Finally Headed Down Under!

[jedijill]

Do Australia in 2016...I'll got to Alaska with you in 2017!

Jill in CO

 

[jedijill]

YAY! Congrats on booking......and paying twice???? ...... although......that's probably still cheaper than paying for business class!


Looking forward to seeing how you figure out all your Australian land content!
In the meantime, I better go stalk that Melbourne Food and Wine festival and see if there is anything we can sensibly catch on the 13th, depending on how tired you may or may not be after your flight.

It only takes seconds for them to charge me but a week to reverse the charge. And yes, paying twice was still less than business class!

Hopefully I can get some sleep on the plane so I'll be fresher. Let me know what you find! I'm so excited!!!!

I spent tonight rebuilding my PC and had to replace my wireless router. Now I can get serious on the research and planning!

Jill in CO

 

[dolphingirl47]

Do Australia in 2016...I'll got to Alaska with you in 2017!

I wish we could. However, after all of our vacation plans went kind of belly up this year, this would mean that I would not get to see the Wonder again before she is re-imagineered.

It only takes seconds for them to charge me but a week to reverse the charge.

Unfortunately this is the same with us as well.

Corinna

 

[ACDSNY]

Loving the plans so far and congrats on getting the flights booked, I hope your duplicate payment gets reversed soon. What, there are people that don't love The Man From Snowy River? They don't know what they're missing, one of my favorites too.

 

[franandaj]

Flights are booked!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thanks to Delta.com, they were booked and paid for twice. Official dates are March 11-March 26, 2016. Flying from LAX to MEL and then SYD to LAX. I'll figure out how I'm getting to LA later.

Jill in CO

You are more than welcome to come stay with us before your flight for a night or two. We can definitely hit Disneyland before you go.

I hope that you will be doing a TR. Most of the places you are going are on my list as well. The only one on my list that isn't on yours is the Jenolan Caves. PIO seemed to think that they had at least one cave that Fran could do. We won't be climbing the bridge, but maybe what PIO did on her trip, if Fran and I ever get to the gym and get her into better shape.

Looking forward to the plans unfolding!

 

[AussieDisneyNut]

Sounds like you have a lot on your itinerary already, but I have to put in a suggestion for the western part of Victoria: Ballarat (especially Sovereign Hill), Great Ocean Road, Grampians and lots of wine regions in between! Take a look at http://www.greatsoutherntouring.com.au/home or go to http://www.visitvictoria.com/ for more ideas of what to do in Victoria and around Melbourne.
Have a great trip!

 

[Princess Jes]

It depends on how much time you have. You could spend a week in Sydney or a couple of days. It just depends on how you want to split your time.
FWIW - My feeling is about 3 - 4 days in Sydney to cover the things you've listed, with time to spare. You might want to look at doing a harbour cruise as well.

If the tall ships appeal, let me know. I'm on their mailing list and they do regularly offer discounted cruises.
http://www.sydneytallships.com.au/




Jill - pick the dates that suit you and I'll make it work for me. March 14th is likely to be a public holiday in Victoria; so that could be a good week to take some time off for me.
Food and Wine, Moomba fireworks, Philip Island, Yarra Valley (wineries and Chocolate), City tour, Flower and Garden. And maybe some horse riding.

If you're going to do the horse riding, let me know, I'd be keen to join if that's ok?. And I used to work at a trail riding place. It's only open on weekends though. Not sure if that works?

 

[PrincessInOz]

If you're going to do the horse riding, let me know, I'd be keen to join if that's ok?. And I used to work at a trail riding place. It's only open on weekends though. Not sure if that works?

I'll let you know if Jill wants to go horse riding. I'm not much good riding a horse. Walk, trot and cantor is about as much as I can cope with. Galloping is something I've never quite worked out.

 

[Princess Jes]

Where I used to work, if you want to canter then you can, if you want to gallop you can. They've git horses for all levels

 

[zanzibar138]

We've just got back from Cairns today. Loved it! I'm planning to do a brief TR (which I'll put up here in the Aussie boards) if you want to keep an eye out for that. In the meantime...

Day 1: We arrived late, checked into our hotel and went for a walk. We went to one of the many information centres and booked our reef tour for Tuesday as that would be the best weather. Picked up vouchers for a $7 pub meal including beer/wine at PJ O'Brien's - the meal was fine, but the atmosphere was definitely backpacker.

Day 2: Went for a drive out to the Daintree and Cape Tribulation. It was a long drive, and we felt like we didn't achieve that much, although what we did see was lovely. Suggest an early morning if you plan to do this trip. It was our only croc sighting of the trip, by the side of a creek along one of the walks. Unfortunately it disappeared before we could get our cameras out (it was raining pretty hard so we had them all away at the time). We had Vietnamese for dinner that night (next to Outback Jack's), which was great and good value.

Day 3: We did the Kuranda Skyrail and Railway. Was a nice easy day, fairly close to town. There is a self-drive option where you can drive to the skyrail terminal, then catch the train back and they shuttle you back to the skyrail on a bus. There were some great views from both the skyrail and the railway, and it was a nice little town to explore. We had dinner at the Woolshed. I highly recommend the Cajun chicken salad.

Day 4: Our reef tour. We took the tour that went to Green Island and the outer reef. Green Island was kind of disappointing. Not much coral or particularly exciting sea life. I'm not much of a swimmer and didn't enjoy the snorkelling there, headed in before the others and did a walk around the island which was nice. They did see some sea turtles once I'd left, which would have been awesome! I got sea sick on the way out to the outer reef (each trip was about 50 minutes, then nearly 2 hours return), and was concerned about how I would recover on a pontoon, but it didn't take me too long to start feeling better. The snorkelling was amazing out there - they provided life jackets which made me feel a whole lot more comfortable. There was also an included semi-sub which was fun. It was another long day by the time we got back to Cairns. We got a pizza on the way back to the hotel from La Pizza on the Esplanade. The pizzas were expensive, but delicious!

Day 5: Road trip to Atherton Tablelands. The boat trip around Lake Barrine was nice and relaxing, but we were unlucky with the wildlife spotting. The teahouse wasn't great - fake cream on their scones and the others weren't that enamoured with their coffees. Curtain Fig was amazing, so different and impressive. We stopped at the lakes a bit further on from there where they mainly do fishing. You can also see platypus there for a $5 entry. They took a while to show themselves, but we ended up with some great sightings. The waterfalls were lovely, as was the teahouse at the start of the Waterfall Way. We also visited Paronella Park. It was a nice place to visit, and we were pleased we went, but it was very expensive and I still feel ripped off having paid $43 entry pp. It was our longest day yet, but was packed with activities.

Day 6: Fairly leisurely day with midday scenic flight over the reef and rainforest. It was the more expensive flight option, but it was SIL's birthday present so she got to choose. We all enjoyed the flight (with GBR on their fixed wing aircraft) and got some great photos. I even got to fly the plane for a few minutes! SIL and her husband went out to Crystal Cascades in the afternoon and enjoyed it. We had a late-ish dinner at Frydays, where I had great coconut prawns.

Day 7: Didn't have time to really do anything this morning before travelling home, although we did drop by the mangrove boardwalk on the way to the airport.

The Cairns Esplanade area was really nice - I spent a few mornings running down there at or around sunrise. The pool down there looked awesome, but we didn't get a chance to use it.

I'll try and get the TR going ASAP, but feel free to ask away if you have any questions.

 

[Aussie Wendy]

Sorry for giving you a bum steer - the Lake tea house has obviously gone way downhill - it was a few years ago we visited but then it had been the same as our first trip and did have delic scones and real cream though can't comment on the coffee as was then mostly a tea drinker. Glad you enjoyed the waterfalls. We haven't ever got to Paronella Park - the entry cost has always put us off for what it seemed to be there to see. Also sorry you got seasick- I didn't think to remind you to take something just in case. We have been OK on the reef trips actually but always drug up for whale watching. Green Isd is pretty slack-has been for ages but they keep including it in the trips. The scenic flight would be amazing - also on a bucket list one day. The closest we have ever got was a small plane flight out to I think it was Lindeman Isd (in the days when it was a gorgeous little resort and not a Club Med). Overall though sounds like you had a nice week away.

 

[zanzibar138]

Sorry for giving you a bum steer - the Lake tea house has obviously gone way downhill - it was a few years ago we visited but then it had been the same as our first trip and did have delic scones and real cream though can't comment on the coffee as was then mostly a tea drinker. Glad you enjoyed the waterfalls. We haven't ever got to Paronella Park - the entry cost has always put us off for what it seemed to be there to see. Also sorry you got seasick- I didn't think to remind you to take something just in case. We have been OK on the reef trips actually but always drug up for whale watching. Green Isd is pretty slack-has been for ages but they keep including it in the trips. The scenic flight would be amazing - also on a bucket list one day. The closest we have ever got was a small plane flight out to I think it was Lindeman Isd (in the days when it was a gorgeous little resort and not a Club Med). Overall though sounds like you had a nice week away.

It wasn't terrible Wendy, just not as nice as I was expecting. I would recommend that if people are considering going to Paronella Park, they do the introductory guided tour, the hydro plant tour, and the early evening lights tour to get the full value from the entry fee. We did the first two, but it was going to be too late a night if we stayed for the lights tour.

I do generally have problems with motion sickness, so I *did* drug up for the boat rides. We were one of the last groups onto the ship leaving Green Island though, so we were stuck sitting on a sideways facing bench inside near the bar area. I'm sure that was mostly to blame. Once I got outside in the fresh air and was able to watch the horizon from the back of the boat, I felt a whole lot better. We found the best seats to be outside on the middle level, with me on the edge so that I could see as much land as possible. FWIW, it's also worth taking meds for the scenic flight and sitting as close to the front as you can (I got to sit right next to the pilot) if you think you might have problems.

There are cruises that skip Green Island, but as I'm not a big swimmer, we thought stopping there might be good for a bit more variety. In hindsight, I probably would have enjoyed it more had I not bothered to try to snorkel, and just enjoyed the walk and the views.