Online Article About Our Australia Trip

I subscribe to a lot of travel magazines and I love to write about our trips.  I contacted Budget Travel Magazine (one of my favorites) the end of last year when they asked to hear about readers' 2010 travel plans.  The online editor contacted me shortly after we got back from Australia in January and said she was interested in hearing about our trip.  She asked me to fill out an interview questionnaire.  I filled it out and emailed it to her, but I didn't hear anything from her.  I assumed she wasn't interested after all.  Several weeks later, I got an email from her saying they wanted to put my interview online the following week.  I answered a couple of follow up questions and the interview was posted last week!  


So, go check it out:  Australia Trip Interview.


Also, if you haven't noticed our new travel blog link on the side bar, check it out:  Mike & Theresa's Travel Journal

Photos of Our Australia Trip

Some of my favorite photos:

The rest of the photos:  Melbourne, Cape Tribulation, and Sydney

Sydney, Australia

I can't believe we have 2 days left in Australia!

Since leaving Melbourne, we were up in Queensland in the Rainforest in Cape Tribulation.  It was very hot and humid there.  The B&B we stayed at was very nice and secluded.  We had a great experience there trying new exotic fruits every morning.  Our hosts really made us feel like family and we were invited to their BBQ our last night there.  A funny thing about being invited to a BBQ was that Mike and I had read a book about the culture of Australia and in the book there was a pretty big section about what do to if you get invited to a BBQ in Australia.  We were both like, we'll never get invited to a BBQ.  We had a great and unique experience and probably the best part of our trip was staying up there.  

We've been in Sydney the past few days.  We have been exploring a lot of Sydney and the area.  Sydney is a beautiful city and sort of reminds me of a cross between San Francisco and Vancouver.  We are heading on a wine tasting tour to Hunter Valley tomorrow and then we are seeing an Opera at the Sydney Opera House on Friday night before heading back to the States on Saturday. 

It's raining here in Sydney this evening (I'm writing this at 9:40pm Wed night Sydney time)... 

and lightening too, which we don't get in San Diego. 

Melbourne, Australia

We made it through our 15 hour flight to Melbourne.  We were able to sleep almost 8 hours, which was a lot better than either of us expected.  We have rented a car here in Melbourne and are having fun trying to drive on the left.  Mike is the driver and I am the navigator.  I'm also constantly reminding him to KEEP LEFT. 

We drove the car all day yesterday (12+ hours) to the Great Ocean Road.  It's a very scenic road along the ocean and goes through some really cool small towns. 

We were able to sleep in a little today as we are heading to Phillip Island to watch the penguins.  They don't come out of the water until sunset and sunset here is about 730-8pm.  It's their summer here, so the days are longer. 

The weather isn't as warm as we were expecting, a little cool (like San Diego weather is now) and some rain on our first day.  It's nice and sunny today so far.  It'll get warmer once we leave here tomorrow and head up to the Great Barrier Reef. 

We are doing well and having fun!

Australia Itinerary

We are on our way to Australia tomorrow night, New Years Eve.  We will leave LA in the evening of the 31st and get into Melbourne the morning of Jan 2, so we are skipping New Years Day this year.  We will spend 3 nights in Melbourne at the Hotel Tolarno in the beach-y area of the city.  We are renting a car and plan on driving the Great Ocean Road.  We also will drive to Phillip Island to watch fairy penguins come out of the water and treck back to their burrows.

We will then head to the Great Barrier Reef for 5 nights and stay at a Fruit Farm about 2 and 1/2 hours north of Cairns.  This B&B consists of just 2 cottages perched in the trees and uses solar power.  For breakfast, we will be eating exotic fruit grown on the farm.  We are super excited about this place.  We will be hopefully diving on the reef and doing some hiking in the Daintree Rainforest.

We will end our trip in Sydney and stay 6 nights with one of Mike's friends, Jon Reyes.  We plan on going to an Opera at the Sydney Opera House, visiting Hunter Valley (wine area), visiting the Blue Mountains, and just exploring Sydney.

We look forward to sharing our photos when we get back!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!