Australia

A country, a continent, and an island — all at once. We had Christmas in shorts and t-shirts, met kangaroos, and saw the famous opera house.

16 – 25 Dec 2023

Age 4

10 days · whole family

Cities I visited

New South Wales

Sydney

A huge harbour with a giant white opera house and a giant grey bridge. Everyone goes to the beach on the weekends.

Victoria

Melbourne

The artsy city. Trams rattle down the streets, hidden laneways are covered in graffiti, and the coffee is famous.

🏛️

Sydney Opera House

The white sails on the harbour — they look like sea-shells stuck together. Famous all over the world.

🌉

Sydney Harbour Bridge

Nicknamed "the Coathanger". You can climb to the very top — but only when you're older!

🏖️

Bondi Beach

Golden sand, big rolling waves, and surfers everywhere. We dipped our toes in the Pacific.

🐨

Taronga Zoo

A zoo on a hill across the harbour. Kangaroos, koalas, wombats, emus — animals you can't see anywhere else.

🚋

Melbourne Trams

The free city-circle tram. It loops around the centre and we hopped on and off all day.

🎄

Christmas in shorts

Christmas Day was 30°C. People had barbecues on the beach instead of roast dinners.

🥧

Meat Pie

Hot pastry, full of beef

🍫

Tim Tams

Chocolate biscuits

🥑

Avo on Toast

Australia invented this

🍤

Fish & Chips

Eaten on the beach

🍯

Vegemite

Salty brown spread (weird!)

Australia is a country, an island, AND a whole continent — the only place on Earth that's all three.
Because it's south of the equator, Christmas is in summer and June is winter. The seasons are flipped!
Kangaroos are marsupials — they carry their babies (called joeys) in a pouch on their tummy.
Koalas sleep 18 to 20 hours a day, because eucalyptus leaves don't give much energy.
Australians drive on the left side of the road, like the British.
The Great Barrier Reef is so big you can see it from space — it's the world's largest living thing.