As a travel writer I often get asked about the best things to do. here’s some my list about Australia.
1.The biggest jumping off point for those looking to snorkel and dive the Great Barrier Reef, Cairns is a favoured point to catch a chartered tour to the reef. There are several companies that offer a wide variety of different kinds of trips to the Great Barrier Reef. You can choose between day-tours or extended trips, which vary greatly in quality.If you aren’t yet certified to scuba dive, but can’t possibly go on a day cruise to the Great Barrier Reef without doing so, just about all boats will give you the opportunity to do a resort dive, with no qualifications necessary. Virtually all operators have an green tourism rating, which means you don’t have to worry about damaging all the beautiful underwater scenery while you are snorkelling.
2.Happening in February, the Sydney Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras has grown to be the biggest of its type in the world. Over a million people line the route to see floats so colourful, and outfits so outlandish that Brazilian carnevalists would be envious. Streets are blocked off, bars along the way are crowded, and the gay and lesbian community party for days. It’s their Christmas. Hetro people are allowed along for the celebratory ride but this is a celebration of gay culture. The event began in 1979 with a parade of 1000 people marking International Gay Solidarity Day. These were much less forgiving times and there were fights with the law that led to arrests for ‘lewd behaviour’. These days gay and lesbian police march openly – and even in uniform – in the parade. The whole thing involves thousands of performers. Religious types are ever resentful of the wanton sexuality but are generally seen as part of the lunatic fringe during this festival. It’s an unforgetable party and can’t be missed.
3.An hour or so south of Cairns<, Mission Beach is the closest mainland point to the Great Barrier Reef. The beach is a 15 km long, perfect sandy beach, with fantastic views of Bedarra and a handful of other islands just within sight. There is a quaint village here, where you can learn more about activities like sea kayaking or scuba diving, though many would be perfectly content soaking up the sun and swimming in the crystal clear water.You can stay overnight in local accommodation, though most will be coming from Cairns. If you did not hire a car or RV for your [holiday|vacation|trip}, there is a bus service named Mission Beach Dunk Island Connections, which takes the scenic road between Port Douglas, Cairns, and the Cassowary coast.
4.Created around 1850 to keep cricketers fit in the off season, Aussie Rules is a mix of rugby, gaelic football and a charming Australian schoolboy pursuit called get the koala that involves gang-tackling the unfortunate person who has the ball. The game is played on an oval-shaped, cricket-sized ground between two teams of 18 players each. The idea is to kick the ball through two upright posts and earn six points. Miss and you get one point, or miss so badly the ball misses the smaller of the adjacent posts and you get zero. A free kick is gained when a catch is taken, awarded when a kick is caught before it touches the ground. This can be the most amazing of sights, players ‘ride’ the backs of their opponents (and team mates) so high they often concuss themselves when they fall back to the ground. The players pass the ball by hitting the ball with their bunched fist and can’t run without bouncing it every 10 metres. That’s about it for rules. The rules are so hypocritical that it’s little wonder no-one on Earth bar Aussies know what’s going on. Crowds routinely reach 100,000, most of whom are as knowledgeable about the history of their team as a history lecturer from Rhodes knows about ancient Rome. Therefore, an Aussie Rules game is definately a must see on a trip to Australia.
5.The Big Day Out is a summer music festival and Australia’s biggest travelling party. Like a mobile Woodstock the show has featured in recent years bands like Limp Bizkit, and Placebo. In the past top acts such as Nirvana and Iggy Pop have made the trip to Australia. From what was once as a one day festival in Sydney on Australia day now travels all around the country and even to New Zealand. It’s a must do activity for anyone under 30, local or tourist.
6.Called ‘The race that stops a nation’, The Melbourne Cup does just that. At 3.30pm on the first Tuesday in November, the whole country downs pencils and tunes in. People that have no interest in horse racing have a bet. School children are dismissed early to watch it on TV. The entire state of Victoria has a day off. Flemington, where the race is held, is a heaving mass of people. At least 150,000 people get to the track, and the same happens at every other race track in the whole country. Australians go crazy for ‘The Cup’, everyone becomes an tipster and sweeps are held in pubs and classrooms around the country. As a way of seeing how Australians work, getting to Flemington on Melbourne Cup Day can’t be beaten.
7.The largest continuous area of rainforest in Australia, the Daintree National Park is a protected area of thick rainforest a short distance north of Cairns. The park, which encompasses around 1200 square kilometers, is not only World Heritage listed, but is also home to a large variety of plant and animal life—including marsupials, frogs, birds and more. Considered the oldest rainforest in the world, the Daintree forest is over 138 million years old and has more than 440 different species of bird, including 13 species that are found nowhere else in the world. There are lots of day hikes that allow adventurers to experience sections of this incredible rainforest without the crowds, as well as guided tours that can help teach you about the local history on your way.
8.Whitehaven Beach is set amongst the 74 Whitsunday Islands along the Central Queensland coast and can be reached by boat or air. I have been to many beaches in my journeys and this is undoubtedly the most perfect, most beautiful stretch of sand I have ever visited. If you can think of the most perfect, whitest, cleanest sand, the clearest, lightest, bluest water that’s what it looks like. Airlie Beach is the usual departure point to get to the Whitsunday Islands and Whitehaven Beach. The usual way to see Whitehaven is an overnight sailing tour. There are lots of sailing companies in Airlie Beach that offer this service. There are also day trips to just Whitehave or including a visit to another island such as South Molle Island.
9.Attend a surf camp and experience the surfing lifestyle. Have you ever dreamed of riding the ocean swell? Well, now is your chance. Surfing is second nature in Australia. Not just as a sport, but also as a lifestyle. There is something special about the people that live and breath surfing. They have a natural ease and calm for lifelust for life, that is hard to find elsewhere. And it’s difficult to understand it until you actually try it. The two seconds of glory while you stand on the board for the first time, with knees shaking like an old man will stay with you forever. At least long enough to recover from the wave that will try to hit you three seconds later.If you ever imagined that surfing was easy, you were terribly wrong. Surfing is extremely hard, and can be a real pain in the ass, but highly worth the effort.
10.Port Arthur is a great tourist destination full of convict history. Founded as a penal settlement in 1830, Port Arthur originally served the British Empire as a timber station. Industry in the area soon followed and by the 1840s Port Arthur had a convict population of over 1100. However, by the 1870s the convicts were gone and left the buildings of the period that stand to this day that weren’t destroyed by fires in the late 19th century. Tourists soon emerged with an interest in viewing the “horrors” of a British penal colony. Preservation of Port Arthur as a historic site was established with the creation of the Scenery Preservation Board in 1916. Today, ongoing archeological studies continue to dig up the penal colony past. Don’t miss the night ghost tours.
I trust these help any prospective travellers Downunder.
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