oh Australia
Last night I spent a little time flipping through the Lonely Planet guide to Australia. Every time I look into Australia I find that I am adding things: more money, more time, more things to see/do. I tend to forget just how big the country is and am overwhelmed by the vast amount of distances I want to cover in such a short amount of time. I will most likely end up only focusing, like many of the tourists, on the eastern coast. I think I will start in Sydney and then make my way north to Cairns (to snorkel/dive the Great Barrier Reef) before flying back to Sydney. One potential problem is that, and this I didn't realize, the area where Cairns is is pretty much a tropical/rainforest (I don't associate rain forest with Aus) and the time that I would be there, the end of March, is the tail end of the rainy season (March has the highest rainfall of the year). Apparently the diving is great that time of year, which doesn't make sense to me but I read it on the WWW so it must be true!

This all costs money though. I am hoping to do a multi day "liveaboard" cruise of the reef, either snorkeling or diving (I know I would love to dive, but I just haven't gotten around to getting certified. I might do it this summer on LI). Cruises of this type start at around 400 and go up up up.

I also discovered that it is possible to climb bridges in some of the major cities. How many times have you gone over a bride and looked, with a bit of envy in your eye, at the workers climbing up those big thick cables to the support towers? Well in Aus, you can do that. For around 150.

Of course I would want to spend some time hanging out with Koala Bears, that costs at least 30 or so.

Even the basics, hostels and food, are expensive. A budget of 80-100 a day isn't too out of the question. Having spent so much time in 2nd/3rd world countries those numbers seem crazy to me. I was thriving in Bolivia on 20 a day!

Now I am thinking I might spend about 2 1/2 weeks in NZ (the southern island; which is equally expensive) and then 3 weeks in Aus. It doesn't take a calculator to do that math and get a pretty high number. Sigh. I could add more time to it (as I won't have anything to come home to) but my parents are moving out of NY in mid August which means I need to be out by then and every month I spend traveling is one less month spent finding a place to live and work. sigh.