Since my wife LaJean was also eligible for an 8 week sabbatical from her company, we decided to take advantage of the opportunity and take an extended vacation in Australia, a country that has long fascinated us.  We knew there was no way to see all of such a large territory, and we definitely wanted to avoid the "If this is Tuesday it must be Belgium" syndrome, so we decided to focus on the east coast.  I was strongly interested in seeing the Great Barrier Reef, and we also wanted to see the rain forest and as much wildlife as possible.  We would also like to see the interior, but it is so far from the coast that we decided to save it for another trip.  We also decided to save Tasmania - and all of New Zealand - for later trips.  (Every Aussie I met said we should have visited Tasmania.  Oh well, next time!)

We started in Sydney, where we spent several days, and got over the time zone change.  While we were there, we visited the zoo and acquarium, and spent a lot of time in the wonderful botanical gardens.  We loved all of it.

Stage 1:  Sydney

We then caught a flight to Kangaroo Island.  I was interested in Kangaroo Island mainly for wildlife, and for diving in the straits.

Stage 2:  Kangaroo Island

We flew back from Kangaroo Island, rented a car, and drove out to the Blue Mountains, where we stayed at Echoes.  From there, we cauth a plane to the Gold Coast, where we took a cab out to O'Reilly's Rain Forest Retreat, in the center of Lamington National Park.

Stage 3:  Blue Mountains and O'Reilly's Rain Forest Retreat

We caught an early-early cab back to the airport to meet a small prop plane that took us out to Lady Elliot Island.  After nearly a week there, we took a plane back, caught a train north, then caught a helicopter out to Heron Island.

Stage 4:  Lady Elliot and Heron Islands on the Barrier Reef

From Heron Island, we returned to the mainland and rented a car.  We had planned to go straight to Broken River Retreat in Eungella National Park, but there was a mixup about reservations, so we ended up going out to Cape Hillsborough national park instead.  On the way, we stopped by for a very enlightening visit to a crocodile farm.  From Cape Hillsborough we drove on up to Airlie Beach to catch our boat out to Hook Island, where we had planned to stay a full week.

Stage 5: Cape Hillsborough, Crocodiles, and Hook Island

Hook Island turned out to be a disappointment, more so because of the continuous wind conditions, so we bailed out on that and returned to Airlie Beach.  We had made plans to spend two days out at the Reef on a floating hotel / dive platform, but wind conditions forced cancellation of that plan.  Fortunately, we were successful this time and manage to get reservations at Broken River Retreat.

Stage 6: Broken River Retreat, Eungella National Park

We drove back to Airlie Beach, turned in our car, and caught the sailboat for a wonderful three day, three night sailing trip.  Then we caught a helicopter out to Long Island Resort, where we spent our last week in the tropics.

Stage 7: The Whitsunday Islands, sailing, Long Island Resort

On the way back, we stopped another two days, where we were able to connect with Leonie, one of my diving friends, for a drink

The trip home was uneventful.  I was sorry to leave Australia, and look forward to getting back, but it was as always good to be home.

All in all, it was a wonderful trip.  For us both, highlights included Kangaroo Island, Blue Mountains, Lamington National Park, Heron Island, Eungella National Park, and Whitsunday Island Resort.  I also loved diving on Lady Elliot Island, but there wasn't much there for LaJean.  Other than Whitsunday Island Resort and the sailing trip, Whitsunday Islands were rather resortish for our taste.  In terms of "don't miss" resort experiences, I'd have to put O'Reilly's at the very top of the list - largely because of the O'Reillys themselves.  Broken River Retreat and Heron Island were also genuinely wonderful experiences.

Some thoughts about planning a trip to Australia.  Australia is a long way off, and it's a huge country.  I think it would be hard to do justice to even a small corner of it with less than four weeks:  We found seven weeks about right for a first visit.  I found that most of the places we were interested in have web pages, some quite good.

Climate and weather requires some flexibility:  Many parts of Australia are unpleasantly hot in summer; Queensland and the Northern Territories are also unbearably humid. Summer is the rainy season in the tropical areas, and I understand that roads can become unpassale, sometimes for weeks at a time. Also, in the northern waters stingers are a problem from late spring until well into the fall.  On the other hand, the southern parts tend to be wet and cool in the winter. As we discovered to our dismay, if you plan to do much snorkelling or diving it is important to visit during a season when winds are less frequent - generally, mid-winter in the north and mid-summer in the south.  Based on our experience, Aussies are incurable optimists:  We heard over and over the refrain, "Oh, it never blows for more than a few days at a time."  After two weeks of constant wind and impossible underwater visibility conditions, we checked the statistics and discovered that, in March and April, it often blows for weeks at a time.  Going in the fall season, as it turns out we were lucky to have as much calm weather as we did.

I overplanned the trip, and ended up forfeiting some accommodations we'd paid in advance.  Only a few of the places we wanted to visit were booked up - the big exception is during the Australian holidays.  Next time I will book the first week or so before I leave home, plus any Australian holidays, and leave the rest to book as we go.  But I would still take along a provisional itinerary, complete with web pages, e-mail addresses, and telephone numbers.

The Australians have a reputation as outgoing, friendly, and genuinely helpful, and we found it well-deserved.  A good thing about the medium-price resorts is that you'll meet lots of Australians and New Zealanders there, and we discovered that was a huge part of the fun.  Same goes for restaurants:  The mid-range and smaller places were very friendly.

A word about food:  Australia is a seafood-lover's paradise.  Australia has begun to develop a unique national cuisine, a blend of Asian and European influences that can produce some wonderful surprises.  There are many seafood dishes that are rarely if ever available in the United States.  We had excellent dinners in several moderate-priced restaurants and in almost all the resorts we stayed in.  Seafood, lamb, beef, pork - it was all beautifully prepared.  For our taste, breakfasts were best when we picked up some fresh fruit and rolls at a supermarket and made our own breakfast.  And a warning to coffee-lovers:  Outside the major cities, coffee is more often than not served in the form of a cup of hot water and an envelope of powdered instant coffee.  Except at the resorts that cater to an international clientele, I soon got into the habit of buying some ground coffee and making a couple of cups for myself in our room.  Next time I go I will carry along a plastic filter cone and a pack of chemex filters.

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Last updated September 15, 2002
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