New Zealand and Australia

After arriving in Sydney, I checked into my room at the Royal Garden in down town area.  After a nineteen and a half hour flight and fight with immigrations in New Zealand, I bought a ticket to Sydney and immediately left Auckland.  They had a stupid rule that one had to have a specific ticket to fly out of Auckland. I didn't have it, I had a world pass, but that wasn't good enough.  I told them if I bought a ticket it would be on the next plane out.  They were a little confused but insisted that a rule was a rule that they had to go bye.  I cut my nose off to spite my face, and headed to Sydney,  Besides, I didn't have enough time to spend in Australia .  I'll visit New Zealand on some other adventure.

AUSTRALIA

After all the 24-7's, I had had in Taiwan, Korea, Bali Hai, and the flight down here, I was exhausted, but guess what.  I somehow managed to go out after an hour's rest.  I went to a neat place called Scruffy Murphy Spirits, Ales and Stouts.  I met two young Australians who bought me a beer and said they were the host counrty.  Host country buys.  I tried to leave after the first as I was tired and my body was crying for some rest.  They insisted on another and two 5'-8" blondes came by.  I like the one's fast dance and cha cha  moves.  Needless to say my body was crying and saying no.  All I can say is I started dancing and had a few more drinks.  At least it was not a 24-7, but I did like the thin black thongs.

The next day my body kicked me in the butt.  I was out and couldn't get out of bed.  I laid around all day feeling miserable.  I couldn't move.  I was totally exhausted from everything.  I had never experienced that before.  I got up once to finally get a sandwich and then go back to bed. I couldn't even eat the sandwich as I was too tired. 

Today is another day and I feel a lot better. Sydney has so much to offer, but I am heading north to get to warmer climate. I want to dive the Great Barrier Reefs.  Since I am not quite 100%, I bought a bus pass that allows me to get off as long as I want in any city for up to three months and arrive at Cairns.  Any way, I leave in a couple hours and hope I get back to par by tomorrow. Sydney had Harley Davidsons to rent, but I was short on time and too tired to hold one up.  I will have to do it next time.

Thus, Byron Bay. This bus trip didn't have any Irish girls and got a litle boring for an all night drive. This place has a lot of potential.  Needless to say my body and I are in sync.  I did have to put two more holes in my belt.  I have lost a lot of weight.  I will try to lose another pound today. The Australian people are so friendly.  They beat the Southern Hospitality hands down.  I have never seen anything like it.  Byron has great beaches with tremendous surfs, cliffs for hang gliding, simply put a back packers paradise.  Let the good times roll.

After floating around and eating dinner, I went to this club watching and listening to a great band near the dance floor.  An Australian women  asked,"If I sit next to you may I smoke?".  My quick response was, yes, and may I have lustful thoughts about you while you sit here. She broke up laughing and we had a helleva time.  Anyway, besides liking thin black thongs, I like it bare better. (I told her that I would put it on the internet.  She didn't believe me. Thanks Stella. I love Byron Bay. 

In two hours I will be sky diving at 14,000 feet.  Since I dive under the water, on top of the bed and under the covers, and out some doors, I thought I would try this.  It is going to be videoed.

BYRON BAY

Simply put it is a place in paradise for a single person.  It has a great night life, small town with a friendly atmosphere with great surfing and beautiful beaches.  It has so much to offer. The rain forest is closeby.  Good shopping and lots of things to do. 

SKY DIVING

The sky diving was a helluva of an adrenin rush at 14,000 feet.  I had a blast, but "awesome" would be a better term.  I told the dive master that if I started to feed the birds to simply duck and keep on doing the flips as long as he could.  I played with the cameraman as I almost grabbed his suit. Unfortunately, the dive mater pull the cord and I missed.  After the free fall, just floating down looking at the sunset and the scenery at Byron Bay is a feeling and sight that I will not foreget.  I tipped the sky master and cameraman before the flight and they immediately had someone go get a couple cases of beer to drink afterwards.  Needless to say, it was a good touch to commence the late night evening.

NIGHT LIFE

After they took me back to Byron Bay, I went to this night club that had a great band.  They rocked the place.  Guys, this would be your 7th heaven.  At one time I counted 13 women dancing by themselves, along with 9 couples of females dancing together.  It was also a Jack Daniels night and I smiled at one of the JD girls and won a T-shirt.  Later, one girl who danced by herself walked by my table and said those were cool moves she had done.  I said, "Yes, and give me a minute and I will cool them down."  Great night .

I probably shouldn't leave Byron, but this adventure has got to continue.  Byron Bay is a place to mark on the map as a place to permamently stay. Love ya, Byron Bay.

BRISBANE

It is a great city.  The problem is that I won't have enough time to see it.  I went to Bribie Island via subway, train, and bus. It is a beautiful place full of half million dollar homes and plus.  Australia seems so clean and extremely friendly.  The bus driver gave me a name of a restaurant in Brisbane which I checked out.  Great fresh food with a lot of charm - Caxton.  Afterwards I went to Down Under for some great music.

Since I have booked everything for the next two weeks, I wasn't able to see Steve Irwin's Zoo.  He is in a lot of trouble with the Australian government because when he filmed the leopard seals in Antarctica he got too close.  The fine may be as high as a million dollars. He is a helleva of a nice guy.  When he was leaving Ushuaia, Argentina,some of us were arriving to go to Antarctica.  He was having a few beers and talking about the leopard seals. He said that they can be a bit scary. Anyway, I wanted to see the zoo and possibly him, but time constraints prohibit it.  I have got to be in Cairns by this weekend to board a live aboard for a week of scuba diving the great Barrier Reefs.  Tomorrow I sail around the lower Great Barrier Reefs and spend some time on Fraser Island snorkeling, beaching and seeing the wilderness. The rest of the time will be filled with traveling and sighting seeing.  I will arrive with only 4 hours to spare to board the boat.

This booking was all done after my daughter, Rebecca, said she had always wanted to see Australia and the Fiji Islands.  I e-mailed her and said to come on and I would even pay for it.  Unfortunately being a mother, wife, and lawyer, she couldn't follow her dream now.  I am sure she will do it later when it is a more controlled situation.  I had asked another person to come, but it is hard to find someone crazy enough or doesn't have other personal reasons that prohibit them from taking off and travel for an extended period of time.  Anyway, my body needed a rest and this was a way of doing it.  It will be the most controlled I have been under in a long time.  I look forward to it.

FRASER ISLAND

Today was a relaxing day of sailing to Fraser Island, enjoying the sights, seeing a dingo(wolf), have the park rangers drive us around in a 4 x4 bus, in the rain forest, and on a 75 mile beach where it has not only white sand but colored sand.  It was a very, very restful day with a little down side.  The Island is beautiful an it has it own version of their God creating earth and because there was too much work he got an assistant (woman) that created this island.

The down side was I met Karen and her friend on the boat,however they were staying on the island for 3 days and I had to leave for Airlie Beach on the way to Cairns.  This is why I hate schedules.  Karen was on the same bus from Brisbane, and we stayed at the same hostel, but never really spoke.  Finally on the boat she began talking. We were both disappointed as when we got to ;the island she had to go one way and I another.  We later saw each other for about 30 minutes.  I love getting into the mind of a woman particularly on a plutonic basis. rather than an emotional one as there is always  the facades thrown up as road blocks. An opportunity missed, but such is life.

AIRLIE BEACH-WHITSUNDAY

After an all night trip on the bus, I arrived in Airlie Beach and checked into Koala Hostel, a large complex.  They had no singles but a quad plex.  Most hostels in Australia are coed shared rooms which makes for interesting sleeping arrangements. Mine was no different, 2 girls from Canada and another guy from Australia.

The next two days consisted of sailing, ocean rafting, visiting islands, laying on the beaches, snorkeling, and the night life.  It wasn't Marguritaville, but it was another day(s) in paradise.  Meredith and I decided to do the sailing and ocean rafting together and her friend joined us on the rafting. The water was crystal blue like an opal pendant that I had sent Rebecca.  While it was somewhat relaxing, it was a fantastic time.  Never a dull moment. the scenery and company was great.  I wish I could have stayed longer, is the best compliment I can give it.  Whitsunday is a must for anyone traveling to this area.  The yacht was built by the Germans and captured by the Australians during the war.  It is a beautiful boat.  The other sailing vessel was built and competed against Conner in the American's Cup races in 1989.  They have races every afternoon.  I won't tell you how we did but it was a great race.  As to the ocean rafting, the zodiac was powered by two 250 hp Yamaha engines.  We had a good Harley ride. The best part was the beaches and snorkeling (well, almost the best part).  I had planned to do my solo sky diving here, but my interest and attention got diverted. Ontario, you produce some good people.

I did meet another Canadian from the western part of Canada. Talking to him was like looking into a mirror.  He lived outside of British Vancouver, told his family he would be gone 3 months, but probably a year, was a little older (chronologically) 49 years old, acts like he is 21, I admit to 29 1/2, and blowing the hell out of the money he got ($225,000 for the sale of his house). He is a physical therapist and had his own business and left it. He was a very interesting person.

Meredith and Nicole were headed south in a couple days and I had to head north.  I really wanted to stay because there is a lot going on in Whitsunday and Airlie Beach, but it was another all nighter on the bus to get to Cairns for the live aboard and diving Cod Hole and the Great Barrier Reefs.  I hate goodbyes and this was a tough one.  They only have another three weeks and won't be going near Alice Springs where I will be backpacking or Perth. It was a great night before I had to get on the bus. Sine die.

 CAIRNS,AUSTRALIA / GREAT BARRIER REEFS

I did it!!  I dove the Great Barrier Reefs and the Coral reefs, but I really stretched the rubber band on this one. The highlights were the shark feedings off the Osprey Reefs, a place where few dive boats go.  In the last ten trips of my dive boat, it only made it to this place twice. The weather and seas are extremely rough.  Over a fourth of the divers got sea sick both going over and coming back.  The waves were so strong that it would rock the boat almost 90 degrees on its side and stand it upright on its bow and stern. 

I didn't sleep in my bunk because it would bang you around so much.  I sleep with several other people in the day room.  I made a bed between two couches and put cushions on both sides of me to keep from rolling around.  It was a twelve hour ride each way.  When we got there the currents and swells were extremely dangerous.  I had never experienced anything like it before. We did fourteen day and night dives between the three places. Our usual dives were around 100 to 135 feet in depth.  We did the Cod Hole, The Temple of Doom, caves, corals, Steve Bommie spiral (a volcano rock that spirals up through the water, wall climbs, watched the shark feed between the whaler and white tip sharks along with hundreds of fish by hanging on the coral walls.  Later, we would swim with them. 

My body took a beating, but my mind derived the pleasure, particularly when we were in strong currents.  I literally had to crawl on the coral to fight my way back to get in reach of the vessel.  It got a little hairy as my experience and training was not advanced enough for this type of a dive.  I had signaled my two buddies I was ok and running low on air and was returning to the vessel. I told them to continue. A stupid mistake was made by me, but I survived and learned from it. 

The shark feed was a phenomenal sight. To see the furiousness of the larger sharks clear the smaller ones and other fish to get to the food was an awesome sight. The smaller sharks and fish would fight for the "crumbs" from the larger sharks. Nature at it best! The Cod Hole dive was a great experience.  Being able to swim, touch, and play with the giant Cod Fish was a great time. The careful times were when we were around poison fish and, of course, the sharks.

The coral, nemo fish and others, along with the crystal blue and green waters was a sight to behold.  It was diving at the pinnacle. The down side was losing my Nikon camera, housing, stobe light, and frame because of a flimsy plastic strap made in China on the first night dive.  I had just upgraded the accessories on the Nikon camera for underwater diving the afternooon before boarding the vessel.  Needless to say, I was not a happy camper.  Fortunately, there was a photographer on board and I bought his photos.  He took some beautiful photos (over 100).  I sent via airmail today and hopefully in about another week the webmaster will post them, along with a DVD clip.  Naturally, the shark feed will be on the DVD along with some silver hair flowing in the water. Unfortunately, I lost all the photos taken before Cairns, and I now have no camera.  This is the second camera lost on this trip.  The other was in Antarctica.

There were about 33 divers consisting of divers from Germany, France, Denmark, Norway, England, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Japan, China, and even four of us from America. The group mixed well and we all had a great time.   It got a litltle crazy on the boat.  We were limited to a three minute shower per day.  The last day on board, we were negotiating minutes for longer showers if someone would moon on the video camers located in the bow and stern of the boat and shown in the game room to the rest.  Needless to say, some got longer showers.  The dive master invited us all to dinner and drinks at a night club in Cairns upon our return.  Oddly enough, all went to it except four that had flights out of Cairns that night.  The two Norwegians and one American and I contiued the celebration until about two-thirty in the morning.  A good time was had by all that night.

Cairns is a beautiful city. The layout of the city, people, and the things to do is well worth anyone putting Cairns on their itinerary to see in Australia.  I didn't get to do the solo sky jump that I had planned to do.  I ran out of time. Tonight, some of us will party and say our goodbyes, as we all leave tomorrow.  I fly down to Alice Springs and go back packing for a few days before flying to Perth.

I really stretched the rubber band on this leg of the adventure.  My poor body suffered again with all the cuts and scratches on my arms and legs from the coral when fighting the currents, but my mind enjoyed the adventure. Great memories, but I still hate saying goodbye.  I have crossed paths with many great people.  I am blessed and very fortunate to have had a great life.  May it continue.