Australia

October 17 - October 25

We arrived in Cairns (via Sydney, from Mumbai) on the 17th and left to Christchurch, NZ on the 27th with a long enough stop in Sydney for some seeing of sights.

Day by day:

• Mon Oct 17 - land in Sydney around 10:30, connect to cairns about 13:00, land again about 17:00, taxi to gilligan's five star backpacker hotel, relax, burgers, sleep (mike increasingly ill)
• Tue Oct 18 - up around 09:00, check out of gilligan's and move to global palace, nice breakfast, mike to hotel to chill (still illin') jason out and about, mike stops by hospital to get some drugs, dinner at irish pub, mike home early, jason out on the town
• Wed Oct 19 - mike up around 12:30, burger lunch, get trailfinders working, internet cafe, jason hanging at the lagoon, mike sees about tickets to NZ and SA, reassemble for supper, mike to movie ('the devil's rejects') and jason out on the town
• Thu Oct 20 - mike up around 12:00, big breakfast, organize diving tour, get STA working on flights as well, free-ish pub dinner, mike to see 'serenity' at cinema, jason out on the town, mike returns to watch TV and capture video
• Fri Oct 21 - up at noon, fitting for scuba equipment, mexican lunch, move NZ tickets back 2 days to accommodate scuba no-fly period, work on peru flights some more with STA and Trailfinders, 'reef teach' - listen to excited irish marine biologist go on a bit about the reef, subway for dinner, watch a bit of TV, pack up for scuba trip, sleep
• Sat Oct 22 - up at 05:00, arrive at dive shop at 06:20, to the boat, 2 fun dives to get back in the swing (see turtle on the second), navigation dive (swim in circles), first night dive (wicked!), showers, sleep
• Sun Oct 23 - up at 06:30, deep dive (jason skips), search and recovery dive, underwater photography dive, second night dive (jason skips), shower, dinner, 2 beers, sleep
• Mon Oct 24 - up at 06:00, jason illin', crappy first dive, in detention for second dive, excellent shallow third dive in very bright seas, lunch, pack up, back to cairns, check into hostel, laundry, shower, jason sleeps, mike goes out with folks from dive trip, stumble back to hostel
• Tue Oct 25 - up at 10;00, mike has a hangover, full english breakfast, get tickets from NZ to Peru (via LA!), post office to mail gift to mom and passports to Jill, retrieve and examine photo CDs from the dive, afternoon nap, jason internets, mike has dinner with jackie, in bed before midnight
• Wed Oct 26 - up at 10:30, chunk video files, sushi lunch, admin and napping in the afternoon, seafood dinner, early to bed
• Thur Oct 27 - up at 04:00, to airport and fly to sydney, see opera house and harbor bridge, jason to imax and mike to powerstation museum, rejoin at airport, flight delayed, get off the ground 4 hours late
  

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Photo Albums
Great Barrier Reef

Video Clips
SCUBA Surfacing

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