Australia

  • Tasmanian Devils
    The Tasmanian Devil is an amazing creature, a marsupial the size of a small dog. They like to sleep during the day, but they become active at about five minutes to 3:00 pm, which is feeding time at the Tasmanian Devil Conservation Park on the road to Port Arthur on the Tasman Peninsula. Devils exhibit “communal feeding” behavior, which sounds like the kind of thing we would want to emulate. However, when you see how two devil brothers slash at each other’s faces and rip apart a wallaby carcass, you may want to reconsider. Tasmanian Devil video Tasmanian Devils are currently suffering from Devil facial tumor disease, a kind of cancer that is transmitted by physical contact between animals where cancer cells spread directly from open sores to facial lacerations. Something like 70% of Tasmanian Devils have perished since 1996 from this malady. The Conservation Park is trying to isolate its population on the Tasman Peninsula from devils on the rest of Tasmania and so far these efforts have been successful.
  • Snorkeling the Great Barrier Reef
    On March 15, Julian and I selected Wavelength Marine Charters for a full-day boat trip to the Outer Reef of the Great Barrier Reef from Port Douglas, Queensland. It was a good selection. It took about an hour and a half to reach the outer reef and we visited three different sites. There were two marine biologists on board who helped us identify corals, sea cucumbers, sea stars, crabs and fish. We were surprised to find a place where the reef was still in such pristine condition—many fragile corals with colorful fish ranging in size from three quarters of an inch to five feet from nose to tail. Flickr slide show
  • Travels in Eastern Australia
    In early March, Julian joined us in Sydney, having spent several weeks in Japan. We met him at the airport prepared to fly to Tasmania. Shortly before our scheduled take off, we noticed huge black clouds heading straight for the airport.  A short time later thunder, monsoon rain and lightning filled the air. Over the loudspeaker it was announced that the airport was on shutdown.  No landings, no takeoffs.  Then we saw on the large flat screens around the airport that the big story on local TV stations was the superstorm that had shut down the airport. We boarded a rescheduled flight the next morning Our hosts throughout Australia have contributed greatly to our experience. We had a week’s stay with Air B&B hosts Juanita and Richard just outside Hobart in Tasmania. They and Rosie (a native Tasmanian, living part time on Whidbey) were very helpful in making the most of our time. We had the lower level of the house, two large rooms and a small kitchen and a lovely garden. Located high on a hill above Blackmans Bay, we had spectacular sunrises and, from the top of the driveway equally lovely sunsets. It was a great place to set out each morning to visit the southern portion of this large island state. We had some lovely hikes and saw a few of Australia’s signature animals.
    We made our way to Port Douglas so that Julian and David could get some time in at the Great Barrier Reef, while I spent time with a local aboriginal man learning much about the rain forest plants and their uses and hearing stories of the spirits that inhabit this area. While in the area, we had a lovely stay with Catherine and Nigel, staff members of the Antarctica Expedition. It was quite a change for all of us to be dressed in clothing to suit the tropical climate of northeast Australia. No wellies or polar jackets in sight!  The spectacular home they have designed and built themselves really suits this location, a round two story stone house which totally opens to welcome the outdoors.
    We enjoyed a swim in their nearby crocodile-free swimming hole after a day exploring the Daintree Rainforest. Cynthia
  • Serendipity in Townsville
    We have joined Servas International, a worldwide cultural exchange network in which members host international travelers in their homes for a few days at a time without accepting payment. The mission of the organization is to “build understanding, tolerance, mutual respect, and world peace” by “encouraging individual person-to-person contacts.” Our experience has been discovering things we had no idea we would encounter when we set out, but we are incredibly grateful for. We arrived in Sydney, Australia with essentially no itinerary at all. Many people aboard the ship to Antarctica asked us where we planned to go in Australia and what we planned to do. Sheepishly, we had to say we really didn’t know. We would just see what happened. Our Servas hosts were the key. We contacted a Servas family living near Townsville on coast in Queensland and stayed with them three nights. Leigh and Geoff built their home on fifty acres of bushland. They have kangaroos, wallabies and bettongs coming up to the house every day looking for hand-outs. A wallaby looks like a small kangaroo. We watched a pair of male agile wallabies engaged in what looked like a boxing match. It seemed an important part of the ritual was stopping occasionally to take a good scratch.
    A pademelon is another marsupial somewhat smaller than a wallaby.
    A bettong is an even smaller kangaroo-like creature. There were several that came up to the house after sunset.
    Leigh has a friend Margaret in Townsville who devotes herself to rescuing kangaroo, wallaby and echidna babies whose mothers have been killed, usually the result of being hit by cars on the highway. When babies are discovered in the pouches of their injured or killed mothers, Margarat adopts them, feeds them, nurtures them and trains them to survive in the wild on their own. We had a chance to visit Margaret and hold the babies. Remarkable!
    On the evening of the second day of our stay, Leigh invited us to attend Happy Feat, a dance program that she designed for people with special needs. This too was a wonderful experience, one for which we had absolutely no expectations. We had a blast.
  • Julian’s Encounter with Nigel
    Julian went scuba diving yesterday and did three dives at Flynn reef in the Great Barrier Reef. Here he is with “Nigel,” a Maori Wrasse who tends to hang out there.
  • Happy Feat Dance Group
    David, Julian and I arrived at the venue for Happy Feat as Leigh Caldwell’s volunteer staff were setting up and participants were just beginning to arrive.  The participants ranged in age from early teens to 60s and their “special needs” were as widely varied as their ages. Leigh, though physically a tiny woman, is a huge bundle of positive energy. Leigh and other volunteer staff warmly greeted each arriving Happy Feater and those who brought them. Most were eager to have a hug and sometimes extended it to us since we were vouched for by Leigh. Then the dancing began with some familiar moves and songs. We were invited to join in and as the evening progressed, it was possible to sense confidence increasing and mutual support spreading through the group. Everyone knew they were in a safe place, a trusted place where they were valued. Near the end of the evening they did rock and roll and each of them had the opportunity to rock out in the center for a special solo.  Christina, gray haired, with a walker and in her 60’s rocked out like a teen ager. It was so much fun to watch their faces as well as their feet.  Even the shyest had some very special moves that they were proud of.
    This group performed at the Special Olympics opening ceremonies.  After being together for 3 years, they had developed enough trust to let go of their often rigidly held routines, move out of their comfort zones and have the time of their lives in the limelight. We had the feeling that Wednesday nights were the favorite night for many and that family and other caregivers were fully aware of the huge gift of Happy Feat.  It’s about fun and possibilities. See more at the Happy Feat website.
    Serendipity, once again, handed us an experience beyond our expectations.
    Cynthia
  • Central Australia
    Leaving the tropics of sea and rain forests, we headed to the hot, dry desert of Central Australia or the Red Center, as it is known. We flew from Cairns to Alice Springs to find it was cool, meaning it was basically below 90°F the whole time we were there and because it was dry, we found it relatively comfortable. We rented a 4WD vehicle equipped with everything we needed for camping out under the starriest skies we had ever seen. We spent our time driving, hiking and camping through the MacDonald Range, King’s Canyon, Uluru (Ayers Rock) and Kata Tjuta (the Olgas). Heading back more than 400 million years in geologic time and tens of thousands of years in human time, it was a remarkable experience. The aboriginal people who live here knew how to use all of the resources this beautiful but harsh land provided and forged a deep and respectful relationship with all that surrounded them.
    Uluru (Ayers Rock)
    Sunrise and sunset at Uluru fed the spirit as one witnessed the slow, subtle changes in the sacred rock with the coming and going of light. [click for a time-lapse sunset]
    Kata Tjuta (The Olgas)
    The many faces of Uluru and Kata Tjuta as one moved around called one to look and look again, to be with all that they have witnessed and all that they are.  It’s been a great pleasure traveling these four weeks with Julian. He is a delightful companion, great driver and creative cook and a lot of fun to be around. We parted company today when David and I headed to Perth in Western Australia and Julian made his way to Sydney to catch a flight home tomorrow.  Cynthia
  • The marvelous southern sky
    Seeing a clear sky on a moonless night in central Australia was a startling experience. The Milky Way is prominent, with bright areas of star clusters and dark blotches of dust. The Large and Small Magellenic Clouds (sister galaxies of the Milky Way) hover like clouds of smoke. The sky is filled with thousands of stars, white and yellow, cream-colored, bluish and reddish. Through binoculars, the Milky Way is full of fuzzy patches of light; it was satisfying to easily pick out the globular clusters Omega Centauri and 47 Tucanae. Most patches were objects I wasn’t familiar with. The image below is 12-minute exposure of stars moving clockwise around the south celestial pole and the smear of the Milky Way. This was a test shot I took from our campsite outside of Alice Springs. Longer time-lapse images failed when my camera battery ran out.
    For a northerner, the southern sky is disorienting—the moon and planets move across the sky from right to left and the constellation of Orion is upside down. Unlike in the north where we have the North Star (Polaris) quite close to the north celestial pole (about which all the other stars appear to revolve in a counter-clockwise direction), in the southern sky, the south celestial pole is not tagged by any bright star. To locate the pole, you can use the two bright stars alpha and beta centauri to find the southern cross. The south pole is roughly half way between the southern cross and a bright star, Achernar (Alpha Eridani) [not captured in this photo]. In this time-lapse movie, watch how the stars revolve around the south celestial pole.
    Taking time-lapse movies and long-exposure photos to capture star trails can be challenging. For the time-lapse movie of the southern cross rising at Lake Tekapo, New Zealand, I used an AC adapter and an inverter connected to the 12V power outlet in our rented car. The site we found for the best view of the sky was in an empty lot about a block away from the house we were staying in. It meant leaving the car with the keys in the ignition, and the tripod-mounted camera outside unattended. I couldn’t fathom staying awake out there until dawn, so I assumed that everything would be just fine leaving the car and the equipment in the empty lot. When I turned it on, the sky was perfectly clear, but after I left, clouds rolled in and the moon came up. Headlights from passing cars periodically illuminated the tree in the foreground. Here is the result.
    David
  • Stromatolites
    Shark Bay, at the westernmost point of Australia is known for white sandy beaches, abundant marine life and exceptional fishing. But for me the greatest attraction is the stromatolites. Stromatolites don’t look like much—clumps of bumpy dark brown or black rocks poking up from the salty waters of a shallow bay, but they have a remarkable story to tell. These rocks are actually alive with communities of billions of photosynthetic microbes. They consist of layers of single-cell organisms called cyanobacteria that produce sticky films that glue together grains of sand and fine sediment. Ever so slowly, layers of calcium carbonate like tree rings build up rock-hard lumps stone. Typically they grow less than one millimeter a year, but if conditions are favorable for thousands of years, they can grow the size of boulders. We owe our lives to the cyanobacteria in stromatolites, because if it weren’t for the ability of this microscopic bacterium to harness sunlight, taking in carbon dioxide from the air and releasing oxygen, the earth’s atmosphere would not be suitable for humans or other animals to breathe.
    The cyanobacteria of stromatolites evolved early in the earth’s history, about 3.5 billion years ago. At that time, the atmosphere consisted primarily of carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, methane and hydrogen sulphide. Oxygen represented less than 1% of the air. Yet once this humble bacterium invented photosynthesis, it was poised to transform the atmosphere. Vast tracts of seashore became inhabited by bacterial ecosystems which were able to extract carbon from carbon dioxide in the air (and in the process release oxygen) and generate a mucous-like sticky substance that bound together particles of sand and clay. Other species fed on the mucous and produced microbial mats—thin films forming layers and binding to substrate beneath them. Another kind of bacteria then flourished on the mats using calcium in the environment to crystalize the mineral aragonite. Aragonite, a form of calcium carbonate, turned the mats into rock-like structures. A fourth kind of bacterial community was available to perforate the rock with tiny holes and cause additional crystallization. This process then repeated itself countless times, generating massive stromatolite colonies wherever conditions allowed.
    By 2.7 billion years ago, cyanobacteria were thriving all over the planet, having produced vast tracts of stromatolites. By 2.3 billion years ago, stromatolites had raised the level of atmospheric oxygen to several percent, a concentration high enough to oxidize dissolved iron in the oceans. Huge deposits of iron oxide (rust) were laid down. Today most sources of iron ore date back to this time of iron oxidation. Around 2 billion years ago the process of iron oxidation came to a close. At 1.5 billion years ago, photosynthetic plants came onto the scene, producing more oxygen. Plants and cyanobacteria continued to raise the level of oxygen in the atmosphere to over 20%. By about 1 billion years ago, animals evolved that could breathe oxygen, and during the Cambrian period 600 million years ago an explosion of marine life took place. Within the next several hundred million years or so, land animals including dinosaurs, birds and mammals evolved on the planet. Then in the final few million years, a blink of an eye in geological terms, humans appeared on the scene. So in a real sense, we all owe our lives to stromatolites.
    Cynthia and I saw our first stromatolites at Hamelin Pool at the southern end of Shark Bay. Hamelin Pool is partially cut off from the rest of the Bay by a sandy sill of sea grass. There is very little fresh water running into Hamelin Pool, so as seawater flows in, it evaporates and concentrates the level of salt. These are conditions unsuitable for many marine organisms, but are ideal for cyanobacteria.
    Hamelin Pool with stromatolites at the water’s edge
    Stromatolites exposed at low tide
    Stromatolites exhibiting columnar structure
    A boardwalk has been constructed so that visitors don’t trample the stromatolites. Note the tracks made over a hundred years ago by camel carts carrying wool from a nearby sheep station to load ships in the bay.
    From the boardwalk, we couldn’t get close enough to see stromatolites expelling oxygen. Fortunately however, at a museum in the nearby telegraph station, someone has been dutifully caring for an aquarium that contains possibly the world’s only captive stromatolite. By looking closely in the aquarium, we were indeed able to see bubbles (presumably oxygen) stuck to the crevices on the stromatolite.
    Where stromatolites have been cut to reveal their inner structure, it is easy to see the layers of microbial mats. This particular specimen, also at the telegraph museum was extracted from an iron ore deposit in Northwest Australia.
    Cross section of fossilized stromatolite 2.7 billion years old from the Pilbara region of Northwest Australia
    The information I have used in this blog post have been gleaned from the information signs at the Hamelin Pool boardwalk, the Shark Bay World Heritage Discovery and Visitor Centre, and the book Stromatolites by Ken McNamara (2009, Western Australian Museum). I have not examined original research papers about stromatolites.
    One of the most interesting factoids presented in Ken McNamara’s book concerns the use of fossilized stromatolites to infer the number of days in the year hundreds of millions of years ago.
    “Because many of the microbes involved in stromatolite growth are photosynthetic, they are only active during the day. It has been argued that this is why it is possible, in some exceptionally well-preserved stromatolites, to identify daily growth layers.”
    McNamara references a research paper (Awramik, SM and Vanyo, JP 1986. ‘Heliotropism in modern stromatolites.’ Science 231: 1279-1281.):
    “Such calculations were carried out by Awramik and Vanyo, who showed that the stromatolite Anabaria juvensis from the late Proterozoic in the Northern Territory that lived about 850 million years ago recorded about 435 days in the year. This means that the day length would have been about 20.1 hours.”
    However, I am skeptical of this claim. If the growth rate of a stromatolite is less than 1mm per year, then evidence of daily growth layers of ~400 per year would I think be exceedingly difficult to see. It would require microscopic resolution of a fossilized specimen. So I would like to track down the article in Science and see what evidence they present.
    David
  • Exploration of Shark Bay
    David and I have participated in numerous activities here in the Shark Bay area including viewing the stromatolites at Hamelin Pool, visiting Shell Beach—a huge beach consisting entirely of tiny shells, some of which have been cemented into beautiful blocks that once served as primary building material, seeing dolphins being hand fed from the beach at Monkey Mia, visiting a research aquarium powered by the sun, and spending an afternoon searching for marine life aboard the Shotover, once the fastest sailing catamaran in the southern hemisphere.
    My favorite day, however, was spent with Darren “Capes” Capewell, an aboriginal man who has a gift for sharing his deep connection with place, or as he would say with ‘country’. Arriving at the Francois Peron National Park, we stopped to pick up a handful of red sand and let it run through our hands, offered gratitude to this land. As we drove into the reserve, Capes was constantly looking about, stopping to show us the tracks of emu, kangaroos, wallabies and wallaroos. To us all the short scrub looked the same, but Capes could identify different species. He would dash out a few feet from the truck and come back with a leaf shaped exactly like an emu track or a bush bananas, an edible fruit about 2” long you could eat the whole thing, peal and all – quite a refreshing taste – or roast the seeds. The white sap that oozed out was used as an antiseptic by the aboriginal people. They have known for millennia how to use what is at hand.
    Mother and baby wallaroos (euros)
    Traveling on the deep sandy roads of Francois Peron National Park requires 4WD vehicles with reduced air pressure in the tires. Here “Capes” Capewell lets out some air while Bala and his friend Elena look on.
    The road to Big Lagoon is 10 km of deep soft sand
    Arriving at a huge lagoon surrounded by red hills, we gathered the white sand of the beach and threw it into the water, giving thanks for the bounty. Soon big black clouds rolled over and just as we set out in our kayaks, rain poured down, soaking us in minutes.  It was the first rain seen here in five months and though brief, was welcome. The sun came out and we were warmed and dry again by the time we reached the other side of the lagoon. 
    Our kayaks ready to launch
    Rain clouds rolling in just as we are ready to launch
    Capes handed us reels of fishing line rigged with a lead weight and a hook baited with octopus. He and his nephew Bala each had homemade fishing spears. Wearing water shoes we walked carefully out into the water aware that this was also the home of sea snakes, sharks, eels and sting rays. When I was at about waist level I felt a tug on my line. Capes urged me to reel it in. I was in wonder that just dropping a line with a hook could actually result in catching lunch for us. It was a beautiful black snapper. Bala caught a couple more with the small spear he had made so we all enjoyed a delicious lunch of very fresh fish, for which we gave thanks, and salad.
    Bala with a fish he speared
    The black snapper I caught without a pole
    Our first fish of the grill for lunch
    At the end of the day, we all climbed into a natural hot water pool and soaked as Capes shared with us that the Aboriginal people refer to stromatolites as their oldest ancestors. (This reminded me of the aboriginal man I spent several hours with on the other side of Australia in Mossman rainforest who knew his ancestors to be the oldest trees and rocks). The Aboriginals do not have a concept of owning things or land, but have a powerful sense of community which is the source of well-being. While this did not serve them well while explorers, settlers and immigrants came in claiming huge swaths of land for ownership, it is serves them now as they reclaim their heritage and extend their orally communicated laws and ways of governing to the next generation.
    Cynthia
  • Meteorite??
    I have always wanted to find a meteorite and I was especially hopeful during our trip to Antarctica as I had read about discoveries of chunks of cosmic iron and stones on the ice, including meteorites traced to the moon and Mars. In many ways, Antarctica seemed like the closest I was ever going to get to Mars. Scientists discover meteorites in Antarctica every year, but alas, I didn’t see anything during our expedition.
    On our trip back from Uluru (Ayers Rock) we saw on the map the Henbury Meteorite Craters about 130 km south of Alice Springs and decided to check it out. Over a dozen craters were formed 4-5,000 years ago when a nickel-iron meteoroid traveling at over 40,000 kilometers per hour broke up into pieces before impact. While considerably smoothed over the millennia, the impact craters can still be discerned.
    While some vegetation has grown in the depressions, the crater rims can still me made out.
     The sun was bearing down and the temperature was up around 35°C (95°F). This area is swarming with black flies that are incredibly persistent in trying to enter one’s eyes, nose or ears. Even after you brush them away, they return in a second or two. They don’t bite, but they are incredibly annoying. The only way to avoid going mad (unless you have the equanimity to just let the flies crawl all over your face) is to wear netting that covers the head. Still an occasional fly is able to crawl up under the netting, but you can limit this by cinching up the drawstring around your neck. 
    Determined to spot a meteorite, I walked slowly, peering through my netting, carefully scanning the ground for anything that looked promising. Cynthia asked, “What should I be looking for?” I said, “Look for something dark, something that feels heavy like metal.” Julian searched as well; he has always been a keen observer and is able to spot things his dad cannot. I got out my smartphone where I’ve installed a metal detector app (Smart Compass Pro). With this, we were able to do a quick check to see whether the rocks we found were magnetic, as they would be if they were composed of a nickel-iron alloy typical of some kinds of meteorites).
    We searched for nearly an hour. Julian came across a number of dark stones that looked like they may have been melted. They had no effect on the metal detector. Later, we concluded that they may have been tectites, stones that are formed when surface rocks are melted during meteor impacts. We discarded them. I was getting hot and feeling dehydrated, ready to return to the car. Then Cynthia shouted, “I think I found one!” I came rushing over to see what she had—a very dense black stone with a smooth surface. It definitely felt like a lump of metal. When I brought the stone close to the corner of the smartphone, the metal detector app went crazy. Cynthia immediately exclaimed, “Happy Father’s Day, Happy Anniversary and Happy Birthday! Since you didn’t find your meteorite in Antarctica, here is one for you!”
    Cynthia with her alleged meteorite
    The lump of metallic-like stone discovered by Cynthia at Henbury Meteorite Craters
    Our meteorite candidate registers strongly on the metal detector app
    Cynthia’s discovery
     Julian also came across a dense metallic stone just slightly smaller than the stone Cynthia found that also registered on the metal detector.
    Julian’s find
    Of course, at this point none of us are certain that either one of these stones are actually meteorites. If somehow we were able to slice one in half and polish the surface, we may be able to see the distinctive crystalline pattern typical of iron meteorites. In the meantime, we have to be satisfied with the uncertainty. Cynthia says she is not uncertain, but I insist on uncertainty, at least until we leave the country.
    At the Museum of Central Australia in Alice Springs there is a display of a 44 kg meteorite that was found at the Henbury Meteorite Craters. Since the discovery of the Henbury Craters in 1931, over 1200 kg of samples have been extracted. Julian and I took our two stones to the museum to compare their appearance with the large specimen. The large meteorite was definitely composed of a nickel-iron alloy and the surface appeared similar to the stones we found.
    Large 44 kg nickel-iron meteorite at the Museum of Central Australia with our find resting on top
    For a brief video comparing the response of the metal detector app to an ordinary dark stone and the meteorite candidate, see this short movie.
  • Arriving in Melbourne
    As our plane descended through thick clouds to land in Melbourne, raindrops battered the small windows of the airplane and everything looked quite green. When we emerged from the plane we were greeted by temperatures in the high 60s and misty spring rain and I knew we were beginning our journey homeward. Although this is fall in the southern hemisphere, it feels much like our spring.
    David and I dug out our lightweight waterproof windbreakers and pulled up our hoods. Melbourne seems a bit more fashion conscious. I did not see another hood the rest of the day. Seems everyone here uses umbrellas exclusively.
    Just down the lane from our little hotel is a sushi restaurant. Having given sushi a try a couple other times on this journey and being very disappointed, we were a little hesitant to try again. As we walked by the restaurant in the evening, however, we saw that it was quite busy and, thinking that a good sign, decided to try again.  Thank goodness we did. We enjoyed fabulous very fresh sushi. Thinking of our favorite sushi restaurants in the Seattle area, we again felt like we are ready to be heading home.
    This weekend we have plans to meet with the family whose children Sarah tutored when she spent the year in Paris two years ago. When there was a school holiday, they generously offered us, as Sarah’s family, the use of their home while their family had a holiday in Spain.  We all went and had a wonderful time with Sarah as our guide. While in Melbourne we will also meet with a couple we met during the Antarctica portion of our trip.
    Today we are celebrating our 32nd anniversary and both feel deep gratitude that we are such great traveling companions. I have enjoyed this rich journey, but look forward to returning to my heart’s home on Whidbey and to our family and friends.
    Cynthia
  • Coming around full circle
    Lunar eclipse April 15, 2014 from Melbourne, Australia
    Yesterday was our last day in Melbourne and while having dinner at a Thai restaurant we heard on the news a total lunar eclipse in progress. After dinner we went back to our hotel to fetch my camera and caught this image of the full moon rising above city buildings, just as it was emerging from totality. It still had the reddish color illuminated by light grazing the earth’s atmosphere. The left side was still darkened by the earth’s shadow. Then within thirty minutes, the moon looked full again. We completed the first leg of our return trip, having arriving in Sydney this morning. We had reservations for a 9:00 am flight and our airport shuttle wanted to pick us up at 6:00 am. That seemed a bit early to be heading to the airport, but it’s a good thing we did. Checking in, we discovered that our original flight had been canceled and we were booked on another flight already boarding for a 7:30 departure. We hustled through security and boarded with perhaps ten minutes to spare. After staying the night in Sydney we catch an Air New Zealand flight to Auckland tomorrow, then head on to Los Angeles and Seattle. It’s been 14 weeks since we left home and we are looking forward to being back. This has been a fabulous trip full of adventure, but now we’re ready to return to our lives on Whidbey Island. When we left in January, our only itinerary was to join the expedition to the subantarctic islands and the Ross Sea aboard the Akademik Shokalskyi. We had no specific plans in either new Zealand or Australia—we just followed our noses and took our directions from the locals. Other than a few domestic flights in Australia, we rarely planned more that a couple of days in advance where we would go and what we would see. It worked out well, enabling us to do things we never imagined when we left. Meeting Julian midway and traveling with him for nearly four weeks in Australia was a delight. Always upbeat, always adventuresome, always patient with his aging parents, he was an ideal traveling companion—especially as gourmet cook and driver. We look forward to seeing our friends back home and sharing our stories (including a few photos). David