fandomsecrets | [ SECRET POST #3143 ]

⌈ Secret Post #3143 ⌋

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If you had a limited time, say a couple of weeks, to travel in Australia, would you prefer to spend some of that limited time seeing the Great Barrier Reef or Tasmania?

Background - I'll be starting from Sydney, so these two places are in the exact opposite direction from each other. The Great Barrier Reef is further from Sydney than Tasmania is.

Do you prefers forests or ocean? Although tassie has a cold reef if you want some snorkelling.

I kind of love everything, to be honest. Do tell about the cold reef - where is that?

There's a couple - no where near as big as GBR but still filled with cool creatures

http://www.parks.tas.gov.au/?base=2926

There's also giant kelp forests all along the east side of the state. Pacific sea stars are eating some so you'll have to check with parks tas to see which ones are still tourist worthy. The NW past Devonport and the knut have some too. The Knut is good for history and wildlife.

Do you want purely environment or environment with a side of human nightlife ie bars? Former: Gold Coast. Latter: tassie.

What time of year are you planning to travel?
Would you snorkel in open water or have you done any scuba diving?

There are marine reserves closer to Sydney if you want to see fishies. We may not have the same variety and colours, but we have some cool stuff. I'm not sure if you dive, but we have some great wrecks.

Probably the one thing I'd warn you about is that if you want to do the Great Barrier Reef, it's not a case of just walking out from the beach and finding yourself in it. You should plan to jump on a boat and hire some gear, but it's a lot of fun. If you're not a swimmer, there are glass-bottom boats.
Winter way up north isn't very cold either, and it's much cheaper to stay at the islands and Noosa and Cairns.

I've never been to Tassie myself, but I have friends who live there, and it's a whole other world. The trees are exciting or something? Idk. That's probably why we never went there when I was a kid. We live in a place with trees that actually gets cold, so it wasn't very new or exciting.

I'll be in Aussie pretty much the whole month of November.

I would maybe snorkel, but I likely could not be persuaded to scuba dive - I had a really bad experience some years ago. My husband, on the other hand, is pretty much a fish in human form. Snorkel, scuba, free dive, whatever.

Ooh! You're from Sydney? And you dive? What is your favorite dive around Sydney?

I had not considered the possibility of glass-bottom boats. That is totally more my speed.

When you refer to "the islands", which islands do you mean?

My coworker says Tasmania is very spiritual, because there are these huge stretches of coastline where you don't see another human being. I've seen pictures of some cliffs that look spectacular. Evidently there's also a very, very remote chance of seeing the aurora australis, which would be amazing.

SA

To clarify, I'll be there almost all of November, but will be working at my company's Sydney office for about half that time.

Also - what are your favorite things to do in and around Sydney? Have you climbed the Harbor Bridge? That was recommended to me as a cool thing to do.

Any recommendations for Melbourne? If we do end up in Tasmania, we'll likely fly back to Melbourne instead of Sydney.

November is late Spring, so it's a good time for swimming.

Sydney is my closest city, so I spend a lot of time there. I don't scuba because my lungs aren't really up to it, but I have done a fair bit of snorkelling, and I stay topside when my friends go on dives. Botany Bay National Park has Sea Dragons, so it's my favourite spot just for that. Just go on a really calm day because you don't want a big swell when you're trying to get in from the rocks. Cronulla, I think Oak Park has cuttlefish. Clovelly is probably better for beginners because they have a tourist setup from memory. Might be worth looking into. Sydney has a pretty popular aquarium too, if you just want the chill option. For your husband - the Centurion wreck dive I think is usually the one the scuba places take tourists to. We took a boat out to the Tuggarah once, and my friends loved it.

I've heard mixed reviews on Bridge Climb, and the Ferry is more in my budget if I want to see the Harbour, so I've never been all the way up. You can walk straight across for free anyway so go up and have a look. If you go at dusk you'll see the flying foxes. Definitely check out: pancakes on the Rocks and the Sydney Theatre Company if you're in the area though.

QLD: Depending on how far north you go, there are also croc tours.
The national parks are great, too. Lots of interesting birds and plants to see in north QLD. Lace monitors, Cassowaries, brush turkeys everywhere.

When I talk about the Islands, I mean the Whitsunday Islands. Definitely worth looking into if you decide you want to do the reef. The postcards don't lie.

Melbourne has amazing food. If you're a foodie, that's definitely where you want to be.
Sydney has Lord of the Fries now, too. It's on George St. So bad. yet so good. That's cheap gourmet though.

You're going to have fun. You can't go wrong, really.

I dove in the GBR and to be honest I've had better dives almost everywhere else I've been. It was just sad to see the dying coral and criminally crowded dive spots with harried sea creatures. It was a bucket list item, but possibly an overhyped one.

Hmm, that's good to keep in mind, thank you.

Australian here.

I've snorkelled once on the great barrier reef, and it was brilliant, much better than the times I've done it in SE Asia.

However, November will be hot Hot HOTTTTT, glary, cloudy, humid, literally the hottest month of the year up north (waiting for the monsoons to come through), so bear that in mind if you go up Cairns way (you might like it!). But you might get cheaper off-season prices. It is GORGEOUS with the tropical rainforests in far northern Queensland though. Since full on rains are unlikely to have properly started, the reef may have decent visibility. There's many places to visit the reef at. November will have poisonous jellyfish around though, but the water will be warm.

Tasmania has mossy peat bogs, deep forests, clear crystal lakes, very beautiful. Not as exotic as the tropics to someone from, say, Canada, but still unique. November will be reasonably warm, but still longsleeve clothing weather most of the time except in the middle of a sunny day. It's relatively small and you can easily hire a car or take a bus around the place.

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