Australia
Melbourne
I spent two days in the city of Melbourne, where I was fortunate enough to get the very last ticket to Harry Potter and the Cursed Child (my 5th time seeing it…but the first in Australia!) and spent two days exploring the Great Ocean Road with a small group tour!
Sydney
The latter half of my time in Australia was quite fast. I had mostly two-night stays, which I’ve determined that I’d really prefer not to have, but I managed to cover a lot of ground and get many ideas for the next time im in Australia! My hostel bed in Sydney was the most expensive of the trip so far at 60$/night, but it had a view of the opera house, and was a 5 minute walk to The Rocks. I’d definitely stay there again.
I managed to see Mahler’s Klingarten Lied inside the opera house during my time in Sydney, and it was absolutely magical to be able to get into the building!
Cairns
Obviously, I couldn’t go to Australia and not see the Great Barrier Reef… I was both excited and nervous about seeing the reef. I really hoped that I’d see lots of fish, living coral, etc, but I knew from previous experiences, that it could be just about anything.
Thankfully, my experience was amazing. I did Scuba-doo in the Great Adventures reef platform, because I was very interested in getting to reef-level, but not quite up for the time and expense needed to get scuba-certified. It was incredible to ride among the fish and corals and definitely made me want to look into scuba diving experiences.
Airlie Beach
I took a day trip out to the Whitsunday islands with my one full day in Airlie Beach. I was able to see the famous lookout point, spend about 75 minutes on a silica-sand Whithaven Beach and snorkel in two different places (one including a visit with George, the massive but gentle Maori wrasse fish).
Brisbane
My last stop in Australia, my time in Brisbane was spent with my great-aunt. We enjoyed swapping travel stories, exploring the Southbank area of Brisbane, and sampling more delicious Australian wine. What a great end to my time in the country!
Argentina
Ushuaia
My arrival into Ushuaia came after a massive 36 hour day of travel. I arrived 20 hours after departing Brisbane, thanks to the dateline, but spent most of the first day in bed, recovering from some jet lag, and getting used to the unexpected chilly temperature of 2°C.
I’d arrived in Ushuaia early, as it was the departure point for the single most expensive purchase of this trip (and second most expensive purchase of my life, coming in only second to my mortgage…) my voyage to a Antarctica.
I did manage to take a day trip out to the Tierra del Fuego, and ride the train to the end of the world (a pretty major tourist trap…but… trains…)
I also explored the town and picked up some last minute additions to supplement my cold-weather gear, and an external hard drive for photo backup (I opted not to bring a laptop with me this trip, but I knew that the ship would have computers available and I planned to dump my SD cards at roughly the halfway point of the trip, in hopes that they will last me the rest of the time…in retrospect, the best 80$ I’ve spent for tech gear this trip…)
And then came Antarctica. Due to the immensity and amazing-ness of this trip, I’ve given it its own post, and due to the expense, I’ve also not included it in December’s budget and cost breakdown.
Budgeting
While spending most of my time this month in Australia, I came out a bit over budget for the month…oh wait…, in budget terms, this month was only 17 days long…ahaha…ahahah…whoops…). In total, I spent 1754.44$
Accomodation: 266.91$ – exclusively hostels
Long Distance Travel: 304.24$ – I took trains whenever possible between cities in Australia. I did have one flight from Sydney to Cairns. (That one turned out to be my cheapest transport of all my long distance travel this month, coming in at just 42$ for over 3000 kilometres of distance!)
Food (restaurant): 7.07$ – wow – this has got to be some sort of record! I ate out only one meal this month (at the food stalls in Sydney!) however, I know I enjoyed a few coffees, especially in and around Melbourne, so I’m going to bump that up to 15$
Food (grocery store): 66.35$ – mostly groceries this month, thanks to well-equipped hostel kitchens and easy transit between cities. Yay me! 😉
Local Transport: (bus, metro, Uber) 27.68$ – another record low! This month I had great accommodations and I was able to walk nearly everywhere. Woohoo! The largest expense was a round trip ferry ride from Sydney Harbour to Manly beach. Definitely worthwhile!
Entertainment: 927.91$ – ouch… I’m not really surprised at this for this latest month. Between my great ocean road tour, seeing the cursed child, and two Great Barrier Reef tours…well, it was a busy two and a half weeks! Here’s to more careful entertainment choices next month !
Miscellaneous: (laundry, walking tour tips, visas, etc). 154.28$. Most of this was some necessary cold-weather and waterproof gear. I realized, while in Australia, that many stores were having ‘winter clearance’ sales. I had planned to purchase a pair of waterproof pants in Ushuaia (mandatory for zodiac cruising in Antarctica), and I needed a good pair of winter gloves as well. Thankfully, I was able to find both on sale for significantly less than if I had waited until Ushuaia.
Favourites
Favourite Meal: because I ate out so little in December, my favourite meal was my own early Christmas dinner. I was staying at a hostel in Ushuaia, the day before I was leaving for Antarctica. I went out and bought some groceries, including mystery meat (I suspect horse?), potatoes, veggies, and a delicious chocolate ball for dessert. I also opened up a bottle of bubbly that I had carted alllll through Australia with me. (I kept meaning to open it and just never had a chance hahah… no better time than Christmas!)
Favourite Tourist Experience:
In such an amazing month, it was really hard to choose a favourite. Seeing Cursed Child, a play I’ve now seen five times, was surreal. The difference in audiences and locations made it a different, yet very familiar, magical experience. I enjoyed the play sitting next to a young family seeing it for the first time, and I teared up a number of times throughout while listening to their excitement and engagement in the magical world. On the other hand, I’ve dreamed of seeing a performance at the Sydney Opera house since could first recognize the structure…it was completely magical and again, a tear-worthy experience. Finally, snorkelling, but more amazing, scuba-doo-ing thé Great Barrier Reef. Never having done anything other than snorkelling below the water before, I remember descending down about 5 meters and upon seeing my first burst of coral, and hundreds of fish, my immediate thought was “I need to learn how to scuba dive…this underwater world is so much more magical than it looks from the top of the water…” so suffice it to say that…it’s a three-way tie?
What I Read:
This month, I was really looking forward to my read. I’d actually bought TWO new e-books to bring to Antarctica with me, in addition to a book my great-aunt bought me for Christmas. I figured that I would have lots of downtime on the ship and couldn’t wait to curl up with several good books.
Let’s just say, it’s a good thing I arrived to Ushuaia with most of my December book done, as I didn’t read more than a sentence while on board (how could I skip out on a penguin or whale lecture??).
I read The Septembers of Shiraz by Dalia Sofer, an Iranian-American author. It follows two families in Iran starting in 1981, as they struggle, and ultimately succeed, in navigating the post-revolutionary Iran. Some parts were definitely difficult to read, as it follows the imprisonments of the main characters father, but overall, a unique story! It was really interesting to read the descriptions of life in Iran during a tumultuous time, and then shortly after finishing it, hearing the news of Trump’s attack and the ensuing global concerns. While I still hope to visit Iran this year, only time will tell if I’m able to do so!
And that concludes month five on the road!
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