Pepper Design Blog

Adventures in Australia… Part 3

Happy New Year! Wishing you a lovely start of 2010 from Thailand where we just arrived today. Oh my, the time has flown by so quickly!

Our New Year’s celebration was spirit-filled and lively in Wellington, New Zealand where we rang in ’10 with friends and family (by perfect coincidence, cousins were in the city at the same time). BUT before jumping ahead… here’s a quick look at our travels in Sydney…

We arrived in Sydney just a few days before Christmas and have had the opportunity to wander the beautiful botanical gardens, lazily walk sandy white beaches, wind through the rocky paths of narrow city streets, attend a ballet at the Opera House and even cuddle with a Koala (a definite to-do on my list). Read more »

Adventures in Australia… Part 2

We’ve made it back to Sydney from the beautiful and very stunning Queensland coast (up there at the north eastern end of Australia) and I have a few fun pictures to share from our adventures.

It was far too little time in a place so incredibly gorgeous, but oddly enough we had the entire territory practically to ourselves. Rumor has it the Christmas wave of ‘holiday-ers’ comes in just about the time we headed back down south.

So above is our snorkeling destination — the husband is a certified diver but for some frankly frustrating reason my ears and equilibrium will not let me drop below 20 feet, so I stuck to snorkeling. It was wonderful regardless! The world below our beautiful shores is teaming with life — I wish we had the opportunity to spot THESE in California, but I felt incredibly humbled to be able to spend the afternoon with them here instead.

and these as well…

A family of five came chasing after our boat thoroughly enjoying the big wake we had created. WOW. They hung with us for nearly 20 minutes before swimming off to find another playmate. Read more »

Adventures in Australia… Part 1

We’ve made it here safely… after 40 hours of traveling by plane, train and automobile (okay, no train involved) we have reached our starting location of Port Douglas, Australia — directly across from the Great Barrier Reef. I’m one suitcase short (actually, the only one that I brought…) but have made do while the airline sorts out their ‘accident’. The accents of the agents at the desk keep me from losing my temper and only make me smile… despite the lack of clothing that I now have.

After a bit of touring the marshy wetlands of the upper territory, including a fantastic trip into Daintree forest, I’m using this day to relax, sort through local markets and recover. Hope you enjoy a few photos from the rainforest journey .

Yes, that’s a crocodile. And there are quite a few up here in this neck of the woods. Thankfully I didn’t encounter this fellow sunning on the beach as I had been warned I might, but he was hiding in the shadows here on our boat trip up the Daintree river. Read more »