This is a long entry and is accompanied by my
scrapbook photo gallery [click] of course! Enjoy!
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I'd like to share with you an amazing Australia vacation from which I recently came back. While it was somewhat haphazardly planned and details decided last minute, it was an awesome and memorable experience. I will definitely be going back as there are so many more places where I'd like to visit. I'll list some spots for next time, so that I can quickly remember and perhaps plan more ahead of time in future (although it didn't seem to matter). There are lots of links below if you're interested in trip planning, destinations and things that I did. It was more of a tourist/vacation by most accounts.
I haven't been on "vacation" vacation for a long time. Vacation is a great time to recharge, renew and defocus your brain off other things which should make you fresh for new adventures and challenges when you get back. I've been on short trips to Vegas (12-14hr poker sessions daily is not "vacation") and multiple out of town weddings (short trips, rigid schedules, suit'n'tie) recently but it's not the same. I was fortunate enough in my first job to accumulate a mass number of aeroplan miles, asia miles and even alaska miles over a span of four years where I travelled the world regularly. Asia Miles actually have an expiry date and that expiry prompted me in October 2007 to plan a vacation. I had not yet been to Australia, so that was a destination of choice. Additionally, I have long wanted to go there after hearing so many good things about the country from friends that had either visited or even lived there for some time. The plan was to go for 15-18 days in February (summer). A slight adjustment to this plan was made in early 2008 as my sister made it to junior curling nationals and our family went to watch and support her in that exciting experience. I pushed my trip out to April 8-27th.
Pre-planning, destination scouting.
Work, hockey, procrastination contributed to very limited planning before say February. Actually that was good because I don't think I would have been "ready" by February if I had gone then. Perhaps at some level I knew my sister would pull through provincials on top ;-). Cathay Pacific has
some 14-15 page PDF documents that act as destination guides and a number of the main cities in Australia (and other destinations they fly to).
[Cathay Pacific Destination Guides] I did have somewhat of a limited timeframe so I decided I would stick to the east coast mostly. Sydney and Melbourne were on the list of places I wanted to visit and so after that I wanted to pick 2 other spots. Sometime in early March upon reading the guides and some googlurfing (google search based web surfing) I figured I would go diving in Cairns (close to GBR) and surfing somewhere. Later that month I figured surfing in the Gold Coast area would be fun. Also a hockey buddy of mine told me to go to the GC (Taki, thanks!). Somehow I would spread my 10th-27th amongst those desinations. Note this is almost late March. I got my hands on a lonely planet book at the end of March and figured as I was leaving within 2 weeks I better figure out some details. (Thanks for the book John!)
My Asia Miles (60K miles) covered a LAX-SYD return flight. I used 20K Alaska Miles to cover the return flight to LAX. I decided with almost 20K Starpoints (
Starwood Preferred Group; Sheratons, Westins, I know -- so nice!) I could use their half'n'half redemption offers either in Cairns or the GC. It turned out that they had spots in
Gold Coast and
Port Douglas. $60 / night + 4K points. So the GC it was and I spent $35 bucks to get 1K starpoints to top up over 20K since I had 19,xxx pts. 10th-16th set. The plan would be to budget my accommodation in between two "nice" places. I booked the
Westin Sydney for 13,333 aeroplan miles a night (3 nights) at the end of my trip, 24th-27th since that's where I would be flying out of.
So in between I would have to figure out where to stay. Travelling alone it kind of sucks in that way because, I like my "privacy" and without a buddy, booking rooms at hostels/budget accommodations would not be as cost-effective. In anycase, I figured so much of the trip was "free"
already my wallet would rough it out. I googlurfed across website,
www.divethereef.com and it helped me choose my main activity in Cairns. I'll get into the details later. The site mentioned
Cairns Queen's Court as a pretty decent place to stay and upon confirming via email with an agent that I was pretty good, I booked it for Cairns. That left Melbourne accommodations. The St.Kilda area looked really cool, so I came across this hostel/budget hotel that was fairly new (I associated this with decent beds/mattresses) --
Cooee on St Kilda. 5 days in Cairns, 5 days in Melbourne.
Most of this was all finally decided within the first few days of April. I figured once in the Gold Coast, I could figure out what I wanted to do after. My first day would be at Sea World, so didn't need to rush into anything. I did have to make one "change" mentally as I recalled that post diving you have to wait some period of time before jumping on a plane. This meant that I wouldn't leave Cairns until late on my last day and get into Melbourne late, but that was ok.
[Note, I'm starting to write this on Wednesday in Melbourne. Listening to Foo Fighters on Youtube and wishing I had access to my Gibson Les Paul (GH3) to rock out a few songs, hahaha -- This is the Call, All My life, The Pretender...]The TRIP!
April 8th: My dad takes me to the airport. Flight on Alaska to LAX, uneventful. LAX is a mess, but anyways, check into Qantas and then chill in the waiting area listening to music. The Qantas flight is long (14hrs) but I sleep well on planes and there are a few good movies to watch. I don't really finish any of them. Watch parts of There Will Be Blood, We Own The Night, and I Am Legend.
April 10th: Arrive in Sydney and catch my flight to the Gold Coast. I got onto an earlier Qantas flight, but since I bought a JetSaver ticket on JetStar, I cannot move my departure time to GC ahead. Kill time in the domestic terminal with a cappucino and PSP Lumines anxious to get my holiday on. Get into the GC mid-afternoon and take this shuttle from the airport to the Sheraton Mirage Resort & Spa. The lounge area is pretty cool overlooking the pool area, lots of glass. When I land in the GC tho', somehow it's RAINING! OMG, I thought I left the rain back in YVR. Anyways, the forecast calls for better weather (turned out to be awesome weather) the rest of the days. Since I didn't really plan my trip yet in terms of what to do, I talk to the Concierge guy and he's pretty helpful. I get a voucher for Sea World for the next day and figured I would start there. That night, just explored the area around my hotel; a marina, shopping plaza, boats, and a few bars/restaurants.
Fri, April 11th: Sea World at the Gold Coast is awesome. I work my way through the different exhibits. From dugongs, blue penguins, sharks, rays, polar bears, sea lions, and dolphins it's pretty incredible. There are a few rides plus a water park if you plan on spending the full length of the day there and want to cool down with the kids or something like that. The dolphin show is awesome. Wow, the jumps and interaction between the dolphins and trainers is superb, imaginative and impressive. Best I've seen yet, world-wide. Watching the sharks, rays, fishes in the big tank is also pretty awesome. I've posted photos and will upload them all into my LJ Scrapbook. The Sea Lion and water ski shows are also great. I'm tanning big time throughout the day and head back to the hotel (walking distance) and start to figure out what I want to do over the weekend. I sign up for two morning surf classes with the help of the concierge. I jump into the lap pool there that evening too to recall how to swim, hahaha... Went out to the Casino to play some poker. 5/10Limit they have and 5/10PotLimit. I get in on the Limit game and up a few hundred bucks. Help my friend collect a $1 chip and time to go home.
Sat, April 12th: They pick me up for my 10AM lesson and it's a superb day out there. This Japanese guy, Hiro is one of the instructors and drives me to Surfers Paradise where the school office is.
Cheyne Horan's Schoo of Surf. There's like 8 or so of us the first day and two instructors. Go through some basics and I'm able to stand up by the end of the day. Met some interesting folks, two Ontario dudes travelling the area. After my class, I explore Surfers Paradise, the village, shopping, grab a Starbucks and then decide to walk back to my hotel. In the daily newsletter they claimed that it was a 20 minute stroll from Surfers back to my hotel. Turns out it was more of a 35-40 minute brisk walk! Very scenic of course along the beaches back to the beach area which is directly off the Sheraton property. Along the way near Surfers I run into two bikini-clad "meter maids" whom I stop to chat with and get a tourist photo shot.
Metermaids are now a tradition after being introduced in the 60s to combat the introduction of parking meters. Today they are just advertising/pr people mostly for the area it seems like. Read by the pool and chill out. Poker again in the evening. Two bad beats later and down $300 or so it's time to go home. Played the 5/10PL game tonight. GC players are pretty lose and well, they can get lucky. AK vs. A4 and she hit a 4 on the turn. No reason to call my pot bet on the flop, but whatever. Two pair on the flop gets counterfeit on the turn. Oh well, it happens.
Sun, April 13th: More surfing. It seems harder today, but I get through it and get a little better at paddling and get introduced to turning. Unfortunately by the time I stand up, there's not much wave left. I get a lift back to my hotel and decide to nap. Talk to the concierge again to figure out what I should do for Monday and I figure heading into the hinterland would be kind of cool. More pool/beach/tanning time. I make my way through two Clive Cussler novels and start re-reading the book,
The World is Flat.
Mon, April 14th: Touring company link. The bus picks me up early in the morning and we set off into the Canungra Valley to visit two mountain/forest areas, the O'Reilly's and Tambourine Mountain. First we head into this alpaca farm to checkout some alpacas and get morning tea. Did you know alpaca wool is 4x the price of cashmere in the marketplace? It's super/hi-end performance fleece too. The drive into O'Reilly's is pretty awesome. There is some excellent history that our driver recounts for us as we make our way there. It's pretty cool that within a short drive you go from beaches to forests and the countryside. It's a great day overall and I'm glad I got to see some non-beach Australia because it's really spectacular. Back to the hotel for some R&R I decide to have dinner at this restaurant just up the road. It's an aussie chain, outback decor'd probably comparable to a red robin's / milestones here in Vancouver?
Hog's Breath Cafe . Pretty yummy aussie beef.
Tue, April 15th: It's time to leave the GC and I jump on a shuttle to Brisbane to fly up to Cairns. Check into my accommodations and it's mid-afternoon. I haven't really been surfing the web and lots of email to catch up on so I head into town,
explore the esplanade area and grab a bite at a pub. Tourists everywhere. Cairns is a purist tourist town. aka. party town!
Wed, April 16th: The padi scuba course I signed up for would go over the next 4 days.
Deep Sea Diver's Den in Cairns is pretty cool. They have a mini-pool at their location and a few classrooms rotating classes that start daily. My class includes two cute irish gals whom have been travelling for a few months now, two young brits guys who were about to start working in Darwin soon, a German lady and a father & son from Perth. Our teacher is a brit (Peter) and we also have a teacher-in-learning who's an aussie. The classes are pretty good. I had taken the padi course previously in Victoria, however that was 10 years ago, so I figure it would be best to do it again. Nothing fancy. That night, at the suggesting of Peter, I head out to PJ O'Brien's an Irish pub for a bite and hang out. Nice place, typical pub, draft Stella, so who can complain. Walk around town and then make my way back to Queen's Court after a long day.
Thu, April 17th: To get your padi you need to swim 200M and tread water for 10 minutes. The tread water part's ok, but I was wondering about the 200M. I think it was more of a mental block, but anyways, breaststroke is your friend; makes everything easy. Anyways, more course work and then wander the town again at night. Check out this Reef Casino and win $51 in blackjack, just enough to get a $1 chip for my buddy.
Fri, April 18th: We head out on SeaQuest to the reef (80-90mins), Norman's reef where we do two training dives. My dive package also includes a night out on the reef on the OceanQuest vessel, so midday we transfer over. Some snorkelling and stuff to finish off the afternoon. During my two training dives we find Nemo and Wally, this huge Maori Wrasse (1.5M long) that basically hangs out with us during my second dive. Have a nice shot of him that the photographer took. I pick up 4 photos of me plus some other reef wildlife shots for $50. Yup, tourist trap! Well worth it tho', since I figure renting an underwater camera and getting someone to take photos of me (not to mention if they would turn out!) would be a challenge.
Friday night is pretty cool. Have dinner and then chill out on the boat with the crew. One of the guys brings out his drum set and another guy his guitar. Play some old tunes and then another dude brings out his
didgeridoo. I'm contemplating buying one at the moment. It seems like something that would be great for when you go camping and stuff, hahaha, of course one would have to semi-master playing this device. Anyways, a few beers later and it's time for bed. First dive in the morning was scheduled for 630AM. Wake-up at 550AM! Crazy!
[ Side note, in my hostel, they are playing WWE wrestling on the mainscreen down in the lobby. Pretty amusing for travellers I suppose. Haha... late night tv. ]Sat, April 19th: WAKEY WAKEY. Yup, 630AM dive is crazy. I'm barely awake while putting on my wetsuit and the sun is just coming out. Looks like it will be a great day though. It was sunny but with a few clouds moving around. The sun is key if you want to see the true full colour experience of corals underwater. It's intermittent, but not bad. The water's less choppy than yesterday. We see a lionfish that's pretty cool and lots of damselfish, angelfish and a few more nemo's of course! We finish two more training dives and then at 1130, it's time for a fun dive without the instructor! Pretty exciting. Everyone passed! Oceanquest is pretty awesome. I slept well, ate well and the overall R&R effect of being out in the reef is great. I forgot to mention that at night, it looks like a whole different swarm of animals are out and about. If I stayed overnight 1 more on oceanquest, I would've been able to do a night dive. I think that's my only "regret" if you want to call it that, on this trip.
I join back up with some of the classmates who didn't do the Oceanquest thing and we decide that we should head out to town to night to celebrate. Afterall it was Saturday night and Cairns is all about the partying. Unfortunately, I head back and after a "short" nap, I noticed it was almost 10PM. Head out to Gilligan's where we were planning to meet at 9PM, but didn't find them. A pint of Stella later, I realize that this crowd is young and it's time to go scope out another scene. Shenanigans is pretty cool. Another pint of Stella and a few conga line trips around the bar later it's late and time to head back. Fun times.
The front desk helped me sign onto this day trip for the next day. My flight out of Cairns wasn't until 815PM, so I figured I could do another daytrip, again into the inland or in this case, the Cairns tablelands.
Sun, April 20th: Cairns tablelands is beautiful country. My driver is a middle aged dude with a French accent. He's really knowledgable about the area and it's a pretty awesome trip.
Tropical Horizons is the name of the tour company, linked here. We see a lot of cool stuff. Tour a crater lake and its wildlife, see this giant curtain fig tree, checkout several waterfalls, taste cheeses, explore world heritage rainforests and top it off with a visit to Paronella Park Heritage Gardens.
Paronella Park is awesome. If you have time, you should read this
wiki entry and/or checkout the book I bought on my coffee table whenever you're over. Jose Paronella was an incredible guy. His vision, hard work and generousity was incredible. After the tour, it's time to head to the airport. I'm now heading into the "big cities" of Australia for some city time and also to catch up with a friend who's doing his masters of engineering at the university of Melbourne.
Mon, April 21st: I get into Melbourne pretty late on Sunday night, by the time I'm at Cooee, it's past minute and I'm awake, so I kill a few hrs flipping through guides, brochures and catching up on some emails. Wake up late and then head down to the St.Kilda area for some brekkie. Acland street is pretty cool, kind of like a commercial dr. vibe to it. Turn over to Fitzroy and it's more of a granville/main street view. Anyways, I find this rollerblade rental place but as it's hazed/fogged over, I don't head out. Instead I take the tram up into Federation Square and start to explore Melbourne's Central Business District, CBD. There's this
free tourist shuttle you can take that drives around 11 stops in Melbourne which are key tourist spots and city venues. I sat and rode on it around the city to help me also figure out what else I wanted to do and see.
I meet up with my friend Colin eventually and we head back to his pad in grad housing at the uni and then tour campus. It's great catching up with Colin and getting to hear some of his initial feedback/thoughts about Melbourne. One key note is that you will not see many SUVs in the city. Gas is not cheap and people are pretty conscious of that. Lots of rebranded cars, however, not sure why they can't sell the same thing down under! (ie. GM's are Holden's I believe.) We grab a subway and then meet up with one of Colin's friends to attend this Melbourne city sponsored event. It's held at fed sqr and also turns out to be a hot ticket that night in this open theatre area. Probably almost 1,000 people show up for the first of a
two part series/forum on energy and climate change.
The talk was actually very interesting as three speakers discussed their respective core areas of knowledge as well as one whom touched on policy related issues. It seems like Australia has a lot of choice, but the policy framework to get off their coal based power generation has still be slow (ie. incentive). In any case, it was a very interesting perspective as well as a brief Q&A to end the discussion. We found a noodleshop on Swanson St. and ate and then went off to a pub for some brew. Colin directed us to
The Workshop. Nice little spot tucked away and up a few steps. We drank pitchers of the New Zealand beer I believe,
Monteith's Golden Lager. It's pretty convenient going from the CBD back to St.Kilda and I catch a tram to do so.
Tue, April 22nd: Wine Tours.
The Yarra Valley contains "over eighty Yarra Valley wineries represent the full spectrum of the region's international reputation for super premium quality wine". I didn't mention earlier by on Monday I also stopped at the tourist info center at Fed Square to figure out what else I would do in Melbourne. Picking a wine tour company is not easy, there are so many kinds, companies doing it! So I went with a smaller company hoping to get a more personalized tour as well as a more knowledgeable guide/driver. Stephen was our driver/guide is he was stellar. His knowledge of the area and useful information was great. My tour included a family + friend couple (6), a Brisbane couple (2), Sydney lady and myself. The tour was great. Cost was $180 AUD, definitely well worth it. We took the day tour which
you can see at this link.
We stop first at De Bortoli Winery. From the location we're at, they ship 500K cases of wine a year. Pretty incredible. They have other properties in Australia too that are even bigger. The grand-daughter of the original De Bortoli serves us whites, reds and two dessert wines in their trophy room. I have photos on facebook and my LJ scrapbook. Accompanied with some excellent choices of cheeses. The reserve chardonnay 2006 is really good. I get introduced to this new grape,
Viognier. It's good, but not great. I would rather have their Riesling at this point. The 2006 Estate Grown Cab Sauv is very enjoyable with this hard cheese (I forget what it was) and their Noble One Botyris Semillon desert wine is just awesome. I pick up two for the colleagues who are following up my urgent emails! A very enjoyable wine experience. Everyone at the table has slightly different opinions, as they should. I drink pretty much everything, dumping only the Shiraz as it came across dry-ish which in my mind isn't how I like Shiraz.
Next we stop at Yering Station. I don't taste any of the wines here as I'm mesmerized by the view and their collections of art and old wine bottles. The view of Yarra Valley is pretty incredible. I believe I have received Yering Station wine before as a gift, if not tasted it before. We head on over to
Domaine Chandon Australia. Sparkling wine is make here, yes, that same bubbly company that owns Moet Chandon runs Domaine Chandon too. A short tour of their facilities and we head into their restaurant for lunch with a complete set of wines still and sparkling to taste. I have to say that the Australian chardonnays are all tasting very good so far. All very crisp with some fruit/citrus flavour. I taste some sparkling Pinot Shiraz. It's not my thing really. The 2004 Vintage Brut is good. Sparkling white wine does taste quite nice. Again the view here is great. There are two big oak trees on the property and you can easily see how wedding receptions and other conventions/conferences would love to use this location for functions/events.
Before heading to the Yarra Valley Dairy & YV Wine Hub for some more cheese tasting and coffee/tea, we make one more vineyard stop,
Coldstream Hills. We taste a number of wines here. I must say that the Viognier here has grown on me. It's really good. The Reserve Chardonnay of 2005 is probably the best Chardonnay I've had in some time. I think there are a few bottles I'm cellaring downstairs that might compete. The Merlot kind of sucks, but then again I don't like Merlot anyways, so I shouldn't be the judge. The gentleman running the cellar door is also very insightful, telling us about the history and Australian wine buff,
James Halliday's early establishment and now his judging/critic career (which means he's no longer involved at Coldstream). Our day ends at a Dairy/Wine hub as we take in some coffee shop delights before heading back to Melbourne. Lots of wine, a little buzz, plenty of good taste and some great conversation as well with the Americans and Australians along the way. I must say that Stephen, the driver/guide was excellent. A great tour, I would highly recommend to anyone ever looking to do something in the Yarra Valley.
That night, I crash (mini-passed out?) on the bed for a power nap before waking up and deciding to make a trip to
Crown Casino. The biggest casino in the southern hemisphere, Crown is also well known in terms of the Poker circuit. And as many of you know, I love poker and was keen to see what their room was like and check out
the Aussie poker crowd. There's even a separate
Crown Poker website dedicated to poker news and tourney info.
I walk in and there are 2/3NL games, 10/20 Omaha and also some 2/3NL PokerPro games. What is PokerPro!?
PokerPro tables are electronic poker tables. You sit down and swipe an account card which details how much $$$ you're bringing to the table and then basically everything happens via touchscreen. It's faster (aka. more hands per hour) and seemed interesting. I didn't bother with it. Put my name down and before you knew it, I was playing 2/3 NL. They charge $5/hr per player for the dealer. Can you believe that? This plus a rake, crazy. The dealer's are ok, not particularly fast, but fair enough. There are a few donkey's and fish at the table but I don't really get very far. A few hands in and down $120 or so, my name gets called for the Omaha game. In 4 hours I won 4 big hands in that game and walked out up almost $500 bucks. Not bad for a few hours work. There were a number of regulars there which made me somewhat suspicious of the crowd (collusion potential) but in general, I was playing reasonably tight at a very loose table. Pre-flop we're talking 7-8 players on average, no PF raising. They all gave me a DIRTY stare when I pumped it once on the button to get everyone to chuck $20 in preflop instead of $10. Big pot already. That one I hit the nut flush and 1 guy paid me off on a river raise too. Lucky me. I did miss a bet on the turn, but that's ok. Omaha-hi is quite different. It seems like a lot of people like to play their draws. I'm not sure how often you're supposed to hit them, but with more cards in players hands, you would have to think that the chances of you hitting your draws are worse than in Hold'em. If you're drawing in a 2-3 player scenario, it's probably not a good idea. Leave around 1AM and cab it back to my hostel.
Wed, April 23rd: On my first day out exploring I came across a rollerblade rental place that's mentioned in the Lonely Planet book along Fitzroy St. I head back to rent a set of blades ($10 for first hr, $5 hr after that) and blade the
Bayside Pathway. The path is ok with some bad parts (salt water erosion) but the views are pretty awesome. I make it past brighton down through to the Rugby pitch at Sandringham passing a couple of beaches and marinas. It's a weekday, so it's old people and housewives pushing their strollers that I pass by. There are some sun seekers too, but the beaches are pretty open. I can only begin to imagine what weekends are like! Round trip maybe 2.5hrs, no hills, lots of sun. Felt like a great workout!
I head back to Cooee and go downtown to do some shopping and sightseeing. The other day while walking to Crown, I passed by the Southbank area of Southgate and there were a lot of interesting restaurants along the waterway which I went to check out for dinner. I settled for a greek place,
Kouzina Restaurant and Bar. I have the yellow fin tuna with a glass of pinot gris (Yarra Valley of course!) and then head off to meet with Colin for some drinks that evening. We check out
Cookie, a beer hall, on Swanson but it's packed. We head down to this place called the
Lounge (upstairs) for some drinks and chit chat. We also make it out to the Roof Top where we get mesmerized somewhat by some tower lights that change colours. Or Colin's friend Yasmin does anyways. Summer times on this roof top would be pretty cool I bet. In between we tried to find this place I attempted to recall from memory called
the Nectar Lounge to no avail. Next time. Flinders Lane vs. Flinders St. and some mix-up on the 2's... Anyways, it's was great to get Colin's perspective on Melbourne and chat with another ulty loving Canadian.
Thu, April 24th: Catch a morning shuttle to the airport that Cooee helps me arrange the day before and it's time to head off to Sydney. Flying Virgin Blue this time around. I was too slow to book my ticket previously so the cheap stuff on JetStar was all sold out. Anyways, it's only a few bucks more. Better planning next time! It's cloudy in Sydney and looks like it could/will rain. It does. I check into the Westin. It's frigg'n awesome. Not only is it in the middle of the city, it's in the center of downtown. The location is the old postal outlet (GPO) for Sydney and flipping through some tourist maps I realize I can pretty much walk anywhere. Talk to the concierge for a few and then set out to check out Sydney's most famous architectural icon, the Opera House. My guide on the tour sounds like an artsy, history buff who's potentially gay (if that is possible) but does a great job giving us the lowdown on the Opera house history and events. There's nothing playing there right now that I would want to check out. It does rain some as you can tell from my photos. It's Thursday night, so shops open late. I check out Queen Victoria Building, Pitt St. Arcade and a few other malls all within a few blocks of the Westin. It's a long day. Riding up the elevator I'm convinced I can use a massage (partly also because my calves are killing me still from yesterday's rollerblading). Concierge helps set it up and a short while later a young recent immigrant to Australia from Hungary shows up and 75 minutes later I'm feeling super relaxed and a lot looser. She makes a point in telling me that I should probably get my calves and lower back done regularly because they were super tight. Good point. I don't dip into my health benefits as much as I should!
Fri, April 25th: ANZAC Day. I wake up to the noise of the parade setting up just outside our hotel. No.1 Martin Place is where we're at, also a staging area for the start of the parade. This means everywhere it's PACKED by my hotel. After some breakfast, I check out the parade and take a few photos. It looks like it's going to rain again and I figure I should do some more indoor touristy stuff. Hadn't seen Koala's and Platypus yet so I went to the
Sydney WildlifeWorld zoo along the harbour. Very cool. The platypus they had was really small. At least smaller than I had envisioned. I was thinking beaver style size? Anyways, it's a great exhibit, especially the nocturnal stuff. Wow, the habitat setups are really cool. The lizards and dragons are really neat. Also there are these mouselike wallaby thingy's called bilby's (and bandicoots) that are really interesting to watch. Big thin ears, they bounce around like wallaby's but clearly they are more like giant mice!
The combo pass also gets me into the
Sydney Aquarium. Both exhibits are situated in Darling Harbour so it's very convenient. My expectations were pretty low considering I had gone to Sea World and also dove in the reef already but the Aquarium was really awesome! Platypus watching was fun, although all these annoying asian kids kept taking photos with their flash which drove the platypus nuts I think. Soon it was time to go and head off to
Sydney Olympic Park. I was hoping to catch an AFL game this trip but turns out the teams were not playing while I was in Melbourne or Sydney. Instead I went to watch an NRL rugby game. It was quite exciting although I sat with the Rooster fans who saw their team out matched and even to my novice eyes seemingly robbed by the referees on many occasions. The ticket was pretty cheap $20 for mid-field 20 something'th row. Final score Sydney Roosters 6 and St.George Ilawarra Dragons 26. The ride on the train out to the Olympic Park takes maybe 45-50 minutes one way. From CBD to suburbia. I make a stop to the third tourist spot on my Aquarium/Wildlife combo pass which is the observation deck at Sydney Tower. Having viewed Tokyo during the day I figured I would try Sydney at night. It was convenient to do so as it was along my walk back to the hotel. Great views, but hard to take photos at night of course.
I head back to the hotel for a pit stop and then out to explore the wharf's and harbour night life. This is probably one of the best things about Sydney.
Darling Harbour,
King Street Wharf and
Cockle Bay Wharf. Lots of restaurants/bars and night life in all three locations. I stop at the
ice cube seafood grill. bar for a bite and nibble on a great scallops entree. I scope out a few hot spots for the following evening and then although my feet are sore, I head to Star City casino to checkout the Sydney poker scene. The place is packed, probably because of the holiday long weekend. Drop some $$$ playing craps and pick up a few $1 chips and it's time to go home. Long day!
Sat, April 26th: Woke up and it was SUNNY! -- Great timing because my plans were to take the Bondiexplorer to Bondi Beach and check out the surf and scene out that way. This bus runs every 30minutes along this path that allows riders to hop on and off as they please at 19 different spots around town. It makes a trek out to the Bondi beach (must see for all tourists!) where I have lunch. The tour bus is great, it comes with some good audio along the ride and I jump off at Bronte beach and take the coastal walk back to Bondi. Back in Cairns I watched this show called Bondi Rescue which was a reality show based on the lifeguards at Bondi. Bondi beach is a pretty cool area with lots of shops and restaurants for people to enjoy. Several gelato places!
I decide to splurge a little and have lunch at the
Icebergs dining room and bar. Bondi Icebergs Club is a swim (and leisure) club that requires locals to become members. They also welcome vistors of course. Its history is founded in organized winter swimming. In any case the dining room has an awesome view of Bondi and the decor is contemporary, simple with great use of colour and tones to show you a relaxed but elegant environment. I have a pasta with hare meat and this super awesome corn balaka which I believe means the corn puree is mixed in with a salty chicken stock which is just awesome. Probably the best lunch I've had in the past few years. All in all fairly reasonable in terms of an expensive lunch.
After walking around the area, I jump back on the bondiexplorer bus and ride it back to where it started. I then jump on the
sydneyexplorer and chill out on the bus enjoying a tour of the city. The audio guide they play at all the different destinations is pretty good. Gets you a good feel for the city, the history and the background of each stop. Many of the areas I had already visited by foot so it was nice to see everything in relation to another on a vehicle.
Tired from all the walking, I head back to the Westin for a evening power nap before heading out. I skip dinner and head to two bars to checkout the Saturday nightlife. Both are at the King Street Wharf.
Cargo bar & lounge (which I passed by the previous night but they were having a huge Anzac day party with soldiers which made it impossible to get in!) and
Bungalow 8. I had originally planned to go to
The Loft, but it looked like it was a little too high end for me (I didn't bring any real shoes, wore jeans, nike shox an A&F shirt) so I picked next door at bungalow. I really like Bungalow 8. Great music, good crowd, although for a lone single person, it's a little hard to strike up conversation with groups of people. I decided to head off after a beer and come across the Arthouse hotel on my walk back.
The Verge seemed like an interesting place to stop for another beer and check out the crowd. Not too many places had like an actual bar counter/stand where you could join other strangers at a bar or something to that effect. Alas, travelling alone has a few drawbacks.
Sun, April 27th: Morning and I wake up a little earlier than I want, but anyways after breakfast, I kill some time in the business center typing up some of this. I get as far as Melbourne and then it's time to catch a shuttle. Wow, can't believe it's been over 2 weeks already. I could totally do another 2 more haha!
Places I want to head to next time!!!
- Whitsunday, Brisbane, Port Douglas (Daintree, Mossman)
- Perth, Adelaide (Uluru/Ayers Rock)
- Blue Mountains from Sydney, Hunter Valley Vineyards
- Not quite 12 apostles along Great Ocean Road (west of Melbourne)
- More diving including a night dive!
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