I’m a bit behind on my recap as I hit the ground running upon landing in Asia and have just now found some downtime. So much for slowing down my traveling!
Two months in and I feel like I’m becoming an expert on coach travel and hostel checkins. I’ve started falling into a rhythm with living out of a backpack and I’ve found that I have become adept at packing up my all my belongings in under 10 minutes! This month also marked the longest I’ve ever been away from home whether by myself or with others. When I was planning out my trip, I felt this would be a big milestone. A statement of sorts that I can live anywhere, travel to far off places, and not only survive, but thrive. And I totally agree with that statement, but the milestone came and went without me even realizing… oops. But I think that reinforces, even more so, that I am comfortable with my decision to leave behind my life and venture out into the world.
Big City Loves
Australia is a strange country in that nearly its entire population lives in just a few city centers located on the eastern coast of the country. Sydney, Melbourne, and Brisbane are all large sprawling cities choked with traffic and overflowing with places to stay, great food to eat, and cool cultural events to experience.
I landed first in Sydney and what a change it was from New Zealand! There are more people in the city alone than the entire population of its island neighbor. I loved Sydney – what a cool place. I plan to write more about it, but in short there are so many famous sights to visit and even more cool little spots you’ve never heard of. It is also an incredibly easy city to walk around and I found that I rarely used their public transportation system. After a week staying in a hotel on points, courtesy of my wonderful aunt and uncle (thanks!!!), I was super rested and ready to head to Melbourne.
The big southern city is known as the cultural capital of Australia as it is home to bars, nightclubs, music venues, cafes, and endless restaurants. This city loves its food and coffee! I had a great time popping into little alleyways to discover little shops around every corner. I also found some really great beer at a cool brewery called Mountain Goat. Check them out if you find any of their beer!
Melbourne is a deceptive city at first, especially when staying in the center. In my first couple of days there, I didn’t understand the appeal. Most of the central downtown area feels sterile and main streets appear devoid of food spots. But that’s the thing with Melbourne, you’re encouraged to explore, much like the food alleys I mentioned. The coolest bars I found were on rooftops, there are great graffiti lanes in the dark areas of town, and the farther afield neighborhoods like St. Kilda are tops for nightlife.
Living on the Coast
Upon leaving Melbourne, I was in for some pretty decent culture shock. You see, the state of Queensland is very sparsely populated if you don’t count the city of Brisbane. Three quarters of the state’s population is centered on its capital along with the beach side communities of Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast, and Tweed Heads. Outside of these areas, just about 1 million people fill an area the size of California, Florida, Texas, and New York combined. I flew from Melbourne to Cairns, the northern-most city of moderate size, in just over 3 and a half hours. Cairns, pronounced “Canns,” is a hopping off spot for many backpackers and vacationers on longer journeys south toward Brisbane, north to rainforests, and east to the Great Barrier Reef.
Upon arriving, I only knew that I wanted to do some sailing and diving, but other than that I knew nothing of the area. I ended up working with a travel agent at my hostel to lay out some plans for the next two weeks and cram as many activities in as possible. Looking back I would have left a few things off and slowed down a bit, but the experience of traveling the beaten path was something new for my so it was good to try that out once. These two weeks are where a majority of my spending occurred this month. My single largest expenditure, a 3 day 2 night live aboard dive boat, while pricey was my favorite single event of the month and I met some awesome people!
Return to the Deep
I became scuba certified around the time I turned 18 diving with family in the Cayman Islands. Nearly every adult in my immediate family is certified and I grew up hanging out with my dad on his dive boat that he co-owned with my uncle. I’d be left on the surface to watch over the boat, snorkel around, and generally attempt to avoid seasickness. I was always intrigued by the ability to drop below the waves and be completely immersed in a foreign world. That and flopping about with snorkel gear always gave me the heebie jeebies as I was always paranoid about sharks! I figured I’d be more protected if I leveled the playing field underwater. Anyway, I was super excited to get my open water license and see what I had been missing.
If you’ve never had the chance to try your hand at diving, get out there now! It is one of the most cherished memories of my youth. A couple years later I got my Advanced Open Water license in Hawaii, allowing me to dive to depths of 100ft (30m). Kneeling on the open sea floor with 8 foot wide manta rays gliding gracefully inches from your fingers is something that must be experienced to understand.
Fast forward to March 2015, and after a quick refresher, I found myself doing 7 dives in 3 days time! I did my first and second ever wreck dive with the crew from Yongala Dive Lodge on the 104-year old wreck of the same name. And then just one day later I boarded the Kiana from Whitsunday Sailing Adventures to the Whitsunday Islands and the Great Barrier Reef. Dropping into the blue on the world’s largest reef chain has been an item of bucket list level proportions and my expectations were upheld.
The five dives we got in over 2 days, surpassed even my earlier diving memories as the abundance of life was stunning. We saw 6 sharks, countless angelfish, puffers, trevally as big as me, giant bumphead parrotfish, and so much more. Even snorkeling on the last day was enough to take your breath away. If there is one place all lovers of the sea should see, this is it.
Countries Visited: 2
Australia, New Zealand
Cities Visited: 10
Auckland, Sydney, Melbourne, Apollo Bay, Warnambool, Cairns, Ayr, Airlie Beach, Rainbow Beach, Byron Bay
Budgeting
Accommodation:
$565.24 or $18.23 per day The week I was in Sydney was paid for by points gifted to me by my aunt and uncle for Christmas. This really saved me a lot of hassle and money as Sydney is very expensive and I found myself there during the Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras festival that brings an additional 300,000 tourists into the city for a long weekend. That offset some of my higher costs later in the month while I spent time on a live aboard dive boat! I also had my first and second of assuredly many overnight coach trips to come. I slept decently well as Greyhound Australia has nice vehicles with leather seats and air conditioning. I’m still looking forward to Asia where my average accommodation costs should be even lower!
Food:
$368.10 or $11.87 per day I spent right about the same on food as I had in New Zealand and I was a bit surprised to see that. Everything is more expensive in Australia and the exchange rate sits almost the same back to the dollar. I suspect the average per day should be higher but the several multi-day tours I did, in the latter half of the month, don’t break out their food costs so those items are all grouped under Entertainment. In Australia a can of coke will run you $3-4 Australian dollars while many meals were often $7-10 for lunch. I mostly drank water during the day and like February, my beer consumption is logged under Entertainment. I cooked dinners less often than last month, preferring to eat cheap Asian foods in Sydney and Melbourne. Up north in Queensland when I wasn’t on a tour, I made meals in the hostels to keep costs down.
Transport:
$497.77 or $16.06 per day In March I took 3 planes, 12 buses, 7 cars/trucks, 7 boats, 10 trains, and countless trams around Melbourne. For the buses, I purchased a hop-on/hop-off Greyhound bus pass at a cost of $329. This allowed me to move down the Queensland coast from Cairns to Brisbane at my leisure without having to hire a car. I also rented a car and split the costs with a friend when I drove the Great Ocean Road near Melbourne.
Entertainment:
$1,534.62 or $49.50 per day Well crap. Here is where I blew my budget. I knew this was going to be near impossible to keep in line given that I wanted to go sailing, diving, and see the entire east coast of Australia. I spent $182 on beer, wine, and other drinks so cutting that out could have helped a bit. But the single biggest expense was diving on a live aboard in the Whitsundays and Great Barrier Reef. That said, it was totally worth it and the highlight of my trip so far. I’ll do a full writeup later this month. Other high dollar items were a full-day tour of the rainforest north of Cairns, a 3-day excursion to Fraser Island, and a wreck dive day to the SS Yongala.
Miscellaneous:
$83.58 or $2.70 per day I lost my hat in Auckland and had to replace it. I also bought a SIM card, toiletries, new dive log, and seasickness tablets this month.
Total
$3,049.30 or $98.36 per day Oof. Well at least I had a lot of fun! I’m looking forward to Asia for the cost-saving benefits and to balance out my overspending in New Zealand and Australia. Other than perhaps Japan, this should be the highest month for spending on my entire trip, so I’m happy to have it be near the beginning.
Next Month
I’m headed to Singapore on April 5th to cross off my 6th continent and newest country! I’ll be staying with a friend I made through scuba diving in Australia for about a week and then I’ll make my way over to Thailand where I plan to spend the rest of the month. Both New Zealand and Australia were crazy whirlwinds where I always felt like I was on the go and I struggled to find a balance in writing for this site and seeing everything possible. I’m feeling the need to slow down so expect an increase in stories from my last two months and plenty of gorgeous photos of Thai beaches!
April 21, 2015
Sounds like you had a great adventure. Thanks for sharing!
Can’t wait to hear your write up on Singapore and Thailand.
Be prepared to be shocked by the cost of everything in Japan.
May 3, 2015
Wow. You are quite the explorer!