Hey Cav, if you decide on Aus, let me know.
I live about only 75 minutes or so drive from Brisbane Intl Airport and would be more than happy to hook up for a beer or several, or do the local guide thing for you.
What sort of activities would you want to be doing on your holiday? There is a lot of 'touristy' things to do within an hours drive of downtown Brisbane, Dreamworld, Seaworld, Movieworld etc. but you could probably find the same type of theme parks in the US ( probably better and cheaper).
Brisbane itself is like any other large city in the world, there are restaurants, theatres, hotels, nightclubs, bars, malls etc. You could easily spend ten days within Brissy city limits and have a relaxing holiday, or a drunken raging ten day party.
If natural and human history is more your thing, there are several museums, national parks, botanical gardens and just old colonial homesteads (most now done up as bed-and-breakfasts, including the one Doug McArthur used as his wartime HQ in Aus), Caboolture Airport (30 min from Bris Intl) houses some nice Warbirds, both flying and static.
Steve Erwin's Australia Zoo is about a 40 min~1hr drive from Brisbane, well worth the time and effort if you are out here.
Surfers Paradise and the Gold Coast is about a 30 minute drive(or train ride) south of Brissy, all the bikini clad babes you could ever wish for, and great waves if you are into surfing.
If you are out here in May (I think) there are whale watching boat tours (whale migratory routes take them right up the Qld coast, and usually only a couple of hundred metres off shore) and no matter what time of year it is there will be Great Barrier Reef trips and charter reef fishing trips available.
Though most of the Reef charters operate from ports a bit north of Brissy itself.
My personal recommendation for a ten day trip in Qld would be spend a day or two in Brisbane/Surfers sussing out the city and beach life, then hire a car and drive yourself casually up the coast for a week, stopping at all the little places of interest along the way(Bundaberg Rum distillery for sure;)), visiting the reef etc, and finishing up in Cairns (1500 or so km Nth) which also has an international airport and you could probably arrange to fly straight out of Cairns without the need to return to brissy over the same route you took on the way up.
Unless you are mad keen on the 'Outback', I wouldn't bother going too far inland, it may look great on postcards and photos, but in reality it is hot, dry, dusty, flat, fly infested and generally not much fun.....there is a reason why 95% of Aussies live within 200km of the coast...the rest of it isnt really suitable for human habitation unless you are a glutten for punishment.
Anyway, if you decide on Aus, let me know, I would be glad to offer any help I can give.
PS dont let the locals opinion of American presidents worry you, we dont like our own leaders either, and most of us are too busy enjoying ourselves to give a rats about polotics anyway.
Blue
