Pre Trip Checklist
extra batteries for the headphones for the Kids in the car– Check – All good!
We arrived in Cairns and were immediately hit by the humidity and warm weather. We picked up
the 4wd and headed out to the family resort Coconuts where were booked in. We visited the cool
new lagoon at Cairns and Mission beach. We also headed further north up to Cape Tribulation and
crossed the Daintree on the barge in the car and explored the Daintree up close and personal. We
spent the afternoon at Port Douglas and Mossman Gorge before heading back into Cairns. We also
spent a day on the reef out from Green Island snorkelling and a day at Kuranda via the scenic railway
and retuning on the sky rail.
After a week we headed down the pacific hwy to Townsville for Xmas, and stopped in at the “Frosty
Mango”
Townsville. We visited Magnetic Island for a great pub lunch and the “strand” which has a water
park and rock pools and also the scenic Castle Hill lookout. After leaving Townville we headed
through Bowen down to Airlie beach on the Whitsundays, where we chilled for a few days and took
an awesome cruise around the islands with a visit to the famous “Whitehaven beach” – the sand is
silica and very white (so I brought some home in a container)
From Airlie beach headed down the Bruce Hwy through McKay Sarina into Rockhampton. After
staying in the “Bates Motel” for one night we then headed down through Gladstone to the Town of
1770 and Agnes Waters and then Bundaberg. We went to the Bundy rum shop and then got some
famous Bundy pies. We stayed in Harvey Bay and headed over Fraser Island on a 4wd Bus. Fraser
Island was also a real highlight as we visited the shifting sand pinnacles, the pure rain water lake
McKenzie and the famous wreck of the Maheno. I got a decent “Mud Crab” sandwich at a local shop
which stank the car out and had the kids complaining. (Mmmm mud crab)
We then made our way down the sunshine coast stopping at “all things big” into Maryborough
(famous for its renovated old Queenslanders and stopped in at Gympie before making our way down
to Noosa. We stayed on the river and caught the “Crikey” bus to Australia Zoo (Crikey). It was an
excellent day and a real highlight of the trip as we fed Elephants & saw the show in the “crocoseum”
(Terry and Bindi what far less annoying than on TV) . We lazed around beautiful Noosa and spent
time fishing and swimming.
After leaving Noosa we headed to the Gold Coast where we stayed at Ashmore Palms for a week.
We headed up to the hinterland via Caloundra, to visit friends and also did the obligatory “Dream
world and White water world” with the kids. We spend a night in at Surfers on a shopping tour and
checked out the “Meter maids” – No sign of Warwick Capper!
Leaving the Gold coasted we headed down to beautiful Byron Bay for a chill out. We did the
lighthouse walk, watching pods of Dolphins swimming and walked to the Fishermans point look out
on the main beach. Byron is full of hippies and the rich and famous an eclectic blend but it creates a
unique atmosphere. Naturally I had a beer at the beach hotel (Made famous by Strop from the Paul
Hogan show) we also visited the fishing village of Brunswick heads for some awesome local Calamari.
Leaving Byron we travelled down through Ballina, Grafton Coffs Harbour into Port Macquarie, where
we stayed on the breakwater. It was a beautiful spot with good fishing in the lakes and Breakwater
wall. After leaving Port Mac we made our way down through Newcastle into Sydney making our
way across the Harbour Bridge and into Darling Harbour.
In Sydney we visited the Aquarium, Mono rail (Mono Rail) , Paddy’s Markets, Circular Quay, The
rocks, Darling Harbour, Opera House and Harbour Bridge and caught the ferry to Manley. We had
diner with Adam Moore and his family after Adam climbed the harbour bridge in Darling Harbour.
Leaving Sydney we stopped at Bondi for a while and then Botany Bay and Brighton Le Sands (No sign
of Jeff Fenech) and made our way down to Canberra. We visited friends and spent a day at
Parliament house Lake Burley Griffin and the Australian Mint where the kids got to make a 1$ coin
for 3$ (No samples unfortunately).
From Canberra we felt the trip was almost over and we made our way down the boring Hume to
Albury where we saw the Submarine at Hollybrook and spent our last night. We then made our way
back to Melbourne and home on Australia Day.
It was wonderful trip covering the eastern seaboard of Australia in great detail and an awesome
adventure.
At school the principal asked my youngest son his favourite part of his holiday and he said …..We had
“Foxtail at Noosa” so I hope the 4603 photo’s I took (I just kept buying memory cards) will remind
them one day of the trip!
