Brisbane or Melbourne area: What experience must you NOT miss!?

[StarlightWithAsteroid]

My brother and new wife are heading there for their honeymoon and we'd like to give them vouchers of around £200 towards something (or the cash for a purpose) when they get there.

Don't mind whether a concert, outdoor activity, tour or restaurant experience.

Woukd appreciate any ideas.

Many Tia.

Bump?

Bump?

Mount coot-thabotanical gardens has a nice restaurant at the top with lovely views, my DH proposed to me there !

Thank you. I'll look it up.

Neighbours Tour in Melbourne. Sad but true. Neighbours Night is legendary as well.

Great Ocean Road tour in Melbourne.

We went to cricket in Brisbane which was great.

Lol, okay. I'll look up neighbours.

Are they staying in hotels or is it more of a backpacker type experience? I lived in Melbourne for a couple of years and I'm sure they will love it. Tell them the Phillip island penguin thing is fine but if they head down to st Kilda just outside the city they can see penguins coming to shore close up and free! Neighbours nights are great but not if they don't like really drunk people!

Stradbroke Island, just off the coast of Brisbane (easy journey in a car ferry) is really great if you like nature/amazing beaches/fishing/camping, and has some incredible diving if they like that kind of thing - loads of manta rays and leopard sharks.

I second Stradbroke Island. Also Fraser Island (world's largest sand island). If they are interested in zoo / wild life park, then Australia Zoo is good but I also like taking the river boat from Brisbane to Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary. It has much more than koalas www.koala.net

Phillip Island is good, but a long drive. was fab though.

melbourne aquarium was really good.

sovereign hill (inland, quite a drive) was brilliant when dh & I visited years ago - was quite far though, iirc (we drove that way for a weekend at a winery)

are they sporty at all? my dss and dsd were thrilled to watch an aussie rules match.

further up the coast/brisbane-wards (well, a bit north) there is loads too. there is a fantastic aquarium/seaworld near Mooloolaba (I think). the big pineapple is worth a visit. Australia zoo also not a million miles away, and worth a visit.

one of the nicest (and not geared to small children!) days we had out was driving up to Montville - amazing views, and a lovely little touristy town too. nice cafes/shops etc. just a nice mooching day, with plenty of interesting things to see/do.

the ginger factory was also a big draw for us (brilliant kitchenware shop too!)

Silverfrog your post has reminded me that, in addition to the good aquarium, you can go on whale watching tours from Mooloolaba. I did one in September 2007 and saw several humpback whales.

yes, the whale wtching did look good (was not really an option for us with small children).

there was loads to do up and down that coastline, and would love to go back and explore further.

maybe next year! (in my dreams - having just had dc3, I think it'll be a little while before we can afford another Australia trip, sadly)

Check a day on the green website for winery outdoor concerts. Lovely afternoon into evening.