Sydney, Sunshine Coast, Cairns, and Daintree

We took two days to drive our rental car from Melbourne north to Sydney through the green rolling hills and winding mountain roads of Victoria in southern Australia, and were amazed by the beauty. A highlight on the long drive was a pit stop on a rainy day at the Earth and Soul Pizza in Bairnsdale–wonderful pizza and extremely helpful staff!

Sydney – Bondi Beach and Opera House

For the couple of days we stayed in Sydney, we visited some top tourist attractions. Our day at Bondi Beach was the last time in Australia where we could swim without worrying about crocodiles. Bondi is NOT overrated–it’s a fantastic beach! Our family had spent many evenings lately watching Bondi Beach Rescue so we were especially excited to see the beach (and maybe a famous lifeguard) in person. The stunning Sydney Opera House is amazing at night. As a bonus, we happened to be there right at sunset when they displayed a short video production on one side of the iconic building. The video displayed beautiful artwork by Aboriginal artists which told the history of their people.

Sunshine Coast and the Australia Zoo in Beerwah

Steve Irwin, the late Crocodile Hunter, has always been a family favorite. We knew we had to make a stop at his zoo–the Australia Zoo. Our favorite parts include the tigers, walking among the kangaroo and wallaby joeys, and the lizards running freely around everywhere. And the crocodile demonstration lived up to Steve Irwin’s level of up-close-and-scary with the crocs! Unfortunately, the Irwin family wasn’t in town, but we still had a great time! I used to watch Bindi the Jungle Girl when I was little as well and had fun visiting her actual tree house!

Fraser Island: Many people advised us we couldn’t miss visiting Fraser Island, a World Heritage site, so we booked a day trip there. It’s an island made completely of sand, covered in rainforests and freshwater lakes. Our funny bus driver narrated the drive. We stopped at the white sand lake, Lake McKenzie. The water is so pure that there aren’t any fish. After swimming, we ate a delicious Aussie barbecue lunch. A pit stop of tea and lamingtons (traditional Australian cookie) at the Rainbow Sands cliffs back on the mainland finished the tour. It was one of our favorite trips so far! We met some awesome people and learned so much about the wildlife and vegetation of Fraser Island. Warning–If you go during high tide, be prepared to go on a long and extremely bumpy road. Mom got very car sick.

Cairns

In Cairns, the kids loved swimming at the lagoon in the city center. The lagoon was right next to the beach, which we couldn’t swim in because of possible crocodiles, jellies and other scary things! Big bats flew in as the sun went down and hung in the trees surrounding the lagoon. A fire dancer entertained us while we ate our dinner bought at the busy and festive night market nearby. The little girls made some Aussie friends who couldn’t get over their American accents. They were celebrities for the evening!

Daintree

Next up was the house we’d been anticipating/dreading? for weeks–one with no Wifi, no AC and only rain water and solar panels for electricity. It turned out to be perhaps our favorite house so far! To get there, we drove our car via ferry across a river (with warning signs of the crocodiles lurking beneath). The house was up on stilts (to help keep out any unwanted critters). During our downtime from exploring, we had hours of playing ukulele, singing, doing school work and creating art on the porch. In the evenings we were in awe of the masses of ginormous flying foxes soaring over our house. The nights were so noisy with the wildlife! One night there was a huge rainstorm. There’s no way to describe how powerful and heavy the rain was. It was the loudest rain we’ve ever heard.

We were fortunate enough to see a cassowary and his chick (the dads care for the chicks)-. We have heard that it’s uncommon to see the shy animals, but cassowary crossing signs are all along the roads in Daintree.

For Halloween we carved pumpkins, made jack-o-lantern stuffed peppers, and ate candy while enjoying the movies provided by the hosts. (Our first holiday outside of America!)

Great Barrier Reef: Our day on Great Barrier Reef was surreal. The abundance and varieties of fish and coral was astounding. The reef was rich with rays, sea turtles, giant clams, antler coral and many other beautiful creatures. We were on a small boat with about 25 other people. Ocean Safari provided stinger suits to avoid jellyfish stings. Going with such a small group made it feel personal and really gave us time to explore the reef. On the way back home, we stopped for some refreshing and unusual flavored ice-cream and sorbet at Daintree Ice-cream Company.

Down the road from our house, Mom and I went to an exotic fruit tasting. The soursop was our favorite, but it was all a lot of fun and very informative. All the fruits were grown on site, and we tasted fruits for 1 hour and then had a 30 minute tour around the orchard.

On our last day in Daintree, we ferried back across the river to a board a crocodile boat tour. As the weather warms (it was Australia’s late spring at the time), it’s more difficult to view the crocodiles as they mostly stay in the water. We caught sight of one baby and two adult crocodiles. The staff was extremely friendly and accommodating–we definitely recommend going to Bruce Belcher’s Daintree River Cruise to see crocodiles in the wild.

Our main takeaways from Australia: a friendly, laid back country, very environmentally conscious, gorgeous and diverse scenery and wild life, delicious cafes, wonderful infrastructure, great weather, and way too much for us to see. We want to go back! Big things we missed–Tasmania and the “red center”, mainly Uluru.

Coming soon— our adventures in a camper van in New Zealand!