Living in the UK

Wait, That's Not a Mermaid

2009-01-17T12:02:00.004Z

Day 28:

After the previous day's very early morning and very late evening, Jill and I took the opportunity to get some much needed sleep. In the backs of our minds was also the knowledge that on January 1st, not much was going to be open.

We ended up having a most excellent breakfast at a place called Pancakes on the Rocks (must go if you're in Sydney) and wandered around Darling Harbor for a bit. There is much to see in this area including the National Maritime Museum, a large shopping mall, eateries, and more (this area reminds me a lot of Baltimore's Inner Harbor).

I on the other hand was there for only one reason; the aquarium. Those of you who know me, and especially us, know that I love aquariums and Jill hates going to aquariums with me. I can get lost for hours in even the smallest of aquariums and Jill basically has to wait around for me to finish up.

Hands down, the Sydney Aquarium is one of the best I've ever seen. It's got the expected assortment of shallow water pools, penguins, and small animal exhibits. But, it also has great large exhibits. There is a large multi-story shark tank, and two other large pool exhibits.

The first of these large exhibit tanks was filled with a pair of dugongs. A dugong is a lot like a manatee in the US, with a couple of big differences. First, the dugong is exclusively a saltwater creature. Second, it has a tail like a dolphin, rather than a frying pan. As we first saw it, it looked just like a manatee, but that tail was really strange looking. The final big difference was that the dugong appears to be much faster and much more active than the manatee. I didn't realize how important this display was, but this pair constituted one-third of all dugongs in captivity.

The other large exhibit tank is what really made the aquarium for me. It was a replica of the Great Barrier Reef. The coral is real and alive, and the fish are amazing. Everything from small little anemone fish all the way up to giant potato cod were swimming in the tank. It was even better than the actual Great Barrier Reef that I'd seen only weeks before.

One Million People All Saying 'Ohhh-Ahhhh' Together

2009-01-17T11:45:00.007Z

Day 27:
After a couple of days with normal wake up times (07.00 or so) we had a very rude awakening today. Latest night’s going away revelry led to a 04.00 wake up this morning to catch a 06.00 flight from Hobart to Sydney.

The morning didn’t start well as the airport shuttle showed up 30 minutes late and ended up dropping us off about 35 minutes before boarding. This is of course a problem when check-in closes 30 minutes before boarding. You’ve never seen a sight like 50 people all running across an airport and using the check-in kiosks like madmen trying to beat the 5 minute deadline. Luckily Jill and I can just about read each other’s minds and made it with time to spare.

Both Jill and I slept from takeoff to landing. We made it out of the airport smoothly, but ended up in Sydney and not able to check-in until 14.00. When you’ve got nothing to do, you go to the beach, right?

So just like our last day in Sydney we made our way up to Manly. Unlike the last time it was packed! The sun was shining, the sea was calm and it was a good day to be alive.

Jill took the time to to read in the shade of a tree (she’s gone through the first three Twilight books and we’re going to have to buy the fourth before we leave) and I spent the hours body surfing in the water. Compared to Tasmania, the water was great. It couldn’t have been more than maybe 23C or so, by it felt great in the sun. I just never bothered to get out the whole time we were there.

Eventually we checked into the hotel and freshened up. But at 16.00 we started the trek to the harbor to get spots for the fireworks. This is no joke after all. By 14.00 when we checked in, the local news was reporting that tens of thousands were already in place along the water ready for the evening’s festivities. Can you imagine getting to your spot 12 hours before the fireworks? You’d better bring some food and games.

At any rate, most of the seriously prime spots were full when we got there around 17.00 but we did find a place along Circular Quay. Four hours of waiting and at 21.00 the family fireworks went off. They weren’t anything special, but at least it cleared out the families.

After the families left, we were able to move up to slightly better spots closer to the Harbor Bridge and closer to the water. There was more waiting obviously, but when New Years came it was amazing! The fireworks were larger than anything I’ve ever been witness to (four barges, the bridge, and the surrounding skyscrapers were all involved) and they went on non-stop for like 17 minutes. We learned later on that there were nearly one and a half million people along the harbor front and that the event cost nearly A$40 million. Needless to say this was one of those amazing sights that you must go see at some point. If you find yourself in the area, you cannot miss these fireworks.

The World's Most Scenic Prison

2009-01-17T11:42:00.001Z

Day 26:
Our final day of touring on Tasmania started us where we’d left off the night before, Port Arthur. Instead of the ghost tour as we’d been on previously, this was a daylight trip around the site. The morning started with a guided tour around the site by a very knowledgeable guide and finished with free wandering around the site looking at the buildings and grounds. One of the things that I learned was that while Port Arthur was one of the worst prisons in the world (the goal was to grind rogues down until they were good using manual labor), it was difficult to actually be sent there.

Port Arthur was a prison for secondary and violent offenders only. When a convict arrived in Australia, they were classified. The hardcore criminals such as murders and rapists were sent directly to Port Arthur or one of the other major jails. However, most criminals were simply assigned as a kind of indentured servant to colonists living there. They typically tended house or farmed but did not wear chains and were not guarded. I’d have to say that there are worst places and ways to spend your sentence. However, if the convict tried to escape from this light duty or committed another crime, then they would be sent to Port Arthur for hard labour.

After our morning at Port Arthur we headed back towards Hobart. Along the way we stopped at Eaglehawk Neck and saw a number of rock formations including Devil’s Kitchen, Tasmans Arch, and the Tessellated Pavement.

Upon arrival in Hobart, the tour finished and we all went our separate ways. The final activity was that evening though, and it was the Taste of Tasmania. The festival is a large semi-outdoor food and wine activity focusing on products from around Tasmania. It occurs a couple of days after Christmas and is made even better by the attendance of the boat crews from the Sydney to Hobart yacht race. A night of drunken camaraderie ensued before Jill and I retired to our hotel room; we had a seriously early morning the next day.

Hard Hiking

2009-01-01T20:05:00.004Z

Day 25:
The second day of our Tasmania tour took us from Bicheno to Port Arthur outside of Hobart. The day itself started at a reasonable hour and we were soon on our way without any drama.

After a bit of driving we came to a park called Wineglass Bay. The bay was recently listed as one of the 10 best beaches in the world, and it certainly was nice. It is however, somewhat difficult to get to.

The tour bus arrived at a trailhead with a number of different trails leading off of it. The group split about evenly between the two most popular trails. The first was a trail that led up a large mountain that gave a superb overlook of the bay and the surrounding countryside. Jill and I opted for the second walk down to the bay itself.

The trailhead was located on the back side of a mountain pass from Wineglass Bay itself, near Great Oyster Bay. You hike up the hill side on a well maintained trail to the pass and stop at an amazing overlook where you get your first view of Wineglass Bay. From there, you trek down the other side of the pass on a steep and treacherous mountain path. The path consisted of stable stairs made out of the local granite, but it still made you wonder if you wanted to climb back up once you’d gotten down to the bay.

But we did eventually make it down and it was amazing. The sand was soft and clean, the water clear as air. I actually decided to take a dip (why else would you go to a beach?) and found that the water was about 10C! I tried to wait out the cold and let my body adjust, but after about 5 minutes my legs hurt so bad, that I just couldn’t take it any more. I did dip in and out for a while after this, but most of the day was just laying on the beach, working on our tans.

After about 90 minutes, it was time to hike back to the trailhead to meet the other group. Jill and I were relatively fast up, but it was very hard work. It’s been a long time since I’ve done a hike that went that steeply up a hill, and I’ve certainly never done it at the pace she and I ascended.

After meeting the group and having a pleasant lunch at Honeymoon Bay, we drove to Port Arthur directly. Port Arthur was one of the most notorious prisons in Australia and housed repeat and major offenders. With this kind of reputation and the deaths of thousands of prisoners while it was operating, Port Arthur has a very extensive ghost tour.

The ghost tour itself is good, if a little heavy on the paranormal. I’m a skeptic, so I was there mostly for the stories and the tour of the site at night. For that it was OK, but if you are a believer, than I’m sure it was very good.

Tasmanian Devils, Wombats, and Penguins, Oh My!

2008-12-31T23:06:00.004Z

Day 24:
After reading the guide book about Tasmania, Jill and I decided not to drive ourselves around and instead opted for a guided tour. In many cases the roads aren’t paved still and the wildlife is very prevalent so it can be dangerous for tourists.

The morning started badly as the day was cold, rainy, and the driver of our tour couldn’t find our hotel. Eventually we sorted this and headed off in the bus.

The bus itself was a bit of a surprise of us. In fact, Jill nearly refused to get on board. I think we were both expecting a full-size coach and ended up with an 18 person mini-bus instead. We’d stumbled into something best described as a hostel on wheels. Everyone had backpacks, there were guitars and surfboards in the luggage, and the group had a very bohemian feel.

Our foray stop was a beach called Bay of Fires. The weather was improving at this point and we got a chance to climb all over the bright red rocks.

The next stop for the day was a wildlife sanctuary that focused on Tassie Devils (the Aussies are prone to truncating words with -ie; tinnie, barbie, Aussie, etc). I personally didn’t have high hopes for the place, but it was quite enjoyable. We got to witness the feedings of a bunch of different animals while we were there.

The first animal (which is now my favorite marsupial) was the wombat. It’s basically a furry tank that has a bad attitude. They’re so strong and their hide is so tough that I you hit one, your car is likely to roll over from the impact. But they ate so cute! And the zoo-bred one they fed loved being picked up so we all got to scratch it. One thing that really surprised me was that it’s fur was far and away softer than the koala, wallaby, and kangaroo fur.

But the main event was the Devil. Even before the feeding had started, it had nearly taken the hand off one of the members of our group who had tried to get a close up picture. The Devil is an amazing animal. It has the third strongest bite pressure in the animal kingdom (the Great White Shark and the Salt Water Crocodile are the only ones ahead) and can devour a dead kangaroo in minutes. Also, it doesn’t spin in a circle as Looney Tunes would have you believe. Tragically, the wild populations are being decimated by Devil Facial Tumor Disease, the only communicable form of cancer on earth.

From the park, we traveled to our residence for the evening, Bicheno. Everyone had a couple of hours before dinner and Jill and decided to walk to Diamond Island.

This might not sound like that much of an experience, but what you don’t realize is that there is no way to get to the island and stay dry. There is a thin sandbar that connects the island to the mainland and it’s submerged under about a meter of water. Also the water is about 15C!

We waded over to the island (I looked like an idiot keeping the camera dry high over my head) and did a little exploring. There’s a penguin rookery on the island and we got some pictures of them.

After dinner though, we had an even better experience. Bicheno is justifiably famous for being a breeding ground for Fairy Penguins. We had an absolutely awesome night tour during which we saw penguins coming up from the ocean, saw them nesting, and even saw them mating a bit. Again a must-do if you’re in the area.

A Little Slice of England

2008-12-31T22:44:00.003Z

Day 23:
Today was another travel day, but it was a bit different in that our flight was late in the day rather than early. This gave us an opportunity to explore some of Melbourne that we’d missed.

The first stop of the day was a Cook’s Cottage. This is the English cottage that Captain Cook lived in growing up. A Melbourne business man had purchased it and had it relocated to one of the many parks in the city. There wasn’t much to see, especially if you’ve done any history touring of the UK. Still it was fun to visit.

The second stop was a place called Queen Victoria Market. I would liken this to a flea-market in America, only of shop quality merchandise. It’s so vast that we only saw a fraction of it, but again it was a diverting couple of hours.

After that we had to catch our flight to Launceston, Tasmania. It turns out that this flight was a lot longer that you’d think it was. Tasmania is a big place we’d later find out.

Jill Update:
We were both pretty stressed out and tired today so things weren’t all fun in paradise. However, a good bit of retail therapy evened Jill out and I think things are good again.

Wickets and Wicked

2008-12-31T22:35:00.003Z

Day 22:
Boxing Day in Melbourne is something akin to absolute madness. Melbourne is the shopping heart of Australia during the best if times, but Boxing Day sales at Gucci, Louis Vitton, Prada, and Swarovski were all 50% off, and made the city manic.

On top of all of this shopping hubbub, there was a major sporting event going on. Jill and I decided to abandon the shopping district and go to the Melbourne Cricket Ground and see a couple of hours of the Boxing Day Test between Australia and South Africa.

At the time the teams were one and two in the world and Australia had lost the first five-day test soundly in Perth the week before. This time the honor of the country was on the line; if the Aussies lost, they’d drop to number two in the world.

Jill and I got our tickets and after getting lost in the stadium for a while, joined 100,000 other fans in various states of drunkenness. Now Cricket is a slow game in the best of times, but Test Cricket sets a very high bar for boredom.

It’s been wall-to-wall Cricket here since the day we arrived. Not a night has gone by that we haven’t finished our evening watching some Twenty20 match, or daily highlights of the Test series. But this match was a battle of the best with a lot on the line. The South African bowling was great and the Australian batting, not so much. There was very little scoring but they kept serving beer so that was good. Jill did manage to fall asleep twice between wickets though.

After we finished with that we hustled back to the hotel for Jill’s part of the day. We were going to see Wicked.

Jill has never seen the musical before and was quite looking forward to it. We fortified ourselves with some pre-drinking and arrived at the theater. Our seats were close, but off on the left edge. It was actually a very similar sightline to when I saw it in Tampa so I still don’t know what happens on the left side of the stage.

Jill did seem to enjoy it though and it capped a fun day.

Christmas in Melbourne

2008-12-31T22:18:00.003Z

Day 21:
Christmas day. And on top of that, the first Christmas day that Jill and I have spent together.

This day started differently than most in that we slept in. I mean really slept in. It must have been 10.00 before we finally got out of bed. We both did some Skyping with family and friends (it was funny since it was Christmas Eve for them) and generally got a late start.

Think about this for a moment. You’re in a strange city and you don’t have any family around. You can’t exchange gifts since you didn’t have room in your luggage for them. So what do you do? What’s open in Melbourne (either one) on Christmas morning?

Well it turns out that about the only thing was some I love and Jill hates; the Royal Botanical Garden! We took a lovely stroll through what is really a monstrous park. I can’t recommend this enough. If you are in Melbourne (Australia) you must spend a few hours there. It was about five degrees cooler, very shady, and nearly everything was in bloom. Even Jill enjoyed our time there.

The evening though was another of my favorite activities. We went to the movies! We went and saw Australia in a ‘Gold Class’ screening. This was a theater with only 16 seats, all recliners, personal wait staff, and a nice bar and lounge for before the movie. This is definitely the direction that movie theaters need to go if they want to stay relevant in the future. We paid about three times a normal ticket price and felt that it was worth every penny.

That finished off a nice Christmas day for us and we got a good night’s sleep for the next day.

Jill Update:
Christmas time is nearly here we’re having a great time. It’s been three weeks since we started this adventure and I couldn’t imagine doing it with anyone but her. Merry Christmas to everyone (especially those in the northern hemisphere).

It's Just Like Old Times

2008-12-24T23:37:00.002Z

Day 20:
After the long coach ride the day before, the only thing that Jill and I wanted to do this day was to walk around. The good news was that it was a crisp cool day and the city was wonderful.

The first step was to walk around the CBD or Central Business District of the city. I generally like the place as the roads are wide, the sidewalks are wider, and there are trees everywhere. You know you’re in a city, but it’s almost like being in a forest as well.

After a bit of wandering around and a trip to the exemplary Visitor Information Center, we decided to catch one of the city’s trams around the city center and up to the Old Melbourne Gaol.

Now, I’ve never been to Alcatraz, but this is exactly what I imagine it to be like. Our tour started with us going through a typical booking and lockup procedure in the old watch house (which impressively was used until 1994) before being let loose in the prison part of the gaol. The prison itself was 3 levels of cells and even had the gallows that was used for executions up until capital punishment was outlawed in the 1970s. We both had a wonderful time there, and I easily could have spent a whole day looking at the exhibits and learning about the people incarcerated there (Ned Kelly had an entire end dedicated to him) but we were somewhat time-limited as we had a special dinner scheduled.

Our Christmas Eve dinner was on The Colonial Tramcar Restaurant that night. It might seem a bit kitschy, but it was certainly a whole lot of fun. If you ever went on the Sanford Dinner Train, it was a lot like that only slower and more urban.

We had the early seating which included a three course meal while the sights of Melbourne cruised by outside of your windows. The food was good, the drink even better, and of course I got to spend the evening all dressed up with Jill. Who could as for anything more?

Jill Update:
Jill was quite drunk and found a casino. This is always a recipe for putting her in a good mood. On top of that, it would appear that the casinos here are non-smoking, so that’s a plus.

The World's Longest Coach Ride

2008-12-24T23:30:00.004Z

Day 19:
We had another early morning today as we had a 13 hour coach ride ahead of us. Today was the day that we went on the Great Ocean Road tour. This is a 243km long stretch of road that winds its way through a scenic coast line, a rainforest, and back to stunning cliff top views.

The coach’s first stop was in the quaint little village of Torquay. This town is the home of some of the most famous surf companies and is known for its world-famous surf competition at Bells Beach.

From there you drive up some of the most picturesque and incredible looking coastline in the entire world. Imagine driving up the Pacific Coast Highway but it being more beautiful, more twisty, and closer to the water and you’d have an idea of what it looks like.

After an hour or so of driving (including spotting some wild koalas), we pulled into a small town called Apollo Bay for lunch. This was another one of those cute little sea-side villages and we had a very nice stroll along the beach before pushing on.

The first stop after lunch was a geographic formation called The Twelve Apostles. These are a set of limestone stacks that stand alone in the ocean away from the cliffs. They are constantly being eroded from 15 at the turn of the century, to 9 in the 1950s, to 6 and a half today. It’s easily possible that that they’ll be completely swept away in our lifetimes.

From there is was a quick jaunt up to the Loch Ard Gorge. This was the site of a horrible maritime disaster in which the clipper ship Loch Ard ran aground drowning all but two of the people aboard. The story is a very interesting one and the landscape even more so. There are again a number of interesting limestone formations here, and I highly recommend checking it out if you’re in the area.

From there we made one final quick stop in a town called Port Campbell and then on to the last sight of the day. This was another limestone formation called London Arch. It was at one point called London Bridge, but after a collapse of part of it (stranding two bewildered tourists) its name was changed. Looking at it from the shore makes you wonder what it was like standing out at the end before the collapse.

After this final stop, we had a three hour drive home and were delivered to our hotel at about 20.15. Truly a long day.

We're Going to Sydney and Not Seeing Anything Again!?

2008-12-24T23:06:00.002Z

Day 18:

Today was another travel day and we were leaving Uluru for Melbourne. We'd both enjoyed being in the Red Center, but the heat was finally getting to us so we were happy to be leaving. On this day, it was 39C in Uluru and 23C in Melbourne.

Our flight to Melbourne would have been long in the best of circumstances, but in this case it was going through Sydney as well so it ended up being even longer. We finally stumbled into out hotel around 20.00, and got a quick dinner. We had another early day tomorrow.

Jill Update:

Even though Jill pointed out the European lady with a black thong under her see-through linen dress, I was the one that got in trouble for ~~staring~~ looking at it. The heat isn't doing good things for us.

My God It's Hot

2008-12-23T21:47:00.003Z

Day 17:
Jill and I couldn’t face another early morning so we decided to sleep in to about 05.30. Once again we made our way to Uluru and once again we were disappointed to find that it was closed. Most things at Uluru are set up for a three day tour. The park entry is for three days, the hotel rooms have a 3 day minimum, etc. So after three days of trying, we weren’t going to be able to climb the rock. As a side note, our guide from the previous day mentioned to us that the climb is generally only open 40 days a year now. So if you’re going to Uluru for a holiday, climb it if you can, but don’t plan on being able to do it.

But that was OK. We’d walked nearly every single trail in the park, and seen amazing sunrises and sunsets at both of the sights. We’d definitely gotten everything we could have wanted (other than the climb) and decided that it was time for a rest. On top of that, the top (what Aussies call the high temperature) was predicted to be 42C! (that’s 108F for those who aren’t metrically inclined). So we went back to the hotel and slept. And slept, and slept. It really felt good to get some rest for the first day since we’d arrived. It did wonders for our aching backs and legs. Later in the day we ventured out to an Aboriginal cultural center, but even that little exertion sent us back to the room for more rest.

At the end of the day, we went to Uluru for one last sunset. On the way out, it started raining a little bit and we got to see one of the clearest double-rainbows that you'll find anywhere; the desert really is an amazing place. When we got to Uluru, Jill spread the ashes of her father around (some of the other spectators looked at us like we were spreading anthrax) as the sun set and then we head back to have a nice meal to end the day.

If at First You Don't Succeed, Climb Another Mountain

2008-12-23T21:33:00.002Z

Day 16:
This was another early morning (earlier than the day before if you can believe it) and another trip out to Uluru to find out if the climb was open. It wasn’t, so we had to decide what we were going to do for the rest of the day.

Since we’d been planning the trip, Jill had been mentioning another rock formation called Kata Tjuta or The Olgas. This particular formation is actually made up of 36 separate domes of rock and is larger in area, taller in height (by 200 meters), and more spiritually significant than Uluru. On the other hand, you can’t climb it, which probably contributes to it being relatively obscure.

There are two hikes at Kata Tjuta and the longer one of them, the Valley of the Winds walk, is temperature limited. Seeing as this was ideal for a morning walk, we headed on over. The walk itself hikes out to a lookout area near one of the domes and then splits. It loops around two of the large domes and returns to the lookout for the return to the trailhead.

The walk itself is a fair bit harder than the Uluru base walk as it has a lot of broken ground and you climb up and down some very steep stone paths. That being said, it’s amazingly rewarding. Because it is so difficult, we did most of the walk completely alone. Back in the canyons between the domes the scenery was absolutely beautiful and the second lookout had great views of the surrounding valley.

After the walk, Jill and I retired to our room for a siesta in the heat of the day. There was a good reason too, as we had a tour scheduled in the afternoon! Coincidently it was Kata Tjuta again! Before we’d traveled we’d scheduled a guided tour of Kata Tjuta complete with an outdoor meal under the stars. We knew that it was unlikely that we’d get to walk the Valley of the Winds on the tour (the tour started at 15.00, after the walk closed), so we weren’t going to get much overlap.

We were right. We had a very nice guide and did the other (easier) walk through the domes. The sun was going down and the clouds were coming up at this point, so the it was relatively cool during the hike. We got a champagne sunset and then a BBQ dinner under the stars. We both had a great time even though our day went from 4.30 in the morning to 23.00 at night.

The Rock

2008-12-23T20:23:00.000Z

Day 15:
Much in the way that my trip was focused on diving the Great Barrier Reef, Jill’s was focused on climbing Uluru. The problem is that this is somewhat difficult to do.

Jill and I got up early (even for us) at 05.00 to go to the Rock. Even this, it turned out, was a little late as we saw an entire convoy of tour coaches leave the resort before we’d left our hotel room. Some of you may be wondering why we’d gotten up so early and why the entire resort would do the same. It all comes down to temperature. The park service here dislikes having to pick up dead people during the summer and so has some rules about climbing. The big one is that if the predicted temperature for the day is supposed to be above 36C, the climbing route is closed at 8.30 in the morning. Because of this, everyone wants to get started as soon as it opens which is 30 minutes before sunrise.

We managed to see the sunrise as we were driving in (the coaches leave so early because they stop at a lookout and make breakfast for the riders) and after having some trouble finding the climbing trailhead, parked and started getting ready. It is an interesting fact that some Aboriginal residents dislike people climbing up the rock and as such the climb is not marked on any map, in any guidebook, or on any sign post. In truth, Jill and I drove around the entire Rock once before we figured out the correct location using nothing but guess work.

As we approached the trailhead, we saw a horrible notice; the climb had not opened because of high-winds at the peak! We were there at the right time (the climb would have closed in a couple of hours with the 40C predicted high anyway), but another rule kicked in and we didn’t have a chance to even start.

It wasn’t the end of the world though. We had 3 more days on-site to try the climb and there is another great hike that takes you around the base of the Rock. This is a 10km walk and so we got started a little before 7.00. The walk is completely flat and in many places is shaded by large trees. In addition, there are a million little nooks and crannies to pop you head into. One of the most interesting things though are the watering holes complete with Aboriginal cave paintings. We also got to see a couple of sacred sites along the walk with nice explanations about the legends surrounding them. All of this is very interesting to look at and made for a very enjoyable day.

Jill Update:
After two weeks Jill still doesn't hate me. This is important because it's the longest period of time Jill and I have ever spent together.

Like an Oven

2008-12-23T11:00:00.001Z

Day 14:
Day 14 was another travel day. We flew from Cairns to Uluru which was/is known as Ayers Rock. The Cairns airport wasn’t any better than a couple of days before, but thankfully the wait was short. During the flight we learned that there is something worse than a kid kicking your seat from behind.

Jill and I had the unlucky experience of having a single mother with two children sitting behind us. After a bit of kicking our seats, the mother dropped the tray tables down for her sons to play on. It turns out that when a kid starts banging up and down on these, it gets a lot more leverage than merely kicking; your entire seat starts rocking back and forth. Combined with near constant screaming, the flight wasn’t great.

On arrival we deplaned and had to walk across the tarmac. Damn was it hot! The one lucky thing here was that it’s a very dry heat (somewhere below 50% humidity) so it’s almost bearable. I do have to say that it immediately brought back memories of my childhood vacations in Nevada.

We picked up our hire car and made our way to the hotel. Jill once again picked a great one and save for a damn bush, we’d have a perfect view of the rock. But no matter, shortly after getting settled in, we decided to walk out to a lookout point and watch the sun set on the rock, and it did not disappoint. We got some great pictures, saw the changes of color, and generally had a fine evening alone to ourselves.

After a somewhat drunken dinner, we retired to bed since we had to be up before sunrise (which was at 5:37!) to climb the rock in the morning.

Jill Update:
Jill has some trepidation about climbing Uluru tomorrow and feels that I’m babying her too much. There’s some tension over this.

Stinging, Poisoning, Biting, and Other Bodily Harm

2008-12-23T10:56:00.001Z

Day 13:
Due to restrictions about flying and diving, we scheduled our final day in Cairns to be focused on the rainforest. Initially some of this was going to be done separately over a couple of days, but it sounded so cool that we wedged it all into one day so that we could do it together.

The morning started early (when else?) with a walk to the Cairns train station. From there we caught the Kuranda Scenic Railway for a trip to the historic town of Kuranda. The train car was mostly empty which was nice, but it also wasn’t air conditioned, which wasn’t. Cairns was at about 32C and 85% humidity that morning and the train wasn’t moving fast enough to make a real difference. I think we would have enjoyed the trip quite a bit more if the weather had been more cooperative. At any rate, the train had very nice views and was a diverting couple of hours in the morning.

Kuranda exists as nothing more than a tourist town. One of the guides joked that the town wakes up at 10.00 and goes to sleep at 16.00 (the train’s in and out). There are a couple of nature parks, but mostly it’s shops. We got a couple of post cards and I managed to find a slouch hat for the trip to Uluru.

The trip home was along the Skyrail which is a massively long cable car. The route goes along the mountain tops just above the rainforest canopy and was very cool (both temperature and style). Jill and I were able to see all sorts of things including flying cockatoos right nearby.

The evening though, was even better. We had scheduled a tour of the rainforest at night. When we were picked up at the hotel, we got the great news that the tour which had a maximum of 16 people was going to just be us that night! It was a great time that started with wallaby and platypus (damn faux-mammals!) spotting before dinner and dark, and ended with night-spotting for possums. Interestingly, possums in Australia are nothing like Possums in North America.

We learned many important things about the rainforest. Some of the ones that come back to me now are that there is a plant in the rainforest that if you touch it, will cause permanent nerve damage. Also, there is a bush called the Wait-a-While which had recently killed a dirt-biker by slashing his throat with it's wicked serrated vines. In fact during the rainstorm, both Jill and I picked up leaches on our legs. I love this place!

Jill and I both were able to spot many of the animals and both enjoyed ourselves immensely. That night I personally loved seeing the blatantly luminescent fungi at night as well as the cute little bandicoots skittering all over roads.

The night ended around 23.00 and we fell straight into bed because of our long day and an early morning flight the next morning.

Jill Update:
During our 10 minute walk to the train station we were a bit lost and there was some tension. But after a day of sweating together and a night of Jill being frightened by every animal (real and imaginary), things were good again.

The Floral Shop

2008-12-23T03:45:00.000Z

Day 12:
Today was the final day of diving for the holiday, and I went out on a boat called the Tusa T5. This was probably the purest dive boat I was able to find, but I’d say that it wasn’t as well set up as the SilverSonic. The biggest complaint I had was that even though I was diving Nitrox, the boat wouldn’t let me dive a Nitrox profile (longer or deeper.

On these dives we were unescorted and therefore had to dive with a buddy. Since I was alone on the boat, I got paired up with a stranger. My dive buddy was named Rob and he’d been diving for 20 years. He was a great guy, and a very good diver.

The first two dives were pretty mediocre, although it was fun to dive without an escort again. The final dive though was one of the two or three best dives of my entire life.

We dropped onto Hastings Reef at a dive site called The Fish Bowl. The dive profile is to run along an outside wall for a bit, and then follow a trench into a center bowl. When we entered the bowl it was unbelievable. I’ve been amazed every dive by how alive the coral was, but it’s been nothing compared to this.

Imagine walking into a floral shop in full bloom and you can kind of get an idea of what it was like. There were hard and soft corals as far as the eye could see in an area as large as a football field. There were corals of every single color of the rainbow and there it was so dense, you never saw the sand bottom anywhere. There were also a ton of giant clams more than a meter in length. I wouldn’t call it The Fish Bowl as there weren’t really many fish, but it was awesome nonetheless.

Jill Update:
Jill went out on an all-day tour, so by the time she got home, she was exhausted. She was so tired, she didn’t even want to fight with me. Result!

Is That a Sea Cucumber in Your Wetsuit, or Are You Just Happy to See Me?

2008-12-23T03:44:00.001Z

Day 11:
I wanted to make sure that I didn’t spend our entire time in Cairns apart, so Jill and I scheduled a snorkeling trip together. We left from Cairns directly this time, so the morning wasn’t nearly as early as it had been the previous couple of days.

Again we were on a high-speed catamaran, this time from Reef Magic, but instead of going to three different reef sites, we went to a gigantic permanently moored pontoon. This acts as a bit of a floating city with a semi-submersible boat, a helicopter landing pad, dining facilities, an underwater viewing platform, and a moon pool for the SCUBA divers. This kind of setup has become standard for all of the snorkeling operations on the Great Barrier Reef.

Jill had a little trepidation about snorkeling at first, but quickly found her sea flippers. We did a ton of snorkeling throughout the day and explored all of the ins-and-outs of the coral head we were stationed at. I even rediscovered my love of free diving and by the end of the day was easily able to hit the deep parts of the reef at about 12 meters (40 feet) and bring back sea cucumbers for Jill to play with. Even Jill commented on the lack of fish at the reef though.

One of the interesting side effects of this particular trip was that I realized in certain cases (i.e shallow reefs), you can have just as much, if not more, fun skin and free diving than SCUBA diving. You can do it for longer and the setup and tear-down time are much reduced. I really enjoyed freaking out the introductory divers by swimming down to them and waving. They couldn’t quite understand how someone was down that deep without SCUBA gear on.

Jill Update:
Today was a really good day for us; probably the best so far even. Jill was very nervous at the beginning, but I think after she got out in the water we really had a good time together.

Glub, Glub

2008-12-23T03:04:00.000Z

Day 10:
Today was the day that I finally got to see the focus of my Australian Holiday. Today was the day I went diving on the Great Barrier Reef for the first time.

It started with a very early morning (I’m wondering when I’ll get a late morning…) to catch a coach up to Port Douglas. Port Douglas is a small resort town about 90 minutes north of Cairns that mainly exists as a launching point for dive charters to the far north.

The dive charter I was on was called the SilverSonic and had about 60 people (40 divers) on it. The best diving on the Great Barrier Reef is on the outer reef and it took us about 90 minutes to get out there while traveling about 75 kilometers. Along the way the very professional staff got everyone geared up and ready to go.

We did three dives on three different sites during the day and I had quite a good time. One of the things that stood out for me was the coral. In Florida, even down in the Keys, the coral is small and sparse. It’s bleaching out quite badly and is generally in bad shape. Here on the Great Barrier Reef though, it’s amazingly alive. It was like nothing I’d ever seen. On the first dive, it was all soft corals, on the second dive it was all hard corals and the third dive was a combination of both.

The thing that disappointed me though, were the fish. When you see all of this coral and all of its brilliant colors, it’s easy to think that Florida diving can’t compare. But for some reason, there were almost no schooling fish anywhere on the reef. In Florida, even on the worst dives, you’d expect to see schools of fish in the hundreds. Heck, even on the Fish Rock Cave dive I saw schools in the thousands. But on these three dives, the divemasters acted like we were seeing a lot of fish, and we weren’t.

I’m sad to say that unless the live aboard dive boats see something completely different, I wouldn’t recommend anyone doing a whole vacation around the Great Barrier Reef. Now, don’t get me wrong, if you’re in Australia you’d be an idiot not to go dive or snorkel it (it’s incredibly easy to dive the Great Barrier Reef if you’re not certified) and I would certainly do it again. I just have to say that it’s not as live as you think it is.

Jill Update:
Another good day for Jill, apparently because we had separate vacations again. Laying poolside all day does good things for us.

Blogging Delay

2008-12-21T01:35:00.003Z

Sorry about the delay in posting from the trip. For some reason, the hotel internet in Australia is somewhere between horrible and non-existent. I'm writing the blogs as we go along, but it probably won't be until tomorrow in Melbourne before they all get posted.

We are still alive, still together, and still having fun.

And Breathe...

2008-12-13T20:12:00.004Z

Day 9:

After a week of driving up the coast from Sydney to Brisbane, we finally gave up the car and tried something new. Another early morning, but this time a trip to the airport as we were flying to Cairns. Other than the random insanity that is air-travel these days, the flight was uneventful. We had some time to catch up on post cards, do some reading and generally just sit still for a couple of hours.

We arrived in Cairns and due to some construction, a lot of the airport is now outside. But that was OK as the weather was awesome! It's warm, breezy, and while the humidity is up now, it's expected to drop again as the week progresses.

Our itinerary makes a specific point that days we fly have nothing else scheduled on them. This means that when we arrived at the hotel around noon, we had nothing else to do. We got a light lunch, lounged by the pool, walked down the esplanade, and just generally did nothing. After a week of constant movement, this felt like heaven. The rest of the week is fully booked with SCUBA diving, snorkeling, and rainforest exploration though, so we made sure to enjoy it.

Jill Update:

I think Jill needed this day off even more than I did. Things are going well between us, but a day off by the pool certainly helped everyone's mood.

Marsupials are Mammals Too!

2008-12-13T07:32:00.007Z

Day 8:

Since we started planning the Australia trip, I've been looking forward to this one day. I mean, who wouldn't want to visit the Great Barrier Reef, Ayers Rock, Tasmania, and Sydney. But even in a land of amazing things to do and see, there are rarities. Day 8 was the day we were going to cuddle with a koala!

The morning started much as the night before ended in Surfers Paradise, wet and grey. We had gotten tickets to the observation deck of the Q1 as part of our stay the night before, so we decided to go up. Unfortunately, the weather was bad so we couldn't see much. But we have been to the top of the tallest building in Australia, so check that off the list.

We drove up from Surfers to the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary. In Australia you can pet koalas pretty much anywhere, but only in Queensland can you actually hold one. We knew that there were other things besides Koala-cuddling at the sanctuary, so we informally scheduled a couple of hours there. Boy were wrong!

Lone Pine is one of the great hidden gems of the Gold Coast. If you are in Australia, you must go there. Koalas are one thing but they've got other animals like wombats, crocodiles, kangaroos, dingos, and more. The park itself reminds me a lot of Gatorland in Florida with it's informality and low walls and also that it appears to be a working park that happens to let visitors in. Outside of the obvious Koala fun, Jill and I both really enjoyed the Kangaroos, Wallabys, and Wallaroos. We each got a bag of 'roo food, and headed into a large pasture. In this area there were 40 to 50 Macropods of various kinds. We got to hand feed them and had a blast of a time. By the time we were done, we'd been there 6 hours and taken like 350 pictures.

(fun fact: I thought a Koala would feel like a Chinchilla, but they're actually coarse and woolly)

We eventually left the park and met up with one of Jill's high school friends in Brisbane and had a great dinner. At the end of the night we went up to Mount Coot-tha and looked over the city lights.

Jill Update:

Jill won't let me cuddle with her, so I've sought satisfaction in the arms of another koala, Sprite.

A Big Day Out

2008-12-11T19:45:00.005Z

Day 7:

So, I thought that day 2 was the longest drive of the trip, but I was wrong. Day 4 went from Coffs Harbour to Surfers Paradise which was a 4 hour drive.

The morning started with a fun breakfast at a place called Brekky Baa. We'd passed it on the way in the night before and Jill decided that we'd eat there. I'm not sure how she knew, but it was very cute and had good food. We left there to make one final stop on the way out of town. Jill had been talking about this Big Banana since we started the planing the trip. It was worth stopping, just to see how excited Jill got about it, but I'll let her tell you in her blog ;)

From there I had planned to drive the whole way through to Surfers (as the locals call it), but we ran into lots of construction traffic so decided to stop at a little resort called Byron Bay. Before lunch we stopped at the Byron Point lighthouse. I had a ton of fun there and we got a nice bit of walking and climbing down to the water and back up. I continue to be amazed by the clarity of the water as we could see dolphins, turtles, and rays from 100 meters up by the lighthouse.

After a pleasant lunch in the town itself, we pushed on to Surfers. The town seems very nice and we stayed in an incredible hotel, the Q1. Unfortunately for us, the weather was absolute crap and rained the whole time we were there. Because of this, we decided to get Italian take out and just lounged about the hotel.

Jill Update:

Jill says she's left me emotionally, but doesn't have the car keys so can't leave me physically. Result!

Sick Without Jill

2008-12-11T06:00:00.007Z

Day 6:

Today was our first separate vacation day. Originally I hadn't planned to, but Jill convinced me to do some diving during our drive up. She assured me that she'd find something else to do while I was out. Check out her blog for updates on what she did.

We got up really early in Port Macquarie and drove to a place called South West Rocks. There isn't much to this town, except for a dive charter to one of the best dives anywhere in the world. The place is called Fish Rock Cave and consists of a dive that takes you through an island!

The ride out was unlike anything I've ever done in a dive boat. In the bay, the seas were running like 4-6 feet and we were in a very small boat. Impressively, everyone leaving the bay is required by law to wear a lifejacket because boats sink so often. The passengers were also issued rain coats because there were so many waves breaking over the bow. It was wet and wild just trying to get to the dive site.

The first dive was pretty good. We had a new diver on the boat, so the dive master wanted to make sure that she was comfortable before the cave dive. We dropped into a hole near the island and ran into about 30 or 40 Grey Nurse sharks. We swam around comfortably with them and they didn't even bother with us. In fact, if you held your breath for too long, they'd forget you were around and start bumping into you. We also ran into a bunch of Wobbegong sharks which were a study in calm. I saw one of the other divers put a hand within two inches of the mouth of one of them and it didn't even move. It was impressive.

During the safety stop at 5 meters, the rough surface started to get to me. We were banging around and by the time I got on the boat, I was feeling pretty bad. For the first time in my life, I got sea-sick. Not great. :(

The second dive totally made up for it though. We dropped down on the seaward side of the island, lined up in single-file and entered the cave. It was amazing! There were corals and lobsters and odd looking fish. It's completely dark during much of the interior, so it was pretty easy to get disoriented. Towards the end, there was even a bubble cave at the top and we surfaced and had a look around.

The end of the day involved me sleeping during the drive to Coffs Harbour. The town wasn't great and dinner was a fiasco. I'd have to say that we were happy to see the back of it the next morning.

Jill Update:

Apparently, Jill had a fabulous day... but only when I wasn't there. As soon as we reunited, things went downhill. We lost a credit card, ended up eating nothing but ice cream for dinner, and staying in a shady hotel. Good thing we're shortly going to be in Cairns, where we'll spend most of our time apart.

Sunrise

2008-12-09T17:57:00.005Z

Day 5:

Even though we aren't technically jet-lagged, I'm having a bit of trouble adapting to the time change. I'm normally a morning person anyway, but I've been getting up at 5am or before every day. This isn't especially great, but it does give us some unique opportunities. This morning, we decided to get up and walk down the two kilometers to Nobbys Head at the breakwater of the port of Newcastle. It was a great vantage point to watch the sun come up over the Pacific. We had to hustle just a little bit to make the time, but in the end it was totally worth it. (As I write this, the kookaburras are laughing up a storm outside.)

This was a great way to start a long day of driving from Newcastle to Port Macquarie up the coast. We decided not to go the most direct way possible and instead stopped at a couple of places. First, was a town called Nelson Bay. It was a nice sleepy little holiday town and we had a very nice walk around their main shopping area and the port itself. Incredibly we forgot to take pictures while we were there, but if we had you would have a seen a harbor with the clearest water I've ever been witness to. The water right there next to all of the boats was as clear as any I'd ever seen in the Bahamas or elsewhere. It was almost unnatural.

A couple more stops later and we arrived at Port Macquarie. Even with the slow pace of our drive up the coast, we don't have nearly enough time to spend in places. Port Macquarie is easily a town that you could spend a day or two just hanging out and walking the beach or cruising around seeing the sights. As it was, we got in had time to lounge in the spa for a bit, got dinner and hit the sack. In the morning, we ran down to the beach real quick just to get some picture before we headed out for the days drive.

Jill Update:

Small problems today, but nothing I can't fix. In other words the bets don't pay out yet. ;) I also learned something new about Jill. No amount of wishing is going to make her into a morning person.