The Gold
Coast, Australia
Day 1
Had a great
time in the last two days at the Gold Coast. Landed on the morning of June 23rd.
Started the day with a visit to the beach of course. At surfer’s paradise, the
hub of all beach related activities at Gold Coast. The place is a typical beach
kinda place with lots of shops, eating joints etc. Thoroughly enjoyed my quiet
walk on the beach while hubby and daughter went to learn surfing. I am not a
surfing kind of a person…in fact any sport which demands balancing is a
complete no no. I recall trying to learn skiing a few years back at Rohtang
Pass. In spite of best efforts, I must have fallen about 20-30 times in a span
of two hours. So I decided against learning surfing.
Day 2
A visit to
Dreamworld, a theme park. I just went for three rides this time and so, didn’t
find it too bad. Though I don’t quiet enjoy the rides, I thought The giant drop
was awesome and must do at Dreamworld.
Day 3
We went for
a Rainforest tour in the Lamington National Park and Tambourline Wildlife Park.
Any trip to these kind of locations is not without a regret that our own
country is endowed with incredible locations which we will fail to take
advantage of. I could not help but notice that our modest Kempti fall at
Mussourie is so much better and bigger than Curtis Fall, which is not even half
of Kempti Fall. Of course our kempti falls fails miserably where maintenance and cleanliness is concerned. Just no match.
However, I
really enjoyed walk in the rainforest and so loved climbing the tree at tree
top. Like most of the trees in a rainforest, it was a very, very tall tree with
a stop midway. It was good fun if you didn’t look down. The key is to focus on
the next step on both sides, while climbing up or descending. I just wanted to
go back once when I did look down.
I observe that Australia is a very, very, very expensive destination. Though I haven’t
done much (actually haven’t done any) shopping whatsoever, I can see that the
prices are much more than even the United States.
Though I am
not much of a shopper, this time I feel a kind of repulsion before entering a
shop. I just don’t feel like buying anything and might land back home empty
handed, which is not too bad for bank balance but not good for friends and
relatives. This time the rupee-dollar rate is not helping either.
Cairns,
Australia
After Gold
Coast we landed at Cairns to experience The Great Barrier Reef. Since I am
writing this at almost the end of my travel, I can say without much of a doubt
that Cairns was the best part of the holiday. It is a lovely beach town with
very friendly people. We experienced lovely bright and sunny weather. All you
need to do is grab a beer (since I am not a beer person, so Cosmopolitan for me)
and sit in a bar or a pub with a plate of chicken parmigiana and enjoy the
evening. Finish off the day with a walk besides the ocean. It is a very lively
town. There was a rugby match going on between Australia and England while we were there which was the preoccupation of the entire town.
The best
part of our travel here was of course snorkeling, which we did at Great Barrier
Reef. It was an experience of the lifetime. Snorkeling and scuba diving are the
two ways to witness beautiful and amazing beauty of the Great Barrier Reef. You
can do snorkeling even if you don’t know swimming though it definitely helps.
All three of us thoroughly enjoyed snorkeling and would definitely love to do
it again.
I thought
of doing scuba diving but the weight of the oxygen that you have to carry and
the fact that one has to continuously swim for half an hour were deterrents. In
the end I decided against it.
There are a
lot of things to do in Cairns besides Great Barrier Reef, which is an absolute must
of course. Kurunda rainforest is one of the major attractions here. I took the
train ride to the Kurunda rainforest which covered the barron gorge and dam.
The train itself was established way back in 1891 and is one of the oldest
train to be operational in Australia.
Once you reach Kurunda, one can visit
Koala park or bird park. Attractions at Koala park include a chance of cuddling
a koala (for a price of course) and feeding a kangaroo. Once can also buy some
bird food to feed birds like parrots, macaws, cassowary (which is a famous
Australian bird and is on the verge of extinction), black cockatoo etc. What
was of course the best part of this trip was of course the journey back which
was on skyrail. I have been to rainforest before (at Langkawi, Malaysia) but am
yet to come across a more thick forest. All I could see were rich green, tall
trees for miles and miles below. I almost feel blessed to be experience this.
Australia
is rich in natural beauty and while our last trip to the United Nations was more
focused on the man-made wonders of the world (like Disney Parks at Orlando,
Florida, memorials at Washington DC and New York of course), this time we
experienced the wonders of the nature. The stress in the entire trip was on
natural beauty and scenic sights.
Cairns
offers wonderful holiday on its own and if you are visiting Australia, try to
include this town in your itinerary.
Melbourne,
Australia
Our focus
on natural beauty continued in Melbourne also. We covered The Great Ocean Road
and a tour of Philip island on our two days in this town. Both of them are
amazing journeys. The Great Ocean Road is an unforgettable journey along the
coast of Victoria state which ends at 12 Apostles (actually there are only 9
left now but everybody continues to call them 12 Apostles instead of 9
Apostles…it just sounds better I think). These are natural lime stone deposits
and offer a spectacular view of the Pacific Ocean. This is also the last spot
in the Southern hemisphere, which can be visited easily…after this is
Antarctica continent. The entire journey through various towns like Angles
towns, Apollo Bay is awesome with views of pristine ocean and green trees. All
in all I doubt if you are likely to forget this any time soon.
A key
attraction of Philip Island is Penguin Parade, which is basically the ancient
ritual of penguins returning home every evening. What makes this special is
that these are the smallest known species of penguins and one can watch their
journey back home in the evening. They basically live in burrows on the island.
What was amazing (besides the delightful penguins, of course) is the efficient
manner in which the entire island is maintained. I can guarantee you despite
being a key tourist attraction, you will not find a single toffee wrapper or a
coke can disposed off anywhere on the island. I wish and hope we can replicate
this.
I must here
acknowledge that we have managed to achieve this in some places. If you
haven’t, please do visit Birla House in New Delhi. It is the place where Father
of the Nation was assassinated. It is today maintained as a Gandhi Museum. Not
only does this place has state of the art and very innovative machines to
introduce the present generation to the concepts propagated by Mahatma Gandhi, it
is impeccably maintained by the concerned authorities. There are other places
like Amer palace in Jaipur. Another case in point is Ranthambhore Tiger
sanctuary which is spic and span, so much so that you will not be able to find
a single used plastic water bottle in the entire sanctuary--I would know since
I visited almost all the zones at the Sanctuary over a period of two days last year.
Sydney, Australia
Sydney was
vastly different from any of the destinations we visited in Australia. For the
simple reason that we were mostly at Macquarie University since our daughter
was participating in robotics competition, FLL API 2013.
While I have been to Sydney before so I didnt miss much but the husband and the kid didn't see much of the city.
Macquarie
University has a lovely campus like most of the universities. In fact I wrote this post at Macquarie University coffee shop while the kid is inside for competition. The team did exceedingly well and won an award for research and project work.
Australia offers a range of experiences which is unparalleled. An amazing and unforgettable trip.
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