Hunter Valley, the Napa of Australia

We were enticed by wine country, and spent 3 nights there. We worked all day our first day (good internet = time to catch up!), and the next day we ventured into the vineyards…

We spent a lot of time at one winery, Tyrrell’s. The property was beautiful, so we had a picnic lunch at the picnic tables before taking the tour & winetasting.

The winery was established in 1858, and founder Edward Tyrrell built himself this single-room house to live in the same year.

The winery’s vineyards are in a gorgeous setting. The tour that we took is easily the best winery tour we’ve ever been on (sorry, Napa). Our tour guide, the wine-grower, is extremely passionate and knowledgeable about grapes (as a wine-grower would be) – he gave us a lot of interesting info about the nuances - the smallest difference in soil, rainfall, age of vines, vine-spacing, harvest timing (etc), makes a big difference in how the wine tastes…

This is one of the places where they crush grapes – it is still used for a few wines, but they also have big machines that do the same thing. I volunteered to get in there.

And, huge barrels of wine – they are a bigger winery now, about 500,000 cases per year. They are known for their shiraz.

Next we stopped at McGuigan winery, and sampled some wines as well as fresh cheese from the cheese shop next door.

Our final stop was at this winery shaped like a barrel (and, a um, airplane hangar??), where Vince learned all about cricket, and we bought a great bottle of dessert Semillon. Mmmm.

Byron Bay and Coffs Harbour, last of the East Coast

Leaving the Gold Coast, we returned to more of the small seaside town feel that we enjoy. We stopped by Byron Bay on our way to our next stop in Coffs Harbour. There isn’t a whole lot in either town other than more beautiful coastline (you might be starting to see a trend here).

In Byron Bay we drove up to the lighthouse, which is the Eastern most point of Australia. It is situated high above a point with two large sweeping bays on either side. Inside the lighthouse were some interesting nautical knickknacks, including salvaged desk from a shipwreck.

This is the view to the south of the lighthouse of a long crescent shaped beach that backs up against lush forests. The weather was on again, off again rain throughout the whole day, but it was still pretty warm so it wasn't a big deal.

To the north is a surfing point with these incredibly long Rights of nicely shaped, slow rolling waves created by a rocky point break.

Coffs Harbour, another idyllic piece of Australian coastline. We had a nice two bedroom apartment with great, free internet connection (a rarity in Australia), so we took the advantage to get some work done and catch up on emails. Also had a great kitchen with an oven, so we made one of our favorite dishes: sausage stuffed red peppers.

The Gold Coast

We spent 2 full days (3 nights) on the Gold Coast.

The Rainforest:

On our first day, we actually went inland (to "The Hinterland", as they say in Australia) to do some rainforest hiking. First, we went to Purlingbrook Falls.

To go to another vista of the falls, we had to walk through this area above the falls where water was flowing over the walkway… Why didn’t you take off your shoes and walk barefoot through? you ask. Glad we didn’t do that - - this group of people there who did just that, they were pulling leeches off their feet – eek.

Next, we went to our favorite lookout, called “The Best of all Lookout” – and yes, some Antarctic beech trees.

This is the huge root system of a few Antarctic trees… somehow, the trees prove that Antarctica and Australia used to be one land mass.

And here’s the view of the valley from the Best of All Lookout:

Next we went to see “Natural Bridge” another hike through lush green rainforest. The natural bridge actually consists of a waterfall that has carved away a cave both in between the archway, and the hole under the archway. Hard to describe, and a picture is worthd 1,000 words, so here is 4,000 words to help -

The drive back to the coast was very green as well:

The Coast:

On our second day, we explored different beaches along the Gold coast. Overall, the area is much more built-up and has a more touristy (and less idyllic) feel than many of the other beaches we visited – we called it Miami. Along with the high-rises, it does also have beautiful white, serene beaches as well as crashing waves on rocks. Here are some highlights:

This Sunshine Coast, aka The Skin Cancer Capital

Leaving Hervey Bay, we headed directly south down along the aptly named Sunshine Coast. It really is beautiful beach after beautiful beach. It is known as the skin cancer capital of the world because of the intensity of the sun and the outdoor lifestyle. They aren’t kidding, that sun is fierce. We took the proper precautions and bought a liter of sunscreen that comes with a pump top.

Along the way we stopped at Mount Tinbeerwah, a rock with a 265 meter summit. To the right of us is a salt water lake, and in the distance is the ocean. The next picture looks back east along a winding river and lush forests.

This is just one of the nice beaches just south of Noosa Heads, which is a ritzy tourist spot that is like a mini La Jolla.

We spent the night in a town on the southern part of the Sunshine Coast named Mooloolaba. We were completely butchering the pronunciation of the until we got there (oh Mah-lew-luh-buh, right). There was a rocky portion of the beach connected to a lit up portion of the beach, pretty cool for night activity like beach cricket.

The next day we drove back north to hike up Mount Coolum and got this amazing view up and down the coast. In the bottom right you can see a Peregrine Falcon, the fastest bird that can dive at 200 mph (fun fact provided by Gary Lloyd, Megan’s dad). Here’s the little speed demon close-up:

On our way to Mount Coolum we made a wrong turn and got directions from a nice guy, who also gave us two tickets to Day 2 of the Australian PGA Championship. After the hike we went in and watched a few holes along a really nice course. The only major US player there was John Daly (we didn’t catch him), who ended up shooting 85 (melt-down!) and missing the second cut. The group with by far the biggest gallery was Geoff Ogilvy and Adam Scott (which Megan dubbed the good-looking, young group without knowing who they were). One other observation was the large number of Asian golfers smoking cigarettes between holes, I think golf is the only sport you can get away with that.

The following day we visited a ginger factory, since the region is known for their ginger production. Ginger from local farms is transported to this large facility where they clean and cut the ginger before it is processed in these large vats. Afterwards, we got a little ginger tasting platter of some of their products. Then we walked across the road and visited to Macadamia Nut factory and bought some delicious chocolate covered nuts.

Hervey Bay, Australia's best-kept secret (until now)

Finally, a gorgeous white beach that we could go on (no crocs or box jellyfish here).

After a couple of long days in the car, we were really happy to take a long walk down the beach – so we took several. On our full day there, we walked to the other side of town, and found this 3,000-foot pier built in 1917, with some people fishing on it – so we walked to the end of that too.

We also found this shark museum… Did you know that there are about 400 species of sharks, but only 8 of those are big and aggressive enough to be dangerous to people? Didn't go in, but read their window.

And this cute metal ship model.

It was a very good day… Probably our favorite beach in Australia. The sand was like baby powder, the water was warm, and the beach was nearly empty. And there was no lethal wildlife keeping us off the beach or out of the water.

Rockhampton and Bundaberg, or Rocky & Bundy

Leaving Airlie Beach we continued south towards Hervey Bay, passing through Rockhampton for a quick night’s stay. For some reason, Australians have to shorten everything with more than one syllable and thus Rockhampton is known as Rocky. We definitely got a good feel for how large the country is through this back to back 5+ hour drive days along the Bruce Highway.

Can’t remember where this is, but it was a nice little point overlooking the ocean somewhere between Airlie Beach and Mackay. Also got a nice nature sighting of these strange black birds, with bright orange beaks and eyes.

This is a lighthouse we passed by in Mackay. It was first in use in the late 1800s and got moved to its current location (at the end of a parking lot in a boat harbor) after it was decommissioned.

Megan at the wheel, enjoying the beautiful scenery. This was how she normally looked except for the time earlier in the trip we got caught up in a lightning storm, neither of us were smiling for that part. Although we did get to see lightning up close and personal all around us.

Here’s us stopping for oncoming traffic. Australia roads are quite well maintained. Their signage is good, especially for warning you about ongoing road work and changed traffic conditions. Most of this stretch are undivided, two-lane highways, so we had to test the Yaris a few times to pass those pesky trucks.

In Rockhampton, we walked down to the Fitzroy River. Weeks later, this river would overflow and cause some of the worst problems for Queensland in their statewide floods.

Rod Laver, the famous tennis player, was from Rockhampton. We know this because the bust and plaque told us so (and later confirmed by Wikipedia).

This is a covered lawn bowling club. Lawn bowling is huge in Australia and there seems to be a club in every town no matter the size. We even saw it broadcasted on TV.

After spending the night in Rockhampton, we stopped by the Bundaberg Ginger Beer factory. Inside this giant barrel is a little museum about the process of making Ginger Beer, the traditional way. We also had a taste of each of the 20 or so flavors of soda they make, which was an unbelievable amount of sugar and carbonation for two non-soda drinkers.