Australia

To be completely honest, I’ve never had a strong desire to visit Australia. The idea of wandering a place where the majority of animals can kill me has never been appealing. We originally planned to just visit Melbourne (mainly for a famous restaurant), Cairns (Great Barrier Reef), and Sydney. Then, the Australian Air Force was kind enough to add us to one of their evacuation flights from New Caledonia to Brisbane. We scrapped all our original plans of visiting islands in the South Pacific and spent a month wandering Australia. I did not originally give this country enough credit – it is a delightful place.

Brisbane

We spent a lot of our time in Brisbane on hold with airlines and travel insurance trying to work out all the administrative issues with our travel pivot, but we got to spend some time exploring. Brisbane is on a river and fun to just wander. We found some great coffee, delicious Asian food (Thai curry, a Japanese grocery store, some legit Malaysian rotis), and loved being able to walk around again.

Brisbane is about an hour south of the Australia Zoo – the zoo owned by the Irwin Family. I loved watching the Crocodile Hunter as a kid and was so excited we got to go.

Gold Coast

Gold Coast is full of surfers. Now, the entirety of the eastern coast is full of surfers, but Gold Coast has a whole section titled “Surfer’s Paradise”. It looks a little like Miami and Southern California were combined (and had some major construction projects going on).

We had a great time hiking along the beaches, treating ourselves to cruffins, trying out a craft brewery, and eating fish and chips.

Byron Bay

Byron Bay is home to one of the most famous surfing beaches in the world. I’d even heard of it before coming to Australia and I know next to nothing about surfing. We wandered the beaches, visited the lighthouse, and found some fantastic Mexican food. One of my core foodie beliefs had been it was impossible to find good Mexican food outside of the USA and Mexico. Australia has proven me wrong (the USA and Mexico still have better Mexican food, but this place was delicious).

Coffs Harbour

Few places have reminded me more of the US than Coffs Harbour. Coffs is famous for a massive banana statue that has been around since the mid-1900s (reminiscent of all the fun, random statues along Route 66). The area is surrounded by banana plantations, so we stopped by the statue, got a banana split, and went on a lovely walk near the harbor.

Hunter Valley

Hunter Valley is one of the Aussie wine regions and home to some of our favorite Aussies we met on safari. We got to spend the day with them, and their adorable dogs, sampling cheese, wine, and chocolate. What more could you ask for?

Newcastle

Our safari friends recommended checking out Newcastle on our way to Jervis Bay. Newcastle is a coastal town and a lot of famous surfers call it home. It is about an hour north of Sydney and has some great surfing beaches. Even on a chilly fall day the beaches were pretty packed with surfers. We loved wandering the town and their famous ANZAC walk. We even found a restaurant with legit jambalaya (apparently the head chef is from Florida).

Jervis Bay

Jervis Bay is home to Booderee National Park. The park is most popular in the summer (the beaches are gorgeous), but we still had a lovely time wandering during the fall. We saw kangaroos, loads of birds, and made it through the wind at the old lighthouse.

The area around the Bay is also home to a bunch of cute small towns. We visited one, eating some solid fish and chips and going to their adorable one-screen movie theater.

Melbourne

The drive from Jervis Bay to Melbourne is a long day (~10 hours), but we had fun along the way. We saw the famous Big Merino (a massive merino sheep statue), listened to a solid mystery audiobook, and realized this part of Australia looks a lot like Colorado.

Once we got to Melbourne, we did some city exploring. Melbourne is famous for coffee and food – two of my favorite things. I had already admitted to underestimating the Aussie coffee scene, but Melbourne is the true center of good coffee here. I partook in far too much caffeine and loved it all. The best was a drink called “Magic” at Prophecy Espresso. It was, in fact, magic.

While in Melbourne, we enjoyed dinner at Attica – one of the most famous restaurants in Australia. The chef was featured on Season 1 of Chef’s Table, and he features the use of native ingredients. He promotes using some things people would consider a little odd, but are better for the environment and are still delicious. Some dishes are a little wonky, like fish with green ants, but some were delightful, like vegemite, cheese, and native veggie pies.

We tried a few other delicious places while in Melbourne – a vegan sushi train, a bar on the world’s Top 50 list, and a lovely Asian fusion restaurant with a friend we made in Morocco.

The city is fun to wander as well. They have the oldest Chinatown in the Southern Hemisphere and some great street art.

Cairns

A lot of people dislike the city of Cairns because it isn’t the prettiest place and you can’t go to the beach. While that is fair, I actually found the city to be delightful. We enjoyed the food, the people were kind, and we stayed at a great eco-hostel. But, there isn’t much to do in Cairns. The days surrounding our time out on the Reef we took the Kuranda Scenic Railway (beautiful) and a day trip to Daintree (also lovely).

On our tour of Daintree, our guide pointed out the insane number of deadly animals (crocodiles, box jellies, etc.). I don’t know how anyone dares to swim at those beaches. He even played this song on our drive – it was both funny and made me triple check everywhere I walked the rest of the time we were in the country.

We met a lot of amazing people while traveling, but an insanely large majority were Aussies. One of the wonderful people we met owns a fruit farm about an hour outside of Cairns. We rented a car and spent a day catching up with her. And, discovering custard apples are absolutely delicious.

The Great Barrier Reef

We spent 3 days on a liveaboard out on the Reef. Carey was able to do 9 dives and I was able to snorkel to my heart’s content. The boat would move between different dives spots. Of the nearly 3000 individual reefs, we visited 2 (different sections of the 2, but still only 2 distinct reefs). It is truly a massive place.

Even though I only snorkel, I still saw sea turtles, sharks, a giant clam, and a crazy number of reef fish. We even saw a whale hanging out off the side of the boat. Nature is amazing.

Sydney

We got to Sydney at a great time. June is fall in Australia and Sydney has 2 large festivals – Vivid Sydney and the Sydney Film Festival.

Vivid Sydney is a public art show/light display/amazing spreading of joy. The festival releases a recommended walk that is about 5 miles long. We took a wander and absolutely loved it. I think this festival is what solidified my love of Sydney. If I moved to one of the places we’ve visited this year, it would be Sydney.

The Sydney Film Festival was also delightful (especially for film lovers like us). We saw a heartfelt love story called Touch and an impactful documentary about the West Bank’s Masafer Yatta destruction by Israeli soldiers.

What else is delightful about Sydney? Honestly, it is like a clean NYC with kind, welcoming people. The architecture is interesting, art is lovely, great performance art, the harbor is beautiful, fun neighborhoods, and delicious, diverse food. A few of our favorite things –

• The food – Australia has great food. Michelin should start venturing to this part of the world. Our favorite places in Sydney were Mary’s (a screamo bar with bacon kimchi burgers that taste like heaven), Yo Chi’s (local froyo chain with legit toppings like actual cookie dough, hot brownies, lychee flavor bursts, etc.), Maybe Sammy (World’s Best Top 50 bar with creative cocktails and mocktails – one even has vegemite), and Ezra (fancy Middle Eastern food with hazelnut muhammara I’ll dream about until I perfect my own recipe).

• The Sydney Opera House – We started our year with a show at the Paris Opera House and ended it with a show at the Sydney Opera House. The Best of John Williams wasn’t particularly Australian, but it was a lot of fun and the acoustics of the building are stunning.

• Free museums – The city is full of free museums. We visited the Australia Museum, The Rocks Museum, and wandered some of the free sites like a famous church and the ANZAC Memorial.

• The Rocks Market – The Rocks is one of Sydney’s many neighborhoods and they have a market every weekend. The market is full of local crafts and food. We had a great time wandering and eating our way through the market.

• Congee to Bondi Walk – There is a famous walk between two famous beaches right outside of Sydney. We ventured out there and took a walk. The views were beautiful and we got to see some fantastic surfers. And, we enjoyed our final fish and chips of our trip.

• The neighborhoods – Sydney is full of fun neighborhoods. We had 4 days in Sydney, but could have easily spent a couple of weeks there and wouldn’t have been bored. It would be a great place to live.

After a final froyo from Yo-Chi’s, we packed our stuff and boarded our final long-haul flight for a while. We’re incredibly grateful for all our experiences this year. It is truly a wonderful world.