Finally I can release these photos I've been hanging on to! Gloss Magazine just published them. Check out my latest photo shoot with famed photographer Juan Lopez!
http://glossmag.ca/issues/15/fashion/1-solitary-stroll.html (copy and paste the above to your browser or click on the title for the link)
So here I am in Brisbane! I flew in on Friday November 21st. My cousin's friend Maf picked me up from the airport. He lives right downtown Brisbane in a posh area called Fortitude Valley. Sweet pad and central to everything.
Today however, I got out of the city and explored a small island called Stradbroke Island or "Strady" as they call it. The views were amazing!!! Just check out the shots!
I leave for Alice Springs on Sunday Nov.30th which is the gateway to Ayres Rock or Uluru as they should call it now. It's the part of my trip that I've been looking forward to the most. Central Australia is the true "outback".
Until next time...
Here are 2 links to pictures posted on Facebook. You will have to copy and paste the link.
I've been in Cairns for 4 days now. The first night I arrived I met a really nice girl from Germany. She was around the same age and was a lawyer back home. We had dinner and a drink then off to bed. I took the next day to make my plan and research what I was going to do for the next 3-4 weeks. I checked out flights to Thailand and decided with much dissapointment that it's not in my budget. Sad to admit but I'd rather not go into debt over it. Apparently January is a very expensive time to go. Who knew. Oh well...it would have been a bonus to make it over there anyway.
I went to bed fairly early and a super hot and humid day. Very uncomfortable to sleep and mosquitos everywhere! They love me so much! Oh yeah, and how come no one warned me about the flies! My gosh they are huge, slow and so frickin annoying! ha ha. : )
Yesterday I met the Ocean Freedom at 7:30am and we set sail at 8am for the Great Barrier Reef! What a trip! Wow! It was insane. The night before there was a huge storm and it turned up the sea. The Coral sponning only happens once a year and it happened that night. The visibility wasn't as good as it could have been but it was still amazing! It was like the movie "Finding Nemo" down there! I saw a beautiful big sea turtle making its way around the reef my himself, a medium sized sting ray and tons of beautiful fish (including a much of Nemo's family!), soft and slimy coral, hard coral, sea cumcumbers etc. It was AMAZING! Ever since I got certified to dive 10 years ago I have been dreaming of the day I would get to dive the Great Barrier Reef! Simply amazing. I'm so thankful.
Today I got picked up at 6:30am to travel to The Tully where I would go River Rafting. Now, being from Vancouver you would have assumed that I've done this before but I'm kinda glad I haven't cause doing it in the rainforest in warm water is the way to go for sure! The Rafting guides were awesome and I had such a good time... oh except for the first rapids where the guide tossed us out of the boat (on purpose) to get us ready for some bigger ones. I got caught under the boat and couldn't find my way out. It seemed to last forever but I finally popped out the other side, slamming my knee and drawing blood. Ha ha! My knee has a huge bruise on it and is pretty tender but man o man was it crazy/scary! The other rapids varied in difficulty but we got through them all. I jumped off another cliff today and slid down a rock face upside down too! ha ha. It was awesome! Near the end of the day the sky opened up and it started to poor buckets! What an amazing day!
Taking it easy tonight as I'm up at 4am tomorrow morning to be picked up at 4:30am and taked to the airport. Flight for Brisbane leaves at 6am but it's just a couple hours down the coast. I'll stay in there for a couple weeks I think. Nice to know a few people there to hang out with.
After Brisbane I'm going to go fly to Alice Springs and do a 2 night/3day trip to Aryes Rock in Central Australia. It's a bit of a journey but I've heard it's pretty cool to see the rock at sunrise and sunset. After that back to Sydney for Christmas and New Years then on to Melbourne in January!
So I'm heading to Cairns tomorrow afternoon ( Sunday Vancouver time). Already booked a day of diving on the Great Barrier Reef! I'm so excited. It's been awhile since my last dive so I've decided to do an intro dive and then a certified dive for my 2nd dive. I'll probably go into the Rainforest and explore that too while I'm up there. I'll head to the Whitsunday Islands next or maybe make an adventure to Alice Springs...I'll figure out my next step in a couple days. Looking forward to heading up North. It's been a bit chilly the last couple days so the warm weather will be a nice change. : )
Not sure how much internet time I'll have over the next couple weeks so please be patient with me.
Wow. What a day! After walking the kids to school (ha ha...that sounds funny)... I hopped on the City Rail (local transit) to Katoomba just 40mins by train from Blaxland where I'm staying. After getting of the train I walked about 2km to Echo Point where I got a great view of The Three Sisters.
Here's a little info on The Three Sisters:
The Aboriginal dream-time legend has it that three sisters, 'Meehni', 'Wimlah' and Gunnedoo' lived in the Jamison Valley as members of the Katoomba tribe.
These beautiful young ladies had fallen in love with three brothers from the Nepean tribe, yet tribal law forbade them to marry.
The brothers were not happy to accept this law and so decided to use force to capture the three sisters causing a major tribal battle.
As the lives of the three sisters were seriously in danger, a witchdoctor from the Katoomba tribe took it upon himself to turn the three sisters into stone to protect them from any harm. While he had intended to reverse the spell when the battle was over, the witchdoctor himself was killed. As only he could reverse the spell to return the ladies to their former beauty, the sisters remain in their magnificent rock formation as a reminder of this battle for generations to come.
The view from the lookout was pretty cool but that was just the start of my day. I began a 30min walk along the cliff top stopping to check out he amazing views along the way. Instead of walking all the way around I took a "short cut" and boarded the cable car with half a glass floor hanging over Katoomba Falls and The Jamison Valley. Pretty cool. The ride across the valley is long enough to snap a few photos and (for me the scaredy cat that I am) to gather enough courage to stand on the glass bottom portion of the floor. When I got to the other side I boarded the worlds steepest train down the mountain into the valley. Wow. Let's tick off another super scary thing. Totally safe but so steep! When I got off I started my 2.5km trek through the valley to the base of The Three Sisters. I counted 6 lizards on my way and over 800 steps to the top of the Three Sisters! Wow. Unlike the Grouse Grind most of the stairs are metal but some are made of rock. Thank goodness most of the walk and hike up the stairs was covered by the trees...it was a hot one today. The battery on my camera went dead at the top but I managed to get a lot of great shots.
Yesterday we went to a local fair with lots of homemade crafts, food and games. Darcy (7yrs old) and I got our face painted like butterflies. Lots of fun. Last night the kids got dropped off at a friends house and we went into the city. Stephen had a corporate show at the convention center in Darling Harbour. After his show we went into Cockle Wharf where there are tons of restaurants and night clubs. We got a bite to eat at a Thai restaurant and had a glass of wine. I fell asleep on the drive home. I still haven't adjusted to the time here.
Slept in this morning till about 9 am got up and played with the kids for a bit including time in the pool and on the trampoline! We went for a drive into The Blue Mountains National Park. We swam in Jellybean pool...a small natural lake shaped like a jelly bean. Before I left a friend of mine told me to do something everyday that scares me...ha ha. I'm up for the challenge. I jumped off a cliff into the water! Wow! I can't believe I did it. I also couldn't believe that Darcy (7yrs old) did it twice! Her brother Billy (9yrs old) had absolutely no fear. I think he went off it about 10 times in total and their Dad jumped in about half that! After that we drove to Red Hand Cave (also in the National Park) where we saw Aboriginal hand prints on the rock. Crazy. They were made 14,000 years ago! Euroka Clearing was our next stop where we saw kangaroos hopping about and enjoying an afternoon snack of grass. Got some great shots, I'll try to load them on here later. Home to the pool for more swimming while our roast beef dinner is being made! Yummy!
Tomorrow I'm walking the kids to school and who knows what we'll get up to during the day. It's been so great hanging out with The Fishers. Oh for those who don't know, I met them years ago working on Crystal Cruise Lines.
Well, here I am in Australia! Wow! Can't believe I'm here. Took a flight to San Francisco then straight to Sydney. more than 24hrs later I'm here! ha ha. Wow! Pretty turned around as far as what time it is and what day it is. It's so great to see familiar friends. Staying in a small town called Blaxland just an hour west of Sydney for the next little bit. After that it's up to Cairns!
As we flew over Sydney I could see the Opera House and when we got closer to land I couldn't help notice all the purple trees and terracotta roof tops. So cool. It took 2 trains to get to Blaxland. Just enough time to write in my journal and enjoy the view.
