Howdy!

Hope everyone is doing good...and staying cool for those in the southern states! We have certainly been travelin' fools lately. We've been to four countries in one month and are at the end of our journey. After Australia we flew into Bali, Indonesia, then headed to Singapore, Thailand and Cambodia. It has been a whirlwind of fun, excitement, and lots of emotions. But we're actually ready to come home. Only 15 days left! We love you all and wish you a happy July!

Kakadudledoo!

The end of May was enjoyed in Darwin in the Northern Territory, bumping along in our campervan. Our very hot, unairconditioned campervan. But still a great time! Our first stop was the Jumping Crock Cruise on the Adelaide River...



It was pretty neat to see them bob out of the water for some tasty chops. They use their tails to propel themselves up. An unusual part of the cruise, and apparently something that they never see, was a croc attacking a pig that was making its way across the river. Not a smart pig. The croc carried him by his neck for about a half a km then little piggy escaped! Everyone on the boat was cheering the piggy on, "Go piggy! Swim piggy!". It was an interesting start to the day.


We took a few days to check out Kakadu and Litchfield National Parks. They have some lovely waterfalls that have pools you can hang out in. We chose to beat the heat at Florence Falls for part of the day…

People (and by people I mean drunk Aussie boys) were diving off of the high waterfall. They were about as smart as our piggy friend.

Aboriginal rock art up to 20,000 years old at Ubir…

Amazing sunsets! Me posing as a Yogi...

Such is Mango

We had fun driving from Airlie Beach to Cairns, seeing a lot of neat things along the way...


Like delicious mince meat pies. Did you ever wonder what those are? It's just a pie filled with ground beef and a gravy sauce. We had the most delicious meat pies on our drive. But since it sounds weird calling them pies, I have renamed them tasty meat bowls of goodness.


We of course had to visit the Giant Mango (that really looks like an Easter egg)




Tyto Wetlands

Koala Centre! (This koala was actually a diva. She enjoyed posing for pictures, but was very heavy!)

Baby wallaby looking for a snack

Mossman Gorge

And Cape Tribulation, which is where Captain Cook’s ship wrecked during his circumnavigation of Australia. Hence the name.

Probably the most exciting part of our stay in Cairns was the dive course we completed. We are now certified to dive up to 60 feet below the surface! After two days of pool and classroom training, we boarded a boat to dive the Great Barrier Reef. A few of the sites included white tip sharks, schools of fish, Nemo, turtles and an unending variety of coral. Amazing! It was an unforgettable experience that everyone should try. We have pics so if you're interested in seeing any shoot me an email and we'd love to hear from anyone that is a diver too!

We’ll miss you Melbourne!

We’ll miss you Melbourne!
All good things must come to an end. We flew out of Melbourne on Sunday, the 10th, to begin the last third of our journey, starting in Brisbane. Time sure has flown! We celebrated our second anniversary the next day by going out to dinner. I still can’t believe that we met online, married and are now celebrating our second anniversary in Australia. You never know where life is going to lead, do you?

Our drive took us north to Noosa where we explored the Noosa National Park. It was a bit rainy and cloudy for a few days but that didn’t stop us from enjoying the area. Noosa is a lovely beach town with lots of cute little shops and areas to enjoy the amazing views. After leaving Noosa, we were on our way to Airlie Beach, a well known gateway to the beautiful islands of the Whitsundays. We took a day cruise that took us to many of the hot spots in the area. It started off with snorkeling in the reef at Border Island. Thank goodness we had wetsuits on because it was freezing! So beautiful though! Once we were back on the ship we cruised over to Hill Inlet and checked out an overlook. Then we finished up the day on Whitehaven Beach. It was a great experience!

Sunset in Noosa


Border Island


Picture on Day Cruise


Whitehaven Beach


Hill Inlet

Still alive and kicking!

Hi everyone! Wow. It's been WAY too long since I last posted something. I apologize! Mom came to visit for three weeks and Steven has had the computer to study for finals so there hasn't been time for blogging. Hopefully you will still continue to read because we still have two months of travel to go! Please check out the five new posts below, through the Friday, April 3rd post - "Easter Break".

We will be leaving Melbourne for good on Sun morning, flying to Brisbane. After we do some traveling along the northeast coast and north central region we'll head to Bali and southeast Asia...which I can't WAIT to see. We hope everyone is doing well. We miss you, love you and hope you're enjoying each day as much as we are. We are certainly blessed!

Great Ocean Rd...the views never get old

This past Tuesday we took Mom on the Great Ocean Road tour, a trip we took earlier in February. As the title says, the views along this coastal tour never get old. Below are a few images from our last trip in Victoria...


London Bridge has fallen down, fallen down.



Loch Ard Gorge

Beautiful!

Just hangin' out in a tree.

Lovely rainforest!

We were obviously ready for our closeup.

More fun things in Melbourne

While Mom was here we had a bunch of fun outings in Melbourne. We went to a 1950's-style diner that actually imports their chili and Dr Pepper from the states! It was nice to be transported back to the good old USA for an hour.

One evening we had a bit of a therapy session for Mom and visited the SkyDeck, an observation deck on the 88th floor of a skyscraper. For those that don't know, Mom is terrified of heights so to be 88 stories above Melbourne only separated by glass was a bit daunting. But she did so good! And we had some amazing views.