Thank you both

The car situation sounds a little like what I ran into in Ireland. Cards' insurances weren't valid. I take it that they cover the insurance deductible in the same way by placing a holding amount on the credit card to cover? Not quite sure how to explain it but if the deductible was $2k, they would reserve $2k worth of space on your card until the car was returned. The rules do sound a bit complex as to what company lets you do what though. Looks like I should avoid renting at the airport though. I'll probably want to get it out in the suburbs anyway. In cities that actually have good public transport, I prefer that anyway. I'm already looking at getting one of the one week commuter cards.

I'm going to try to avoid domestic flights as much as I can so we'll see how far that gets me. I've noticed that Australian carriers have a very low carry-on weight and I've heard they enforce it. I think even the lightest iteration of my camera bag outdoes the limit.

And thank you for that list of places. It's definitely a good start. Heat doesn't bother me at all. I live in a place where we just got through summer with temps hit about 44C plus humidity and winters can get down to -17C plus a windchill. Both situations require hydration.

One other question about accommodations, how prevalent is wi-fi?

As for drunk driving, I usually only have one beer a day and that's usually at night and that's usually a Guinness. (Relatively weak as far as alcohol goes.) That said, I'm not against sampling local specialties which raises the question. Fosters is obviously well known but are there any specialty brews I should keep an eye open for while I'm in Australia? I like dark and I like Belgian. I'm not so big on lighter yellow beers and wheat beers. If I stay at the pub, then drinking and driving shouldn't even happen.