I've had an email friendship with a woman (Betty) from San Francisco
and Los Angeles since 1990. She retired a few years ago and decided to
take a 3 week holiday in Australia (Hint Hint Hint to my abml
friends!)
Betty was here for 3 weeks - split between the Wollongong and Sydney
area and a week in tropical Queensland.
She spent the first day resting up from the 14 hour flight and then we
did some sight seeing. It might be described as "from the mountains to
the sea". Wollongong is at sea level but there is a steep 300m
(1000ft) escarpment behind it. We took a steep mountain pass up the
escarpment and then drove down a different way to a seacoast town
called Kiama. Along the way I introduced her to australian meat pie
for lunch and a tea with scones and whipped cream with strawberry jam.
She also had lamingtons, damper, pavlova and steak and kidney pie at
various times during her stay. A good introduction to Aussie cuisine!
Then we took a train up to Sydney (about 1 1/2 hours each way) for
general orientation. She did some shopping at the major department
stores and we took a bus down to Circular Quay (touring center on the
Harbor) and saw a bit of the "Rocks". That's an old part of Sydney
that has been turned into a tourist district. The main attraction
there for her was a sheepskin shop which sold a lot of aussie
products. Good quality stuff! She brought some sheepskin foot warmers
for herself (a cross between socks and slippers) and a couple of
Drizabone raincoats for her son and his girlfriend. We also checked
out a five star hotel in Central Sydney called the Merchant Court
Hotel. Ideal location right in the shopping district and close to
buses and trains. But the walk in price was $600 a night. So we went
home and checked
www.lastminute.com.au. Got a room with pre dinner
cocktails and breakfast for $240 a night.
Note: all prices are in Australian dollars. $100 = $66US
The next part of the trip was the Blue Mountains. They are a holiday
resort area west of Sydney and about 3000 feet high. The drive from
Wollongong is around 3 or 4 hours so we stayed for 2 nights and one
day. She chose a 5 star hotel called Lilianfels Hotel. I think the
walk in rate was $336 a night for a room with 2 queen size beds and
breakfast. Ah LUXURY! Heated towel rails, big bedrooms, big lounge
with overstuffed chairs and sofas and good food. Sort of like a big
house if you can imagine a house with 150 bedrooms. Expensive but well
worth the money especially if the room cost is split between two
travelers. (Google for Lilianfels Hotel Blue Mountain turned up a lot
of information but no low prices.)
That schedule left us a full day for touring. We used a "trolley tour"
(really a bus) that went to all the standard tourist sites and left us
at the "Scenic Center". That's an entrance to a deep narrow canyon
that used to have coal mines. The miners built a very steep inclined
railway (Think San Francisco cable car) to the bottom. Its now used as
a tourist ride. Once you get to the bottom, you can walk through a
pretty forest to a cable car and ride that back up to the top. Both
rides are fun and pretty.
The Blue Mountains aren't really mountains compared to the Rockies or
Sierras or the Alps but they are pretty and a day there makes a nice
break from the urban big city environment of Sydney.
Our next step was a 4 night 3 day weekend in Sydney. We used a
limousine service which picked us up at my house and took us direct to
the hotel. $120 for the two of us and a 2 hour drive. Much better than
struggling with luggage and trains.
The hotel was excellent and deserved its 5 star rating. Comfortable
rooms, good service, good food. The pre dinner cocktail turned out to
be make your own with about 12 different bottles of liquor, fruit
juice and soda water with no limits on the number of drinks. The also
served "finger food" such as Chinese Spring Rolls or Indian Samosa.
Breakfast was unlimited buffet style with hot and cold cereals,
various fruits and fruit juices and eggs, bacon, sausage, toast and
Danish pastry.
We got there before the room was ready so Betty went shopping for
opals. <groan! If Betty and Deidre ever get together on a shopping
trip, I am going to stay in the hotel and hide under the bed!>
We took a harbor cruise the next day. It turned out to be the only
rainy day of her visit. It was a so called "Luncheon cruise" - I
gather the commentary was informative but the food was disappointing.
My preference is to use the regular harbor ferries and not the
commercial sight seeing cruises.
Our 3rd day was the Taronga Zoo. You take a ferry across the harbor
and then a cable car to the top of the zoo and walk down. Betty has
trouble walking so we restricted the visit to the Australian animals.
She said she could see elephants and lions anyplace in the US but it
was harder to find kangaroos and koalas. The zoo has a volunteer guide
service that charges $2/person for an escorted tour with lots of
information. A good time and enjoyable. After that we took the cable
car back down to the ferry wharf.
Our last night was mostly repacking. Betty had too much luggage for
Qantas Domestic Economy class so she packed a suitcase with her cold
weather clothes and left it with the hotel concierge to be picked up
on our return.
Off to the airport to catch a 9AM flight to Cairns. Not much to say
about that, typical crowded and narrow economy class seats but the
trip is only 3 hours so its not too bad as torture goes.
Cairns is in northern Queensland and is semi-tropical. The city itself
is uninteresting but has lots of hotels, motels and restaurants and an
international airport. We stayed at the four star Holiday Inn - good
rooms and service but poor food. Its easy to avoid the food - just
walk a couple of blocks down the Esplanade (behind the hotel) and you
are in the tourist center of town with restaurants on every block. The
Holiday Inn had a nice swimming pool plus a hot spa pool which I
enjoyed after a long day of sight seeing. Hot bubbly water was very
relaxing!
We took a 1/2 day tour our first day. It involved using something
called Skyrail (a 5km cable car ride OVER the rain forest) to a small
town called Kuranda which lives on tourists. The ride is split into 3
parts with 2 intermediate stations. You get off at a station and can
take walks through the rain forest and then get back on for the next
part of the ride. No rigid schedule for this. Once we reached Kuranda
we found we didn't have time to walk up to the town and look around.
Our tour involved coming home by the so called scenic railway which is
a 19th century train through scenic country. Frankly, I found it
boring and would have preferred to use Skyrail both ways.
Our second day was devoted to a full day tour to the Daintree Rain
forest. That involved a coach ride north along the coast (with
beautiful views of the beaches and Coral Sea - very tropical) ending
up at a river in the rain forest. There we got a cruise on the river
to look for crocodiles. We saw a few but most were not cooperating.
After the cruise we stopped at a dingy looking cafe for lunch. It
turned out to be very tender and well cooked fish and chips
(barramundi and french fries) and a variety of tropical fruit.
Delicious!
On the way back we stopped for an hour at a "Wildlife" Center which
was divided into 3 sections - kangaroos, a rain forest aviary with
some very colorful birds and koalas. The kangaroos were so tame that
they would eat right out of your hand. Hardly what I would call "wild"
but it was great fun and well worth the time.
The next day we took a bus south for 100km to Mission Beach and a
ferry (45 minutes) from there to Dunk Island. Dunk is a resort island
with about 300 customers at a time and is covered with rain forest.
Whoever designed it did a good job. The cabins and facilities blended
in well with the forest.
Our cabin had a double bed and divan - Betty got the divan by default
since she was short enough to fit it. Dunk does not seem set up for
individual travelers or people who want two double beds.
Breakfast and dinner were included in the room cost which is just as
well since the resort is the only place to eat. The food was quite
good and both breakfast and dinner were all you can eat buffets. <yum>
Breakfast at Dunk was similar to the one at Merchant Court.
We took a full day (5 hour) trip to the Great Barrier Reef on a fairly
small catamaran. The reef is about 20 miles from Dunk so you need a
fast boat if you want to see it. They provided wet suits and snorkels
and a glass bottomed boat for the non-swimming types. Betty liked the
snorkeling and said the water was warm (23C = 73F). My reaction was
"where are the polar bears" so I settled for the glass bottomed boat!
Speaking of swimming, Dunk has 2 large pools and they are needed. The
water off the beach is shallow and at low tide you can wade out for
100s of yards before getting waist deep. The resort gift shop has a
good line of sandals which are needed for wading due to rocks and
shell fish.
The next 2 days were essentially spent loafing around doing as little
as possible. Dunk does have an activities center which sets up lots of
activities such as water sports, archery, and horse back riding if
you are an energetic type but ...
Then back to Cairns and Holiday Inn for overnight and catch the plane
back to Sydney. Followed by overnight at the Merchant Court, pick up
Betty's spare suitcase, and head for home in Los Angeles and
Wollongong.
I want to go back to Dunk!
John
ICQ 15071293
AIM jdoliver98
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Maybe for spring break or the spring break