Favourites from Australia.

Flying to Australia from anywhere in North America is a long haul.  Once you get there and start driving around, you realize how large, vast and sparse Australia is (kinda like Canada eh!).  Our campervan drive started in Sydney and took us all the way to Perth.  Words of advice, do not cheap out on the campervan rental!  Spend the extra money to get a really good ride, unfortunately, we cheaped out and regretted it a little.  Nevertheless, we still had some great experiences along our journey. 

Memorable moments and places...

Sydney, New South Wales.
Some of the greatest places in Sydney are the beaches.  Not many large cities can boast great beaches like Bondi and Manly.  To get a great view of the Sydney skyline (including the Opera House and the Sydney Harbour Bridge), take the ferry from Manly Beach back to Circular Quay.

Meeting up with Tricia's old friend Sam and his wife Hannah, were definite highlights as well as hooking up with Bennett's first Nanny, Wendy, and her husband, Andrew, and baby Charlotte.

We picked up our Campervan in Sydney from Travellers Autobarn. They are definitely a budget rental place (which isn't a bad thing necessarily).  If you are travelling for a long time, don't cheap out!  Spend the extra on a Maui rental.

Killalea State Park, New South Wales.
A fantastic State Park, just south of Sydney.  Awesome beach and great camping spot where you can actually have a fire!  We found that not many campsites allow you to have a fire which really is one of the best parts about camping.

We met up with a nice couple from England, Kate and Byron, while camping and stayed up late talking with them.

Jervis Bay and Dalmeny, New South Wales.
On our way to Dalmeny, we stopped at a beach in Jervis Bay, which was spectacular!  We spotted our first Wallaby.  While in Dalmeny, the Dalmeny Campground was a great place to stay, right on the ocean, with great views.

Melbourne, Victoria.
While in Melbourne, we stayed with Tricia's cousin Nigel, his wife Jaqueline and their kids Felix, Justin and Louie.  They welcomed us into their home and made us feel part of their family!  When we first arrived we were treated to a School performance of the Nativity Scene at Louie's school.  They permit you to drink wine and champagne at the school as you watch the performance!

Felix took us into Melbourne on the train and we quite enjoyed the downtown.

Very memorable was going to the beach with Nigel, his kids, Bennett and I.  We had an amazing time living with Nigel and his family for several days.

The Great Ocean Road, Victoria.
A magnificent coastal road along the southern shores of Victoria. Memorable towns included Lorne, Apollo Bay and Port Fairy.  Incredible beaches are everywhere!  The Belfast Cove Holiday Park (caravan park) in Port Fairy was particularly good (as far as caravan parks in Australia go!), they had a bouncy pillow!  We stopped at the Great Otway National Park and had a nice rainforest walk. The 12 Apostles, which are eroded limestone structures on the coast are quite a site.  The Tower Hill Wildlife Reserve was amazing and we spied Emus, Wallabies and Koalas right in their natural habitat, definitely a major highlight!

The Umpherstone Sinkhole in Mount Gambier, South Australia.
We kind of happened upon the Umpherstone Sinkhole while driving to Robe, South Australia, which was a very pleasant spot to stop.  The town of Robe also had a decent caravan park called the Discovery Holiday Parks Robe (again as far as caravan parks go in Australia), which had a great beach next to the park. 

The Barossa Valley, South Australia.
Famous wineries such as Penfolds and Elderton Wines and we finally had a decent restaurant meal (in Australia), while in the Barossa Valley.  The town also had a nice park with a old train that Bennett loved playing on.

The Nullarbor.
A grueling drive across some very barren landscape, that at the end of, you can say you did it!  There is not much to see along the way nor are there very many places to camp, but we did find a half decent one at the Eucla Caravan Park which offered great views of the Nullarbor and the ocean on a raised area (and we had a campfire for the first time in many caravan camping days!).

Cape La Grande National Park and Albany, Western Australia.
After our very long drive across the Nullarbor, we were rewarded with a visit to an unbelievable beach in Lucky Bay at Cape La Grand National Park.  Quite possibly the most beautiful beach we've ever seen. You're pretty much guaranteed to spot some kangaroos on the beach, especially around sun set.  The camping spot at Lucky Bay was literally a dirt patch though, but the beach totally made up for it.

When we arrived in Albany, Western Australia, we decided to give up sleeping in our crappy campervan and opt for a luxury cabin at the BIG4 Middleton Beach Holiday.  This was one of the best caravan parks we stayed at in Australia and the town of Albany was also very good as well.

Margaret River, Western Australia.
One of the biggest highlights in all of our Australian travels was definitely our time spent in and around Margaret River.

Again foregoing sleeping in our campervan, we stayed in a cabin at the Riverview Tourist Park, which was excellent and within easy walking distance to the downtown.  Bennett and I were able to canoe right on the Margaret River.  The Tourist Park also offered a day trip outing, via a shuttle bus, which included visits to several local wineries (there are tonnes of them in Margaret River).  We had 2 excellent meals, one at Morries Anytime and another at La Scarpetta Trattoria.  A visit to local Wise Winery was definitely worth it. Bennett had an excellent time at the Xscape Fun Park.  There are also some excellent caves nearby which Bennett and I visited (but Tricia opted out).  Quite close also is Eagle Bay where this is a great beach (where I caught a couple of fish!) and was very relaxing.

We met up with another couple, Thomas and Alexandra, who we ended up spending an evening together with at our cabin, drinking wine, and we also went out for dinner.

We would absolutely visit Margaret River again if we ever were back in Australia.

Perth and Burns Beach, Western Australia.
Undoubtedly memorable, and certainly a highlight, was spending the Xmas Holidays in Burns Beach and Perth.

Our stellar, 4 bedroom (not that we needed them!) accommodations in Burns Beach was a total luxury and was our home for more than a week, including Xmas Day.  We rented the property through VRBO (Vacation Rental By Owner).

From Burns Beach, we were about a 30 minute drive from Perth, which we visited several times.  Places we visited and enjoyed in Perth include Kings Park and the Scitech Discovery Center (which was free with our Ontario Science Center family membership). Perth, being the major city in Australia's west, turned out to be an excellent city to visit and also had a great pedestrian area which was great for shopping (particularly our Xmas shopping for each other). Nearby Fremantle was also great to visit, which had a nice beach as well as a Ferris Wheel which Bennett and I tried.  Close to Perth, we also visited the Caversham Wildlife Park and the Bennett Brook Railway (which are both located in Whiteman Park), just outside of Perth, and had a fantastic time!  A must visit, north of Burns Beach, are the Pinnacles, which are spectacular formations in the desert.

A fond memory for us was going to pick out our Christmas tree (yes they have Xmas trees in Australia!) on an Xmas Tree Farm around Perth.  We really missed our families on Xmas Day, but we made the best of it and I cooked up a great meal for us to enjoy. Tricia's family had sent us a care package to open up on Xmas Day which had tonnes of goodies for Bennett.

Perth and Burns Beach were our final destinations in Australia before the next part of our adventure in South East Asia began (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia being our first Asian city that we went to).