Countdown to our Trip to Australia

3 Week trip to Australia

The time has finally come for our trip to Australia. I am going to Sydney, Melbourne, and Fiji with my mum to celebrate her 60^th Birthday so I want to make it a special holiday. I think my mum is ready for a holiday as she hasn’t had one in nearly two years. And while I am writing this she is busy cleaning the house for the housesitter, I personally prefer the lived in look lol.

A regular reader of my blog will know I hate flying. Yes, I know I am a travel blogger and seem to spend half of my life in a steel bird but I don’t like it one bit. I am a bit OCD when I choose a flight, it takes me ages to even choose a seat I used to always go for the window seat and then got anxious. The last couple of long haul I have done I have chosen the aisle seat in the middle row and find it so much better. I have always dreamed of going to Australia and a few years back I would never have thought I would be heading there mainly due to the long flight time but we are going in 3 days eek!!!

It is quite a whistle stop tour as we only have 3 weeks. I will hopefully be going back to explore more of the country next year as doing the research for this trip has given me so many ideas of where I want to go next. I wish I could drive as then I could hire a camper van and explore so if anyone is reading this and fancies doing a trip like this then get in touch. I will be the cook so make sure you like beans on toast lol.

I got a good deal on business class flight. I got this flight about 11 months ago so it really does pay to look at flights in advance as similar flights are now £2000 more.

So, what’s the plan. I guess I am writing this mainly for my mum as she has left it all to me and doesn’t really know what’s happening yet.

Flying out on Wednesday and we have a long stopover in Ho Chi Minh. My mum hasn’t been to Vietnam, I went earlier this year and loved it so I can not wait to go back even if it is only for a day. Our airline offers a complementary tour of the city and a hotel room which is good since we have a layover of 16 hours and I didn’t want to be exploring for all that time. I am hoping to get another massage as love the massages in Vietnam. I found some currency from my last trip and thought the 148000 dongs would at least get us some dinner but turns out it is only about £4.50

Our first stop in Australia is 4 days in Sydney and we are staying at a 5* hotel overlooking the Opera House. Again, I got a great deal on this hotel in Sydney. It looks amazing we have a roof top pool so might even get some sun rays.

We arrive in Sydney at 8.15am. My plan is to drop our bags off and head off for the free walking tour of Sydney. The one thing I don’t want to do is go to our room as because we might be tired and have a sleep as it will really mess up our body clocks so aiming on going straight out. There is another free tour at night around the harbour so will try and do this aswell.

We then have a trip to Taranga Zoo, a whale watching cruise, a sunset cruise, hop on bus to the blue mountains and I want to go to Bondi beach and have fish and chips and watch the surfers.

Then we fly to Melbourne. Our first night is in St Kilda which is a beach side city and where yachts and windsurfers can be seen in the bay. This area has some great looking cafes and a nice beach with a promenade to watch the joggers go by.

Then we head back to Melbourne CBD area for 4 nights in an apartment. Bit of a break from sleeping in the same room as my mum as we have a room each this time. I chose an apartment as I heard that eating out was so expensive so maybe we can prepare some of our own meals.

We have a complimentary day trip courtesy of Go West Tours. It is a coastal road trip past beautiful beaches, into the rainforest past eucalyptus trees (will we see koalas up them??) And past the 12 Apostles.  A ghost tour with Lantern Ghost tours around the city of Melbourne, I wonder if we will spot any spooks.

I am looking forward to seeing the great street art in Melbourne, living in Bristol I am really getting into the street art scene. 

Then it’s a 4-hour flight to Fiji. First night in Nadi then heading to Suva to stay in the rain forest. A day trip to Levuka and then back to Nadi for 5 nights in a 5-star beach front hotel to just chill and maybe a bit of snorkelling and boat trips around the islands.

Back to Sydney to get our flight home but one last night by the beach to see the sunset before we leave for our flight the next day.

So farewell for a few weeks and come back soon to see what we actually got up to on our trip to Australia. I wonder if I can get my mum to go swimming with sharks in Fiji.