Dan's Adventure

The Whitsunday Islands are an island group off the main coast of Queensland, Australia, situated between Bowen and Mackay. The island group is centred around Whitsunday Island. The name comes from Captain Cook’s naming of the Whitsunday Passage. The Whitsunday Islands are a popular destination for everyone travelling the east coast of Australia with an entire industry set up to take people there.

Airlie Beach is the gateway to the Whitsundays. Despite the name, Airlie Beach no longer has a beach. The beach has been filled in and a lagoon has …

In Kuala Lumpur and Singapore I picked up a couple of new toys. A Panasonic TZ7 camera and a marine housing for it. Since then I’ve had a lot of fun playing with them underwater. On each dive I have taken maybe a hundred pictures and only a handful turn out well. Getting a nice picture underwater requires you to keep several things in mind. You need to get close to your subject without scaring it away, you need to remain steady in order to focus without touching the coral, …

After getting hooked on diving in Asia, my plans for Australia rapidly transformed to the point that the majority of my time in Australia would be spent underwater in the Great Barrier Reef. As the only living thing visible from space, and longer than the Great Wall of China, the Great Barrier Reef is massive. It is possible to visit parts of the reef from almost every coastal town in Queensland.

There are several options for visiting the Great Barrier Reef, depending on how much of it you want to see …

Three weeks, two islands, one birthday; New Zealand is going to be fun!
Continuing my adventures down under, I will be flying from Sydney to Christchurch on the South island at the end of March and will have three weeks to reach Auckland on the North island from which I be hitting the fourth continent of the trip, South America.
Shortly after arriving in New Zealand I will turn 28 so what better way to spend it than in Queenstown, New Zealand’s capital of extreme sports! I have suffered from a fear …

The second half of my Australian adventure begins with the journey from Darwin to Cairns. I think flying is my best bet, there are flights daily and there are several budget airlines so getting a cheap flight shouldn’t be a problem, especially if I book a week or so in advance. From Cairns I will be travelling down the east coast to Sydney over about three weeks.

The Great Barrier Reef, the largest coral reef in the world, is sure to be one of the highlights of my visit to Australia. …

As a child, my knowledge of Australia primarily came from films and TV. Crocodile Dundee introduced me to the outback, Aborigines, and crocodiles while Skippy brought kangaroos into the picture. It wasn’t until I was a bit older that I saw the beaches and surf on Neighbours and Home and Away. Those first introductions have obviously made a lasting impression as my plan for Australia is filled with wildlife, nature, surf and learning about the Aboriginal people.

I will arrive in Australia at the start of February when I fly from …