Interesting fact:
This blog was started on the 19th of April, 2002 when I was living in Melbourne
I’ve lived in Australia for 4 years while doing my college and uni. I’ve also stayed in other places while growing up but nothing beats Australia in my heart. I’ve always loved the place and have been back three times since graduating! 🙂
It’s a great country that has a bit of everything due to its unique location – you’ve got the temperate climates to the north to the infamous 4-seasons-in-a-day weather in Melbourne, towards the south. This makes it the perfect place for adventure lovers – there is a wide variety of activities to suit all tastes.
…and the things to do!
I like to travel around and experience new things and I did a lot of that while I was there. Hands down my favorite is snowboarding – Mount Buller in Victoria is where I learned skiing and snowboarding when I was there.
There’s also sea kayaking in Byron Bay, New South Wales where you power over the surf and get to watch dolphins and sometimes even whales migrating. I thought that was a lot of fun!
If you love running, don’t miss the Six Foot Track 45 kilometer super marathon from Katoomba to the Blue Mountains in New South Wales. It’s Australia’s largest 100% off-road running event.
Australia also boasts of having two of the three legal bridge climbs in the world. Well, you can technically climb bridges anywhere but you’ll be liable to a fine or jail time. Heh. Or you can do it legally at Sydney Harbour Bridge and Brisbane’s Story Bridge.
Highlighting the pure diversity of Australia, there are also camels in the “outback” – the desert interior. These are the only feral herds of their kind in the world. You can have a camel safari right at the outback! Bet you didn’t know that about Australia! 🙂
The Stockton Sand Dunes near Port Stephens are some of the largest sand dunes in the entire Southern Hemisphere. It can go up to 1 kilometer wide and 30 meters high at some places.
There’s also an abundance of nature activities and magnificent vistas in the Land Down Under:
It’s a very beautiful country – there’s the Great Ocean Walk between 12 Apostles and Apollo Bay. It’s Victoria’s (the state Melbourne is in) premier long-distance walking track where you get to see the tallest cliffs in mainland Australia, waterfalls cascading down limestone walls, ancient shipwrecks, Aboriginal middens and manna gums with resident koala populations.
I’ve heard that the 12 Apostles (rock stacks in the ocean) are steadily getting eroded so it would be a good idea to go visit soon!
Of course, there’s also Phillip Island with its unique population of little penguins. You can see the cute little things landing on Summerland Beach every evening during the “penguin parade”. Photography is permitted but no flash is allowed coz you’ll scare them off.
Lake Eyre in South Australia is another popular destination – it’s one of the world’s largest salt pans and since it only fills up a few times a century, it’s drying up fast so this is another one to go for before it completely dries up. There are scenic flights over the lake.
There’s really something for everyone in Australia and while I’m talking about adventure and the outdoors over here (it’s what I’m into) there are a myriad of other activities for those who have interests that lies elsewhere. I haven’t touched even a tiny portion of what’s available for adrenaline lovers Down Under.
Shopping, dining (the best crab meal I’ve had was on a chartered river cruise in NSW), or just plain sightseeing, there’s a newly revamped portal at australia.com for you to browse through and decide what you want to do before you go.
The amazing thing is that every article in that extremely detailed website is also translated into perfect Bahasa Malaysia! There are also other language options and I found the new tourism video to be very aspirational – it’s the one that I titled this post after and you can see it right at the main page of australia.com
Cheers and I hope that you’ll come to love the country where I spent about 1/3 of my adult life living in as much as I do! 🙂
Hooray….I will be flying to OZ very soon. **excited***
Nice! Which part of Australia are you headed to?
Family trip or just the both of you? Have fun Yee Ling!
Cheers! 🙂
Thanks Huai Bin..I am heading to Melbourne. Neither family or both.ahahhahahahh
That sounds like fun! 🙂
I’ll love to go back to Melbourne – it’s been many years since I’ve been there. I would love to drop by my old stomping grounds in CBD. There’s also a lot of places I haven’t visited in Australia.
Have fun Yee Ling! 😀
I wanna go again!
Yeah, there’s much more than just Melbourne city! 🙂
I’ve stayed there for years and there’s still plenty of nice places I haven’t traveled to in Australia.
Cheers!
Hahahahaha!!!! That umbrella in the first pic looks like a halo over your head. St Huai Bin…hmmmmm!!!!! Muahahahahaha!!!!!
Haha! Yeah, come to think of it that is really quite a good unintentional halo. 🙂
I was in New South Wales at that time. I went back a couple of times after my convocation in 2003. There’s so many places I have yet to visit in Australia.
I wished I traveled more when I was there but I already did the best I could – just couldn’t go everywhere in that huge continent.
I’ll love to go to Australia again! Cheers buddy! 😀
Best not to go now – you’ll be roasted. I went in the summer long ago…and there was a heatwave (they were frying eggs on the manhole covers in the city centre)…and a rubbish collectors’ strike…and the flies!!!! Gave me a really bad impression and I did not like it one bit. Best to go in the winter… Hope to hop over sometime.
Yeah, I’ve been caught in a 40 degree Celsius heatwave during summer when I was studying in Melbourne too! The trains were like ovens. 🙂
There’s a lot of fun activities to do during summer that you can’t during winter though and vice versa. Summer is the best time to hit the beaches and there’s a really good surf and kiteboarding scene in Bryon Bay.
Winter would be perfect for alpine snowboarding – had a season pass for Mt Buller when I was there.
It depends on what you want to do really.
Nice! Yeah, definitely worth a trip to Australia! Cheers buddy! 🙂
STP is a puteri lilin…if 40 degree C, sure he melted on the street.***giggles**
Heh! I thought the heatwave was fun. We had an inflatable pool going at Clayton where I lived. 🙂
Imagine my perspiration squirting out of every pore – I’d be like a walking fountain! LOL!!!
Haha! It’ll be fun on the beaches though! 😀
I have not been to Australia yet. 🙁
My wife also graduate from there and few relatives is staying there..
Maybe this year shall plan for my holiday…
I also love snowboarding very much…..
Nice! There’ll be a place to stay for you there then! 🙂
I’ve got heaps of friends over there so it’s easy for me to travel and crash at their places. A lot of my uni mates just went on living in Australia, got married and never came back.
I love snowboarding too! I prefer it to skiing, though skiing gives more control and you can’t “cross country” on a snowboard, it’s still fun.
I found the site honestly great for planning holidays! Cheers mate! 😀
If I have the money, I’ll migrate to Australia!! XD
Haha! I actually wanted to stay back in Australia instead of coming back to Malaysia…
…but I had a long distance relationship running back then so I came back to KL. Oh well. 🙂
I would encourage staying, my friends who stayed are all happy they did.
I have relatives sprawled all over Australia; some in Sydney, some in Melbourne.
I’ve not been to Australia either with the transit in Brisbane International Airport not counting much. Might be visiting WA and NSW sometime after CNY, but nothing’s rock solid. I guess if I really end up in NSW, I know where to spend my time. =D
My friend spent the spring in Fremantle and loves it so much that she’s contemplating to permanently move there.
I must be an ulu folk, didn’t know that Australia was winter. >.<
Hey, it’s good to hear that you’re heading to Australia after CNY! 🙂
It sounds like a lot of fun!
Yeah, Australia has 4 seasons, but it really depends on which part of Australia you’re living in – it’s a huge continent / country / landmass. The places nearer to the equator and closer to the outback (middle) would be naturally hotter.
I found the site a great resource for planning trips too! They list some places I didn’t even know about!
Have fun during your trip if you go Ciana! 😀
Like you, I studied in Brisbane and continue to live here for the past 9 years. Australia is a great country, not only for the places to visit,climate but also the diverse cultures too. Shame to say throughout my years here, I have only been to Sydney, Rockhampton & Melbourne. Would definitely hope to travel to Tasmania, WA etc.
With the current heatwave – the best place to chill is nearby the beach. Still plenty to do in Australia throughout all seasons 🙂 Mt Buller is awesome during winter. One of the epic journey we did was to drive from Brisbane to Melbourne in a convoy of 5 cars. That was madness! And when my husband has to drive from Brisbane to Rockhampton that was a pretty good adventure too to see the small towns in Queensland.
And I love chilling in Byron Bay, such a hippie town…
Yup, I totally agree! 🙂
I lived in Clayton during the 4 years I was in Australia, a lot of people from Greek backgrounds, a few train stations away would be Springvale (famous for their Vietnamese cuisine and also a few unsavory characters in the train station and blatantly on main street ;)).
I love the cultural diversity too!
That sounds like a truly epic roadtrip! I did one really, really long one too, tag-teaming (3 of us, with me and my mate alternating) but that’s a really long story (as long as the trip haha).
Yup, I was in Byron Bay about a year and half back – loved the place and the chill culture too! 😀
Oo.. great post.. now you’ve given me wonderlust!! 😀 Love the shots and love Australia.. i think I could live there only too easy!
Thanks Mei! 🙂
Yup, I had a chance to live there – got all the points for PR, graduated in Computer Science and it was really easy for that major to get points (others too – engineering, certain hard sciences, medicine etc).
I didn’t take it coz I had a relationship back in KL at the time. Oh well.
Likewise! I’ll love to head back to Australia and visit! 😀
this blog leads such a long and fruitful life.. may it have long life and be forever fruitful! 😀 ..
Haha! Thanks buddy! 🙂
I wished I started blogging earlier though – in 2001, then I would have chronicled even more stuff. I wish I had started in my teens rather, that would be one helluva journey. However, back then digicams were expensive and I had to limit my pictures to 300 x 225 pixels.
I was living at the Halls of Residence so I had an excellent connection (it was an OC-12 connection, much faster than even the fastest broadband available now) but broadband wasn’t available large scale in Malaysia back in April, 2002 so I couldn’t put up large photos (most back then were clickable).
I did cover a lot of interesting things though – the Melbourne Open 2003 (tennis), WWE, concerts etc etc. It was a lot of fun! I wish I could go back to Australia again.
Thanks for the well wishes buddy! 😀
I climbed Sydney Harbour Bridge and it was awesome! I wish I could try the night climb though.. MUST make a trip back there one of these days 🙂
Nice! 🙂
I hope you enjoyed the climb, it sounds like a whole lotta fun! Yup, I reckon the night climb would be really something.
Cheers Merryn! 😀
I love this country although I haven’t been there. The island is a unique paradise on its own that is incomparable to anywhere else in the world.
Indeed! 🙂
There’s just something about Australia! I love the place too – it was where I chose to do my university, although I could have done it in four other different countries.
I agree, there’s so much stuff to do there that you can stay there for years and still not get to do everything. I’ve just read about things on the site that I’ll have loved to do but didn’t know about back then.
Cheers buddy! 🙂