last year, on the Ireland ABD trip, we'd taken the BART train and then gotten a taxi home from our local station, but it was really tiring waiting for the train after a long plane flight. Late at night the trains only come every 20-30 minutes.

For the four of us, it was only a little more expensive to ride in style, so I'd arranged a town car to meet us at the airport and whisk us all the way home. What a great decision if I do say so myself!

After we got our bags, I called the company and a large black SUV picked us up five minutes later and we were on our way. Leather seats… Ahhhhhhh. That’s the way to do it.

 

[BetaCygni]

Conclusion
I had very high expectations for this trip based on our experience last year with Adventures by Disney in Ireland. I have to say they were exceeded.

The Ireland trip was mostly about the culture of Ireland. This trip was more of an outdoor adventure trip with snorkeling, surfing, hiking, and ziplining. I enjoyed it even more than last year because of that.

Like last year, DW & I felt we really got our money’s worth on this trip. The guides took lots of photos of each family which are posted in a website only the people on the tour can access. The days were well-planned and there were fun contingencies if something wasn't possible. The guides gave us restaurant suggestions in each city. Hotels were luxurious. The guides provided snacks on the bus.

The guides were really first rate.

There was just enough time on our own to not feel like we were always rushing here and there. A quiet meal as a family a few times during the trip was a perfect way to take a break from the group and build family memories.

 

[tgeorge]

Sounds absolutely fabulous! I love that there are so many outdoor activities. My husband and I really enjoy those things and now it makes me even more excited to go on this trip someday. Thank you for taking the time to give a trip report. It is a lot of work,but we all enjoy reading them.

 

[tufbuf]

I just realized the trip is almost a year old. LOL! I know they didn't change the itinerary. How many were you in the group? It's good you had an Aussie ABD guide with you, we're hoping we have one too in ours next year.

 

[BetaCygni]

I just realized the trip is almost a year old. LOL! I know they didn't change the itinerary. How many were you in the group? It's good you had an Aussie ABD guide with you, we're hoping we have one too in ours next year.

Hey, it takes a while to write one of these...

We thought the itinerary was perfect; better than the old one that didn't go to Tasmania.

There were 21 guests and 2 guides on our trip.