Australia - November 2012

[Mom2PBJ]

My DH and I are planning a Christmas visit this year.  I was going to come here and ask questions, too, but now I'll just keep checking back for updates from you. 

Also, what is the weather typically like?  I know it's summer there and it would be helpful to know what the normal highs are.

Whereabouts are you thinking of travelling to? Remember Australia is nearly as large as continental America, so when you ask how hot it is, it's like saying what's the temperature in Florida when you're travelling to Maine. It can be quite cool in Tasmania even in Summer, hot and dry in the Southern states and hot and sticky up North.

Ahh...didn't think about that.  We're not sure yet where we want to go.  He's thinking Sydney and I'm thinking Tasmania.  But who knows...we'll probably travel to a few places. 

[merryns]

Tasmania is very nice around Christmas, as there are a lot of activities at that time of year and the local cherries and berries will be in season. Temperatures are likely to be daily max if low 20s (Celsius) but could be quite a bit cooler, and up to high 30s is a possibility, although it won't be very humid. Take layers.

[Shopaholic]

DH and I were in Cairns this past September.
We went there in order to join a liveaboard scuba diving cruise, which was absolutely fantastic. Everything was incredibly well organized and the crew was extremely knowledgable and friendly. I could definitely recommend the company we went with, but there are quite a few out there which I am sure are excellent as well.

We found Cairns to be a beach town without the beach. The city itself is very dull, mostly tourist information and restaurants, and if you want to do anything of interest you either have to go out on the reef or inland to see the rain forest or rafting. All of these activities we found to be very expensive.

We did a guided rafting tour, half-day which was great, but opted out of additional guided tours - we prefer to look around by ourselves. What we did do was take a hike to Mt. Whitefield which was very nice, but due to the heat and humidity was relatively hard, and then we took a look at the botanic gardens which were also very nice.
I'm sorry we didn't take a cruise out to Green Island or Fitzroy Island, but my husband was dying to get out of there.
The highlight of his trip was the Northern Territory, which was our next destination.

In September the days were hot, and the nights cool. Out on the reef the nights were downright cold and during the day there was a wind blowing which was chilly for me (but then I'm from Israel so anything below 25C is cold...)

In short, I would spend as much time as possible out on the reef. The experience I felt I missed out on in Australia is the whole beach experience. We got to Sydney in mid-October and it was grey and drizzly, so even Bondi was depressing.

[Julian]

Tasmania is very nice around Christmas, as there are a lot of activities at that time of year and the local cherries and berries will be in season. Temperatures are likely to be daily max if low 20s (Celsius) but could be quite a bit cooler, and up to high 30s is a possibility, although it won't be very humid. Take layers.

Pod to the above.

But, if you're thinking of staying anywhere around Hobart between Christmas and New Year, book now.  In between Taste of Tasmania and the Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race, accommodation books up very early.

[katycoo]

Ahh...didn't think about that.  We're not sure yet where we want to go.  He's thinking Sydney and I'm thinking Tasmania.  But who knows...we'll probably travel to a few places.

Sydney is very unpredicatable.  In the past we've had quite hot summers, but this current one is cold, wet and frankly ridiculous.

[ScubaGirl]

<snip>
We found Cairns to be a beach town without the beach. The city itself is very dull, mostly tourist information and restaurants, and if you want to do anything of interest you either have to go out on the reef or inland to see the rain forest or rafting. All of these activities we found to be very expensive.
<snip>

I agree with this assessment (we were there in June 2005).  However, we loved the train ride up to Kuranda and the sky lift back down to the Tjapukai Cultural Center (which we also enjoyed a lot).  We did a hot air balloon ride but that wasn't nearly as interesting as we hoped it would be.

After Cairnes we flew down to Gladstone and then took a ferry out to Heron Island.  We were there almost a week and scuba dived the reef.  I would absolutely recommend that to anyone who likes to dive.

Have a fantastic trip!  We plan to go back some day.

[oz diva]

Scuba girl, I lived and worked on Heron Is for 6 weeks in the late 80s. Can you imagine being there that long without a break? I was quite loopy when I left and I went to live on an even smaller island after that (a ship).

The turtles were laying while I was there, but otherwise it was bird birds birds.

[ScubaGirl]

Scuba girl, I lived and worked on Heron Is for 6 weeks in the late 80s. Can you imagine being there that long without a break? I was quite loopy when I left and I went to live on an even smaller island after that (a ship).

The turtles were laying while I was there, but otherwise it was bird birds birds.

Actually, I think I'm a little jealous.    Lots of birds, yes.  However, that was the first place we saw sting rays totally jump out of the water.  Thank goodness for digital cameras because I would have used up a whole roll of film trying to get one shot of that.  We could also see turtles and sharks while just sitting on the beach. 

[oz diva]

I did get to do some incredible stuff (staff only). They had a big clear out of the kitchen and fed the sharks with the vegetable matter. I stood on a small boat and watched a tiger shark feeding frenzy about 3 feet below me. I watched a shark eat an entire watermelon whole (I bet it got a tummy ache). They were trying to wean the sharks off the scraps, but they were worried they'd start eating scuba divers instead.

I'm never excited about seeing mutton birds now. Sharing living quarters with them ruined me for that. For the uninitiated, their call sounds like a cross between a cat maiowing and a baby crying and they nest under the huts.