curious Mez

[deird1]

So, I'm wondering:

For all you overseas folk, when you start planning your Exciting Trips To See Australia, what things do you think of seeing?


(brief digression approaching...)

When I went to Munich, everyone said "Oh, you've got to see [exciting landmark]! It's the best!" ...and they were always talking about
1) Neuschwanstein
2) Ludwig's (other) castles
3) Oktoberfest
4) Dachau

Whereas, when I got there, my favourite bits were
1) the Deutchesmuseum
2) the Residence
3) the English Garden

And, in fact, the vast majority of things I found interesting were barely mentioned in guidebooks at all.

(...back to Australia)


Anyway, it occurs to me that there's a big difference between:
a) What tourists want to see in Australia
b) What I think tourists want to see in Australia
c) What I think tourists should actually see in Australia

My answer to b would be the Sydney Harbour Bridge, Uluru, and possibly surfing.
My answer to c would be much longer and more rambling, but would definitely include an Aussie-animal sanctuary, the Great Ocean Road, Sovereign Hill, and Port Arthur.

But, for a? Not a clue.


So - when you think about the stuff you'd like to do as a tourist in Australia, what's on your list?

Comments

[guy-who-reads.blogspot.com]

Hmmm. Uluru, of course. I also want to see the parliment buildings built underground (I know, they aren't really), the Sydney opera house, kangaroos and koalas and duck billed platypodes and there's a submarine somewhere out in the hinterlands that Dad has photos of, and I want to see the beach where the prime minister disappeared from, and there's a forest that's supposed to be pretty neat. I've read Bill Bryson's In a Sunburned Country, and that drives some of my thinking about Australia.

Ooo, I also want to see Tasmania - I gather that there's some interesting honey producing going on there. And, and, there are indigenous bees that produce a completely different sort of honey - I'd like to see that too... and the Great Barrier Reef, while there's still time.

[klme.livejournal.com]

I like this list!
I wonder which forest you mean...
I've been to that beach, and...it looks like a beach. Nothing particularly interesting to see. I could also take you to a swimming pool named after that Prime Minister, which always seemed to me to be in particularly poor taste!
And I've lived here all my life and have never seen a platypus, despite spending hours staring at tanks where they are supposedly housed at two different zoos. They're shy little critters!