Venture to Australia

Goodbye Australia

2006-06-24T02:05:00.000+10:00

Well, the time has finally come for me to say goodbye to Australia and fly back home to Canada. I've had a great time here and made a few friends along the way too who I'll dearly miss.

Thanks to everyone for taking the time to read this blog over the past year.

Trip to "Straddie" Island

2006-05-27T21:24:00.000+10:00

Enlarge Map | View In Google Earth

This weekend my friend Ed took me and a few of the girls I live with to North Stradbroke Island (nicknamed Straddie Island) for the day. It's a small island off the coast of Brisbane. The island is so small in fact, you can fill your prescriptions and get a loaf of bread all in the same place! How handy!

The first I should mention about Straddie Island is that it's not a popular place for tourists. Tourists usually go to Fraser Island or Morton Island, Straddie Island is more of a place where locals go to spend the day or weekend. The island itself consists of a very small population, it's because of this that most students take the ferry into Brisbane everyday to go to school. I suspect that it's only high school students that do this but I didn't see any schools when I was there so I can't be 100% sure.

We first arrived in Dunwich via the ferry. It was still quite early in the morning (around 8:30am) and we got to see all sorts of trucks driving up and down one of the main roads towards the sand mines. Around 9am we hopped on the bus to our first stop, Amity Point where we met a very nice bus driver named Bill. He told us a bit about the place and asked us where we were from, when we told him we were from Canada he said, "Canada? The one with America? That Canada?" Yes... as I said, the people who live on this island don't get many tourists other than locals from the mainland so umm... yea...

After getting off the bus we went for a short walk by the docks where we saw these beautiful large black and white birds sitting on top of the posts; pelicans.

There were also the obligatory (clearly Australian) signs that showed up here and there warning of the dangers that lurk beneath the surface of the water. Mwahahahhaa!

I think this sign looks more like a spider or some other creature than an octopus.

Moving along, we went to the Amity Point Community Centre to check out the cricket game for which I thought was pretty boring. It was a nice little place though, similar to a legion as far as I understood it. We stayed there until around lunchtime when we headed back to the bus stop to wait for the bus.

We had a bit of time before the bus arrived so we did a bit of looking around at the shops and things, there was a small corner-store/bait and tackle shop across the street. I love the video games they had just outside the store, they look so old!! This further confirms my notion that traveling to Australia is like traveling back in time.

We arrived at Point Lookout around lunchtime and went to a lovely fish and chip shop called "Fishes". I had a fish burger which consisted of a fish fillet, breaded and cooked on a bun with lettuce, tomato, mayo, a slice of beetroot and a slice of pinapple (very Australian those last 2 ingredients).

After lunch Ed and I went for a walk while the other girls relaxed back at the restaurant. There were 3 weddings going on that day so there were photographers and people dressed up all over the place. Stradbroke Island actually makes for a very nice photo spot with the green trees, and ocean background as a backdrop.

Upon returning to get the girls we all went for a walk down to the beach, 200 stairs down. We then had to climb back up over to this other hill in order to get to this really cool sand tobogganing place. Considering that it was a Saturday afternoon it wasn't too busy at all! There were a few kids going down the hill on a board. Usually there are bits of cardboard around that people use to slide down the hill but we couldn't find any so we settled for just sitting around at the top of the hill for a couple of hours playing with the sand; it was very soft.

We started to head back just before sunset, we walked along the rest of the beach towards the bus stop which was only a few metres away. On the way back we saw people fishing on the beach as the sun was setting over the horizon.

Paniyiri

2006-05-21T22:40:00.000+10:00

It was the Paniyiri Festival (pronounced: pan-ee-year-ee) this weekend! Paniyiri is a Greek word meaning gathering or coming together. I went with my friends Ed and Claire, it was a great afternoon with good food, fun and dance.

We started the day off with a bit of lunch, there were a crazy amount of people at the festival and food places everywhere serving all sorts of delicious treats. Haloumi (fried cheese with mint), kalamari (squid), moussaka (an eggplant dish), melomakarona (a honey and nut covered cookie), and baklava (nut filled flakey pastry) to name a few dishes being served. I especially enjoyed the haloumi and honey puffs.

After a bit of lunch we sat around for a bit to watch the traditional dancers on the main stage. This girl was doing a type of dance where the boys dance one by one in front of the girls in hopes of finding a partner and the girls reciprocate, this girl did her dance with a little jug.

After a while we got up to do some walking around to see what else there was to see. At the top of the hill away from the main food area there was a honey puff eating contest. Honey puffs are small Timbit like pastries covered in honey and served warm. The aim of the contest was to see how many you could eat without using your hands within one minute.

Heading further in and escaping from the crowds we went into the Greek Club building where they were Greek cooking demonstrations and displays featuring these eggs. They're emu eggs that are carefully carved to varying depths to allow more or less light to shine through.

The cooking demonstrations that we got to see demonstrated how to make baklava and melomakarona. The recipes were quite simple to make with ingredients that can be found in almost any grocery store.

Moving back outside we went to see more dances on the main stage and eat more food. One of the more interesting dances of the day was one done by this guy, Arapies tis Kandilas (Danec with a Tumbler) is what I think the dance is called. The principle of the dance without spilling the liquid in the glass while at the same time moving the glass around in various ways [more photos].

The festival went on until late into the night but we left around 5ish. By then the sun was setting and it was getting dark, the sun sets so early in Brisbane.

Oh the things you find at the grocery store.

2006-05-18T13:41:00.000+10:00

Since this is a blog about Australia I've decided to create a new blog about New Zealand just to keep things separate. You can visit it at Venture to New Zealand. Unfortunately it's going to be a while before I can do any sort of decent updating on that particular trip but hang in there I'll get it done.

Now, moving on to today's topic...
First of all, one interesting place to go when you're in a new country is the grocery store. The point being to see what kind of stuff the locals have, what do they buy? What's popular to eat? And of course, do they have anything that sounds a big funny.

Today while on a trip to the grocery store I bought my very own...

Yes that's right, it's mine and nobody elses! Ha! Seriously though, it's a small watermelon that the store advertised as being able to fit in the fridge, they were pretty cheap too, about $1 each.

I also managed to buy myself a whole bottle of...

Yep, won't Torontonians everywhere be so proud! And look! There's 20% more! So what is it? It's sarsparilla, or in this case, double sarsparailla which is a version of root beer so far as I understand it. The root part coming from the sassafras root for those of you wondering. Though sassafras is no longer being used in most countries due to it's possible carcinogenic properties.

So there you have it. A few gems picked up and shown to you as the spoils of a typical day at the grocery store here in Brisbane, Australia.

Back from New Zealand

2006-04-25T11:32:00.000+10:00

Well I'm back from my trip to New Zealand, but it's going to take me some time to get all the photos up. So in the meantime here's a video montage (9MB) that you can watch of the whole trip featuring the song from a New Zealand band called The Exponents.

Leaving for New Zealand

2006-04-15T15:11:00.000+10:00

Well I'm off on another adventure, this time to New Zealand. I'm hoping to see glaciers and some of the scenery behind the Lord of the Rings movies and perhaps the elusive (and very ugly I hear) weta.

My itinerary is as follows:
April 16
Arrive in Christchurch

April 17
Lake Ohau

April 18
Te Anau

April 19
Queenstown

April 20
Queenstown

April 21
Fox Glacier

April 22
Christchurch

April 23
Arrive back in Brisbane

Sandgate

2006-04-15T08:59:00.000+10:00

Yesterday a bunch of us went to a place called Sandgate which is located a few km northeast of the city. While we were there the Bluewater Festival was going on. There were all sorts of people there with the usual kinds of entertainment you would expect to find at a local festival including a couple of stages for entertainment and kids could ride ponies and camels around for rides.

By the time we got there it was almost lunchtime so we went looking for some food. We ended up at this little booth that the local Rotary club was running and decided to get some German sausages. While we were waiting in line we noticed this...

Yes, that's right, they were using a coffin to keep the drinks... I have no idea why. I can't imagine that this would be a cheaper solution to buying a cooler, nor would be easy to transport to the site. Suggestions anyone?

Anyway, we had lunch on a hill overlooking the pier which was quite nice. Just off to the right (past the edge of this picture) in the distance is Stradbrook Island which I intend to go to in the coming months as a day trip.

Instead of staying at the festival (which was quite small) we decided to go for a walk around the coastline. After walking for about 10 minutes we came across these mudflats which I believe were there because it was low tide. It was odd to see people standing out in the middle of the ocean so far away from the shore yet still standing on land.

I wish there had been more time to explore more of the coastline around Sandgate since it's quite beautiful there. It also got me to thinking how convenient it was that we didn't take a car to get there. Had we not taken public transport we would have had to walk all the way back to where we parked the car instead of just hopping on the train and going straight back.

Karen's Birthday

2006-04-08T13:32:00.000+10:00

Thursday was my friend Karen's 24th birthday so in celebration a bunch of us decided to take her out for dinner on Friday night. We decided to go out to Ahmets, a Turkish restaurant down at Southbank (near downtown Brisbane).

That's a licensed Turkish restaurant, as in licensed to sell alcohol. Not licensed by some Turkish council back in Turkey to sell Turkish food. :D

There were about 15 of us that went, all but 3 live at ISV. That's practically the entire population of ISV went, so things were pretty quiet around there. We took up the whole front half of the bus getting to Southbank too!

While we were waiting for our food we got to enjoy some of the live entertainment that is special to this particular restaurant on the Southbank strip of restaurants; live bellydancing (2MB - Requires DivX). Some of the girls were even adventurous enough to try it out (3.1MB - Requires DivX)!

The food was pretty good, I shared an appetizer plate of hommus with Patrick and ordered something called Iskender which was shredded chicken (or you could get lamb) served over Turkish bread with a yogurt sauce.

Among some of the other dishes that people ordered were various kababs (or as Chantal would call them, "Chicken on a Stick!"), and falafals. Mark ordered their specialty diet dish...

Just kidding! The lemons were for Chantal's chicken dish. For dessert Karen got a special treat of chocolate ice cream and baklava shaped in the form of a star.

Happy Birthday Karen!

Plane Crashes in Coopers Plains

2006-04-01T09:52:00.000+10:00

Yesterday at around 10:55am while I was in the city a small airplane crashed in Coopers Plains near my house on Kessels Rd. The plane flew into a field next to the John Tonge Centre missing houses and the busy street below; the pilot died in the crash. Initial investigations suggest that the pilot tried to perform and emergency landing due to the heavy rainfall that was going out at the time.

Article from the Courier Mail

Getting Around Brisbane

2006-03-27T08:12:00.000+10:00

Since there hasn't really been a whole lot going on around here I'd like to take this opportunity to describe to you how Brisbane transport works.

Travelling around Brisbane is actually pretty neat, there are several ways to get around, via bus, train or boat (which they call the CityCats). Basically, the city is broken up into zones which are setup in concentric circles starting from the centre of the city moving outward. Fares are based on how many zones you pass through, there are several different kinds of tickets you can get. One of the simplest and cheapest types of tickets you can buy is the daily pass. Purchasing one of these will cost you approximately double the cost of a regular ticket but you can go between the zones you paid for as much as you like for the whole day. And you aren't restricted to just riding one kind of vehicle either, once you have your ticket you can take any form of transport the city has to offer. That means the buses, trains and the CityCats which makes it quite an effective and economical way to take yourself sightseeing around the city.

Of the 3 forms of transporation, I most frequently take the bus which usually comes every half hour or ever hour depending on which bus you're taking. Some buses even have bike racks fixed to the front so you can ride your bike and take the bus too! Which reminds me, most of the buses are powered by natural gas instead of diesel which makes them cleaner burning.

And thus ends my travel guideish description of public transport in Brisbane.

The Manual of Love

2006-03-22T10:00:00.000+10:00

My housemate Elena won tickets to a pre-screening of the Italian movie Manuale D'Amore (The Manual of Love). The movie takes a look into the different aspects of love and the humor and sadness that goes along with it.

We saw the movie in what I think is an Italian theatre, it was called Palace Centro. The theatre was very small, the kind that only shows one movie at a time, but it was very classy as well. The snack bar for example not only served the usual popcorn and candy bars but glasses of wine as well. I'm not sure exactly how much tickets normally cost to see a movie there but judging by the average age of the people that went to see this movie I would say moderatly expensive.

Once inside the actual theatre portion of the building we were seated in large comfy chairs that were made of a velvety type material and each seat had the logo of the theatre embroidered on the back in gold thread.

I was pleased to find that there were none of the usual pre-movie stuff that they usually have in the theatres these days so the movie started on time and lasted about 2hrs.

I would recommend the movie to anyone out there who likes romance movies and a bit of a laugh as well.

Oh and on a side note, I would have taken pictures of the theatre but I am currently without a camera since mine broke recently! :( But I should be getting a new one very soon!

Something in the Weather

2006-03-03T19:41:00.000+10:00

As autumn approaches the weather has turned from sunny summer days to cooler, rainier and cloudier days. Today it rained the entire day and was completely clouded over as well. It makes me feel like it's September/October, top that with school starting and it just completes the package; it's weird.

It's funny to hear everyone lament over the "crappy weather" while I'm quite enjoying the change myself. Sunny summer days are nice, but when everyday is exactly the same there comes a point when you just crave some change (or at least I do!).

Birthday Thai

2006-03-01T20:23:00.000+10:00

Yesterday was this guy Mark's birthday, he lives at ISV like me, so a bunch of us thought we'd take him out for some Thai food as this restaurant called Thai Orchid. The food was great and we even had tiramisu cake for dessert.

I've been looking for more interesting ways to present photos from different outings such as this, so this is just an experiment since school hasn't really gotten into gear yet so I have a bit of time to fiddle around with these things. You can click the image to get a larger view of it.

Back to School

2006-02-27T20:48:00.000+10:00

Well, school has finally started up again and it's back to the old routine.

This semester's courses include:
User Interface Design
Database Management Systems
Programming 3
Multimedia Authoring

Australia Wins First Gold in Torino

2006-02-16T18:12:00.000+10:00

Photo from CNN

Australia wins its first gold at the 2006 Torino Olympics and... it was won by a former Canadian! Yes, that's right Dale Begg-Smith moved to Australia when he was young and trained for 2 years to join the Australian ski team.

Does anyone else feel a little sad about this win? I mean, it could have been for Canada. :(

Update: Ok, I feel even less happy about this guy winning as the computer company that he started is/was apparently responsible for a large portion of the spyware that's out there on the net as we speak. The revenues of which allowed him to be extremely rich which the media keeps saying. Unfortunately they make him sound like a great web success by saying such things as, "...this web business millionaire...".

Anna Chau, International Face-Changing Artist

2006-02-04T00:11:00.000+10:00

Tonight I went to see Anna Chau, International Face-Changing Artist, live on stage in the Brisbane Chinatown. From the minute I saw it in the Chinese New Year brochure of events I knew I wanted to go see the show since the only place I can remember seeing this kind of thing was on TV.

According to the Brisbane City website:

The true art form of face-changing is limited to about 100 people in all of China, so this very special performance is a must-see.

First appearing in the Qing Dynasty about 250 years ago in the Sichuan Opera, the secret art of face-changing has been heralded as one of China's national treasures by the Central Government.

After a prestigious career with the Sichuan Lu's Theatre, Beijing Chinese Opera & Dance Academy and Song City, Anna Chau made history by becoming the only female 'Face-Changer' in China.

The place was pretty packed when I got there, but I managed to find a seat on the ground at the centre of the stage. :) The stage was setup in the same way as it was when I went there for Chinese New Year and before the performance there was yet another lion dance and martial arts demonstration.

So... tonight I have a treat for you, 2 videos one small to give you the idea of what the art of face-changing is, the other, a much larger video of some of the performance which includes sound! Be amazed and astounded...

Video 1 (1.5MB - Note: No sound)
Anna Chau takes her performance out into the audience.

Video 2 (17.2MB - Note: Requires DivX)
A dance with some traditional Chinese music as well as a familar tune.

For those of you with an interest in Miss Chau I found this short biography on her.

Chinese New Year: The Year of the Dog

2006-01-28T21:52:00.000+10:00

Happy Chinese New Year everyone! The festivities in the Fortitude Valley Chinatown were pretty good. There was a small stage setup in the middle of the area and red lanterns were hung from every roof and ledge.

They even had an ice sculpture of a dog in honour of the year of the dog carved live in the summer sun for all to see.

Also included in the stage show lineup was a martial arts demonstration, Chinese opera, and a dragon dance. You can check out my Flickr Album for lots more Chinese New Year photos.

Chinese Lions do a dance

Ozzie! Ozzie! Ozzie! Oi! Oi! Oi!

2006-01-26T22:04:00.000+10:00

Happy Australia Day everyone! It was a lovely (but hot) day out for the annual event. I went to the city to see the sights, and the River Queen was giving free 40 minute rides up and down the Brisbane river, but the line was crazy long when I got there for the first ride of the day so I decided against it.

There were also rides, well... one ride, a ferris wheel, yay!

After spending some time down by the river and gathering up some free sunscreen from the Suncorp tent, I made my way down the river (by boat) to the Story Bridge Hotel for the 25th Annual Australia Day Cockroach races.

The races run all day long and anyone can enter. The races are sponsored by several different companies including Coca Cola and several beer companies, there's a lot of drinking at these events.

The cockroaches are marched into the ring with a bagpipe band and are announced each by name. The roaches are often given funny names, similar to in horse racing, with names like "Lord of the Drains", "Suck My Cockroach" or "Sir Roach a Lot".

Each roach is marked with a number on their shells so they can tell who the winner is. The roaches start off in the centre ring and whichever 3 roaches make it past the outer ring first are the winners. Winners are awarded with all sorts of prizes as well, including a fair sized trophy as well as gift type prizes like money, fancy cd players or gift packs with food.

After leaving the races I made my way back downtown in time to see the parade. There were the usual marching bands and things, feel free to have a look at my Flickr Album for more parade pics. It was all great fun, and before the parade started they gave out lots free stuff to the waiting crowds.

During the parade there was this one company that sells meats like sausages and things and for their float they had a working barbeque and were giving out free sausages with fried onions as they made their way down the parade route!

The day ended with a fireworks show down by the river, and now that I think of it, I think I've seen more fireworks shows in one year here than I have any other year of my life.

2005-12-30T22:13:00.000+10:00

While in the rainforest we also saw a lot of these hanging in the trees; they're green ant's nests, According to our guide the green ant babies have the ability to produce a sort of glue, and as such the adults use them as sort of "glue gun" to glue the leaves together to form the nests.

The final part of our tour was spent at Mossman Gorge where people often go to swim because of the clear waters. The water level was quite low as you can see from the exposed rocks.

And of course there was the obligatory danger sign near the gorge for all swimmers and passers by. Craig and I thought the pictures on the left were particularly amusingly drawn.

As the sun set behind the green green mountains we made the long drive back down the winding road with the ocean on our left and soaring cliffs and mountains to our right.

Trip to Cairns – Day 3: Cape Tribulation, Daintree Rainforest Tour (Part I)

2005-12-30T20:45:00.000+10:00

This was by far the longest touring day; 12 hours out on tour. We started with an early morning pickup, around 7:00am. We started out on the long drive out to Cape Tribulation; I think the drive was about an hour long. We made a quick stop at a lookout point to see the view of the Daintree River and some of the foliage of the rainforest.

We were then taken to an information centre in the rainforest where we had morning tea (cookies, tea, juice, etc.). Shortly after having tea we were given a brief history of the rainforest and its animals. We were then taken to a tower that allowed us to see the different levels of the rainforest. At each level the guide discussed the different types of plants and animals that are commonly found there.

It was a short walk back down to the base of the tower and onto a walk through the rainforest on raised platforms. It was all quite lush and green and we even saw a neat little spider that was camouflaged on one of the railings as we were nearing the end of the path. If you're not paying close attention the spider actually looks like an etching into the metal instead of a live creature.

At the end of the walk there was a little gift shop (as there are in many places in Cairns). This particular shop sold the usual stuffed koalas and kangaroos as well as assorted jams, dressings and spices.

After a few minutes it was a short drive to the ferry which took our whole bus (and several other cars) across the river to the other side; the whole trip took about a minute.

Once across the river we drove down a road where there is a famous piece of graffiti on a sign on the side of the road.

The sign originally depicted a warning about an upcoming speed bump and the sign below it is a picture of a cassowary. Similar to warnings of deer that cross the road, there are cassowaries that cross in that area and are often hit by cars.

We went to a lovely beach where the sand was packed perfectly flat and there were mangrove trees with their roots showing just above the sand. Our tour guide also introduced us to several of the different plants that grown near the water and showed that some of them are even edible.

People can swim in the water, but are advised to be careful during the summer months as there are box jellyfish in the water.

Oh the Australians have a talent for making signs I must say!

Lunch was served in the middle of the rainforest where there were several picnic tables setup.

It was quite tasty and it was included as part of the tour and included steak, sea bass, a type of Australian bread and several different kinds of salad.

For dessert we were treated to several different kinds of tropical fruits.

Cantolope, watermelon, pineapple, star fruit, mamey sapote, honeydew and papaya.

After lunch we went for a cruise up the Daintree River to hopefully spot some wildlife. This was the most disappointing part of the trip as we got stuck with another tour group of noisy Italians. They basically were loud and quite boisterous and scared off just about every kind of wildlife in the area. So all we saw were a few birds several metres away and a few tiny crocodiles sunning themselves in between the mangroves.

On our way back to Cairns we stopped by a small shop for afternoon tea; this time it was muffins instead of cookies though. The shop also sold souvenirs including Daintree Tea which is harvested and made right in the rainforest.

Just outside the shop was the most amazing and scary sight you can imagine. There were a bunch of trees growing in which you had to walk underneath to get to a clearing. Upon looking up you could see a set of webs that several spiders had woven. It was quite a unique sight to see as spiders are usually quite territorial.

Trip to Cairns – Day 2: Hartley's Crocodile Adventures

2005-12-29T20:10:00.000+10:00

It was breakfast on the verandah, a trip to the photo developing place to get our photos from yesterday developed and some time at the local Internet Café for the morning. By late morning we were off to Hartley's Crocodile Adventures for the afternoon. The "tour guide" who took us there wasn't very good, he kept saying the same things over and over again, but it didn't matter because he was more of a bus driver than anything. On the way to the park we passed by the Cairns Zoo which had several flags flying in the sky. Ahh, home...

The park is completely hidden within trees and if you were driving by on the road you would never suspect that there was a crocodile park there.

Once we reached our destination we hopped off the bus and took our first glimpse of a crocodile!

I can't remember his name but apparently he used to live at Hartley's, well I guess technically he still does, but anyway there he was, all decked out for the holiday season.

It was then off to the reptile show, where the snake handler talked extensively about Australian snakes and reptiles, he also brought out a couple snakes to show the audience.

We left the show about 5 minutes early to get to the reptile ferry ride on time. The ferry took us around the swampy area of the park in which many crocodile call home. The ferry drove around to various places and the boat driver pointed out several crocodiles lounging about or slinking into the water as well as some birds.

Nankeen Night Heron

The driver stopped the boat in an open area and tried luring the crocodiles to the boat with a long stick and a piece of raw meat attached to it.

One crocodile seemed particularly interested in the bait and swam right up to the boat. It leapt out of the water with the grace of a ballerina snapping its jaws with the strength of an elephant. They did this demonstration a few times on either side of the boat in various places in the swamp with different crocodiles, it was quite exciting.

After the ferry dropped us back on land Craig and I went for a walk around the park to see the "Croc Attack Show"; this was by far the most exciting part of the day. The zookeeper talked all about crocodiles and their life in the wild. He also demonstrated the "death roll" and "head shake" that crocodiles use to kill and take down their prey using a rope with a piece of cowhide attached as bait.

The zookeeper actually ended up losing the rope while he was doing this and another zookeeper had to go in to help get it. During the show he fed the crocodile little fish and I mean LITTLE fish!

After the show we went for a walk around the rest of the park to see the other animals they had there. Including the most deadly of creatures, the green garden hose snake.

One of the creatures that we saw while walking around the place was in fact not officially part of the park. Australian green ants, described in the Wikipedia as such:

Australian green ants are eaten by the aboriginals. Their abdomens taste like lemon sherbet, are high in vitamin C and have antibiotic properties. Squashed green ants mashed in water makes up an excellent lemon-lime flavored drink.

I also hear they're excellent as a tea if you have a cold. :S

My National Geographic Type Shot of the Ants

It was then off to the cassowary feeding where people had a chance to feed the cassowaries. For those of you who don't know, the cassowary is the third largest bird in the world behind the ostrich and the emu. The zookeeper brought out two buckets of various fruits and vegetables in which people were encouraged to feed the cassowaries through the bars or over the fence.

We were then back on the bus back to the Cairns CBD (central business district).

One of the nice things about the particular hotel that we chose to stay in was that it included a free dinner at a local restaurant or 20% off the menu. Considering the free dinner choices consisted of things like, a small bowl of soup or a small salad we chose to go with the 20% off discount for a better meal. We had our meal out on the patio.

The only problem with eating on the patio was the noise… (396kb)

For those of you who are listening to the clip, these are lorikeets, green colourful birds that like to gather in groups around 6 or 7 o'clock at night and continue on like this until around 9ish. If you can get past that the atmosphere is quite pleasant heh…

Anyway, for anyone who finds themselves traveling to Cairns, I would highly recommend checking Hartley's Crocodile Adventures.

Trip to Cairns – Day 1: The Great Barrier Reef

2005-12-28T20:50:00.000+10:00

We woke up early for our trip out to Green Island and the Great Barrier Reef. A continental breakfast was provided by the hotel and served on the verandah. The morning was quite pleasant and not too hot; the sun rises early so it was well in the sky by 7:00am.

We waited just outside the hotel for our pickup shuttle sent by the touring agency, they sent a coach bus to pick us up; we were the first to get on. We sat at the front of the bus and enjoyed the ride to the docks. Five minutes later we arrived at the docks, I felt kind of silly being chauffeured by a huge coach bus to a location that was within walking distance of the hotel but oh well. :)

One of the first things you'll notice when you get to Cairns (as long as you don't arrive in the middle of the night like we did) is the mountains. They're incredible, not mountains of rock but mountains covered in lush greenery; completely covered in trees. The bases of the mountains seem to dive right into the edge of the water.

We traveled for about an hour on a large (air conditioned) boat to get to Green Island. When we got to the island we had a choice of several activities including a glass bottom boat tour of the reef, snorkeling or something they called a "water walk" in which people wear suits and go on a walking tour of the floor of the ocean; we chose snorkeling. As part of the tour package we were provided with snorkeling gear.

The rest of the day we were pretty much free to explore the reef at our leisure. The island wasn't too crowded and everyone seemed to be doing something different. Some chose to simply lie on the beach or play in the water but I can't imagine why a person would go all the way out to the Great Barrier Reef just to treat the island like any old beach.

The water itself wasn't too deep, and an adult (even a short one like me!) could stand in most places. We were asked not to stand on the actual reef but to look for sandy patches before setting down. There were lots of fish everywhere and Craig and I made good use of our disposable cameras to try and take a shot of everything that looked interesting.

After a few hours of snorkeling it was back to the boat for a light buffet lunch included in the cost of our tour. It was then back out again to do some more reef snorkeling, this time to a new location that Craig had spotted that seemed to be attracting a lot of attention.

We swam closer to the docks this time and Craig noticed that large amounts of fish were gathered underneath it. We later learned that this was probably due to the fact that as the boats leave the dock they often do a "fish feeding". The fish didn't seem to pay any attention to the fact that people were swimming amongst them. In fact one little fishy had the audacity to swim right up to both Craig and me and swirl about in all directions.

After a long day of snorkeling we were back on the boat again for the trip back to Cairns and the short trip back to our hotel. Just as we were leaving it started to rain and once on the boat it actually started to pour. But that didn't stop the tour people from doing their daily "fish feeding" in which they threw pieces of fish food (I'm not exactly sure what) over the back of the boat and the fish literally jumped out of the water for it.

The day was long but enjoyable and considering that it was pretty much sunny all the way, you couldn't have asked for a better day to go.

Flying Into Cairns

2005-12-27T23:54:00.000+10:00

Since we had to check out of the hotel before 10:30 we spent most of the day walking around Kings Cross. We had breakfast at "The Fountain Café" which is right out in front of the El Alamein Fountain; a short distance from the hotel.

We then spent the rest of the day in the park. We arrived in Cairns around 9:30pm and didn't get to the hotel until around 11:00pm. Thankfully the hotel we were staying with included the cost of the shuttle.

Trip to Sydney – Day 4: Taronga Zoo

2005-12-26T16:05:00.000+10:00

We got up to go to the Taronga Zoo with our friend Glenn. It was important that we go early because Boxing Day is the day when the Sydney to Hobart yacht race begins. For those of you who don't know where Hobart is, it's in Tasmania (about 630 nautical miles from Sydney). Since we had to take the ferry to get to the zoo we wanted to make sure that the harbour hadn't filled up before we got there.

As expected, there were many different kinds of animals at the zoo, some big and scaly...

Some silly...

And some just plain cute�

The weather was quite nice for the day, and overall the zoo wasn't too busy. While we were there we stopped by a place near the water and saw an airplane doing some skywriting advertising. Apparently this is quite a normal affair and I can imagine considering the clear blue skies and warm weather.

After going to the zoo Craig, Glenn and I went back to the city for some lunch, and then for a bit of a walk around the harbour. There were a lot of performers out and about including a few didgeridoo musicians and some street mimes too.

Thanks for a great day out Glenn!

Trip to Sydney – Day 3: Christmas at Manly Beach

2005-12-25T19:51:00.000+10:00

Christmas in Australia is a funny thing, they don't really celebrate it like we do back home; in fact, they don't really celebrate it at all. The popular thing for Australian's to do is to go to the beach on Christmas day, so you know what they say, when in Rome�

In Sydney the popular beach to go to is Bondi Beach (pronounced Bond-eye Beach), so Craig and I decided to go to the slightly less popular "Manly Beach". On our way to the train station we passed by the El Alamein Fountain and it looks like it was a white Christmas after all!

There were a fair amount of people traveling on the ferry to Manly Beach and I was a bit concerned that the beach would be crowded but it was fine. There were lots of people at the beach but there were plenty of places to sit.

The day was perfect, the sun was shining and not a cloud could be found in the sky. There were all sorts of people at the beach both young and old; some swimming in the ocean and others just lying around.

The waves were pretty big and it was a lot of fun bouncing around in them, and the ocean was, as expected - salty.

We had lunch at a restaurant by the beach, there's a 15% surcharge on public holidays, and the seagulls were particularly angry for some reason.

As the day wore on more and more people showed up and the beach got much busier. By that time Craig and I had left the beach for ice cream.

Overall it was a pretty good day. Merry Christmas!