ozwild

Australia Honeymoon Trip Report (Long Overdue and Very Long) -- includes Sydney, Lizard Island, Atherton Tablelands, and Port Douglas

Sydney

We arrived in Sydney early morning on Friday, Aug 6 only to find that one of our bags (my husband's) didn't make the trip with us. Not a big problem though -- Qantas was very nice about the whole thing. We got one of the train passes (don't remember which one but it was for 5 days and included both red and green zones as well as round trip to the airport) at the airport and took the train to Circular Quay. This was right next to our hotel so we walked over. We stayed at the Russel which was great -- they brought us complimentary sparkling wine and chocolates. We primarily enjoyed the proximity to the Circular Quay and Rocks district. No view, but walking outside and looking down the street gives an incredible view of the harbor bridge. A couple steps to the right gives you a view of the opera house. Breakfasts were quite tasty as well.

Anyway, my husband doesn't do well with jet lag in general so I decided to get him moving by going to the zoo the first day. He loves wildlife so this and the ferry trip over kept him quite excited. So excited in fact that he decided to book symphony tickets for that night. It was a combo speaking/music performance with great speeches (Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, "once more into the breech dear friends", etc). We fell asleep during the second one but made it through the first and third. Seeing a performance in the opera house was pretty cool.

The next day we ended up doing the spit to manly walk which was beautiful. We took the bus to the spit and then hiked to manly so we could have a good lunch at the end. The day was gorgeous and we enjoyed some tasty Indian food when we got to Manly. We then took the ferry back to our hotel to rest up before our scheduled footy game that night (Swans v. Kangaroos).

Exhausted from jet-lag and the hike we woke up after the footy game had started -- we were able to get a cab and after convincing the cabby that there was in fact a footy game that night, he raced us to the Sydney Cricket Grounds. There was also an Australia-NZ rugby game that night at Homebush so he was a little skeptical. The footy game was a lot of fun until the very end. Sydney had been winning by quite a bit and lost something like a 40 point lead in the 4th quarter. It turned out that their trainer had a heart attack and died on the sideline that night. Very sad. We were able to get the shuttle to the train station and then take the train home that night. By the way, we were told meat pies are a must at footy games. Both of us agreed that they tasted a bit like Alpo. Some people next to us got them later though and we noticed that the addition of ketchup might have helped.

Sunday we woke up late and decided to ferry over to Darling Harbor to see what all was going on there. Not much. We had lunch and then decided to see where the fish market was located. So we walked down to the fish market and discovered a wonderful world. Despite our lunch, we got some sashimi to eat out on the pier and promised to come back the next day for a real lunch. We had scheduled the bridge climb for that evening -- it got dark as we were nearing the top on the way up. The sunset was spectacular, but if we could have (everything was booked), I might have scheduled it for a little earlier. It was very cool though and we met some nice people in our group. Joe's bag turned up sometime today.

Monday we headed back to Darling Harbor to do the Aquarium and more fish market for lunch. The aquarium was nice, but nothing compared to what we would see when we went up to Queensland. Definitely worth a visit though. Lunch at the fish market was outstanding. Joe had a lot of oysters and sashimi and I had some kind of fish with a lot of spicy stuff smeared all over it. Very tasty. After this we wandered around the Rocks a bit and went to the Observatory that evening. This was a pretty nice tour. We were worried when we got there and it said something about reservations, but there was plenty of room. We went outside where he pointed out constellations like Scorpio (my favorite) and the southern cross. Then we went inside and looking through the big telescope saw all sorts of stars you can't see from California. Overall, a very nice experience.

Tuesday we were originally going to go to the Blue Mts but decided we didn't care to wake up early enough. Instead we took the train/bus to Bondi and walked along the cliffs to a couple other beaches where we were able to take the bus back to the train station. Very pleasant. That night we had our big, celebratory honeymoon dinner at Tetsuyas.

Wow. Definitely the most expensive dinner we've ever done or will likely ever do (AUD$175pp for set menu w/o alcohol). Just to make everybody salivate, here was the menu:

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Starter of oysters (with the most delicious marinade ever)

Carpaccio of Beetroot with Ton Buri and Caviar
Marinated NZ Scampi with Foie Gras and Walnut (my favorite item)

Tuna Marinated in Soy and Mirin
Grilled Spring Bay Scallop with Wakame and Lemon
Chestnut Mushroom Soup

Confit of Petuna Tasmanian Ocean Trout with Konbu, Fennel, and Daikon
Seasonal Green Salad

Ravioli of Lobster with Scallop and Tarragon Mousse, Tomato, and Basil

Rolled Wagyu Beef with Asian Mushrooms and Lime Jus

Roasted Breast of Squab with Buckwheat and Mushroom Risotto

Granny Smith Apple Sorbet
Strawberry Shortcake (my favorite dessert)

Hazelnut Soup with Chocolate and Hazlenut Sorbet

Chocolate Terrine with Mascarpone and Cognac Anglaise

Honeymoon dessert of flourless chocolate cake

Coffee and Tea and Petit Four

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With this we had 2 glasses of wine each, split a bottle and shared a 250ml bottle of dessert wine. We were so full and so drunk afterwards, I'm not entirely sure how we made it back to the hotel. In fact, I think we were still full and drunk the next morning when we woke up to get on the train to the airport for our flight to Cairns.

Lizard Island

After the best dinner of our trip, it was on to the best location of our trip -- Lizard Island. After much hemming and hawing during the planning stages, I decided to go for it. I really wanted to be able to snorkel off the beach and was worried that anything further south would be a little cool in August. Wow. The plane ride was absolutely amazing. I think we took up an entire card of reef pictures from the plane. When we got there they had little snacks ready and then took us to our rooms where the bags had already been delivered. We got one of the Anchor Bay Suites which was amazing. We immediately went to get some gear from the boathouse and headed out for a quick pre-dinner snorkel. Absolutely beautiful. Granted, the only place I've snorkeled previously was the Florida Keys, but it was all I expected and more. We headed inside to shower and try on our robes while sitting out on the deck and enjoying a couple chocolate chip cookies and a glass of the champagne they left us. When the sun was setting, we headed down to the beach to watch. Gorgeous. This is pretty much how it continued each day (we were doing 4 nights). We took the boat out one day for a picnic which was phenomenal -- the only thing I screwed up on was not putting lotion on the tops of my feet one day which made the next couple days quite painful. We also hiked over to Watson's Bay to check out the clam garden - very cool. The walk over was also nice. The last full day we were there, we took the scuba trip out to Cod Hole.

Both of us were certified but hadn't been in a long time (10 years or more), so they took us out in the harbor the day before and just had us clear our masks, etc. We first stopped at a place that had a resident wrasse named Humphrey who was very friendly. Second was Cod Hole. The potato cod were fun, but I think I might have liked Humphrey a little better. I did like seeing a lot of the fish hanging out in the current at Cod Hole. Overall, an excellent experience. On the way back, we ran into a pod of about 40-50 dolphins which ran along in our wake for a while. There was also a whale back at the resort. People who knew more than me said it looked like a humpback who was very pregnant.

As for food at Lizard Island, it didn't quite match Tetsuya's but was delicious. My favorite breakfast by far was the Nasai Goreng with egg and a side of bacon. I had never heard of it before, but we've since tried and failed to make it at home. We had a seafood barbeque one night we were there when we tried bugs and we did the beachside dinner another night (since we had already had the barbeque, we opted for a standard dinner). One of the bartenders had invited us out to the bar where the staff go for a couple of beers one night, but we didn't make it since my feet were still not doing to well. It looked like fun though.

All very impressive, although I don't think I could afford to go there again except for such a special occasion (and doing some extra consulting to pay for it). Definitely worth it though.

Atherton Tablelands

Back to reality (sort of). The flight back to Carins was equally impressive, but sadder because we were leaving. I had planned to spend the night in Kuranda before getting picked up to go on a 2 night excusion with Jonathan Munro (a wilderness guide who lives in Kuranda and owns land up in the tablelands). To get up to Kuranda, I thought it would be fun to take the skyrail and then walk through town to get to the place we were staying that night (Kuranda Rainforest Park which I found on the internet). Alas, after taking a cab to Skyrail from the airport, it turned out that you can't bring bags on the skyrail (we only had a larger backpack each and still no go). Alas. Instead we got a cab which ended up being significantly cheaper. The cabbie was a nice guy too -- pointing out all sorts of stuff along the way. He liked telling us how bad the skyrail was too.

Not much was going on in Kuranda proper that night as most of the shops had closed for the day. We ate at a restaurant recommended by the guy at the visitors bureau in the middle of town (who really liked to talk and give us our options) and picked up breakfast stuff for the morning. We were able to walk from the place we were staying at into Kuranda quite easily and I highly recommend the place.

Jonathan Munro picked us up at 7am to start our wildlife bonanza. What a great guide. We stayed on the tablelands the whole time and saw quite a variety of animals in quite a variety of environments (maybe 7?). I don't have our checklist in front of us, but we saw I think 8 varieties of Kangaroo/Wallaby/Wallaroo (including a tree kangaroo which was lots of fun), lots of platypus one morning, tons of possums up at his land called Warrigal, an echidna!, some bandicoots, geckos, and more birds than I can shake a stick at. Now anytime we stop suddenly and back up to take a look at something on the side of the road we call it a "Munro". He would be driving along talking to us, then kind of trail off, and stop suddenly and start backing up all the while shouting "Pallid Cuckoo! Pallid Cuckoo!". The other rare endemic bird we saw was the Golden Bowerbird which was on his property. Just hearing about what these birds do to attract a mate is impressive and the bird itself is a beautiful saffron color. Awesome -- I can't recommend him enough.

Jonathan dropped us off at the Cairns airport where we picked up our rental car to drive to Port Douglas. We planned to stay at Marae Bed and Breakfast which had been purchased a couple months before by some new owners. The place was quite beautiful and the breakfasts full of interesting tropical fruits. Quite delicious - including the chocolate pudding fruit which Jonathan had told us about. We had some good dinners in Port Douglas, including Salsa, Upstairs, and a Greek place all recommended by the people at Marae. We drove up to Cape Tribulation one day and hiked around -- very nice. I especially liked the final area just before you get to the Bloomington track. Another day we went to Mossman Gorge for the hike there which was quite beautiful as well as the aboriginal tour (okay) and the last morning we took a Daintree River Cruise recommended by Jonathan (I don't remember the name though -- I think our guide called himself Sauce but the tour was named after the owner). Back to drop off the rental car and we spent a night at Pat Woolford's place before our early morning flight out of Cairns. We went to the Garden Room next to Pat's place that night as our last meal. Delicious -- we asked for something spicy and they definitely delivered. We were so full by the end that the owner had to make us some lemongrass tea to help us digest!

And then we flew home. An incredible honeymoon overall with a little bit of everything. Details got a little rough towards the end as I've started wearing down, but feel free to ask questions!

Thanks for all of the planning help fodorites!

lizF

Great report and thank you. No doubt Lizard will appeal to you on your 50th wedding anniversary so hope to hear from you again.

pat_woolford

Great report, ozwild, maybe I can just elaborate on a couple of your comments for the benefit of others who may be heading this way: sorry, you had the impression you can take luggage on Skyrail, as you found out, they won't allow it, small baggage is allowed on the scenic train. There is a bus service too from Cairns to Kuranda - White Cars - $2 for the trip which is less than Cairns suburban bus fares. No-one knows how they do it so cheaply, suspect there's some subsidisation from Kuranda shop keepers.

Jonathon Munro is such a great guide and naturalist and so enthusiastic! If there's wildlife about he's the man to find it. For others who may be interested his website is www.wildwatch.com.au Guests return just raving about his trips.

Judy_in_Calgary

Thanks for the great trip report, ozwild. Yes, aren't the reef, the rainforest, the birds, and so many other aspects of Australia's environment fantastic?

I got chuckle out of your food comments. It sounds as if you experienced everything from the sublime to the ridiculous -- from dinner at Tetsuyas to meat pies at the footy game. I don't know if those who still have illusions of sticking to the diets that are part of their New Year's resolutions will thank you for typing out that menu. LOL.

Anyway, as Liz says, I hope you can take as wonderful a trip to celebrate your Golden Wedding Anniversary!

AndrewDavid

Congratulations on taking so long in filing your report; It was worth waiting for.

I'm currently 8 months late with the last two weeks of our 5 weeks last spring ( er fall down under).

The Garden Room was the culinary crown of our dining experience topping even free sausage breakfast at the Euramo Hotel. We hope Phoebe and her family in Sri Lanka are OK.

A/D

Peteralan

Wow ozwild, you sure made the most of your holiday! I'm ashamed to admit you did plenty of things I've never done and I live here! A great report and your research paid off! You will no doubt always remember your honeymoon and I'm so glad you enjoyed our country! Cheers!

lizF

Can't understand why you were not overjoyed with your meat pie - perhaps because it did not have all those crushed green peas floating on top!

ozwild

Yes, maybe we'll accumulate enough money in the next 50 years so that we can afford it again!

Peteralan, don't feel so bad - we live in the San Francisco Bay Area and I've never been to Alcatraz (as well as numerous other local attractions...).

Judy and Liz - Australia definitely has it's share of culinary delights - from Tetsuyas to crushed green peas and loads of beets! We did have a very difficult time finding anything even closely resembling spicy until the Garden Room. I do miss it though...