Australia

A few highlights from our amazing Australia vacation in late 2013:

Sydney

We arrived on Nov. 26 after a comfortable 11-hour Virgin flight. We went straight to Ben's apartment in Surry Hills. Ben met us a few hours later after work and took us for a tour of his neighborhood. We also played an epic round of frisbee golf on a course Ben designed. It was fun, though I think a few people in the parks were annoyed that we had to throw around them and even across busy streets!

Over that week in Sydney, a few of the activities we did were:

• Opera House - really saw it from multiple angles and went inside. It's very 70s inside, but the outside is very cool. Meant to look like sails. 
• Royal Botanical Gardens - it was easy to walk from Ben's apartment through the gardens to see the Opera House so we did so several times.
• Hiked Bondi to Cogee Beach - on the first day there, no less. Tiring but a great overview of the city's beaches. 
• Balmoral Beach - my favorite! Especially The Boathouse where we had brunch on the pier. Totally inspiring, nautical themed restaurant (loved the cute design). See the photo of Brent and Cigdem below. It's so peaceful and picturesque at Balmoral that several brides were taking photos of their overlook.
• Tarongo Zoo - they let you get really close to the animals. Also has a great view.
• Tropfest - Ben and Cigdem took us to an outdoor short film festival.
• Saw Uncle Ray, Lilli and Ryan Barto!

Cairns

I think we looked forward to this part of the trip the most because we saw the Great Barrier Reef on a 2-day sailboat excursion. We chose Coral Sea Dreaming as the sailboat company because Ben's dad raved about it. Also, it's one of the smaller, more boutique scuba diving/boating experiences there. Most boats are huge and the trip just lasts a few hours. We wanted to "sleep on the reef." 

We loved our shipmates... about 12 of us and we all got along. There was a British couple our age on their honeymoon. We had a lot of great chats. Luckily, neither of us got seasick but several others did. Scuba diving did not go as well as we hoped. Brent and I were special cases. Brent had a beard and has sinus issues so he had trouble breathing underwater. I would get freaked out when I went too far down (thought it was only about 20 feet) or when I saw Brent having trouble. Luckily, we had a patient instructor who ended up getting us under then taking us by the hands (ha!) and guiding us. Once I forgot about the weird and heavy apparatus around me, I relaxed and it was so awesome. We had an underwater camera. We even saw a small reef shark. 

After the boat trip, we stayed at Travellers Oasis hostel (in a private room). It was so fun! They had a pool and lots of fun, younger guests that we hung out with. The first night there, they invited us to a authentic Aussie BBQ where we ate kangaroo!  

Daintree National Forest / Cape Tribulation

This is the only place on Earth where two areas on the World Heritage list sit side by side. The "rainforest meets the sea." We chose to drive here from Cairns on Captain Cook Highway along the coast. It was beautiful. Once we arrived, we stopped at Bruce Belcher's River Cruises to see the CROCODILES! Bruce has a cute family-run business. We did see a few crocodiles, including babies. The next stop and the highlight of this stretch was staying at the Cape Tribulation Farmstay. This was a working fruit farm with a lot of exotic fruits we'd never heard of. We stayed in our own little hut and each morning had a plate of fresh fruit prepared for us at the shared kitchen. There are no cell towers or really Wifi in Cape Trib, so we went dark for a few days. We did a lot of nature walks and sitting on remote beaches. We couldn't swim because it was crocodile season. Swimming is basically prohibited. But locals told us about this hidden blue lagoon fresh water hole so we checked it out and it was amazing.   

Melbourne

We flew in and spent 2 days here. This is a very Victorian city in terms of architecture. We stayed in the middle of the city and had great food. I loved walking in the "arcades," which are turn of the century, arched shopping centers... usually through the middle of a building. The highlight of this stretch was renting a car and driving the Great Ocean Road. We thought we could do it in one day (really more like 5-6 hours) but it took longer than expected. I liked seeing Bells Beach on the way. That's where the last scene of Point Break is filmed. The creme de la creme was the 12 Apostles. We actually missed our flight and slept in a small airport just to see these rock formations as the sun set. It's one of the most beautiful and spectacular landscapes I've ever seen. It was so windy but Brent wanted to take a lot of photos (rightly so) so we just bundled up and took our time. 


There were a few other destinations along the way, but I think I've captured the parts of the trip that blew us away. It's a wonderful country with friendly, happy people. Would be cool to live there (and I know a few Americans who went there and stayed). We were lucky to take this trip down under and hope to do it again one day (and see the Outback perhaps).