Australia 2010 - Micah's Log

Here is Micah's day-by-day log for our Australia 2010 trip with links included.

Melbourne

Day 1

• Arrived late, rode Sunbus to our B&B in the ghetto.  No one answered the door and we abandoned that ship and our driver went hotel-to-hotel until we finally found vacancy in the Rydges hotel in the CBD.
• Finally got checked in by 1:30 am and Steph stayed up all night due to a combination of jetlag and anxiousness over the hotel issues.

Day 2

• Mission #1….book a new lodging for the rest of the time.  Paramount Serviced Apartments booked in just enough time to call Mike and Verna with the address before they left Houston.
• Mission #2….watch Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows.  We walked through the city to Crown Promenade where we paid an arm and a leg at the Village Cinemas for tickets.  We exchanged elbows throughout the movie to fend off jetlag during the matinee.
• Mission #3….purchase Aussie SIM cards to have cell phones for the duration of the trip.  Micah’s worked fine, Steph’s required 2 more return trips until they finally decided the SIM card was a lemon and she got a new one. 
• Mission #4….Sleep off jetlag.

Day 3

• Met Mike and Verna at the Paramount and left our bags since we couldn’t check in yet.
• Tourist Shuttle and went to the Queen Victoria Markets.  These were open-air flea markets, but apparently we didn’t make it to the good parts. 
• Hopped back on the Tourist Shuttle and went to the Docklands to eat lunch.  Food is ridiculously expensive in Australia.  This is partly because all of their prices have remained the same despite the Aussie Dollar going from 60 cents to almost equal to the US Dollar.  So a $25 burger and fries previously would only cost $15 USD, but now runs the full $25….ridiculous. 
• Took the Tram back into the city and walked to the hotel to check in. After following the maze of elevators up to the room and holding our breath through the food-stenched hallways we arrived in our humble abode.  Nothing spectacular, but it worked just fine.
• The sun didn’t set until 8:30-9:00 pm, so we found ourselves eating dinner very late which meant that restaurants were closing.  Hungry Jacks (Burger King) was the substitute.

Day 4

• Rented a Ford Falcon XR6 and drove on the wrong side of the road to the Great Ocean Road.  Having not driven for 6 months and the challenge of driving on the left side of the road made driving a thrill for Micah.  The addition of the winding and hilly roads made for a go-cart type experience.  The views of the Great Ocean Road were just a bonus. 
• Stopped and ate some Tapas for lunch in Lorne at La Bimba Upstairs Bistro.  Nice atmosphere and cool little town on the coast.
• The two main sites we stopped at were the Twelve Apostles and Loch Ard Gorge.  The Twelve Apostles is the most popular site, which consists of 8 (used to be 12) pillars of rock sticking up out of the ocean.  Loch Ard Gorge is where a ship had wrecked and only two survived.  The sites were cool, but the views and pictures would have been much better if the weather would have cooperated.  Instead it was cloudy and hazy. 
• It rained on the trip back and again we ate like Arabs…late at night.

Day 5

• Ventured out on the wrong side of the road again, this time to Phillip Island.  The weather was wishy-washy with a mixture of cloudy and partly cloudy skies with the occasional squall of rain. 
• We started at a farming cottage on Churchill Island, which is just off of Phillip Island.  We ate lunch and toured the farm.  The most interesting part was watching a dog herding demonstration. 
• We then drove to the Koala Conservation Centre and got some up close photos of Koalas.  One woke up and she and baby were munching on some Eucalyptus leaves.  Some wallabies (small kangaroos that looked like large rats) were spotted along the pathways.
• Then we went to the Nobbies, which is on the far west point of the island.  There is a small island there that has a colony of 20,000 seals, but it was out of eyeshot for us and we didn’t have time for the boat trip out there.  There were many seagulls nesting along with a few Little Penguins.
• We at lunch at an Italian restaurant in a town on the north side of the island.
• The last trip was the main attraction of Phillip Island…the Penguin Parade.  There is a beach where near 1,000 Little Penguins (also called Blue Penguins) make there way back to their burrows after the sun goes down.  They spend the entire day fishing out at sea and then come back under the cover of night to feed their young, mate, and socialize.  The form large groups in the water out past the rocks called rafts.  The first group will come to the beach and will do a dance of on the beach to back into the water for 10-15 minutes until they muster enough courage to venture across the beach and up to the land.  The reason they are timid is because predators can take them while they are on the beach.  Standing only 13 inches tall, they are small and can be had pretty easily.  They follow the strategy of safety in numbers and waddle as fast as they can across the beach.  They continue to come in groups from the water.  Each group seemed to stop at the same places and would not go until the next group arrived to push them along.  The noises they made were crazy.  This was a very cool experience, but unfortunately, no cameras are allowed.

Day 6

• Last day in Melbourne.  After checking out of the Paramount we first walked in the pouring rain and then opted for a taxi to go to the Melbourne Cricket Grounds.  The rain turned torrential just in time for our run from the taxi to the MCG and then let up shortly after…convenient.  We toured the stadium and also the National Sports Museum.  Micah really enjoyed this tour.  Cricket always seemed boring and confusing, but started to make more sense and be more interesting after this day.  The Ashes, which is the big cricket match between Australia and England, was set to start on Boxing Day (the day after Christmas), so some of the players were practicing inside at the batting cages.  We got to go in and watch for a little.  Verna drifted further than she was supposed to and avoided the oncoming batted balls as she was called back by the tour guide.  The displays at the National Sports Museum were alright, but they had a great interactive sports area.  We played cricket, netball (weak version of basketball for girls), Aussie Rules Football, and Rugby….very fun.
• We then went up the Eureka Tower Skydeck and looked out over the city.  It was cloudy, but the views were still good.  We could sea the Spirit of Tasmania boat that we would board hours later.
• We then made it back to the hotel and took a cab ride out to the port.  We boarded the Spirit of Tasmania.  To put it nicely, the room was very cozy.   There were two sets of bunk beds and a head.  Before dinner Mike took some Dramamine and was in a comatose state halfway through dinner, which was entertaining.  We slept and had an early arrival in Devenport, Tasmania. 

Tasmania

Day 7

• We rented an SUV and, after visiting the golden arches for some egg mcmuffins, we headed toward the eastern cost of Tasmania. 
• The roads in Tasmania were very winding through many mountains.  The scenery is amazing with mountains and forests everywhere. 
• Our first targeted destination was St. Columba Falls, but our road first brought us to Ralph’s Falls instead.  We took a hike down a beautiful forest trail to an overlook area to see the waterfall.  Micah and Steph ventured on the other side close to the waterfall for a better picture.  The best part of this site was the hike through the forest and stream.
• After thinking we had missed St. Columba Falls, we finally saw the sign for it and took the right hand turn.  These falls were bigger and more impressive, but they didn’t require quite as fun of a hike.
• We stopped at the Blowhole, but the tide wasn’t ride for viewing and then traveled on to eat lunch at a Fish-n-Chips shop. 
• We drove to Freycinet National Park and hiked to the lookout for Wine Glass Bay.  When we parked in the car park there was a wallaby scavenging for food.  It was very tame and would even let you pet it.  The hike is up a mountain with large boulders and the bay is in the shape of a wine glass as the name suggests and has nice blue-green water with a white sand beach and cliffs near it.  The hike was fun, but tiring and the lookout was good despite the low clouds.
• We drove on and started looking for gas around 6:00 pm.  Most of the gas stations were already closed because the towns were Podunk.  We ran on fumes into a “large” town that had fast food restaurants and a gas station. 
• We then headed to our cottage that we had rented.  We took a wrong turn briefly, but then arrived at the house around 11:00 pm.  It was not too far from Port Arthur, which played a role in the convicts history of Tasmania.  We basically only had enough time to shower and sleep.  We did take some time to watch the wallabies in the back yard.  They really looked like large rats in the dark.  We were also able to see the most stars we’ve seen since we can remember.  They were also stars from the Southern Hemisphere, so we got to see things like the Southern Cross.  The Starwalk App on the iPad made it easier to locate the constellations….technology. 

Port Douglas

Day 8

• We flew from Hobart to Sydney and then Sydney to Cairns. 
• Rented a car and drove north up to Port Douglas.  After a pit stop for groceries and beer we attempted to check into our condo.  The only problem was that there was no one working the desk (at 5:30 pm) and no one answered the phone when we called the after hours number.  After searching for a while, Micah found a guy who happened to have seen the guy who was working the desk earlier.  We checked in and had dinner.

Day 9

• Picked up at 8:15 am, we headed for the Poseidon boat to dive the Great Barrier Reef.  Micah and Steph did three dives and Mike and Verna went snorkeling at each site.  The three locations were Barracuda Bommie, Helm’s Deep, and Playground.  The dives were great, seeing great coral and reef sharks, stingrays, barracuda, lionfish, clownfish, and many more fish.  We also got to where these awesome unitards to protect us from any potential stinging jellyfish.  They made us look sexy, believe me.  We had always heard how rough the water was getting to the Great Barrier Reef, but we caught it at a perfect day…there were almost no waves at all and even Mike refrained from getting seasick. 
• After the dives we headed back and ate dinner in Port Douglas.

Day 10

• Daintree Discovery Tours picked us up at 7:45 am and took us to the Daintree Rainforest.  Our guide lived inside the Daintree Rainforest in a house with only a generator and gas to provide power.  He was a nice guy, but definitely a hippie environmentalist.  He first pointed out the “Flying Fox” or fruit bat in some trees on the way there.  We took the Daintree River Ferry to cross the river and then stopped at a lookout point.  After picture-taking, we boarded the van and then stopped at Cape Tribulation.  Captain James Cook had ran his boat onto the Great Barrier Reef when he was sailing past here and then spent months on shore here, so most things are named with sorrowful names.  We walked the beach, had tea, then did a short walk to see some of the cool trees in the area.  One of the trees starts up at the top of a “host” tree and then sends roots down to the ground one-after-another until it eventually engulfs the host tree and kills it.  Other trees grow sideways out towards the water and have massive trunks.  We then drove to another park where we stopped for a dip in a cold stream and then followed that with lunch.  Steph didn’t appreciate the vegetarian qualities of our meal and was given some of the small portions of meat from Verna and Micah to calm her carnivore nature.  A huge spider graced us with its presence on a massive web while we ate lunch.  After lunch we took a walk through the rainforest.  We spotted many cool trees, but also many piles of Cassowary poo.  Cassowary are the third largest birds and can be very dangerous to people.  We never saw one in the wild, but these things poo out huge seeds from plant.  Many of these seeds will then start to grow a tree…in the middle of the pile of poo!!  This is how many of the trees produce offspring and makes the cassowary important for these forests.  We also saw a cool lizard in the trees.  On the drive back to Port Douglas we stopped at the river for a croc cruise.  However, we were only able to see three very small crocs (all under 5 years) since the tide was high…bummer.  Heading back to Port Douglas, we ate dinner at a seafood restaurant on the harbor called On the Inlet and then retreated to our room.

Sydney

Day 11

• Our short trip to Queensland was over as we left our apartment at 3:30 am to make our 5:30 am flight to Sydney. 
• We arrived at Sydney and purchased our MyMulti passes to use the CityRail (subway) and ferries.  We then took the CityRail to the Museum stop and walked to the Meriton World Tower serviced apartments.  Our room was on the 74^th floor and had a great view looking west.
• We took advantage of the full day and took the CityRail up to Circular Quay and started with a tour of the Sydney Opera House.  This tour was great and the architecture was fascinating.  The only downside was that Oprah was in Australia to record two shows and her stage was built next to the Opera House, which was annoying.  Everyone kept asking us if we were there to see Oprah to which we adamantly stated “no.”  After the tour Mike purchased tickets for the next night to see the Nutcracker at the Sydney Opera House. 
• We then ventured through The Rocks and paid 4 arms and 4 legs to climb the Harbor Bridge.  Although expensive, this activity was definitely fun and offered great views of the city and insight into the construction of the bridge.  Unfortunately we could not bring our cameras and we were unwilling to pay $25 for ONE photo of us, so this will be a picture that mostly remains in our mind’s eye.  We did get a group photo for free, but it included the nine random other people in our group…whoopee.  
• After the Harbor Bridge climb we ate at Lowenbrau, a German restaurant located at The Rocks.  We had a few liters of German beer and some schnitzel and wurst and had a merry time.  Steph went on stage and played some bells during a song by the band that was playing.  She was the only one on stage that was not Asian. 

Day 12

• We rode the CityRail to Circular Quay and then caught a ferry to the Taronga Zoo.  The ferry ride took about 20 minutes and we took a bus to the top of the hill.  The zoo is located across the harbor from downtown and is on a hill overlooking the harbor with great views of the city.  This was the main reason we went.  The other was that we had not been able to see any kangaroos or Tasmanian devils yet.  We first watched the seal show, then watched the Tasmanian devils get fed.  We passed through to see a bunch of lazy kangaroos sprawled out like dogs on their backs catching some Z’s under a tree.  We also were able to see the Cassowary bird that had eluded us during our Daintree tour.  These birds are huge!  It’s probably a good thing we didn’t see them in the wild while we were on foot…someone may have wet themselves (but of course not me).  After eating an unappetizing lunch we went to watch the Free Flight bird show.  They had an amphitheatre built with great views of downtown, the Opera House, and the Harbor Bridge.  They then did a show were birds fly all around on command and even swoop down to within inches of the spectators’ heads.  After the show we walked through the Southern Ocean section and saw some more seals and little penguins.  We caught the ferry back to Circular Quay and went to get ready for the Nutcracker that night.
• Even Micah had to admit it was pretty cool to be able to say we got to see a performance at the Sydney Opera House.  Watching the Nutcracker made it feel more like Christmas, despite the summer weather and green trees outside.

Day 13

• We rode the CityRail to Central and then took the Silver Line to Morisset for a day of wine tours in the Hunter Valley.  Our tour guide for the day was Mark with Hunter Discovery Tours, who picked us up from the train station.  We first stopped at a microbrewery called Potters Brewery where we did some beer tasting and ate lunch.   Some of the beers were great, while others were…err…interesting.  They had a beer called Bacon, which is so named because it has a very smoky flavor that is close to bacon.  One might think that a drink that tastes like bacon would be good, but that one would be mistaken.  Even for bacon lovers that live in a country where pork (and alcohol) is banned, this drink did not hit the spot.  The other beers were great and it was a fun lunch. 
• After lunch we headed for the wineries for wine tasting.  The first we stopped at was Tempus Two.  We had a great bartender who had the experience even more enjoyable.  When we told him we were from Houston he said that he had visited a friend in League City, TX (where we used to live in Clear Lake).  He started to bring out special reserve wines that were not listed on the tasting list after we made the Houston connection and we tasted some good wine.  The best wine there was the Semillon, which is one the type of wine that the Hunter is known for.  Micah and Steph bought a bottle of the Semillon to open on a future wedding anniversary (Steph says the 10^th). 
• The next stop was at the Tolluch winery.  The bartender here was an older gentleman who just was not as entertaining as the workers at the other cellar doors.  They still had some good wine and Mike and Verna walked away with a bottle of the Tulloch JYT Selection, which was a special reserve Shiraz.  Shiraz is the other grape that the Hunter is famous for.
•   We then stopped at Robyn Drayton Wines where we had a very interesting local woman as our bartender.  She apparently has had plenty of experience in consuming alcohol and was very entertaining.  This place doesn’t have that many wines, but it is famous for its White Port.  This after-dinner wine was excellent and we ended up purchasing a bottle.  This place also had a great wooden deck with a view out over the hills covered with grapevines.  After posing for a picture, we were on to our next destination.
• We had a wine tour booked at Vinden Estate Winery and Vineyard.  This place had another interesting cellar lady and she entertained us while we tasted their selection of wines.  We were joined by two other young couples that were both from England.  One of the couples was in the middle of a six-month vacation! Ridiculous!  The other was on a long vacation as well.  It must be nice to take a vacation that long.  After tasting the wine we did a tour of how they make the wine.  After the tour it was past 5:00 pm, so all of the wineries were closed.
• We stopped at Harrigan’s Irish Pub for dinner before venturing to the Hunter Region Botanical Gardens to look at the Christmas lights display.  This is Australia’s largest display of Christmas lights, but they just don’t know how to do it like the good old US.  Nevertheless, we had fun walking through the lit-up gardens and doing some people watching. 
• Our tour guide then drove us back to our hotel in Sydney. 

Day 14

• Early morning sunny skies made us hopeful for a great day at the beach, so we rode the CityRail to Bondi Junction and then took the bus out to Bondi Beach.  This is the beach that is famous for professional lifeguards, crowded beaches, people watching, and surfing.  Unfortunately, the rain came soon after we arrived and the people mostly cleared out.  We ate lunch and waited to see if it would clear up.  Mike and Verna headed back to the hotel and spent the afternoon going to museums and sightseeing, while Micah and Steph were determined to spend some time on the beach.  We were only graced with a few minutes of sunshine and most everyone else on the beach were teenagers.  When the rain returned we returned to the hotel in Sydney. 
• We walked around the downtown area for some shopping and then met Mike and Verna back at the hotel at 5:00 pm for some pre-dinner wine.  We drank the bottle of wine from Vinden Estate and planned dinner.  We found a few steakhouses near Circular Quay and took the CityRail there.  We stopped at Steersons Steakhouse and asked for a table.  The hostess told us they were only seating groups that had reservations, but Verna worked her magic on the manager telling him that we came all the way from Texas to eat at this steakhouse.  He fixed a table for us and we had some great steaks. 
• After dinner we walked along Circular Quay and took in the sights of the Opera House, the Harbor Bridge, and the rest of Circular Quay since this was our last night there. 

Day 15

• After packing and checking out of the Meriton Serviced Apartments, we ditched our bags and took a ferry from Circular Quay out to Watson’s Bay.  This is the area just on the south side of the inlet to the Sydney Harbor.  We had a plan to eat lunch and the get back to the city early in the afternoon so we would have time for some sightseeing and shopping before we had to go to the airport.  However, the ferry left at 12:30 pm and the restaurant didn’t start taking food orders until noon.  Instead, we opted for a beer meal and enjoyed some Blue Tongue draught before catching the ferry back to Circular Quay.  The ferries are awesome because you get to do sightseeing while you are on your way to your destination.  The hub for the ferries is located between the Opera House and the Harbor Bridge right next to the Rocks.
• When we returned we walked to a restaurant called Pancakes on the Rocks.  This is a popular restaurant that was recommended to us and it lived up to the hype.  It had a great atmosphere and very good pancakes.  Micah and Verna opted for pancakes while Mike and Steph enjoyed some babyback ribs.  Both selections were great.
• We walked through the Royal Botanic Gardens until we reached a peninsula that is a popular place to take pictures of the Opera House with the Harbor Bridge in the background.  The gardens are filled with very old, big trees and open lawns.  There was even a small outdoor wedding going on in the gardens. 
• We spent the rest of the afternoon shopping.  Mike and Micah searched for rugby and Aussie football shirts, while Verna and Steph were looking for jewelry.  Steph bought an Opera House charm and Mike got a Wallabies (rugby) shirt, but we didn’t do much more damage than that.
• Our flight from Sydney to Melbourne left at 9:15 pm.  We got our bags and took the CityRail to the airport.  When we arrived in Melbourne at 10:45 and checked into the Holiday Inn by the airport.  They had our reservation, but it was supposed to have already been paid for by credit card points.  It had not been paid for so they took our credit card information until they could get the money from the reward points.

Traveling Home 

Day 16-17

• Mike and Verna had a short night, leaving for the airport at 3:00 am to catch their 6:35 am Qantas flight to LAX.  They had a frustrating experience when they arrived at LAX.  Turns out that the Continental Airlines flight number that Cheapoair.com had reserved for them did not even exist.  They then had to wait for the next flight to Houston and had to pay for their baggage since it was not considered to be part of their international flight.  After a long flight this definitely is not something you want to have to deal with.
• Micah and Steph had a more enjoyable experience.  We took the Skybus from the airport to the Southern Cross bus station.  We walked through the CBD, first stopping at a candy store to load up on candy.  We bought 5 pounds of candy since it is hard to come by good candy in Saudi other than chocolate.  Micah then bought an Aussie Rules Football t-shirt.
• The weather this day was much colder than it had been the week before in Melbourne.  It was pretty cold and rainy.
• We walked to the area close to where our accommodation had been when we were in Melbourne the last time and ate at an Italian restaurant called the Spaghetti Tree.  We had enjoyed some great pasta before venturing out into the rain.
• We walked around the CBD some more and did some sightseeing on our way to the Crown Plaza.  We watched Megamind at the Village Cinemas to kill some time and since we don’t get to go to the movies in Saudi. 
• After the movie we killed some more town by people watching at Federation Square and then took the tram to Southern Cross Station and the Skybus to the airport. 
• We arrived before the Qatar Airways ticket counter opened and were the first people in the business class check-in line.  The check-in process started out to be very frustrating since they weighed our carryon luggage and made us get below 10 kg if we had a laptop and below 7 kg if we did not.  Steph said she had an iPad, so the lady said it didn’t count as a laptop and she ended up having to check her carryon bag.  The frustration was quickly forgotten when we were handed our tickets since we had been “involuntarily” upgraded to business class for the leg from Melbourne to Doha.  The ticket may have read “involuntary” but we were definitely willing.  We spent a few hours in the business lounge were we got our last tastes of alcohol before leaving for the Magic Kingdom. 
• Business class with Qatar Airways was great as always and we both slept for about 10 hours of the 14.5 hour flight.  The flight left Melbourne at 11:35 pm and arrived in Doha at 5:50 am, which was a great flight schedule.  The last leg of the flight arrived in Bahrain at 8:55 am, where we took a taxi to Rick’s Country Kitchen.  The only bad thing is that the cab driver heard “Ritz” and thought the Ritz-Carlton.  He missed the turn for Rick’s and this ended up making the trip longer and cost more.  I haggled to get the price down since he took the detour and got a small discount.  We scarfed down some biscuits with sausage gravy and two sides of bacon before getting picked up by our driver. 
• Once back at Murjan we stopped at our apartment long enough to drop off our bags and then immediately went to the Perry’s to pick up Gizmo.  He was as happy to see us as we were to see him.