Where We Have Been - Australia

We have made multiple trips to Australia including driving from Melbourne to Perth via the Nullabor Plain, crossed from the Flinders Ranges to Coober Pedy stopping at William Creek, a town of ten located on the largest cattle station in the World, through the centre of Australia to visit Uluru (a spiritual place), driven the Great Ocean Road and many more kilometers.

We spent a night in the Underground Motel in the Opal town of White Cliffs, spent a night in the Back of Burke while listening to the massive Road Trains passing through, caught an AFL game and Formula 1 in Melbourne, Indy Cars and V8 Supercars on the Gold Coast, driven a lap of Mount Panorama at Bathurst, or the Mountain as it is affectionately referred to by petrolheads, visited Broken Hill and Silverton where Mad Max 2 (The Road Warrior) was filmed, tasted wine in the Hunter Valley (well Carolyn did as David, much to his disgust, doesn’t like wine) and taken in internationally acclaimed shows in both Sydney and Melbourne.

When it comes to wildlife we enjoy Australia with is widely diverse range of animals as New Zealand’s native animals are effectively all birds.

We experienced a full body breach by a Humpback Whale off Hervey Bay, watched the parts bin animal that is the Platypus in the wild, visited a Bat Hospital, observed Salties in their natural habit near Port Douglas, driven through a Locust swarm, swerved to avoid Emus on the road, stopped to let a snake finish crossing the road, “chased” a Frilled Lizard into the bush (until snakes came to mind), been to Australia Zoo and Taronga Western Plains Zoo Dubbo (both well worth a visit) and many others, met a Dingo in the pub, of all places, in William Creek, visited with the Quokkas on Rottnest Island, stopped to watch Wedge Tailed Eagles on the road between Alice Springs and Coober Pedy, and snorkeled on the Great Barrier Reef.

We even watched in astonishment as a group of Australians got very excited about a Possum in the rafters while we were having dinner (the around metre long lizard perched on top of a toilet partition was more interesting to us). Possum’s were introduced to New Zealand where they are everywhere and an absolute pest.