Saturday, August 15.

Today we headed to Uluru (aka Ayers Rock) in Central Australia. They’re a half hour behind the East Coast — isn’t that a random time difference?

As we took off, we could see Cairns and the Green Island below.

Beautiful sight.

First glimpse of Uluru from the plane!

The Ayers Rock Airport is TINY. I think Qantas is the only airline that flies to/from Uluru. It made everything SO easy, though. Our bags came out quickly and the transfer bus was already waiting to take all the passengers to the resort. Options are limited here — one company, Voyages, owns the entire resort and there’s only a handful of hotel options to fit various budgets. This means that prices are SKY HIGH even at the “budget” accommodations because there’s no other choices.

We stayed at the Lost Camel Hotel which is (supposedly) one of the mid-range hotels but it was still $400+ per night. For a tiny room. !!! And that’s actually a winter rate because we were there during the off season. Can you imagine the summer rates?!

After we checked in, it was about 3pm and we were hungry. We decided to check out the town centre and look for food. Sadly, the restaurants and deli were already closed so we went to the market and picked up bottled water (it’s the desert so it’s HOT and dry), snacks, and cup of noodles for lunch. LOL.

They don’t have paper or plastic bags at the market — instead they have boxes! Like Costco.

Eating our lunch. The room was so small there was no seating area with a table. We had to use the counter above the bed. Heh.

Our first activity during our stay here was the Sounds of Silence Dinner. Reviews on various travel forums are pretty mixed (probably because it’s not particularly inexpensive) but we had a GREAT time. Definitely a highlight of our trip.

We were picked up and taken to a sunset viewing area with a fantastic view of both Uluru and Kata Tjuta.

We had drinks and appetizers as we listened to live didgeridoo music and waited for the sun to set.

After sunset, we walked down a trail to the dinner site. Seating was assigned as we arrived and we were placed with 3 other young couples from the US (NY), Britain, and Italy. We were all at various stages of our vacations so we got the chance to talk about and give each other advice on our travels so far. By the time everyone was seated, it was PITCH BLACK. The only light came from the candles on our tables and the torches surrounding the site. Eating dinner would be interesting!

Dinner was buffet style and it was really tasty. There were some exotic dishes like crocodile (tastes like chicken) and kangaroo filets (tastes like beef — I really enjoyed it) as well as standard fare like chicken, lamb, and barramundi. I tried to take pictures but they didn’t come out at all because it was so dark.

So you can see just how dark it was that night, here’s a pic of the pathway leading up the hill to the bathrooms…

I made Rob accompany me because there was NO WAY I was going up there by myself. LOL.

Following dessert (brownies! bread pudding! wattleseed crumble!), all the lights were turned off and we were treated to a tour of the night sky by a startalker. OMG. I have NEVER seen the sky so clear and beautiful. I seriously had no idea there were so many stars in the sky! The startalker pointed out the Milky Way, Jupiter!!!, and many constellations (Southern Cross, Libra, Scorpio). This was an INCREDIBLE experience and I’m glad we didn’t miss it.

More pictures on the Flickr:
Uluru, Day 1

Up next: Uluru, Day 2!

I totally abandoned my Australia trip report. But I’m trying to be better at finishing things that I’ve started so… here’s the next installment. 😀 Hehe.

Friday, August 14.

Today we explored the area of Cairns known as the Atherton Tablelands.

Since we didn’t rent a car, we went with Northern Experience Eco Tours and the owner, Brett, showed us the sights.

Our first stop was Lake Barrine where we were scheduled to have morning tea at the teahouse and a ferry cruise afterwards.

We opted for coffee and along with it we were given 3 scones each topped with raspberry jam and devonshire cream.Those scones were INCREDIBLE. SERIOUSLY. I’m drooling right now just thinking about them.

The ferry took us around the lake so we could see some of the surrounding rainforest — lots of umbrella trees and figs. We also saw ducks, turtles, an eel (creepy), and a brush turkey.

After the ferry cruise, we headed over to the famous curtain fig tree. This tree is amazing. Sadly, immediately after I took the above picture, Brett was going to take our picture in front of the tree and our camera battery DIED. I totally forgot to charge the battery the night before. %$#!@ Luckily, I had my iphone and our camcorder takes pics as well (although they’re pretty crappy).

We moved on to Milaa Milaa Falls where I managed to turn on our camera and take 1 picture before it shut down again. Grrr. Oh well. I tried. All the rest of the pictures from this day were taken with our camcorder so they’re really pixel-y. Anyway, the falls are beautiful — gorgeous flowers and plants all around it.

Lunch was at Mungalli Creek Dairy and it was probably one of the best tour meals I’ve ever had. It was the most amazing lasagna with a side salad, which was good because I hadn’t been eating many fresh veggies on the trip so far. We also got the chance to sample the yogurt and cheese that they make on site. Mmmm. My favorite was the havarti cheese. So good! The mango yogurt was also excellent. It’s greek style so it’s thick — really good and so flavorful.

The major stop of the day was Paronella Park. Jose Paronella was a Spanish man who made his money in Australia, brought his wife over from Spain, bought land, and built a “park” for his family. It includes a castle, cottage home, entertainment areas, gardens, and a lovely waterfall. The whole park is magical. We had about an hour to spend and we ended up following portions of the complimentary walking tour — but now, I wish we had walked around the park ourselves. While we got to see the castle, the grand staircase, the lower refreshment rooms, and Kauri Avenue, we still missed the turtle nesting area and botanical walk. It also would have been nice to sit in the picnic area by Mena Creek Falls and just enjoy the surrounding scenery.

Our last stop of the day was Boulders Lookout where there was a small swimming area at the end called Devil’s Pool. We had the opportunity to swim but only 2 of 8 of us did. I didn’t want to deal with changing and getting dry and all that stuff. We also had our afternoon tea so instead I stayed by the food and had coffee and chocolate biscuits. 😀

Back in downtown Cairns, we went out again to walk around on our last night. Rob wanted to check out the casino and play a little blackjack. After losing some more money (!), we went to the esplanade in search of food. Not wanting to go to a sit-down restaurant, we settled on self-service chinese food at the night market. It wasn’t very good. :/ All the fun is getting the plate and piling as much food on top of it as possible. Oh well. We grabbed some strawberry ice cream to make up for the average dinner.

When I was planning the trip, I thought we were in Far North Queensland for a long time (6 nights) but looking back, I would have loved to spend a few more days there. We could have spent more time on the beach lounging around or maybe even visited one of the islands located on the Great Barrier Reef itself. Next time. 🙂

More pictures on the Flickr:
Atherton Tablelands

Up next: Uluru!

Wednesday, August 12.

We stayed in tropical Far North Queensland for a total of 6 nights — we split up that time between Port Douglas (relaxed, resort-y town) and Cairns (tourist-y). So we didn’t do much this day except switch hotels to the Shangri-La in the morning. The best part about our new hotel was the FREE internet access. I guess I’m a huge dork because this made me ecstatic! 😀

The hotel was more modern and updated (compared to the Sheraton in Port Douglas) so that was a big YAY too.

I needed some random toiletries so we decided to explore downtown Cairns. And guess what we found? Target! But alas. It was a huge disappointment. The store we went to only had clothing and housewares from what I can remember but I wasn’t impressed by the products or the quality. When we got home, a friend of mine told me that Target stores in Australia have the rights to the name and logo but are owned by a completely different corporation than the ones in the US. Totally explains why it just didn’t “feel” like a Target.

We finally found a drugstore, though, and I totally giggled like a crazy person when I saw these…

I beg to differ. Starburst does not suck! HEE.

There really isn’t a true beach in downtown Cairns so instead the city has the Esplanade Lagoon that’s open to the public.

Later that day, we checked out the Night Markets, which was a lot smaller than I thought it would be. It’s basically a swap meet filled with cheesy Aussie souvenirs and one random aisle devoted to Chinese massages (???). I got a kick out of these sheepskin boots. They’re half as tall as I am!

At this point, we had been in Australia for a week and had watched enough TV to know that Law and Order: UK was premiering that night. So of course we did what any TV loving couple would do and made sure we finished our yummy Italian dinner to make it back to the hotel in time. LOL! I mean, come on. It was starring Jamie Bamber. 😀

Thursday, August 13.

Rob’s 31st Birthday! And we were heading out to the Great Barrier Reef to go snorkeling with Calypso!!

We left the marina at about 9am and were promptly served coffee and pastries as we headed out to the reef. We were going to 3 different sites and had roughly about 45 minutes to an hour at each. It took 90 minutes to get to our first site and when we arrived, we promptly grabbed our fins, masks, and noodles and headed into the water. I’m not a very confident swimmer so I stayed right by the boat the whole time. Hee. The water was incredibly clear and we saw tons of fish. I couldn’t tell you what most of them were, though…

… Except for this Napoleon wrasse, which scared the living daylights out of me. I was looking off to the side and then all of a sudden, it was swimming in my direction. I’m pretty sure I hid behind Rob for a few seconds. It was actually really friendly — it let us get close and pet it. It was really slimy.

At our last snorkeling site, I totally gave myself a mini panic attack. There was A LOT of coral at this site and the waves were stronger as well. I tried to swim around the coral but the waves kept propelling me towards it. Argh. I felt like I wasn’t going anywhere so I freaked out thinking I couldn’t get back to the boat. I had to take my snorkel off because I felt super claustrophobic all of a sudden. *sigh* I’m such a wimp. Luckily, Rob found me and I felt safer with him swimming next to me.

Despite all that, snorkeling in the Great Barrier Reef was an amazing experience and before we knew it, the day was over and we were back in Cairns.

Rob wanted steak for his birthday dinner so we ended up at Barnacle Bill’s. My seafood jambalaya was pretty forgettable but Rob had the most amazing fries with his steak. Seriously. I’m pretty sure I’ve mentioned before that overall I wasn’t too fond of the food in Australia but every time we happened to have fries with a meal, they were fan-freaking-tastic. Who knew?!

More pictures on the Flickr:
Cairns
Great Barrier Reef

Up next (someday): Atherton Tablelands

Hmm. I’m pretty predictable. I’ve neglected my trip report again. I’m totally finishing it no matter how long it takes.

Tuesday, August 11.

This was THE DAY. The day that we would get to cuddle a KOALA. The only reason Rob wanted to visit Australia. I’m not sure why and can’t seem to find a quick answer via Google at the moment, but the state of Queensland is one of the only areas in the world where this type of interaction with koalas is allowed. So we were heading up to the village of Kuranda to go to the Koala Gardens.

There’s a few ways to get to Kuranda and we decided to take the Skyrail (a cableway ride above the rainforest) to the village and the Scenic Railway (train) back down.

The Skyrail was awesome! You’re seated in a gondola that’s suspended on cable wires and travels above the rainforest. It’s a little scary for the first few seconds but that feeling quickly goes away. Plus, the view is so amazing that you forget how high you really are.

Here’s what the gondola looks like…

And here we are on our way!

The view is just gorgeous.

When you arrive at Kuranda, they snap a photo of you in the gondola before you get off — just like an amusement park. We didn’t purchase the photo because it is SO CHEESY.

Just look at that blatantly fake background!

It was an absolutely beautiful day.

I just loved all the signage in the village.

We made a beeline for the Koala Gardens. It’s pretty small — you can see a few crocodiles and lizards when you first enter. And there’s also wallabies and kangaroos, which you can feed.

This particular wallaby was SUPER hungry cause he kept taking food from everyone that approached him.

And of course, the star attraction…

We got in line for our turn to cuddle a koala and had our camera and video camera ready. The interaction is really fast so the line went by quickly. The handler basically places the koala in your arms, a photo is taken, and then it’s whisked off to the next person.

There’s us with the koala! Her name was Princess. I think she was sleeping the whole time, lol. She was so cute and wasn’t very heavy at all — maybe 20 pounds? Honestly, it was like holding a stuffed animal. We had individual photos taken and since we were last in line, they let me hold her a little while longer so Rob and I could get this photo together. Awww.

We didn’t have any plans to visit any of the other wildlife attractions so we got some lunch and leisurely walked along the main drag, which consists of about 2 long blocks of shops and restaurants.

We were taking the train back down so we made our way to the station. The trains and station have a real old world charm — love it.

It’s not particularly comfortable on the train, though. In coach, seating is on benches and there are 4 “seats” on each bench. It’s a tight fit.

The train ride is beautiful and scenic but I much preferred the Skyrail. Mostly because you have your own gondola so the experience feels more personal. I think if we took the train up to Kuranda and the Skyrail down, I would have appreciated the train much more. As it was, though, it just couldn’t compare.

Even with this amazing view.

When we got back to the hotel, we did laundry (exciting!) and stayed at the Sheraton for dinner. We were too lazy to go into town. Bad move. I don’t know why we thought the food would be any better than the first night. *shrugs* Oh well. If I’m lucky enough to return to Port Douglas someday, I’m definitely staying in town instead.

More pictures on the Flickr:
Kuranda

I can’t believe it’s October already. And only 1 week until my 30th birthday. WHAT.

Back to the trip recap…

Monday, August 10.

We took a tour up the Daintree Coast with Tony’s Tropical Tours. They were grrr-eat! Heh.

It was a really small, intimate group — only 6 of us plus our tour guide and driver Jonathan. One of the couples, Terry and Andrew, was from Melbourne and they were HILARIOUS. For example, they taught us that Australians have “nicknames” for Aussies from various states. Victorians are called “Mexicans” because they live “south of the border,” Sydneysiders are “cockroaches” (can’t remember why exactly but I can guess), and Queenslanders are “banana benders” because they have nothing to do but put the bends in bananas. Is it terrible that I find this incredibly amusing? OK, fine. I am a BAD PERSON.

BWAHAHAHAHA.

Anyway, our first stop was the Daintree River where we were going to cross via ferry and look for crocodiles! EEEK. At first, we weren’t seeing anything at all. The water wasn’t very clear and I had no idea how to look for them. But Bruce, our ferry guide, is a seasoned pro and we ended up seeing 4!

The first one was this baby crocodile that was only 7 months old. Look how tiny it is!

We also saw a couple of older crocs that were about 2 meters long. BUT THEN the dominant male made an appearance — he was HUGE! About 6 meters long! CRAZY.

We continued up the Daintree coast to…

…the Walu Wugirriga Lookout. Gorgeous view of Port Douglas and Snapper Island from there.

…and also to the beach on Cape Tribulation.

The road past this point is unpaved and gets progressively rough. We were in a 4-wheel drive vehicle, though, so we keep going to our northernmost destination, which was…

… Bloomfield Falls (aka Wujal Wujal). So lovely! It was a tough walk along the rocks to get close to the falls (I almost fell multiple times – eek) but it was definitely worth it.

On the way back down the coast we stopped at Stingray Bay (aka Cowie Beach). It’s another beautiful piece of coastline. This is the home of the Lone Mangrove — right in the middle of the water. Although there are actually about 3 “lone” mangroves here so I’m not sure why it got that name.

It was almost 2pm when we stopped in Noah Creek Valley for lunch. We were starving!

And the food didn’t disappoint. Tony’s has an outdoor grill set up and we had a fresh and YUMMY meal of steak, sausage, fish, salad and damper.

Throughout the day we saw green ants — I didn’t take a picture but they’re pretty large and have a big green bottom. The “juice” in their bottoms is supposed to be good for you. Aboriginals use it for medicinal purposes. You can get a taste of this juice by letting the ant crawl onto your hand and then touching the tip of its bottom to your tongue. This doesn’t kill them.

Weeellll, Paul (one of our tourmates) decided he would try it so Jonathan (on the right) picked up one of the ants and held it to Paul’s tongue. He said it just tasted like lemon juice and it gave him a numb sensation for a few seconds. Uhhh, yeah… NO THANKS.

After lunch, we took a walk through the nearby rainforest — we saw various ferns, strangler fig trees, vicious hairy mary (a plant that has tiny spikes on its edges), and other plants that shy away and close when you touch them. COOL.

Our last stop before heading back to Port Douglas was the Daintree Ice Cream Company. They serve 4 flavors daily and you get a cup with all 4 for $5.

We had mango, banana, wattleseed (YUM! tasted like coffee), and black sapote (ehhh – not so good).

For dinner we went to town and picked up Thai food for me (it was yummers, thank goodness – I was still annoyed at myself for not having “good” Thai food the day before) and a kebab sandwich for Rob. We also went to the grocery store to pick up some snacks…

Rob made the mistake of choosing these Cheese and Bacon balls… sounds good in theory but TERRIBLE in execution. And so ends another Aussie day.

More pictures on the Flickr:
Daintree & Cape Tribulation

Up next: Kuranda and the Koalas!

Short trip report update.

Sunday, August 9 – Our 1st anniversary!

We spent our first anniversary traveling to our next destination. Yay? 🙂

I already missed the Westin and its luxurious shower. *sigh*

We were headed to the tropical paradise of Far North Queensland for 6 days! We flew Qantas and I loved it. So much legroom and they actually feed you on short haul flights! Totally different experience than flying the dreaded UNITED (ugh).

Random observation – we took 3 domestic flights in Australia and only once did they check ID. !?!? Is that normal? I guess I’m just used to having my ID checked at least 3 times here in the US (check-in, security, boarding).

Anyway, we arrived at the Cairns Airport and took a shuttle up to Port Douglas (roughly 45 minutes north of Cairns). We stayed at the Sheraton Mirage, which was straight out of the 80s! It was nice and clean but it desperately needs an upgrade. STAT. And yes, we had a room with 2 queen beds, LOL. We used Starwood points to stay here and this was the cheapest option. 😛

I mean look at the “control panel” in the room! This was probably state of the art 20 years ago. Now? Not so much. Hee.

At least the grounds were beautiful!

We didn’t have any plans so we decided to walk to town via Four Mile Beach. “Town” basically consists of a main drag with various shops and restaurants. Very laid-back and cute.

We were hungry after walking what seemed like forever so we found E&J’s Fish and Chips Shop and got one of those along with a banana fritter. Looking back this was one of the BEST meals we had — so fresh and flavorful.

The gorgeous view as we walked back to the hotel.

For dinner, we didn’t feel like walking back to town. It’s about a 20-25 minute walk one way along the beach and it was pitch black by this time. The hotel had a shuttle but it was $7 per person round trip (we caved the next day). WTF. So we ended up trying the hotel restaurant, Lagoon. BAD MOVE. Rob’s lamb shanks with mashed potatoes were ok but my phad thai was FAKE. I don’t know why I ordered Thai food at a non-Thai restaurant so there you go. Happy Anniversary to us! LOL.

More pictures on the Flickr:
Port Douglas

Up next: Daintree & Cape Tribulation.

I really need to do a TV post but I still have many planned vacation posts to do so here’s another installment…

Saturday, August 8.

I was starting to have internet withdrawal so we went to Macca’s (aka McDonald’s) for brekkie. I’m not sure why the Aussies gave it that nickname. Anyway, Macca’s has FREE WI-FI! I was able to write a quick blog post and check the news. Ahhh, it was so nice to get back in touch with “reality.”

Macca’s had a couple of specialty brekkie sandwiches which didn’t really appeal to me. I ordered my favorite sausage mcmuffin with egg. I was disappointed. The sausage tasted different. :/ The hash browns and coffee were perfect, though.

We were headed on a tour with Go West to head down to Phillip Island to see the fairy penguins. But we had a few stops on the way…

First up went to the Royal Botanic Gardens Cranbourne. The gardens are designed in the shape of Australia and showcase the flora/fauna of each region. The red sand centre is in the middle and mini exhibition gardens surround it.

The best backyard was the Kids Garden where there was a slide… that of course Rob wanted to try. So we waited until no one was around and he went for it. When he was at the top, I heard him say that it was a tight fit (heh) then all of a sudden, he came flying down the slide. BWAHAHAHAHA.

When we got to Phillip Island, our first stop was Panny’s Chocolate Factory. Totally up my alley. I love chocolate!

It’s a small factory that has a little walking tour showing how cocoa is grown and how chocolate is made.

At the end there’s a shop and cafe where we picked up iced chocolates. Yummers.

Next up was the Koala Conservation Centre where we got to see koalas for the first time on our trip. Sooo exciting!

It’s not a zoo but I don’t know if this would be considered “the wild” either. There are raised boardwalks where you can walk and look up to find the koalas. Most of the koalas were sleeping but there was 1 koala that was super active. He was practically putting on a show! He was climbing up and down trees for awhile then he settled down to eat. Ahhh, so cute.

We loved the little gift shop. Silly!

Finally finally we arrived at our last stop – the Penguin Parade!

Every night at sunset, the Fairy Penguins come back from sea to return to their burrows. The Penguin Parade has special viewing areas and elevated boardwalks where you can watch the penguins cross the shore. We booked the Private Penguin Experience where we got front row seats on the beach and our own ranger guide to tell us all about the penguins. As soon as we arrived, our ranger, Hannah, scooped us up and gave us our passes, headsets (we’re supposed to be quiet on the beach so we needed this in order to hear her whispering to us), binoculars, and padded seats for the beach.

After a quick talk about the history of the penguins (Summerland peninsula is the only place left on Phillip Island with a penguin colony), we went to grab our seats on the beach. I thought it was going to be FREEZING but it wasn’t too bad. When it got dark, we started to see white bellies on the surface of the water. PENGUINS! There was 1 penguin right in front of us who kept peeking his head out and then going back under water. We were told he was probably waiting for his buddies. Because of the danger of crossing shore (it’s the scariest part of their day), they don’t cross the beach by themselves unless they’re sick. They prefer to cross in groups – safety in numbers. His buddies finally arrived so their group of 3 crossed together just to our right. They were SO CLOSE. It’s amazing — they’re literally just a few feet away. I was seriously in awe of the whole experience. Photography wasn’t allowed so you’ll have to settle for these…

Fairy Penguins are the smallest penguins – it’s the one on the very left in the above photo.

It was an AWESOME night.

Random observation – the entire time on vacation I totally didn’t “get” the metric system. I just couldn’t get feet and pounds, etc out of my brain. Ahhh, why is the US the only country that has to be different?!?

More pictures on the Flickr:
Phillip Island

Up next: Port Douglas.