Happy Birthday Pat!

 

As most of you know, this past Sunday was Pat's Birthday. To celebrate we spent the weekend diving with our friends in Jervis Bay. On Friday morning, we went seal diving and on Friday evening we boarded the Ocean Trek liveaboard. The weather was unseasonably warm for winter and the seas were relatively flat so we were able to do most of our diving just outside the bay - we're told this is an extremely rare occurance. Over the weekend, we dove with seals, Port Jackson sharks in the hundreads and even managed to do a spot of whale watching. Orca whales no less! Pictures and possibly some video will follow.

Wrapping things up

As our time in Sydney nears its end, we're frantically trying to take advantage of everything we have here. Last weekend was surfing. This weekend we went for two dives, one at Shiprock with members of Saint George Scuba Club, and one at Kurnell with the people I work with. Over the next few weekend's we'll be in Jervis Bay, Northern New Zealand, and attending a Swedish Yabbie-Fest.

Here are the pictures from Shiprock and Kurnell.

For my Mom and Dad

Dear Mom and Dad,

Pat wanted to make sure you didn't show up a the airport with your computer in hand, so he made me post these for you.

Love Tanya
xoxo

Mom and Dad's Vacation from Pat Morin on Vimeo.

Tjapukai Dance Show from Pat Morin on Vimeo.

Darwin to Alice Springs Trip Video

Darwin to Alice Springs Trip Video from Pat Morin on Vimeo.

As promised, here is our trip video.

The Red Centre

We're back from our trip to the wet North End and the dry Red Centre. Our 12 day 4076 km journey took us to Darwin, Kakadu National Park, the Moscow Circus, Nitmiluk Gorge, Devil's Marbles, the West Macdonnell Ranges, Finke Gorge National Park, King's Canyon, Uluru, Kata Tjuta, and finally to Alice Springs where we caught our flight home. With the exception of a near-miss with some horses and a small forest fire blocking our route, the trip was relatively drama free. Our camper van was cozy and we actually enjoyed living out of it for the duration of the trip. Sleeping 9 hours a night was nice too.

Here are a selection of pictures from the trip. A video will follow soon.

Our Great Northern Adventure

 

For the last two days, Tanya and I have been touring around Darwin and Kakadu National Park, sleeping in our Wicked Outback 4x4 Campervan. Today, after checking out the boats at the Beer Can Regatta, we'll start our 2000km 3076km journey, going down to Katherine Gorge, Devil's Marbles, the MacDonnell Ranges, King's Canyon, and Uluru before heading to Alice Springs for our flight home.

It's been great so far, though some of our off-roading in the park was turned back by a forest fire (above).

Dwarf Minke Whales

Dwarf Minke Whales from Pat Morin on Vimeo.

As promised, here is the video from our dive trip with the Dwarf Minke Whales that the onboard video pro made. Its a bit long (30+ minutes) so if you want to see the whales they start around 9 minutes.