Winter Trip to Australia for Two
 

DH and I will be heading to Australia in 6 short days. We have been planning this trip for nearly a year and carefully saving our money so we could do it right. I am so excited that I thought I would start our trip report now.

About us: we are in our late 40's & early 50's. We have traveled in Europe & Asia, but never to Australia. Initially we thought we'd go to Greece this Christmas, but changed our minds and chose Down Under.

We will be flying on Hawaiian Airlines and we have a 23 hr layover in Hawaii, then we fly on to Sydney. Here's our itinerary:

Sydney - 5 nights
Narooma - 2 nights
Lakes Entrance - 3 nights
Melbourne - 5 nights
Hobart, Tasmania - 5 nights
Sydney - 1 night and then fly home.

I will post more once our trip gets started. We already have some tours booked, but since it's Christmastime we want to be flexible enough to enjoy the season in a different way than we ever have before. We may miss some sights, but we fully intend to return.

How exciting for you. I hope and expect that Australia will be as grand as you have anticipated, and more. You will discover upon your arrival that the heading for your trip report is somewhat misleading, as it will definitely be summer upon your arrival.

When you are in Hobart, try to fit in a walk around Battery Point. It's a lovely suburb in Hobart with a strong Irish feeling. There is a bakery there called Jackman and McRoss where we enjoyed a great breakfast one morning.
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Are you going to Port Arthur? It's definitely worth a day, but choose a nice day. I think it would be unpleasant on a really hot day.

If you can still make a run to your library, get the book by Hughes, The Fatal Shore. Read as much of it as you have time, before you go to Hobart and then down to Port Arthur. There, and also in Sydney, you'll realize why I'm making this urgent recommendation.There is no better way to get to know Australia at its essence.

Leave the fur coat & snow boots at home - it's 30c here not 30f.

Yes, I definitely wrote that title from my perspective here in Washington state. It has been cold, cold, cold! I have packed my summer clothes and cannot wait for some warmth to soak into my bones.

My sandals are packed. Two more work days and we're off!

We have arrived in Sydney. We flew Hawaiian Airlines from Seattle to Honolulu, stayed a night on Waikiki, and then on to Sydney.

In Sydney we are ensconced in the Meriton Serviced Apartments on Pitt Street. We arrived on a Saturday night and the streets were filled with 20-somethings going clubbing. But we didn't hear a thing in our room. Our room is a 1-bedroom apartment with a living area, kitchen, bedroom & bath. Everything is clean and comfortable.

This morning we purchased a multi-pass for public transportation (buses & ferries) at the 7-11 next to our apartment building. We strolled around our area a bit and took the bus to the Rocks. We have breakfast at Fine Foods. I had a Croque Sir and DH had "Brioche Toast." The brioche toast had caramelized bananas, fresh strawberries, honeycomb & macadamia nuts. My iced coffee came with an espresso ice cube in it! Bonzer!

There is a Sunday market that operates at the Rocks. There are all sorts of local crafts available. I bought a shawl/scarf made from handmade fabric. We had a nice time talking to the artist and her husband.

I have a cold, so we took the afternoon to rest. Then we'll head to Manly Beach for dinner.

Welcome to sunny Sydney halfapair. Manly for dinner will be lovely tonight if the weather stays as it is now. Shout out if you have any questions at all.

Welcome halfapair! Lots of good places to eat at Manly - sorry about the haze, but at least the breeze is keeping the heat at bay.

Glad you enjoyed your breakfast - it's very pleasant around Circular Quay & The Rocks.

Tip: no local says "Bonzer". Nothing wrong with it, it's just one of those long unused things the tourist guides seem to tell everyone. Like "cobber".

When you get to Manly, walk down The Corso ( the street directly in front of the wharf) to the ocean. Some of our visitors have arrived & thought Manly Cove was all there was - couldn't work out why everyone was saying how lovely the beach was!

Have a great trip & hope we have clear skies for you soon.

Bonzer...I learned a new word.

Yair, bonza, bewdy Cobber. Stone the flamin' crows, ya need more corks on yer hat!

Bokhara2, behave yourself! Stop leading all these nice people astray!

I bought a very tasteful red Christmas hat complete with corks at a shop in Port Douglas. DS will look very smart in it on Christmas morning when he hands out the presents from under the tree.

hope you have a great trip, halfapair, as good as the one we just returned from.

Still waiting for your trip report Ann.

Dinner in Manly was so-so. We ate at the Ivanhoe Hotel restaurant. Manly was very crowded the day we went, so we wanted a quiet place to eat. The Ivanhoe was also air-conditioned, so that was a huge plus for us. I still was not feeling well, but my DH enjoyed his pizza. The real treat was after lunch. We stopped for dessert at Moevenpick ice cream.

Yum! Ice cream is just the thing to make me feel better. Especially Moevenpick.

On December 24th we took the Blue Diamond Tour company tour to the Blue Mountains. http://www.bluediamondtours.net/

The day was cloudy & rainy, so we didn't get to see the valley, really. We did have a good visit to the Featherdale Wildlife Refuge and an Aboriginal Cultural Center. We did like the gondola rids & funicular at Scenic World - if only we could have seen the scenery!!

Christmas Morning found us taking a drive out to Westmead Hospital and spending a couple of hours in the ER. Wow! What a quick & efficient trip to the ER. If you must visit an ER, this is the place to do it. I was given a prescription for amoxicillin for sinusitis. We were referred to a Chemist in Kings Cross. That is one interesting neighborhood. It's reminiscent of New Orleans. A bit seedy, but we found the Chemist, got the goods and took the train back to Town Hall.

Then we found a Chemist just a block from our hotel that was open on Christmas day. But how would we know???? All in all, it was an adventure.

Christmas Eve dinner was at Din Tai Fung:
http://www.dintaifungaustralia.com.au/

Christmas Dinner was a Mamak:
http://www.mamak.com.au/

Both places were great. We arrived at Mamak shortly before they opened for dinner at 5:30pm and stood in line to get in. There was a line to get in when we left, too.

I am waiting for the amoxicillin to kick in. Our next two B&Bs don't say they have internet service, so I may not post until we get to Melbourne.

Tomorrow we're headed to Narooma for two nights. Then Lakes Entrance for three nights.

Additional note: there is excellent coffee & food to be found at the Workshop Espresso at 500 George St. across from the Queen Victoria Building in the CBD. Highly recommend for coffee, pastries, breakfast & lunch.

lakes entrance is ok, however there are some lovely smaller places to visit around the area
Take a drive to Metung... lovely place.
If you have time , the Buchan caves are worth a visit.

it is peak holiday season in australia.

I live in Melbourne, which is one of the best cities. I hope you enjoy it.

During our road trip from Sydney to Melbourne I didn't have internet access. We left Sydney on December 26th and drove to Narooma. We stopped in Kiama for breakfast at Hunt & Gather. The OJ was fresh squeezed, DH had Belgian hot chocolate & I had a cappuccino with our food. The place is a bit quirky, but good quality food.

In Narooma we stayed at the Pub Hill Farm: http://www.pubhillfarm.com/

Micki & Ian run a wonderful, dog-friendly B&B. We has the Garden room for two nights and wish we could have stayed for 2 more. We took the Narooma Charters evening cruise to Montague Island to view seals and fairy penguins.

Then we were on to Lakes Entrance. We had three nights at The Goat & Goose: http://www.goatandgoose.com/

<I>millie2112</I> I didn't see your advice about the Buchan caves until just now, but we did tour both caves and enjoyed it very much. We also did the Lonsdale Eco Cruise around the lakes.

In Lakes Entrance we ate at Miriam's & Ferrymans:
http://www.miriamsrestaurant.com.au/
http://www.ferrymans.com.au/

Miriams was good, if a bit overpriced, I thought. My cocktail was quite good and my first on this trip.
Ferrymans is the place to go for seafood. I had my first Moreton Bay bugs here. Kind of a cross between a crab & a lobster.

I have discovered Butter-Menthol cough drops. They are my new favorite thing. And I have had a chance to do some shopping in Melbourne already.

Dinner tonight is at the Red Spice Road: http://www.redspiceroad.com/

Halfapair it sounds as though you are having fun. Tonight's restaurant looks good, I had a quick peek st the menu.

Going by that menu, can I suggest Garagistes in Hobart? The restaurant is fabulous. If you look at the menu you will think I'm crazy but trust me, it is fabulous. Luke Burgess, The chef/owner is a friend of ours and is currently one of the hottest chefs around. If you go there, make sure you have the steamed oysters, I don't normally like oysters much, but these are sublime.

It's been a while since I updated our trip report. We drove from Lakes Entrance to Melbourne on New Year's Eve day. In Melbourne we stayed at the Radisson on Flagstaff Park which was an excellent value. It was one of the few hotels that offered free Wi-Fi in the room. Also, we had a car and were able to park it nearby. When we checked out we looked at our bill and they hadn't charged us for the parking (or the chips I ate from the well-stocked mini-bar!).

After dinner at the Red Spice Road I was exhausted, so even though the fireworks were shot off in the park across the street (and our room faced the park), I slept right through the display. DH reported that they were quite impressive. But he didn't have the heart to wake me up.

On New Year's Day we set out to take in the city. We took the free street car about half way around Melbourne. Got off on Flinders Street and found our way to the RMB Café on Degraves street.
http://www.rmbcafe.com.au/

We had a great breakfast/lunch of French toast, juice & coffee. Then we walked over to Chinatown & to St. Patrick's Cathedral. And we did some souvenir shopping.

It was a good first day in Melbourne.

Thanks for the update. That area around de greaves st is great for strolling. In de greaves lane there is a stationery shop I like, it's called Il Papiro and has lovely bookmarks if you are looking for inexpensive gifts to take home.

Looking forward to the next installment.

On January 2nd we went to the Queen Victoria Market for breakfast. DH found his beloved pancakes, so he was happy.

We still had our rental car so we drove out to Philip Island to see the Koalas. There was quite a bit of traffic going out to the island, but we finally made it to the Koala Conservation park. The boardwalks take you up to the level of the koalas - almost - so spotting the little guys is easy. We got some very nice pictures here.

We had lunch across the street from the conservation park at a brewery and we both enjoyed our food. DH had a steak pie & I had fish n chips. My ginger beer had actual ginger residue in the bottom of the bottle.

We drove out to see the site where the penguins come in at night, but didn't stay because we had seen penguins at Narooma.

Then we decided to save a little money and returned our rental car to the airport. This made for a long day and we didn't get back to our room until about 8pm.

January 3rd has us doing the Great Ocean Road. We booked the Grayline tour. It was a great day out. Many companies have busses that do a day-trip down the GOR. We chose Grayline mainly because we felt that their busses could accommodate DH's long legs. We sat on the bottom deck of the bus in the first seats on the passenger side of the bus (not behind the bus driver).

These seats worked out well. DH could stretch out his legs and we could put our backpack, etc in the area in front of our seats.

The tour was a long one and we vowed that some day we would come back and spend some real time - several days - in some of the towns along the Road.

The views were great, we got some lovely pics, but wished we could have spent a week driving the road, not just a day.

January 4th was a "free day." I like to build these into our schedule to give us some flexibility in case we find something really great to do, or we need a rest. In this case, we had found a sports store that carried Formula 1 shirts, sportswear, etc. Our son-in-law is a big F1 fan, so we not only went to Albert Park and took pictures of the finishline for the Melbourne F1 race, we wanted to pop into this particular store to get him a Melbourne F1 gift. We called ahead to make sure the store was open (they were) and so we took the free City Circle tram and did some shopping.

Then DH & I split up. He wanted to go to the Melbourne Museum and I wanted to go back to the hotel and rest (I have been sick the whole trip, so sometimes I just need a rest).

On January 5th we flew to Hobart, Tasmania. So far, we LOVE Hobart. And I saw another doctor today to begin another round of antibiotics. Now I have an ear infection.

If you are still in Hobart, halfapair, Garagistes is excellent for dinner. They take bookings now.

http://www.garagistes.com.au/

MONA is also worth seeing, more for the ferry trip and the architecture than the art, but there's always something I enjoy amidst the owner's favourite themes of sex and death.

My last installment covers Tasmania - Hobart in particular. We flew JetStar to Hobart and stayed at the Fountainside Hotel: http://www.fountainside.com.au/

We found this hotel to be an excellent value. Our room rate was $150/night. The room was clean & comfortable. The items in the mini-bar were priced at "Store Rates" so we didn't hesitate to drink the water & juice provided.

We discovered the wonderful world of Daci & Daci at 11 Murray Street. Everything is excellent. They served my husband's favorite hot chocolate of the trip (he doesn't drink coffee). They don't have a web page, but they do have a Facebook page.

We had a rental car so we were pretty mobile. We drove to Port Arthur and took a tour of the convict camp there.

We also did Louisa's Walk & a private night tour of the Bonorong Wildlife Sanctuary.
http://livehistoryhobart.com.au/
http://www.bonorong.com.au/

These two activities were the highlight of our trip. Louisa's Walk was informative, touching and imaginatively done.

The Bonorong Wildlife Sanctuary private night tour was expensive, but worth every cent. DH got to feed the Tasmanian Devils. I got to feed Kangaroos, pet them and give them a scratch. We both got to hold a baby wombat - Max. He was so adorable!

My inner Veruca Salt wanted to scream for a baby wombat. I want one and I want it now!!! Also, a kangaroo.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRTkCHE1sS4

Other good dinners were had at Rockwall, Smolt & the Astor Grill.

hi halfapair,

thanks for the further instalments of your TR - very interesting. They have definitely given me more ideas for another trip to OZ - Melbourne, the GOR, and Tasmania are all on my list, as well as going back to Northern Queensland.

not sure when, as there are a few other places we want to go first, but it's certainly on the back burner.