Australia

[haydon_peter]

As some of you know I'm off to Australia at the end of the month

I have booked flights to give me 5 weeks away but also know that I have the option of changing my return flight and that work are cool for me to be gone for longer than this.

I will be spending time in Melbourne catching up with friends, they are gonna be showing me around Melbourne and the surrounding area so I am set for things to do in Melbourne/Victoria.

After Melbourne I am on my own and have no definite plans, I'm just gonna see what happens. Its looking like I will be making my way to Sydney and I also plan to visit Cairns. I have been recommended an awesome looking hostel in Cairns and from there I will have access to The Great Barrier Reef as well as rainforests. I plan to learn to scuba dive and also go white water rafting.

Anyway, the reason for my post... to anyone else that has been to Australia where would you recommend visiting? I know there is a few Australian members, and I also know there are a few other members that have been to Australia or plan to go soon so maybe this post will be worthwhile.

Pete/Tic

[froggy]

magnetic island every full moon

uluruh

blue mountains

cairns and great barrier reaf were a bit shit apart from the pubs and clubs

fruit picking in northern australia was a blast

i went there for a year and just went with the flow you meet tonnes of new welcoming friendly people in hostels, just dont stay in anything smaller than a 6-share dorm!

[mikey23]

Hey i'm from australia.

Can't go wrong with the gold cost.

Uluru (Ayres Rock) is always spectacular so you should check that out.

What sort of holiday are you looking at? Party nightlife, or off the beaten track?

If your planning to come to Perth and WA, you should try and get up north a bit to Exmouth and check out the ningaloo reef, or even go all the way to Broome. Or go the other direction and go down to magaret river and stuff down south. Really depends on the sort of holiday u want.

[haydon_peter]

Not too bothered about night-life. Nights out will happen, I just don't plan to go out on the piss every single night and be hung over every day! I just want to see and do interesting stuff.

I have heard great things about WA but seeing my flights are to and from Melbourne and I want to visit Cairns I think I will just stick to the East Coast.

How long does it take to get to Alice Springs and Ayers Rock? Its bang in the middle so I hadn't really thought properly about going there. I guess my best bet would be an internal flight although is this famous 'big rock' really worth it?

[rocktrials]

August 24th for me and my lass

Will have main base at Yeppoon, but when we get out there, going with her family to Uluru. Gonna be looking for work too.

Planning on staying in Brisbane with family friends. Sydney for New Years (fireworks) February-ish - New Zealand.

Also could go to Melbourne as i have cousins bf's living out there. Heard good things about Cairns

Look at the pool we got everyday

How long you going for mate? Stopping in Singapore?

[haydon_peter]

My outbound flight just stops over in Singapore, I have around 3 hours to waste around the airport. My current return flight is just a stop over of around 5 hours.

I land in Melbourne on 1st June. My flights back are currently booked to leave Melbourne on 4th July which gives me around 5 weeks.

It is free for me to change my return flight so there is a high chance I will stay longer. Realistically I think the most I would do is 2 months although who knows? I have told work I may be gone for around 8 weeks and they have said they will hold my job for me but as of yet I have not been given a set date I have to be back at work!

I decided 5 weeks was the best rough guideline to book my flights. I haven't ever travelled on my own so when I booked I decided it would be best to say 5 weeks and change my flights out there rather than booking for 2 months and deciding I hate it. I'm not gonna lie to anyone, I am shitting it about what will happen after I leave my friends in Melbourne! I know I will be with like minded people in Hostels and stuff but I am still shitting it because its simply something I haven't ever done before! (or should shitting it be read as excited?!?!)

[011001000110010101110010]

blue mountains

taking the piss? I went this time 2 years ago and I froze my balls off in the 3 days i spent there.

Deffinately do the sunrise walk around uluru (ayres rock) its wicked watching it chance colour right before your eyes!

[mikey23]

Yeh uluru is pretty cool. We drove out there a few yrs ago (lol yes thats right, it was a long way) and i'm glad we did. You can get a real sense of the "outback" and the sunsets and stuff there are spectacular. And its always fun to climb up it And pretty close to ayres rock are the olgas as well, which has some nice walks and stuff through them.

[streetjibs]

hey mate.. great to hear another uk boy comin out to see oz!

I live on the sunshine coast (right on the beach/rocks!) bout an hour north of brisbane. If u come by this way u can crash ere as long as needed.

Iv had Akkers and Waynio stay ere with me before and both will tell you how good the place is ... birds, beers, beaches, more birds etc.

anyways email me dannyboy@biketrials.com if you interested.

danny

[Spikenipple]

Get a car and drive the Great Ocean Road to Adelaide. It's absolutely f**king brilliant, and there are so many places to stop and take it all in, you won't regret it

Also if you happen to go to Cairns, spend a weekend on Green Island - it's a man made island about 2 miles out to sea and it's gorgeous there!

As mentioned before, you can't go wrong with the Gold Coast either as it's a large tourist spot, and you'll never run out of things to do there.

[rocktrials]

whos your airline peter? Singapore airlines by any chance? We ave a 2 night stop over in singapore, so a fair amount of time to see places.

[haydon_peter]

Yeah Singapore airlines. Was thinking about stopping over but I have to be there for the 1st June for a friends birthday. I might stop over in Singapore on the way back if I can but I think I will save it for another trip...

[weebryan]

I am just back from oz and we stayed in mornington south of melbourne. I would recomend you see Rye beach and go to Arthurs seat which is about 1 hour drive from melbourne. Arthurs seat is the highest view point amazing views i would also recomend the Grand Casino in melbourne in the big shopping mall and the puffin billy steam train was a nice relaxing day to through the forrest thats in dandenong the tree hugers place lol

[haydon_peter]

Just a quick bump

I leave in 9 days!

No more real plans as of yet, my 'leaving do' with work is this Friday (Its also pay day on Friday so things are probably gonna get messy).

After Melbourne it looks like one of my friends is taking some time off of work to visit Sydney with me! Thanks to Adam for recommending the Blue Mountains, a bit of research via Google and a trip there looks like a plan. My friend hasn't been to the Blue Mountains so hopefully she will be up for them.

I have still got to buy a backpack, plug adapters, change some money, etc... I usually get things like this sorted out best if I leave it 'til the last minute

[ben_travis]

im away on holiday to australia in under a month. three weeks in perth.

cant wait.

oh shit, never thought about plug adapters, are their plugs just upside down though? as i know how to turn my charger upside down

have a good time son, i know i will be. I will be leaving most of my packing until the last few days before. its the best way, cos if you pack in a rush, who knows what you will encounter when you get out there.

[haydon_peter]

Got back yesterday.

As planned, after Melbourne I headed to Sydney for a few days and also spent 3 nights at Katoomba in the Blue Mountains. The Blue Mountains are awesome, it rained the whole time we were there and also snowed on the last night but the weather didn't bother me.

When I returned to Sydney from the Blue Mountains I changed my flights and booked my trip up the East Coast to Cairns.

Did loads of stuff along the East Coast which I wont go into but the best bit was 2 nights sailing the Whitsundays!

In the end I spent about 8 days in Cairns. While in Cairns I rafted the Tully River, visited Cape Tribulation, the Daintree forest and did a 14000 feet skydive landing on mission beach! My plans to do the diving course all went wrong due to problems with my ears meaning I had to quit so I did a great day trip snorkelling out on the Great Barrier Reef instead.

Friday 13th July was my planning day for the rest of my trip and it was the most stressful day of the trip! I wanted to head up to Darwin to visit Kakadu and then make my way down to Alice Springs to visit Uluru, Kings Canyon and The Olga's but flights to Darwin ranged from $1000-$2000! In the end I decided to fly straight to Alice Springs and pick up a tour from Alice Springs to Adelaide which ended up being a great trip!

A trip from Adelaide through the Grampian's and along The Great Ocean Road got me back to Melbourne for a few days before flying home

I had an AMAZING time and wish I was still out there!

[Fishy]

That sounds awesome. I want to do that sort of thing in the future. Don't want to seem rude, but how much approx would this all cost?

[rocktrials]

ye would be nice to see how much everything cost if you dont mind pete

3 weeks and me and my lass are jetting off

think in october we are going to fraiser island for whale watching and a lil hol (sounds funny, going to oz, and then when we out there going to an island for a holiday)

its because gf's family (cousins are on school hols) are going and said they will take us

i've heard good stuff bout cairns, someone told me about massive caves which you can explore and they're filled with bats?

i'll have about 7000 aussie dollars when im out there, but free board in a beautiful house makes things better

[rocktrials]

bump?

[haydon_peter]

Ah crap, sorry, I have been kinda busy.

I just went through my bank statements and credit card bill for you (Part of me wishes I had not checked although the money was worth it! haha). I'm not sure why I think this, but I would prefer not to go into how much it cost me on a public forum. If your really interested PM me for my MSN.

$7000Aud will be fine! I reckon if you properly backpack it eating budget food and staying in cheap hostels you could survive on £1000 a month no problems! With free accommodation etc... you will be sorted.

You will love Fraser Island! Its beautiful! While on Fraser go to Lake Mackenzie for a few hours relaxing and swimming. For Whale watching I recommend you go to the 'Indian Head' look out! There are amazing views of the island and I got to see Manta Rays, Sharks, Turtles and Whales.

From Cairns make sure you go to the Daintree Rainforest and Cape Tribulation! I did a day trip up to both these places and wished I had stayed for 1-2 nights, there is a backpackers at Cape Tribulation called PK's where I had lunch and I reckon it would be fun in the evenings! You can also do night walks through the forest which a friend did and that sounded awesome.

Most importantly, sail the Whitsundays! I spent 2 nights on a sail boat in a group of 30 people and it was fantastic!

I'm so jealous you are going there in 3 weeks, your gonna love it! Can I hide in your suitcase please?

[rocktrials]

unfortunately you can't, no doubt be taken up by girlfriend's clothes.

Been looking into gettin a nice shirt/suit crafted on the 2 night stopover in singapore that will probly knock the pennis up.