First time trip to Australia
Discussion
Jader1973 said:
Darwin = never been but I believe it is full of nutters. I'd like to go (in winter).
I love Darwin and admittedly that's partly because the heat, humidity and remoteness means people do go crazy up there. It's a very transient population too as lots of people clear off when the rains come.Just for my own amusement, I like to check in on NT News quite regularly. The content of the stories and way they're delivered sum the place up pretty well
http://www.ntnews.com.au
For example, how many times have you read a news article that opens with the line:
"OH look, another drunk d
head on a crocodile trap."
http://www.ntnews.com.au/news/northern-territory/a...
I spent a year in Oz doing voluntary conservation work about 5 years ago. I detest big cities but Melbourne blew me away, so cosmopolitan and just an amazing place to base yourself and then do the Great Ocean road, a stunning drive with stop off points like the 12 apostles, etc along the way.
If you get up to Cairns, as others have said, go to Port Douglas but take plenty of money, but also get up to the Daintree rainforest. I spent 17 weeks planting trees there and it is the most wonderful place to go, try and stay at Crocodilus which is right in the rainforest, but it gets get bloody hot and humid depending on the time of year.
In NSW try to get to the Blue mountains, another great place to explore. In Vic try to get to places like the Grampian mountains, stunning walks and viewpoints there, I was lucky to spend a week radio tracking yellow tailed rock wallabies at night and the aboriginal centres are brilliant.
The whole country is full of wonderful things to see and do, just take time to enjoy the sights and sounds, don't get me started on the amazing birds {of the feathered kind) that you can see there!
If you get up to Cairns, as others have said, go to Port Douglas but take plenty of money, but also get up to the Daintree rainforest. I spent 17 weeks planting trees there and it is the most wonderful place to go, try and stay at Crocodilus which is right in the rainforest, but it gets get bloody hot and humid depending on the time of year.
In NSW try to get to the Blue mountains, another great place to explore. In Vic try to get to places like the Grampian mountains, stunning walks and viewpoints there, I was lucky to spend a week radio tracking yellow tailed rock wallabies at night and the aboriginal centres are brilliant.
The whole country is full of wonderful things to see and do, just take time to enjoy the sights and sounds, don't get me started on the amazing birds {of the feathered kind) that you can see there!
auto1 said:
Just got back ,first take plenty of money ,
very expensive now.
It's a lot less expensive than it was 4 years ago as the exchange rate has moved a lot in our favour, back in 2011 I got 1.38 to the pound, Sainsburys online are quoting 1.86 to the pound today.very expensive now.
OP, it depends a bit when you intend travelling, the south can have (Oz) winter days that wouldn't look out of place in Eastbourne while up North it's all sunshine, warmth and blue skys. The Aussie summer is the time to go south while up North it's hot, humid and the rain can be spectacular although that tends to come as thunder storms not endless drizzly days like we get.
Centralish Queensland where my daughter lives (near Rockhampton) is pretty much OK all year although the winter evenings can be cool (16 celsius or so but with very low humidity it feels a lot cooler than that) but the days are almost always clear blue sky with temperatures in the mid 20s, summer will have temps up in the high 30s with high humidity and it stays hot (not warm) at night.
As others have said distances are vast and the roads aren't superfast multi-lane highways, outside of the cities they're usually single carriage way (certainly in Queensland). We once took two days to drive from my daughter's house to Cairns, that's about 600 miles.
It's a fantastic country though and just so much to see.
Edited by Norfolkit on Sunday 1st February 15:30
Been several times as it's a short hop from where I live, big place with lots of things to do and see. Not made it to Tazzy yet so that might be my next trip.I'd avoid spending too much time in the cities and concentrate on the natural wonder type things, the cities don't compare favourably to Europe in terms of culture + food, though I never went to Sydney...
If you're going to drive, bear in mind that the speed limits are lower than you would expect and the police enforce them, so on the motorways you have a million drivers all with their cruise control set to almost exactly the same speed and driving within a few feet of each other.. It can be quite frustrating or otherwise quite boring / monotonous, the standard of driving is way below that of the UK.
Rent the car online from the UK, Australians get ripped off for everything and you'll pay a lot more if you do it in country...
If you're going to drive, bear in mind that the speed limits are lower than you would expect and the police enforce them, so on the motorways you have a million drivers all with their cruise control set to almost exactly the same speed and driving within a few feet of each other.. It can be quite frustrating or otherwise quite boring / monotonous, the standard of driving is way below that of the UK.
Rent the car online from the UK, Australians get ripped off for everything and you'll pay a lot more if you do it in country...
Vipers said:
Been down in Oz for the past two weeks, just to let you know their TV programmes are total crap.
Apart from that, bloody hot in Sydney, lovely place, lovely people, but so many Kronerbergs, oh well. Enjoy your trip
You have a point, but the TV is better than San Francisco where we are now till we fly home tomo after a few wks doing Singapore, Melbourne and Sydney. Included a 1200 km drive up the coast, out to Bathurst for a few laps of Mount Panorama, a seaplane trip up the north coast from Sydney, swimming at Bondi and Manly....Apart from that, bloody hot in Sydney, lovely place, lovely people, but so many Kronerbergs, oh well. Enjoy your trip
Great weather, great people, great country. Australia that is.
Norfolkit said:
It's a lot less expensive than it was 4 years ago as the exchange rate has moved a lot in our favour, back in 2011 I got 1.38 to the pound, Sainsburys online are quoting 1.86 to the pound today.
OP, it depends a bit when you intend travelling, the south can have (Oz) winter days that wouldn't look out of place in Eastbourne while up North it's all sunshine, warmth and blue skys. The Aussie summer is the time to go south while up North it's hot, humid and the rain can be spectacular although that tends to come as thunder storms not endless drizzly days like we get.
Centralish Queensland where my daughter lives (near Rockhampton) is pretty much OK all year although the winter evenings can be cool (16 celsius or so but with very low humidity it feels a lot cooler than that) but the days are almost always clear blue sky with temperatures in the mid 20s, summer will have temps up in the high 30s with high humidity and it stays hot (not warm) at night.
As others have said distances are vast and the roads aren't superfast multi-lane highways, outside of the cities they're usually single carriage way (certainly in Queensland). We once took two days to drive from my daughter's house to Cairns, that's about 600 miles.
It's a fantastic country though and just so much to see.
We are in Brisbane at the moment having experienced cyclone Marcia in Rockhampton, I hope your daughter is ok because Rocky is trashed and in a very serious condition, no power, little fuel, short of water and sporadic lawlessness. We escaped the day after and after two very stressful days got to Brissy. OP, it depends a bit when you intend travelling, the south can have (Oz) winter days that wouldn't look out of place in Eastbourne while up North it's all sunshine, warmth and blue skys. The Aussie summer is the time to go south while up North it's hot, humid and the rain can be spectacular although that tends to come as thunder storms not endless drizzly days like we get.
Centralish Queensland where my daughter lives (near Rockhampton) is pretty much OK all year although the winter evenings can be cool (16 celsius or so but with very low humidity it feels a lot cooler than that) but the days are almost always clear blue sky with temperatures in the mid 20s, summer will have temps up in the high 30s with high humidity and it stays hot (not warm) at night.
As others have said distances are vast and the roads aren't superfast multi-lane highways, outside of the cities they're usually single carriage way (certainly in Queensland). We once took two days to drive from my daughter's house to Cairns, that's about 600 miles.
It's a fantastic country though and just so much to see.
Edited by Norfolkit on Sunday 1st February 15:30
REALIST123 said:
You have a point, but the TV is better than San Francisco where we are now till we fly home tomo after a few wks doing Singapore, Melbourne and Sydney. Included a 1200 km drive up the coast, out to Bathurst for a few laps of Mount Panorama, a seaplane trip up the north coast from Sydney, swimming at Bondi and Manly....
Great weather, great people, great country. Australia that is.
Certainly is, had a dip down Curl Curl beach this afternoon, but still a tad hot for comfort, but better than Blighty.Great weather, great people, great country. Australia that is.
Off to Manly later this evening.
Kenty said:
We are in Mosman tomorrow for a week, couple of trips organised - Blue mountains on Thursday and Madam Butterfly at Opera house on Friday evening.
Small world Vipers!
Enjoy Madam Butterfly, did the opera house tour last time we were down, fantastic place, blue mountains is good, and the three sisters. Also Laura is good, it's on the way to the Blue Mountains, have a good one cobber Small world Vipers!
Thank god we are not in Perth by the way, apparantly 41 tomorrow. Enjoy your trip.
Kenty said:
Yes we will probably get to the zoo, we are staying a house just above Balmoral beach. Any good restaurants you can recommend?
Haven't lived there for 4 years - moved to Newcastle about 2 hours up the coast. There's a good Vietnamese at Spit Junction (Trans), Ormeggio at the Spit is great for a blow out degustation style fine dining option, but would need to get a taxi.
For burgers and BBQ chicken then Chargrill Charlies is impossible to go past.
Friend raves about Afous, but it opened after I left.
Mino is a good reliable Japanese option, just a few doors down from Trans.
If you want pub food avoid the Buena Vista. it used to be great and was just around the corner from me -$7 cook your own steak/chicken on Tuesday/Wednesday night. Now it's overpriced deep fried crap. If you want pub food go to the Hotel Mosman at Spit Junction. Not going to blow your socks off, but it's $7.90 for a 300g Porterhouse steak which isn't bad eating at all.
Heaps more fine dining/trendy options in Neutral Bay, and a few decent options in Cremorne as well.
This is probably very out of date but I was in Oz with 4 friends for a month in 2003. We flew into Cairns, had a car booked for 4 weeks and a return flight from Sydney.
Driving wasn't a problem and we saw a lot of nothing but also a lot of small towns and camped or booked into hostels/hotels whenever we though 'this looks interesting'.
We all had a great time and back then, everything was dirt cheap.
Driving wasn't a problem and we saw a lot of nothing but also a lot of small towns and camped or booked into hostels/hotels whenever we though 'this looks interesting'.
We all had a great time and back then, everything was dirt cheap.
krallicious said:
This is probably very out of date but I was in Oz with 4 friends for a month in 2003. We flew into Cairns, had a car booked for 4 weeks and a return flight from Sydney.
Driving wasn't a problem and we saw a lot of nothing but also a lot of small towns and camped or booked into hostels/hotels whenever we though 'this looks interesting'.
We all had a great time and back then, everything was dirt cheap.
Petrol is about 66p a litre.Driving wasn't a problem and we saw a lot of nothing but also a lot of small towns and camped or booked into hostels/hotels whenever we though 'this looks interesting'.
We all had a great time and back then, everything was dirt cheap.
krallicious said:
This is probably very out of date but I was in Oz with 4 friends for a month in 2003. We flew into Cairns, had a car booked for 4 weeks and a return flight from Sydney.
Driving wasn't a problem and we saw a lot of nothing but also a lot of small towns and camped or booked into hostels/hotels whenever we though 'this looks interesting'.
We all had a great time and back then, everything was dirt cheap.
Petrol is about 66p a litre.Driving wasn't a problem and we saw a lot of nothing but also a lot of small towns and camped or booked into hostels/hotels whenever we though 'this looks interesting'.
We all had a great time and back then, everything was dirt cheap.
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