Gone where? Where next?

Merry New Years, Happy Xmas, etc., etc.

Happy New Years! Fireworks, surfing, islands and animals. Tara and I have been all over the place in the past few weeks. Heaps of photos to catch up with so lets get started!

Whitsundays Xmas

Our journey begins at the Whitsundays Island group in Queensland where we did a scuba dive on the great barrier reef and a variety of bird/animal hikes. We spent Xmas on an island which was strange. The water was bathtub warm and filled with life relieving jellyfish. So swimming was at your own risk. Then Santa Claus showed up with the Easter Bunny and handed out lollies. This is not the Xmas I grew up with..

Crikey a Croc!

We went on a river trip to find crocs and we found plenty. In this murky brackish river you can bet the crocs rule. Every few years some moron gets taken by a croc. He is usually found in the belly of the croc with a can of VB still in hand. It's a place where a "no swimming" sign couldn't be any more redundant.

Wedge Tailed Eagle

On the same river trip we saw a few bird of prey! These birds are no joke and rule the area from above. I was running around the boat pointing my camera up while everyone else was looking down in the water for crocs.

Osprey

The eyes of this guy tells the story. He was probably looking a mile down river for a mouse or something. I've got another photo of this same bird being 'attacked' by a tiny Willie Wagtail. All other birds hate these guys because they eat whatever meat they can find..

Long Island

The islands here are truly amazing. White sandy beaches named by Captain Cook because he came through on Easter Sunday. Crazy story - I came across an old friend here by chance. He was waiting for a bus and we walked by him. Amazing coincidence. He lives in California and is on holiday in Oz for a month. The chances of us meeting up are astronomical.

Bush Stone Curlew

The town at Arlie beach has a huge lagoon/swimming pool for the tourists to keep them from swimming with jellies. So late one night Tara and I are swimming and up flies this guy not 10 feet from us. Huge bird wading in the water with us. Pretty cool and quite unusual to hang out with a night bird (check out how big his eyes are).

New Years Eve Sydney (1/3)

Hate to state the obvious, but these are fireworks over the Sydney Opera House. 12 hours of waiting and traveling for 10 minutes of fireworks. Really impressive, wouldn't do it again. 45 minute wait to use the toilet.

New Years Eve Sydney (2/3)

New Years Eve Sydney (3/3)

Jervis Bay

My good mate Zack was kind enough to let me hang out with his family at Jervis Bay for a week. Basically.. wake up, eat, surf, lunch, surf again, dinner, sleep, repeat. It was great and I learned more surfing that week than I've learned in 6 months.

Danny Boy

My bud Danny pulling a floater off the top of the wave as it closes. I really covered his ass on this shot (inside joke). Since I'm the one manning the camera I don't have shots of myself. So I can't show you the shot of me doing an aerial.

Pacific Heron

This show off was hanging out with horses near the bay. I had to hop a barbed wire fence and the horses came after me once I got this shot. Needless to say I didn't hang around to see what was going to happen.

Joey

A family of Kangaroos hang out at the beach where we surfed all week (Cave beach). This little guy didn't mind all the people streaming by with their surf boards or me up in his face with my camera either!

Wallaby

This was taken in Ku-ring-gai National Park this past weekend. So you can clearly see the difference between a wallaby and a kangaroo.. right?

Tawny Frogmouth

This is a HUGE find for me. Well.. an old man pointed him out to me. Frogmouths are nocturnal and utterly impossible to find if you don't know where to look. They are masters of disguise and can perfectly match their surroundings. I'm certain I've walked by and even looked directly at plenty of these guys without actually seeing them. I've been staring up in the trees for months trying to find one. Now I can give my neck a rest.

Pelican

I've decided that Pelicans are my favorite bird and subject. Who else makes these crazy faces? They are easy to photograph and never fail to charm.