Short Queensland Trip Rpt and some hints for US travellers to Australia
 

We recently returned from great trip to Queensland. Weather was excellent in October.

QANTAS airlines was excellent.
VIRGIN Blue, the domestic flights were good, on time etc, but charge for EVERYTHING---$2.50 for H2O !!

Mooloolaba: 1.5 hours north of Brisbane on Sunshine Coast. This was such a nice surprise. Very friendly town. I really feel that the Sunshine Coast is a little under-rated on this forum. We were so suprised how much we loved this area ! The beaches seem to be some of the best in the world. The Osprey where we stayed was first-class. The beach area has lots of BBQs, nice beach path, kid's area and congenial surf life saving club. Even the bathrooms were beautiful. In the US, it seems like a beach area like this would be all full of graffitti, and not even a safe area to be in at night, etc. Seemed to be a destination of Australian tourists rather than international. All in all, a lovely place. We will return there.

Australia Zoo: very clean, pleasant. Good reptile and bird displays. The non-native species seemed a distraction. Good croc show. A little over the top.

Palm Cove: pretty town and beach. Good Greek restaurant. We did not like our hotel: Alassio. I think the town seemed strange to us as it did not seem like a real town--seemed to exist just for tourism.

Skyrail: everybody should get to do this!! We could have ridden them all day! It is a tourist area, but very efficiently run. Highly recommended.

GBR: we went on a Coral Princess cruise. It is a small (40 passenger) 4 - 5 day cruise for snorkeling and diving the reefs. It was expensive, but seems like one of the best ways to go to Lizard Island and the Ribbon Reefs. We spent hours and hours in the water, plenty of reef time. The reef is fabulous, but a few too many sharks! We met people from all over the world on this cruise and made many Australian friends.

Port Douglas: we love this town, second trip there! Great for shopping, nite life, beach and trips up to Daintree and Cape Trib. The Club Tropical Resort (2nd stay) is a little worn, but an excellent location to stay. It was very hard to leave this time. Such a fun place !

Hints--we have received so many great hints that have helped us with our travels over the last 15 years or so. Hope these might help someone also:

Credit card--get a card that doesn't charge you the foreign transaction fee of a couple percent--Capital One and Discover do not charge that fee.

ATMs-plentiful, but we were shocked to get an "Insufficient Fund" notification one day. We had to spend time on the phone seeing if our account had been cleaned out or something. It was just an International Dateline issue--our bank, Wells Fargo, only let us take out a limited amount in a 24 hour period. So speak with your bank before you go to have them raise the limit.

Infringement Notice: this was a traffic ticket that we received from our car rental company a couple weeks after we got home. I guess there were cameras (didn't even see 'em ) and we got nailed for about 8 miles over the speed limit.

Prices--Australia was much more expensive-seeming than our last visit. The US dollar has tanked and the Australian dollar hasn't ! And good for them!! The consensus amoung Australians we spoke with was that Australia weathered the world-wide recession fairly well. So, it was dollar for dollar this trip.

Phones--our best hint before we went was to get off the plane and go straight to Vodaphone in the airport. We bought the cheapest package and sim card to call home with. Reception and service was very good.

Amenities--all the places we stayed had shampoo, soap, etc, but the kitchen supplies varied from a little to none. 2 places had washer and dryer in the rooms so bring some little packs of detergent. This was very handy.

Try some Australian candy--I grew up on it and most Americans don't try much of it, and you won't have anything like it here. Anything Cadbury's (much different than in the US), Jaffas, Golden Roughs and try a Paddle Pop! Don't forget meat pies, sausage rolls, spagetti sandwiches. lemon squash and passion fruit ! I could go on....

Joan

Vodaphone does not have as good coverage as the Telstra ones, especially in country areas.

Hi Joan, nice to hear back from you and that you enjoyed your trip.

I'd encourage visitors to get a cheap mobile (cell) phone as you did if theirs doesn't work here. It can be very useful for all sorts of local calls as well as "ET Call Home" uses. With just about everyone having a mobile/cell, public phones are nowhere as plentiful as was once the case. And, it's essential if people are trying to contact you while you're out and about sightseeing.

It's true that Telstra's range is superior to Vodaphone's, especially in areas outside the capitals.

Agree about the Sunshine Coast - it is a little gem, isn't it?
And only about 90 mins drive from Brisbane airport. There's also a very good shuttle service (privately owned) that will deliver you to your door along the Sunshine Coast.

That was a nice read Joan - thanks for that report and tips. I couldn't agree more about Australian lollies (candy) - I used to love Golden Roughs as a kid and Banana Paddlepops. Aaah sadly I have had to overcome a shocking sweet habit in order to lose my weight this year. I fear I should never go back as I know I will get 'hooked' again.

Good tips. The tip about the credit cards is a good one. However, I have been in North Queensland for almost 2 years and have yet to find somewhere that takes my Discover Card. I think Capital One is the way to go for no exchange fee.

Thank you for all your helpful hints. We are heading to Australia in February and I am just starting my research. I know that February is not the best month to go but we got a deal that was to good to pass by.

Another Australian treat:
Tim Tam cookies, though they're more like candy than cookies. We tried the regular, dark and caramel varieties and all three were good. We had to buy 2 kinds each time we shopped as hubby likes the dark ones and I like the milk chocolate and caramel ones better.

Also, our new Charles Schwab credit card does not charge foreign transaction fees, and their DEBIT card can be used in ATMs without fees (actually they reimburse you the fee).

Yes, Tim Tams are great. We liked the dark ones too. We just tried a US version by Pepperidge Farm and they were not too bad--had a little of a super sweet taste at the end that the real ones don't.

Palm Cove Esplanade is for tourism but then is the whole of Port Doulgas. Very contrived and insular. It is fine if you like but misleading when you say you do not like one place because it is touristy but then like another place that is more touristy. Just touristy that suits you better perhaps.

Spagetti sandwiches? Really? I haven't run across those yet, and I'm not sure I want to!

Just as well, Melnq, haven't seen such an abomination in years, even in the deep north. But its horses for courses, I happen to particularly loathe Tim Tams, have eaten about 3 of the sickly sweet muck in my life, I don't get the popularity of them at all, Woolworths in Cairns has the dubious distinction of being the top Tim Tam seller in nation, due to a high hit of international tourists shopping there.

Spot on Kriol, it always amuses me to read criticisms of Kuranda being "touristy" and yet these people don't bother walking ten minutes out of the village, where there's beautiful rainforest walks. And yet, somehow, Port Douglas escapes the "touristy" label, sorry, that just makes me laugh.

Love Tim Tams, Squiggle Tops are great too.

Give me Arnotts Mint Slices any day.

I've managed to get my Mom hooked on those Neil, although I've yet to try one.

I just made myself sick by eating some Jaffas I found in my desk at work. I blame you Joan for reminding me how much I like them and 'forcing me' to hunt them down.

Spagetti sandwiches were my favourite from the tuck shop when I was in primary school (along with chocolate crusts). I don't know that I could try them now.

Great report BTW Joan.

For the uninitiated, spaghetti sangers were made using canned spaghetti in tomato sauce. The canners had never heard the term 'al dente', that's for sure.

By reputation Jaffas, a spherical candy with a chocolate core inside a firm orange-flavoured shell, would be rolled down the wooden cinema stairs at Saturday matinees. The kids who did that must have been pretty bourgeois - we working-class kids certainly wouldn't waste them like that.

Jaffas! Are they still around? Have to find some - wonderful lollies!

Spaghetti sandwiches, particularly interesting after a few hours being jiggled about in a saddlebag. Well prior to plastic wrap, the greaseproof paper did a remarkable job of keeping the mush contained. Ditto baked bean sandwiches. It is truly amazing what kids will eat isn't it? Or perhaps more accurately, what a journey our taste buds have taken in the last 50 years.

My god, those immigrants of ours have a lot to answer for don't they? Without all these wogs, wops, chinks & whatever slang names everyone else is called, we'd still be eating these delicacies!

<For the uninitiated, spaghetti sangers were made using canned spaghetti in tomato sauce. The canners had never heard the term 'al dente', that's for sure.>

That sounds absolutely horrid. Right up there with cold canned beans on toast, which I actually ordered once because I was curious. Big mistake.

To quote Bill Bryson, "Had La Perouse been just a little bit faster, he could have claimed Australia for France and saved the country 200 years of English cooking".

You Aussies have certainly come a long way.

The other day I saw a box of Jaffas on the desk of a co-volunteer at the RSPCA. These weren't the candies, but looked like some sort of cake-like thing. Jaffas are alive and well in my local grocery store.

Sorry Joan, we seem to have highjacked your trip report.

"Sorry Joan, we seem to have highjacked your trip report."

Me too... but what's new?

"Had La Perouse been just a little bit faster, he could have claimed Australia for France and saved the country 200 years of English cooking".

Have a heart. We'd have ended up as pretentious black-clad arty poseurs making boring movies.

On second thoughts, that sounds like King Street in Sydney's Newtown.

I don't mind being hijacked for a discussion of Australian food and lollies. Jaffas are the biggest hit back here in the US with my nieces. They say they dream about them. (sorry aussiefive, that you had to eat all your Jaffas---aren't they the best??) And I did have my share of spagetti sandwiches and salad sandwiches on our last visit.

The thing that I have never been able to find on visits down are the licorice squares I got from the milk bars when I was a kid. They were little sections of checkerboard licorice, each piece about 1" square, but set in a sheet--have never had anything as good--and they were probably not even great quality licorice, but I'd love to have them again sometime.

What we noticed on our recent visit was an incredible quantity of pumpkin on all the menus--we had pumpkin panini, pumpkin in a Thai curry and pumpkin on a pizza. What's with that?? Also had the fabulous Wattle Valley roasted pumpkin, cashew and parmesan dip. Wow, that was addictive! So I guess, I for one, am glad France didn't claim Australia !! I might be dreaming of snails instead of Jaffas.

Hi Joan -

I don't understand all the pumpkin either (or kumara for that matter), maybe an Australian can explain, but I've grown quite fond of pumpkin soup, which is popular here and in NZ.

There are so many different varieties that it's hard to get bored, even though more often than not the soup of the day is pumpkin. It seems to me they use pumpkin here the way we use potatoes in the US, although I've never heard of potato on a pizza!

Pumpkin has certainly come into its own in Australia lately, but I don't think we can claim credit for pumpkin soup (refer epicurious.com for traditional French recipes) or red curry of pumpkin, which as far as I can see is authentically Thai.

Pumpkin panini is a new one on me, though, given that a panino is an Italian sandwich. A pumpkin sandwich seems to nme to be taking things a mite too far.

(Note that the butternut "pumpkin" seems to be called the butternut "squash" in the US and I think UK).

On the other hand pumpkin pie isn't as popular in Australia as the USA - although my mother used to make a pretty mean pie from a variety of pumpkin called variously "ryo" or "gramma" with dark, sweet flesh.

Something that might be genuinely Australian is the pumpkin scone (= American "biscuit"). Senator Flo Bjelke-Petersen, wife of the famous (or notorious, depending on your viewpoint) Premier of Queensland, Sir Johannes ("Joh Bananas") Bjelke-Petersen, popularised her recipe.

I remember an English co-worker sneering at Australians' use of pumpkin for human food - "We feed it to our pigs at home", she said, in a near-incomprehensible North Country accent. I may have made some comment about English culinary values at that point. After all, my old man was English and a big fan of black pudding.

Come to think of it, I don't mind black pudding myself - nothing like a black pudding & liverwurst sandwich with lashings of hot English mustard. As Eric Olthwaite said in that smashing BBC series "Ripping Yarns", "Mah moom's black puddings were SO black, even the whaat bits were black!"

Funny you mention pumpkin scones Neil, as I had my first pumpkin scone last month in Colorado of all places. We Americans tend to go pumpkin crazy in September and October, what with all the breads and pies, but I've not yet seen pumpkin soup on a menu there. I personally detest pumpkin pie...there's not enough cream in the world to get me to choke down a piece of that stuff. Maybe I've just never had a good one?

I seem to recall hearing that Americans are scoffed for our love of corn, which some Europeans consider fit only for livestock.

Joan, I think you mean Licorice Allsorts, my husband loves them to this day and assures me they're available in both Coles and Woollies, and elsewhere I'd expect.

Neil, I went through the pumpkin thing many, many years ago when I lived in England, where it was haughtily described as "cattle fodder". Funny, my Australian and country born grandmother described eggplant in exactly the same way, years before it was made popular here by European immigrants who knew how to cook it.

Neil, the pumpkin panini was made with maybe gouda cheese and carmelized onions and was very good-evidently was always the first one to sell out. But yes, we in the US seem to love our pumpkin in our fall months--pumpkin sage raviolis are very good. The worst I heard was a pumpkin pie martini--sounds god-awful! I have fabulous pumpkin soup recipe -from Singapore Airlines actually.

Pat, I do love licorice allsorts, but these other licorice things are different. They used to be in a large sheet (1 foot square, maybe) in the milk bar counter and you'd go and get tuppence worth and they'd pull off about 6 little 1 inch squares. I grew up in Hunters Hill and then Dee Why Beach in NSW, maybe specific to the Sydney area. Well, great memories anyway...

Joan, now that you mention I do have a vague memory of the licorice sheets, had totally forgotten about them. Coincidentally, I grew up at Newport Beach, not too far from Dee Why as you may recall. In fact I was there a couple of weeks ago, boy, has Dee Why grown!

Wow Pat, I do remember Newport Beach, and since you now remember the licorice sheets, I feel that I'm not crazy thinking about them. I have not been back to Dee Why since we left when I was 13---42 years ago !! I can't believe it was so long ago. So, yes, I'm sure it has grown, it was a wonderful place back then. I am saving that visit to Dee Why for the next trip--I hope. I also went to Queenwood in Mosman for a year before we came back to the US.
Nice talking with you.

You're kidding Joan, for a time I went to Wenona at North Sydney and the Queenwood girls would get on our bus at Mosman on the never-ending trip home. This was earlier than you though, so we wouldn't have come across each other on the 190 bus through to Palm Beach, which was our only way of getting home back then. Don't suppose you knew Roslyn Dight, she went to Queenwood and is exactly your age?

Wow again Pat ! I remember the Wenona girls--already on the bus--with the best seats, for that long ride home. There always seemed a little rivalry there....
I do remember a Roslyn at Queenwood. I even went to look at my old class photo just now--she had very black hair and very white skin--do not remember any last names though. I was only there for 7th form, then we had to move back to California. It was such an excellent school- but SO strict ! I got back to the US school system 2 grades ahead. We could be naughty girls sometimes to drive the headmistress crazy and ometimes got in trouble. The good old days...so much fun.