Australia Road Trip

We knew Australia would be more expensive than India, so after considering our options between expensive bus tickets along with expensive hostels (approximately $20-$30 US per person per night), we decided to rent a reasonably priced station wagon that would let us sleep in the back and road trip around.

Here's a picture of us picking up the beauty:

Right after we got our station wagon, we headed to a travel agent to see if we could find any travel deals. This is where we met Marion, our travel agent. We enjoyed visiting about travel so much that she invited us out for dinner after she got off work with her partner, Nic. We all had such a great time visiting over dinner that they invited us to spend the night at their house! They offered us an extremely comfortable futon and our first hot shower in over 2 months! We felt like we were back home! Then they barbecued us up some bacon for breakfast. Barbecuing is the big thing in Australia. We'd never had BBQ bacon before. That was pretty fun, besides being really hospitable of them. We're on a great track for meeting extremely kind and generous people upon entering countries (we had some similar experiences when we arrived in India). Hopefully some of the great friends we've met abroad are enchanted by our ravings about how great Utah is so we are able to reciprocate some hospitality. Meeting such great people is such a memorable way to travel. Here's a picture of the 4 of us at their place:

After our amazing breakfast that morning, we hopped in our station wagon after saying our grand goodbyes, and the key wouldn't turn over. A repair guy came, sprayed some silicon in the tumbler, cussed a little, and ultimately gave up and called a tow truck. Apparently this happens all the time with that version of vehicle, but we had to wait for a tow truck to come take us all the way back to the rental shop to exchange for our new and improved station wagon as seen below at our first roadside "campsite."

After a great night's rest (by station wagon standards), we went for a run in the lovely countryside, then ate breakfast from our cooler and stumbled across our 2nd fabulously warm shower at a local municipal park where we also washed some clothes.




Throughout our road trip, our campsites were usually rest stops, but occasionally, we ended up in random parking lots. We were also able to take various interesting roads along our drive North from Brisbane on our way to go diving in the Great Barrier Reef. One detour that caught our eye was a place called the "Glass Mountains." These are volcanic "plugs" where the earth wore down around the lava core that had turned solid. We hadn't heard of this type of inactive volcano before. The main volcanoes we are familiar with are mountain looking mounds with a depression in the middle. It was an interesting and beautifully scenic drive. Here's a picture of the "Glass Mountains":

We finally reached the southern-most tip of the Great Barrier Reef and found out that the best diving to be found was actually not on the reef itself unless you wanted to spend upwards of $1,000 to go remote, so we opted for a "less expensive" amazing dive on the Yongala Shipwreck. This dive is considered as one of the top 10 in the world and is unique because it is in the same Eco system as the Great Barrier Reef, but isolated between sections of the reef by a several hours boat ride in a sandy bottom section of ocean. This makes it the only area for miles with any hard structure, so the coral have overtaken the ship and it has become a major feeding site for sea life. The fish here grow ENORMOUS and look like they're on steroids! While we were diving, we decided to get our Advanced Diving certificate since the cost difference was and we've become fond of traveling education certification :)

Because this is Jellyfish season, we were required to wear full body wetsuits including head-covers. Here's Kelsi all suited up:

The sea life was spectacular. Near the beginning of our first dive, we saw this sting ray:

We saw several more sting rays as well as several turtles. Below is a picture of Kelsi touching a turtle after her guide had given permission.

Below is a picture of our guide holding an Olive Sea Snake, one of Australia's most poisonous (and Australia is famous for poisonous snakes). We saw dozens of these venomous snakes, but fortunately they are very docile and don't care to bite. In Australia the main things to worry about in the sea are the crocodiles and the stinging jelly fish.

We found Nemo!

After diving we went to an Australian aboriginal cultural center where they taught us the secrets of the Boomerang, an indigenous Australian weapon, toy, or tool. Rusty thinks he looks fierce in this picture, so we didn't include the follow-up pictures which show Kelsi out throwing him.

Not only did we snap a few pictures in front of the famous Sydney Opera House... we also splurged and went to an opera. Where is a better place to appreciate a dramatic opera performances than the seventh-world-wonder Sydney Opera House?!