We had the opportunity to travel to Australia using frequent flyer miles and hotel points. Below is our journal. Click here for a collage of our pictures (Warning, this is a very large file).
Mon.,
Nov. 15th – We left Dayton at 10:20 am, arrived LA 1:30 pm.
Rented convertible and drove out to Beverly Hills and Hollywood.
Ate dinner at small Mexican restaurant in Beverly Hills.
Spent the night at the LAX Courtyard.
Tues.,
Nov. 16th – Returned car and checked in at QUANTAS. Spent several hours in the lounge waiting for our flight.
Our flight left at 1 pm. First
class was indescribable!
Wed.,
Nov. 17th – We arrived in Sydney at 10:30 pm.
Whizzed through customs, hired a cab for $30 to take us to the Park Hyatt
at The Rocks. It’s on the harbor
across from the Sydney Opera House.
Thurs.,
Nov. 18th – We spent most of the morning shopping and pricing opals,
boomerangs, kangaroo purses, and didgeridoos.
Bought Sydney Explorer Pass. It
allows us to ride both circular route tourist buses, all local trains and
ferries for 3 days. We ate in a
quaint bakery for breakfast/lunch. Had
a ham and (goat) cheese Triangle (pastry), very good.
Rode Explorer bus all around Sydney.
We ate dinner at the Hungry Jack’s (called Burger King in the states)
in the Central Train Station. Took
the evening cruise around Sydney Harbor on a ferryboat. Sydney is a beautiful city, day and night.
Fri.,
Nov. 19th – Ate breakfast at McDonald’s where they had some Vegemite.
It was awful! Took Ferry Cat Catamaran to Homebush Bay, site of the Sydney
2000 Olympics. Came back and toured
Sydney Opera House. Awesome!! Took
the other Explorer bus that goes along the south side of Sydney out to their
popular Bondi Beach. Bought some
groceries and came back to the hotel early – 7pm.
Sat.,
Nov. 20th – We got up early, around 7 am.
Went to do laundry at “Wash on the Rocks” (Not self-service) Oh well,
had them do 2 loads, $8 each. Walked
around The Rocks, saw street festival and lots of shops.
Picked up the laundry around noon, back to hotel to pack up and leave.
Took train to Central Station and checked bags in Cloak Room. Went to Chinese Paddy’s Market, then on to Darling Harbour.
Saw Sega World, Darling Walk, and Harbourplace Shopping Center.
Rode Explorer bus back to Hyde Park (central Sydney) and took more
pictures then caught next Explorer bus back to Central Station in time to get
the overnight train to Melbourne.
Sun.,
Nov. 21st – Arrived in Melbourne at 7 am.
Changed clothes and got cleaned up at the train station.
Found closest McDonald’s for breakfast and planned our day.
We rode the free tram around the downtown area.
Walked through the middle of downtown through Victorian looking buildings
with ornate decorations. Ate lunch
atop the Southern Hemisphere’s tallest building – Rialto Tower.
There was a wonderful view of the entire Melbourne area all the way to
the ocean. We then crossed the
Yarra River to a nicer area of town. Nice
mall along the river where we ate Fish-n-Chips.
We didn’t have to leave until 9:30 pm, so we killed some time there
walking the mall until dark when we needed to be back at the station.
Mon.,
Nov. 22nd – Woke up aboard the Overlander train and needed to set our watches
ahead ˝ an hour! Had croissants
for breakfast on the train. Arrived
in Adelaide about 7:50 am. We were
pleasantly surprised by how nice the train station was.
Took showers at the train station before we headed out to the town.
Walked around downtown, saw beautiful buildings and lots and lots of
street arcades (or pedestrian malls). Went
to Tandanya National Aboriginal Cultural Institute.
It’s an art gallery and café. We
ate there and heard a great demonstration on how to play the didgeridoo.
Found pay phone and called the boys.
Caught van back to the train station at 1:30 pm.
The Ghan left at 3 pm. While
showing our tickets and reservation to the Conductor, Russ asked about available
Holiday Class. He got back to us
and said it would be $198. Russ
said “Oh, well” The guy asked if we had a pass, which we did – the
Australrail Pass. So he gave it to
us for $38 each! Great view,
comfortable cubby hole room, slept great! At
that point, it was great just to sleep horizontally with a pillow.
Tues.,
Nov. 23rd – We woke up at 6:45 am (5:45 am come to find out!
Changed time zones again.). We
ate breakfast in the dining car of the Ghan.
Russ saw a large kangaroo in a dry creek bed on our approach to Alice
Springs!! Packed up and arrived in Alice Springs at 9 am.
Took a bus ride into town and checked our bags in at the bus station. We walked around downtown Alice Springs a bit.
We bought post cards and snacks for the upcoming 10-hour bus trip.
We boarded a McCafferty Coach to Coober Pedy and made several food and
gas stops along the way. These were
like truck stops out in the middle of nowhere.
When we arrived in Coober Pedy, the first thing we saw was the Opal Inn,
which was where we had reservations to spend the night.
The bus continued on down the street to the small bus terminal.
We then trekked back up the hill with all our stuff to the Opal Inn.
The room was surprisingly nice and clean.
Wed.,
Nov. 24th – Woke up early and had breakfast at the Opal Inn Restaurant.
We then began our quest for the perfect opal!
Went to the underground hotel “Desert Cave” and walked around their
displays. Went on a tour of the Old Timer’s Mine. Bought my opal at the first place we had been. (Went to
others also, but returned to get the first one.)
Russ bought a t-shirt then we caught a van to the airport (airstrip
really. Very, very small!) Flew out
of Coober Pedy and landed in Olympic Dam for 10 minutes then off to Adelaide.
Then flew to Sydney, got on a bigger plane and flew to Brisbane.
Rented a car and drove to Surfer’s Paradise Marriott Resort.
Long day.
Thurs.,
Nov. 25th – Went to DreamWorld, an amusement park. We rode several really neat rides – Wipeout, Tower of
Terror and Thunderbolt. Saw koalas
and kangaroos. (Closed at 5 pm!) Gathered
up laundry and found self-service place in downtown Surfer’s Paradise.
Had a snack and explored while waiting for laundry to finish.
It is a very nice, big, clean, beach city.
Fri.,
Nov. 26th – Got our swimsuits on and headed for the beach.
The Discovery Channel has rated Surfer’s Paradise the #1 beach in the
world! It was wonderful!!
We had a great time in the waves! Huge,
over our head waves! The water was
so clear that even in neck high water we could see our toes.
The sand on the beach was so powdery and clean – no seaweed or other
trash at all. People were surfing
all around. We ate a late lunch at
the Red Rooster and then laid out by the Marriott pool and lagoon.
We rented snorkels and flippers and snorkeled in the lagoon.
This artificial lagoon had beautiful saltwater fish, waterfalls and
surprisingly deep water. Later that
evening we went to a mall and then got Domino’s Pizza on our way back to the
hotel.
Sat.,
Nov. 27th – Hectic morning! Woke
up at 4:45 am. Had to pack up then
went down to the beach to take some pictures since we didn’t have our camera
with us yesterday. Cloudy and hazy
today, yesterday it was beautiful. Oh
well, not too sunny any day at 5:30 am! Filled
up the gas tank on the rented car and drove an hour to Brisbane.
First we went to the wrong train station, this one was intercity trains
only. We found the interstate train station (Roma St.) but still
needed to return the car. Dropped
it off at Avis at 7:50 am then carried all our stuff back to the first station
to catch a train to the Roma Street one. After
much angst, we made it to the Sunlander platform at 8:15 am, the train departed
at 8:25 am. (Plenty of time!) Nice
double cabin in first class. Russ
saw 2 more kangaroos out the window. I
missed them again – reading my book. We
ate dinner in the dining car with an older Australian couple.
Barely maintained light conversation.
They were very nice though; we’re just not very social!
Sun.,
Nov 28th – Got up about 8:30 am aboard the Sunlander. Russ already taping kangaroos out the window.
I’ve seen them now too. Quite
a few actually, here and there. Train
plodding along through every tiny village and stopping at most.
Raining all day long. Definitely
in the tropics now – ferns, pineapples, sugar cane and misty mountains all
around. Finally arrived in Cairns
around 4 pm, long, long ride! There
is a wonderful mall attached to this train station.
It’s very nice and new. Called
for transfer van to our hotel. We
stayed at a Marriott Courtyard about 15 miles north of Cairns in a beach
community called Pine Cove. We
explored the resort and Pine Cove and went grocery shopping.
Mon.,
Nov 29th – Raining! Again – still! Rearranged
our plans for this week. Forecasts
call for showers beginning of the week and supposedly clear near the end of the
week. We had planned to go to
Kuranda Rainforest and the Great Barrier Reef the beginning of the week and ride
the 2 ˝ day train/bus trip back to Sydney the end of the week.
We decided to just fly back to Sydney and that gave us 2 extra days that
we could spend up north. So, we
changed our Reef trip to Thursday and made plane reservations from Cairns to
Sydney for Saturday morning. That
evening we went swimming in the hot tub and walked along the palm tree lined
beach! Beautiful!
Can’t swim here though, marine stingers this time of year.
We ate dinner at Courtyard’s Garden Terrace Restaurant.
They were having an Aussie Buffet that night so we had kangaroo and
crocodile. I tried both but Russ
made a meal of it!
Tues.,
Nov. 30th – We caught a bus to downtown Cairns.
Found bank and got much needed money!
Went to the train station and made arrangements for our Kuranda trip.
Caught a bus back north to the Skyrail station.
We rode the gondola up through/above the rainforest.
Beautiful view! There were a
couple of stops along the way where we wandered on boardwalks into the forest.
Arrived in small village of Kuranda and ate and shopped for several
hours. We rode the Kuranda Rail
back to Cairns. Spectacular views
of waterfalls, flowers, and rainforest on the 23-mile trip (through 15 tunnels).
That evening we explored downtown Cairns and shopped at their Night
Bazaar and The Pier. We managed to
buy about half of our souvenirs then. Caught
bus back and finally arrived after making many side trips into residential
neighborhoods.
Wed.,
Dec. 1st – Used the morning to do laundry again. Fortunately, the Courtyard has a guest laundry so we could do
our own. Packed up and at 1:00 a
Coral Coach came and picked us up to take us to the Ramada Tree Tops Resort in
Port Douglas. It’s about an hour
further north, definitely warmer and more humid.
We checked in at the Tree Tops then explored the resort grounds and
downtown Port Douglas. It’s a
small village but home to the QuickSilver Reef Explorer. We checked in there for our reef trip on Thursday.
We went swimming in the tropical pool and enjoyed pizza for dinner in our
room. We called home at 11 pm (7 am
on Wed. at home) to let everyone know that we weren’t in the terrible train
wreck in Sydney.
Thurs.,
Dec. 2nd – Once again, got up early and packed up. A QuickSilver coach came to the hotel, picked us up, and took
us to their pier. We rode on a huge
3-story catamaran out 23 miles to the Great Barrier Outer Reef.
The particular section of reef we were on was called Agincourt Reef.
The QuickSilver Company has a permanent structure moored out there.
They have scuba diving, semi-submersibles (like glass bottom boats –
only glass sides), helicopter rides, buffet lunch and snorkeling all available.
Unfortunately, the weatherman was wrong, and it was terrible all day!
High winds and overcast with frequent sprinkles.
Snorkeling was a chore with the high waves and not much sunlight to light
up the reef underwater. We still
had a great time and were in awe of how beautiful and immense it all was.
A QuickSilver coach took us back to Pine Cove and we stayed at the
Courtyard again. That evening we
ate at the tiny beach village pizza shop overlooking the palm trees and beach.
Fri.,
Dec. 3rd – Spent our last day relaxing by the pool and taking pictures of the
Pine Cove Beach. Beautiful day –
unlike yesterday! Packed up and
went to bed a little early.
Sat.,
Dec 4th (otherwise known as The Longest Day) – Woke up at 4:30 am!
Caught hotel van to the Cairns Airport for our 6:20 am flight to Sydney.
Arrived in Sydney around 10:30 am. We
still had lots of shopping to do before our 7 pm departure to LA.
We went back to The Rocks, where we had begun our adventure 2 ˝
weeks before. We bought the
rest of our souvenirs and then lunch and returned to the airport for our flight
back to the states. First Class
seating on the QUANTAS flight was wonderful.
Personal VCRs to watch tapes,
seats that fully recline to flat beds, 7 course meals served on china and linen,
and a pair of pajamas to change into along with a bathroom case full of
toiletries. Needless to say, the
13-hour flight was enjoyable!
Sat.,
Dec 4th STILL – Arrived in LA around 1 pm.
Next available flight out east, The Red Eye, didn’t leave until 11 pm.
We spent all afternoon and evening in the first class lounge eating and
sleeping. Boarded our plane for 11
pm take-off.
Sun.,
Dec 5th – Arrived home in Dayton about 9 am, after a short lay over in
Pittsburgh.
WONDERFUL, WONDERFUL TRIP! Can’t wait to do it again! HA! Wish we could!