Now that we're getting settled in London (sort of) I thought I'd post a few photos of what we've been up to. We went for a little hike south of London and spent a weekend in Norfolk.
So here's my favorite place in Sydney - the botanical garden. It's right downtown by my apartment and I love to go for my runs in here. It's like it's own tropical island and is filled with all sorts of wild birds (that freak me out) and bats which I only noticed today so I'm going to stick to running instead of walking through the park. There's also an extra 10 points if you can find my office in the pics.
Here are some of the pics from snorkling up in the Whitsundays on the outskirts of the Great Barrier Reef.
So I went for a b-day trip to the Whitsunday Islands and it was just like the post cards. Below are some pics from the boat I was on for the 3 days. It felt like I got away for much longer, I had a great time and the snorkling was amazing. When I get those photos developed I'll update again with pics of fishes and the reef. I saw see turtles - they're huge!!! like human size! and dolphins and a bazzillion types of fish and coral.
The boat went on nice and fast on it's side and it was perfectly relaxing. Here's the evidence....
So I went on a big outing this Saturday to Featherdale Wildlife Park and the Blue Mountains. Featherdale was a total riot. The morning started really early and during breakfast they brought a koala handler in so we could each get a little one and one time with the bear. I thought we'd get to hold it, but apparently it's illegal in the state of NSW now. Nevertheless, we got a good look and pet. Cute little guys, and I never knew they have two thumbs.
My favorite though....not what I thought at all. Penguins. I had no idea they were native to Australia. A small penguin is native to southern Australia and put on an awesome show for me that I got on video, I guess they knew how much I liked them.
Seconds - the roos. They were really funny, just chilling out and would let you pet them. Two got in a boxing match, classic, and I got that on tape too. Late in the day we went to this camping area near a river and saw some much bigger ones in the wild. The males were chasing the females around it was hillarous watching them hop as fast as they could. You'd be standing there looking one way, and a roo would come beaming past you.
The birds and all the other animals were really impressive too. We headed off to the Blue Mountains a
nd got some good shots from there too. Took a gondola through the canyon and did a short hike up it. We then took an old coal mining roller coaster type thing back up the mountain, it was unexpectedly exciting. You really weren't strapped in and this thing was 52degrees steep and went right in through the side of the mountain.
Here are some pics and vids:
Here's my first experience with the natives. They like to play the Didgeridoo down the street from my apt and dance a little jig. I'll do some more exploring next week and come back with some updates, hopefully nothing moth related.
So I got an opportunity to go check out the Serna Family last month. I taught Mia to make monkey noises, she's getting bigger every day. Jade is growing up to be quite a smart girl and is excellent at her math. I got to walk her to school most days! Hi Jade - from Auntie Banana! Oh and turn down the volume on Mia's video, it has a little blast at the start.
Better late than never - here are some picks of my super fun Christmas holidays in the Rockies. I had a chance to visit Mom and Dad all my fun Canadian friends and then end off the trip with a visit to Jill, Dave and Kai's place in Ft. Collins.
Outside of the wicked terrible bites I got on my feet surf camp was a blast. I got up on the first day and on the last day I went surfing before my 9am flight and was able to go to the outer break! We went surfing twice a day and kayaking one day where we saw monkeys, iguanas, a million different birds (even pink ones) and a corcodile. On my last day I went zip lining, that was pretty fun too - the video will show how much of a spaz I was (it's the picture that just looks like forest).
It was a great get away, on the first night we were eating dinner and a racoon tapped my leg, I almost knocked the table over in reaction to that. On one of the nights we went to this woman's home "The Tiger". She calls her place The Enchanted Forest, which is totally true. There we watched her box four Canadian guys in her personal boxing ring in her backyard. It was pretty wild. Unfortunatley I forgot to bring my camera for that but there are some pics on this website: http://www.surfingnosara.com/blog/
So for all the family and friends that are far, far away here are some pics of the apartment. The first few show the pre-fixed walls. There are also a few exterior and park pics so that you can get an idea of the area.
