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Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
AU Nesties!
Ok AU Nesties - I'm working on planning specifics today about our trip to Australia. We will be spending about a week in each, Sydney, Brisbane, and Melbourne. (Then we'll be going to Aukland NZ too).
If you have any "can't miss this" or any other suggestions for any of those places - I would really appreciate it. We will be arriving March 20th (incase there's certain things going on, certain days only) - starting in Sydney. We are VERY excited and appreciate any help!!
Thank you!
p.s. if you ever make it to the US I'd be more than happy to help with any planning!!
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Re: AU Nesties!
I'm in Brisbane. I would suggest the Lone Pine Koala Santuary. You can hold and get your picture taken with a koala. You can feed kangaroos and see other Australian wildlife. I would also suggest Surfers Paradise, Gold Coast or Noosa for beaches. These are all a bit of a drive roughly an hour or two from the city. Gold Coast is more party life and beach. Noosa is more resort type beaches.
South Bank is also a good place to hang out. Its close to the CBD/ downtown. You can gain access to it by the water taxi which is called the CityCat. SouthBank is a place to get something to eat (several restaurants or cafes), people watch, dip in the man made pool/ lake, chill on the grass.
I hope you have a good time.
I've only ever been to Sydney as a tourist, and I found it just another large city. I did a Harbour cruise and a day trip to the Blue Mountains, including a stop at the Featherdale Wildlife center. The Blue Mountains were well worth it. The Featherdale center was nice, and it has been the only place I have seen a live wombat, so that was cool. But other than that, I found Sydney overrated.
I went to Brisbane on a flying visit for a wedding of friends and really only saw the Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA), with a brief walk along the Southbank shore. We did make use of the RiverCat ferry system to get to and from Toowong. The groom is a pilot for the ferries, so we felt we should at least see what it is he does. I would like to go back and see more of Brisbane.
I live about 2 hours southeast of Melbourne, but really have not done much touristy stuff in the City. You know how it is, never a tourist in your on hometown. I did take a tour of Victorian Parliament, which was very interesting and very much worth it. I have also done 2/3 of the Golden Mile Walking Tour, and that was educational. And the stained glass ceiling at the National Gallery of Victoria is worth a look. I would recommend a visit to the Shrine of Remembrance; when I was there, we trailed a school group, so we got the benefit of a guided tour. Federation Square is an interesting place.
If you can arrange it and are into that kind of thing, I would definitely look into private, guided winery tours, either out of Sydney or Melbourne. I enjoyed the ones I took out of Adelaide, and I have heard great things about other wine regions.
I can only give some info on Sydney.
I can't remember who wrote it but I would definitely do a tour of the Blue Mountains, you can get the bus in the city and it will take you to the mountains for the day. They are quite beautiful. Those tours often stop at Featherdale Wildlife Park on the way where you can feed the kangaroos and emus and take your pic with koalas. Its not a huge park but good for seeing Aussie wildlife.
I would also take the ferry over to Manly and walk around there. They have great fish and chips in Manly.
Most of the touristy stuff is basically just city stuff. You can take a tour of the Opera House, climb the Harbour Bridge, go to the top of Centre Point Tower, walk around Darling Harbour, walk around The Rocks, maybe see a football game (depending on the schedule).
Other things you can do while in Sydney are take a day tour to Canberra (capital of Australia). You would get to see the War Memorial and Parliament (and other things but I can't remember off the top of my head.) Also, if you are into wine I would recommend a tour of the Hunter Valley. I have been to the Hunter Valley (but never on a tour) and it is really beautiful and there are tons of great wineries.
Let me know if you have any other questions!
Was this comment even needed, Knitty? I've been to all of the cities she's visiting and they are very different from each other and they are different from a modern city in the US. But since you haven't been back here in 10 to 20 years you may not know that. She didn't ask about what malls she should visit she asked about the sights and suggestions for each. I see you didn't add anything other than your vagueness - nature. Nature, where at exactly?
OP, please excuse Knitty, she's our resident a$$. Popping in to share her dated views of Australia.
Ha! thanks ladies - gblake is definitely right - I'm sure some things that seem touristy to you will seem downright amazing to us! There's so much in the US you would probably think was fascinating - that I now probably take for granted. Those particular cities are on the list because this trip was actually won by my husband through his company. He works for a bank here which is owned by National Australian Bank - so the cities we're going to he will have some meetings and introductions with people at the NAB. We'll be in each of them long enough though - I think some day trips outside of them are definitely possible.
These are all really amazing ideas - I'm so lucky to have nestie friends to ask questions to! Thanks for being so helpful! I'll probably be around the next two weeks as we're finalizing details!
Sydney is fab - you'll have a great time
ditto the others - blue mountain day trip is definitely worth it, as is a day trip to the Hunter Valley (wine region)
The sydney harbour zoo is amazing and you can get the ferry there from circular quay (which is right 'downtown')
shopping on pitt street is fab
Darling Harbour is fun - lots of restaurants and the imax and some shopping & museums
worth a day trip to Manly for sure - make sure you do the walk to Shelly Beach - its GORGEOUS!
also a day trip to Bondi would be nice - do the ocean walk to Bronte - its stunning as well
The bridge climb is a big tourist draw too - I liked it - quite a cool view - if you do do it, try to do sunset for some amazing pics
and of course harbour cruises are fun
When is Brisbane you may want to consider some day trips out to beachy areas too - or go for a few days - like we just spent the weekend in Byron Bay - a really fun hippy like beach town that's only 2 hours from Brisbane. There are TONS of other places not far from Brisbane to explore too.
Hell yes it was. She's going to the trouble of asking for opinions, I'd be pretty pissed off if I said I was going to spend a week in Milan and no-one suggested I visit the Amalfi coast or the lakes instead.
Nature as in - instead of Melbourne the fairy penguins at Philip Island or Wilsons Promontory or Ballarat, or Swan Hill or the Yarra Valley. Or instead of Sydney, Katoomba or the Hunter Valley, instead of Brisbane, Byron Bay or Fraser Island or Hervey Bay. Or, in general, Uluru, Kakadu, etc. It's at LEAST a 14 hour flight - why do it to see things you could see in Vancouver or San Francisco? OP - these are mostly things you can do in a day trip from those cities. In Melbourne I'd go to Philip Island to see the fairy penguins, I'd try and drive down to the twelve apostles, and if you're into wine the Yarra is great. From Sydney you can take a trip up into the blue mountains which is very beautiful. In Auckland take a boat over to Waiheke Island and go wine tasting. You can easily do Rotorua in a day trip, and if you can overnight you would combine Lake Taupo as well. Or you could go to Waitomo as well as part of a loop.
They try to ignore me because I rain on their instant expert wankfest. They hate to be reminded that six months hasn't made them experts on all things Australian.
anyhow
look knitty - I agree on your suggestions on places to do day trips (I suggest Byron too!) its just that you come across to snotty most of the time with your advice and I guess all us new aussies just have our backs up because you are usually so rude!
I just wanted to jump in and say thanks! My husband and I are going to spend a week in Sydney soon (I'm here (well, Newcastle) for 6 weeks for work right now), and I love all the suggestions!
Bazinga!
Liz's Yarn
Except that she might have actually had to stay in the cities for some reason... like, oh, she actually had to.
I'm not going to waste my time with typing a longer reply when you tend to get people showing their gratitude for the help like this:
http://community.thenest.com/cs/ks/forums/thread/44061747.aspx
So the chick who was all "hey, no-one in Australia has a dryer, and I know this because my rented house has no special 240V dryer hookup!", and the one who very authoritatively told you that she's not racist, but Aboriginals are dole bludgers, they have up-to the minute authoritative views? Good to know.
And yes, I don't bother with protracted *** fests with you because I know you're wrong, you know you're wrong, but you'll never admit it because it's the internet. Me arguing with you that the sky really truly is bluish grey and not purple is pointless, and boring to boot. I just like to have you keep in mind every time you go on about the purple sky, or the dryerless state of all Australian homes, or the inherently lazy nature of Aborigines, I'll correct you, because you're wrong, and if you insist on remaining wrong, ignorant.
now come on knitty
you were actually quite civil & helpful in my post about airlines!
don't lump us expats in Australia with some of the stupid posts that get posted on the travel board (not referring to that post you linked to - WTF does that even have to do with this???)
anyhow, if you want to rip people apart on the travel board for posting stupid non helpful stuff about Australia - go for it - but most of us on this board who LIVE in Australia post helpful stuff when people ask for advice.