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Australia

After our wedding, we took a fantastic trip to Australia. It's one of those countries where you can do a bit of everything.  We relaxed by the beach, hiked, saw a symphony concert, rode camels, hiked some more, did some city sightseeing, and even tried our hand at scuba diving.

Iva didn't learn about the honeymoon destination until David gave her a wrapped gift as we got on the plane back to San Francisco the day after our wedding - it was clearly a guidebook for someplace. She was only allowed to open it when the plane actually took off, and of course the plane sat on the runway for an extra 30 minutes. The more fun it was to unwrap the guidebook to . Australia!

Cairns/Queensland & the Great Barrier Reef

We spent about a week here in the tropical northeast, relaxing, hiking and snorkeling.  We stayed at the Paradise Cove Marriott near Cairns, right alongside the beach.  We didn't do much bathing because it was the season for stinging jellyfish.

The highlight of our stay in Cairns was our two-day excursion to the Great Barrier Reef. Although we saw a number of beautiful sights on our trip, the Reef was undoubtedly the most stunning. The water around the reef is very shallow and even comes out of the water during low tide, so by merely snorkeling around you can see a whole new colorful world.  The only snorkeling we had done before was in Hawaii, and this was definitely much more varied, colorful and expansive.  It was amazing!  While we were snorkeling around, we saw a reef shark, a giant turtle and numerous giant clams that were as large as we were. And of course scores of brightly colored coral "bushes" and other formations.  

Our cruise included two 20-minute dives 'orientation' dives. After a short 30 minute orientation course, we were given a tank of oxygen and sent under water.  We both remain puzzled that this practice was legitimate, but of course were determined to enjoy the opportunity. Iva felt fairly claustraphobic on her first dive and ultimately decided not to continue on the dive. She later overcame her fear, but backed out of the second dive because of an earache. David thoroughly enjoyed both dives.

We also took a couple of rainforest hikes among strangler figs and went for our first hot air balloon ride.  David still claims to have captured on film the wild kangaroos we saw from the air, despite the fact there are no kangaroos on the photo. We did actually see them hopping through the trees in a big rush to get away from the rising balloon.

While we were driving up to Cape Tribulation we got lucky and saw a wild cassowary, an endangered ostrich-like bird that is the symbol of this region. Cassowary's are large 40 pound flightless birds that are known for attacking hikers and joggers.

There was more "wild"life to see in the local preserves where habitats were recreated to include all sorts of things from crocs, kangaroos, wallabies, cassowaries and koalas to plain old ducks. As for food, we tried our first crocodile, ostrich and kangaroo bits. We felt bad about it (though they apparently have to keep them from overpopulating), so we just tried each once.

Red Center

This is the central part of Australia, which is pretty much a reddish-brown desert. It is famous for Uluru (the red table-shaped rock featured on many photos from Australia, also known as Ayers Rock) and Kata Juta ("Many Heads", a nearby rock formation of similar proportions). We spent 3 fun days here. There are no towns in the vicinity so all visitors stay at a tourist resort with several hotels hidden from the view from Uluru. A shuttle bus or various sanctioned tours get you into the immediate Uluru area.

People hike to the top of Uluru, but since that is against the wishes of the Aboriginal owners, we didn't do that and did a 6-hour, 9-km hike around the rock's base instead - which tells you the size of it. It was pretty cool, especially the bright red colors at sunrise. There are several Aboriginal legends that are told by the rock formations around Uluru.

We also took a short camel ride through the desert to see Uluru from a distance. This was the first time we had ever been on camels and we were suprised by how talkative they were (and they all sounded like Chewbacca). We took one more tour (everything here has to be done in tours to protect the area) to see Kata Juta at sunset, and took a small hike into Kata Juta there. The most romantic (though also cheesy) part of this segment of our trip was the sunset dinner in the desert with a star-viewing session after dark. Once again, you have to go with a tour, but it's kind of fun - they set up table in the open air, start with champagne, then a fancy dinner, and then an astronomy lecture when the stars get bright.

Sydney

The last portion of our trip was Sydney, which is a very friendly city. We only had two days there, so we spent them trying to see as many things as we could. We visited Darling Harbor, Bondi Beach and the Botanical Gardens, climbed the harbor bridge to the top (see the picture in dorky gray outfits in the "Us" section), and even caught a symphony orchestra performance at the famous Sydney Opera House. We certainly wished we had more time to spend there and also to see other part of Australia.