The big picture

Now that we are back from our honeymoon in Australia, we wanted to share our amazing experiences with everyone. We sent a few pictures here and there throughout the trip, whenever we got a chance of some free wi-fi somewhere and had pictures available on our iPhones. But the bulk of our photos and some videos was on my camera and will give you a much better picture of our experiences.

To give you the big picture: in the 3.5 weeks in Australia, we tried to cover as much ground as possible, which is a challenge in a country that size. Our entry and exit point was Sydney and from there we flew to Uluru, via Alice Springs to Darwin, covered the Kakadu National Park up there, flew to Cairns and made our way down the East Coast where the reef is to the Whitsunday Islands for New Year's Eve. From there we flew to Brisbane and then back to Sydney to conclude our travels.

All pictures from our trip can be found here.

Sydney

After a long, 14h flight, we arrived at Sydney International Airport, which is conveniently located right next to the city center. Thanks to my dedication to United, we had exit row seats and actually a pretty pleasant flight if you disregard the distance.

Landing in Sydney is pretty spectacular as you get a full view of the entire city, including the harbor with the Opera House.

December 13

We landed a bit early, which didn't help us much as we had to wait in the incredibly long immigration line due to my EU passport. I had assumed that because my travel authorization was free while Matt's wasn't, that I would breeze through with my EU passport due to Australia's Commonwealth status. Nope. Together with the lengthy customs quarantine process, it took us a good 2h from touchdown to leave the airport.

Sydney has a pretty well functioning train system, which we gladly took to Kings Cross Station where our hotel was. Once settled in and fed, we started walking towards downtown and the Botanical Gardens to get a view of the Opera House.

 While having breakfast, the woman next to us recognized the Georgia hat I was wearing because her daughter had graduated from UGA. The world is really small. We would meet several "dawgs" in Australia while there. 

 

From there we made our way through Circular Quay all the way over to The Rocks, the historic district. On the way, we did a quick stop at the free modern art exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art. After a round underneath the Harbour Bridge, we were finally too tired to continue but still walked all the way back to our hotel.

December 14

Up bright and early from the jetlag and going to bed at 9pm the night before, we made our way down to Darling Harbour, where we first took a stroll through the Chinese Tea Garden - it was the only thing open that early in the morning.

Further down the harbor, we first noticed that despite the hot weather, Australians take Christmas VERY seriously.

At the harbor, we then decided to spend some time at the Aquarium before a random stroll through the area brought us to the Powerhouse museum. 

We probably wouldn't even have noticed the building hadn't it been for the giant Sonic the Hedgehog poster outside, advertising a gaming exhibition, which we naturally were both interested in.

December 15

On our third day in Sydney, we decided to explore what's north of downtown and put the Taronga Zoo and Manly Beach on the plan. Taronga Zoo is probably the zoo with the best view in all the world. You have to take a ferry there or a bus across the Harbour Bridge. Overall, great zoo with extensive information on native Australian wildlife.

From the zoo, we caught an hour-long bus out to Manly Beach. Apparently that day was THE day for Santa parties, so we saw plenty of drunk Santas along the beach.

After a nice wings lunch by the beach, we finished our day with a 1h hike along the coast and back into Manly harbor, from where we took a ferry home.

December 16

Our last day in Sydney arrived and was filled with more beach adventures. This time we decided to take the train and bus out to the famous Bondi Beach and went on a 2h hike down to Coogee alongside the waterfront.

Back in the city, we wandered around downtown by the Botanical Gardens and then decided to visit the Australia Museum, which had a fantastic Tyrannosaurus exhibition (among others) going on.

 And thus concluded our four days in Sydney and off we were to the red hot center of Australia.

Uluru and Kata Tjuta

December 17

After a quick 3.5h flight, we arrived at Ayers Rock in the middle of the red hot center of Australia. Ayers Rock is the English name given to the rock by the settlers - natives prefer the term Uluru is used. Stepping out of the airplane we were quickly hit by a wall of 40C/104F +.
We used the rest of the afternoon to cool off in the pool....which was hardly much of a cool off.

That evening we also made the first acquaintance of Australian spiders....fueling my nightmares.                           

December 18

The next morning, we had to be up and ready to go by 4:30 AM for our Desert Awakenings Tour. No problem for us....we had been going to bed before 10pm all week....;-)
The tour started off on a dune viewing point while it was still dark, from where we patiently watched the sun rise in the distance beyond Uluru, while sipping coffee and eating Australian breakfast sandwiches and pastries.

From there, our guide took us on the 20min ride to Uluru, where we then did a brief part of the base walk while learning about the famous monolith, its significance for the Aboriginal people and how to respect it.

One of the main concerns for the Aboriginal is that tourists climb the rock. Everywhere are signs that clearly state that they ask us not to climb but every morning, a host of tourists show up at the base and do it anyway, and risking their lives. The climb is incredibly dangerous and the park closes it after 8 AM due to the heat in the summer months. The rock is not only slippery but also super steep an the heat up on the top must be exhausting, even before 8 AM. It may not look as steep in the pic below but trust be, you have to be properly crazy to climb this.

After several hours in the heat, we were ready for a nap and then spent the rest of the afternoon by the pool and then some nice Outback BBQ at the resort village. The great thing about the Uluru Resort is that is has several types of hotels for each wallet size. We stayed at a pretty nice one, the Desert Gardens Hotel, but weren't too interested in paying the steep restaurant prices there for dinner. So we walked over to the much more reasonable Pioneer Lodge. This is where the more relaxed and younger dinner crowd gathers for food, beer and even some live music. You can either order burgers or pizza at the kitchen or use the fantastic Pioneer BBQ, where you just buy a type of meat and grill it yourself on one of the provided BBQ grills. Included is a full sides/salad bar. For a set price you get a meat of your choice and a full all you can eat sides/salad bar. Matt tried the Outback Combo, featuring Emu, Crocodile, Kangaroo, Buffalo and Beef.

December 19
On our agenda for today was the Valley of the Winds Walk through Kata Tjuta (also known as the Olgas), the sister rock formation about 30miles from Uluru. We had rented our first car in Australia to get there. I figured if I had to drive on the left side of the road then the desert at 4 AM might be a good place to start.

We got to park entrance by 4:50 AM and reached the parking lot of Kata Tjuta by 5:30. We were the only ones there. Never had I imagined that we'd be the only people there this early and would be doing this beautiful 8km hike all by ourselves.

Once again, the fly nets we bought at the village the day before were invaluable. There's a saying "one rock, one railway, 1 million camels, 10 billion flies" referring to the insane amount of flies that constantly land on your eyes, ears, nose and mouth. This is the case throughout the Northern Territory and parts of Queensland and New South Wales, so we were truly glad we had bought these $8 nets. The 1 million camels refers to the actual million of feral camels that are roaming the Australian wilderness. They're a problem and there are no natural predators to cap their population. Unfortunately, the Outback is also huge, so we never got to see a single wild camel/

The hike was beautiful and after a steep hike through the higher boulders, leads you right down into a stunning valley with wild budgies flying around.

We finished the entire hike without ever meeting a single person all the way until we were back at the viewing area.
Since it was still early and we were eager to see more, we stopped by another shot 1h walk on the other side of the formation.

The next morning, we were able to sleep in for the first time and actually got to enjoy the included hotel breakfast (the last two mornings, the hotel had packed us a breakfast box as we had to get up so early). Afterwards we returned the car and got on a 6h bus ride to Alice Springs as there are no flights from Uluru up to Darwin.

Alice Springs

December 20

The bus ride from Uluru to Alice springs was quite comfortable. The bus was new, nicely air conditioned and the drivers gave us all kinds of interesting talks during the ride. We stopped several times, either to switch buses or take breaks and, boy, is it remote out there.

One thing that is absolutely stunning about the Outback is that the sky is just a different shade of blue. It is the most intense blue I have ever seen, and I can only assume it is because there is no air pollution and smog in the area.

Alice Springs is an interesting little town. It is exactly in the middle of Australia. And the other thing we learned from a cab driver later is that it is completely surrounded by mountains, except for one entrance, which is why it was a significant position for the Aboriginals who settled here. It is also one of the hottest towns. Average high in the summer is 36 C/96F but they do get some rain, way more than Uluru as Alice is closer to the wet, tropical North. It actually poured down as our flight was trying to take off the next day. After we got into Alice, we just walked a few blocks to the nearest Steak House (or I should just say the nearest restaurant because Alice doesn't have that many, the town only has 30,000 inhabitants). Our flight was supposed to leave at 11am the next morning, so Alice was really only meant to be quick stop. At the hotel on wi-fi, we realized that Qantas had canceled that flight and moved everyone to a 5pm flight they had created instead. So, suddenly we had an entire day to spend in Alice Springs which we hadn't prepared for. Not the easiest thing to do in a town that small, let me tell you.

December 21

We set out on a small hike up to the ANZAC memorial (Australian and New Zealand Army Corps), from which we had a stunning view of the city.

After we got back down, which took all of 5 min, we walked across town to the Reptile Center of Alice Springs to spend some time there. It's a cute little place that features a bunch of native lizards and snakes, and even a crocodile. They also had a short handling show where the keepers give you several animals to hold. Matt always went first and then I did it. They started us out with a blue-tongued Skink, which felt really soft, cold and slippery.

Then they gave Matt a bearded dragon. Those guys are really cute and always look so attentive.

Next up was a good sized olive python. The handler put her around Matt's shoulders where it did just fine.

But when she gave her to me, she ended up wrapped around my neck and started constricting me more than was comfortable. So as I was turning bright red, I asked the handler if she could keep the snake from killing me, which she did by placing her around my shoulder instead of my neck.

 This is where it got a bit dicey.

It was a great experience, though, to hold such a large and completely docile snake. After seeing this poster, I was still convinced Australia just wants to kill you.

After our reptile adventure, it was still only like noon and we had another 4h to kill before we'd have to be at the airport, which was only a 15min drive away. So we walked around downtown Alice Springs some more and had lunch at a place called The Rock Bar.

 
I innocently ordered the burger not realizing this would end up being the most amazing burger I have ever eaten in my entire life.

We took off from Alice Springs airport in the pouring rain....fitting as this was the beginning of our trip to the wet North of Australia.