Aussieland Day Five: Cairns

When we woke up in the morning we took our rental car back to the airport and hopped the first flight to Cairns. We boarded an A320 that had no first class or business class, just rows and rows of coach! I had never seen anything like it!

It was a 3 hour flight and we admittedly slept most of the way there. When we landed we felt as though we had definitely arrived in a magical, tropical location. The air was humid and we were surrounded by lush rainforest. The airport was small and only 10 minutes from town. We took a taxi to our hotel and the people behind the front desk showed us that everything in and around town was less than a 15 minute walk away.

We walked down the boardwalk and had pizza at a local restaurant. The boardwalk was high above the beach and there were ladders every so often to get down to the beach below. However, a local informed us that the beach if off limits due to crocodiles and to go hang out at the lagoon instead. I've seen beaches closed down due to jellyfish and a shark sighting but never crocodiles!

What Cairns lacks in beaches, it more than makes up for with the Esplanade Lagoon! It's a giant, shallow, warm, salt water pool that is right on the boardwalk and is open to everyone for free. You can lay on grass or sand and there are plenty of trees for escapes from the ozone free sun.

As the sun started to go down, we headed back to our hotel, changed and headed back out for a night on this little town. I had been warned about bats but I was still unprepared for just how many bats and how loud they would be!

There's a casino nearby if that's your kind of thing but we spent our evenings at the Night Market. It is a partially outdoor market filled with vendors for everything you could imagine. If you ever wondered where you could get every souvenir imaginable, dinner, a massage and dessert for very little money- this is the place! We spent every evening we had in Cairns exploring this market, it was so much fun!

Aussieland Day Four: Melbourne

After a very late night with the penguins, we awoke early with an hour drive ahead of us to meet our helicopter pilot. Yes, oh yes, we were headed to see the 12 Apostles! I should point out that in Australia they refer to them as simply the Apostles because there are no longer 12 of them and there haven't been 12 for decades. And they will get annoyed and correct you. Every. Time.

We hit the road and made our way from the east side of the bay to the west. Most people who head out to see the Apostles drive and make it a day trip or rent a camper van. It takes about 3-4 hours to drive out to them making for a 6-8 hour round trip. You can also take a day trip by tour bus. My husband and I were on a very tight schedule so we opted to take a helicopter instead! It was definitely our splurge of the trip but our helicopter tour was completely private and it only took 2 hours round trip.

We arrived at the rustic Geelong airfield and our pilot came running out to meet us. I set up this adventure entirely by e-mail due to international calling and the time difference. They were flexible, answered all of my questions completely and were just so great to work with- thank you Geelong Helicopters!

We had a great chat on the way there and back with our pilot about all the differences in the English language and what they call things vs. what we call things. He made a few passes over the apostles and made sure we got all the photos we wanted before he headed back.

Currently, there are four apostles and the ocean waves continue to erode the stone around the base until eventually they fall over into the ocean. Our pilot told us in just a few decades there probably won't be any left.

After landing, the pilot pointed us towards the nearest beach and town with some recommendations for lunch. We set out to downtown Barwon Heads and wandered Hitchcock Ave. We ate at an adorable little restaurant called BeachHouse and found this great unique smoothie joint planted on a little hill of grass between buildings. After some wandering we set out to see some of the beaches! We drove to Raffs Beach and although it was a bit cold and windy it was nice to enjoy the sand. There were lots of spots where you could drive your car right down to the beach and have your own little cove to yourself.

By the time we made it back to our hotel we were starving for dinner and decided we wanted one more taste of the amazing burgers over at Dandenong Pavilion. They did not disappoint although there was quite a wait for dinner! When we got back to our hotel after dinner we melted into the bed. Knowing we had an early flight to Cairns in the morning we were asleep within minutes.

Aussieland Day Three: Melbourne

On day three we woke up fairly early and decided to check out of our hostel early. We headed to the airport and were off to Melbourne! Melbourne (pronounced Mel-bin) was on my list of cities to see for two reasons: Phillip Island and the 12 Apostles.

When we landed we found ourselves instantly surrounded with a sea of people of China. What I didn't realize was that we had decided to travel on Chinese New Year and Australia is an extremely popular vacation destination from people in China! We found a payphone in baggage claim and called our hotel to let them know we were coming in early (to which they replied "no worries" because Australians are awesome like that). In all of our last minute scrambling and planning I did not secure us a car rental in Melbourne which turned out to be a bit of a hassle. We were able to finally secure a car rental from an off-site rental place. Truthfully, we lucked out. Big time!

Once we secured our rental car we headed off to our hotel! We stayed in the Dandenong suburbs of Melbourne. I was hesitant about driving in Australia so I didn't want to stay too close to downtown and I wanted easy access to the freeways to get to our major destinations. Driving a right hand drive vehicle on the left side of the road was terrifying for the first 10 minutes, stressful for the first half hour and an absolute blast after that!

Once we made it to our hotel we were starving for lunch! We did a quick search for local places to eat and ended up at Dandenong Pavilion. What we didn't realize was we stumbled upon the best little burger joint we've ever been to. Seriously. They were voted best burgers in Australia and they even have a secret burger menu. We loved this place so much we ate here twice in the two days we were in Melbourne! We had an awesome chat with the waitress who told us about all the local events going on and she said she loved our American accents (but I think we loved your Aussie accent more)!

After lunch we headed out to Phillip Island for the Penguin Parade. The penguin parade is a nightly occurrence that happens year round in Melbourne. Every night at dusk dozens of penguins come out of the ocean and make their way up the beach and into their burrows. They have grandstands that sell out often and fill up early! We chose to pay a little more and do the Aboriginese Heritage Tour. It gave us reserved front row seats, a little bit of background information on the area and access to another reserved area for an extended up close viewing of the penguins. We weren't allowed to take photos so you'll just have to trust me when I say it was a once in a lifetime opportunity!

Picture courtesy of visitphillipisland.com

Aussieland Day Two: Sydney

With the 19 hour time difference we were awake bright and early on our first full day in Sydney. We were out and exploring before most businesses were open, found a cute fountain down the street from our hostel and headed back to the Harbour.

We went into the Royal Botanical Garden which is free to enter and explore and is a nice big park where lots of people go running and do yoga. We passed by what looked like a very skinny pine tree with shore branches and up high in the top of the tree were three wild white cockatoos.

The gardens loop back around to the backside of the opera house so we made our way around the harbour and over to the bridge where we had schedule a Bridge Climb! This was one thing I've always dreamed of doing. They put you in jumpsuits and harnesses and attach you to cables that go all the way up and around the bridge. It was a very wet experience to remember as our time slot conveniently fell during a passing rainstorm.

After the bridge climb we had worked up an appetite and someone recommended we go check out Chinatown so we hopped the train for a few stops and headed to Chinatown. We stepped out of our comfort zone and ate at a restaurant where our waiter spoke very little English. I was a little nervous but the food was delicious! 

After lunch we hopped the train and then a bus to the famous Bondi Beach. It was a little cold and windy so we didn't stay for long but we did see a surfer or two! 

That night we found a great little sushi bar downtown for dinner and decided we were going to leave the next morning for Melbourne. Onward and upward!