As the title suggests, I'm sure you know what is coming... another American coming down for NYE plus some. I'll be getting into Sydney on the 29th, a bit later than I wanted but oh well. I don't leave until the 19th. The only thing I have planned is to make sure I'm in Sydney for NYE. I have friends that live in the suburbs that I will stay with while in the Sydney area but I don't want to be a burden on them so I'm thinking a week total with them at the most.

So that's about all I've planned thus far. I have a few questions.

First, I found mention in another thread that there are some sort of special conditions to hiring a car there. Is this referring to the fact that driving is on the left side with the wheel on the right and that standard transmission really is standard (not like here in the US where you have to go looking high and low just to find one!) or is there something else? Just want to make sure I get this out of the way.

Second, earlier this year, I toured for three weeks in Ireland. There, it was actually better to get accommodations at B&B's, something we would never think about here in the US, here you look at motels and hotels. What is the preferred accommodations there when travelling through the country by locals there?

Third, I'm really into photography and that will be the main gist of my trip after visiting my friends. I'm mostly nature/landscape centered with some architecture. I'd *like* to see a little bit of whatever landscape I can see but I realize that Australia is really f'n big and I should definitely not expect to see a fraction of the country in a couple of weeks. Anything other than the obvious sights y'all can think of that a photographer just shouldn't miss that's within reason? I would love to see the desert, would love to see rain forest or just really lush forest, would love to see shoreline (not just beach), mountains, yeah I know I'm asking for a lot and realize that it may not all happen.

Really, I pretty flexible. Even with ideas in mind, I don't really plan on setting anything in stone but I like to have a lot of ideas to choose from and have plenty of time to research.