The Ultimate Australian Bucket List
This week, the Australian Traveller put out The Ultimate Australian Bucket List, 100 Things to Do Before You Die (2011 Index). For those people lucky enough to live in such an amazing country, I’m still amused by how many people don’t explore it. I guess the same could be said for Americans in the United States. There’s so much to see and do, if you don’t dedicate time to exploring, you’re really going to miss out.
In looking at this list, it’s a great bucket list! There are so many things that I’d like to experience, and even though I lived in Australia for 8 months, I only can say I did *4* while I was there!
017 – Sail the Whitsundays
036 – Dive the Great Barrier Reef
071 – Be the first in Australia to see the sunrise (I absolutely adore Byron Bay!)
083 – See a performance at the Opera House
I’m going to chalk it up to being in uni and poor. My mom gave me the ability to use her credit card for trips, but I hated the thought of using her money to pay for things, and I didn’t take advantage of her offer (fully). My grades also transferred back, so I wanted to maintain a good GPA to ensure no scholarships were lost for my last year in school! Excuses, excuses! So upon coming back to the States, I vowed I would go back and I would do whatever it took to go back and knock off a few more things that I wanted to do.
That being said, Josh and I are going back to Australia this year and I’m happy to say there are at least 4 more things I know we’ll knock off this extreme list:
011 – Drive the Great Ocean Road
018 – Take the Manly Ferry
060 – See In The New Year On Sydney Harbour (A lifelong dream come true!)
064 – Climb the Harbour Bridge
If you couldn’t tell, I’m excited. I love hearing about others’ experiences in such a beautiful country. For those of you that have been to Australia, which ones have you completed?
For those of you that want to go to Australia, what would be your Top 5 to 10 items you’d *have* to see/do?
[#5 of #52]
And what you just said is why I didn’t do a study abroad when I was in school!
Caring about GPA’s? Not being able to do everything the country I was in that I wanted to do because of money? No way was I going to waste precious tuition (and way more then I would have spent then when I was at home) if I was just going to stress about school the whole time.
Glad you are still traveling and finally doing everything you really should have done years ago:-). Better late then never!!
Studying abroad was definitely worth it in the end though! I took classes that I wouldn’t have been able to take back home (that counted towards my degree), and I can now say that I lived in Australia for 8 months! Plus tuition actually cheaper for me to study abroad than stay at home (it was a win/win situation!).
I was able to do some very cool things, but let’s be real, it’s a HUGE country – and even though I’m going back, there are still many things on my Australia list that I won’t get to do (Uluru, Perth, Kangaroo Island, etc.). I’m just hoping this won’t be the last time I make it back there!
So excited for you!