If you're going to fly over 16,000 miles round trip, and likely won't get a chance to be back again, you're faced with that inevitable dilemma: do you experience a few places - maybe just one - and experience them in more depth, or do you experience as many places as you can, but much more superficially.
Australia is BIG. Click here to compare size
How does one begin to choose?
For better or worse, we decided to experience as many different places as we could while remaining at least a few days in each place - a whirlwind "taster". So for the most part we limited ourselves to a minimum of 3 days, 4 nights in each location (always leaving a full day in between for traveling - that usually left us an "extra" afternoon or morning)
Since we're in our mid 70's, it's unlikely we'll get a chance to return. But if we do, we'll face another dilemma: which of the places should we explore more? ALL of them are vying for more exploration.
Us in Sydney (photo by Graeme of "Bike Buffs - Sydney Bike Tours")
Us (Me and Ginny) at Circular Quay in Sydney
This overview will summarize our trip, to be followed by more detailed comments about each place, in separate subsequent parts. (With apologies in advance: the various parts may be finished more slowly than I'd like. Check back as subsequent parts get added)
We wanted to visit the hot areas in Australia, but wanted to avoid the heat. We also wanted to visit the cooler, wetter areas of Tasmania and south New Zealand, but wanted to avoid inclement weather. The compromise: go in mid spring (late Sept. and most of October); visit the hotter areas before they heat up, and the cooler areas later, hopefully after their weather has moderated.
Day 1-2 - Fly Seattle to San Francisco to Sydney
Days 3-6 Sydney (incl. the day that we arrive, jet-lagged, at 7 AM) (for part 2 Sydney click here)
Highlights: Bike tour of Sydney, experiencing a multi-cultural world-class city
Regret: Didn't spend several days in the Blue Mountains
Sydney Harbor from Harbour Bridge
Day 7 - Fly Sydney to UluruDays 8-9 - Uluru (For part 3 - Uluru - click here)
Highlight: Experiencing and circumnavigating Uluru by foot
Regret: Didn't spend a couple of days or more in the outback
First view of Uluru - formerly known as Ayers Rock before reverting to its indigenous name
Days 11-13 - Port Douglas, The Great Barrier Reef, the Daintree (for part 4 click here)
Highlight: The Daintree Rainforest
Regret: Didn't spend more time in the rain forest
Under the Daintree Rainforest canopy - a UNESCO World Heritage site
Days 15-16 - Melbourne (see Part 5 here)
Highlight: A grand city
Regret: Didn't spend enough time here, nor did we get to Phillips Island
Flying in to Melbourne
Days 18-20 - Hobart Tasmania and Port Arthur (see part 6 here)
Highlights: Port Arthur and stumbling on Jamie Maslin and his book "The Long Hitch Home"
Regret: Didn't spend much more time exploring Tasmania
On the boat from Hobart to the (in)famous MONA - The Museum of Old and New Art
Days 23-25 - Queenstown New Zealand (see part 7 here)
Highlights: Milford Sound, bicycling to Gibbston Valley, watching bungy jumping
Regret: not spending 2 weeks exploring the South Island and not being Jack Benny's age
Milford Sound Day Trip - A rarity - it was sunny!
Days 27-29 - Auckland (see part 8 here)
Highlights: visiting a friend's family's 110 year old farm on the far east end of Waiheke Island
Regret: not spending more time exploring more of New Zealand's north island
Day 30 -Fly Auckland - San Francisco - Seattle
Auckland skyline from top of Mt. Eden
Update Mar 11, 2018:
While planning our trip we read the book "The Fatal Shore" by Robert Hughes about the founding of Australia. A very insightful book review from the New York Times comparing the founding of Australia with the founding of the U.S. is here
Just today I learned of another book that we should have read when planning the trip: "A Long Way From Home" by Peter Carey ... a novel about a trio of Australians wending their way through Australia discovering things they had never known about their country. A book review is here
A Random Subjective Impression
Coming from Seattle, perhaps the fastest growing city in the US and maybe one of the richest, a particularly stark difference stood out. In Seattle you can not miss the homeless ... they are everywhere ... camping in tents or makeshift shelters, in encampments in most any unused piece of land, in parks, and sleeping rough in downtown doorways and under bridges.
In our trip in Australia we saw only two homeless people and no homeless tents or encampments. Although we were in a wide variety of areas (not just normal tourist areas), some of this may be the result of when and where we were. But statistics help bolster my observation.
Washington State, the American state that Seattle is in, has a population of about 7.28 million, of which about 22,000 (0.30%) are homeless.
New South Wales, the Australian state that Sydney is in, has a population of about 7.7 million, of which about 28,200 (0.37%) are "homeless".
Both are seemingly similar..
...But...
The definitions of homeless are not comparable. Australia considers homelessness much more broadly than the US - the figures for New South Wales are broken down as:
- Rough sleeping: 7% of the homeless
- Supported accommodation for the homeless (shelters): 18% of the homeless
- Boarding Houses: 23% of the homeless
- Overcrowded dwellings: 34% of the homeless
- Staying with other households: 18% of the homeless
- Other temporary accommodation: 1% of the homeless
The sbove suggests that Washington State has about 3 times the number of homeless sleeping rough or in tents or in shelters as does New South Wales (22,000 vs 7,700)
Why the difference?
- Both have a recent history of ferociously rising housing, property, and rental costs.
- Both seem to have lots of drug use (sharps disposals were in most public rest rooms in AU)
- Both have roughly equal unemployment rates (NSW = 4.6% and Washington State = 4.5%)
- Australia has a more developed safety net
- Australia has universal healthcare, including mental health care
- Australia has much higher wages for the lowest paid employees. As of 2016: Australia minimum wage: $AU 17.70/hr = ~ $US 12.27 compared to US minimum wage of $US 7.25/hr - and in the US tips count toward the minimum wage, reducing it even further.(in Seattle $11.50/hr to $13.50/hr depending on size of employer)
- Australia has much less income inequality than the US. Per Credit Suisse, Australia ranks # 2, and the US # 21 (alongside Greece and Austria) for mean wealth per person (a good indication of income inequality) See this article from MSN Money
- A taxi driver mentioned that the starting salary for a beginning waitress is Sydney would be about $20/hr.
I did notice that almost everything seemed to be more expensive in Sydney than Seattle. But if that's the price of paying people a living wage, and having a better standard of living for workers, it's a price worth paying. In the US we have good reason for feeling guilty if not tipping heavily. In Australia the norm appeared to be "tipping is not necessary".
I happened upon this relevant article about homelessness:
I happened upon this relevant article about homelessness:
Mark Twain once observed: "Get your facts first, then you can distort them as you please."
A one month vacation certainly doesn't qualify as "Getting your facts", so the distortion part is easy. But the stark differences should be explored in more depth.
Unfortunately, as Alexis de Tocqueville observed in his book "Democracy in America" about his travels to the US: “everybody feels the evil, but no one has courage or energy enough to seek the cure”.
