Sydney Opera House

After an early check-in at our Harbour Rocks Hotel, Katie and I hit the Rocks Markets, a giant culmination of high-end artsy fartsy collectibles. Fancy schmancy.


Our hotel was a stone's throw from the Sydney Harbour Bridge and we lucked out with beautiful sunny days

Across from the bridge sat the iconic Sydney Opera House

Boomp, there we are: Katie and me plopped right in front of the Opera House

From a lookout along our Bondi Explorer tour, we got a great view of the harbour with the bridge, opera house (to the left) and all the sailboats

We liked this fountain in Kings Cross, one of the more colorful communities around the city

The rocks were stunning at The Gap in Watsons Bay - we climbed up the rocks on the opposite side

Bondi Beach was full of surfers despite being the middle of winter

That's Katie crawling out from under the walk along our walk from Bondi Beach to Bronte Beach, a well known and very scenic path along the coast

Katie and I all dressed up with no place to go - oh wait, why don't we check out the Sydney Opera House?

Katie and I took the first flight out in the morning to make the most of our three day excursion to Sydney. We arrived early and braved the double decker train into the city. We rocked the hotel booking and scored accommodation in the ritziest, schmanciest, best location in town. We were in The Rocks, which is adjacent to Circular Quay (pronounced key), with easy access to everything, especially the bridge and opera house. Our motto was repeated time and again "we're only doing this once". Is that still a good basis for decisions when your travels span two months? Hmmm...

We were lucky to enjoy beautiful sunny days (though cold!) throughout our visit. We first stopped by the markets down the street from our hotel, then took in the bridge and opera house before boarding the Bondi Explorer tour bus to hit the beaches. We got off the bus a few times to check out various places along the way including Kings Cross and Watsons Bay, then did the highly acclaimed walk from Bondi to Bronte. It was indeed beautiful and we passed an amazing 50 meter pool built into shore line of the ocean. We saw lots of dolphins swimming not too far from the shore as well. We caught the last bus back to Circular Quay and headed to the hotel for a 30 minute power nap.

Refreshed and re-earing to go, we headed to Minus 5 Degrees for dinner in Circular Quay on the waterfront with a view of the bridge and the opera house right around the corner. The upper level of this place boasted an ice bar ($30 for 30 minutes with a 'complimentary' cocktail). The scene was dead and the air was already cold enough, but a cool concept. Absolutely everything was carved out of ice and you are issued parkas, boots, gloves, etc upon entry into the frigid cold.

Our next stop was none other than Sydney Opera House. We went to see Frank Woodley Possessed, which is a one man comedy play. The man is incredibly talented and a brilliant performer. We were laughing and impressed and thoroughly entertained. Mind you, Katie and I were hearing each other from opposite ends of the theater as we waited until the last minute to book tickets with only three single seats available. Consequently, we were on either end of the same row, near the back of the theater. Funny.

From there, we headed out for our first taste of Sydney nightlife. We started at Jamesons on George, a four-level bar with different music and style on each level. After an hour or so, we went in search of a little bit older crowd. The bouncers recommended the Orient, which happened to be nearly kiddy corner from our hotel and an excellent find. We met half the bar and did lots of dancing. Very fun!!

SELP Coaching Finale

The SELP coaches from L to R: Myles, Ben, Fi, me, Per, Nicho, Raf, Dave (head coach), Tony, with Margaret (leader) crouched in front


This is my lovely group: me, Leticia, Matthew, and Rae

Mel, Fi, Yasmin, and Tasha out for some celebratory drinks at Transport

Narelle, Mike, and Katie joined the party after their own night out

Katie and Deb

Yasmin, Rob, and Peter

Blair, Mark, and Charlotte

Friday night was the final night of the Self Expression & Leadership Program (SELP) I've been coaching. Woo! and boo! I can't believe we made it to the end. I'm relieved and excited to have fulfilled my commitment and regain my Friday nights, but our final classroom was such a privilege and delight with everyone sharing what they've accomplished through the course and what was next for them. I am honored and so pleased I've been a part of this program. Among our group, marriages were reunited, new relationships were started, new businesses were launched, people worked themselves out of debt, people tripled their salaries, a 17 year old girl talked to her birth father for the first time ever, people gained self-confidence and acceptance, one person is going onto study medicine and be a surgeon, another a famous musician, another the next Australian Oprah, etc. Their words were so rewarding, such an affirmation of why I am a part of this training and development. We went out for celebratory drinks at Transport following the completion of the course. Katie had been partying it up with my work friends, having been for meter-long pizza and wine, followed by a jazz bar. Narelle, Mike, and Katie joined the Landmark crew at Transport. Thus began Katie's and my next great adventure to Sydney. Bring on the late nights and lack of sleep.

White Water Rafting

Katie and I gearing up at the bus, ready to hit the rapids.


We set out with about six rafts and stuck together throughout the day, leap frogging each other as part of their safety plan for some of the rougher rapids.


Sometimes it was hard to believe the beauty we were in the midst of.

Our group shot - Amanda and her mom Penny from Sydney, Adam from Scotland, Katie and me, and our guide Dez

Yeppers, that's Katie flipping out of the raft and back in - I believe this is where she lost her paddle.

We elected to steer under the pelting waterfall.

me with our guide Dez.

We survived! This is us dry and satisfied after a great day of rafting.

Our final day in Cairns was another action packed adventure. We went white water rafting on the Tully River, where we hit more than 45 rapids (ranging to grade 4) in a World Heritage Rainforest. Tully is located about 1.5 hours south of Cairns, boasting more sugar cane and banana tree fields. The river scenery was spectacular and the water was COLD. We hit one of their coldest seasons. Boo yea. In addition to rafting, we got to take the plunge and try raft surfing, rapid swimming, and rock jumping.

I was out of the raft at every opportunity, first out to float down the river early in the day. We got a great guide who was making is 1,000th trip down the Tully River with us. Lucky him he got such a great crew. We were one of the more adventurous rafts (nicknamed Daggs), with all five of us taking the opportunity throw ourselves into the raging 'washing machine' rapids, jump off the 5 meter high rock, and purposefully tip out of the raft at a major waterfall. Katie nearly fell out of the raft, and I fell into the center of the raft a few times, but Adam was the only one to get knocked out other than our intentional spill and purposeful ventures. We simply followed directions when prompted (forward paddle, back paddle, lean left or right, get down, or hold on). What a great active day. We stopped for a bbq lunch midday and were all anxious to get back in the water. I'll definitely do that again. Bring on the grade 5 rapids!

We celebrated the end of the day at a bar on our way back to Cairns. Katie and I must have had 'tourist sucker' across our foreheads as we splurged for two of everything everywhere we went - the great news is we have DVDs of both our diving and rafting experiences along with pictures.

Katie and I barely made it back in time for our flight. We returned to the hotel at 6:45pm to pick up our bags, mooched a ride with a couple of strangers who'd already hailed a taxi for the airport, and made our 8pm flight. Phew! Nothing like living on the edge. What a weekend!

Great Barrier Reef

We took this Quicksilver massive catamaran from Port Douglas out to the Great Barrier Reef.

Isn't it beautiful?

We just about got our faces ripped off from the wind on this high-speed venture to the reef, but the motion sickness was much lessened being outside rather than in. We sucked it up inside for about half an hour to get our en route briefing to be prepared to take an introductory dive at the reef.

Our catamaran docked adjacent to this platform at the Agincourt Reef, "the true Outer Reef experience".

Once on the platform, Katie and I suited up in our lovely blueberry costumes, lycra stinger protection suits. Aren't they lovely? And really, aren't we lovely?

Here we are all suited up with our scuba diving gear. Heavy. We loaded up with extra weights to help keep us down at the bottom despite our bouyancy, then strapped on the air tank.

Oh yeah, loving the respirators.

Here's Katie with our dive instructor and guide, Hiromi.

Our pet fish, Maurice.

We saw a couple turtles from the semi-submersible vessel.


This is an example of the brilliant colors we saw at the reef.

I was freezing when we got out of the water after diving - my lips actually turned purple.

Here's us in the semi-submersible vessel. We caught the last tour before the catamaran returned to Port Douglas.

We saw this funky looking rose-shaped bright green coral on our expedition. There were so many different kinds of coral - colors, shapes, textures.


Look at that cutie server at PJ Obriens... hmm, hmm Katie

Is that beer for me?

Sunday we had the opportunity of a lifetime to scuba dive at the Great Barrier Reef. Neither Katie nor I had ever dived before. We've been snorkeling a handful of times and really enjoyed that, but we were ready for the next great adventure. We really lucked out because we got paired with our own private guide so we didn't have to share the experience with anyone but each other. We did a few underwater drills before descending down ropes, then off for a swim holding hands on either side of our guide Hiromi.

Wow, we didn't know what we'd been missing. Diving was extraordinary, thrilling, a completely different world. It actually felt like we were part of the underwater life. The colors were brilliant and we were shocked when our guide led us to touch much of what we swam past. One of our favorites was Maurice, a 2.5 meter long humpheaded maori wrasse fish. It's colors were spectacular and almost animated. We affectionately termed him our Great Barrier Reef pet as he followed us throughout our dive practically asking to be pet. At one point, Hiromi put her hand in his mouth along his teeth and prompted us to do the same. He was so gentle and sweet, about 50 years old and is expected to live another 20 or so years. The first thing that really freaked me out was touching a giant clam and it closing up. I wasn't expecting it to move at all, so it really took me by surprise and I had to remind myself that I was 12 meters under water and had no choice but to keep breathing and not freak out. We saw a giant moray eel as well (we didn't touch it). We touched lots of different kinds of coral and other fish. Katie's favorite was the Christmas tree coral which had tiny purple buds which retracted into the coral when you touched them or got near. I wanted the experience to last forever, but alas our dive did come to an end. We considered going again but not wanting to miss anything, opted to try out the semi submersible vessel (half hour tour) and snorkeling. Nothing compared to being in it as a diver. Now I want to get certified!

We returned to Cairns that evening and headed out for a night on the town. We found plenty of entertainment and Aussie blokes at PJ Obriens.

Cape Tribulation

A lookout in the Daintree Forest along our drive from Cairns up to Cape Tribulation.


There were countless fields of sugar cane along our drive - it was being harvested while we were there.


This is the great Daintree ferry - yah - looks like our car could jump the river, doesn't it? No idea why they haven't built a bridge across this river. Must be the tourist industry collecting bucket loads of money.


Cape Tribulation is known for its beautiful rainforests.


Katie and I fell in love with this tree. It has to be the coolest tree I've ever seen.


I was swinging from the vines...

We saw the most bizarre looking trees - this tree looks like it's growing upside down...

... and these trees have thin spirally arms extending out at the roots, along with the bumps sticking out of the mud. These are all artifacts of an oxygen deprived soil system.

Here I am again jumping and swinging from tree to tree, the real adventure seeking jungle woman that I am.

Katie and I happened upon the Cairns Night Markets just a block down from our hotel Saturday evening.

We enjoyed dinner at Paddywhacks late Saturday night. I introduced Katie to an Australian beer, Beez Neez.


A view of our hotel room at Mantra Trilogy.

This is the view from our hotel room balcony. The pool was in the center of the various hotel towers and directly on the ocean, not bad. It'll do I s'pose.

Katie and I flew from Melbourne to Cairns early Saturday morning. It's a 3 hour flight from Victoria to Queensland (northeast part of Australia). We rented a car and drove through the Daintree forest from Cairns to Cape Tribulation which has the oldest rainforest in the world. It was a beautiful drive with giant mountains bordering the ocean. We tried to go to an exotic fruit tasting but didn't arrive in time. It may have been a God send given the wholly-shirted freak who greeted us at the exotic fruit farm... dodgy!! From there we went for a walk through PK's Jungle to the beach. We stopped by the information centre and asked a local for suggestions of how to spend the afternoon. We had considered the Daintree Discovery Centre, but she suggested the boardwalks instead, the Marrdja Boardwalk in particular. We headed there first and were very impressed with the really unique mangrove trees. We stopped by the Discovery Centre but decided to give it a miss and headed onto the Jindalba Boardwalk, about a kilometre down the road. We found more swinging vines and a few people our age. We drove back to Cairns, returned the rental car, and checked into our hotel, The Mantra Trilogy. We wandered around the city, meandered through the night markets, and found a place for dinner. A great first day in Queensland.