First trip to Australia & New Zealand completed

[Kristelle]

Have enjoyed reading your reviews of Australia.

 

We don't have the bush turkeys or cassowaries where I live in SA but we do have the bin chickens another poster mentioned.

 

Not sure what real name of them is.

 

I've lived in SA all my life, and only went to Perth this year. Have not yet been to Phillip Island.

[yarramar]

7 hours ago, JJK2008 said:

and even a slithering snake that my DW nearly stepped on. Was it a venomous one??? Don't know.

I have never seen a snake in the wild that was NOT venomous. In fact, if indeed your DW almost stepped on one, it was a close call. Most of the snakes you come across on Oz are extremely deadly. Tell her after she has had her morning coffee.

[yarramar]

2 hours ago, Ozwoody said:

Did you by chance see the giant earthworm display in Gippsland on the way to Philip Island?

They are the largest earthworms in the world at about 2 metres (6 Ft) long and about 25mm (1 inch) thick, native to that area.

The earthworm display was closed down years ago. It is now just a big empty shed.

[lyndarra]

49 minutes ago, Kristelle said:

 

 

We don't have the bush turkeys or cassowaries where I live in SA but we do have the bin chickens another poster mentioned.

 

Not sure what real name of them is.

 

 

Bin chicken aka ibis.

[Ozwoody]

28 minutes ago, yarramar said:

The earthworm display was closed down years ago. It is now just a big empty shed.

Now that is sad, it was a great educational exhibit, on earthworm life cycle, and how they effect the habitat and the ecology. Not just the giant ones by the way.

It was on the way to Philip Island, I use to take my kids there on our way to see the penguins.

[Ima Ginaree]

Wow! Great itinerary.
You’ve seen a lot of wonderful places that may have spoiled you for other more mundane destinations.

 

Just a word to anyone reading this thread and thinking you’d like to do something like this yourself… Australia is huge. Our population is concentrated in coastal cities and towns. Once you venture away from the coast and especially the state capitals there are considerably less people and less services available.
 

Re distances, Sydney to Port Douglas by car is 2475 kilometres (1,538 miles) and requires you to drive 27 hours - if you don’t stop anywhere. To travel from Sydney to Adelaide you cover 1372 kilometres (853m) which is just over 14 hours - if you don’t stop anywhere. Unless you can arrange a one-way car hire, you then have to do the same route/s in reverse. Also note these two destinations lie in totally opposite directions, so you can’t do one while you are on the way to the other.

 

Trains travel these routes but they are slow, expensive and infrequent. You may have to stay overnight in places to wait for the next train or bus connection especially when crossing a state border (Yes I’m talking about Brisbane). You certainly need to book in advance. You would want to pay for a sleeper berth.

 

What I’m saying is that if you don’t have a long holiday break, you may need to rely on flights to get you from one place to another, then hire a car to do local sightseeing.

 

There are many stories (maybe urban myths) about tourists hopping off the plane in Sydney thinking they can take a taxi/cab to Canberra (Australia’s capital city). The fact is they could if they find the right driver but it is at least a three hour journey and therefore lots of $$$$.

 

As mentioned by OP, do your research well and then come on over. We’d love to see you.

 

 

[JJK2008]

2 hours ago, lyndarra said:

Bin chicken aka ibis.

We have them in Florida as well......

[possum52]

6 hours ago, JJK2008 said:

Thank You for the kind words, but Please don't look upon our trip with shame. Look at it as inspiration to do more. There is plenty in the USA we have not done or seen. That constantly gives us something to look forward to. We and hopefully you as well are very blessed and living a charmed life. There are many people that we know personally, and I'll speculate people you know personally as well, that will never be able to what we are doing every day for a variety of reasons, health, financial, family and more. Enjoy each day, we don't get a do over.

 

We did not see the earthworms. Didn't remember seeing anything about them. I checked the map and see that Gibbsland was east of Melbourne. We flew to Melbourne and then travelled west eventually ending in Adelaide. So, we never passed Gibbsland. Nancy is pretty good at checking out every nook and cranny of a trip. So, it would have been unusual for her to have missed something like that. Oh well, another reason to come back to Oz😄. The reasons to return seem to keep piling up!!! All Good. All of us on here love to cruise, so who knows, perhaps some of us will end up on a cruise at the same time. It could happen. Stay Safe.

 

John  

As you went to Phillip Island, you drove through southwest Gippsland John. Or did you go to Phillip Island on a cruise?

[Blackduck59]

Happy to see your wonderful report. We planned our down under trip twice and Covid got in the way both times. We will have booked our cruise portion for March of 2025. That is mostly New Zealand, we plan on extensive road trip while we are in OZ. We won't see much in reality but there are quite a few CC friends to meet up with and that will be the highlight of the trip.

[FeebeeH]

12 hours ago, yarramar said:

I have never seen a snake in the wild that was NOT venomous. In fact, if indeed your DW almost stepped on one, it was a close call. Most of the snakes you come across on Oz are extremely deadly. Tell her after she has had her morning coffee.

Not necessarily all snakes in the wild in Australia are venomous.  I back onto bush about 40 mins North of Sydney.   We often get diamond pythons in our trees.  Our poor featherless lorikeet has had several assassination attempts on his life (at least 7).  They've all been thwarted by my husband who catches them & releases them about 8 houses up the road onto Crown land.  Being a python they kill their prey by constriction.  On the other hand I'm not fond if the red bellies or browns which are venomous that also occasionally visit. 

[JJK2008]

9 hours ago, possum52 said:

As you went to Phillip Island, you drove through southwest Gippsland John. Or did you go to Phillip Island on a cruise?

OK, now you got me looking again. We stayed in Melbourne for 5 days and drove to Phillips Island from Melbourne not on a cruise. I looked at the map again and don't see Gibbsland at all between Melbourne and Phillips Island, which is south, southeast of Melbourne. The only mention I see of Gibbsland is Gibbsland Lakes Coastal Park, which is very far east of Melbourne. We didn't go anywhere near that area. So where is the Gibbsland near Melbourne??? 

[JJK2008]

1 hour ago, FeebeeH said:

Not necessarily all snakes in the wild in Australia are venomous.  I back onto bush about 40 mins North of Sydney.   We often get diamond pythons in our trees.  Our poor featherless lorikeet has had several assassination attempts on his life (at least 7).  They've all been thwarted by my husband who catches them & releases them about 8 houses up the road onto Crown land.  Being a python they kill their prey by constriction.  On the other hand I'm not fond if the red bellies or browns which are venomous that also occasionally visit. 

Not a fan of snakes of any kind. We have more than our share here in Florida as well. We always have to be careful when opening a door to outside as there could be one on the porch. We've had it happen a few times when you open the door and SURPRISE - there will be a snake right there. Even around the house, we have to be careful where you reach. NEVER just stick your hand near a bush to pick something up. Until living in Florida I never knew snakes were such good climbers. They will climb the trees in search of bird's chicks/eggs. Something I learned from living here.   

[cruiser3775]

1 hour ago, JJK2008 said:

OK, now you got me looking again. We stayed in Melbourne for 5 days and drove to Phillips Island from Melbourne not on a cruise. I looked at the map again and don't see Gibbsland at all between Melbourne and Phillips Island, which is south, southeast of Melbourne. The only mention I see of Gibbsland is Gibbsland Lakes Coastal Park, which is very far east of Melbourne. We didn't go anywhere near that area. So where is the Gibbsland near Melbourne??? 

It's Gippsland, with two 'p's. Phillip Island is in south Gippsland.

[JJK2008]

16 hours ago, yarramar said:

The earthworm display was closed down years ago. It is now just a big empty shed.

Hmmm, that could explain why we didn't see any ads for the attraction.

[JJK2008]

10 minutes ago, cruiser3775 said:

It's Gippsland, with two 'p's. Phillip Island is in south Gippsland.

OK I had it spelled wrong🤪. I'm old, I get confused, it happens😆. Thank You for the correction. So, Gippsland is a region of Victoria that Phillips Island is located in. Got it. We would have driven through Gippsland going to Phillips Island. Don't recall seeing anything that distinguished the area as Gippsland. Another posting on here said the Giant Earthworm exhibit has been closed for years. That explains why we didn't see any ads for it.  

[JJK2008]

8 hours ago, Blackduck59 said:

Happy to see your wonderful report. We planned our down under trip twice and Covid got in the way both times. We will have booked our cruise portion for March of 2025. That is mostly New Zealand, we plan on extensive road trip while we are in OZ. We won't see much in reality but there are quite a few CC friends to meet up with and that will be the highlight of the trip.

We did a similar thing to what you are planning. Covid cancelled our original trip to Oz. And like you we replanned and went this year. It's great to have friends in your travel locations. We also met up with friends in Oz that gave the local tours - Priceless. We found the New Zealand cruise is an excellent way to get an overview of New Zealand given time allotted. We did a Princess cruise that left and returned to Sydney. We were also very fortunate that our weather for the 2-week cruise was fine. The only thing that caught us off-guard a bit was that the temps were much cooler than we expected. We did not plan accordingly for that. In fact, when we were in Fiordland National Park it was actually cold. The sun was shining but it was cold. This was early November, so early spring for New Zealand. But the cruise and the whole trip far exceeded what we had hoped for. As we did all the planning ourselves, if you desire, I can certainly pass along to you any tidbits that might be helpful in planning yours. Just let me know. To you and yours, have a Great Christmas and Healthy and Safe New Year upcoming. 

 

John

[Ozwoody]

4 hours ago, JJK2008 said:

OK I had it spelled wrong🤪. I'm old, I get confused, it happens😆. Thank You for the correction. So, Gippsland is a region of Victoria that Phillips Island is located in. Got it. We would have driven through Gippsland going to Phillips Island. Don't recall seeing anything that distinguished the area as Gippsland. Another posting on here said the Giant Earthworm exhibit has been closed for years. That explains why we didn't see any ads for it.  

Its very disappointing that the worm centre closed it was very educational.

Been checking it out, evidently they were closed down because they did not have proper approval to be working with an endangered species.

They only live in an area where a specific clay is, and "progress" is putting them in being endangered.

 

Regards

[possum52]

6 hours ago, JJK2008 said:

OK, now you got me looking again. We stayed in Melbourne for 5 days and drove to Phillips Island from Melbourne not on a cruise. I looked at the map again and don't see Gibbsland at all between Melbourne and Phillips Island, which is south, southeast of Melbourne. The only mention I see of Gibbsland is Gibbsland Lakes Coastal Park, which is very far east of Melbourne. We didn't go anywhere near that area. So where is the Gibbsland near Melbourne??? 

Gippsland extends right across the south east of Victoria from the outer Melbourne suburbs to the NSW border and of course includes the beautiful Gippsland Lakes. Gippsland tends to be where most of Victoria’s big bush/forest fires occur. In the 2019-2020 fire season, many towns and areas of Gippsland were affected by fire. 

[JJK2008]

34 minutes ago, possum52 said:

Gippsland extends right across the south east of Victoria from the outer Melbourne suburbs to the NSW border and of course includes the beautiful Gippsland Lakes. Gippsland tends to be where most of Victoria’s big bush/forest fires occur. In the 2019-2020 fire season, many towns and areas of Gippsland were affected by fire. 

Thank You. I've since learned that Gippsland (I was spelling it wrong😌) is a region and not a city. So, YES, we would have driven through Gippsland on the way to Phillips Island. I don't recall seeing anything that identified the area as Gippsland. Another posting on here helped me out a bit (I can use all the help I can get).   

[possum52]

23 minutes ago, JJK2008 said:

Thank You. I've since learned that Gippsland (I was spelling it wrong😌) is a region and not a city. So, YES, we would have driven through Gippsland on the way to Phillips Island. I don't recall seeing anything that identified the area as Gippsland. Another posting on here helped me out a bit (I can use all the help I can get).   

Which way did you drive to Adelaide John? Did you continue on from the Great Ocean Road along the coast into South Australia or cut up to the Western Highway and through to Adelaide? If you went through Warrnambool and Portland across to South Australia you travelled through the South West region of Victoria. If you went via the Western Highway, you travelled through the Wimmera region. 

[cruiser3775]

57 minutes ago, JJK2008 said:

Thank You. I've since learned that Gippsland (I was spelling it wrong😌) is a region and not a city. So, YES, we would have driven through Gippsland on the way to Phillips Island. I don't recall seeing anything that identified the area as Gippsland. Another posting on here helped me out a bit (I can use all the help I can get).   

I agree spelling place names wrongly can get you into all sorts of trouble when travelling. I've been caught out too. So I guess I should tell you it's Phillip Island, no 's' on the end.

 

[JJK2008]

Just now, cruiser3775 said:

I agree spelling place names wrongly can get you into all sorts of trouble when travelling. I've been caught out too. So I guess I should tell you it's Phillip Island, no 's' on the end.

 

I'm 0 for 2. In baseball I get one more and I'm out. Not my first time, I've struck out before.

[JJK2008]

36 minutes ago, possum52 said:

Which way did you drive to Adelaide John? Did you continue on from the Great Ocean Road along the coast into South Australia or cut up to the Western Highway and through to Adelaide? If you went through Warrnambool and Portland across to South Australia you travelled through the South West region of Victoria. If you went via the Western Highway, you travelled through the Wimmera region. 

We stayed on the Great Ocean Road. We stopped in Mt. Gambier, Port Campbell and Cape Jervis. From Cape Jervis we went to Kangaroo Island. From there we continued to Adelaide for several days. Also did a side trip from Adelaide to Hahndorf. An Aussie we met on our cruise told us about it. It's a small German settlement only about 40 minutes from Adelaide. Quaint little town. Very nice. Had Lunch at the Hahndorf Inn. One of the oldest buildings in the Town. (hope I got the spelling right on this post)😋   

[possum52]

2 minutes ago, JJK2008 said:

We stayed on the Great Ocean Road. We stopped in Mt. Gambier, Port Campbell and Cape Jervis. From Cape Jervis we went to Kangaroo Island. From there we continued to Adelaide for several days. Also did a side trip from Adelaide to Hahndorf. An Aussie we met on our cruise told us about it. It's a small German settlement only about 40 minutes from Adelaide. Quaint little town. Very nice. Had Lunch at the Hahndorf Inn. One of the oldest buildings in the Town. (hope I got the spelling right on this post)😋   

The Great Ocean Road finishes just before Warrnambool. The highway through to Adelaide along the coast is the Princes Highway. You would have travelled through my home town of Warrnambool. 
 

Hahndorf is a beautiful town. What a fantastic trip you had. 

[yarramar]

1 hour ago, JJK2008 said:

I'm 0 for 2. In baseball I get one more and I'm out. Not my first time, I've struck out before.

That's Ok. we have a famous department store in Melbourne which is now nation wide. It is called "Myer". Many people say "Myers", I would probably call your home town "Fort Myer"