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Eclipse 2012

daz

By daz
in The Astro Lounge

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daz

daz

Posted
Posted

Am seriously thinking of going to Oz next year for the eclipse, and a holiday as well, of course.

Now, I know tour operators are not taking bookings this far out, but wondered if people have recommendations on:

Seperate flights / accomodation - or a normal package deal?

Where to stay around Cairns / Port Douglas?

Would like to do a bit of sight seeing as well as plenty of laying-by-the-pool-with-a-cold-one type activity, so recommendations on car hire as well?

Thanks in advance for any info

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NickH

NickH

Posted
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Been to OZ twice with Mercury...top company, got a stopover in Tokyo for both of em (popped to Akihabara for some tech goodies), nice accommodation in cairns and cheap all in packages...

Looking to fly VA this time as I have a shed load of VA miles to spend, but will be going to cairns/trinity beach area (lovely there)

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markophoto

markophoto

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Have stayed in a hotel in Port Douglas a few years ago (2002).

Don't know whether you've been there before but we thought Port Douglas was a great place to base ourselves and explore from.

It's one of my favourite places, typically Australian, pretty chilled and great food. In fact I had my favourite ever meal there, chilli lime prawns. I can taste them now :)

You've brought back some good memories there :)

Marko

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kev

kev

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Ive been to Cairns and Port Douglas, enjoyed both immensly, and once your out of the light the sky was great.

While your there remember to do the reef, and rememberb that snakes like nice warm flat tarmac at night!

Im envious.

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NickH

NickH

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Ive been to Cairns and Port Douglas, enjoyed both immensly, and once your out of the light the sky was great.

While your there remember to do the reef, and rememberb that snakes like nice warm flat tarmac at night!

Im envious.

And avoid being near rivers...too near, and storm drains in parts of Cairns :-)

There's an awesome obsy down on the Gold coast (short flight) too...Springbrook...Andre's a great guy too

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daz

daz

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Slight change of plan - we are now planning to visit the wife's relatives. Where? Perth!! Just about as far away from Cairns you can get!!

So, now thinking of a fly-drive trip - fly into Cairns, drive down to Sydney and then fly to Perth from there...

Well, its one of several plans anyway!

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S.A.M

S.A.M

Posted
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I did Oz back in 2002 for that eclipse, I went totally independent. Sort your own flights and accommodation, then you can go where you like apart from eclipse day of course. I will be around the Port Douglas area for the day in 2012. Will start looking for flights etc towards the end of the year.

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Nexus 6

Nexus 6

Posted
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Slight change of plan - we are now planning to visit the wife's relatives. Where? Perth!! Just about as far away from Cairns you can get!!

So, now thinking of a fly-drive trip - fly into Cairns, drive down to Sydney and then fly to Perth from there...

Well, its one of several plans anyway!

Hope I still see you there Daz, I have been making a few enquiires, am wating for some info from one or two travel companies. :)

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Nexus 6

Nexus 6

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Post up any info you may think useful :)

Wiil do. I hope to get it paid for as soon as possible, only me and my girl will be going. She also has family out there but they are in Queensland. I found out tonight(earlier on as I write this, that my girls relatives have moved to Perth!

Looks like it will be a trip from there to Cairns for us two as well daz.

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NickH

NickH

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Slight change of plan - we are now planning to visit the wife's relatives. Where? Perth!! Just about as far away from Cairns you can get!!

So, now thinking of a fly-drive trip - fly into Cairns, drive down to Sydney and then fly to Perth from there...

Well, its one of several plans anyway!

Cairns to Sydney is a heck of a drive mate!!

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NickH

NickH

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Plus the roads between port douggie and Brisbane are not going to be fun for a while... I would basically fly in to Cairns, do the eclipse, get a Virgin Blue flight down to Brisbane, do gold coast/obsy and then maybe drive to Sydney from there or again V blue flight

And if not...get on to hireazondainoz.com :-)

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NickH

NickH

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1700 miles! Blimey, it doesn't look that far on Google :)

That's the thing, when I told my Aunt and Uncle who live off the coast of Brisbane (ish) (Bribie Island) that we were in Cairns, and they should "pop up to see us" they laughed, and said it would be a flight up..

Remember, near to Gold Coast is an excellent observatory, with public access... Springbrook National Park, and also on the main gold coast road about a mile from Jupiter's Casino (easy landmark) there's an astronomy shop/retailer...so no need to take out counterweights etc, could buy em out there if needs be

Springbrook Research Observatory - Index page

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Vega

Vega

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You can fit Europe inside Australia. The maps are very decieving. Set the zoom bar at the same level on Europe as you do for Oz then you begin to get an idea of the sheer scale of it all. (I found their road maps decieving too, totally different scale to ours, an inch on one of their maps is a whole lot further than you think!)

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Nexus 6

Nexus 6

Posted
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That's the thing, when I told my Aunt and Uncle who live off the coast of Brisbane (ish) (Bribie Island) that we were in Cairns, and they should "pop up to see us" they laughed, and said it would be a flight up..

Remember, near to Gold Coast is an excellent observatory, with public access... Springbrook National Park, and also on the main gold coast road about a mile from Jupiter's Casino (easy landmark) there's an astronomy shop/retailer...so no need to take out counterweights etc, could buy em out there if needs be

Springbrook Research Observatory - Index page

Hi Nick, thanks for the info and link. Already getting excited about this, 21 months and counting. :)

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