Petite Amie

The Whitsunday's have some of the most beautiful islands and coral reefs in the world... and when you're finished a full day of diving and beach life the bars have some great "scenery" as well ;-)

I hate shopping, but when you're traveling with 3 girls sometimes you have to make exceptions. Besides, taking a break from the outdoor heat for the air conditioned stores wasn't a bad idea... I found other ways to amuse myself ;-)



Perhaps some company was in order, so I bought a bunch of these for my buddies back home :-)



Three more work days and I'm back on a plane, there's no rest for the wicked ;-) :-)

Manly Hood

The dangerous side of Manly is like snow in the Sahara, you don't see it very often and if you do you're either dehydrated or drunk. Well we were drunk ;-)

Stamp scares from the club the previous night:



3:30 am crash and burn:



I lost a beer cap... honestly! :-)

No Worries

It's only been a week since I left the surf beaches of Oz and I already miss it...



Only 11 more months before I get back :-)

Manly Wharf

Only 5 days after getting back from Australia I already miss having a cold beer on the patio overlooking Manly bay. Sigh:



Here's a short video of the scene:

Sydney Snap

Sydney has tons of things to do so one day I met my little buddy for lunch and then just walked around discovering some of the city. Here are some of the things I found:

Still one of the best sights in all of Australia. The ferry we take from Manly goes by here every single trip :-)



Getting culture-ized at the Sydney theatre house:



2 mins outside of downtown Sydney is the botanical gardens, which have a great line of sight at some points going back to the city:



This tree is old, really old (I can't remember how old but I did read it on the sign ;-)



Cool artifacts are littered around the gardens:



Leaving Sydney after a well-done night of partying. A little blurry but the ferry hit some wicked waves that night... and I guess my liver hit some wicked alcohol as well ;-)



Here's a quick video (at night shitty quality) of us leaving Sydney at the end of the night:

Onward

You don't even know, but I'm slowly walking towards you...

:-)

Not dead, quite the opposite, living it up down under :-)

Tasmanian Times

After a great time in Melbourne it was ti me to get to Australia's unloved stepson Tasmania for some serious outdoor adventure. The city of Hobart surprisingly had some non-outback gems to check out:



Being an island off the coast of Australia certainly lends itself to having a thriving fish industry. Some of the restaurants are built right into the boat and are amazingly popular after 7pm when the sun goes down:



You might not think Tasmanian's are very cultured and rather forgettable, you'd be wrong. In Hobart they even have a (small) university dedicated to the arts. Some great rookie art is free on display for everyone:



Taz might not have alot of people or modern comforts, but if you're into hiking this is definatly the place to be. Even outside their "biggest" city Hobart (125k people), you're only 5 minutes away from some stunning paths:



The view going up the mountain was absolutly stunning:



The sun goes down over the Tasmanian outback, what a great adventure away from everywhere else in the world...

The Land Down Under

As the sun comes up I realize I'm on the other side of the globe, just about to arrive in Sydney:



Although Australian culture is very close to Canadian there are definatly subtle differences. Notice the little blue symbol on the sign? That's used to denote surfing, not skiing. As if! That's a skier if I ever saw one, of course the weather doesn't really lend itself to snow bunnies eh ;-)



Driving through Sydney on route to the suburb of Manly: (click for video)



That's Sydney in the background, if I could take a decent night pic with my crappy camera you'd see the amazing lights from downtown. What a view! This is home base for my travels around Oz over the next 5 weeks:



The beach in Manly (Sydney), click pic below for a video:



Time to hit the beach, my surf nickname is "Goggle-Google-Boy" relating to my geek and swimmer background, just great. They couldn't have just called me "Spikey" or something?!? ;-)

On The Other Side

That's it, I'm off. The next time I post something, it'll be from the other side. And when I say from the other side, I really mean, from the other side! Get ready Australia, you've never experienced EuroRoss before! ;-) :-)

Rottnest Island

The countdown is on, less than 2 weeks away from Australia. Something to wet the appetite, cycling around Rottnest Island:

Bring On The Beaches

It's snowing like mad today and even my 5 minute walk to work was almost worth staying at home (wussie) but one thing certainly cheers me up, the fact that my Oz dates are confirmed, March 24th to the 27th in San Fransico and then on to Oz until April 27th. That's when I'm going up the east coast of Australia with a few friends in a camper for 2-3 weeks with nothing but our surfboards and a mini-fridge full of beer.

Live your dreams...

Backpackers Aussie Style

I watch OLN (Outdoor Life Network) all the time, I just love the Pilot Guides (Lonely Planet) series of shows. They've got some other good shows on there, but mostly it's all about Pilot Guides. There is one new show though this season that has taken the channel by storm, called "Backpackers".

This show chronicles three Aussie blokes traveling around Europe for a year, alcohol, chicks, cameras and all. Before I was addicted to Pilot Guides (Lonely Planet) and now Backpackers has made OLN an all night requirement (damn I need picture-in-picture for the hockey game!). The show is awesome, go check it out, and after you do go check out the Backpackers site to vote for a "TV Weekly Logie" (television awards).



It sux because I've already watched all the episodes (some twice!) so I'll have to wait for their next tour to get my Backpackers fix. Best part of this season's show: Jag gets hammered and busts his face up resulting in 2 broken teeth, nice.

Side note: I can't wait to get over to Australia man, 6 weeks and I'm there!