Our First Time Down-Under

We’ve had some complaints about airports in recent times [see Stanstead Shuffle], but Australia, at least from our perspective, has it nailed to the tee. There’s always a small amount of anxiety when crossing a border. Did I do the visa application correctly? Have I forgotten to declare something? Has my passport miraculously development a sense of wunderlust and escaped from the zipped pocket I just checked it was in? Arriving into Melbourne is a breeze. We were a little worried having been in Delhi for a few days walking in a lot of mud that we may be stopped on arrival due to the strict contamination rules entering Australia. But we filled in the form truthfully and were waved on through immigration with a, “Nah worries mate, that’s no biggie”.

Departing is much the same experience. I gave myself three hours at the airport after the absolute nightmarish scenes experienced leaving Delhi.

Note: if flying through Delhi give yourself AT LEAST three hours. Chaos does not even begin to describe the drama through that airport. I know it’s a major hub in an incredibly densely populated city, but I was still not prepared for the sheer volume of people pushing and shoving their way into the airport terminal. That’s right, the drama starts outside the airport. They employed military support to maintain order, baggage drop is a classic nightmare of long queues and broken check in kiosks, followed by a security screening process that literally - and I mean literally - made someone have a complete breakdown. I digress, back to Australia.

I flew on a Saturday night so I assumed it would be busy, but I was basically alone. Check-in went quickly, security was amazing you don’t even need to unpack your bag for it to be scanned. What a time to be alive!

Victoria

My first impression of Australia is how cold it is. Even though I knew it would be brisk in early spring (for the southern hemisphere), I wasn’t prepared for how much it can bite in the mornings. I think I had grown too used to the warmth of Germany and India, the contrast really hit hard. My second impression is how abundant the wildlife is. Within minutes of leaving the urban area after getting picked up we saw our first kangaroos. I know it’s such a touristy thing to be impressed wth, but they’re everywhere!

We were staying in an area called Heathcote, two hours north of Melbourne, which is fairly quiet and has a rural feel to it, making for some of the most stunning night skies I’ve experience in a while. Seeing the cloud of the Milky Way with the naked eye is pretty special. The surrounding area is home to all manor of wildlife and we could see most of it from the porch. Kangaroos will graze in the garden at night, cockatoos hang out in the trees all over and we even got a rare sighting of an echidna (sort of like a non-spiked porcupine mixed with a small aardvark) just up the trails nearby. With a little travel to Philip Island you can see koalas and a sanctuary and even mini penguins!

New South Wales

According to Geoff, who I met at the outdoor gym one day, Bermagui used to be little more than a trailer park but in the last 15 years has exploded into a destination seaside town. One of favourite thing the area has to offer was the blue pool. It started off as a naturally occurring area where the high tide would leave behind enough water to swim in a rock pool. The town then built it up a little and turned it into a stunning semi-natural infinity pool area, big enough to swim laps in. But the real appeal is that 50m around the corner live a group of seals that can be seen splashing and playing all the time. As if that wasn’t enough from the top of the steps is a viewing area where, at the right time of year you’ll see an abundance of whales on their migration down south. You can probably tell from the photo that we were there at the right time of year!

I got to spend my birthday in Bermagui and Harmony arranged for us to go on a boat tour to see even more whales. It was absolutely magical watching them breaching, fin slapping and diving all around us. We were even treated to a celebrity whale called Waverider who hadn’t been seen in a while. She was sadly in an accident that left her scarred with ridges, but survived and has had several calves since.

Final Thoughts

Without going into the somewhat difficult history of the country, Australians seems to be trying to show compassion and empathy for each other. That goes from the cities where you can see a huge diversity of people to the small towns where everyone is incredibly welcoming. From what I can see, there are phone boxes with free wifi and calling for anyone who needs it. I know it’s marketing (well played Telstra), but underneath it shows that everyone deserves to be connected. In the rural towns there’s no, “you’re not from ‘round these parts” attitude at all. After seeing a group of people sea swimming one morning, I invited myself along and the group were so happy to have me. I returned 8 times.

I honestly cannot wait for my next trip down-under.