I'm going to a land Down Under . . .

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
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. . . where beer does flow and men chunder!!

Every year, the founder/president of my company sponsors one or two trips for employees with five years of service or more. He picks small travel groups from the eligible employees, and pays for the airfare and accommodations. Spouses can come as well, but the employee has to foot their bill.

This year, he’s taking a group to Australia, and I’m going! Peta Tzunami (who, I should mention, is the GREATEST WIFE EVER, to whom I’ll be married 10 years come this Friday) is allowing me to go on the trip without her as her birthday present to me. (Long story–there was only one slot available, because somebody in the company got fired.)

The trip is sponsored by Overseas Adventure Travel (OAT), and follows this itinerary (does not include the New Zealand extension). So, beginning on Nov. 15, I’ll be spending 19 days there, beginning in Sydney and ending up at Cairns.

So . . . Aussie Dopers, tell me about the places I’ll be visiting! I’ll be documenting the trip for my wife via digital camera and digital camcorder, and I’ll make sure to put together something for the Dopers to see as well. What kinds of sights can I expect in these cities? Anything in particular that I should look out for? Tell me everything!

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Hey, pldennison, can I send you a list of import CDs to pick up for me while you’re there?
Ah, never mind. I’ve always wanted to go to OZ. Hope you have fun.

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Does this mean that your posts from there will rotate the in the opposite direction? :smiley:

Have a great trip!

Zev Steinhardt

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Woo. Good thing you’re not doin’ that NZ extension, mate – goin’ down to South island this time o’ year, you’d freeze your a*** off!

Have a great time in the land of Oz. Watch out for tornados.

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If you and a few others that are going with you are into seriously good food, make a booking for Tetsuya’s Restaurant. The restaurant has recently moved, and this link has the correct contact details. http://www.foodtourist.com/FTGuide/Detail.asp?_method=GetItem&pcount=1&p0=97

It is an expensive restaurant (tho less so for Yanks, given the exchange rate), but it is fantastic. Used to be you had to book six weeks in advance, but I’m not sure about the lead time in the new location.

It is compulsary while a visitor to Sydney that you walk down Macquarie St, have high tea (or cocktails, your choice)at the Intercontinental while the piano is played, keep on walking down to Circular Quay, take a ferry to Manly and have an icecream on the Corso. You’ll see the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge on the way.

If you are fit, you can book to walk across the top of the Harbour Bridge.
So, you’ll be needing a significant thank-you-present/souvenier for Peta?

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Wow - you’re definitely going to cover some ground on this one. May need time off afterwards, just to get over it :slight_smile:

Sydney - roam the Rocks area, watch the tourists. Definitely do the Harbour Bridge climb - physically strenuous, but doable for the average person and ye gods and little fishes, the view is worth it.

Hobart - I don’t know if you’ll be there on the right day, but try and catch the Salamanca markets, they’re terrific, or were a few years back.

The Ghan rocks if you’re with the right people; it can be a mobile party. While you’re near Adelaide, try and spend a day in the Barossa Valley and do a day’s wine-tasting. Wolf Blass wines in particular (Grey Label red, yummmmm…) but there are lots of great little wineries around there.

Uluru - the traditional owners haven’t permanently banned people climbing the Rock (it’s a religious site), but please consider walking around the base instead, just as interesting. If you buy traditional artworks or artifacts, buy from a genuine gallery rather than a tourist outlet, that way you’ll get a genuine, playable didgeridoo rather than something that’s been made and painted by backpackers looking to earn a couple of bucks. Take a Harley ride to the Rock. Check into the million-star hotel (ie camp out in the desert, away from all the artificial lights, lie back and watch the most brilliant stars you’ll ever see).

Dive the Great Barrier Reef (make sure the diveboat you’re on actually counts heads at the end of the day to make sure everyone came out of the water…oops, tasteless), but don’t take any coral. Also, don’t eat any fish longer than your forearm (ciguera poisoning would definitely ruin your holiday). Also, don’t play with the sea snakes, should you find any.

Spend some time regretting the fact that you won’t be seeing the Great Ocean Road (which is right on my doorstep :p) because it’s truly spectacular.

Enjoy your trip!

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For Sydney

Mandatory … climb the bridge
Mandatory … take a ferry/jetcat to Manly. (the rivercat the Parramatta River is very good too)

Others, get to a beach. I’ve usually found the northern ones especially Palm/Bilgoa/Avalon impress overseas visitors. If you are looking for surf, that’ll vary, probably southside like Wanda.

Restaurants, if you are looking for something more than the food then the revolving resturant at CentrePoint Tower, Alternatively Doyles at Watson’s Bay.

Try the Blue Mountains, Leura, Govett’s Leap, The Three Sisters, Jenolan Caves. (though time might beat you)

Remember Sydney is pretty widely spaced. It’s over 60km north-south and more west and getting around can be problematic.

If your luck was in as to timing, an outdoor concert in the Domain might be neat.

Plenty of nifty stuff for the typical visitor around The Rocks. The Chinese Garden’s at Darling Harbour are good.

I guess Homebush (Olympics site) though it’s pretty souless unless there’s an event on.

A one-day international cricket match might be an interesting night out for an inquisitive American to learn what the locals do instead of playing baseball.

Fort Dennison (in the harbour), go snorkeling/diving at Clifton Gardens. I think you’ll have missed the Festival of the Winds (kites) at Bondi Beach.

There are most of the usual big city things done in the local flavour.

The natives can be friendly too!

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<mutters the Sacred Chant of “Preview is my friend, preview is my friend…”>

That’s ciguetera poisoning. Whoops. One should know what one is being poisoned by…

Oh, and watch out for the funnelweb spiders in Sydney. I think they start to come out to play around that time of year.

:smiley:

How many deadly creatures do we have here again?

Ooooh, that many?

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And remember the following:

  1. The bigger the hat, the smaller the farm.

  2. The shorter the nickname, the more they like you.

  3. Whether it’s the opening of Parliament, or the launch of a new art gallery, there is no Australian event that cannot be improved by a sausage sizzle.

  4. If the guy next to you is swearing like a wharfie he’s probably a media billionaire. Or, just conceivably, a wharfie.

  5. There is no food that cannot be improved by the application of tomato sauce.

  6. On the beach, all Australians hide their keys and wallet by placing them inside their sandshoes. No thief has ever worked this out. We might have very stupid thieves, or really stinky sandshoes.

  7. Industrial design knows of no article more useful than the milk crate.

  8. All our best heroes are losers.

  9. The alpha male in any group is he who takes the barbecue tongs from the hands of the host and blithely begins turning the snags.

  10. It’s not summer until the steering wheel is too hot to hold.

  11. A thong is not a piece of scanty swimwear, as in America, but a fine example of footwear. A group of sheilas wearing black rubber thongs may not be as exciting as you had hoped.

  12. It is proper to refer to your best friend as “a total bastard”. By contrast, your worst enemy is “a bit of a bastard”.

  13. Historians believe the widespread use of the word “mate” can be traced to the harsh conditions on the Australian frontier in the 1890s, and the development of a code of mutual aid, or “mateship”. Alternatively, we may all just be really hopeless with names.

  14. The wise man chooses a partner who is attractive not only to himself, but to neighbourhood mosquitoes.

  15. If it can’t be fixed with pantyhose and fencing wire, it’s not worth fixing.

  16. The most popular and widely praised family in any street is the one that
    just happens to have the swimming pool.

  17. The phrase “we’ve got a great lifestyle” means everyone in the family drinks too much.

  18. The poisoning of Phar Lap remains the purest example of what happens when Australians attempt to take on the outside world.

  19. If invited to a party, you should take cheap red wine, but then spend all night drinking the host’s beer. Don’t worry, he’ll have catered for it.

  20. If there’s any sort of free event or party within a hundred kilometres, you’d be a mug not to go.

  21. When tipping in a restaurant, we add 10 per cent, and then round down to the nearest large-denomination note. Yet, miraculously, we still believe we’ve tipped 10 per cent.

  22. The phrase “a simple picnic” is not known. Or at least not acted upon.

You should take everything. If you don’t need to make three trips back to the car, you are not trying.

  1. Unless ethnic, you are not permitted to sit down in your front yard, or on your front porch. Pottering about, gardening or fence-leaning is acceptable. Just don’t sit. That’s what backyards are for.

  2. Out in the bush, the tarred road always ends just after the house of the local mayor.

  3. A flash sportscar driven by a middle-aged man does not incite envy as in America, but hilarity.

  4. On picnics, the Esky is always too small, creating a food versus grog battle problem that can only ever be resolved by leaving the salad at home.

  5. When on a country holiday, the motel neon advertising the pool will always be slightly larger than the actual pool.

  6. The men are tough, but the women are tougher.

  7. The chief test of manhood is one’s ability to install a beach umbrella in high winds.

  8. Australians love new technology. Years after their introduction, most conversations on mobile phones are principally about the fact that the call is “being made on my mobile”.

  9. There comes a time in every Australian’s life when one realises that the Aeroguard is far, far worse than the flies.

  10. And, finally, don’t let the tourist books fool you. No-one says “cobber”.

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Go to a pub. Spend a few hours there. Talk to people. That’s the real Australia.

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Thanks for all the posts so far! I can’t tell you all how much I’m looking forward to this trip.

Here are some more details on our itinerary. Aside from the planned activities, I have some free time the three days in Sydney, and if any Dopers are interested, I’d love to meet some of you and give some members of my group the benefit of local experience!

We’ll be staying at the Harbour Rocks Hotel in Sydney. On Day 1, we take a walking tour of the Rocks area, we’re on our own for lunch, and then we check into the hotel. Dinner will be as a group at a to-be-named restaurant.

Day 2, we go to Bondi Beach in the morning, then get a tour of the Opera House and the Royal Botanic Gardens. Afterwards, we check out Circular Quay and Darling Harbor, where we have lunch. After that, we’re on our own the rest of the day. (Maybe I’ll check out that bridge climb–sounds excellent!)

Days 3, we sail around Sydney Harbour, and then are on our own for lunch and the rest of the day until dinner at a local pub.

Day 6 and 7 we’ll be in Melbourne, and Day 9 in Adelaide, where my offer stands to meet any Dopers those places as well.

Day 15 I’m really excited about–an all-day cruise to the Great Barrier Reef. I’ll be doing some serious snorkeling there.

If anyone is interested in a get-together, e-mail me, and we can make arrangements over the coming months.

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for Melbourne:

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Kangaroo Island. I was there in '97. Going for a walk in the bush one day a friend stumbled upon a marijauna plantation covered by a camo-net and hooked up to a local water supply. Very nice.

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Denno-mate! Good on ya!

Melbourne. Well-kept secret. Picture this:

Nice late-spring day (November) in Melbourne’s Brunswick Street, and you’re having lunch with a couple of local Dopers. Possibly at the Vegie Bar cafe, or at an outside table at any of the other 50 or 60 cafes in the street.

We’re all declaring whether or not we’re Daffy people or Bugs people, and watching the amazing mix of locals passing by. Ferals in black rags, girls who are shopping at second-hand stores, unknowingly inspiring roaming designers and shaping what Vogue will feature a year from now, men with hair every length and colour possible, girls in summer dresses and so on.

After the amazingly good meal (mix of asian and european influence in most dishes), we decide to go to Acland Street for the BEST coffee and cake. We have to stroll up and down repeatedly because there are six featuring fancy pastries and cakes, all competing to show off the best window display.

Or we might decide to stay in Brunswick Street, and when it gets dark you can choose which live pub rock band you want to listen to. Or maybe you’d prefer softer live music (guitar, singer) at the Black Cat Cabaret?

And then when it’s close to midnight I’ll ferry you over to the Laird, lend you a leather harness and you can have half the men in the bar drooling over your hirsute masculine torso.

Well, that last one was a joke actually. I mean I could take you, but somehow I think you’d rather not.

But you will have fun in Melbourne.

If all that appeals to you email me and we’ll have a minidope fest in Melbourne in honour of your visit.

Redboss

[sub]and didn’t I do my research?[/sub]

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Oh…I thought you meant Hell, where your miserable agnostic vegetarian soul will writhe in eternal torment amongst the fire and smoking brimstone.

We KNEW that.

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** Gaspode **
That’s excellent, might have to plagarise excerpts next time I’m chaperoning some O/S visitors.

** big_yellow-kingswood **
Man of humanities, I’ve been trying to get a message to you but they keep bouncing. Is the address in your profile right?

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I’m up for a drink/coffee/etc with any globetrotting dopers who pass through Sydney. Reprise? Woolly?

[hijack]
Redboss, mate I probably shouldn’t admit to this, but I do have a soft spot for Melbourne - I really do. Yer funky St Kilda cakes, stoned tram rides up Sydney Road, and drunken pasta munchies on Lygon St, but when are you gonna haul your sorry butt up to Sydney again? Hmmm? We’ve got some serious beer business to take care of. I’ll even let you drag me into the Newtown Hotel - providing you keep the inmates at bay.
[/hijack]