Welcome to the land down under. We flew from Queenstown, NZ to Sydney, AUS and continued our journey. It was a quick, uneventful flight, then we took a taxi to our hotel in the central business district (CBD). I had been to Sydney once as a kid, but obviously I didn’t really remember anything about it. I’m assuming I was too occupied with the next time I would eat Pringles to think about much else. We saw the main attractions including the opera house, harbor bridge, and had some great Thai food after exploring downtown. I couldn’t get over the fact that the opera house is not white as it appears in almost all photos, but rather a patterned beige color. I would’ve loved to have been able to see a show here, but the timing just didn’t work out! One notable stop was an underground arcade that awakened Shriya’s gaming instincts and my sweat glands alike. The city was certainly a lot of fun, but pretty pricey as well! I noted a lot of Asian influence in Sydney. Overall, it was like any other major city, with interesting people-watching, maddening traffic, the standard crush of tourists, an abundance of souvenir shops and fast casual joints, and lots of walking to explore the main attractions. A major upside is that there are so many beautiful beaches close by! We did a coastal walk from Bondi to Coogee beach that was filled with breathtaking views.
Thanks to the hospitality of some of Shriya’s family in the area, we were able to score a car and take a drive down to Wollongong about an hour to the south. We lived there when I was 9-10 years old, and it was quite nostalgic to ride around my old neighborhood, elementary school, and past our local McDonald’s where we would pass the time by throwing french fries at seagulls. We found a spot on the water that looked like some very local fish and chips. The fish was quite fresh, but I have to admit that NZ still holds the title for best fish and chips. Sorry, blokes. It was very cool to be able to share this experience with Peter! The school uniforms for his old school hadn’t changed at all in all of these years.
From there we would take a flight up to Brisbane, then drive up the East Coast of AUS all the way to Cairns. We only had one night in Brisbane, but I really loved it. They put a lot of care into their public art, architecture, walking paths, and lighting. We even ventured out at night to do trivia at a local bar. They were very accommodating, fun hosts, but we failed miserably - even at pretty much every question that had to do with the USA. But I mean really, who knows state flowers? Why do state flowers exist? And if you can really rattle off more than about 5 or 6 state flowers, are you really happy with yourself? If you answered yes, boy do I have a trivia bar for you! I would’ve gladly spent another day in Brisbane! I’m sad we didn’t get to do the river cruise there. Definitely visit the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary not too far away from the main city area while you’re in Brisbane. We spent a morning there feeding and petting kangaroos, walking alongside a giant emu, seeing a free flight raptor and sheep dog shows, learning about how weird and interesting platypuses are, and observing koalas not doing much of anything but being extremely sleepy and cute.
We picked up our rental car in Brisbane, and headed south before heading north - we didn’t want to miss the hipster beach town of Byron Bay. What makes it a hipster beach town, you ask? Let me put it this way: I bought two hacky sacks, a straw hat, healing crystals, and watched a guy long-board his way to work while pulling back his dreads. (One of those things was a lie, btw). We had to pay for additional baggage because Peter bought so many crystals! Honestly though, the beach was beautiful, the people were quite nice, food was fine, and we did a nice long hike up to a lighthouse and back down some other nice beaches. I would go back to Byron Bay and stay a little longer if given the chance. 
I almost forgot: as excited as I was about the rental cars we had in NZ, the one in AUS was abysmal. No keyless entry? Scratched up? Weird conditions on the rental agreement? 305,000 miles?!?! Okay so the odometer is in kilometers, but that’s still like 180,000 miles. BUT it was a Camry. That poor old thing had no power whatsoever, but considering it was a Toyota, I was pretty confident it could get us up the coast. Or it would fall apart and I would perish in the wild because I’m not a bush man. You can probably guess how that story played out by this point.
After leaving, we headed back up the coast, made a quick stop in Gold Coast to spend a few hours at the beach, then journeyed past Brisbane all the way up to Noosa. I wasn’t familiar with Noosa prior to this trip. Apparently it’s home to one of only two everglade systems in the world (along with Florida, of course). Quick aside - when you ask international travelers about the US, they’ve all been to either Las Vegas, or Florida. They love it. Can’t blame them. I can. At any rate, our place in Noosa was a bit removed from the excitement of the town, but we had a little house all to ourselves. We had a couple of really lovely evenings just hanging out in the backyard, honing hacky sack skills (true or false???), and enjoying the sunset. Not to mention, one of the best meals we ever had was in Noosa, I’ll touch on that later. Overall though, I think Noosa was just a bit too uppity for me - lots of people wearing all white and spending money in small boutiques. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but not really my scene. We did celebrate Peter’s birthday in Noosa, and of course, we had champagne and pizza for the birthday boy (Domino’s, but needs must). I got him this sweet hat and a bottle of Disaronno that was consumed too quickly to make it into any photos.
From there, we would venture to Fraser Island - the world’s largest sand island. It’s literally all sand. There’s plenty of vegetation, but it’s just a bunch of sand. I don’t know any other way to say that. Regardless, it has endless beaches, an old shipwreck, a couple resorts, and a multiple of freshwater lakes. I can safely say this is the coolest lake (Lake McKenzie) that I have ever been in. It was clear, clean, peaceful, and warm. We were lucky enough to have a very knowledgeable tour guide who educated us on the finer points of Fraser flora and fauna. Apparently, one of the best places in Australia to spot a pure dingo is on Fraser Island because domestic dogs are banned there, but we didn’t see any. Besides the tour, we enjoyed the resort, hung out at the pool, and enjoyed a couple World Cup matches. Lots of people would bring their 4WD vehicle over on the ferry and find spots on the island to camp. If you’re into it, I think this would probably be the best way to experience the island. Fraser Island was a highlight of the trip for me! (Not only because there was a hot tub at our resort.) Did we mention that the entire island is all sand, all the way down to the ocean floor? I would highly recommend a couple of nights here! 
A long drive up the coast would bring us to Airlie Beach. We got in pretty late on a Wednesday night and we were greeted by a small beach town completely overrun by 18 year olds enjoying the vibrant nightlife. “Schoolies week” they call it. Basically senior week in the US. We had noticed signs for this in Gold Coast and other places, but we ran right into it in Airlie Beach. Honestly it wasn’t a big deal. There were some loud kids at night, but we still managed to have a perfectly good time walking around town and taking in the sights. We also caught our first glimpse of the Great Barrier Reef on a full day boating/beach excursion that included some snorkeling. A highlight of this portion of the trip was exploring the Whitsundays, especially Whitehaven Beach, which is known for its pure white silica sand. They’re still unsure where all of the silica comes from, but it was the softest, whitest sand I’ve ever felt/seen. Another cool experience was the short hike up to the Hill Inlet Lookout to see the swirling fusion of sand and water as the tide ebbs and flows.
An 8 hour long drive north would bring us to our final destination: Cairns. It's notable for its sugar cane production, but more so for its proximity to the reef, and what is apparently the oldest continually surviving tropical rainforest in the world. We did sort of a waterfall tour while in Cairns and I really loved it. We swam under waterfalls, jumped off waterfalls, and did a 50-50 fakey foot slide down a natural rock slide waterfall. That’s a lot of falling water, right? Although it was chilly at times, it was definitely worth getting in at the various spots. Other than that, we did another boating/snorkeling excursion out on the reef which was all good fun. We had a chance to explore Green Island, a 6000 year old rainforest covered coral cay, which was really cool too! If we could do this part of the trip over again, I would add another few days to explore the rainforest more thoroughly and do an overnight boat experience to see more of the Great Barrier Reef while we still can.
I forgot to mention, but you have to wear a “stinger suit” if you’re getting in the ocean further up the east coast of Australia. We didn’t see any jellyfish while we were in the water, but the threat of a nasty sting would be enough to make me wear a clown suit while snorkeling, so it didn’t bother me. 
We turned in our old beater of a rental car and prepared for our flight out the next morning. We would start our journey to Thailand at about 4AM and keep our fingers crossed for a smooth journey.
WHAT WAS REMARKABLE ABOUT AUSTRALIA???
Lots of good lagers, certainly. Even as kids, we were fascinated by the love of beer in Australia. Some of their best appeals for environmental action were based around “saving the beer.” Here I will rank my top three beers:
- Victoria Bitter - also known as a “Victor Bravo” due to the VB logo. As one article put it: ‘The hand grenades have always been there for us. The hand grenades get the job done. ‘Nuff said.’
- Great Northern (Super Crisp) - great basic beer that’s available pretty much anywhere. Based on my research, the most popular beer in Australia at the moment.
- XXXX (Four X) - A bit weak and watery, but offers nostalgia and funny commercials.
It has to be noted that Peter tried the locally brewed beer at every town we stopped at, and of course, I sampled them all too. My favorite was probably the Byron Bay lager.
HOW ABOUT THE FOOD?
Shriya already tore into Taco Bell, so I’ll leave that alone. Oops. After additional reflection, I have come to the conclusion that it really was as bad as I initially said. Overall I would say the food is pretty average, save for some great South/East Asian cuisine. Speaking of which, one of the best meals I ever had was at a place called “Sum Yung Guys” in Noosa. Don’t mind the name, it was incredibly good. I don’t even know what half of it was, but it was very delicious. Birthday present splurge for the win!
OTHER THOUGHTS?
Nope? Shriya?
I know y'all are dying to know, so I’ll tell you. I successfully avoided driving in all of New Zealand and Australia. I’m a little ashamed, but mostly relieved and thankful that Peter took on that particular responsibility while I navigated.
Pro tip: If you say “GOOD EYE MATE” really fast, you sound like a native Aussie warmly greeting a friend.
Thanks for reading, see you in Thailand!
Shriya & Peter