Traveling in the Land Down Under - February 12-24, 2009

G'day mates! Would you believe it, the Biologist had yet another business trip. This time to attend a conference in the city of Brisbane in Queensland, Australia. Does she have a great job or what?! Well if you're going to fly all that way, you really have to spend some personal time there... right? Of course! Unfortunately, the Marine had classes and couldn't go with her so her friend Sylvia went instead.

DAY 1: Upon arrival, we picked up our rental car to head north to Caloundra where we planned to stay our first two nights. I had driven on the opposite side of the road before in the U.S. Virgin Islands and knew that wouldn't be a problem for me. However, this was the first time I'd ever driven on the opposite side of the road AND on the opposite side of the vehicle. I kept misjudging the distance of the right side of the car from the shoulder/curb! I only ran over about a dozen curbs and nearly plowed into a few median dividers and traffic signs before I got the hang of it!

Anyway, back to the story. Poor Sylvia... she'd heard about waymarking but had no idea what it actually involved. We had departed Jacksonville, Florida, on February 10 and arrived in Brisbane on February 12 (we lost a day due to crossing the International Date Line). We were absolutely exhausted, but once we left the Brisbane Airport she humored me and we headed to Hemmant (about 10-15 miles southeast of the airport) to find a Boer War Memorial there. It turned out it was dedicated to an individual instead of a group of people so it didn't qualify for the category, but it was a very nice memorial just the same. So we finally headed north toward our hotel, but again Sylvia kindly agreed to allow me to drive right on past it by about 15-20 miles to get an Australian Trig Point, which involved us climbing to the top of Emu Mountain (after more than 30 hours of traveling with very little sleep). As we finally started making tracks to our hotel, I asked her to keep an eye out for a Quadrivia. No sooner had I explained to her what a Quadrivia was when she spotted one! I LOVE AUSTRALIA!


DAY 2: The next day, we went to Steve Irwin's Australia Zoo in Beerwah. We had a lot of fun, but it rained the entire day, but at least it wasn't hot or crowded. I found several waymarks there, including an Artificial Cave Entrance.

DAY 3: Off to Lamington National Park (a World Heritage Site) where we had reservations to stay at O'Reilly's Rainforest Retreat for 2 nights. We passed back through Brisbane on our way and stopped at Anzac Square to find the Boer War Memorial there and this one met the category criteria. Yea! We also spotted two fireworks trees today - we stopped at one, but left the other for someone else to find. Also, on the way to Lamington, we saw a sign about a historical tunnel as we were approaching the town of Canungra and decided to pull over and check it out. After a very short walk we came to an Abandoned Train Tunnel! Woo hoo! Did I mention that I LOVE AUSTRALIA?!! After stopping once more to look at a wallaby feeding along the side of the road on the drive up the mountain, we finally made it to O'Reilly's, where we spotted quite a few pademelons, Australian brush-turkeys, and Crimson rosellas. After checking in, we went for a nice walk in the rainforest. It's absolutely beautiful here.

DAY 4: This morning we took a 2-hour Rainforest Birding Hike with a guide and saw several interesting birds and the bower of a regent bowerbird (very cool), as well as a Pedestrian Suspension Bridge that was called the Tree Top Walk. Afterwards, we struck out on our own and went on a 6-km hike to see Moran Falls. At the end of the trail, we even found a geocache (GCZBMN)! The falls were really beautiful and definitely worth the hike, but it was a gradual downhill descent the entire way to get there, which meant it was an ascent the entire way back. OMG, I thought I was going to die!

DAY 5: Today we headed back to Brisbane for my Conference. We turned in the car at the airport and took the train to our hotel near the Convention Center.

DAY 6-8: Work, work, work. But I did manage to find a few cool waymarks in the evenings, including a couple of Permanent World Fair and Expo Structures, a Peace Memorial, and an enormous Ferris Wheel.

DAY 9: Work is done and it's time to play again! Today, Sylvia and I took a flight down to Sydney in New South Wales. We headed off to find the Shop24 Machine at the University of New South Wales (Sydney Campus), but it had been recently dismantled and replaced by a used bookstore. Oh well, at least we were able to visit one in the Dallas-Fort Worth Airport on our way to Australia. Then we strolled over to Circular Quay for some dinner.

DAY 10: Today we took a ride on the Sydney Explorer (a bus that you can jump off and on at various points of interest, including the Sydney Opera House and Harbour Bridge). We wandered around Darling Harbour, Hyde Park, St. Mary's Cathedral, the Sydney Cenotaph, and all over downtown Sydney, then back to Darling Harbour for dinner. Lots of really great places to explore here.

DAY 11: This morning we headed to the Sydney Aquarium and wandered around there for a couple of hours. My favorites were the platypi and dugongs. Then we joined up with my friend Debbie who was also in Sydney and we wandered around the outdoor market stalls near The Rocks for about an hour before hopping on the Bondi Explorer bus. We got off and had lunch in Bondi Beach and went for a little stroll along the coast. Of course we had to take our shoes off and walk in the Pacific surf for a bit.

DAY 12: What a beautiful day! We strolled through the Royal Botanical Gardens this morning and saw many, many grey-headed flying foxes (a large fruit bat) hanging in the trees there. They were awesome! Next we wandered around the Museum of Sydney where we watched a couple of short films and I discovered there was a Martello Tower at Fort Denison, which is on a small island in Sydney Harbour. So we headed there next, but the last boat of the day to the island had already left. Fortunately, you can get a great view of it from the harbour-side of the Opera House! Wow, that was an excellent surprise! Back to the hotel to try to catch some sleep before flying out the next morning. It was a great trip. I feel very fortunate to have been able to go. Did I mention that I LOVE AUSTRALIA?!