Suggestions for must-dos in Australia - East coast and Northern Territory

Hi,
My fiance and I are planning our honeymoon in Australia. We're
thinking about spending a couple of weeks driving the east coast,
starting in Sydney and going north to Townsville. From there, we're
planning on flying to Darwin and driving south to Uluru before flying
back to Sydney. We'll be in the Northern Territory for about 17 days.
Can you recommend good camping/canoeing outfitters in Darwin or
Nitmiluk? We're thinking of seeing the following things. Would you
swap any out for something not on the list?

Sydney
1/2 day in Port Stephens (do we need more time here? - is Broughton
Island worth a visit?)
Dorrigo Nat'l Park
Byron Bay
Surfer's Paradise
Lamington Nat'l Park
Rainbow Beach/Hervey Bay
Fraser Island (just a one day tour)
Lady Elliot Island or Heron Island
Darwin
Kakadu
Nitmiluk
Kings Canyon
Uluru
Alice Springs

Two weeks maybe pushing it a bit on the East Coast drive.
Just driving straight through from Sydney to Townsville is a long
three/four day drive. Have a look at www.whereis.com.au
for approximate driving times and distances.

Maybe a safer trip would be drive Sydney to Hervey Bay, drive
back to Brisbane, fly to one of the Barrier Reef islands, fly back
to Brisbane, fly to Darwin.

As for the itinerary I would add these
Foster Tuncurry/ Mial (sp?) Lakes NSW
South West Rocks NSW
Coffs Harbour NSW
In fact any of the small coastal towns along the coast are worth
the few minutes drive off the main highway.
Forget Surfers Paradise unless you like noise, traffic lights,
high rise buildings and over priced accomodation.
The Sunshine Coast North of Brisbane is well worth the
effort - Caloundra to Noosa. You can do a trip to Fraser Island
from Noosa driving along the beach. But a day trip is a bit hurried
and you will only see the Southern part of the Island. You can also
do the same trip from Rainbow Beach, or rent a 4x4 and go where
you want to go on Fraser or Cooloola National Park.
A trip into the Noosa River Everglades can be fun - plenty of Kayak
hire companies are in the area.
Hervey Bay is worth the visit - good if the whales are in the bay. You
can do a North of Fraser trip from Hervey Bay.
The trip North to Townsville from Hervey Bay is a bit boring if you
are a beach person - once inside the Barrier Reef the beaches
become muddy/gritty with lots of mangoes. Once North of
Rockhampton crocodiles are a real concern and you should only
swim or get near water that is marked as being safe for swimming.
However the Islands are absolutely magic - real paradise stuff.


wrote in message
oups.com...
Hi,
My fiance and I are planning our honeymoon in Australia. We're
thinking about spending a couple of weeks driving the east coast,
starting in Sydney and going north to Townsville. From there, we're
planning on flying to Darwin and driving south to Uluru before flying
back to Sydney. We'll be in the Northern Territory for about 17 days.
Can you recommend good camping/canoeing outfitters in Darwin or
Nitmiluk? We're thinking of seeing the following things. Would you
swap any out for something not on the list?

Sydney
1/2 day in Port Stephens (do we need more time here? - is Broughton
Island worth a visit?)
Dorrigo Nat'l Park
Byron Bay
Surfer's Paradise
Lamington Nat'l Park
Rainbow Beach/Hervey Bay
Fraser Island (just a one day tour)
Lady Elliot Island or Heron Island
Darwin
Kakadu
Nitmiluk
Kings Canyon
Uluru
Alice Springs

wrote in message
oups.com...
Hi,
My fiance and I are planning our honeymoon in Australia. We're
thinking about spending a couple of weeks driving the east coast,
starting in Sydney and going north to Townsville. From there, we're
planning on flying to Darwin and driving south to Uluru before flying
back to Sydney. We'll be in the Northern Territory for about 17 days.
Can you recommend good camping/canoeing outfitters in Darwin or
Nitmiluk? We're thinking of seeing the following things. Would you
swap any out for something not on the list?

Sydney
1/2 day in Port Stephens (do we need more time here? - is Broughton
Island worth a visit?)
Dorrigo Nat'l Park
Byron Bay
Surfer's Paradise
Lamington Nat'l Park
Rainbow Beach/Hervey Bay
Fraser Island (just a one day tour)
Lady Elliot Island or Heron Island
Darwin
Kakadu
Nitmiluk
Kings Canyon
Uluru
Alice Springs



There is a lot to see in this list in a few short weeks.

I would skip Hervery Bay and Rainbow, spend more time on Fraser.
Between Heron island and Townsville is the Whitsunday Islands. Do not miss
the Whitsundays!!!

Jeff
http://community.webshots.com/user/surfoz

On Tue, 26 Apr 2005 20:34:14 +1000, "Jeff"
wrote:

Jeff, completely off-topic, but you might want to change the spam
filter in your email address so that the spam-block is in the domain
name rater than user name.

When spam is sent to the email address you are using it does actually
get to the OzEmail mail server, which then bounces it. That is then
two email messages, the spam and the bounce.

By placing the spam-block in the email address, the domain will not
resolve, so it won't even get sent, thereby eliminating two emails
from the traffic. Two emails is bugger all, but when you take into
account all of the spam out there it will make a difference if
everybody does it.

Dave

=====

NSW Rural Fire Service - become a volunteer today.

http://www.rfs.nsw.gov.au/

On Tue, 26 Apr 2005 20:34:14 +1000, "Jeff"
wrote:

Jeff, completely off-topic, but you might want to change the spam
filter in your email address so that the spam-block is in the domain
name rater than user name.

When spam is sent to the email address you are using it does actually
get to the OzEmail mail server, which then bounces it. That is then
two email messages, the spam and the bounce.

By placing the spam-block in the email address, the domain will not
resolve, so it won't even get sent, thereby eliminating two emails
from the traffic. Two emails is bugger all, but when you take into
account all of the spam out there it will make a difference if
everybody does it.

Dave

=====

NSW Rural Fire Service - become a volunteer today.

http://www.rfs.nsw.gov.au/

Hi Dave

Thanks for the tip, i have changed it as per your suggestion.

Cheers
Jeff.


"Dave Proctor" wrote in message
...
On Tue, 26 Apr 2005 20:34:14 +1000, "Jeff"
wrote:

Jeff, completely off-topic, but you might want to change the spam
filter in your email address so that the spam-block is in the domain
name rater than user name.

When spam is sent to the email address you are using it does actually
get to the OzEmail mail server, which then bounces it. That is then
two email messages, the spam and the bounce.

By placing the spam-block in the email address, the domain will not
resolve, so it won't even get sent, thereby eliminating two emails
from the traffic. Two emails is bugger all, but when you take into
account all of the spam out there it will make a difference if
everybody does it.

Dave

=====

NSW Rural Fire Service - become a volunteer today.

http://www.rfs.nsw.gov.au/

Hi Dave

Thanks for the tip, i have changed it as per your suggestion.

Cheers
Jeff.


"Dave Proctor" wrote in message
...
On Tue, 26 Apr 2005 20:34:14 +1000, "Jeff"
wrote:

Jeff, completely off-topic, but you might want to change the spam
filter in your email address so that the spam-block is in the domain
name rater than user name.

When spam is sent to the email address you are using it does actually
get to the OzEmail mail server, which then bounces it. That is then
two email messages, the spam and the bounce.

By placing the spam-block in the email address, the domain will not
resolve, so it won't even get sent, thereby eliminating two emails
from the traffic. Two emails is bugger all, but when you take into
account all of the spam out there it will make a difference if
everybody does it.

Dave

=====

NSW Rural Fire Service - become a volunteer today.

http://www.rfs.nsw.gov.au/

On Wed, 27 Apr 2005 20:13:24 +1000, "Jeff"
wrote:

Hi Dave

Thanks for the tip, i have changed it as per your suggestion.

No dramas - there is also the faint chance that a spam-blocked
username might actually exist - although I doubt that there would be a
hanjNOSPAM user.

Dave

=====

NSW Rural Fire Service - become a volunteer today.

http://www.rfs.nsw.gov.au/

Dave Proctor wrote:
On Tue, 26 Apr 2005 20:34:14 +1000, "Jeff"
wrote:

Jeff, completely off-topic, but you might want to change the spam
filter in your email address so that the spam-block is in the domain
name rater than user name.

When spam is sent to the email address you are using it does actually
get to the OzEmail mail server, which then bounces it. That is then
two email messages, the spam and the bounce.

By placing the spam-block in the email address, the domain will not
resolve, so it won't even get sent, thereby eliminating two emails
from the traffic. Two emails is bugger all, but when you take into
account all of the spam out there it will make a difference if
everybody does it.

Well, munging the host.domain part is also frowned upon? Why? Because
the munger does not own the domain and the munged address *could* be a
real domain (or host) name, i.e. it is not up to the munger to decide
that (in your example) "remove" is an unlikely to exist subdomain or
that "spambait" is an unlikely to exist hostname. Those decisions are
upto the *owner* of the domain, i.e. not 'you' (generic you).

How then *can* one munge and still be a good Netizen? By adding
".invalid" to the end of the munged address (see for example my "From:"
address). "invalid" is not just some word, but a *standardized* [1]
top-level domain (TLD) name which is *guaranteed* to never exist. Also
standards-aware software (like newsreaders) will not even try to send a
message to an ".invalid" address. So there is a *big* difference between
the pseudo (TL) domain ".invalid" and some dreamt-up pseudo (TL) domain
like ".humpty". The former is guaranteed to never exist. For the latter
that is just very likely.

So Jeff, I advise to change again to your *earlier* address, with
".invalid" at the end.

Note however that address-harvesters, i.e. the people who gather
addresses which spammers use, are aware of the "nospam" trick (and the
".invalid" standard), so you might want to come up with something more
clever/obtuse than "nospam".

I hope this helps.

[1] See RFC 2606 "Reserved Top Level DNS Names"
http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2606.txt?number=2606

Dave Proctor wrote:
On Tue, 26 Apr 2005 20:34:14 +1000, "Jeff"
wrote:

Jeff, completely off-topic, but you might want to change the spam
filter in your email address so that the spam-block is in the domain
name rater than user name.

When spam is sent to the email address you are using it does actually
get to the OzEmail mail server, which then bounces it. That is then
two email messages, the spam and the bounce.

By placing the spam-block in the email address, the domain will not
resolve, so it won't even get sent, thereby eliminating two emails
from the traffic. Two emails is bugger all, but when you take into
account all of the spam out there it will make a difference if
everybody does it.

Well, munging the host.domain part is also frowned upon? Why? Because
the munger does not own the domain and the munged address *could* be a
real domain (or host) name, i.e. it is not up to the munger to decide
that (in your example) "remove" is an unlikely to exist subdomain or
that "spambait" is an unlikely to exist hostname. Those decisions are
upto the *owner* of the domain, i.e. not 'you' (generic you).

How then *can* one munge and still be a good Netizen? By adding
".invalid" to the end of the munged address (see for example my "From:"
address). "invalid" is not just some word, but a *standardized* [1]
top-level domain (TLD) name which is *guaranteed* to never exist. Also
standards-aware software (like newsreaders) will not even try to send a
message to an ".invalid" address. So there is a *big* difference between
the pseudo (TL) domain ".invalid" and some dreamt-up pseudo (TL) domain
like ".humpty". The former is guaranteed to never exist. For the latter
that is just very likely.

So Jeff, I advise to change again to your *earlier* address, with
".invalid" at the end.

Note however that address-harvesters, i.e. the people who gather
addresses which spammers use, are aware of the "nospam" trick (and the
".invalid" standard), so you might want to come up with something more
clever/obtuse than "nospam".

I hope this helps.

[1] See RFC 2606 "Reserved Top Level DNS Names"
http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2606.txt?number=2606