I didn't post yesterday, so I'll say a bit about yesterday too. Went scuba diving in Port Douglas to the great barrier reef. As we were boarding the ship, every crew member asked if we had taken stomach sickness medication. I had never been seasick before, so hadn't taken any, but was finally convinced when the 7th crew member insisted on taking some. I'm so glad I did - I had never seen waves like that before ever. People were getting sick left, right and centre. We did 3 dives for the day and they were all incredible! Saw a shark, lots of turtles, tons of colourful fish and coral. The next morning, I woke up pretty early to drive to Cape Tribulation. About half way I stopped to do a river tour on the daintree ... read more

Went into the city of Cairns today. It's not a very big place - about 6 blocks by 4 blocks. About 90% of the buildings are either a hostel, restaurant/bar or tourist information desk where they try to sell you tours. On the waterfront they have an esplanade boardwalk. It's a pretty cool idea - a place where people go for a stroll, jog, they have free beach volleyball courts, swimming pools, places to work out, etc. The only problem is in order to create this waterfront pathway they had to tear down the mangroves that were there before. When the tide is low (when I was there), the water level doesn't cover the mud and slime from where the mangroves were. It looks like a gross swamp. You also can't go swimming because apparently there ... read more

My last night in Calgary is here! Tomorrow is the big day. I'll be flying Calgary - Vancouver - Auckland - Cairns. It's a 27 hour journey total. In Cairns, I'll be staying with my friend Hilary for a few days (she is going to dental school there). Cairns is known as the backpacker capital of Australia and has a reputation for it's beaches, the great barrier reef and rainforests. General outline for the trip: Cairns - Sydney (hop on, hop off greyhound bus) - This is about a 3500km trip down the East Coast of Australia. I'm planning on doing it in 3 weeks. Yes, this is the same route as Finding Nemo (starting at the Great Barrier Reef and ending in Sydney). Just keep swimming, just keep swimming. From Sydney, flying to Darwin to ... read more

Hello everyone. I'll be traveling to Australia and New Zealand for 3 months (September 8th - December 10th) and am going to keep everyone updated on this blog. Hopefully I'll be posting pictures and a little blurb about what I've been up to. Feel free to follow and check back whenever you like, make suggestions, ask questions, whatever. Joel... read more