Mike Ball Minke Whale Expedition

To practice for our whale expedition in Tonga, we decided to do a three night minke whale trip for Queen’s Birthday. Someone forgot to tell the whales, because they were nowhere to be found ! Still, we had three great days of diving on the reef. Getting There We flew from Melbourne to Cairns, with […]

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Lady Elliot Island

Lady Elliot is located at the southern end of the Great Barrier Reef. The island is the length of its grass runway, and contains a single eco resort. To get there, you can fly to Bundaberg, Hervey Bay/Fraser Coast, Brisbane, or the Gold Coast, and then transfer to a very small plane. For us, the […]

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Esperance – Western Australia’s Best Kept Secret

Have you ever seen that photo of a kangaroo lounging on a pristine white sand beach? Some quick googling identified the destination to be Esperance, which is also known for leafy sea dragons. Esperance isn’t easy to get to – we think this is why it remains so special. From Perth, it is an 8 […]

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Scuba Diving in Rye

All of our vacations used to revolve around diving. Then we fell in love with Africa. Now that we live in Australia, it kind of made sense to pick up diving again. Oh yeah, we also bought some fancy new camera housings. Given we hadn’t been underwater since the Galapagos, we decided to do a […]

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Bareboating in the Whitsundays – Take Three

There are few places that we visit more than once, so it should come as a shock to most that we spent Christmas in 2015 in the Whitsundays. Yes, that makes the THIRD visit in two years. We absolutely love it there, it is an easy trip from Melbourne, and the boat we chartered in […]

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Exploring Cape Otway

We timed this overnight adventure with the new moon, hoping for a last glimpse of the full Milky Way arch before it sinks below the horizon for summer. From Melbourne, we took the Great Ocean Road, stopping in Kennet River for a coffee at the Kafe Koala. If you want some easy wildlife spotting, this […]

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Photography Workshop in Fiji

Location: Mana Island, Fiji Sometimes it is good to get away and focus on photography for a few days. Especially when the lineup of instructors is stellar and the workshop is in Fiji. Fiji is relatively close to Australia (five hours non-stop), but the ferry schedule (and frequent flyer tickets) necessitated a layover night in […]

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Non Glamping Camping in Wilson’s Prom

The state had declared a new public holiday. The weather forecast looked good. The campground had availability. Wait. What? Yep. You read that right. We went camping. And not glamping either. Wilson’s Prom actually has fancy tents, but they book out a year in advance. Wilson’s Promontory is located three hours southeast of Melbourne. Unpowered […]

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Bareboating in The Whitsundays – Take Two

(Location: The Whitsundays, Queensland, Australia) In 2015, we returned to the Whitsundays for Andy’s birthday. This time, we chartered a 41′ Bavaria and hoped to see some whales. Trip Summary Temperature: high of 23 (perfect), lows at night around 18 (need jumper/sweater) Water temp: too cold for Jennifer. Around 22c Wind: 15-25 (gusting to more […]

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Skunked at The Pinnacles

(Location: Nambung National Park, Western Australia) No, we weren’t sprayed by a skunk. There are no skunks in Australia. I was in Perth for work, coincidentally on the weekend of a new moon, so we decided to stay the weekend and head two hours north for some star trail pics. We had all our gear, […]

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