Monday, July 29, 2013

Amazing Australia!!

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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