My 2008 Australia VacationMy 2008 Australia VacationAustralian Vacation Planning: Help me plan my vacation, and learn from my planning approach. I am going to Australia in early 2008, and am building this blog as a resource both for myself and for other travellers. Sydney, Melbourne, Tasmania Articles
Site changes
2008-02-09 20:29:00 This week went by so fast… I never got a chance to do anything at home. Today, I downloaded the new update to WordPress, and a new presentation theme that I believe will be more appropriate for visitors now that the trip is completed. So if something looks funny over the next week, it is ... More About: Site
Successfully pulling away from work e-mail while on vacation
2008-02-04 22:40:00 I certainly did not take a complete break from the internet while I was in Australia. For one thing, I wrote over 50 entries in this blog. I used Skype to call home on days where I had purchased in-room internet access, I checked my personal email, I bought airplane tickets online, I ... More About: Mail , Work , Vacation , E-Mail
My new toy
2008-02-01 03:23:00 My new toy arrived yesterday. I bought an Amazon gift card from with all the loose change I’d collected in the fourth quarter of 2007, and used some of it to order Adobe Photoshop Elements on Sunday. For a few years, I was using a Corel package that came with the desktop before ...
How you should do Ayers Rock Resort and Uluru differently
2008-01-31 09:46:00 I’ve been thinking about the issues surrounding the monopoly at Ayers Rock Resort , and how I’d do Uluru differently next time. Because the person I called at Ayers Rock Resort was great about changing my stay without penalty with one day’s notice due to my sinus infection, I really did not have much flexibility ... More About: Logistics , Sightseeing
The five most unpleasant surprises while in Australia
2008-01-29 12:38:00 I’ll start recapping with the negatives, as while they were few and generally more of annoyance than anything, they come to mind quickly: Australia n Diet Coke tastes lousy. Fortunately, I do not mind Coke Zero. I never got to try a chiko roll; whenever I found one at a store, it looked like it had been sitting ...
Jet lag got me
2008-01-29 03:37:00 I usually do not get jet lag very badly. This time, however, it has been brutal: I’ve not been able to fall asleep until after 4AM each of the last three nights. Tonight, I’ll settle for 1AM! Share This
Buy your Australian books while you are there!
2008-01-26 02:32:00 A couple of weeks ago, I’m shopping for souvenirs at the Freycinet National Park gift shop. I’m not buying much because my big suitcase is back in Melbourne and I’m extremely pressed for space in my small bag and backpack due to Virgin Blue’s weight limits. I find a book that I really liked: a pictorial ... More About: Books , Australian , Logistics
Google seems to like me
2008-01-25 18:50:00 I’ve actually made it to page 2 for the generic search phrase “australian vacation” without any other qualifiers, and with hardly any links to the site from elsewhere. I’ve been getting 4-5 random visitors per day from various search terms.  Welcome! Share This More About: Google
Most of the way home
2008-01-24 20:11:00 Greetings from the Red Carpet Club at Los Angeles International Airport. The flight home was about 90 minutes shorter, and it seemed to go by much faster. The food was worse than usual, and I still can’t find a comfortable way to sleep fully reclined in United’s business class seats - compared to American’s where ... More About: Air Travel , Home
Raw photos batch 6 - Sydney
2008-01-24 07:11:00 Pretty much the final batch of photos, the Opera House, Zoo, and Surry Hills. Click here for the link to Shutterfly. Share This More About: Photos , Sydney , Batch
Homeward bound
2008-01-24 01:24:00 As I write this, it’s 11:10AM in Sydney . In an hour, the shuttle service will arrive to take me to the airport, where I’ll hang around for a couple of hours before getting on the flight to Sydney. It’s been a great trip (except for the getting sick part), but it’s time to start getting ... More About: Food and Drink , Bound
The last evening in Sydney
2008-01-24 01:06:00 And finally, we arrived at the last night. Not sadly, it’s time to go home. But I wanted the last night to be a time of reflection before getting back to the chaos. When I toured Europe alone for a similar length of time in 1993, I spent most of the final ... More About: Sydney , Food and Drink , Sightseeing , Evening
Taronga Zoo
2008-01-23 19:16:00 I’m not a big zoo fan. I’ve never been to the Brookfield Zoo in suburban Chicago, and I’ve only been to the Lincoln Park Zoo a couple of times. I keep meaning to go to the San Diego Zoo, but something always comes up. But it’s impossible to go to Australia, and not go to ... More About: Sydney
Sydney Opera House
2008-01-23 17:03:00 I overslept this morning, but fortunately the sunlight woke me up at 8:20am. Today was going to be a very busy day, and I couldn’t afford to start late! The first stop of the day was the Sydney Opera House . I had purchased a ticket for the tour for the first Sunday of the vacation, but ... More About: Sightseeing , Opera House
Raw photos batch 5 - Tassie and Ayers Rock
2008-01-23 15:03:00 More photos… the last day’s worth of Tassie photos, and a ridiculous number of photos of Uluru in an attempt to find one or two worthy of an 8×10. Click here to get to Shutterfly. Share This More About: Photos , Rock , Tasmania , Batch
Darlinghurst and a tavola
2008-01-23 10:15:00 A couple of weeks ago, when I was leaving the emergency room, I walked out to the street to hail a cab. I looked around, and thought “hey, that looks like a nice neighborhood.” At the time, I didn’t quite realize that I was in the Darlinghurst neighborhood, and I certainly didn’t realize that last ... More About: Sydney
Why I love Hilton
2008-01-23 06:15:00 I love Hilton . I started to love Hilton when they bought out the Promus holdings back in 2000, which added Hampton Inn, Homewood Suites, and Embassy Suites to the chain. Before that, I didn’t really have much opportunity to stay at Hilton properties. Right after the purchase, they had a promo where if you made 4 ... More About: Love , Sydney
Qantas domestic business class
2008-01-23 06:01:00 I flew Qantas back from Ayers Rock yesterday. The plane was about 85% full in economy, but business was virtually empty. Out of a possible 12 seats, there was me, and an older Australian couple who booked a weekend away at the last minute and were shocked (!) to find out that Ayers Rock would ... More About: Business , Domestic , Class , Business Class
Returning to Sydney
2008-01-21 18:55:00 The saddest thing about wasting Monday night at the Ayers Rock Resort is that I could really use one more day in Sydney . As it is, my flight leaves at 10:55am Tuesday, and with the time change I will get to my hotel room at about 5pm. I will have essentially 43 hours left on ...
The monopolistic mess that is Ayers Rock Resort
2008-01-21 16:20:00 On their guest survey forms, the people at Voyages who run the Ayers Rock Resort ask a question about rating “value for money” on a scale to 10. My answer is somewhere around -4. This has been the only truly disappointing part of the trip. The fact that the Australian government has granted Voyages a ... More About: Uluru , Mess
Desert Awakenings 4WD Tour
2008-01-21 13:59:00 On Monday, I was up at 4am for the main tour I had purchased: the Desert Awakenings 4WD tour. At A$130, it was not cheap, but it promised the most interesting small-group experience. I had reconfirmed my reservation when I got to the resort, and was told that I’d be picked up at 4:40am. ... More About: Tour , Uluru
Ayers Rock aka Uluru - Afternoon Touring
2008-01-21 07:59:00 Or is it Uluru aka Ayers Rock ? After all, the indigineous people were there first…. So you read the articles and the guidebooks, and you know that it is big. But no matter how much you prepare yourself, you still cannot believe how big this sandstone is: 9km in circumfrence, 4km at its widest point. It ... More About: Afternoon , Touring
Leaving Melbourne
2008-01-20 02:51:00 Today is Sunday, and I am writing from the Alice Springs airport, where Qantas has been kind enough to provide free wireless Internet access for my 3.5 hour layover. I did not make it online while I was in Melbourne , so I’ll take a few minutes here to catch up. When I last wrote, I was ... More About: Leaving
That?ll be A$200 for the damage
2008-01-18 10:24:00 Today was a fun day. I slept in, left the hotel at about 11, spent most of the day driving (up to Devonport which was bleh, then over to the Tamar Valley wine region), killed about 90 minutes back at the hotel’s off-track betting area wagering a whopping $15 over the course of an hour ... More About: Tasmania , Damage , Sightseeing
Touring Launceston
2008-01-18 00:27:00 After getting a long night’s sleep last night, I’m going to spend this afternoon driving around Launceston and the Tamar Valley wine routes. I don’t intend on picking up any wine, by the time I pay the excess shipping charges I may as well just buy it in Chicago. I have to get out to the ... More About: Touring , Tasmania
Raw photos batch 4 - Tassie
2008-01-17 18:08:00 Some more photos, these are of Tasmania. Click the link for the shutterfly album. Share This More About: Photos , Batch
Raw photos batch 3 - Great Ocean Road
2008-01-17 08:58:00 More photos, these are of the Great Ocean Road . Click the link to get to shutterfly, and there’s an option for a slideshow. Share This More About: Photos , Batch
The slow day
2008-01-17 08:08:00 Every vacation this long needs some slow days. Rather than trying to jam in another destination, I had booked one extra day in Sydney, Melbourne, and on Tasmania. Today is essentially the extra Tassie day - I’m being a bum and not doing very much other than catching up on doing nothing. The ... More About: Slow
Penguins!
2008-01-17 01:30:00 The penguin tour last night from Bicheno Penguin Tours was outstanding. I only got a couple of very bad photos because one of the rules of the tour is no additional light beyond what they provide. The tour started after dark (I originally thought it would be at sunset) because the penguins are out on ... More About: Tasmania
Coles Bay and Freycinet National Park
More articles from this author:2008-01-16 10:02:00 Today I visited Freycinet National Park , off of the town of Coles Bay, about 20 minutes south of my hotel. Coles Bay has one of those vibes that screams “tremendous amounts of drugs were used here in 1970.” But today, it’s a small town with rental properties and a few businesses, boat tours, ... More About: Tasmania , Sightseeing , National Park 1, 2, 3, 4 |
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