East Coast of Australia
December 2019
Visiting Australia and New Zealand was on my bucket list of places to travel for quite some time, and my husband and I thought our 40th wedding anniversary in 2020 would be a great excuse to go! We wanted to travel in December to enjoy their summer, so had to decide to go either six months before or after our anniversary. We were so fortunate that we chose to go December 2019 since the Covid pandemic started early 2020!
We started the Australian part of our trip in Brisbane, then got a flight north to Cairns where we rented a car. We drove up the coast to Port Douglas where we stayed for five days. That was a great base location from where we were able to visit Daintree National Park, drive up the coast as far as Cape Tribulation, and take a boat trip to snorkel in the Great Barrier Reef. We then flew to New Zealand to enjoy an 11-day cruise and ended up in Sydney where we spent our last couple of days.
– Click on any picture to enlarge –
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Brisbane
We so totally enjoyed our time in Brisbane! We did not have a car, but Brisbane is such a great walking town plus there is a water ferry that you can hop on and off. We stayed only a few minutes walk from Eagle Street Pier which has lots of restaurants, shops and galleries, and is where I got my Eeny-Meeney-Greeny each morning!
By following the River Walk, we saw the Maritime Museum, a mini rain forest, salt and fresh water pools, crossed bridges and walked through a botanical garden.
The city was lit up beautifully at night. We saw some amazing trees, and birds were abundant (magpies everywhere)!
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Port Douglas
While Brisbane was all about the city, Port Douglas was all about animals and nature. We stayed at the Sheraton Grand Mirage Resort, where our unit had a view of the ocean. If you click the resort photo to enlarge, you will see that each ground floor unit has a ladder that goes straight into the pool! A short walk takes you to the beautiful beach that we had to ourselves most of the time. Yep, that's me taking a beach walk. All along the beach there were designs in the sand made by little sand crabs – we have no idea what causes the patterns; quite fascinating.
The Daintree rainforest a little north of our resort was amazing. So lush and green. Lots of places to walk, and since we always seem to hike to the highest point around, the beautiful view towards the ocean was definitely worth it! We also went on more amazing hikes as far north as Cape Tribulation, and walked some beautiful beaches.
We spent a full day snorkeling the outer Great Barrier Reef, essentially at the edge of the continental shelf. We went to three different reefs since they vary quite a bit with respect to their topography, the depth and the types of fish. I included the reef photo to show how easy it is to identify a reef just by the color of the water. Going there and back, a hammerhead shark followed our boat, spinner dolphins were circling, and we saw a whale playing in the water. A wonderful day.
Port Douglas has an amazing Wildlife Habitat that we visited. The birds were beautiful, and the kangaroos and wallabies were definitely not shy to ask for food! Check out the joey in the wallaby's pouch and the claws resting on Graham's lap! The pelican was standing in the middle of the path, frozen in place for so long that I actually thought it was a statue until it moved as I walked by! And the cassowary (right bottom) was definitely not wandering freely – an intimidating bird with beady little eyes!
We had fun watching the crocodile feeding. Chickens were dangled from the bridge above the crocodile pond, and the crocs would jump out of the water to grab them. Of course the zoo keeper would yank the chicken out of reach so the poor crocs had to work hard for their dinner. I almost felt sorry for them!
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Sydney
Graham and I really enjoyed Sydney, which was the final destination of our 10-day New Zealand cruise. Sydney is another great walking city, but also has great bus and ferry options. We walked the parks, gardens, and of course up the steps of the opera house! Since Sydney is known for its golden stretches of beach, we hopped a ferry from the Circular Quay, which went under the Sydney Harbor bridge, past the opera house, and through Sydney harbor. We landed at Manly wharf, which was a short walk to Manly beach, then past Fairy Bower Sea pool and then to Shelly Beach where we enjoyed some great snorkeling. Click on any photo to enlarge, and the captions will tell you what-is-where!
Thanks for visiting!
