Down Under

I have been to Australia. My wife has a whole bunch of cousins down there in Freemantle and Perth. What a gorgeous part of the world! One of my wife's cousins has a 42 foot catamaran and they took us out sailing for a few days. We saw dolphins, whales, octopii, skates, sharks, penguins and sea lions. We even did some fishing for "breakfast herring."

We really want to go back and explore other parts of the country. Much of Australia is still very unspoiled and "wide open." I imagine it is a lot like the USA was at the turn of th 20th century.

One of her cousins now lives in Sydney so we've promised to go visit there. We might not need a hotel in Sydney for our whole stay, but I hate to impose for too long on friends and family. He's an aspiring Aussie Rules Football Player, so we may get to go see some games while we're there. Sydney is far more metropolitan and populated than Freemantle, so it will probably be a more urbane visit.

My wife's always wanted to go to Brisbane, since she was born there. I don't know much about the city or the area, but the opportunities for coastal recreating, bushwhacking and urban exploration are abundant. We don't know anyone in that part of the country, so we'll need a hotel in Brisbane.

Melbourne is way down south, so you could go skiing there in the (northern hemisphere's) summer time. I'd prefer to visit in the winter (their summer) and travel the great Ocean Road while exploring the miles of deserted coastline. There's lots of good wineries in this part of Australia too. We'll definitely need a hotel in Melbourne, especially in wine country!

When we visited Freemantle, we spent nearly 3 weeks exploring the region, I'd like to spend a year in Australia on "walkabout" (OK, maybe "driveabout") the next time we go.