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Australia is the world's largest island
in the world with a relatively small population and
with it's diverse geography there is so much to see. Our extensive
travels throughout Australia enables us to pass on to you other places of
interest in this wondrous country. We are able to assist you with
further information and bookings in respect to tours, accommodation, car
hire etc., prior to your arrival in Australia.
It would take
us forever to go through all the places you should see in
Queensland. The Gold Coast (starting at the bottom of the state), then
Brisbane (and the Riverside Markets), the Sunshine Coast (Maroochydore,
Mooloolaba and Noosa ), then on to Hervey Bay to see the whales and Fraser
Island, then to Airlie Beach to see the Whitsundays, then on to Cairns and into
Cape York. That's without venturing into Western Queensland. What can
we say? We have a soft spot for this state and even
though we like to travel and have been to some many places, Cairns and Queensland will
be the place that we always come back to.
Please
click
here to view some tours in
the Whitsundays.
Sydney - home of the 2000 Olympic Games
and the most beautiful harbour in the world. It's a very busy city and Darling
Harbour is one of the places you can go to 'chill out'. It has some tasty
little coffee shops and restaurants, as well as some well known attractions
such as the Imax theatre and Sega World.
Sydney is also home to a couple of Australia's most recognisable icons - The
Sydney Harbour Bridge and The Sydney Opera House. You can actually climb
the Sydney Harbour Bridge these days, although if you
are afraid of heights may not be the best thing to do.
Byron Bay, on the Northern Coast, is a great place to go if you want to get
away from the hustle and bustle of city life. Everyone visits Byron Bay,
the home of alternate lifestyle in Australia
and people usually end up staying longer than they thought they would. Some
fantastic beaches with surf and a real 'hippie' lifestyle.
The Hunter Valley is another
great place to visit if you are into wineries and is considered very similar to the Barossa Valley in South
Australia, with wine tours and cute little B&B's to stay in.
Mention this state
and most people know of Melbourne the capital city, Phillip Island. (with all of the Fairy Penguins)
and the MCG so-called "Home of AFL Football"
and cricket but close by is another island unknown to
a lot of people called French Island. If you have never heard of this place
before you would not be on your own There are koalas everywhere on the island and because the trees are
so low, you can often see them face to face, although patting them is not
permitted. French
Island Eco Tours run their daily award-winning tours to the island for a mere $50 including
lunch.
The Great Ocean Road, voted one
of the best tourist drives in Australia has many great little towns to see
including Warrnambool and Port Fairy. There are great tales of shipwrecks
(the reason why it is called the 'Shipwreck Coast') and some fantastic sights to.
Ballarat,
steeped in Australian gold mining history has this little town
inside a town called Sovereign
Hill. It's completely made up to look like a town from the gold mining
era, complete with blacksmiths, lolly shops, gold panning and mine tours.
Everyone is dressed in period costume and all seems very authentic.
Definitely worth a visit.
Adelaide is the capital city of South Australia and is known as the
"City Of Churches" and for it's cosmopolitan / Mediterranean
lifestyle and for the extensive number of parklands / gardens that
surround the city centre with the River Torrens running through the
north parklands. Here you can hire the paddleboats, follow the many
walking tracks through the magnificent gardens or if you are not
feeling too energetic take ride on the ferry boats that leave from near the
Adelaide Festival Centre. The Art Gallery & Museum, Botanical Gardens
and the Adelaide Oval are all located close by the city centre.
The
Barossa Valley (11/2 hour drive to the north) famous for it's wines produced by
the numerous wineries and stunning vineyards and amazing countryside and German history. There are
so many different world renown wineries there that the best way to see them is
to do a tour such as 'The Groovy Grape' and stay in one of the
numerous bed and breakfasts accommodation houses in the Barossa itself.
Some of the towns dotted around the Barossa are Nuriootpa, Tanunda, Eudunda and
Kapunda.
If you are a bit of a fisherperson there are some fantastic places to go
fishing in South Australia, home of the King George Whiting, Tommy Ruff and the
Snapper which are regularly caught in both the Spencer and St. Vincent's Gulfs
as well as the numerous jetties off the local beaches.
Kangaroo Island is a very popular place to visit, also well known for it's
fishing (King George Whiting) as well as the variety of native wildlife that can
be seen across the island especially at the national park Flinders Chase.
Travelling to the island can be by either air or sea.
To the south east is the well known conservation area of the Cooyongs and the
town of Mount Gambier with the wonder of the Blue Lake.
Going west there is the town of Port Lincoln also well renown for the Tuna
industry and home of the Great White Pointer shark. Travelling across the Great
Australia Bite and the famous Nullarbor Desert to Western Australia are
the towns of Streaky Bay, Ceduna and a place called
Eucla where there are rolling sand dunes and the site of an old telegraph station.
The coastal views across this part of the state are breathtaking.
Besides
Darwin there are many unique places of interest in the Territory such as Kakadu, Litchfield National Parks
and of course the famous Ayers rock (Uluru) and Alice Springs. As
good as Kakadu is we probably prefer Litchfield better as there is more to
see with shorter travelling time. Consider the time of year when planning to
visit because at the wrong time of the
year it was quite warm (October onwards). The clouds start to build up
at the end of the day with some very dramatic thunderstorms with spectacular
lightning displays. Litchfield is not quite hot as in Kakadu, especially
while visiting some of the Aboriginal Art sites, such as Nourlangie Rock and Ubirr. Ubirr was made famous in the movie 'Crocodile
Dundee' with fantastic views when standing on the top.
There are heaps of waterfalls to see in Litchfield, with Florence Falls being
one of our favourites. Buleys Rock Hole is also one not to be missed and
also seems to be quite popular with the locals. It won't seem as warm
around Litchfield probably because you only have to travel for half an
hour or so in between each swimming hole.
Between Darwin and Alice Springs there is a place not to be missed called
Mataranka. It is a lot different to the many years ago when we first went
there, not as unspoilt as it was back then. It has a thermal swimming
hole and is almost like this tropical oasis in the middle of the desert.
The Roper River runs into it and the water temperature is around 30 C.
There is camping within walking distance of the swimming hole.
Another place not far from Alice Springs is the Devils Marbles, huge big
rounds rocks stacked on top of each other.
Alice Springs, the town itself, is not a place where
people tend to spend a lot of
time, although in October, the town comes alive with the Todd River Boat
Races. You might think this sounds like nothing unusual, except for the
fact that the river hardly ever flows and the boat races are run on the dry
river bed! People create boats out of all sorts of things (even beer
cans!) and they use their feet as 'wind power'.
If you are looking for a good 'affordable' place to stay in Alice
Springs, try 'Melanka'.
About four hours from Alice Springs is the biggest rock in the world - Ayers
Rock - which is more popularly known by it's aboriginal name these days, 'Uluru'.
Even though you can climbed the rock if you are fit enough the original land owners, the
aboriginal people, prefer
 that you do not climb the rock anymore, in respect of their
beliefs. These days more
and more people do the base walk instead. One of the most beautiful sights
you can see we think is when it rains on the rock. Streams of waterfalls flow off
of it, and the rock becomes silver in colour.
Nearby to Uluru is The Olga's, more commonly known as Kata Tjuta.
We
think this means 'many heads' which is basically what it looks like. The
same colour as Uluru, it is half an hours drive away.
Please go
here to view tours in Northern
Territory.
Perth is the capital city of this
"huge" state. The bottom corner around Esperance
is a very picturesque place, as is Perth itself, with the gorgeous Kings Park one of the
centrepieces. There maybe other places in the world that have them but the floral clock that they had there
will always stick in your mind.
If we had to pick one thing about Western Australia that
we loved the most, it
would have to be the Wildflowers. You would not believe these flowers in
springtime. They go as far as the eye's can see - blue's, pinks, yellows
and purples, and most of the time set against a red dirt background. The
everlastings are great favourites, because they were everywhere but there are
other flowers such as the Kangaroo Paw (the state emblem for WA), Geraldton Wax and Mulla Mulla.
We believe the
best part of the state is to the far north and if you venture that far a thing not to miss is the dolphins at Monkey Mia. Here at
certain times of the day the dolphins come in to be hand fed by rangers and
tourists are free to come and watch. The dolphins swim around your legs
and although you are not allowed to touch them, they often come up and brush by
you. It one of the most wonderful things to be so lose to these smart and
fascinating animals.
There are so many,
many places to visit in this part of WA but one place to visit is a place called the Buccaneer Archipelago,
which is near the top of WA. It is quite remote with some great fishing and
these horizontal waterfalls. The tide rises and falls so quickly and by so
much that it creates these horizontal waterfalls as the water rushes to get in
and out of narrow entranceways. Amazing!!
While not
sharing the same beautiful weather as Queensland, Tasmania is definately
worth a visit.
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