Byron Escape

By hook or by crook the boys took Tuesday off work and escaped to Byron Bay. On my leave form I wrote "mental wellness day", I thought that summed it up nicely.

We had a great dive, the visibility at Julian Rocks was the best we'd seen it. No sharks this time, but plenty of turtles, rays and lion fish.

Here are some of the better photos from the trip:

Manly

Steve - all thumbs

This turtle came right for us

He swam right under me

We saw a Wobegon much bigger than this one, as big as us, but the photo didn't turn out.

Ray

Lion fish, we saw a pair of these, lion fish are cool.

Fish are useless at giving directions.

Aussie Christmas 2008

We finally got round to putting our tree up yesterday (the poor thing never even made it out of the box last year, hence it had that nice fake christmas tree fusty smell....)


It seems that Australian's don't go in for the traditional star or angel atop of the tree, so when we needed a new show piece, we went for something a bit more local....

3 Christmases Later

3 jobs,
1 engagement,
6 trips home,
2 games,
8kg,
lots of sunshine,
and a few injuries

later...

Sam & Paula's Wedding - Heron Island

A couple of weeks ago friends of ours got married on Heron Island, I'm so glad we went. The wedding was lovely and the island is an amazing place. Heron Island is part of the Great Barrier Reef, it's a 1 hour plane journey and a 2 hour boat ride from Brisbane.
Heron Island famous for turtles- between October and December each year, Green and Loggerhead turtles head up the beach to dig their nests in the sand dunes and lay their eggs. Only 1 in 1000 eggs ever makes it to adulthood to reproduce themselves (how sad!).

Spanish Dancer

Baby lion fish

The diving and snorkelling are fantastic, visability well over 20m, and you can pretty much see everything right from the beach! Shark Bay really lives up to it's name.

Snorkelling we saw too many sharks and rays to count!

Black tip reef shark

Lemon shark

bull rayShovel-nosed ray

Australian Animals 2004-2005

Feeding the dolphins at Tin Can Bay (Qld), being closely watched by the pelicans!




























The Seal is technically an import, taken in New Zealand (Caitlins National Park, South Island)


Red back spider (Outback toilet, Kimberleys, WA - don't worry I spend the entire trip looking for one of these suckers, they are tricky to find!)


Toothless croc (yes he is real!) Daintree River, Far North Queensland.


Tree Frog was hanging out in another toilet (less out-backy), Stuart Highway, Northern Territory).

Happy looking lizard (well he is in Alice Springs, Northern Territory).


Pot bellied koala (Australia Zoo, Sunshine Coast, Qld) - here's hoping she has a bub in the pouch!

South East Asia October-November 2004

Sorry guys, we're so behind the times with this blog thing, I thought it was only right that we start at the beginning of our Australian adventure.....way back in 2004....in South East Asia.