Last of Australia

Oh my how the time flies, these are the last greetings from Down Under
(photo from the Great Ocean Road)
So the last couple of months have been going extremely fast. I was either at the Uni..
or working at the Uni Library, which I did daily all of January..Weekends and days off it might have just been reading at the beach..
going snorkeling at Shelly beach.. being a tourist visiting the Aquarium..
or watching a Cricket match..Also tried to play cricket ourselves on the Aussie dayand had a BBQ by the pool with mates, for sure, the traditional Aussie day-celebration.
Oh and then there was Christmas..had an awesome traditional finnish christmas dinner and sung finnish christmas carols karaokeThe only truly Aussie quest on our celebrations was the 30 degrees heat and the yummy PavlovaThere was the New Year's celebrations..
The views for the fireworks were probably the best in town from North Sydney..
Then there was tour de Melbourne
with a dear old friend after 6 years apart..
and driving the Great Ocean Road, where we bumped in to (not literally thank goodness) these little furballs that managed to look adorable while scratching both their butts and cheeks at the same time..
and these little featherbacks..
Celebrated valentine's day (or friends day as we do in Finland)
Spent a weekend in Hunter Valley with friends tasting wine, celebrating birthdays and saying our goodbyes

..some people seemed to take the goodbyes slghtly easier than others :)
The last week in Australia i spent in the Tropical Queensland; Cairns & the Barrier Reef

the beaches were beautiful there but you had to swim in this lagoon instead because of the deadly box jellyfishes
and they even got saltwater crocodiles there
(this little monster was just cute)
Then I spent a couple of days (most likely the best couple of days during all these months down under) on a boat at the spectacular Great Barrier Reef. Apologies in advance for the picture overload, couldn't help it :)
Some people were just snorkelingbut boy did they miss out..The underwater scenery was incredible
We were surrounded by the endless blue.. .. and some of the most amazing creatures like Hawksbill sea turtles a group of sleeping (huge!!) Bumphead parrotfish
the Green Sea turtlesthe angry little (huge) Triggerfish..Sea cucumbers
nosy fishes
Clownfishes
Stingrays
I've got a feeling this is not what you usually find inside a Giant Clam..
Some of the best dives were done either early in the morning when some of the fishes were still asleep or sleepy enough, or then after the sun had set. During the (insane) night dives it was light around the boat and so all the big fishes like the Giant Trevallys and Sharks came to hunt around the boat.. So there we hopped in the middle of the circling sharks in to the dark waters with nothing but our torches and eatchother to comfort.
Went diving through caves..
..full of tiny little fishes

Some of the walls on the reef were just spectacular, tens of meters of vertical wall..

The 3 min safety-stops in 5m were a good time to just hang out with your buddies..
or to meditate..
After a 6am dive enjoying the rising sun, cup of coffee and a book
or a well deserved beer after 12 cosecutive dives (that left a big grin on my little face for a long long time)


It was hard saying bye bye to Australia, but new adventures await.. :)