The next four dives I did were all at Flynn Reef. Flynn reef has some wall dives, swim-throughs, overhangs and good night diving. You can expect to see an abundance of marine life combined with plenty of hard corals such as staghorn, table, plate and boulder coral heads and many species of soft corals.

Flynn Reef Gordons Dive 5

So this was my 5th open water dive ever and my first one that I got to do without an instructor. I was assigned a partner on the boat and off we went. Our bottom time was 32 minutes at a max depth of 11.8 metres. On this dive I saw an orange spine unicorn fish (they have cool spikes that come off the sides of their tales), a few Christmas tree worms (check them out in the video, they are neat) a flowery cod and I got to swim through a large school of glass fish. This was an awesome experience, the glass fish filled the entire area between two spots on the reef (a swim through) when I swam into them they would part and let me in, and then fill in the spaces around me. It was truly amazing, everywhere I looked I saw little fish. I did not get any pictures BUT I did manage to get this on film on a later dive.

Flynn Reef Gordons Dive 6

This was my first night dive so I had to do it with a supervisor and in a group. The prodive guys sat us down and told us all kinds of stories to try and scare us, then while we were prepping on the deck they played horror music and shrieks, plus the jaws theme. Did I buy it? well maybe a little. It is pretty neat to dive a night, one cool thing is that you can use your flashlight to play god. When the big fish see your light they use it to hunt, if you don’t like a little fish all you have to do is point your flashlight at it and a big fish will come and try to eat the little fish!

On this dive I saw a grey Whaler shark, a sleeping parrot fish (they are supposed to sleep inside a big snot bubble to protect themselves but this one wedged himself in between some rocks so there was no snot bubble) and a mooray eel (really cool) I did not have my camera for the night dive because I figured it would be hard to get anything on camera.

Flynn Reef – Gordons – Dive 7

This dive was not to excitting, we were left to our own devices and ended up getting lost (apparantely this happens a lot even with more experienced divers. We had to re-surface and find the boat. I did not see anything new on this dive.

Flynn Reef – Traceys - Dive 8

This was my last dive with Prodive. In total I got to dive 8 times on the Great Barrier Reef, the total price for certification, the course in the pool, and 8 dives over 3 days on the Great Barrier Reef was $700 AUD (not to shabby) I also bought my own equipment because I plan on diving a lot more.

On this dive I saw another Mooray Eel, a trumpet fish (they are really long and look like trumpets), a checkerboard wrasse, Harlequin Tuskfish, and a really big bumphead parrot fish. I have added all of the cool pictures and videos that I took on the previous dives below.

This is a Blue Spot Butterfly Fish 

I believe this is a Seal face puffer fish

I’m not to sure what this is, but it sure looks pretty! I think it is a type of purple coral

Here are a few pictures of a Parrot Fish. You can see the big goofy teeth they have. They are funny fish I think 

Harlequim Tuskfish

I also got a few video clips. I have added them below

This video is of an orange spine unicorn fish and a big spotted fish! I think it is a cod, but not to sure.

The video below shows a black backed Butterflyfish

This video shows a Napoleon Wrasse (my favourite type of fish) I have more videos that are even closer (I will post them later)

And this last video just shows the sea life on the Great Barrier Reef

Related posts:

1. Milln Reef “Petat”
2. Milln Reef The Whale and Tennis Courts
3. Milln Reef – Great Barrier Reef

DIVE 1 – Milln Reef – Great Barrier Reef – Cairns, Queensland, Australia

My first dive ever was at the Milln Reef on the Great Barrier reef in Australia. I had such a great time traveling Australia and thanks to my girlfriend registered with Pro Dive Cairns to get my open water dive certification. Check out my Pro Dive Cairns Review if you haven’t already.

We left early in the morning to get out on the reef. Our first dive was at 10:45 am, and we started the dive doing surface skills. You have to do four open water dives with a group and an instuctor before you are fully certified. In order to be certified we had to complete four open water dives and complete the skills. The skills we had to complete on the first dive were buddy check, entry, buoyancy check, controlled decent, underwater tour, ascent, safety stop and exit we also did a few dive flexible skills including cramp removal (seeing how to remove cramps from your legs), tired diver tow (pushing or pulling a diver about 30 feet), snorkel/regulator exchange, remove/replace scuba, remove/replace weights. We did all the surface skills first and then went down. It was so excitting to go down for the first time and I snapped a shot of us going down (they rent underwater cameras on the boat, and you can also rent them in town for the whole weekend which is much cheaper)

That is the first group going down. I was not able to get a lot of pictures on my first dive as I was trying NOT TO DIE, ok I was not really that scared but for the first few dives I was focusing on doing the skills and really taking in all there is to see underwater! It was so exciting to be underwater, it is a whole new world and sometimes I just forgot to take pictures. But don’t worry, I took a lot of pictures over the next 27 dives (a lot of those dives I got for free )

During my first dive I saw a Blue spotted sting ray, a Giant Clam, a Sea Cumcumber, and a sand perch. I have added some pictures below to give you an idea of what I saw.

Check my future posts for the picture of the Blue Spotted Sting ray (I got a nice close-up) and lots more underwater pictures.

The first dive was awesome, it is amazing to be able to see what goes on in the Ocean and actually breathe under water. I was a bit nervous at first (I have almost died a few times in the water) but once I calmed down and breathed normally it was really easy. We were underwater for about 26 minutes and got to see quite a bit in that time. Our next dive was at 2:44pm. You can read about it in my next post

Related posts:

1. Milln Reef The Whale and Tennis Courts
2. Milln Reef “Petat”
3. Prodive Cairns Review

Dunk Island Visit and Review

While in Australia we visited a couple of Islands. We really wanted to go to Fraser Island and Lizard Island but never had the chance (there was a hurricane warning while we had the chance to go to Fraser Island and the island was closed) we ended up taking advantage of the massive waves and surfing instead.

We ended up visiting Green Island and Dunk Island. We had a blast at Dunk Island so that is why I decided to do a Dunk Island review.

We were living in Cairns at the time and drove down from Cairns to Mission Beach. The trip took about two hours, to get to Mission Beach but it is a pretty cool drive (lots of sugar cane fields and mountains) there are two ways to get from Mission Beach to Dunk Island that we knew of. You can take the ferry for $56 return per person and takes about 20 minutes to get there, OR take the Dunk Island water taxi which costs $30 return and only takes 10 minutes. For that price you cant lose! We met up with the water taxi on Mission Beach

The water taxi from Dunk Island to Mission Beach

After the quick ten minute ride we were ready to enjoy Dunk Island! The first thing we did was check out the beach (because that’s where we were dropped off )

Checking out the Beach at Dunk Island

Catamaran on Dunk Island

Dunk Island Catamaran

 After seeing what the island had to offer, which is actually alot (they have  a tonne of water sports, golf, tennis, a hotel, snorkelling, great walking trails and more) we decided to walk up to the top of the mountain!  Ok it turned out the trip to the top of the mountain and back was going to take a long time (and we had to be back in time to catch the water taxi) So we just went on a hike for about an hour. There is a lot to see on the walking trails

walking trail on Dunk Island

Cool strangling vine going up this tree

Just watch out for the spiders!

Would NOT want to walk into this spider web!

Huge spider

 Sammy thought that this was a pretty neat tree. It turns out this is a fig tree, but it wasnt the biggest fig tree we saw while in Australia! I’ll get to that in another post though.

A neat little fig tree

 After enjoying the natural beauty of the island and dodging man eating spiders, the trail led out to a secluded beach, lined with coconut trees! Ahhhhhhhhhhh nice

A beautiful beach lined with Coconut trees

We took a little stroll down the beach

If you look hard you can find neat things on the beach. I found this little starfish (it looks like he's hailing a cab!)

 After seeing all of the natural beauty on the island we were ready to do something a bit crazy. We decided to go tubing! Dunk Island has all kinds of water sports to try, but we only had time to sneak in one event so we went with tubing.  The price was fair I think it was $59 for all three and we stayed out for quite a while!

We had such a blast tubing, we went on a three person tube and hung on for dear life

 After tubing got our heart rates going we sat down at the beach bar,  had a few beers and waited for the water taxi to arrive. 

 After having such a great time on Dunk Island none of us wanted to leave! If we knew the island was going to be this much fun we would have booked 3 nights at the resort. If we ever come back to Australia we will definitely re-visit Dunk Island.

The day did not end here though after the water taxi ride we noticed that there were massive Coconuts on the beach, which we collected and used to make some tropical drinks that night

Also one of the most exciting moments of our trip happened on the way home when we got to see a Cassowary in the wild! It was pretty exciting and I will put a post up about that later.

Thanks for reading, and leave a comment below

 You can see some more pictures in the gallery below and view them full size.

Related posts:

1. Things to do in Bundaberg – Bundaberg Rum Distillery review
2. Tiger and Lion Pictures Melbourne Zoo
3. Prodive Cairns Review

While we were in Kuranda we visited the Australian Butterfly Sanctuary. This was the last place to visit after Birdworld and the Koala Gardens. We had a great time at birdworld and the koala gardens so we I was excited to see what the Australian Butterfly Sanctuary had in store. In a word…..BUTTERFLIES

The second you walk in to the Australian butterfly sanctuary you are surrounded by butterflies. Big butterflies, small butterflies, colourful butterflies…..every where you look there are butterflies. They are fluttering about everywhere, and it made for some great photo oppurtunities. The one thing about taking pictures of butterflies though is that RIGHT when you think you got them framed up right in the shot, they fly away. Typical! Below are the pictures that I did manage to get (my girlfriend snapped a few good ones as well)

As you can see from the butterfly pictures there were many different butterflies at the Australian Butterfly Sanctuary!

Some of them would even land on you (as seen in the but shot ) Usually when the butterflies land on you they only stay for a couple of seconds so you have to be quick! We had a great time at all three locations in Kuranda. It would be hard for me to pick a favourite out of the Koala Gardens, Birdworld, and The Australian Butterfly Sanctuary. I think if you are in the area, just pay for the all day pass and visit all three locations, you may never get the chance to go again!

Hope you enjoyed these reviews and I will continue to post more.

Related posts:

1. Kuranda BirdWorld Visit and Review
2. Koala Garden – Visit and Review
3. Milln Reef – Great Barrier Reef

Kuranda BirdWorld

A few months I visited BirdWorld in Kuranda with a few of my friends. BirdWorld is located in beautiful Kuranda about a half hour from Cairns. My girlfriend had been bothering me for ages to take her to Kuranda and time was ticking down to the day we leave for Canada, so I decided to rent a car and go. WAS I HAPPY WE WENT!

Kuranda offers BirdWorld, Koala Gardens and a Butterfly Sanctuary. We decided to visit all three but in this blog entry I will just cover BirdWorld. I thought Birdworld would just be like a zoo, where you go and look at some birds and that’s it, but I was wrong. Birdworld is completely interactive. After showing our tickets and getting a free bag of specially selected bird food, we were instantly greeted by a flock of parrots!

That white and pink major mitchell landed on me first. Then the other two Eclectus parrots landed on me and the white bird got jealous. He climbed down my shirt, down my shorts, hopped on the ground and started trying to attack my toes! Besides this one little trouble maker all the other birds were really friendly!

The parrots were so friendly that we even had a few that would give kisses! (of course a little bird seed was in it for them)

My favourite birds were the Macaw’s, however they were not as friendly as the other birds. I tried to get the Macaw’s to sit on my shoulder but they were happy where they were.

I think that if you are in Australia and have time and money it is definitely worth the trip to Kuranda. If you are in Cairns or close to Kuranda you HAVE TO GO. We went with a girl from Perth, Australia and she even had a great time so it isn’t just for tourists.

This is a great place to go for anyone.

The birds here are very friendly and look very healthy and colourful. These little yellow guys took a bit of coaxing before they would warm up to us, but we got them eventually.

We spent a lot of time meeting and greeting the birds near the entrance, but they have a path you can follow around to see other birds. They have a few interesting ducks, and even a Cassowary. I did not even know what a Cassowary was until I went to Australia but they are very cool birds and very rare. We were lucky enough to see one in the wild, which most Australians don’t even get to experience, but for now I’ll show you a picture of the one at Birdworld

We spent most of the day in Kuranda and stuck mostly to the markets, but Kuranda has many attractions to offer. After Kuranda there was still a bit of daylight left so we decided to stop by the Barron Gorge. We had an amazing time and have memories that will last forever. I recommend the Kuranda BirdWorld to anyone who can make it out there, and it would be great for a family.

I will post a blog and more pictures of the Butterfly Sanctuary and the Koala Garden where we got to hold a Koala Bear!

Related posts:

1. Australian Butterfly Sanctuary – Visit and Review
2. Koala Garden – Visit and Review
3. A Day in the Life in Australia

So I am back in Canada now. It was a hectic and also relaxing 7 months in Australia but I have returned to the motherland to start …..REAL LIFE!! oh no!

I started by applying for jobs in security at some resorts in the Muskoka area. I ended up getting a job at Deerhurst Resort in Huntsville. Huntsville is a gorgeous town in northern Ontario and I plan on taking lots of pictures while I am living there during every season. I might even buy a place up there and open a bit of a bed and breakfast, but right now I am just trying to sort everything out with work. I am looking forward to the summer in Muskoka, but also to the winter because Deerhurst resort features the national pond hockey tournament and I will definitely be playing in that.

Since I have been back besides looking for a job I have also been updating my websites and doing a bit of Photography. My mom had a litter of puppies and so does a friend of mine so I have included a few pictures that I took. The first two pictures or from my moms Bernese Mountain Dogs

If you want some more cute pictures you could check out my friends Basset Hounds website. Here is a picture I took of his female Basset Hound and her puppies.

No related posts.

A day in the life in Australia

If you ever wondered what a good day in Australia is like this blog post if for you. I am currently living in Cairns which is a beautiful small city located in tropical far north Queensland. Most days are hot and it does rain quite a bit during the summer.
Lately each day has been hot and sunny and I have been trying to fill each day with a task to do. Last week I went scuba diving on the Great Barrier Reef and yesterday I finally bought a didgeridoo. Today I do not have anything planned, so I am finally going to make it out to the local golf course to whack a few balls.

I slept in today, no big deal. Almost everyday is a sleep in day when I only work casually washing dishes. I wake up and make French toast with maple flavoured syrup, nothing compared to Aunt Jemima (or real maple syrup) back in Canada but it will do. After breakfast I book a tee time and then test out the new didgeridoo. It sounds great, but I need a lot of practice. Sitting out on the balcony, overlooking the mountains and playing a didge, now this is living.

I lounge around and answer a few emails until noon, time to bike into town. It is a short bike ride into town so I check the bus schedule to make sure I will make my Tee time (it’s at 2:00) The next bus comes at 1pm and it should take about 45 minutes by bus, no problem. I grab a sub from subway and fill my water bottle; it’s a scorcher out today. The temperature has been about 30 degrees for the last week and today is no exception. I filled my water bottle and put it in the freezer for the night to freeze, and by the time the bus gets to the golf course the water is warm. The bus ride to the course was beautiful, mountains to the left and beaches and ocean to the right. Hopefully the golf course is a good one. I check in at the Half Moon Bay Resort golf course and get my bottle filled with ice cubes at the club house. I buy a few tee’s and five used golf balls, hopefully that will last. I plan to sneak in a quick nine holes.

As I walk with my bag to the first hole a couple of sulphur crested cockatoos soar by with a loud screech. They land in a nearby tree and pose for pictures.

The scenery on the course is great; too bad the greens are not. With recent floods followed by scorching heat I can not complain though.

I meet an old European man on the course and we play a couple of holes together. He tells me about another course nearby called Palm Cove that is much nicer, maybe I will play there next week. For now I will finish up my game though. As I walk down the 8th hole I see a few coconut trees out in the rough. There are a bunch of coconuts in the palms, and a few that have fallen off. I wonder if they are ripe. I go in for a closer look and give them a shake. They sound ripe and look ripe so I decide to take a couple home with me.

After nine holes of golf, a long bus ride and a quick bike home I am sweating. This is a good time to jump in the pool. There are over 10 at our apartment complex so I have lots of options. I go for a quick dip and head up to the apartment. If you are wondering where this is the place is called CAIRNS ONE. It is THE NICEST apartment place we found in all of Cairns and it is amazing to live here. We have a two bedroom apartment (and an air matress in the dining room for our friend), My girlfriend and I live in one room, and my brother and his girlfriend in the other.  If you take a look at the picture at the top of this post that is me. I wake up in the morning, walk out on the balcony and see the mountains. It’s nice!

I figure I should put the coconuts to good use and make myself a drink! I drain the coconuts, crack them open, add some pineapple juice, coconut milk, ice and a splash of rum. Just what I needed after a tough day and I got home just in time to watch the sunset with a cold drink in hand.

To wrap it all up I settle in bed after dinner and watch a movie with my beautiful girlfriend. Just another day in paradise! I better go to bed early though because I have to be up at 6:30. No sleeping in this time, I volunteer on a dive boat in the morning. But that is a story for another time. Thanks for reading!

Related posts:

1. Dunk Island Review
2. Kuranda BirdWorld Visit and Review
3. Great Ocean Road Tour – Bunyip Review – Australia

Bunyip 3 day Great Ocean Road Review

Our first stop was Bells Beach which is a famous surf beach in Australia. Sammy is obviously enjoying this. We expected a nice big bus to tour around in though, however what we got was a van with a trailer on the back to haul all of our luggage. At least it had air conditioning

The next stop for us was a rain forest. We had a very enjoyable walk though the forest, and even got to see a swamp wallaby drinking from the river. I thought that was pretty cool. The highlight of this stop was the waterfall which I decided to swim under (very refreshing)

After a dip by the waterfall we decided to snap a few shots in the rain forest. There is a few MASSIVE trees in there, and a couple of interesting ones as well.

There were a few other interesting stops along the way, but the next major highlight for us was at the otway campsite. As we were pulling into the camp we spotted a Koala bear munching eucalyptus in the branches, we were excited and wanted to stop but the driver kept on going. We really wanted to see a Koala up close and we would not be disappointed! We pulled up to our campsite and started unpacking our stuff and to all of our surprises (we were travelling with about 8 other people) there was a koala hiding in a bush just a few feet away from us! We were very excited and even managed to get it on video!

Here are a few shots of some other koalas that we spotted around the campsite.

We enjoyed (well at least I did) a night sleeping in a tent. They do have an upgrade option to sleep in accommodations but I imagine they would not be much better than the tents. It was kind of nice sleeping outside as you could hear the koalas at night and the kookaburras woke us up in the morning.

The next day we woke up to have breakfast. The food is fairly basic and everyone pitches in to help set up the table and clean up after. Don’t expect the star treatment on this trip

Our first stop on day 2 was Gibsons step, which is where I took my first panoramic

Looking the other way there is a pretty nice view of some of the twelve apostles.

This was a very scenic spot and gave us a chance for a nice relaxing walk along the beach. The cliffs were amazing and the views were great. Australia has done a great job of not wrecking the natural wonders with hideous tourist crap all over the place.

The next stop was a very nice swimming spot called the Loch Ard Gorge. This was one of my favourite stops, it seems like a good place for a pirate to bury treasure! The beach is surrounded by steep cliffs and if you look straight out you can see the water from the ocean crashing into rocks that separate the Loch Ard Gorge from the rest of the sea. To the right there is a cave which is a lot of fun to explore! I did not get any pictures of the cave though (you will have to go and explore it for yourself!)

The next stop was the London Bridge which had fallen into the ocean a few years back. This newly made island was once connected to the land by a narrow, natural bridge. As the story goes it fell into the ocean and two people were stranded on the rock. Both were married but not to each other The next day their faces were plastered across many newspapers and they had some explaining to do.

After a few more stops we ended up at a cool place in the grampians called the Asses Ears. They do quad bike adventures and camping. The place has a very cool set up and a sweet bar to relax at. I really wanted to take the four wheelers out and explore the grampians but we did not have enough time. In the morning we stopped at a indigenous cultural centre to learn about the indigenous people of Australia. We also got to see rock painting that had been done thousands of years ago.

The next stop was a tiring walk along steep rocky paths. Bring good shoes because this is an exhausting walk (but the view is worth it!)

I thought this would be the perfect place to ditch the girlfriend for good but she just wont give up! Haha just kidding.

There was another big rock underneath this ledge…pretty good optical illusion though eh!

After a grueling hike up and down the pinnacle we went for lunch and then for a little dip. The next exciting stop was Mackenzies falls. This is another spot you can go for a dip in freshwater and is much appreciated after the hike to the pinnacle!

After Mackenzie falls there is not much else. Bunyip tours advertises the gold booming town of Ballarat, however it is more of a drive through then a stop and a whole day could be used to explore this town and see the mines. Over all I really enjoyed the trip, I think it is well worth the money and you get too see quite a bit in a short stretch of time. The pro’s were all the cool places we saw and getting driven to each one (it’s nice not to have to drive yourself)

The cons are less freedom (if you do drive yourself you can stay as long as you want and go where you want) and if your not a people person you might not like being in a vehicle with 8 other people and preparing food with them. I think that it is a good set-up though. It makes the tour affordable and exciting. It has been a while since I posted a proper blog because I have been very busy, you may notice this blog is a month or two behind but that is just because I don’t have time to catch up.

If your interested what is to come I just finished a scuba trip to the Great Barrier Reef and will post some pictures and stories soon. I am also going to be travelling to Surfers Paradise and from Cairns to Brisbane and Back soon and stopping at lots of cool places along the way so stay posted.

Related posts:

1. Australian Butterfly Sanctuary – Visit and Review
2. Milln Reef – Great Barrier Reef
3. Dunk Island Review

Hey guys. I am an amteur photographer and Love taking pictures. I like to get feedback on my photos so I have posted a few Lion and Tiger pictures on my blog. I would like to get some feedback or advice if there are any other photography lovers out there.

Here is one of my Tiger shots

Tiger prowl

Here is one of my Lion pictures

Lion Close-up

Related posts:

1. Tiger and Lions
2. Meerkats at the Melbourne Zoo
3. Melbourne Aquarium Review

Tigers and Lions

As promised I will continue the Zoo theme for the week. During my visit to the Melbourne zoo I got a few nice pictures of the Lions and Tigers. I had a clear shot of the Tiger, but I had to photograph the Lion through a chain link fence. I think the Pictures still came out pretty good though. I just had to zoom right in and focus and the fence nearly disappeared.

Tigers – Tiger Pictures

This is one of my favourite pictures that I took. He did a pretty good pose for me!

I put these coulagges together just to try something new. I think they look pretty cool. Any advice or feedback?

In this picture I was panning as the Tiger was running, I think it came out pretty good, what do you think?

Lions

The Lion was pretty far away and I have a basic zoom lens with no IS so I tried my best to get a good shot of this guy.

Related posts:

1. Tiger and Lion Pictures Melbourne Zoo
2. Meerkats at the Melbourne Zoo
3. Great Ocean Road Tour – Bunyip Review – Australia