Australia!

Last week Will and I traveled to the most amazing and awe inspiring place on Earth, Australia! 

Sydney from the airplane.

Bondi Beach. One of many fantastic beach communities in Sydney.

The day I landed our friend Tara picked me up at the hotel and we took a ferry over to Watson's Bay. 

This is Iceburg's. An athletic club where we stopped in for a "midi" (small beer) with our Aussie friend Tara.

The view from the terrace at Iceburg's.

My tour guides, Tara and her silly little possum, Ruby.

After Iceburg's we went and found some good Thai food.

Hated saying goodbye to these two. Ruby has so much endearing spunk, just like her mum.

Between Bondi Beach and Bronti. We walked a few miles up the coast to have breakfast before flying up to Cairnes. The topography of the coastline and sandstone cliffs were so beautiful. I could have spent all day meandering around them!

The view back to Bondi Beach.

Later that day we flew to the city of Cairnes on the western coast of the continent.

Our room had a wrap around balcony with a gorgeous view of the harbor.

One of many "dates" while away.

The second morning we were there we took a train up into the rainforest to the town of Kuranda.

The front of our train was painted to symbolize an Australian folk tale describing the way the River cut through the mountain at the beginning of time.

Amazing views from the train. According to the tour guide, during the wet season the water flows over the entire rim of this canyon.

Once in Kuranda we stopped for a quick bite to eat.

Will chose an Emu burger.

While I had the Croc! It was surprisingly good! We passed on the kangaroo, that just seemed wrong!

These are pictures taken inside the Butterfly Sanctuary. Just like everything else on this trip, pictures don't do it justice. There were hundreds of butterfly fluttering around. They were landing in people all around us, but not us. Then we remembered that we had just applied insect repellent for the rain forest tour. Oops! 

Will finally got one to land on his shirt and one did land in my hair for a bit.

This is the Hercules moth in larvae and cocoon form. It is the largest moth in the world, my worst nightmare!

After the sanctuary we took a bus to a rainforest preserve.

They took us out on Army Ducks, land and water capable vehicles.

A termites nest :-/ And we think we have it bad here!

Aborigine performers.

Spear throwing. He through it all the way across this clearing and nailed the target on the other side.

This is a dingo. So cute! But apparently deceivingly ferocious! 

Some little wallabies were napping in the sun, and I was able to pet them. So sweet! We also saw koalas, Tasmanian devils, a wombat, crocodiles and many more animals Native to Australia. 

We rode the SkyRail down the mountain. It was SO high off the ground. The views were incredible!

Coming down into the city.

The real reason we flew west was in order to scuba the Great Barrier Reef! Our sailing vessel, the Ocean Free.

Green Island.

Will doing a little snorkeling after we dove down to the reef. We took an under water camera down, but I haven't dared get it developed yet. We didn't think to take it out of our bag before sending our bags through the ex-ray at the airport. We're pretty sure they're no good now :-(

After one dive we took a little motor boat onto Green Island. This is the entrance to Marine Land. A sort of sketchy little zoo they have.

They boast the world's largest crocodile, Cassius. He is enormous and over a hundred years old!

Goodbye Cairnes, back to Sydney for St. Patrick's Day!

The Opera house was feeling a bit Irish.

The Royal Botanical Gardens.  Beautiful views of the Opera House and Harbour Bridge from the gardens, they compare this to Central Park in New York, but I thought it far exceeded what I have seen there. The Garden is home to hundreds of native plants and animals. There were flocks of cockatoos and other tropical birds flying around and beautiful foliage everywhere.

Some festive drinks at a bar inside Woolamaloo, which is a building on a wharf. It is half upscale apartments and half hotel. The outside is a row of small ritzy restaurants on the water. One of many delicious dinners we enjoyed on the trip!

The sun setting on Sydney, the view from the Gardens.

Sunrise from the Harbour Bridge, captured the morning before we left on an early run over the bridge and back down around the Opera House. Such a beautiful way to end our trip.

So long Sydney! We had the experience of a lifetime!