Australia: Vacation Report
Part 3 of this memorable vacation took place in Australia. We departed from Queenstown on Thursday, February 15 and arrived in Sydney in the evening. With only one night there, we went straight to the Opera House (via the botanical gardens), which was on Julie’s bucket list to see.
Sydney Opera House
We ate a nice dinner downtown and crossed the harbor to our Airbnb. In the morning we woke up to this view from our balcony.
From across the Harbor
At the Tarawera Ultra the previous weekend, we met a lot of people from all over the place; two of those people happened to be from Sydney. I asked what they would do if they only had 24 hours in town - luckily, both guys independently said to take the ferry to Manly Beach, so we had our to-do item set. We woke up early on Friday and ran across the bridge to the wharf. (VIDEO)
I promise we weren’t the only ones doing this
From there we took the “fast ferry” to Manly and enjoyed a couple hours there before having to reverse course back to the car.
Don’t worry, “Manly Beach” is just a name. It’s really more of a Harborside.
On the way back, we had to go to the bathroom and figured the Sydney Olympic swimming pool where Michael Phelps won all those gold medals would be an ideal place to pee.
Bathrooms were ok but here’s a pic of the pool instead
We made it to Cairns that Friday evening, our final vacation destination for the trip and also our longest stay in one place (5 nights). We stayed right across the street from Trinity Beach in this “beach dome.” I immediately smacked my head on the dome wall upon entry. It would not be the last time.
Cute, if not practical
The next day, Saturday, was our first day out on the reef. It was a bit sketchy on the way out but turned into a really nice day.
Apparently the trick is to steer INTO the lightning
We also went to the reef on Monday and saw some amazing things both days, visiting four different reef locations. I’ve always been relatively indifferent about snorkeling and diving, but not here. I think Julie and I could’ve spent all day, every day out there. It’s basically just an enormous underwater playground with unlimited places to explore, and teeming with incredible ocean life everywhere you look. Here are a few captures I took with my GoPro that won’t do it justice, but gives an idea of what can be seen on any given day.
Turtle couldn’t have cared less (VIDEO)
The reef sharks zoom away once they notice you but this guy had bad peripheral vision (VIDEO)
Julie chillin’ with a sea turtle, nbd (VIDEO)
Had to hold my breath and dive deep for this sucker
Just like Nemo, the clownfish didn’t want to leave home
The only drawback (albeit a minor one) is that unless you have your own boat, you are on the outfitter’s schedule with a bunch of other people.
Julie and I almost always prefer to be more independent and ditch the guides and groups so we planned for the other two full days to be on our own. On Sunday, in between the two reef days, we drove north and visited Daintree - the “world’s oldest rainforest.” Having done zero research whatsoever on NE Australia, I knew nothing about it, other than Cairns is the best-known jumping-off point for the Great Barrier Reef — which is why we were there. We knew it’d be a bit warmer, but I don’t think we were expecting such a sweltering tropical climate. Consulted a map and Daintree is only about 16 degrees south of the equator; for reference, Honolulu is about 21 degrees north of the equator and the Tropic lines are 23.5 degrees N/S.
Ignore the blue dot, that’s our flight back to Sydney
I only bring this up because one of our Rainforest activities for the day was to do the Mount Sorrow Ridge trail - an appropriately-named, leech-infested, 110-degree-heat-index mud climb that took us almost 4 hours.. despite covering only 5 miles. We were a tad miserable, but (for better or worse) neither one of us is the type to give up before seeing something through.. to the bitter end.
3.5 hours of this...
...and this
10 minutes of this
When it was over, we headed straight for the beautiful Cape Tribulation, 1/4 mile away from the trailhead. We were able to eat lunch and relax awhile.
Cape Tribulation - waded out to some coral
Cape Tribulation - water was so warm
The last activity for Sunday was a spur-of-the-moment stop at the Daintree Wild Zoo, which Julie noticed on the way out. It was a great addition to the day as we got to experience some of Australia’s best-known wildlife.
Guy looks well-fed
We’ve pet a kangaroo. Have you?
The last full day in Australia was Tuesday. Not to turn this too much into a marriage blog, but Tuesday was one of those days that just reinforced what an awesome wife I have. Julie and I may have a perfect personality match and share common interests, but the whole Venus vs. Mars thing still applies to us. She probably would’ve loved nothing more than to spend the day resting on the beach with a book, while I wanted to climb the tallest mountain in the state of Queensland. But she wanted this to be a “Joe Day” (even though every day on vacation felt like a Joe Day to me), so we woke up at 5am to climb Mount Bartle Frere in the sweltering tropical summer heat.
Bartle Frere, taken from 5000’ below its peak
As is usually the case, Julie’s idea would’ve been better. We took 10 hours to cover about 13 miles and a vertical mile of elevation gain (for reference, our 26-mile Kepler walk took only 9 hours). 90% of the time was spent under a thick jungle canopy with no view whatsoever.
A familiar Australia hiking scene for us
Fortunately, the other 10% was magnificent. And now, at least we can say we climbed THE Bartle Frere, which I’ve wanted to do ever since I heard of its existence, two days ago.
Scrambling to the summit
This was, more or less, from the summit (5322’)
That closes the book on our 2.5-week “trip of a lifetime.” Actually, we hope to have at least one of these “trips of a lifetime” every couple years - so we’ll continue prioritizing experiences over “things,” and hopefully I’ll be able to write another one of these before too long!
“I want to be thoroughly used up when I die, for the harder I work, the more I live. Life is no ‘brief candle’ to me.”
-George Bernard Shaw
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