Sydney and Cairns - Page 1
For 2013, we saved up our money all year and went to Australia for two weeks in July. Felicia, Kendra, Susie and I flew to Santa Fe, LAX and then overnight to Sydney. Australia is so large, we only had time and money to see the east coast. There are 6 states and two territories in Australia, we visited New South Wales and Queensland. I have been back to Australia a few more times but have still only been to the east coast and south coast.
During our trip we started in Sydney, flew to Northeast Australia to Cairns to spend some time exploring the Great Barrier Reef and the Daintree Rainforest. We drove on the northeast coast until the paved roads stopped and where rental cars were not allowed to go. We went west from Sydney to stay in Katoomba in the Blue Mountains where we were reminded that July is winter in Australia. We went back to the coast to stay for a few days at Port Stephens and then spent out last days staying right on the famous Bondi Beach.
Click on any photo to see a larger view
Sydney, New South Wales
We arrived in Sydney at 6 AM after flying all day and then overseas all night. Our hotel was not ready for us to check in that early, so we stowed our bags and took the subway to the Sydney Harbor Center. We were all tired but staying up all day walking and riding around Sydney did help the jet lag. We got a bus tour of the town, got off at the Sydney Opera House and walked around the harbor, the Circular Quay and an old part of town called The Rocks. We also walked to the Sydney Harbor Bridge but not up or across. We knew that our last day we would be back in Sydney at the same spot. Notice we are all wearing jackets in July.
Sydney is the largest city in Australia, it seems much bigger than the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex. The subway is pretty easy and safe way to get around.
At about 6 PM, after being up for about 30 hours, we were all tired, so we checked into our hotel. Kendra fell asleep and did not even eat dinner with us.
We ate at the harbor with wonder views of downtown, the bridge and the Opera House. We always like to take Hop-On Hop-Off open air bus tours, so we took a tour to see all of the interesting, important and historical sights of Sydney. Then we got in a Thunder Jet boat and got a wet tour of the harbor.
Cairns, Queensland
On our second day in Australia, we went right back to the Sydney Airport and flew for 4 hours north to the city of Cairns,
which is on the northeast coast of Queensland. Cairns is in northern Queensland and is a jumping off point to get out to
the Great Barrier Reef, located off the northeast coast of Australia and Cairns is also close to the Daintree Rainforest National Park, where dense rainforest goes all the way out to the beach.
The Cairns airport was also where we had to start driving a car with the steering wheel on the wrong side and had to drive on the
wrong side of the road. After weeks of driving around Australia, added to my two weeks of driving around in New Zealand,
I am now a pretty good wrong side of the road driver, and so are Felicia and Susie. Even Kendra was scared for her life and helped out every day by reminding me what side of the car to get into, where to drive and how to put the car in park.
Remember it’s backwards!
I will never forget the morning that Felicia and I walked a mile to a store to get some good coffee next door to Bransford’s Discount Tackle Shop. While we were talking, we laughed when we saw a car driving on the wrong side of the road. Then I saw Kendra in that car with Susie driving! She must have thought she was still in Texas.
We stayed for 3 days at a house in Clifton Beach, about 20 miles north of Cairns. It was a good place for us to practice driving. We stayed right across the street from the beach and could hear the waves and loud birds. It sounded like paradise. The beach had warning signs for saltwater crocodiles and stingers (big jellyfish).
On our first day at Clifton Beach, Felicia saw 4 kangaroos just behind our house. She used her phone to take photos. The photos aren’t the best, but we were all exited. We also saw many wallabies (small kangaroos) out in fields north of Cairns.
