In November, 2008, we visited our daughter Ellen Irene in Melbourne. It was our second visit to this lovely country, and we had booked a tour by Australiareiser in Oslo. Our first stop was for two nights in Hong Kong, a nice city with an impressing Light Show in the harbour district every night at 8 pm. We higly recommend people to spend a few days in Hong Kong!
Our first stop in Australia was Sydney. We love this city! Immediately upon arriving, we had a nice walk from our hotel down to the harbour district and the Opera house. Next day we booked a sightseeing trip to the Blue Mountains and ended up cruising on the river from the Olympic village down to Sydney harbour.
You should absolutely book a guided sightseeing tour in the opera house. Its history is very interesting. If you get the opportunity to see Oslo opera house, compare the two buildings, and the very different ideas behind the making of them.
Blackbirds in The Blue Mountains.
Melbourne is situated quite a distance south east of Sydney. Its city is very interesting with many different building styles, long beaches and beautiful parks.
The Royal Botanical Gardens is wonderful, spend some hours walking around there, and bring some refreshments for a picnic!
Australia is also well known for many quality wine producers, but be aware: Too much alcohol may harm your health!
The surrounding areas of Melbourne offer plenty of sightseeing options and adventures. The Great Ocean Road is definitely worth the 4 hour drive from the city, and a must see is St Kilda, that offer Melbourne’s most famous beaches and a wide selection of eateries and cafes.
There are also many national parks and villages ; Marysville (2 hours from Melbourne), was a cosy mountain village surrounded by lush greeen rainforest with lots of cosy cafes and souvenir shops. Unfortunately, Marysville was almost completely lost in the terrible bushfires of February 2009.
Coastline on The Great Ocean Road.
Australias most famous landmark is undoubtedly Ayers Rock. To get there, we took a plane from Melbourne to Alice springs, and from there a «short» bus trip thru the deserts (According to the bus driver,-22 miles straight ahead, and then to the right for 22 miles, and we’re there!).
Uluru is a sacred mountain for the Aborigins. It is 843 m. high, and 10 km around.
The natives believe that the holy bird was hunted by the mean snake, and the bird ran along the sides of the rock (lefrt pic). The God helped the bird by cutting off the snake’s head (right pic.).
Our last stop was the charming town of Cairns in the north of Australia. The weather was sunny and very warm, and we had many walks along the esplanade beside the beach. To our surprise, we could not step down to the waterside there, because of the crocodiles.
It was very humid and damp, and temperatures up to 30 degrees celcius, even in spring (november). Our taxidriver who took us to the airport, showed us a picture of a five metres long snake that was lying on his lawn one morning. He ran into the house and called the police. The snake had escaped from the Zoo.
We love Australia. Maybe we meet again? Goodbye!
