northeast Queensland, briefly

Our second week in Australia was in Queensland. I’ve already mentioned the diving and snorkeling here. After returning from the reef, we rented a car and headed north. The far northeast part of Queensland is the Daintree Rainforest. It’s a national park, and also has several other world designations. You may never have heard of… Continue reading northeast Queensland, briefly

Monster and me – my trip to the Sydney skatepark

This post is gonna be shorter than most. It’s just a link to a video I made of two people roller skating. Yes, that’s right, I travel half way around the world and I’m still making videos about people skating. But hey this is my first skate park video from Australia! Here are the notes I… Continue reading Monster and me – my trip to the Sydney skatepark

Oz vs. Kiwi

Now that I’ve visited two or more cities in both Australia and New Zealand, I feel fully qualified to make sweeping generalizations about the differences and similarities between the people and cultures. Follow along as I make a complete fool of myself… Illustration of drop bear by Yamavu, used by permission

our first adventure – the reef

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Everything about our grand trip to the Eastern Hemisphere is an adventure. I mean, it’s not every day you leave a comfortable home and a good job to go wandering around the world. But our trip to the Great Barrier Reef was the first part of our journey that really felt like an adventure. Until then we’d been… Continue reading our first adventure – the reef

stuff I acquired, and stuff I left behind

Updated December 23, 2015 I left Denver with a big yellow suitcase and a blue eBags.com computer backpack. They were both loaded nearly to the max. For Qantas, “the max” means that the checked luggage (my yellow suitcase) can’t exceed 23 kg, and the carry on (my blue backpack) can’t exceed 7 kg). They were… Continue reading stuff I acquired, and stuff I left behind

Sydney: familiar, but also strange

The first stop on our trip was Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. For those of you who are geographically challenged, Sydney is not the capital of Australia, but it is the largest city. We stayed a week there. It felt to me a lot like any large city in Europe or America — high population density,… Continue reading Sydney: familiar, but also strange

bad and good decisions

As I write this, it’s been three weeks since we left Denver. I’ve already learned I made some pretty bad planning decisions, but fortunately we made one really good one to help make up for it. Bad decisions going to Australia before New Zealand: From the US, we flew first to Sydney, then Cairns (Australia),… Continue reading bad and good decisions

airport security

Last updated: January 10, 2016 An American friend asked me how airport security in the countries we’re visiting compares to in America. She used to work for the TSA, she said, and is curious. So I wrote this blog post, and I’ve been trying to keep it updated as best as possible as we travel.… Continue reading airport security

the first day of our journey

Preface: I started writing this post from Seat 14 F on an American Airlines flight from Denver to Los Angeles, far above the mountains flying southwest toward the low orange sun. That was September 2, 2015. And I finished writing it literally weeks later in Hamilton, New Zealand, on September 23. The first part of… Continue reading the first day of our journey

don’t trust this TSA-compatible lock to protect you from anything but moronic zombies

I bought a couple TSA-compatible luggage locks from Amazon. My plan was to use this on my new eBags TLS Workstation Laptop Backpack to secure my laptop and other stuff during our travels through Asia later this year. Unrelated to this, I also couldn’t remember the combination to one of my suitcases that also has… Continue reading don’t trust this TSA-compatible lock to protect you from anything but moronic zombies

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