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As part of an amazing month of travel, we went to Cairns to get certified to dive, Port Douglas and Margaret River. We feel so lucky to have seen these beautiful places..

We're both excited to be PADI certified, although we unfortunately didn't have the best experience on the reef. It was very stormy, the visibility was only about five meters (due to the cyclone I think) and Mike got a sinus cold right before the trip which made it painful for him to dive. But we made it through and passed the course, woohoo! We then went up to Port Douglas for a few days to relax. It was pretty rainy, but we got one beautiful day for driving up to Cape Tribulation and seeing the rainforest, Daintree River, beaches etc. The exotic fruit tasting was especially memorable! I would definitely recommend going up that direction in the winter though..given we were there during the "off" season many of the restaurants were closed certain days of the week and it just sort of felt like a ghost town. We were happy with the hotel we stayed at called Martinique on Marcrossan.

We're stoked that we made it to Western Australia. It seems like such a remote place..a place where we may not find ourselves ever again (but who knows). We flew into Perth, but pretty much bypassed the city and drove to Cottesloe Beach. We only made it for sunset since our flight had been delayed five hours, but it was very cool and a novelty to see the sun setting directly over the ocean after two years on Australia's east coast! Sculptures by the Sea was also going on and we actually saw some of the same sculptures from the Bondi event.

Then we drove to Fremantle and had dinner at Little Creatures. I'd definitely recommend this -- such a cool brewery/restaurant and space. The Little Creatures Pale Ale is delish! We spent the rest of the time in Margaret River, which is a stunning area..to have beautiful beaches so close to wonderful wineries seems like something you can't get many places in the world. We stayed at a cottage where we could relax and watch the kangaroos at dusk. I also loved seeing the different birds..tons of black cockatoos!

Well, I hope it's okay to take a honeymoon before the wedding because we just DID!

As we have about three weeks left in Australia (gasp!) we're working on taking care of our bucket list. One of the main things we'd been wanting to do was a sailing trip in the Whitsundays. My friend Chrissy was visiting from SF and since she and Mike know how to sail we figured it was the perfect time to have a bareboat adventure. Being low season and post cyclone Yasi I was a bit worried about the weather, but we got lucky..mostly sun with some clouds and several rain showers. And we did lots of swimming sans stinger suits with no jellyfish stings, phew.

We visited Hook Island, Hayman Island, Whitsunday Island, Lindeman Island and Hamilton Island - definitely covered some ground! We saw and heard some amazing wildlife including dolphins, turtles, rays, a dugong, fish and squid (one of which jumped onto our boat). Many of the islands had bush walks - we even got to see Aboriginal drawings during one hike. There was barely any boat traffic so our moorings and anchorages were so peaceful.. We got lots of use out of the BBQ and downed many a Corona. It was an unforgettable trip and we're already thinking about doing another bareboat charter at some point in the future.

We went through Whitsunday Escape and were really happy with the boat and the whole experience, would highly recommend them. 

Oh yeah, and we cuddled a BABY koala! His name was Elvis and he was adorable. We did this at the Wilderness Park on Hamilton Island (the one Oprah visited a few months ago). So worth it.

We headed up to Byron Bay the other weekend and had such a great time.. what an awesome beach town. I would highly recommend where we stayed - The Atlantic Guesthouses. It's a lovely set of cottages and an Airstream (where we stayed one night!) in a lush tropical garden that's near the beach and town centre. The most recently renovated building is called Coconut Cottage and it's so beautifully decorated..very beachy, clean and laid back Byron style. 

We took a surf lesson and hiked to the Cape Byron lighthouse, plus did lots of swimming and beach walks. The beaches are just stunning..one after another. Being only a 45 minute flight north of Sydney I was surprised at how much warmer the water was and how tropical it all felt. We even equated it to a small Hawaiian town..similar feel. 

Great food as well. We really enjoyed dinner at St. Elmo and breakfast at the Byron Beach Cafe, which has an unbeatable view!

LOVE Byron!

We've seen some really stunning scenery in Australia over the past two weeks. Last weekend we were in Melbourne to watch the Australian Open and and took two days to drive the Great Ocean Road, which is west of Melbourne. We drove about four hours to the 12 Apostles, which are really neat rock formations along the beach and cliffs. We drove back via Queenscliff, put our car on the ferry and headed to Mornington Peninsula. We went to two wineries, but were a bit rushed through the area. Really pretty though!

This weekend we had another adventure planned with some friends of ours, Mark and Katy. We hiked the entire length of Royal National Park along the coast - 28 kilometers! We are feeling it now...tired and on the couch..Mike has 10 blisters. Ouch. It was gorgeous though, just one beautiful and relatively deserted beach after another. We stayed at North Era campground, which is a large grassy area right near some dunes and a beach. We walked from north to south, starting at Bundeena (a short ferry ride from Cronulla) and ended at Otway where we barely made the train (only comes every 2 hours) back to the city. Here's the photos from each trip.

Apologies that all has been quiet on the blog front..it's been a very busy month! We got engaged in the Whitsunday Islands on February 6, then headed to the US for about 10 days and returned to Sydney to be with Mike's parents who had been cruising around Australia and New Zealand. Phew!

So, for the engagement details.. Mike and I had been planning a long weekend in the Whitsundays for a few months and after much debate on where to stay, settled on Peppers Palm Bay. It looked gorgeous and all things considered, we got a pretty good deal given Summer is the low season in Queensland (hot wet weather and stinging jellyfish).

After landing at the airport on Hamilton Island, we went to catch the ferry (or so I thought) to travel to the resort on Long Island. We were stopped by a woman holding a sign that read Mike's last name and then whisked to an air conditioned van. This was all pretty special treatment for the ferry, I thought, before figuring out that we were doing a helicopter transfer! WOW. We got on the helicopter with another couple and were at Long Island within 10 minutes or so. 

Let me just say, the Whitsunday island are gorgeous...islands covered with rainforest, nestled together right off the coast of Australia. And there's tourism, but it all feels relatively quiet. Peppers was wonderful. Each couple has their own cabin or bungalow, there's delicious brekkie and dinner and a really nice pool (important since we couldn't swim in the ocean safely).

Back to the story. After we explored the resort a bit, we went for a swim in the pool. Then Mike non chalantly suggested taking kayaks out before dinner. We headed over to a secluded beach area and after padding around, went up to the beach to walk around. Then, he asked me right then and there to marry me! He had carried the ring in a dry bag with his camera..sneaky. We went back to the resort where there was a table set for two, right on a veranda by the beach. We had so much fun celebrating, talking and calling people during dinner. 

For the next day we had booked a scenic flight out to the reef to go snorkling and to Whitehaven Beach, which claims to have the purest sand in the world. We felt like VIPs with all these special flights! It was a spectacular day..couldn't stop smiling. Getting to see the Great Barrier Reef from the air was spectacular. It's hard to believe that there's 2,000 km of this up the coast of Australia, especially after seeing all the life underwater. Oh yeah, and it was a perfect sunny day. Lucky us!

The last day we sat by the pool, went on a rainforest hike (which I would not recommend doing in Queensland summer) and kayaked again..this time with handreels and bait. I caught two fish and Mike caught one - the fisherwoman reigns! We threw them back. 

We'll never forget the time we had tog ether in the Whitsundays. Hopefully we get the chance to visit that private beach by Peppers again during our lifetime!