Visa...... confirmed :)

Yesterday (thursday, sept. 28th) I finally made my way down to immigration in Cairns to have the visa stamp placed in my passport... a good thing since I'm required to have it stamped within 28 days of my arrival in Oz. Doing the math, I had to get there by next Monday at the latest. This weekend I'll be heading up to Port Douglas, a seaside village a few miles north of Trinity Beach to shop at an outdoor market and visit a pub or two; then maybe stop for a quick visit in the outer edges of the rainforest or maybe a skyrail ride up the mountain to have vista view of Cairns and the Coral Sea from above. No matter what, I'm sure it'll be a blast and I'll write all about it (and post a few pics) next week. I hope everyone is well and enjoying their early fall (my early spring... no, not rubbing it in :). Miss ya'll.

Finally... a sunrise!

The other morning I got up early for work and drove on down to Trinity Beach to watch the sunrise over the Coral Sea. I figured I had been here almost 2 weeks and not seeing the sun come up yet is borderline criminal in my book of things to do in life...

So what do you think? Stunning isn't it?

One week and counting!

It's been a little over a week since arriving in Cairns and life has been fantastic! I started working at the clinic on Monday (it's Thursday, 7PM in Oz as I write this) and I've already seen a kookaburra and a koala... not as the attending, of course. I mean, what do I know about either species... yet :) I have a car at my disposal and yesterday was my first venture out onto the roads of "stay in the wrong lane" and it really wasn't that hard as long as I had someone in front of me who knew what they were doing. I imagine it'll take a while for driving in the Left lane to become second nature, but in the meantime I'll be the guy driving along and mumbling, "Stay on the left, stay on the left..."

As far as the wildlife goes, I haven't been too far out of town (into the bush) yet, but the night is full of new sounds... some awkward and spooky... some gentle as a lulliby. And the stars!! The sky is so clear and dark, it's like you can reach up and pluck one out of the night... but I do wish I recognized more of the constilations over here this time of year (early Spring). At least I know Orion when it's passing over before sun-up... the early morning walk is a hard habbit to break.

Happy Hooking!!

Thursday was, by far, the most exciting day yet! We set Rod's boat in at Yorkey's Knob marina at 6 AM and set out for a day of fishing... and we were all over the place! Fished along the Great Barrier Reef, spent a lot of time just out beyond the continental shelf, and stopped by Arlington Reef on the way back to troll from some mackeral (only caught a little one). The first fish I hooked was a huge something!! It took Rod, Brad and I an hour of taking turns to get the thing near the boat; and at about 1o meters below off the stern, we figured out I had hooked a 12-15 foot shark! Wahoo!! My first fish in Oz and it's a shark... could it start any better? Well, I guess it could've since the line broke only a few moments later and we lost it. Probably for the best anyway since there was no way we would've gaffed it to bring it on board the boat.

My second catch about 30 minutes later was two large mouth nannagi hooked at the same time on the double-hook rig we were using. It took a while to bring 'em in as were in ~ 65 meters and bottom fishing, but it a battke worth fighting... they were mmm mmm good at dinner :)

All in all, we caught a good variety of fish: Nannagi, Coral Trout, Red Emperor and 3 species of Cod; and I gotta say, as anyone who's gone out on our annual gulf stream fishing charter knows, it was a long and tiring day... espeacially as we had to clean our own fish. Actually, I helped clean the boat while Brad filleted most of the catch (a total of 40 keepers!)... then it was time to eat a late dinner with some white wine (I could get used to this! :), watch a couple episodes of 2 1/2 Men (I'm surprised how similar TV is over here) and off to bed.

Fore!!

Wednesday afternoon Rod, his mate Bob and I played a round at Yorkey's Knob. In order to fit in a tee time, we had to enter the tournement (they call it a "competition") that afternoon and had absolutely no hopes of coming in near the top of the leader board as I was definitely distracted by all the wondrous vistas and the fact that the beer cart came around serving not only beer, but rum 'n cokes and almost anything else you could think of. I especially enjoyed the introduction of a golf hazzard that was completely new to me... out of bound stakes marking the crocodile hazzards! All in all, it was a fantastic round that was a lot of fun that brought us all home tired and hungry. So we ordered Thai take out (take away), after which I dropped into bed so I could get up early the next morning for fishing.

Wednesday, Sept 6th

We took a parasailing boat ride out to Green Island (bottom pic), which is about a 40 minute ride east out of the Cairns marina and only a fews miles shy of the Great Barrier Reef. Once there, Rod, Jen and I visited a small, privately owned (but open to the public) aquarium attraction on the island to draw blood from an adult green sea turtle. Rod made an easy task of it and it was back off to the mainland marina (top pic) to head out for a round of golf at Yorkey's Knob.

Alive and well in Cairns!

Hey everyone! After a lot of time in airports and planes, I finally arrive in Queensland at 10:30 AM Tuesday local time (14 hours ahead of EST) and it is a beautiful place. Crystal clear water, green mountains with rain forrests spread throughout, sandy white beaches, and so many reefs visible from the plane as I flew into Cairns they were impossible to count.

I was met at the airport by Rod, the vet I'll be working with (I should say one of the vets... turns out there's 5 vets working here in Cairns) and was carted back to his house (see pic... notice the boat in the driveway?), where I'll be staying till I set up my own place in a month or two. His wife Jen and daughter Samantha are wonderful folks and have made me feel very much at home... especially by having a 42" plasma screen TV in the livingroom :) They have 3 dogs (Hannah, Holly and Barron (a tripod ;)) and 2 outdoor cats (phew... for those who know about my cat allergies), and a couple of horses that are currently away at the ranch while Jen leaves to spend a month in FLA visiting sea turtle rehab facilities).