Lakeside’s Senior Reporter Pam Keene reached a landmark that few people ever achieve on her most recent adventure. Traveling “down under,” she and her husband Rick Fulgham recently spent almost three weeks in Australia and New Zealand. The journey, curated by Overseas Adventure Travel, was filled with several milestone moments.
Here’s Part 1 of her journey “down under,” learning how the other half of world lives.
Helicopter view showing a small part of the Great Barrier Reef.
Most people wait to log their seventh continent by going to Antarctica, but not so with me. Eighteen months ago, Rick and I traveled to Antarctica via Buenos Aires by way of the southernmost town in the world – Ushuaia – before boarding an 80-passenger ship to the planet’s southern polar ice cap.
That trip made Australia a bucket-list exploration to be certain. Less than 1 percent of the world’s population has traveled to all seven continents, so I was pumped to earn my traveler’s stripes.
Imagine my excitement as we boarded a plane for Cairns, Australia, in late July, our first of six cities on the other side of the globe that we would visit. The flights were long, all totaled nearly 30 hours with three segments and layovers. Blessedly, I watched a few movies then slept intermittently until time to change planes.
Arriving a day early to adjust to crossing the international date line, we had time to explore on our own. We wandered along the shore that was lined with restaurants, bars, souvenir sellers and tourists, but it was never so crowded as to be inconvenient.
Cairns, pronounced “cans,” is one of many hopping off points for a visit to the mythical Great Barrier Reef. The coastal town is very walkable and clean. It’s tropical with a bit of a nip in the air. Plenty of restaurants offered myriad multi-cultural choices from sushi, fresh seafood and steaks to Italian, Thai and American. Don’t worry; the usual American chains were present, but who eats there, even when you’re at home.
A visitor takes a photo in one of the many aquariums.
The Cairns Aquarium, focusing on the Great Barrier Reef, has 71 tanks, more than 15,000 animals displayed in 10 ecosystems. Aquarium hosts gather visitors in open several rows of seating in front of floor-to-ceiling thick-glassed walls to share information about the types of sharks, rays and other sea life that swim behind.
Our fellow travelers arrived the next day and the 16 of us quickly became acquainted. Our trip leader Anna was amazingly organized; within our first few hours, she had given each of us a packet of “Anna-grams” for our time in Cairns that included our daily schedules, tips for our current city and activities and other tidbits. Usually our trip leaders post daily schedules the night before and we all photograph them. Anna’s way was innovative, setting the tone for an epic adventure.
Four days wasn’t long enough, but we stayed on the go, meeting kangaroos and koalas – don’t call them bears! – up close, hearing about crocodile farming, learning about aboriginal music, dance and culture and touring a tropical rain forest.
The highlight – you guessed it! – our day at the outer Great Barrier Reef. A 90-minute high-speed catamaran ride across the waves took us to a stationary pontoon-style platform with an underwater observation level. Some of our friends scuba dived, others snorkeled and I opted for a helicopter ride over the water. Stunning!
An internal flight brought us to the iconic city of Sydney, the most populated in the country. Here’s where the Australia rubber meets the road.
The Opera House at dusk is stunning from any angle.
When you think Australia several things come to mind: Ayers Rock (also known as Uluru), the distinctive Sydney Opera House, and the Sydney Harbour Bridge. Of the three, two were right outside our upper story hotel window overlooking the harbor.
An American guide from Acworth – really – gave our private tour of the opera house and its seven performance spaces, each with distinct characteristics of seating arrangements, acoustics, staging technology, and size that can accommodate everything from hard rock concerts, to ballet and jazz.
The grand concert hall at the Opera House features movable raspberry-colored baffles that are adjusted for each performance.
Its design of 14 shells was inspired by seashells and the maritime history of the city. Also called sails, these shells are sections of the same sphere. The structure has more than 666,984 square feet of glass and more than 1 million custom-made root tiles. Its height is just over 613 feet.
The interior is a maze of technology, with massive steel girders and cables to concrete ceiling beams. Two of the performance theaters have mechanical stage lifts to move scenery and props to the stage; scenery is stored below the stage.
A visit to Sydney cannot be complete without climbing the Sydney Harbour Bridge, opened in 1932 after six years of construction. The steel arch span is the second-largest in the world at 1,650 feet; at its highest point, the bridge stands 440 feet above sea level.
Mind-boggling numbers for fun: 6 million hand-driven rivets; more than 4.5 million climbers since 1998. More than 160,000 road vehicles and 480 trains travel it daily; annually more than 1.3 million pedestrians and 400,000 cyclists traverse the span.
I know. I was there at the very top, climbing 1,332 steps to the summit. We wore special one-piece gray suits – very flattering! – with several carabiners for attaching ourselves to cables that kept us safe as we climbed.
Bridge climbers make their journey in groups of 15 or so.
Cameras, cell phones and other loose accessories were not allowed. We were given a ballcap that attached to the collar of our suit to prevent it getting blown from our heads. I was lost without my water bottle, but I survived.
Before we climbed, I worried about my fitness level. I work out several times a week, cardio and weights, but I wasn’t certain I was prepared for the climb.
Surprise! It was a piece of cake because other than four vertical ladders at the beginning and again at the end, the steps were low and well-spaced. The guide stopped often to point out landmarks and points of interest below.
Our time in Sydney included a harbor cruise and a trip to Bondi Beach four miles east of central Sydney. A popular resort and beach town where massive homes line the roads, it was the site of beach volleyball competition at the 2000 Summer Olympics.
Surf’s Up!
Anna told us that it’s known for its world-class surfing and big waves. The day we were there the seas were calm, but dozens of surfers in full-body wetsuits bobbed in the water as gentle rollers and an occasional breaker passed by.
Our four days here passed quickly and then it was time for another internal flight to Te Anau, South Island, New Zealand. I made a note to return to Australia again to see “the rest of the continent” at least the high points. Most of the people live along the coast, but there is a different world in the “outback” that’s filled with deserts, plateaus, scrublands and not many people.
The taste of Australia made me long to see more. But my mission was accomplished as I spent eight days on my seventh continent. Ahhh!
Photos: by Pamela A. Keene
