Australia
As I’ve mentioned in my posts before, my oldest son Will is an animal lover and we have traveled a lot together to see animals in their natural habitat. Our first trip without the rest of the family was to Australia 4 years ago and we still talk about it being one of our favorite trips.
Australia is a huge country of course (roughly the size of the U.S.) and one of the challenges of a trip there is deciding what to see and what to save for a future trip. The usual highlights are Sydney, Melbourne, the Great Barrier Reef and Uluru (Ayers Rock). We veered a bit from that path because we were focused on animal sightings and also because we went in March, which is rainy season in the Great Barrier Reef.
The highlights of the trip for me were the cities of Sydney and Melbourne. I loved Sydney’s natural beauty, beachy vibe and excellent restaurant scene. We had a great time doing the Harbour Bridge climb, taking a boat ride on the harbor for amazing views of the Opera House and having a behind-the-scenes tour of the Sydney Taronga Zoo with a zoologist. Will was in heaven learning about and meeting Australian animals he’d never heard of like echidnas, bilbys, bandicoots, wombats and Tasmanian Devils.
Melbourne’s network of cobblestoned “laneways” were fascinating to explore - full of interesting restaurants, coffee shops and boutiques. There is intricate and artistic graffiti around every turn. There are fun day trips from Melbourne; the most famous being the Great Ocean Road. It winds along the coast to the 12 Apostles, dramatic cliffs and limestone towers off the coast. You can take a quick, inexpensive helicopter ride over the Apostles to get a birds’ eye view.
Will’s favorite part of the trip was Kangaroo Island, a short flight from the city of Adelaide. There is a fantastic luxury eco-lodge there, Southern Ocean Lodge, with sweeping ocean views that make you feel like you are at the end of the earth. Kangaroo Island is probably the best place to see native Australian wildlife up close - kangaroos, wallabies, koalas, platapus, sea lions, fur seals, etc. There are so many kangaroos that drivers have to be cautious as they are often bounding across the road. You can see these animals in preserves and zoos in other parts of Australia, but it’s amazing to see them here in the wild.
Australia can be visited year-round, depending on where you want to go. June - October is the best time of year for the Great Barrier Reef and/or Uluru, whereas September - May are the best months for the southern part of the country: Sydney, Melbourne and Kangaroo Island.
