Planning to head to Australia

Post by **pettaw** » 21 Aug 2008 08:17 am

I've managed to get a month off, and I'm planning to come to Australia for an extended holiday in October...well, mostly planned already

I'm planning to go around Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and go up to the Gold Coast, Cairns and see as much of the east coast as I can fit in.

If anybody's in the local area do they fancy meeting up? I know that I'd like to get my hands on some A/C parts so that I can send some back to the UK.

Post by **trabitom99** » 21 Aug 2008 09:02 am

Hmm, Andy in Australia

Would you be able to keep an eye out for the odd A/C bit

?

Cheers

Tom

Post by **carnut1100** » 25 Aug 2008 08:40 am

Shouldn't be hard to find A/C stuff, I think they all had it here, or all the ones I have seen anyhow.
You aren't coming to Tasmania?????
The jewel in the crown of Australia???????
You Philistine!

Post by **trabitom99** » 25 Aug 2008 09:54 am

How are you going to be getting around, Andy? Isn't there some kind of car park in Sydney where tourists buy and sell cars to go travelling in?

Some V8 Holden with a million kilometres and serious rust but working air con (and a big boot for 300 A/C spares) might be just the ticket for a fun holiday ...

Tom

Post by **pettaw** » 25 Aug 2008 10:57 am

Nah I think I'll be hiring something fairly small and sensible

If I was going for longer then something mad would be a real option.

Sorry I'm not coming to Tasmania. I'd love to, but Australia is such a big country there's no way I'm going to be able to see it all in one trip.

I'm planning on making this the first of many trips if it all goes well

Post by **jtbo** » 25 Aug 2008 08:17 pm

Sounds nice, wish I could do something similar at some point

Post by **Chesh740R** » 27 Aug 2008 08:27 pm

Andy if your flying into and out of Sydney, then don't bother renting a car from the airport.

Grab a taxi or bus into the heart of Sydney, and then go for a wander up William Street in the Kings Cross area.

It has about 15 different rental car places all within 400yards of each other, I just walked up teh street, dropping in and asking what deals they had for what cars.

1 week whilst travelling around with a friend we splashed out and rented a large Holden allthough it broke down on the lot so was given a upgrade to a Toyota Avalon, which ruined my plans of renting a car of the host nation

Then another week i rented a basic corrolla to travel up the east coast on my own.
I'm sure the corrolla only cost me something like £20 a day to rent and was perfectly adequate for a roadtrip.

You'll love it out there, Highlights for me were spending time in the Blue Mountains, Mount Panorama Racetrack(which is a public road 99% of the time and great fun to drive round) Driving up the east coast To melbourn and back and relaxing on the many numerous beaches.

Just wish i'd stayed out there even longer than i did, Whilst i was out there i put my flight back by a further 2 weeks to see more of the place.

And climbing the Sydney Harbour Bridge is a great thing to do whilst in the City, I seem to recall you may have to prebook a walk up there.

Post by **jtbo** » 28 Aug 2008 07:12 pm

Are roo's much of problem, do they jump under car a lot?

One Aussie I know got one into car, it jumped in trough windshield

But don't know how often one encounterns them, maybe those are like reindeers in our lapland, there is lot of them but it is not very easy to hit them if one is careful.

Post by **filthyjohn** » 28 Aug 2008 08:46 pm

Watch the V8 supercars series, they hit them all the time!

Click for kangaroo near-miss

Post by **Aussie 360GLT** » 29 Aug 2008 03:00 am

as long as your careful and keep a good on the road ahead of you, you should be fine aye.

if your travelin round the coast theres not as many as there would be if you traveling inland etc lol

but yer you should be fine...

and also keep an eye out for wombats aswell ive hit one of them in ford wagon lol he was a big bugger too!! lol but amazingly didnt damage my car, and it got up and waddled away by the next morning lol

but it doesnt happen as much as you might hear / think lol its mainly all the trucks and roadtrains etc that hit the native wildlife lol

so yer just keep an eye out and all should be fine.

Post by **Chesh740R** » 29 Aug 2008 11:27 pm

Aussie 360GLT wrote:
but it doesnt happen as much as you might hear / think lol its mainly all the trucks and roadtrains etc that hit the native wildlife lol

Yep never saw a living thing, allthough we did come off the roads not long after it got dark.

The only Kangaroo we saw was a real big bugger dead on the side of the road.

Post by **pettaw** » 30 Aug 2008 10:45 am

Sounds cool, renting a Holden.......hmm......Do you reckon they'll have the same arrangement in Cairns? I was planning to fly from Melbs to Cairns and then rent a car in Cairns and drive myself back to Melbourne.

Running into wildlife seems a bit scary I guess I'll have to be on the lookout haha.

Any Aussie V3m'ers fancy a meet up if I'm passing their area?

Post by **redline** » 30 Aug 2008 01:32 pm

Andy I'm not sure you would be able to see over the bonnet of a Holden mate , they are big buggers ,

and for those that dont know the Avalon that Chesh drove is the aussie toyota camry

Post by MJ » 30 Aug 2008 04:34 pm

Sounds great, have a good trip.

Oh, and on the subject of warnings, apparently the coastal areas of Aus are "suffering from an unprecedented 'man drought'"

"The statistics have revealed that there are almost 100,000 more females than males in Australia." http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-p ... 589382.stm

Have fun

Post by **trabitom99** » 30 Aug 2008 10:23 pm

Going to Australia, you have to rent a Holden. When else do you get the chance to drive one of those? Australians visiting the UK are always asking after Allegros at the Hertz desk at Heathrow

MJ wrote:"The statistics have revealed that there are almost 100,000 more females than males in Australia."

That's a nice statistic

Maybe I should've visited before tying the knot.

Tom