Australia

September 2019

  1. Sydney
  2. Broome
  3. Melbourne

Day 1: Farewell New Zealand, hello Australia!

Today we completed our New Zealand road trip in Christchurch, and took a flight to Sydney. Kia koa, New Zealand, you’ve been good to us. G’day Australia, super happy to be here! After two weeks of New Zealand’s stunning landscapes and peaceful drives, Sydney’s energy hit us immediately — bustling streets, cosmopolitan vibes, and most importantly, excellent chocolate shops. We made a very important stop at Kakawa Chocolates to fuel our transition from one incredible country to another.

Day 2: Sightseeing with nerdy detours

On our first day in Sydney, of course we headed directly for the iconic sights of the city: the Sydney Opera House and the Sydney Harbor Bridge. Except being the nerds that we are, we got sidetracked on the way by two fascinating exhibits at the State Library of New South Wales. This is very on-brand for us. The first exhibit presented stories told by Aboriginal elders about growing up in a culture that was actively suppressed by the government at the time — powerful, moving, and essential context for understanding Australia. The second exhibit, called Living Languages, described the hundreds of Aboriginal languages and the efforts to document, preserve, and revive them. We were completely absorbed.

Eventually, we made it to the bridge and the opera house. Both are stunning, but we were especially captivated by the architecture of the opera house. From near and far, it’s a beautiful structure — those white sail-shaped shells are even more striking in person than in photographs. We spent lots of time admiring it and capturing photos from different angles and in different light.

Day 3: Beach town escapes, and a dramatic architectural backstory

We decided to drive up the coast from Sydney today and explore some of the more out-of-the-way beach towns. These towns have a laid-back vibe that we really enjoyed — less hustle, more charm. We had heard about the uniquely local saltwater pools carved out of the rocks and fed by the ocean, and we had to check them out. They are absolutely beautiful, perfectly integrated with the surrounding nature, and cleverly engineered. Swimming in an ocean pool with waves crashing nearby is a uniquely Australian experience that we highly recommend.

In the late afternoon, we came back to Sydney and signed up for a guided tour of the opera house. We learned that the building’s distinctive sail-shaped domes are self-supporting concrete structures — a remarkable feat of engineering. Each of the five theaters within is essentially a building within a building, constructed later (after the builders and the architect had a falling out, because of course they did). Despite the technical difficulties, budget overruns, and political issues involved in its 16-year-long construction, the opera house turned out to be a truly spectacular landmark. Sometimes the drama behind a building is almost as interesting as the building itself.

Day 4: Urban meandering

We absolutely love the lifestyle of living in the city and having little need for car or bus (a lifestyle that we’ve finally created for ourselves back home in Seattle). It turns out that our Airbnb is centrally located, and Sydney is a very walkable city, so we feel very at home here. In the last couple of days, we walked to so many different areas of the city, and today we walked some more.

In the afternoon, we had an excellent guided tour of the city’s Jewish museum. There were poignant exhibits on the holocaust, and on the immigration to Australia of Jews seeking to get as far as possible from Europe. They also had a fun interactive exhibit called “Jukebox Jewkbox” about the influence of Jewish people in music. Did you know that Neil Diamond, Lou Reed, Bob Dylan, Lenny Kravitz, and Beck are Jewish? Also members of the Ramones, Clash, Nofx, and Guns N’ Roses.

Day 5: Window seat obsession

Today we flew to Broome (a small town in the northwest of Australia) via Perth (a large city in the southwest). Bea’s face was glued to the plane’s window the entire time — Eric may have had to remind her to blink. From above, the Australian outback looks like an endless plane of artfully arranged geometric shapes of curious colors, crossed by impossibly straight roads that seem to go on forever. It’s mesmerizing. We’re immensely drawn to it. We couldn’t help but start planning our next trip to Australia in between flights, because apparently one trip is never enough when it comes to this country.

Day 6: Mysterious crocodiles, hidden kangaroos

Question: What’s turquoise, red, and green all over? Answer: The Kimberley region in Australia! It’s like someone turned up the saturation knob to maximum and then kept going. The colors here are almost absurdly vivid.

Equipped with a sturdy four-wheel-drive SUV, our drone, and Google Maps, we couldn’t be happier in this area. We drove north for hours on red dirt roads, through forests of short stubby trees with crooked branches, beside (supposedly) crocodile-infested waters. The word “supposedly” is doing a lot of work here — we’re choosing to believe the signs are exaggerating, because otherwise we’d be too terrified to explore. The cautionary road signs also promised us kangaroos, but we never got to see any. Maybe tomorrow? We’re starting to suspect they’re all playing hide-and-seek.

Day 7: Surprise sightings

Two types of marine life tours are offered in Broome: one that goes out to sea to find humpback whales, and another that stays closer to shore to see dolphins. We wanted to go on both, but were told that the humpback season is nearly over, so we booked just the dolphin tour. To everyone’s surprise — including the captain’s — our first animal sighting during the dolphin tour was a pair of humpback whales! Apparently the whales didn’t get the memo about their season being over. We got quite close to them and followed them for a while, as they spouted and cruised through the turquoise waters of Roebuck Bay.

Then we proceeded to find snubfin dolphins, which are unique to the north of Australia and were only recognized as a separate species in 2005. Their numbers are so low that they are considered vulnerable to extinction, and Broome is just about the most reliable place to see them in the wild. We lucked out, not just because we got to see several groups of them, but also because one hyperactive snubfin leaped completely out of the water — something our captain said he has seen only once before in 12 years! We felt like we’d won the wildlife lottery.

This will be a hard day to top!

A surprisingly energetic snubfin dolphin.

Day 8: Pearl farming, questionable driving decisions, and Australian kindness

Broome is known for its saltwater pearl production. Today we visited the nearby Willie Creek pearl farm — a great way to learn more about pearls and have a fabulous lunch in their cafe. We now know far more about pearl cultivation than we ever thought we would.

We also explored the dirt roads of the surrounding estuary. As the red dirt road we were on turned into a narrow sandy path, we wondered whether our SUV was up to it. More importantly, we wondered whether we were up to it. Just then, a local pulled up beside us in a rugged Land Cruiser equipped with a snorkel (the vehicle kind, not the swimming kind). After confirming that we didn’t need help — though we probably did — he offered to show us the way to his favorite fishing spot. We pushed our four-wheeler (and ourselves) to the limit. We were comforted by the sight of a big shovel strapped to the top of his SUV and the fact that he waited for us at every turn. At one point, as we were about to drive down a rocky incline that looked deceptively safe from our viewpoint, he turned around and stopped us before it was too late. We’re grateful he did.

It’s pretty clear that without the friendliness of this Australian stranger, we wouldn’t have been able to reap the rewards of the spectacular view at the end of the road: turquoise water, white sandbars, and mangroves. As our new friend and a couple of Aboriginal women fished, we were thinking that for them, this special view was just everyday life. We were tourists marveling at their backyard.

Day 9: Prehistoric predators

Malcolm Douglas started out as a crocodile hunter, then became a documentary filmmaker and an advocate for the preservation of crocodiles — quite the career arc. After his passing, his family continued to run his wildlife park near Broome, with over 2500 crocodiles and many other native animals. That’s a lot of crocodiles.

We had a great time visiting the crocodiles in the park. Everywhere you turn, there’s another prehistoric-looking reptile who would happily eat you for lunch if it weren’t for the inadequate-looking chain-link fence keeping them from snacking on you. We chose to trust the fence, despite our reservations about its effectiveness. The terror was tempered by cuteness: Eric got to hold a little baby crocodile (with its mouth strapped safely closed, thankfully). It was already as long as his arm, but still qualified as “cute” in that moment. Perspective is everything.

They feed the crocodiles every afternoon, and we could feel the excitement (human and reptilian) building as the staff approached with a giant bucket of chicken meat. Crocs jockeyed for position and asserted their dominance, then practically launched themselves out of the water and snapped the chickens out of the air as they were tossed by the staff guide. It was mesmerizing.

When a crocodile endangers humans in the wild, it can either be shot or placed into a conservation park like the one in Broome. Relocating it to another area is not effective, as it will make its way back to its home territory — crocodiles have excellent navigation skills. One of the crocodiles we saw was named “Mauler” because it had attacked two horses before being moved to the park. It was scary looking, and the name did not help.

Crocodiles can be a threat to one another as well. “Zooey,” for example, who was brought to the park after attacking boat propellers, ate his girlfriend. Just… ate her. When the park gave him another girlfriend, she was understandably scared enough to dig her way into the next enclosure. There she met “Bluey,” a 5-meter (16-foot) male croc, who happily accepted her as his second girlfriend. Something of a gentle giant, you might say. At least compared to Zooey.

Day 10: Plan abandonment

Our original plan was to drive south, but we can’t get over the stunning landscapes north of here, so we went north again. Plans are made to be broken, right? Armed with the crocodile knowledge we acquired yesterday, we ventured deeper into croc territory today. Somehow being more aware of the gory details of how they kill humans didn’t make us feel any safer, but it did make us more cautious. We stayed far from the water’s edge. Thankfully, we were able to enjoy the beautiful scenery without encountering any crocodiles — at least none that we saw, which is probably for the best.

Day 11: Shoreline exploration turned rescue mission

Today we explored the shoreline closer to Broome. We also did our good deed for this trip, giving a ride to someone whose SUV got bogged down in loose sand. We encountered him walking down a long dirt road, pretty far from anything, in sweltering heat (it got to 97°F or 36°C today). That’s gotta be tough — walking in that heat would have been miserable. We were glad we could help, and also glad it wasn’t us who got stuck. Yet another reminder that sand and vehicles don’t always mix well.

Day 12: Farewell Kimberley, hello Melbourne

After a long flight (with a layover in Perth), we have arrived in Melbourne. The contrast from the remote Kimberley to Australia’s second-largest city is jarring — we went from crocodile territory to cosmopolitan streets in a matter of hours. We settled in at Eric’s sister’s apartment and look forward to checking out the city.

  • Accommodation: Eric’s sister’s apartment

Day 13: Market magnificence

In the morning, we walked around Queen Victoria Market with Eric’s sister and her husband. It’s an incredible market — it reminded us of Seattle’s Pike Place Market but much, much bigger. We bought lots of fresh ingredients, brought them home, and had a fabulous lunch and dinner prepared with our family. Loved seeing the ethnic diversity, both in the market and in the neighborhood shops and restaurants. Melbourne feels like a genuinely multicultural city.

In the afternoon, we spent some time in the Melbourne Museum, where we learned more about Aboriginal culture and deepened our understanding of Australia’s complex history.

Day 14: Three meals with three sets of friends

We feel at home in Melbourne, not just because it’s a great city but also because it has attracted some of our favorite people. Today we had breakfast with Jonathan who we met in Beijing, lunch with Ann who we met in Oman, and dinner with Tony and Toby who we met in Papua New Guinea, along with Tony’s wife Penny. Our day was basically structured around eating with friends — a fabulous way to spend a day. All of them are extremely well-traveled and interesting people, who we draw tremendous inspiration from. It’s one of the best parts of traveling — the connections you make along the way.

In between meals, we visited the Immigration Museum. Along with learning about the checkered history of Australian immigration, we saw a cool photo exhibition featuring people with traditional Samoan and Japanese tattoos. Beautiful and powerful.

Day 15: Goodbye Australia, until we meet again

We’re going to miss Australia! It was great to see family, friends, and a small part of this giant country. We barely scratched the surface — there’s so much more to explore. The outback is calling us already.