a black SUV passed by us as I was looking down to make sure no sand had gotten into the camera bag. Apparently Julie was paying attention because she immediately said, “Honey, that was Cameron Diaz!”

We returned to the car and headed back to the town of Kaunakakai. While we were there, we picked up some smoothies and pastries before filling up on…

I was already appreciating this pilot and the experience here was as different as night and day. This just reaffirmed my hunch that it’s the helicopter pilot that makes all the difference in the…

Heck, I was even desperate enough to drink from any stream I saw along the way – full of bacteria or not. Fortunately, there weren’t any flowing streams during this two mile stretch…

Julie was already against the idea of doing this and the steepness of the gorge before us simply made it a rather unlikely proposition. She recalled…

Julie got frustrated when all the lunch spots she wanted to try out were closed. And now the possibility of something bad happening in this rather unwelcome-feeling spot was palpable…

Upon closer inspection of the sign, someone marked “Mordor” next to Queenstown. This piqued our interest to see what exactly the perpetrating jokester was talking about…

I was anxious to see these endangered creatures as was Julie. Both of us knew they would look nothing like the WB’s whirling dervish Tasmanian Devil…

It beckoned us closer as if everyone was heading towards some spooky outdoor gathering. Of course we were curious to see what the source of the music was so we kept on walking further into the gorge..

Just as I unzipped the first leg, a black splotch landed on the pants and a pair of entry wounds on my shin were slowly bleeding. “Honey! Look at this!” I said with half amazement and half fear…

…I proceeded to put our day packs into the overhead locker when something didn’t feel right when it came time to take my last piece of equipment. “Where’s my camera?”

…we were eager to try some Singapore food for lunch at a restaurant we had noticed on Bourke Street earlier… the moment we left the hotel, there were hordes of people parading before us…

Julie wasn’t too crazy about the weather as she had hoped to see the long awaited Twelve Apostles without this cold, Antarctic storm being blasted our way…

The day had begun with a disappointing Trentham Falls as it barely had any flow over its impressive basalt cliff. Then, we had difficulty finding Sailors Falls because it had been bone dry and…

…we were dismayed to find that the street we were supposed to take had closed… But when the next street came around, it too was closed. Then the next street and the next. What was going on?

As Julie and I strolled around the CBD of Canberra looking for a place to eat, we couldn’t quite figure out why so many people were dressed to impress. Complicating the scene was the menacing skies…

Sometimes you get a little more than what you’ve bargained for. And it appeared to be the case here. While I welcomed the rain to enhance our waterfall viewing in the face of Australia’s drought…

With simultaneously growing anticipation and doubt, mom and I took the apparent advice from the pair of hikers we talked to and scrambled down the slickrock and into the bushy depths of Calf Creek…

While my thoughts were on the task ahead as we had planned to see at least three waterfalls around the city’s suburbs, I increased the cruise control to 100km/h. Suddenly…

Still, we didn’t know what it was nor did we know if it was life threatening. So once we got into the visitor center, Julie asked the Aboriginal woman behind the cashier if she had ever seen…