My own personal countdown has started now for our Australia trip. Apart from the cricket which is only a very small part of it, we want to try to see as much as possible in the short time that we're there. I have been furiously searching online and booking things over the last few weeks and we now have the skeleton of an itinery.......no travel agent required.
We are having the first 3 days in Sydney city centre and should get to bring in the New Year whilst we're there. On our last day I have booked us a car because we are moving on. From Sydney we will be driving to Katoomba in the Blue Mountains for a couple of days. From there we are doing a mega drive to Albury. It is a bit of an ambitious drive but we should make it to our motel for nightfall. We have just one night there to crash and prepare for the drive to Ballarat (an old gold mining town) the day after. We are spending 2 days in Ballarat before driving to Apollo Bay on the Great Ocean Rd where we will have a couple of days to explore the area. From there we head to Queenscliff for a night where I am hoping to meet up with one of my colleagues who emigrated there in January.
We then have 3 days in Melbourne and we are ditching the car when we get there. I figured that we won't need the car whilst we are in the cities as the public transport systems are said to be excellent. After Melbourne we are flying to Coolangatta (Gold Coast), we are staying in Tweed Heads on the QL/NSW border. We will have 4 days there exploring the Gold Coast and Mt Warning National Park. I still need to arrange another car from Gold Coast airport, but the accommodation is all booked now. Our last 3 days will be in Brisbane, I want to meet up with another colleague who emigrated in March, we have a cricket match there and we also want to visit Australia Zoo. We are hoping to be able to ditch our hire car at the airport for our flight to HK.
Everything is booked now except for the hire car at Gold Coast. I ordered a road atlas of Australia and that has helped me to plan our journey. The alarming thing is that although it sounds like we are visiting a lot of places, it is a mere dot on the vast landscape that is Australia. We would need at least 12 months to tour the country properly, and even then we wouldn't be able to see everything. That's the thing about Australia, it is so monumentally vast that it is difficult when you live in a little country like England to imagine the distances involved. Australia is so huge that if you placed it where England is, the space would take up the whole of Europe. The drive from Sydney to Melbourne direct takes roughly 2 days, the equivalent of driving from Accy to the French Alps. I've a feeling that our last 6 days in Hong Kong may have to include at least a day of relaxation.
We are having the first 3 days in Sydney city centre and should get to bring in the New Year whilst we're there. On our last day I have booked us a car because we are moving on. From Sydney we will be driving to Katoomba in the Blue Mountains for a couple of days. From there we are doing a mega drive to Albury. It is a bit of an ambitious drive but we should make it to our motel for nightfall. We have just one night there to crash and prepare for the drive to Ballarat (an old gold mining town) the day after. We are spending 2 days in Ballarat before driving to Apollo Bay on the Great Ocean Rd where we will have a couple of days to explore the area. From there we head to Queenscliff for a night where I am hoping to meet up with one of my colleagues who emigrated there in January.
We then have 3 days in Melbourne and we are ditching the car when we get there. I figured that we won't need the car whilst we are in the cities as the public transport systems are said to be excellent. After Melbourne we are flying to Coolangatta (Gold Coast), we are staying in Tweed Heads on the QL/NSW border. We will have 4 days there exploring the Gold Coast and Mt Warning National Park. I still need to arrange another car from Gold Coast airport, but the accommodation is all booked now. Our last 3 days will be in Brisbane, I want to meet up with another colleague who emigrated in March, we have a cricket match there and we also want to visit Australia Zoo. We are hoping to be able to ditch our hire car at the airport for our flight to HK.
Everything is booked now except for the hire car at Gold Coast. I ordered a road atlas of Australia and that has helped me to plan our journey. The alarming thing is that although it sounds like we are visiting a lot of places, it is a mere dot on the vast landscape that is Australia. We would need at least 12 months to tour the country properly, and even then we wouldn't be able to see everything. That's the thing about Australia, it is so monumentally vast that it is difficult when you live in a little country like England to imagine the distances involved. Australia is so huge that if you placed it where England is, the space would take up the whole of Europe. The drive from Sydney to Melbourne direct takes roughly 2 days, the equivalent of driving from Accy to the French Alps. I've a feeling that our last 6 days in Hong Kong may have to include at least a day of relaxation.