Australia & Tasmania FAQ

What did you like best about AUS?
So much land and wildlife, and so few people. You could go anywhere along the northern coast of Queensland and have miles of beach all to yourself. Same with Tasmania - so many areas to explore, and very few people.

What did you like least?
People were rude! We're not sure if that's how they treat everyone - or just Americans - but we couldn't believe how people treated us. We were expecting laid back friendly Australian people that you see on T.V. But unfortunately, this was not the case at all. But I will say that people in Tasmania were much more friendly and helpful!

How was the food? Did you try anything unique?
The food was very similar to food in the U.S. Quite a large variety of restaurants. We tried crocodile and loved it, mudcrab and loved it, kangaroo was just ok, and hated emu.

Was it expensive?
YES. Believe it or not, it is more expensive than Japan! We purposely stayed at a few self-accommodation places with kitchens to be able to cook our own meals once in a while. But after doing this one time, we realized - it's the same price to eat out! We couldn't believe how expensive food and drinks were - $20 for a burger! $5 for a 12-oz coke! It doesn't help that the Australian dollar is at a 3 decade high.

Did you enjoy people speaking English?
This is actually a complicated question - because Australian English is NOT English! haha. We had a very difficult time understanding what people were saying. But, it was nice to be able to read everything - especially menus!

What's your favorite activity that you did?
Joe - scuba diving on the Great Barrier Reef
Emily - wildlife: holding a koala, seeing the penguins, and feeding a croc

What was your favorite place?
Each place we went to was so unique and different from the others. It's impossible to choose! So... our favorite beach was in Port Douglas, our favorite city was Sydney, and our favorite outdoor adventure was Tasmania. :)

Would you do the trip again?
ABSOLUTELY! We would do it all again in a heart beat!

I've posted many of our favorite pictures throughout these Australia blog posts. But to see all of our pictures, go to our shutterfly website: http://emilyandjoepictures.shutterfly.com/

AUS Part 4: Tasmania!

For a truly extraordinary experience - go to Tasmania! The entire island only has a population of about 500,000. It has diverse and spectacular scenery, wilderness, wildlife, small historic towns, and so much more.

We arrived at Launceston airport, grabbed lunch in the historic town of Launceston - then headed over to Cradle Mountain National Park. We stayed in a cozy and cute log cabin, which even had a wood-burning heater. We walked around the popular Dove Lake - one of Tasmania's premier walks. It's a 6km track to walk around the lake.

There were many boardwalk walking trails going through the National Park. At dusk, if you walk on the boardwalks you see tons of wildlife! We saw numerous wombats (pictured above), wallabies, & kangaroos. Actually, anywhere you drive at night in Tasmania, there are tons of animals out and about to see. But unfortunately because of the high population of wildlife in Tasmania, if you drive in the morning - there is a lot of roadkill on the road. :(

The next day, we drove from Cradle Mountain to the east coast of Tasmania. We stayed in the tiny seaside town of Swansea. This picture is of Oyster Bay, which is a sheltered bay that opens to the Tasman Sea.

The town of Bicheno, on the east coast of Tasmania, is home to over 600 fairy penguins! We went on a penguin tour, and were able to see the penguins up close in their natural environment. It was spectacular! And the history we learned about the penguins was quite interesting as well. In 1992, the penguin population was reduced to 40 birds because of feral cats and local dogs. Two men noticed the decline of the penguins and decided to purchase the land that the penguins inhabit, to protect them as best as they could. Today, more than 600 penguins inhabit the area. They swim all day, and then come to shore after dark to mate and feed & raise their young. We were able to see them walking from shore, resting along the way, nesting, and even quite a few baby penguins. It was an unforgettable experience!

We spent an entire day in Freycinet National Park, on Tasmania's east coast. This park is known for its pink granite mountains, pure white beaches, coastal dunes, and dry forests. The park is most famous for the spectacular views of Wineglass Bay (pictured above). It's an all-day event to get to Wineglass Bay - you start by hiking up a mountain to this lookout point. Then you have to hike all the way down to the beach. It took us about 2.5 hours to arrive at the beach, and 2.5 hours to hike back to our car. But all of the walking was worth it - beautiful white sandy beaches and pure clear turquoise water!

After all of the hiking to Wineglass Bay, we were ready for something easy and relaxing. So we headed over to the lighthouse, Cape Tourville, which overlooks the coast and Freycinet National Park. It had amazing coastal views! We read that during peak seasons, you can even see whales from this lookout.

After staying on the east coast of Tasmania for a couple of days, we headed down to finish our vacation in the town of Hobart. Hobart is the state capital and most populous city of the island. It was gorgeous - surrounded by water, historic areas, old cottages and churches, etc. We stayed in a historic home which had been converted into a bed and breakfast. On our first day, we went to a wildlife park to see Tasmanian Devils. They weren't at all what we were expecting to see - they looked like small dogs. The story of the Tasmania Devil is actually quite tragic. When European settlers arrived in Tasmania, they were scared of the animal's loud screeches, black color, and bad temper - so they named it the Tasmanian Devil and set out to kill it. For more than a century, devils were trapped and poisoned. They became very rare, and were heading towards extinction. After a law was passed in 1941 to protect the devils, their population slowly began to rise. Unfortunately today, even though they are protected, there is a devastating disease sweeping through the devil population in Tasmania. They are calling it a cancer of the mouth, and it is passed through touch. Just like humans shake hands, Tasmanian devils greet each other by mouth-to-mouth contact.... which is unfortunate for the devil, because it is killing them. Our guide said that it's being predicted that the entire population may become extinct in a short time if nothing is done to cure this deadly cancer. :( Another interesting fact about devils: they are born the size of a grain of rice and then stay in their mother's pouch for about 4 months. They are truly remarkable animals! We feel very fortunate to have been able to see them and learn about them. We hope that something will be done to help these poor animals survive.

Next we headed over to the historic picture-perfect town of Richmond. It was like stepping back in time to see a truly old town with traditional homes, cottages, and churches. The homes have mostly been turned into restaurants and shops, but they were still beautiful.

Australia's oldest bridge is in Richmond, built by convict labor between 1823 and 1825.

This post wraps up our 3 week vacation of Australia & Tasmania! Next I will do a short FAQ page to answer a few of the common questions about the country and our trip.

AUS Part 3: Sydney

After spending 10 days in northern Queensland, we headed down to New South Whales to Sydney for New Years.

We stayed at a bed and breakfast in the beachside suburb of Cronulla, just south of Sydney. It was very convenient because it was a short walk to the train station, and then a direct route into downtown Sydney. Cronulla is located on a peninsula, surrounded by colorful bays and beautiful beaches. There is a sidewalk that travels all the way around the city along the beach... it goes for miles and miles, and was perfect for running along the coast.

On our first full day, we headed downtown to Sydney. We were instantly awed by the amazing surroundings and had one of those, "I can't believe we are actually in Australia!" moments. By far the most beautiful city I have ever seen. The weather was perfect - 70's, sunny, & breezy. The first thing we did was walk across the Harbor Bridge to check out the scenery.

Picture of part of the bay from the Harbor Bridge.

Next, we walked over to the Sydney Opera House. Then we spent almost the entire day wandering around the historic "Rocks" area - the oldest part of Sydney, and home to numerous pubs, cafes, restaurants, and shopping.

Sydney had a couple breweries and many pubs. Joe enjoyed trying all the different beers! I was surprised to discover that Australia has quite a large variety of ciders, which was perfect for me.

If you have never heard of TimTams, now you have. They are delicious 'biscuit' cookies - and come in a variety of different flavors. My favorite was the cookie filled with caramel, while Joe's was a tie between mint and double chocolate. I was thrilled when I discovered that Gloria Jean's Coffee makes TimTam frappuccinos (and without coffee, so Joe even had one)!! I tried the original, Joe tried the dark. Both were amazing! :)

Near Cronulla is Royal National Park, the world's second oldest National Park (after Yellowstone). So the next day we drove around the park, and stopped at a few of the many beaches. The park had quite a wide diversity: surf beaches, cliftop views, rainforest walks, lakes, picnic areas, and much more. This picture is at Wattamolla - it's unique because on the left-hand side there are freshwater lakes and waterfalls, and on the right-hand side is a gorgeous ocean bay.

One of the cliff views while driving through Royal National Park. We stopped for ice cream here and enjoyed watching hang gliding.

On New Year's Eve, we headed back into Sydney for a cocktail & dinner harbor cruise to watch the fireworks. Sydney has two fantastic fireworks shows, the first at 9:00pm when New Zealand celebrates the New Year, and the second one at midnight.

Enjoying wine while watching the sunset over Sydney.

Happy New Year! Sydney spent over 5 million dollars on their fireworks show. They were all choreographed, and set off over multiple places along the harbor. It was spectacular! The entire sky was lit up! Definitely one of the highlights of our trip!

AUS Part 2: Trinity Beach & Cairns

After 5 days in Port Douglas, we headed down towards Cairns for another 5 days and stayed at Trinity Beach.

On the coastal road driving down to Cairns. So many vacant, beautiful beaches.

This was the view from our balcony at Trinity Beach. It doesn't get much better than that! :) We spent Christmas day on this beach, and then grilled burgers and ate on our balcony enjoying the view.

The beach and town of Palm Cove, a small touristy town located just north of Trinity Beach. It was quiet and beautiful! You can see the roped off swimming area in the picture, to keep away from marine stringers that occupy the waters during the summer months. This was a really lovely upscale town, with delicious beach cafes and coffee.


We spent a day exploring another part of the Daintree Rainforest and the village of Kuranda. We took a skyrail across 7.5km of the rainforest canopy, which was a nice and relaxing way to view the rainforest from a gondola (no mosquito bites this time!). We stopped at two stations along the way to see scenic look-outs and explore the environment from the forest floor on boardwalks. Here is a picture at one of our stops - it was rainy season, so we were able to see the rushing waters of Barron Falls.

The village of Kuranda had tons of shopping, cafes, and wild life parks. We went to a Butterfly Sanctuary, Birldworld, and Koala Gardens. The Butterfly Sanctuary was pretty boring - not a whole lot to see other than butterflies. Birdworld was a little scary, as birds were just flying around everywhere... Joe even got bit by a parrot! But Koala Gardens was great, we got to see more crocodiles, kangaroos, and of course koalas. I was even able to hold a koala! :) He was cute and cuddly - but also had sharp claws and was surprisingly heavy!

This was in the town of Cairns. Do you see all the tiny dark spots in the picture? Those are hundreds and hundreds of crabs! Overall, we were not that impressed with Cairns. It was the largest city that we visited in Northern Queensland, but we felt like it was run by tourists.

Blue Sky Brewery in Cairns. This ended up being the only brewery on our entire trip that Joe was able to find an IPA.

During this part of our trip, we also went out to the Great Barrier Reef. Unfortunately I don't have any pictures from that day - it was cold and rainy, and I got extremely seasick. It was an all day event: took about an hour and half to get out to the reef, then we went to 2 different sites to snorkel/scuba dive, and then an hour and a half back to Cairns. But Joe had a fantastic time - it was the highlight of his trip! He got to go scuba diving twice - he saw Nemo, tons of colorful reef fish, giant clams, and even 3 sharks!

AUS Part 1: Port Douglas

We spent the first part of our trip in northern Queensland in a town called Port Douglas. It's about an hour drive north of Cairns via a spectacular coastal road, surrounded by the rainforest and the sea. This region is apparently very unique - as it's the only place in the world where you can see two World Heritage sites: the Great Barrier Reef and the Daintree Rainforest.

Rex Smeal Park in Port Douglas, located on the point of the peninsula. It was very peaceful. Port Douglas has a Sunday market each week near here, so we were able to buy fresh fruit and AUS honey. We read that Port Douglas only has about 3500 people living there - so it definitely had a small-town feeling. Reminded me a lot of South Haven - with one main street going through town with a variety of restaurants, cafes, pubs, and lots of shopping.

One of our favorite parts of the trip was going to Hartley's Crocodile Adventure. [http://www.crocodileadventures.com/]. We were able to take a boat cruise and see crocodiles in their natural environment. There were also numerous presentations, where we were able to learn about the crocodiles, and even feed them ourselves. This park is also a crocodile farm, so in addition to seeing crocs in their natural environment, we were also able to see how they breed the crocs and prepare them to be sold. We ate crocodile a couple times on our trip, and loved it!

Hartley's had more than just crocs, there were also numerous species of birds, snakes, kangaroos, wallaby, quolls, ad koalas. Very fun!

One of the restaurants in Port Douglas does cane toad races a couple of times a week. We went to the show and watched the famous cand toads named Jerry Springer, Fat Bastard, Gay Freddo, Skippy's Love Child, Camel Toad, and Aussie Aussie Aussie compete. After the competition, you could hold the toads - here's Joe holding Fat Bastard.

Mossman Gorge in the Daintree Rainforest, the world's oldest rainforest. We spent a morning walking on a trail through part of the rainforest. It was very scenic, which made for a beautiful walk. The trees were HUGE, and we were amazed how their roots grow and travel around other trees. There was a freshwater pool that we were able to swim in, with small waterfalls and big boulders, which was very refreshing. The downfall to this experience was: 1) it was sooooo hot and humid, and 2) the mosquitoes were awful. I left the rainforest with over 25 bites, and was miserable the next couple of days.

We were surprised how empty the beaches were on the coast of Queensland. You could drive down the coastal road anytime of day, stop anywhere you want, and have miles and miles of beach completely to yourself. It was beautiful! Unfortunately, marine stingers occupy the waters during the summer months, so we were not able to swim in the ocean unless in a roped off area to swim safely.

Cape Tribulation is located in the Daintree National Park, and is known as the area where the reef meets the rainforest. To get here, you have to travel north about an hour and half and cross over the Daintree River by ferry. It was a beautiful beach, and we were able to see the mangroves up close.

Mangroves. Very swampy! It was interesting to see how the white sandy beach turns quickly into mud. Joe even started to sink, and got his Birkenstock's covered in mud.

While in the Daintree National Park, we went to an exotic fruit farm for fruit tasting. The owners only allow about 20 people a day to come in and taste their fruit during a presentation where they show you how to cut and prepare the fruit. We tried 10 fruits: tahitian lime, jakfruit, sapodilla, abiu, black sapote, yellow sapote, davidson plum, mamey sapote, salah, & guanabana. The jakfruit was our favorite!

Joe really wanted to go Marlin fishing, but because we were there late in the season and it was very expensive, he settled for Sport Fishing instead. Unfortunately, the day we went out was rough - so we had to spend most of our day cruising the bay and the rivers. We caught about 3 fish and a crab. Wasn't the best fishing, but we got a nice boat ride and Joe even spotted a wild croc!

For my birthday, we went to a nice restaurant right on the water called On The Inlet. I had read about the famous Queensland Mud Crab, and was dying to try it. It is a delicacy, and contains plenty of sweet, juicy meet. It had a very distinct sweet flavor. It was prepared with Singapore Chili, which complimented the meat perfectly. I know chili and crab sounds kind of odd together, but that's the way the staff recommend to eat it... and now I completely agree with them - it was perfect!

We're Back!

We're finally back from our amazing vacation to Australia and Tasmania! Three weeks was a long time to be away, but we were able to see and experience so much throughout that time. It was a very bitter-sweet experience for us over the holidays - difficult and sad to be away from family during that time, but fun and exciting to travel and explore another country... especially a country as beautiful as Australia!

We spent about 10 days in the Cairns region on the coast of Queensland. Then headed down to Sydney for New Years and spent 5 days exploring that area. Lastly, we spent a week in Tasmania, traveling by car throughout almost the entire island. See map below!


It's amazing how big the country of Australia is. Even though we were there for 3 weeks, we only got to see a small portion of the country. We tried to make the most of our time there and experience the huge variety that Australia has to offer: Great Barrier reef, beaches, and rainforest in northern AUS, then on to the exciting city life and stunning harbor of Sydney, and ending with National Parks and beautiful nature in Tasmania.

Throughout this next week, I'm going to do separate blog posts for each of the 3 regions we visited. Until then, enjoy our pictures on shutterfly: http://emilyandjoepictures.shutterfly.com/

Happy New Year!

2010 was a great year! We have so many wonderful memories, and have accomplished so much in a year's time! Here's a quick recap of our lives in 2010.

January: our big move to Japan.

Survived living in a hotel for 3 months.

Explored 2 ski resorts near Nagoya.

Modeled in a fashion show.

Back to the U.S. for Rachel & Alex's wedding.

Jenny's visit to Japan. Traveled to Kyoto & Osaka.

Explored the town of Nara, Japan.
Saw one of the biggest buddha's in the world.

Met some awesome friends, and took a trip to Tokyo Disney!

Went to our first Sumo match.

Went to Beijing, Shanghai, and Hong Kong.
Climbed the Great Wall of China!

Weekend trip to Tokyo.

Climbed Mt. Fuji!

Mom's visit in October. Discovered some of Japan's oldest Castles.

Ran the Lake Kawaguchi 27-km race in 2:37:02.

Met a wonderful couple, Mike & Mimi,
who we are now great friends with :)

Taught 1st grade to Japanese students.

Joe was accepted to the Purdue-Indiana Grad School Program.

Three week vacation in Australia & Tasmania.

We have so much to be thankful for this year. Looking forward to what 2011 has to offer. :) Best wishes to all of you in the New Year!