Australia (Besides Melbourne And Sydney) Master Thread

[AJK]

Surprising that it'd be cheaper to do Whitehaven from Airlie Beach instead of HTI, considering its 3-4x as far.

[Dan]

Surprising that it'd be cheaper to do Whitehaven from Airlie Beach instead of HTI, considering its 3-4x as far.

Lots of private charters and skippers from Airlie Beach.  If you don't mind a booze cruise, you can go for a couple day tour for very cheap.
Nothing on HTI except do it yourself (expressly forbidden to go to Whitehaven) or renting an ultra-luxury boat.

At least as of 2010.

[ganizzy]

To answer about GOR,  there are no big trucks barelling at you.  If u go when it's not holiday there,  the roads are pretty quiet.
When I went in August there were stretches when we were the only car on the road.

Besides the constant pull outs, there is plenty to stop and do/see. Plenty hiking,  watching surfers, water falls,  sights. ... u can Def stop every 2 hours
I really enjoyed it and my kids as well.  Was the highlight of our 3 week trip there.  (I'm pretty sure I wrote a TR)
If u have time in Sydney I have heard great stuff about the caves there.  U need a day for that.  We liked the blue mountains.
There are other things to do based out of Melbourne,  my family (parents,  siblings andtheir spouses...) did some stuff like wild animal Park,  bird Park,  penguins,  scenic spots. ...
The pictures they sent looked great but I don't know the names.  I can ask if u want.

There is whale watching by the GOR but it's seasonal

[Yehoshua]

To answer about GOR,  there are no big trucks barelling at you.  If u go when it's not holiday there,  the roads are pretty quiet.
When I went in August there were stretches when we were the only car on the road.

Besides the constant pull outs, there is plenty to stop and do/see. Plenty hiking,  watching surfers, water falls,  sights. ... u can Def stop every 2 hours
I really enjoyed it and my kids as well.  Was the highlight of our 3 week trip there.  (I'm pretty sure I wrote a TR)
If u have time in Sydney I have heard great stuff about the caves there.  U need a day for that.  We liked the blue mountains.
There are other things to do based out of Melbourne,  my family (parents,  siblings andtheir spouses...) did some stuff like wild animal Park,  bird Park,  penguins,  scenic spots. ...
The pictures they sent looked great but I don't know the names.  I can ask if u want.

There is whale watching by the GOR but it's seasonal

+1 to everything. Plus there's the Blood on the Southern Cross thing that we didn't get to but is supposed to be really good. It's not too far from MEL either.

[Moishebatchy]

I gotta pull the trigger on my AA award soon, or it will expire. As of right now, it enters Australia via SYD, then connects to MEL on QF; like this I can still change my mind once it's ticketed - if I decide to stay in SYD for Shabbos, I can always drop the last leg.

BUT... this is all based on the assumption that Shabbos will be spent in the proximity of either one of those two airports. Now, with all these new possibilities popping up that I need to research, such as damaxer91's suggestion to skip MEL altogether, should I also be considering the possibility of spending Shabbos anywhere other than SYD or MEL, and plan my arrival into Australia accordingly? Or Shabbos should for sure be spent in either SYD or MEL, and if I end up flying anywhere else, it will be after Shabbos (and thus is not relevant to my AA award, since it will be more than 24 hours anyway)?

[damaxer91]

Frankly, I must see Whitehaven Beach before I die.

Its quite unbelievable

There is a short hike up on top of it where you can look down and see a panorama of the area. Words don't do justice....

http://www.exclusivegetaway.com.au/whitehaven-beach/

[Yehoshua]

I gotta pull the trigger on my AA award soon, or it will expire. As of right now, it enters Australia via SYD, then connects to MEL on QF; like this I can still change my mind once it's ticketed - if I decide to stay in SYD for Shabbos, I can always drop the last leg.

BUT... this is all based on the assumption that Shabbos will be spent in the proximity of either one of those two airports. Now, with all these new possibilities popping up that I need to research, such as damaxer91's suggestion to skip MEL altogether, should I also be considering the possibility of spending Shabbos anywhere other than SYD or MEL, and plan my arrival into Australia accordingly? Or Shabbos should for sure be spent in either SYD or MEL, and if I end up flying anywhere else, it will be after Shabbos (and thus is not relevant to my AA award, since it will be more than 24 hours anyway)?

I wouldn't skip MEL and the GOR. we loved both our shabbosos in MEL and SYD.

[damaxer91]

Re MEL, if you are Lubavitch you will certainly appreciate the community there even more.

Only thing I can't understand about Australia is how there can be so many Jews and such bad food

[AJK]

Its quite unbelievable

There is a short hike up on top of it where you can look down and see a panorama of the area. Words don't do justice....

http://www.exclusivegetaway.com.au/whitehaven-beach/

I can't describe it, but the pictures of Whitehaven make me just want to run naked in my bathing suit and roll all around in the sand. Just looks incredible. Like a mess of delectable ice cream:

[Dan]

Setting yourself up for a world of disappointment if you think it looks like that to the naked eye from the ground...

[tuvz]

Re MEL, if you are Lubavitch you will certainly appreciate the community there even more.

Only thing I can't understand about Australia is how there can be so many Jews and such bad food

because of the heavy costs involved with opening any food related business here. Supplies, Kashrus, lack of cheap labor etc

that being said the produce here, fruits, vegies, meat, fish etc is on par with the US or probably better

[Dan]

because of the heavy costs involved with opening any food related business here. Supplies, Kashrus, lack of cheap labor etc

that being said the produce here, fruits, vegies, meat, fish etc is on par with the US or probably better

Huh?
How is that an excuse for the utterly lackluster restaurant scene?
Plenty of places, just nothing very good.

[AJK]

Setting yourself up for a world of disappointment if you think it looks like that to the naked eye from the ground...

Nope...

There is a short hike up on top of it where you can look down and see a panorama of the area. Words don't do justice....

[Dan]

I have panorama pics of the area from the plane and from higher elevations and they sure don't look like that.

Hopefully you'll make it there and post pics to prove me wrong.

[AJK]

I have panorama pics of the area from the plane and from higher elevations and they sure don't look like that.

Hopefully you'll make it there and post pics to prove me wrong.

Post some!

[Moishebatchy]

Re MEL, if you are Lubavitch you will certainly appreciate the community there even more.

No, I am not Lubavitch, actually. But thanks for the tip.

My main concern now is making sure my Shabbos options are covered by my current itinerary, so I can ticket it already. If - as a random example - there is reason to believe I may want to spend Shabbos in Cairns (or thereabouts), then I have to add SYD-CNS or MEL-CNS right now, before ticketing, so that I don't get hit with "destination change" fees later.

So that being the case... is there anywhere else I should be open to the idea of spending Shabbos? Or it's for sure gonna be either MEL or SYD - one of those two?

Exactly what I do and where I go after that first Shabbos, I still have some time to work on, I suppose.

[moish]

in my tr, i detailed some of the stops on the gor. take a look

[harry]

Huh?
How is that an excuse for the utterly lackluster restaurant scene?
Plenty of places, just nothing very good.

lol. couldn't have said it better!!

[damaxer91]

Setting yourself up for a world of disappointment if you think it looks like that to the naked eye from the ground...

If you do the hike, that is exactly the view that you'll see.

[Moishebatchy]

Add more time to the trip.

So I'm taking this suggestion as seriously as I can, under the circumstances...

I may be able to arrive in MEL a bit earlier - either on Wednesday, or at the very least Thursday morning (as opposed to late Thursday night/Friday morning). The problem is, Shabbos is still Shabbos; even if I arrive a day earlier, it's not like I can head out to the GOR (or anyplace else major, for that matter) a day earlier - I'm still restricted to heading out Sunday morning.

So, in light of that... is it still worth the effort involved in arriving in Australia earlier? Or should I just stick with my original plan, and not make myself crazy for that one extra day?