Yeah it was great - Queensland

Across the water lies the city of Brisbane, the capital city of Queensland state. Queensland is the state at the north-east corner of Australia and Brisbane is situated towards the south, along the coast. Further on below Brisbane would be the Gold Coast and Surfer's Paradise. Brisbane is a lovely city - smaller than Sydney and Melbourne - and has a quaint feel to it. In fact, you could probably spend one day there and be fully oriented with the city.


And that's me with the city in the background. The river you see is the Brisbane river which is murky brown in colour. Behind me, you can see a pontoon out on the river. This is where the CityCat river services stop. Its basically a kind of river taxi system that people can use to get around to places along the river. The CityCat runs from Apollo Road near Hamilton city to the University of Queensland (UQ).


Down south at the Gold Coast, lies several theme parks - Dream World, WhiteWater World, Movie World, Wet'n'Wild Water World and Sea World. As you can see, we went to Movie World.


That's one of the roller coasters we went on - Lethal Weapon. It's essentially a hanging roller coaster where there's no floor beneath you, just air and the wheels are on top of your head. So you can imagine what it's like when you reach the top of the track and start to hurtle down. When you go up the loop, all you see is the sky. I suppose it does give you that extra element of speed, especially when you're closer to the ground and can see it rushing beneath you. Lethal Weapon was good, I really enjoyed that one.


This is the much talked about Superman Escape roller coaster. At 40 metres high, it dominates the skyline at movie world. The ride starts when you board the Metropolis Rapid Transit (interestingly enough, abbreviated to the MRT which is what we call our subway here) amid reports of tremors in the city. As you progress on, you see the various effects of the tremors (cars falling into collapsed sections of the tunnel, burst pipes flooding the tracks) and your train comes to a stop. Then superman's voice can be heard... "There's only one way out of here, I'm going to push you. Fast..... Superman fast. Heads back."

And with the swoosh of the smoke machines, you're shot from 0 kmph to 100 kmph in 2 seconds. The roller coaster shoots up the first peak which they call a top hat and slows as the last car reaches and rollers over to pick up speed when the entire train is on the opposite side of the peak. It then goes over several humps and your picture is taken. There were two people in front of us that were cam-whoring, making faces that kinda take the attention to them in our picture. Haha. But we still had fun going on the roller coaster.


That's the rainforest canopy in Cairns. The Skyrail system takes you through the forest to various stations where you can alight and take a walk around for some time to explore the forest area.


That's the view from one of the Skyrail cars. The system stretches for 7.8km and takes you over a mountain range into the valley where the ride ends at Kuranda village. And the cable cars go pretty high up over the forest.


Hey Derek! Having fun? I betcha. Must be a photographer's dreamland to be on the Skyrail.


Welcome to Barron Falls. The original falls were dammed up to facilitate the operation of a Hydroelectric plant.


You can roughly make out where the Barron Falls used to flow.


As you near Kuranda, you sail over the Barron River while witnessing a scenic view pass by.


Derek while we're crossing the Barron River. He's my cousin who took me all the way to Cairns and Port Douglas. And rented the car and stuff. Thanks millions Derek.


Beautiful butterflies at the butterfly sanctuary in Kuranda.



Chrysalis, pupa, whatyoumaycallit... A butterfly will soon emerge from therein.


There's a stunner on the Great Barrier Reef. Oh My Heck! I went to the Great Barrier Reef!!!


Corals, corals, corals!


And proof of me actually going snorkelling. Yeah, wait till I get better at swimming and I won't need any more floatation devices. The blue suit is for protection against UV rays and jellyfish. And I seriously need to learn; 1) to keep my mouth shut tightly when snorkelling so saltwater doesn't enter; 2) to continuously breathe through your mouth and not rely on your nose.


Underwater, its all about colours.


Fish are friends. Not food! Have you seen the size of those guys?? And the colours they have? My goodness. Such diversity!


This guy was probably one of the hugest I saw out there. Like, seriously big.


Coral grows everywhere. Even on the floating platform area. And the fish come up real close. Too bad they didn't let me touch them.


Derek and I after snorkelling for a bit. Teletubbies much?


An electric blue fish. It really jumps out at you.


You're watching the National Geographic Channel. We now return to, Blue Planet. *Cue David Attenborough*


Are those anemones? If so, Nemo is not home. I doubt they are though.


And that's a picture of a picture of me. One of the divers took that photo while I was inside the observatory. You can see people doing that dive-walk thingy where they put this helmet on their heads and can breathe so easily. But they can't go very far, or their system will die on them leading to their demise... maybe.

After snorkelling off Port Douglas, we spent the night in Cairns before taking our early morning flight out to Brisbane. Derek showed me Mount Coot-tha which had a lovely view of Brisbane city. And then I flew back to Melbourne. So that pretty much rounds up my trip to Australia.

This post will be about Queensland state

-LIVESTRONG!-
Heads Up and Stay Strong
Be Proud

Yeah it was great - Sydney & New South Wales

This post will be about Sydney & New South Wales state


Welcome to Sydney in the Australian state of New South Wales! As you can see from the map above, Sydney is surrounded by lots of water. The river goes as far in as Parramatta to my knowledge. It's a beautiful place, but not as organised as Melbourne is. And don't complain about public transport prices here. I was supposed to stay with Aunty Dah at Quakers Hill (Quakers Hill station on the Western Line, Richmond Branch, orange colour) but she was in Parramatta for late-night shopping Thursdays when I came, so I took the train from Domestic Airport (on the Airport & East Hills line, green in colour). And how much was the one way ticket? $15.40. So be happy people.


That's the Sydney Harbour Bridge. Bridgewalks across the top of the arch do happen, but I heard that there's a 1 to 2 month waiting list for that so I didn't try it. I had enough cash, so maybe I should have just tried my luck eh? But it was great just to take the time to simply be a pedestrian on the bridge instead of a motorist. Beautiful architecture eh?


This is Kaiha (pronounced as Kai-ya). She's one of Maria's cats. Her coat is the absolutely most brilliant. But she's very scared of anyone unfamiliar in general, and, according to Maria, I was the first male she's ever let pet her and such (yay me!).


And this is Cody, a ginger cat. He's waaaaaaaaaay more outgoing than Kaiha is. Even to the point of climbing onto the dining table during meal times and placing one of his paws on your shoulder or arm to ask for a bite. I think I spoilt both cats while I was around though.


I LOVE helium balloons, don't you? These were for Uncle Harry's actual day Birthday party. We had the big surprise party a few days before, so this was a smaller, simpler family gathering. Nice decor Ava.


And that's his cake. It was a marble log something. I loved the icing. So now you know why I have put on weight the one month I was down under.


Happy 60th birthday Uncle Harry!


And that's him refusing to 1) have a photo of him blowing out the candles and; 2) refusing to blow them out a second time so that we could get the shot.


I loved this part of the National Maritime Museum - the ship and submarine. The museum entry itself was free, but to go on board these crafts you had to pay an extra fee to help with the maintenance. But it's really interesting ain't it? First time I've ever seen a submarine! Woohoo!


And that's the view from the elevated pedestrian bridge across the inlet. Huge things they are!


Welcome to the Sydney Tower! Now you can see what I mean by Sydney being surrounded by water. What you're looking at is the Sydney Harbour. In the foreground is the Sydney Botanical Gardens, which I didn't have time to visit this time round. In the harbour itself lie island fortresses and small islands here and there. It's a really lovely place.


And the harbour bridge makes an appearance as well. It provides such a stunning backdrop I think. And its not something you'd get over easily, unless of course, you live there and run across it each day.


Looking out west towards Parramatta, Penrith and Quakers Hill. Oh, and not forgetting, the Blue Mountains and outback Australia. In the foreground this time should be Darling Harbour.


More parks here and there along with ancient Catherdals in the city area. Love the feel of history they have going there. We only have St. Andrew's Catherdal here and its surrounded by a huge garden that you often don't notice the building at all.


In this shot, just before the coast should lie Bondi beach. Without doubt, that's one of the most famous beaches in Australia. And they have TV shows about it too, what was it? Bondi Rescue? Haha. Too bad I didn't get to see what that was like.


I'm on top of Sydney folks. High, high above. Ooh, look! Harbour bridge!


Another astounding landmark of Sydney is the Opera House. This time I went right up to the Opera House itself. It looked fantastic!


The harbour bridge as seen from the Opera House. I managed to catch the sun setting here at 5.20pm. That's kind of early in relation to sunset here, but well, all the better - you get to see it and you don't have to wait too long.


Dazzle dazzle. Be dazzled!


That's the Circular Quay OZ JetBoat. Vanessa and I went on that before and it's 30 minutes of fun fun fun. The boat does fish tails (swivelling from side to side while travelling forward), dunks (yes, dunks!) and spins. Sitting in the front row, Vanessa and I got pretty wet when the driver decided to dunk the nose of the boat in the harbour. Its designed so that the water runs up the nose and flies over the cabin area without submerging the vessel. I could literally see a wall of water rushing up towards us (there is no windscreen).


Sunset at Circular Quay. My lens was not wide enough to capture both the sun and the entire Harbour Bridge from where I was. Not like I could change the lens either... Beautiful isn't it?


This is Circular Quay, the start of the Central Business District. The way I remember it, it looks exactly the same as when I visited it in 1994.


Can anyone tell me what that is? I happened to see it on my way back to the train station from the Opera House and wondered what exactly it was. For now, its definitely a UFO (not a flying saucer UFO, which has become common to describe flying saucers of alien origin).


And here's that streak again. Perhaps an air craft of some sort? The airport happens to be relatively near to the city so planes do fly low.


Circular Quay again as the lights start to come on. Its a nice water front area for sure.


The blue mountains' famed three sisters. Vanessa, how many times do you plan to visit them exactly?


And here we are, 4 day-trippers at the 3 sisters. Thanks for the trip Ava and Duane!


Fernandez-side cousins at the 3 sisters.


And here we are, climbing down to the 3 sisters. Steep, steep, steep.


We saw that while at the sister closest to the cliff. Notice that brightly coloured thing hanging at the side of the cliff? That's just a rubbish bin. No idea why that helicopter went to hover around the bin for awhile.


And here are some autumn colours. Reds, yellows, oranges and browns. Spectacular! I love autumn.


The cableway was awesome as you glided up from the valley to the top. Marvelous views.


Autumn blooms again. Why can't we have seasons here. We don't need a full blown winter, but coming back from 15 degree celcius temperatures to temperatures in excess of 30 degrees celcius is no joke!


The 3 sisters as seen from the cableway. The sun also came out from behind the clouds to make it all the more sweeter for photo-taking.


This was Ava's idea and doing. She was going to the Street Kings movie premiere...


And I saw Keanu Reeves. He was looking at me. Hahaha. Be jealous all of you.


Do you think he's 40 years old? I don't think he looks it at all.


And for the record, he's actually gone past 40 already. Taking the video made me get some needed exercise in the arms. I think I held it up vertically for like over half an hour.


I also got my hair highlighted in Sydney. Maria, Kathy and Vanessa pretty much sat me down in a hairdressing salon and told the guy what to do. But I love the colour and that it's something fresh. Only now it has grown much longer and much, much thicker. I need to do something to it now.

Aunty Dah also took Vanessa and I to Featherdale Wildlife Park and the IMAX. But uploading photos is such a pain recently. Blogger seems to take such a long time to process everything. Anyway, Fano, I did see kangaroos at the park and I hand fed one. I can understand why you like them so much.

-LIVESTRONG!-
Heads Up and Stay Strong
Be Proud