Saturday April 15th Bula from Fiji What a nite. Just after dinner last night Wes got really really sick, like sick as I’ve never seen him, and we’re in the middle of nowhere, having to catch planes etc. At about 10 pm it all started, not stopping until 4 am. He was throwing up every 10 minutes. By the end of it he was really dehydrated, and guess what we’ve got a plane to catch at 8 am. We all getup and get ready for the 7 am shuttle to the airport, but when we get down there guess what, it’s full…grrr… so we grab a cab, not knowing how Wes is gonna manage. The airport is 10 minutes away which is nice, and it’s not that busy. So we grab our tickets, everyone gets weighed ... read more

Thursday April 13th OI from OZ! Even though I protested profusely we’re going hot air ballooning! It’s a really early start, as they want you in the air at sunrise. Apparently you only balloon at sunrise, when the wind is very calm. This is the hot air ballooning capital of the world, so Jason had to book us on one (he didn’t tell me till yesterday that we’re doing this - I would have given him a harder time lol) so we get up at 4, in order to get a bus that is picking us up at 4:30. It’s friggin early, and I have memories of Maui and the early wakeup for the bike ride down the mountain. Kirk wasn’t feeling good yesterday, but he holds it together today for the most part. We hop ... read more

Tuesday April 11th Today is our snorkeling trip to the Great Barrier Reef, one of the highlights of this trip. We decided to do this trip from Port Douglas rather than Cairns, as the tour operators up there are better, and more personalized with smaller groups. We head up at 7 am, with our boat leaving around 8:30. We didn’t get lost, which was nice, and arrive around 8 to meet the crew. There are 3 crew members a big croc wrestler guy, a girl named Natalie who’s a marine biologist, and another guy, our ships captain. So we’re off to the first of 3 snorkeling sites. The boat ride out takes approximately 2 hours and we’re pretty far out, barely seeing Australia. Wesley really likes Natalie, and talks to her a lot during the ride. ... read more

Lo from oz! We getup early and went down to the Townsville market. This is an open street market, where there is a band, and food is served. It’s the length of a city block, where no cars are allowed. Imagine back home yonge street being closed from Dundas to gerrard, with street vendors everywhere and no cars… that’s what this is like. Bingo, we found a really nice vendor that sells paintings. And we see a gorgeous lorikeet painting. This thing is amazing, only problem is how are we going to get it home…it’s almost 2 feet by 4 feet. We end up buying it, and taking it off the frame and rolling it up, I sure hope it survives the trip back! After the market we’re off to the Townsville aquarium. This place supposedly ... read more

Friday April 7th Today we drove from Rockhampton to Arlie Beach. We stopped in a burger joint on the way up, which advertised the biggest burgers around, so Jason being a burger connoisseur we had to stop and sample. The burgers were infact huge, probably 10 inches across, and maybe 4 inches thick. And they were good! We all got them sans the beets (we’re learning!) Jason got something called the king burger, which had a home made patty, grilled steak, eggs, bacon, pineapple, and other stuff… got a good photo of it! We continued the drive, and ended up in Airlie beach, gateway to the Whitsunday islands. This is a very big place for sailing as there are some 60 islands protecting the coast against big waves. We drive downtown looking for a place to ... read more