australia, here we come!

I've finally had a chance to work on our sabbatical a bit this week.

the "master plan" is to take a two week cruise around new zealand and then head to australia for 3 weeks or so. the semi-frustrating part is figuring out where to go and how to stay somewhat on budget. I can easily see blowing a nice chunk of money in australia since the AUD won't take us very far. two areas which I loved when I visited in 2005 were fraser island and the whitsundays, so I want to take S back and show him. After our obligatory stop in sydney, hopefully we'll head down to kangaroo island...after seeing pictures, I think you can see why:

KI is also known to have amazing wildlife, including kangaroos in the wild, penguins, and seals. from what I've read, it's also fairly unspoiled, which is a nice change of pace for once.

after KI, we'll head up to the east coast and make our way to the great barrier reef. stops along the way are fraser island - unfortunately, I missed going to lake mckenzie and want to kick myself for not doing it. hopefully I will redeem myself this time. again, just looking at the picture makes all stresses go away. apparently, it has some of the most amazing sand on planet earth.

our last stop in australia will probably be the whitsunday islands. a group of 74 islands, they are just south of the main portion of the great barrier reef. I was pretty unimpressed with the great barrier reef in general - I found it to be too touristy, but a 3 day cruise on a boat around the islands sounds fantastic to me. one of the islands in the whitsundays, whitehaven, is named one of the top 10 beaches in the world. hmmm...I don't know why.

I'm also really hoping we can make a stop in byron bay and noosa, but time and money will determine if that's feasible.