Our Awesome Aussie Adventure

What an adventure we had! I will start off by saying that Australia exceeded my expectations in terms of beauty and adventure. There is simply NO WAY to do Australia and really experience enough to make it worth that journey in just one week.  I think that 3 weeks would have been awesome if we were rich.  That country is EXPENSIVE.

I could go on and on, but I'll just jump into the recap!

Week 1 Recap - Cairns, Queensland, Australia

We arrived in Cairns on Sunday 4/28. Thanks to Candy Crush Saga on my iPad, the movies available on Virgin Australia (a.k.a. best airline ever), and some pharmaceutical assistance in the sleep department, the trip was not that bad and we felt pretty rested. Most of our group met at the airport (Nic, Brooke, Nic's Dad and his wife, Brooke's 3 friends, and Nic's cousin Ben) and rode to the house on Trinity Beach that we would stay in for our first week. 

After settling in there, we went to dinner, still feeling good, but by the time we finished our meal, I think my head was on the table, so we headed home to bed around 7:30 PM Aussie time (5:30 AM Tampa time) which was fine since everything in Trinity Beach is closed by 8 PM anyway.

The first part of the week included walking around Trinity Beach, breakfast and coffee by the beach, reading books and sunbathing, drinking by the pool, and hiking. 

Nic and Brooke's rehearsal dinner was on Tuesday with some great food including kangaroo which had good flavor but was very tough.

Wednesday was wedding day!  I got a massage in the morning which was heavenly.  The weather, though a bit windy, cooperated for a lovely and touching beach wedding. Brooke looked absolutely STUNNING and it was clearly the best day of their lives. It was followed by some amazing food at the reception, a belly dancing show from the bridesmaids, and ended with a dip in the hot tub.

The weather finally started to get a little better so that we could finally go on our day cruise out to the reef and finally scuba dive!  For those of you who don't know, Jonathon and I got certified (which is a way more expensive and time consuming feat than I imagined it would be) to dive before our trip. The diving was pretty awesome.  I look forward to many dive trips together in our future.

We saw some really cool stuff on our dives including the sea clams as shown in the video above, but for me, the highlight of our dive that day was swimming in the middle of a huge school of these yellow/white fish.  I was just swimming along and they would look over at me like "what are you doing here?" Pretty cool.

We also visited a "night zoo" where we could hold a koala, watch the crocodiles eat, and feed the kangaroos.  They also provided food, beer, and wine.  I think this was the highlight of week 1 for me.  It was a pretty unique experience.

Our final adventure in Cairns was a gondola ride through the rain forest and some exploring in the mountain town of Kuranda.  Jonathon bought this hat made of kangaroo and crocodile.  I wish he would wear it every day.

Funny story... we had lunch in Kuranda and the menu had this whole list of burgers.  One was called the Brunch Burger with egg, bacon, avocado, and tomato.  This is what Jonathon ordered. He was not too happy to find out that it came without the actual hamburger, so apparently in Australia burger = anything on a bun.  So, the ingredients listed are the ONLY ingredients on your bun.  This, of course, led to many jokes every time we ordered food for the rest of the trip.

Week 2 Recap - Road Trip!!

We ended up renting a car rather than a camper van (long, annoying story) which ended up working out pretty well for a 6 day road trip because we had a LOT of ground to cover and got to stay in some really cool places.  We agreed that if we ever did Australia again, we would cover a shorter distance, get a nice camper van (there are camper parks EVERYWHERE), and give ourselves at least 2 weeks. BUT this was still a really awesome week and we had some incredible and unforgettable adventures.

We left Cairns on Sunday May 5th with Nic and Brooke and headed to Airlie Beach.  This place was awesome!  The crowd was much younger, there were some great places to hang out with live music (open past midnight!), and the restaurants catered to backpackers, so food was a little cheaper (Hallelujah!). We stayed at the Club Crocodile Hotel which had a nice hot tub that we enjoyed on our first night with Nic and Brooke before parting ways with them.

From Airlie Beach, we took a cruise around the Whitsunday Islands where we got to visit Whitehaven Beach (the most photographed beach in Australia) and dive on the reef at Luncheon Bay. This was by FAR our best day yet. I wish I could relive that day all the time. I don't think it would ever get old.

Heaven on earth...

We had two scuba dives that day.  The first one was with way too many people (8 I think?).  That's too many.  But the second one was pretty awesome.  There were only 4 of us and we got to see a huge Black Sting Ray. Diving the reef is pretty exhilarating because you never know what you will see when you turn a corner.

After the cruise, we went to a local restaurant where we got fish and chips (I think I ate them every day) and a drink for $10.  This price is unheard of in Australia, so we were pretty excited.  Then, we walked to a "Pokie" (casino) where Jonathon insisted that the $5 slot machine was going to hit the jackpot (of $13,000).  After 4 or 5 spins, I was able to drag him away, reluctantly.

The next day, we drove to Rockhampton and found a creepy hotel to stay at on the river. Luckily, our room had a TV so we could watch old episodes of Perfect Strangers and The Hogan Family.  RANDOM.  Once again, everything in town was closed at 5 PM, so we were only able to find an Outback Jack's (a steakhouse) open for dinner which was kind of nice after so much fast food. But here we found more menu confusion.  Our steaks were great, but the baked potato that I was really looking forward to was really only two little red potatoes. I couldn't even laugh this time.  I just wanted a baked potato.  Now, it's kind of funny. We drank wine and beer in our creepy room and pretty sure we were asleep by 8 PM.

We arrived in Hervey Bay the next day around 12:30, walked right into a tour office and worked with this nice lady to figure out the best adventure we could do in two day's time.  We decided to book two nights at the resort on the island and a big 4 wheel drive Land Cruiser for a day to explore as much of the island as we could for the next day.  At 2:00, we were on the ferry, headed to the island.  The resort was super cool.  Very rustic and an experience in itself, set in the rain forest with nature trails leading to the beach. 

As soon as we got settled in, we grabbed a drink and took a trail out to the beach to see the sunset.

But we were pretty distracted with these guys...

 

The next morning, we hopped into this thing...

And took a ride I'll never forget...

We drove through the rain forest, up and down mountains, and on the beach. We visited Lake McKenzie, Central Station, Lake Wabby, The Pinnacles, the Champagne Pools, Eli Creek, and the Maheno Shipwreck.

At the Champagne Pools, Jonathon kept putting his hands on the rocks until he figured out these things were alive...

 

I'm pretty sure I only shared that video because I'm seriously obsessed with him in that hat. 

 

We saw warning signs about dingos all over the island, so naturally, we were hoping to find one.  We saw a few on the beach. Here's one encounter...

We loved Fraser Island. I think we would have liked to spend another 3-4 days there, but we had to make our way to Brisbane on Friday to fly back home on Saturday morning. Before leaving for Brisbane, we saw a bunch of kangaroos in the wild (in a field) which was pretty cool.  Wish I had a picture.

 

In Brisbane, we stayed in a hotel downtown close to the Treasury Casino and South Bank which is probably the coolest downtown area I've ever seen in ANY city.  We walked along this long bike path

Where we encountered tons of nice restaurants, shops, and bars. Not to mention a beach with huge pool and Ferris wheel.

Then, we spent one last night out and actually stayed out until almost 2 AM.  On our way back to the hotel from the casino, Jonathon made a friend.

Then, we were up 4 hours later to get ready to go to the airport.  It was an amazing trip and I can't say that we were ready to come home, but we were DEFINITELY ready to see our sweet baby girl.  I thought such a long time away from my baby would be painful, but I just went on this trip with the attitude that I would soak up every last minute that I had alone with my husband since those times are rare these days.  Thanks to my mom, we were able to FaceTime with Berkley about every other day which helped me get my "baby fix".



I think Jonathon and I both returned from this vacation very much refreshed and recharged.  It was a blessing to be able to take a trip like this and I know we'll never forget it!

 

I also created a slide show with pics and videos from the whole trip (much more than this post) that I'll be posting soon.