Some pictures - Sailing trip

Whitehaven Beach

Surrounded by stingrays.... Bat fish - evening shot
Sun set - first night on boat
It took me a bit, but I finally have some pictures posted. Other than a bit of jet lag, I am good to go and glad to be home with Amanda.

It's been an amazing experience!!!

Cheers, Gilbert

Sailing Trip - WOW!

I am on the home stretch now. I just got back from a 3 day sailing trip around the Great Barrier Reef. There were 12 of us with 3 crew. We snorkeled 3 times - one time we snorkeled with a sea turtle, very cool! When we were at Whitehaven beach, 5 of us went for a walk around the area and saw a reef shark and several stingrays. And to top it off, while we were returning yesterday, we spotted 2 dolphins right by the front of our boat. That was exciting!!

I return to Surfers today and then off to Canada. I will post pictures when I return.
Cheers,
Gil

Hiking among the tree tops...

On the weekend we went hiking in the rainforest at Lamington National Park, about one hour away. There was a stretch of the hike where we were walking among the tree tops!! Work is coming to a close and soon I will be off to the Whitsundays for a sailing trip.

Surf's up..... in Byron Bay!

I tried out surfing yesterday in Byron Bay. It was a lot of fun! Byron Bay is the most eastern mainland point of Australia.

Fishing & Catching up with Fiji friends!

Gil has been very busy at work, as it is the final month of busy season in Australia. He did manage to squeeze in a dinner and desert with a fun couple that we met and hung out with in Fiji. We exchanges contact info since they were following our travel.

Ryan took us out for a fishing trip in the canals, Erin proved to be very skilled at fishing!

We Met 9 years ago!

Gil surprised me with flowers from my favourite florist, to commemorate 9 years from the day we met. What a wonderful surprise to come home to. Thank you Gilbert!

Love Nan

Weekend golfing...

I had a chance to get a round of golf in over this past weekend. It was a perfect day for it!!

I went out with friends on both Friday and Saturday night. Good times!

I have been working longer hours of late - @ 10 hr days, but at least my hours were not this hectic while Amanda was here!

Cheers from down under, Gilbert

Brisbane RIVERFIRE continued...

Lizard catching some sun...

Picnic - Us enjoying the anticipation... a great spot!

RIVERFIRE in Brisbane!

Spectacular fireworks!

Roulettes - air show... yes I did manage to take this picture. They're fast!
Night shot of Brisbane
We went to Brisbane for the day to enjoy the River Festival and secure a good seat for the fireworks display that night (> 200,000 people come down to watch it). The day was perfect (+ 25 and mostly sunny) and just think Monday is the first day of spring here. For more on the weekend festival, see: http://www.riverfestival.com.au/riverfire/

The fireworks were simply amazing. Check out the video below for the finale of the 1/2 hour long fireworks display along the main river. The ball of fire in the beginning of the video is actually a F1-11 fighter jet dumping its fuel to get the desired effect. Check it out!!!

Quieter Weekend!

Welcome to:

Ocean view sunrise
Amanda left last Thursday after a wonderful 2 months on vacation. She will be missed!!! Amanda definitely saw most of what Australia has to offer.

A big congratulations goes out to my brother, Tim, and his new wife and my newest sister, Ange. The wedding pictures from Saturday are fantastic.

I had a quieter weekend. We have been going non stop for about 4 weekends, so it was nice to take a break.

This morning (Monday here), I went for a sunrise walk on the beach before work. I put up a few pictures from this morning - see above. Also, I attached a short 2 minute video of the sunrise - see below. The video talks about the tallest residential building in the southern hemisphere, but my colleagues say it is the tallest residential building in the world.... potential debate on that one.

Our Last night in Australia Together :(

Since the nights are getting warmer now, we went out for dinner and a walk under the full moon. We celebrated 8 years of marriage, yah it was a week late but better late than never. Tomorrow we say farewell and won’t be seeing each other for 7 weeks. Hopefully these last weeks go quickly!

Noosa & The Glass House Mountains

Noosa is yet another beach town 2.5 hours north of us. We went for the weekend, and strolled the Eumundi Market (similar to St Jacobs) and the beachfront shops. In the afternoon we caught a few winks on the beautiful beach.

The drive home was great, we took a scenic rout (on purpose), which took us over the Blackall Mountain Range, and gave us a much closer look at the Glasshouse Mountains. We were also able to see more of the local farmland and roadside veggi stands.

Of course we had to stop while driving on the Steve Irwin Hwy to see to Australia Zoo!

Whitsunday was amazing!!!

Unfortunately I had to go on my own, and we were apart for our anniversary, but it was wonderful to see. I only have a few pictures because I was trying to get a picture of the whales on the first morning when a huge wave landed in my lap, needless to say my camera was not working for the rest of the trip. Gilbert has booked the same trip for October 3rd to the 7th, so he is looking forward to filling in some of the gaps in the pictures.

While out at sea, I saw 2 different types of Whales, Sea Turtles almost a meter in diameter & Sea Snakes. I was also able to snorkel in the Great Barrier Reef, both the coral and the fish were beautiful. I did have to wear a stinger suit to avoid any deadly jellyfish stings.

I did get to spend about 3 hours on Whitehaven Beach, which definitely lives up to its name. Whitsunday Island is indescribable!!!!! I hope you all have a chance to see it for yourself.

The sun was much hotter at Airlie Beach, as I was quite a bit further north. I was able to catch a few rays before I head back to Canada later this week.

Great Barrier Reef update

Amanda made it back safely after her 2 day boating excursion on the Reef. She saw some amazing things, but she will have to report that when she gets back from the region on Friday. She did say she felt like she was still on the boat once back on land.

Stay tuned....

Cheers,
Gil

Weekend in Melbourne!

Us in front of the large funky Federation Square

We had a great time in Melbourne. We enjoyed staying with Leslie and Michael. Melbourne has some great history with a European feel to it. The free art galleries were a treat, especially for Amanda. It was one of the coldest days of this winter on Sunday... go figure eh?! http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,24158502-661,00.html

Erin & Amanda amongst an art gallery displayPeople are paid to create graffiti. It's everywhere and looks superb!!!
A view from the war memorial
In front of the local theme park
One of many older buildings
Amanda left for the Whitsundays on Airlie Beach Monday morning. Look for some Great Barrier Reef pictures next week!!!