GREAT BARRIER REEF/SYDNEY

Opera House light show

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Well, our trip is coming to a close!

We are here in Sydney after our Great Barrier Reef tour, followed by a drive south for a couple of days to Brisbane. Upon our arrival in Brisbane, we immediately decided to take a plane to Sydney for the last days of our trip. We weren't sure if we were going to come here or not, but decided that we would have a better time taking in more new sites than just waiting on the beach for our final departure.

Our 3 day and night adventure on the reef was spectacular! We had a great group of people to hang out with on the boat. The crew was funny and professional, they knew their stuff. The guests were from all over the world and we made many new friends. Most importantly both Nancy and I are now certified scuba divers and were able to go down 60 ft at Bait Reef, which is about a 3 hour boat ride from the nearest land. We saw fish, coral, rays, and sharks! The underwater world is surreal. When the 6 of us that had taken the dive course together surfaced, we all were laughing and hollering about how amazing it was. While the boat was anchored at this outer reef we had about a dozen 30 - 40 pound fish circling our vessel waiting for bread and food to fall or be tossed overboard. One of the times we jumped in for a scuba descent the crew threw a bunch of food in at us in the water and the fish were grabbing it right in front our our faces and slapping us with their bodies and tails.

We would stay up at night debating things life, culture, and languages with our new friends. We learned that Americans mispronounce 'aluminum,' and that in the sport cricket throwing the ball at the batter is just part of the strategy just to name a couple things. Most the people were younger than us once again, but that didn't stop us from keeping up. When we got back to shore we had a night on the town in Airlie beach with everyone from the boat and made contacts that we hopefully will see again.

Last night was the night we arrived in Sydney, it happened to be the last night of the Sydney Film and Arts Festival. During the Festival they project lighted images on the Opera House that change shape every 10-15 minutes. We ended up getting dinner and a couple drinks right below the Opera House and watching the spectacle for a little over an hour. The temperature dropped to about 50 degrees and we decided to move on.

Today we spent the day on the ferries checking out different towns and sites throughout the surrounding area. We have been able to take in a little history of this city and get a feel for how to get around. Tomorrow and Wed the weather may turn rainy so we plan on spending some time in doors at museums, aquariums, and world's biggest IMAX.

Opera House ...

Sydney view from ferry

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Nancy and friends aboard the Anaconda III in Luncheon Bay

Whitsunday Island

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Nancy and friends aboard Anaconda III

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Nancy returning from her final dive as a scuba student!

Blue Pearl Bay, Whitsunday Islands (Great Barrier Reef)

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Watson's Bay, Sydney, light house keeper's quarters

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Departure for night dive at Blue Pearl Bay.

from left to right: instructors Max & Alec, then my buddy Kurt and I

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Enjoying our boat time!

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AIRLIE BEACH

We are ready to shove off here from Airlie Beach for a 3 night/3 day adventure to the outer portions of the Great Barrier Reef. We just finished our 2nd day of scuba instruction in the classroom and the pool here. Everything seems to be going along well. There will be about 30 guests on the boat other than ourselves. There are 6 of us that have been going through the scuba course together and we will continue together on the boat trip on the Anaconda III. Out of the group there is Nancy and I, a South Korean named Yong Bum, an Aussie name Kurt, and two German friends named Katherin and Sandra. It is a great group of people! Nancy and I have realized that we have been on the upper end of the age group of travelers the whole time, which has made us feel both young and old. We feel a little like locals now..... We are driving on the wrong side of the road with much greater ease and are actually annoyed by the many Cockatoos. The Cockatoos are actually like really annoying crows but louder.

Here are couple pics from today's pool dive as well as some other random pics from this camera of other parts of our trip.

Hanging out on a bluff top outside Noosa, Australia

... Under the Eiffel Tower ... Nancy's second pool dive, Airlie Beach, Australia ... Nancy stretching her leg under water ...

BRISBANE, NOOSA, GREAT KEPPEL ISLAND

How ya goin' today blokes?

We are here at Airlie Beach getting ready for a couple day classroom session followed by a 3 day/3 night scuba adventure in the Whitsundays and outside the islands to the Great Barrier Reef. We have had a fabulous adventure so far here in Aussie Land. We are taking it at a slower pace than our Europe tour for sure. After staying in Brisbane for a couple nights and Noosa for a couple nights we woke up to pouring rain outside at about 5am and decided to drive north to the good weather.

We landed ourselves in a small town outside Rockhampton that lead us to an unplanned stop at Great Keppel Island. Great Keppel turned out to be just what the doctor ordered. We got a few days of rest and relaxation on the beach, spent a day kayaking, a day snorkeling, and all the in between time was spent burning through our books.

On our Kayak adventure we made our way to a fringe reef one island over from Great Keppel and enjoyed about 30 minutes of underwater viewing until I was stung by a jellyfish. We decided to call it quits and head back from some information on my wounds and to get some pizza and beer. For our snorkel adventure we were able to find some turtles to spend our time with. We also saw quite a few rays and all kinds of fish.

We will be planting our flag here for a few days prior to our 3 day sailing/scuba adventure so we will put another post up prior to leaving. We have also updated the 'comments' section of this blogsite to hopefully make it easier to post comments if you like. We had to change some of the settings which we hadn't done until now.

Anyway, hope you have a G'day and we send our love from Downunder!

Kickin' with the Roo

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Rope swing we found on Great Keppel

... Nancy's moves ... Hanging with Koalas outside Brisbane ... Our new pals at Lonepine Sanctuary ...

Nancy's favorite moment of the day

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Great Keppel Island just after a little sting from a friendly neighborhood jellyfish

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AUSTRALIA

G'day Matties! Now that we are here in Aussie Land, we have already shifted gears. We have slowed down to the point, I guess, that we haven't thought enough about getting ourselves into a Internet Cafe. Mainly we want to let family know that we are here and safe. We saw that one plane that disappeared over the Altantic with no communication, scarey! This internet spot doesn't allow me to download the photos from the camera I brought with me today, dang! We have spent 2 nights in Brisbane and this is our second in Noosa Heads. We are planning on driving our rental car to Airlie Beach near the Whitsundays tomorrow! We are planning this trip by feel, which has worked out really well so far. We spent today on the beach for about 5 hours between 3 different spots here at a National Park. Beautiful scenery. The weather today was tropical, we had mostly sunny skies but a little rain here and there and a handful of rainbows. When a storm would come through it would last for a few minutes and pass. We decided to just enjoy the rain and get wet without running for shelter, once the storm would pass we would dry off anyway. The water is about 73 degrees, which is perfect for us but the Aussie's think it is a little cold. We spent out day in Brisbane going to Lone Pine Sanctuary, which is basically a small zoo. We arrived at 2pm which is when the Koala's are fed. Koalas normally sleep about 23 out of 24 hours everyday so we got lucky and were able to actually pet one. We were also able to hang out with about 50 Kangaroos that we could fed and pet. It was really fun. When we left for the day it was dusk and the wild Cockatoos that surrounded the place started screaming real loud! There were dozens of wild Cockatoos flying around and screaming which was amazing to watch. Learning to drive on the wrong side of the road has been a real experience. There have been alot of laughs and now I think I have it down pretty well, definetly not an expert or anything. Nancy has yet to give it a shot, but she is getting her nerves ready for the experience. The day we landed we arrived at 7am local time and we picked our car up at the airport. Once we got to the car and found the correct side to sit on I had to take a few deep breaths and focus! About 5 minutes passed and I realized I had to just give it a shot! We still head for the wrong side of the car when getting in and crack up each time. That's all for now, this internet cafe is closing. All the best!