Sydney Skyline

I took a ferry ride from Circular Quay over to Manly. On the way back, the skyline of the entire downtown looked fantastic. My feet were so sore this day that I only stayed in Manly for about one hour.

Circular Quay

About my fourth day alone in the city, I walked from the business district, down to the freeway above Circular Quay, and up and across the Harbor Bridge. I smiled to a person in an office less than two minutes after this shot.

Luna Park

After crossing the bridge, I made my way down into Luna Park. The colors were fabulous, and so was the wind, which at 60 degrees F, kept almost everyone away. I'm surprised they had enough customers to keep the employees there.

Night Opera

My very first night in Sydney, we went down to see the Opera House. We went in but found the tickets to be a bit pricey, so we went outside and took some night pics.

Coogee Beach

The first weekend in Sydney, we walked south of Coogee while singing Buffy: The Musical. We ended up in on a street so we turned back. We saw the a couple with a doe eyed gal and made up words that they were sharing.

Train Platform

The train is the best way to get around in Sydney. The bus is good too, but not as fast as the train. I stood on Artarmon's platform about 30 times while in Sydney, waiting to go downtown.

Blue Mountains

One day, I took a train trip from Sydney to the Blue Mountains. The day was very, very cool and I didn't have nearly enough to wear. About half an hour after this picture, it started to rain. Later, it snowed... which is something that doesn't even happen every year there.

Three Sisters

Over my right shoulder are two of the often pictures three sisters. It was incredibly windy and cold -- so much so that it snowed only ten minutes before this. I spotted the rainbow and hurried to the viewing platform for this pic.

Lagoon Sunrise

Cairns is a beautiful tropical resort vacation city on the far north coast of eastern Australia. The lagoon here was built by the city for millions of dollars to attract tourists. Every day, hundreds of sun worshipers would be out soaking up the rays.

Lagoon & Pacific

From the roof of the International Hostel, where I stayed in Cairns, the lagoon and the Pacific beyond were both beautiful. This Saturday morning, a few tent venders were out. Notice the smoke from a forest fire on the peninsula to the right.

Esplanade

Lots of people were out on the grass near the lagoon everyday. The air temp in Cairns always went up to about 80 degrees, and it only rained (a little) one day out of the 18 days I was there. Most of the folks laying out were 20-somethings.

Cape Tribulation

I rented a car on my own and drove three hours north of Cairns to see the Daintree National Park rainforest at Cape Tribulation. Here the reef meets the rainforest. While wading knee deep near the beach below I saw a three foot shark enjoying swimming around. Monitors, wild pigs, a large boa, and other critters frequent this area.

Sugar Cane

All around Cairns, I saw sugar cane plantations. Twenty-something european visitors with one year guest worker visas frequently get jobs working the sugar cane. Very narrow gauge trains move the cane from field to train.

The Boulders

I rented a car from Avis for three days and took a tour to the south-west of Cairns. The boulders was a beautiful spot on a river, with nice swimming holes... but dangerous ones that had washed many others down the river. I love the reflection here.

Kangaroo

The first day of the Avis car rental, I drove to Undara Lava Tubes National Park, about three hours from Cairns. As soon as I parked there, I saw this three foot kangaroo near what was probably its mother. It didn't like me getting close, but I did get this picture.

Fitzroy Island

My last day in Cairns, I ended up running to the ferry terminal to make the 10:30 out to this beautiful island. I spent the day on the natural beach there, snorkling right off the beach on a reef. I went in the water three times, the second and third being very good because I snorkled the same spots but saw lots more everytime.

Dive Schedule

The dive class was the highlight of my trip to Australia. It consisted of five days, the first two full days in the classroom. The remaining three days were spent on a dive boat out on the Great Barrier Reef. Wow, I can hardly believe I can say that!

Dive Pool

The first two days, we actually spent half each day in the pool. We learned to use the equipment properly, how to handle emergencies, and how to do a good time breathing underwater. The center of the pool is 12 feet deep and where we practiced quite a few of our skills.

Sun Deck

Out on the Pacific Ocean, just inside the Great Barrier Reef, we did our scuba diving. After practically every dive, we would go up on the deck to dry off and warm up in the sun. The boat carried thirty-two divers plus seven crew.

My Group

My dive group consisted of Sebastian from Germany, Maike from Germany, Kristi from Canada, Jon from the UK, me from the USA, Maria from Sweden, Rik from the UK and his wife Sandra from France. I had a much better tan a couple weeks later than I did here.

PADI Certified!

After we dove with Justin, our instructor, for the fourth time, we were officially PADI certified Open Water Divers. This was our last dive with Justin running us through drills. The next four dives were we got to go around with just our dive buddies! :-)

The Guys

Rik, Aaron, Jon and Sebastian were the four guys in our dive group. Sebastian and Jon took some digital pictures as well. We burned all of each of our pics onto CDs as soon as we got back to Cairns, so now we have lots of good shots from the trip.

Snorkling

After our second training dive, Sebastian and I went snorkling with a digital camera in a little protective bag. The pictures are okay, but not as good as the disposible camera. Here I was holding my breath patiently for Sebastian to get the shot.

Deep Bubbles

I can't stay down for very long while holding my breath like this -- 30 seconds is typical. I'd like to be able to do about 2 minutes, but that is quite a long time when a person is actually swimming. I didn't really need the wetsuit for buoyancy or for warmth, but I figured that it might protect my delicate skin from accidentally running into sharp coral.

Skin Deck

The only place I saw more skin was in the dance clubs in Cairns or maybe near the Lagoon on a Saturday. We made sure to share the SPF 30 so we wouldn't be pulling a tight wetsuit over a sore burn. We couldn't go in the cabin with wet clothes and got reprimanded each time -- although not as badly as when I would forget to lay my airtank down on the ground (falling tanks decapitate toes).

Ocean Hair

Down about 10 m or so, the reds weren't very bright. All the gear was included in the price of the class. I paid 660 aussie dollars, plus another 50 aussies for the required physical (must be done there). The yellow thing is the extra regulator, most likely to be used by another person in an emergency.

Clown Fish

This was the only clownfish that I saw, actually, there are two close together here. The anemone was about one or two meters across. This actually wasn't all that interesting compared to the little christmas tree coral and other sea life on the reef. I would love to go diving on living reefs like this any time.

Ray

I spotted this ray about 5 meters ahead, flying gracefully away. I got the camera, a one use underwater Kodak, and swam after the ray, finally coming up alongside it. I didn't have a very good angle for the shot, so I accended a meter or so to get this nice angle. The ray was about two meters including the tail. I'm not sure which variety it is.

My Bubbles

Bubbles serve several purposes... You can spot a person even if they are behind something. You can use them to clear a water filled mask. You can also use them to find what way the surface is, which can be necessary on night dives in particular.

Reef Edge

I love the color on this shot. Notice the assorted fishes and the play of the sunlight on the reef. Beyond, the blue of the open ocean. The deepest I dove was 18 meters (60 ft) which was very nice. Here, the color is really good, so probably less than 10 meters.

Deep Friends

Its hard to tell who these two are, but this picture gives a bit of perspective on how big the reef walls were, and this is just a very shallow spot. The outer edge of the reef must be at least 50 meters tall in places. Notice that one diver is swimming diagonally, which sometimes means they are over-weighted.