Australia Travel Blogs

The biggest Sand Island in the world
Jul 2, 2006 (4 photos)

We moved on towards Hervey Bay. Staying a few nights in yet another free campsite just south of Hervey bay called Petrie Park. Hervey bay was the start of our package for Fraser Island as we were staying overnight in the Kookaburra Hostel. Yet again we ...

My sunburnt country
Jul 12, 2007 (9 photos)

Even though we could sleep in until 7am, my insomnia kicked in once again and I woke at 4. It was far too cold to venture out from under my 2 doonas so I lay awake until I heard movement in camp indicating that breakfast was ready. The Irish ladies are ...

Of Bicyclists and Coral
Feb 9, 2005 (3 photos)

Feeling a little lonely, I invited myself on a trip by bicycle around the island with two girls staying at the hostel, Fiona and Nassha. They also intended to go snorkelling, which was good since I really wanted to try it out and wouldn't have had the ...

The Living City
Aug 14, 2005 (8 photos)

... experience - a nice start to my trip. At night I went to the top of the Rialto Tower, the tallest building in Australia. The views of the city at night were superb, although I couldn't get many decent photographs because all the lights played havoc ...

Coral Bay
May 20, 2005 (8 photos)

We arrive at Coral Bay on the 19th May and are very impressed with how beautiful it is. We get the togs on and head straight to the beach for a snorkel. Great fun until both of us cut our feet on the coral. Thomas is ok but I keep bleeding, youch. ...

It's Raining Beaches
Dec 11, 2004 (6 photos)

Sydney's a beautiful city. Outside the city centre the architecture has a Spanish flair, with red terracotta tile roofs, and something a little Persian, in the form of intricate wrought-iron fences on balconies, looking like something you might see on ...

Portrait of Travelling Companions III
Apr 17, 2005 (1 photos)

... off the jetty, my first tentative bicyclings along the fine bike paths of Busselton, my first foray into the drinking of Australia's multitude of pre-mixed bottled alcoholic drinks, my first wild game of doubles ping-pong. We lived in the same caravan for ...

The Chaos
Feb 22, 2007

Wow, Havent written one of these in a while...sorry about that but it just seems like something so easy to put off...tommorow tommorow.         Anyway, since Jerrods arrival and the formation of the Gorilla Cavalry& ...

Great Barrier Reef and the Daintree Rainforest
Jan 26, 2006 (44 photos)

... . We also learned that the Daintree Rainforest is over 150 million years old, and currently is under 5% of the landmass of Australia. This is amazing/scary/interesting as at one point the rainforest was 80% of the landmass of Australia, then again at ...

The Great Ocean Road: Warning, Very Wet
Sep 11, 2005 (6 photos)

... sunny when we pull up for a quick stop in the town of Torquay, on Victoria's surf coast and home to one of Australia's biggest surf competitions each year. As a result they've got a huge run of surf clothing stores, including wholesale and factory discount ...

Adrenalin!
Jan 11, 2005 (3 photos)

When Kate and I showed up at the abseiling company at 8:45 in the morning the first thing we had to do was try on wetsuits to find the right fit. Wetsuits are awfully hard to put on, and there was an amusing moment where eleven people were jumping around ...

Family, Misery (football not family) and Zoo Life
Jul 2, 2006 (18 photos)

Another long weekend in Sydney, where we sipped coffee, annoyed Carl and Laura and bummed around in Coogie on Friday. On sat, we visited the zoo with Claire (Kate's sister), and Tony (Kate's dad) for a kids day out, and we didn't leave till we got chucked ...

Slices of Life
Sep 9, 2005 (3 photos)

... also staying here, at the Tye Estate an hour north of Melbourne. It's 1100 acres of bushland owned by John Marsden, Australia's bestselling young adult author. He lives here and runs school camps and writing clinics and the like on the property. My ...

Sydney Fish Market
Feb 20, 2005 (5 photos)

Sydney fish market is about a 10 minute walk from our house and it is fantastic. Situated by the water (as you would expect!) it has everything you could want inside and tables to eat it on outside. We went there for dinner and ended up having tuna ...

More Time in Busso
Mar 6, 2005 (5 photos)

So after a few weeks of grape picking and cleaning super market floors I thought I was coming to the end of my time in Busselton when Sam, the owner of the hostel, said he'd found a job for me for a month, packing table grapes (as opposed to wine grapes) ...

Visiting my cousin...
Feb 21, 2006 (18 photos)

I'd not seen my cousin Brendan for well over 10 years, but as he lives just a few hours south of Sydney, I certainly wanted to meet up with him. I'd spoken to him on the phone the week before and he said that Rie was more than welcome too, so at 7am on ...

The Krill Have Been Removed for Remedial Treatment
Sep 30, 2005

... 't much to brag about. But as far as city atmosphere goes, I thought Adelaide had it. I went out to the South Australia museum, which had the usual run of taxidermied animals and fossils and big ol' rocks, and was therefore pretty boring. It did have a ...

The Gorilla Cavalry
Jan 15, 2007

... my new package...I assumed by this point it was either a speargun or a rifle or something like a tank for the domination of Australia. A girl that works at the hostel came up to me and said "hey Jordan we have a surprise for Hanna outside for her Birthday ...

The Nations Capital - Architectural masterclass
Sep 26, 2006 (5 photos)

... think Sydney is) and its literal meaning is "Meeting place". Canberra was created as such, due to the newly federated Australia needing a capital city in 1911. On the 8th October, after a competition to decide the design for it, Walter Burley Griffen and ...

First sighting of the Opera House...
Feb 9, 2006 (12 photos)

My final few days in New Zealand were completely uneventful, as I simply spent my time having a final look around, and saving my money for Sydney. I bought a guide book to help me get acquainted with the city before I even touched down in Oz, and Donna ...

Getting Ritzy
Jul 18, 2005 (2 photos)

It was strange to come back through Busselton after thinking I'd seen the hind-end of it. The streets were wet and emptied of the summer tourists. After picking up dinner and DVDs in Dunsburough we checked out the Read family vacation home: a lovely place ...

Weed On
Dec 18, 2004 (1 photos)

On Wednesday we had a break from the weeding and got to plant a line of wattles, a eucalyptus type tree, along the edge of a national park. It just so happens that this park borders Russell Crowe's family property (from which I snatched a handful of grass ...

Blue Mountains, NSW
Apr 9, 2005 (10 photos)

For a much needed weekend out of the forever hectic and buzzing city the Blue Mountains sounded perfect and it's only $11 dollars to get there on the train so we packed a bag and headed off. The area is known as the blue mountains due to the ...

Sydney
Jan 24, 2006 (23 photos)

SYDNEY 1/19/06 We left the rain in Auckland to arrive to the overcast skies and rain of Sydney. Like most travel days we didn?t do much sightseeing today, but rather got organized at the Sydney Westin for a four-night stay and tested out the hotel ...

Sweating Above Wilpena Pound
Oct 2, 2005 (2 photos)

In the morning we drove south (I know, counterintuitive) to the Flinders Ranges National Park for a hike up to the top of Wilpena Pound, which from the air looks like a volcano crater but is really just a ring of mountains surrounding a valley. The flies ...

Noosa
Jul 2, 2005 (4 photos)

Finally a day of full on sunshine and we're in the right place to make the most of it. We dump our bags at the YHA and head to the beach which is similar to Bondi with lots of people and big waves. We bump into Kate and Woody who we met at Ningaloo and ...

Brits Abroad
Dec 10, 2004 (2 photos)

... street towards the harbour, I saw it peeking out from under the edge of the elevated train line, and smiled. I'm here, in Australia. There's the proof, clad in white tile and spotlights. After dinner we did a bar tour of Sydney. It seems that bouncers ...

Done in Busso
Apr 23, 2005

So, after two and a half months, I have finally left Busselton, just as the weather turned dark and stormy and turned the generally pleasurable pastimes of the area to miserable, cold pastimes. Now, like many backpackers of yore, I am heading north to ...

Cairns
Jun 8, 2005 (4 photos)

13 hours after we leave Perth we finally land in Cairns and check in to the YHA Esplanade. We spend time here booking all of our trips and the travel down the east coast. We've got a few days here before and after all of our side trips and we manage to ...

Musswellbrook Antics
Jan 29, 2005 (1 photos)

Went up to Quirindi (south of Tamworth in inland NSW) for my WWOOF work at Castle Mountain Farmstay on Thursday afternoon. The first part of the bus ride, from Sydney to Musswellbrook, was fine: all rolling white-grass hills with distant dots of eucalypts ...