A trip to Australia

[Updup]

Hey, I have a rather unique request today.

 

I would like to get some firsthand advice from our Australian members on (no not where can I get chems) where I should go as a tourist if I had a week. Let me explain, as our year end project for geography class we are supposed to take a hypothetical week long trip, to the country we chose (so long as we have not been there before). Now, it’s not just day 1 one go there, day two go there ect Ect but we are supposed to think it out to the full, this includes where we would stay for the night, how much the trips going to cost, and I want to have a budget.

 

If you want to point out anything that would be an interesting visit please do, even better if you include a website for pricing.

 

There are a few things that I do know I would like to do/go to, like go to Ayers rock (Uluru) but I don’t know how I would get there, are there any buses that could take me out there?

 

Also, depending on where you live (and if I’m going to be visiting (all hypothetical) that area) what’s your favourite place to eat?

 

And please, if you think I’m cheating I’m not, as I asked my teacher if I could get some advice from Aussies I know and she told me that it was fine so long as I’m the one that plans the trip, and she suggested me asking you about your fav place to eat .

 

One last thing, this is not a school thing, I home school.

 

 

THANKS !

[NightHawkInLight]

You should look up the whole walk about deal John Locke was trying to go on in Lost

[Ralph]

if your in Adelaide you have to stop by the central markets and eat at Dumpling King their special chilli beef is famous it tastes amazing and it dirt cheap

 

Australia is full of big things so you could have an Australia wide tour of all the big things like the big rocking horse the big kola the big pineapple the big banana the big sausage and the big orange and there are plenty more.

[Gunzway]

Kakadu national park and the red center. It's a great tourist place and you're exposed to some beautiful landscape. I wouldn't particularly bother with any of the cities, it's nothing 'new' compared to any other western country's city. Maybe search up the Ghan? The route is pretty idealistic. It's basically a train from Adelaide through the red center to the tropical parts of the Northern Territory.

[Updup]

Okay, thanks for the imput, keep em coming!

 

Also, do you guys know what the best way to get to Uluru is?

[Seymour]

If you are in to still-existing biodiverse environments, Fraser Island, and Daintree rainforest.

 

The nearest substantial settlement to Uluru is Alice springs. Tourist ventures to the big rock will go from there. Look in to flights from wherever else you want to be to Alice. If you want to drive there... Note that the distance from Adelaide (probably the nearest city) is roughly the same as the distance from Dallas to Chicago, except between Dallas and Chicago you have something other than desert, at least most of the way. You would see lots of iconic, red outback, but also spend half ya week getting there, and half getting back. For the other Australian Cities (Melbourne, Perth, Sydney, Brisbane), it's something between Dallas to Toronto and Dallas to Manhattan.

 

You know, over here in New Zealand we have attractions too, we have Rotovegas (imagine mixing yellowstone, a trailer trash meth lab and las vegas, classy baby, yeah!), Active volcanoes with skiing on the slopes, Dihydrogenmonoxide in abundance, and my place with it's growing stash of stars and shells for when you get here

[NightHawkInLight]

You know, over here in New Zealand we have attractions too, we have Rotovegas (imagine mixing yellowstone, a trailer trash meth lab and las vegas, classy baby, yeah!), Active volcanoes with skiing on the slopes, Dihydrogenmonoxide in abundance, and my place with it's growing stash of stars and shells for when you get here

You don't know how jealous I am. New Zealand is just about top of my list of places I'd like to live. Of course, I'd wander off into the forest and survive on tree bark the rest of my life, probably never to light a fuse again - but it'd be worth it. Awesome landscape. Alaska is another one, I have quite a few relatives there. I'm not to fond of the many months of near total darkness however.

[Seymour]

Well some time, give me a months notice and I'll get some stuff made for your visit! We can go bush in the Waitakeres (where my firing site is) and eat mamuku, ti and bush lawyer (native rasberry like berries) all week long.

 

However, don't get caught up in the whole lord of the rings scenery thing. Much of the land is pretty average farms, we have ugly towns and even uglier cities.

 

That said, this is my current firing site! It's almost an hour's drive from the part of the city I live in, but worth it!

 

http://www.fotonewzealand.co.nz/wallpapers/download/800x600_karekare.jpg

[mike_au]

I'll throw in another vote for kakadu and I'll add the barrier reef (I haven't been diving there yet unfortunately, hopefully within the next year or two).

 

Broome is popular in WA but it is extremely expensive (mostly a tourist town). Freo is a good spot to spend a weekend (but probably much the same as hundreds of other port cities around the world). If you go past Perth make sure to check out the bell tower and our ferris wheel...*sigh* I thought I could say that with a straight face but I really can't. What the hell were they thinking with those things...

 

Australia is a really nice place to travel around, but everything is so spread out that you really need to spend quite a lot of time to do it right (I guess you could fly all over the place but that isn't my idea of seeing a country).

 

New Zealand would be a much nicer destination for any trip less than about a month. You still won't see everything obviously, but you can cover a decent amount of the country in a few weeks. We spent 3 weeks in NZ earlier this year and went all over the place and did all sorts of stuff from snow fields to knife making to climbing into a volcano (the signs were ambiguous we didn't know we weren't supposed to! honest!). We spent 2 weeks traveling around the south west of WA and saw some wineries and a big tree, nice trip but nothing like NZ.

 

In NZ a 4 hour drive gets you to the next big thing to see or do (or at least a great photo op), in Australia a 4 hour drive gets you to the next petrol station.

[Seymour]

Oh yes, barrier reef definitely!

 

I just looked up Kakado... Wow, that place is a treasure.. All you who have been, me = jelous

 

Mike, What is this crater you are referring to? Unless it's violently erupting, or privately owned (I don't think any 'real' volcanoes are) I've never heard of people being banned from craters...

 

In fact, I watched a few tourists swim in one of Tongariro's craters... I bet the three hour walk back to the car was nice with all that sulfuric acid on the skin!

 

 

Knife making? Where is this?

[Gunzway]

I was lucky enough to visit Kakadu earlier this year and I have a few good photos of the scenery. The only problems are the humidity, nothing will ever dry there from just being outside. The mosquitos, for some reason I don't get a mark or the itchiness when I've been bit ever since going there; immunity for the win! Also be smart about purchasing your water, some remote milk bars sell the stuff for $4.

 

http://i206.photobucket.com/albums/bb95/Gunzway/IMG_0240.jpg

http://i206.photobucket.com/albums/bb95/Gunzway/IMG_0456.jpg

[Ralph]

my back yard isnt bad ok not my back yard but with in 30min drive

 

but yeah here are some photos I normally photograph flowers ( I know it sounds gay but that's what I enjoy)

 

if you want i can send you a ton of photos for your school project (These are all photos I took)

Edited November 24, 2009 by Ralph

[Updup]

Sounds like we need to have a pretty pictures thread =P

 

Guys, those shots are amazing! I can't even belive it!

[Ralph]

well if you want pics pm me your msn. Australia is filled with untold beauty and one dosnt need to look to hard to find it thing is most people dont look my friends are amazed when i post the photos on facebook and cant belive that some of the places are within walking distance (from their place)

[mike_au]

Mike, What is this crater you are referring to? Unless it's violently erupting, or privately owned (I don't think any 'real' volcanoes are) I've never heard of people being banned from craters...

 

I'm terrible with names (and my girlfriend is out of town so I can't ask her), I'm fairly sure it was on the north island (In fact it may have been right on the edge of Auckland). It was a big tourist spot and there were signs all over the place saying "Stay on the path", there was a dirt track down to the bottom of the crater which we went down, but when we got back we realised they probably meant "Stay on the paved path". Oh well, got some great photos anyway.

 

Knife making? Where is this?

 

Barrytown. It is a great way to spend a day, I highly recommend it.

 

http://www.barrytownknifemaking.com/

 

Because they use mild steel (you work it in a coal forge to get the carbon content up on the blade part so it should keep an edge fairly well) you need a sheath made out of oiled leather rather than chrome leather (i.e. most bought leather is no good), so mine is still sitting at home in it's cardboard sheath. I've just upgraded to a slightly bigger rifle so I will have to go get a roo and have a go at tanning my own leather.

[Seymour]

Updup... sorry about all this off topicness...

 

I'm terrible with names (and my girlfriend is out of town so I can't ask her), I'm fairly sure it was on the north island (In fact it may have been right on the edge of Auckland). It was a big tourist spot and there were signs all over the place saying "Stay on the path", there was a dirt track down to the bottom of the crater which we went down, but when we got back we realised they probably meant "Stay on the paved path". Oh well, got some great photos anyway.

 

Ah, I know the one... Mound Eden/Mangawhau. It is long extinct and was the site of a stone age fort. For conservation reason's, the crater is now off limits. but yeah, I've been in the crater too...

 

That's a high school media mocumentary that some fiends of mine made, about sliding down hills on woks. We went down the Mt Eden crater in it.. (the death scene).

 

I got a wee bit exited, and hoped that you went in to the crater of an ACTIVE volcano... For those of you in the volcano-free world, it is actually pretty safe unless they are blowing the tops off. I've been in a few myself.

 

Even more off topic, the mountain "Mangawhau" means "mountain of the Whau tree". Whau is a native tree related to Balsa. I've collected a few trees worth of wood, and hopefully it will be as hot in BP as the South American relative.

[mike_au]

Ah, I know the one... Mound Eden/Mangawhau.

That name rings a bell, so it is probably the one.

 

I got a wee bit exited, and hoped that you went in to the crater of an ACTIVE volcano...

 

Unfortunately not, we were booked to take a boat out to White Island but the weather turned bad and they had to cancel :/ That is as close as we got to a live one (although we saw a few hot springs and sulfur vents around the place (Sylvia flats was brilliant, 30+deg pool surrounded by snow).

 

In an attempt to remains slightly on topic, I will add this:

 

One other place that is pretty cool and not very well known are the caves near Hyden. Wave rock is a popular tourist spot, but personally I think it is pretty boring and not that impressive, but just down the road from it are some caves and the inside walls are covered in hundreds of old aboriginal hand prints. It doesn't sound that impressive in writing but when you are standing in there surrounded by them and realise just how long that have been there it is kind of awe inspiring. Oh and the pinnacles are popular with tourists (again not really that exciting).