[quote=“tavalla, post:5, topic:924177”]
Try some Vegemite while you’re here, and watch out for the dropbears.
[/quote]Definately try some Vegemite. I seriously don’t know where Vegemite is nasty comes from? It may not be to every one’s palate, and I totally understand if some people don’t like how salty it is. You could say the same about cavier (and it’s like a poor man’s cavier in many respects).
You do have to watch out for those drop bears though! Those little buggers can be nasty.
My wife loved it - the food, the giant bats, the zoo. Preferable to Sydney, was the verdict.
FYI, South Africa would be a lot cheaper to visit than Australia.
Safety-wise, South Africa is nowhere near as safe as Australia overall, but if you’re only going to be doing touristy things, it’s perfectly safe.
We also drive on the left. No drop-bears, though.
Thank you. (I’m provincial enough to feel flattered by that 
) If you were landing in Sydney, and only had 10 days, would you do both Melbourne and Sydney?
I’d have to, but only because my nephews and nieces are all in Sydney…
But given my druthers, I’d only do Melbourne, yes. It really seems way more my kind of town.
I’d love to visit Australia, despite my fear of being eaten alive by some monstrous thing found only in Australia, or at least, ten times larger and more vicious in Australia than anywhere else. But otherwise it sounds like a lovely place. The Great Barrier Reef sounds particularly fascinating (but, again, getting eaten by sharks does not). No one in my family has been there, despite some of them being well-traveled all over the world. Plus, you get to see a different night sky and the moon upside down and realize that you yourself are upside down, hanging by your toes from the bottom of the world! 
Sydney does have a decent botanical garden, although maybe the weird trees aren’t so weird to the natives. It’s right next to the Opera House so easy to walk around after you’ve gone to look at that. But agree that Sydney is just another western city (although a pretty one for sure). Maybe you’ll enjoy the nightlife if that’s your thing.
One of the highlights of my trip to Australia was Fraser Island. Such a beautiful place with some incredible lakes and sand dunes - and lots of fun to rent a jeep and drive on the long beach. There are very few artificial lights on the island and it juts right out away from the mainland so this is one of the best places to see the incredible night sky in the southern hemisphere. I remember looking up and being annoyed at a rare cloud in the sky obscuring my view of an otherwise magnificent starry sky. Until I realised that the cloud wasn’t a cloud at all but our galaxy. That was a nice moment.
I spent a year there, doing the whole work-and-travel thing, so on a much smaller budget, and with some of my destinations determined by having family dotted all over.
Personally I much preferred Melbourne to Sydney; aside from the ‘Ooh, there’s the opera house’ moment, the botanical gardens- especially the fruit bats- and the aforementioned zoo and aquarium, I didn’t get a lot out of Sydney. It’s not that Melbourne had more going on, exactly, it just seemed easier to find it and more interesting and nicer to just wander.
As people have said, really don’t try and cram too much in, Australia is big, and full of a whole lot o’ nothing, and if you’re not careful, you can spend all your time travelling and then being all tired and cross by the time you get to the actual interesting bits. Remember you’ll probably feel jetlagged for the first few days as well, and two weeks really isn’t very long at all.
I actually really enjoyed Tasmania, which is very different from the mainland- almost more like New Zealand. It’s realistic to go there for just a few days; if you did want to do a bit of self-driving, you’d be able to visit a few different places there within a reasonable days drive, and the roads aren’t too complex. The Port Arthur museum there is interesting -if somewhat horrifying- if you’re interested in the early years of colonisation.
Other than history and having nice people bring you drinks on a beach, what are you interested in?
You’ll need an ETA (Electronic Travel Authority) that you apply and pay for online (simple, cheap, fairly quick). It is linked to your passport.
Past experience suggests that’s about right. (No telling how things will be once international travel opens up.) Shopping around may yield better deals: In Dec 2018 I did Newark to Sydney RT for $800 (!); in 2019 it was $1800.
I’ll put in a plug for the mountains of northeastern Victoria - I really enjoyed the small towns, scenery and hiking there. Not over-touristed.
Also good is Thredbo: it’s a ski area in winter, but is the place to start a hike (about 4 hours round trip) to Mt Kosciusko, Australia’s highest point.
Not yet much mentioned is Sydney’s harbor, one of the best in the world. A boat tour around this is very worth doing.
By plane for long distances; by rapid transit in large cities; by car rurally. Most people don’t have great trouble adapting to driving on the left (but if you can consistently walk to the correct door you are unusual).
Yes, though definitely on the short side. Figure on a couple of days of jetlag.
You’ll probably be okay with regular Aussie pub fare. Mexican restaurants are hard to come by - close to impossible outside cities, IME. Australia has a large immigrant population responsible for many worthwhile restaurants. But much the strongest influence is Asian, which may or may not suit your taste.
I’ll add my vote to “not on a trip of just two weeks”. NZ definitely needs a couple of weeks by itself.
I miss Australia. Lived there for 2 1/2 years when I was stationed at Woomera in the mid-80s (USAF).
Do you want natural beauty or culture? Do you want the rugged dry landscapes or to visit typical Aussie towns? What time of year would you be expect to be visiting? All these will be important for your itinerary of course.
Having said that, I’m an ex Melburnian now living just north of Cairns, and currently having a long weekend getaway near the Daintree.
I’d pick up here in a heartbeat.
I got good at identifying the constellations in the northern sky when I was younger. They were familiar: Orion, Cassiopeia, Taurus, and others. I could always find the North Star by looking at the Big Dipper. Good old friends, like the sun and the moon.
When I was in Australia, none of them were there. Well, the sun and the moon were, but not the stars. The night sky was just stars that I couldn’t recognize. An Australian friend pointed out the Southern Cross, which was great, but the rest–I had no idea. But they were just as beautiful.
I’m Australian, you have already been given great destination ideas, so I won’t add to them.
I’ll just reiterate that the distances really are enormous.
What Bells said. Air travel is expensive, not so much between Sydney and Melbourne, but anywhere north or west is going to cost you.
Yet another Aussie chiming in. (Aussie is fine, its what we call ourselves.)
I’m in Adelaide, which is, interestingly, a sister city of Austin.
I’ll reiterate a couple of points from above.
Distances are huge. Sure, we are about the size of the continental US, but there are very large stretches of absolutely nothing. Like the US, a one way east-west coast trip burns an entire day. City to city on the East coast can burn half a day when you add in airport overheads. Getting to northern Queensland can burn a day. Travel by car is not going to be an option unless you are here for much longer.
And really, two weeks just is only going to be enough time for a limited number of things, especially if you are including international travel in that time. Do try for longer.
Oz is a pretty easy cosmopolitan western nation. Anyone from the US will feel totally at ease. If you want something different to home, you might want to get out of the cities.
You can find nearly every cuisine available on the planet here. And it is very good. Mexican is however universally awful. I don’t really know why. Italian is really good. We have a huge immigrant Italian community that has been here for generations. Most other European cuisines are well represented as well. Although you might not consider yourselves food adventurers, I would really suggest making the effort to get to find some of the other good food on offer. And our wines.
Music. We don’t have a Sixth Street. Heck, nobody else does either. That’s why we all want to visit Austin. Post covid it isn’t clear what the live music scene will be. But what Oz gave the world musically was pub rock*. Sadly that was a different age. There are music and arts festivals around the country, and they can be very good. You might consider a visit to coincide with one. Depends a great deal on what you really enjoy. (We have both kinds of music here.) There are music enthusiast societies for most music, you could do worse than to chase down a jazz or blues society (or whatever) and see what they are doing and where they hang out.
But what is the Oz experience? Reef, Harbour, Rock has been the standard for many. But it doesn’t need to be. Despite the warning about distances, taking a serious road trip as part of a visit is a great way to gain a feel for the place. Here the journey is the reward.
I’ll give the example of where I am, in South Australia. SA isn’t exactly first on most tourist’s list, but it is what I’m more familiar with. It gives examples options. Other states have very different things on offer. We have - the Flinders Ranges. Places like Wilpena Pound or Arkaroola get you into the outback. Don’t visit in our summer however. Kangaroo Island. A little potted sample of flora fauna and history. Much wiped out in bushfires, so don’t bother for a few years yet. Winery districts. Lots of places to stay, mooch about, try the wine food etc. We are all very low key here. The Eastern States arguably have wider range of things, but it depends on what you enjoy.
Colonial history abounds, and is similar to the US in broad brush terms. Life could be utterly brutally hard. It is a harsh country. History of the indigenous peoples is harder to find. We arguably have one of the worst histories on the planet in how that went.
There is much to think about.
*Pub rock was a do or die baptism of fire. Faced with a bar filled with drunks wanting to be entertained, you got good fast, or you got out. They were fabulous days.
As a wine aficionado (not in the sense of “knowledgeable”, but more in the sense of appreciative of the good stuff) I should comment on this. Again, I’ve never been to Oz, but I certainly know some of their wines. Over the last 50 years or so we’ve seen California wines compete favourably with the French, and then Australia got into the act and produced some of the finest wines in the world. Here in Ontario, Canada, we’re starting to do the same, but the industry is still somewhat nascent, but helped along by improved varietals and of course climate change. But this suggests to me that visits to some Australian vineyards and their tastings and perhaps lunches and dinners at winery restaurants might be a good adventure for winos like myself. Here in Ontario they vary from formal indoor dining with included wine pairings for each course, to informal patio lunches and charcuteries with carafes of the local fare. There are surely great opportunities for such in Australia. Part of the adventure, especially with outdoor dining, is the beauty of the vineyard scenery. Thought I would mention this because today Australia is truly a great wine producing country.
First of all, thank you everyone for the wonderful conversation. You all have given me much to think about. I think my attraction to going to Australia has to do with the fact that it is both familiar and foreign in extremes. Being an English colony, we share a language and some cultural values. The contrast of having been settled by convicts and how the indigenous people compare to our own Native Americans interests me.
We enjoy leisure activities like attending concerts (generally rock/pop/country), live theater, comedy, and shows. My wife is a huge Rick Springfield fan. We have seen his concerts many times here in Texas. I’m sure that seeing him perform in his native Australia would blow her mind (and convince her that we should go!). Other Aussie natives we enjoy are AC/DC and INXS. I enjoy Midnight Oil, but my wife – not so much. I think I would love to catch a footy match, too. I looked online for tickets, but I couldn’t find any. I suppose it’s not in season, though I thought I saw some live games on TV recently. I have really enjoyed Australia-based programs on Netflix/Amazon, like Glitch, Puberty Blues, Pine Gap, and Tidelands.
We do enjoy sitting on a beach and splashing in the surf. A resort-type of experience would definitely be pretty awesome for a few days.
Francis_Vaughan, the Austin/Adelaide relationship is exactly what put Adelaide on my radar. I was a teenager when that sister city relationship was formed (or when I became aware of it). I remember its being kind of a big deal at the time.
I realize that this would be baseless speculation on your part, but when we were in Orlando last summer, we met a nice Australian family while waiting for the Hogwarts Express at Universal. They had mentioned visiting New York City, Chicago, and (I think) Dallas before hitting Disney and Universal in Orlando. Assuming they were a typical middle-class family, how long do you suppose they spent exploring the USA or North America?
It sounds like our trip, were it to stay to just two weeks, would need to be limited to Cairns and Sydney. While in Sydney, it looks like the Blue Mountains would be a must-see excursion. Of course, seeing the Reef while in Cairns would be a must-do.
Thinking of a possible travel and lodging merger, what is train travel between Cairns and Sydney like. Could we get something like an overnight sleeper? We could travel, mingle with actual Australians, and get some sleep all at the same time. I’ve had some trouble finding good info on rail travel on the internet. I think some of that may be caused by the current COVID situation.
Finally, please help me on the proper pronunciation of “Cairns”.
Y’all are awesome. If you want to visit Texas, let me know! I could tell lots.
Season just ended, and there were televised matches of the two biggest codes (rugby and Aussie Rules), but with restricted attendance. The aussie rules grand final was in Queensland because of COVID. Fun for the Queenslanders, but folks – that’s like having the Rose Bowl in Toronto.
Grand final was Geelong vs Richmond. Richmond won. I don’t follow the footy closely, but the world is always a slightly sadder place when Geelong looses a grand final. We had one quarter of brilliance, and then … it was like there was only one team on the ground.
AFL season starts again in March. Womens teams and pre-season in February. Between now and then it’s Cricket, but with COVID restrictions.
Cairns: just like it’s spelled, like ‘air’ with a c before it and an nz after it.
Rail travel - possible, but it’s not like there’s a national network like Amtrak. The two big (and expensive) trips are the Indian-Pacific (Sydney to Perth or vice versa) or the Ghan (Adelaide to Darwin).
There is an XPT train service from Sydney to Brisbane, but it’s overnight (sleeper cabins are available); there is a daylight service but that’s part-bus. From Brisbane, you can take the Spirit of Queensland north to Cairns - it’s about 25 hours and sleepers are available.
Unless you live in Queensland, in which case it is pronounced “cans”. But with an accent that sounds like sheet steel being cut with a dull saw.
Austin has been on my bucket list for years. I was and remain a massive SRV fan, and would so love to visit. I’ve been as near as Houston when (in a previous life) I was involved in the oil and gas industry. But those trips were fleeting visits to visit customers or conferences. I don’t miss that life.
Well you got the pub rock giants in one go there. AC/DC is of course far too big now, and not what they once were. INXS still exists - even without Michael Hutchence and tour occasionally - and the Oils have just put together a new offering, but have been milking the market only doing huge expensive stadium shows. Gone are the days when they played the uni bar. There remains plenty more of that ilk from that time. Post covid there may be a resurgence in live music. We can hope.
The historical Queensland pronunciation of CANS would have been CARNS, and the historical pronunciation of CARNS would have been very close to CANS In fact, our Queensland Education Department material told us to “Listen to the ‘r’ at the end of ‘Sofa’ when your (teacher) pronounces it”. And ‘asshole’ is spelled “arsehole”. These are soft r’s. (I think all Australian consonants are softer than any mid-west consonants). So there’s not much difference between cairns and cahns anyway, and you might not even notice it. So then when you say cairns you might miss the r entirely, or give it such an r sound that locals tell you “cahns, not cAIRns”
I’ve lived in Melbourne many years, and I still don’t half-elide the r like someone born here would. The advice for Americans is “Melbun, not MelbORne”, but of course that’s not true, it’s just closer than where you start.