Celebrating my Birthday in Ubud, Bali

(Location: Bali, Indonesia) I’ve always been intrigued by Bali, though I’m not sure why. It’s fairly easy to get to from Australia – a five hour flight, and only a two hour time difference. Rather than try to rush around and see the whole island, we spent all four nights in Ubud. It’s a little […]

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Tasmania – Much More than Devils

(Location: Tasmania, Australia) Each night, the ferry to Tasmania leaves from the pier near our house. It isn’t the most efficient way to get to Tassie, and it is probably cheaper to fly, but it’s a ferry to Tasmania that is walking distance. It had to be done. We booked the nicest cabin available for […]

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The Great Ocean Road – this time with an ND filter

(Location: Victoria, Australia) I’d visited last year when my mom came to visit, but Andy was overseas at the time so he missed it. Since then, we’d been waiting for a nice and sunny Saturday, and it finally happened in November. Our plan was to take the Great Ocean Road out to The Apostles, stay […]

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Weekend in The Grampians

(Location: Victoria, Australia) The Grampians National Park is about a three hour drive north west of Melbourne. It was recommended by several of our friends, so we decided to so a quick overnight scouting trip. We stayed in the small town of Halls Gap, which is hopping with kangaroos around dusk. We did a little […]

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Flinders Chase National Park

(Location: Kangaroo Island, Australia) For Thanksgiving weekend in 2014, we spent a long weekend in Flinders Chase National Park on Kangaroo Island. We took the ferry when we visited in 2013, so this time we flew from Adelaide on Rex Air. The cost is about the same, but the flight is much quicker. There is […]

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Birthday in the Bungles

(Location: Purnulu National Park, Western Australia) For Andy’s birthday in 2014, we spent 3 nights “glamping” in the Bungle Bungle, part of Purnulu National Park on the eastern edge of The Kimberly in Western Australia. If you find yourself wondering where the heck that is, you are not alone. Most of the Australians we know […]

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Birthday Weekend in Uluru

(Location: Uluru, Australia) We packed a hell of a lot into a weekend. We stayed at Sails in the Desert, which is part of Ayer’s Rock Resort, which is basically the entire town of Yulara. With the exception of the totally out of the question Longitude 131, this seemed like the nicest place to stay. […]

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Elephants, Tigers, Temples, and Mites

(Location: Chiang Mai, Thailand) In June of 2014, I taught a class in Shanghai, so we decided to make a long weekend out of it and visit Chiang Mai, Thailand. No, these two places are not really near one another. We stayed at Rachamankha, which we found on Trip Advisor. This was such a perfect […]

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Fighting with Japanese Photographers at the Church of the Good Shepherd

(Location: Lake Tekapo, New Zealand) [one_half] [/one_half] Day 9: To Lake Tekapo From Queenstown we headed north, past disturbingly turquoise lake and rivers, to Lake Tekapo. We’d pre-booked a site, and it is a good thing we did because they were completely sold out. Our reason for this destination was that it is known for […]

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Gorgeous Lakes and Crazy Roads

(Location: Franz Joseph to Queenstown, New Zealand) [one_half] [/one_half] Day 8: Glacier Hike and Queenstown It was raining when we went to sleep, but blue skies and glacier views when we woke up in the morning. It was warm, sunny, and empty when we started the walk to the viewpoint, and clouding up, cooler, and […]

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