American travelers on the East Coast and in the Midwest should be excited about the new Qantas flights from Dallas/Fort Worth to Brisbane. Now they can get to Australia without a stop in Los Angeles.
Australia
Visit Darwin in Australia’s Northern Territory
A Guide to Darwin, the Gateway to Adventure in Australia’s Top End
If you’re off to Australia, you need to see the rugged Northern Territory. It’s rugged and untamed, and the port town of Darwin is a major gateway to all the fun. There are tons of trips departing Darwin – all ready to take travelers from Litchfield Park to the mighty Kakadu!
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Networking with Other Bloggers at SMC Phoenix
Last night, I attended a Social Media Club Phoenix event. It as all about blogging and bloggers, with a panel of four bloggers of various stripes. Two were tech bloggers, one was a professional lifestyle blogger and the last was a guy who just posts his thoughts when they occur to him. The last guy, Matthew Petro, was the reason I attended. We have some common friends, and he seems like a mensch (to borrow some Yiddish).
The panel started off with a pretty obvious question, and one I’ve never addressed here: Why do you blog?
I never actually considered having a WordPress blog -or a blog other than my deeply buried Livejournal account- until a few years ago. I was interviewing a teenager for work. He’d visited Australia on a trip through a children’s charity that grants the wishes of kids with life-threatening medical conditions. This was shortly after I’d returned from Australia myself.
His trip was mostly in Sydney, and mine was a pretty far-flung event. So we swapped tales, and he suggested that I send him some photos.
That got me thinking – if one guy was interested in my trip to Australia, maybe a few other people would be. So I started the blog just to have a reminder of my trip. Then I kept coming up with topics that were travel and adventure-related. Now, you have before you this increasingly messy but interesting (I hope) bunch of content. I really need to take the CodeWhacker to some of the [...]
5 Places That Will Make You Happy to Be Alive
A friend of mine recently got back from Hawaii. I commented in his blog that Hawaii has a vibe that makes you feel lighter. It’s like the drag of gravity abates. You breathe easier. Your shoulders relax, moving away from your ears. The air smells better, and food tastes better.
“It makes you happy to be alive,” he replied to my message. Yes, it sure does.
That inspired me to make a list of some places that will make you happy to be alive. Feel free to add yours in the comments
Cairns, Australia – I was shocked when I arrived in Cairns. It’s far smaller than I expected, with a laid-back attitude (even the airport rental car agents are friendly). It seemed to be all beaches flanked by mountains jutting out of the coastline. It’s also a great starting point to visit a lot of cool areas, like Port Douglas and the Atherton Tablelands. Like coffee? This is the gateway to Australia’s coffee plantations. Also, there’s lots of good hiking. And some thing called the Great Barrier Reef – you may have heard of it.
Waitomo, New Zealand – This is just hours from Auckland. It’s very small and very rural – and so relaxing that you can slip into a coma. Which is what you’ll be ready for if you choose to hit the multitude of limestone caves in the area, where you can scope out the famous glow worms. When you can hear sheep and pigs outside your hotel, you know [...]
Watch Wallabies and other Wildlife in Australia’s Top End
Everyone has a reason for traveling – shopping, lying by the beach, sightseeing, sampling cuisine.
It seeing wildlife is the reason you book long-haul flights, put Australia high on your list. The entire continent is too much for most people to explore in a single trip – especially us Americans who struggle to get two weeks away from the cubicle. If you want to maximize the number of creatures you’ll see, there’s one place you need to visit: The Northern Territory, or Top End as it’s often known in Australia. It’s a real Australian travel experience you’ll always remember.
If you’ve seen Crocodile Dundee, you’ve caught a glimpse of the Northern Territory. It’s littered with towns bearing lyrical names like Humpty Doo and Jabiru, most derived from Aboriginal languages. Among its centerpieces is the Kakadu National Park, measuring nearly 60 by 120
And each square mile of both the Top End and the Kakadu is overflowing with creatures of every size, shape and classification. The roads are rough. The distances are formidable. The routes are varying. And many of the creatures are fierece. That makes a guide a good idea. I highly recommend Wilderness Adventures.
During my time bouncing around the NT, here are some spots that yielded the best creature sightings (WARNING – mind your guides and everything they say about staying safe. Your life is on the line out there):
Corroboree Billabong
This place is absolutely crawling with crocs. You know you’re starting to get assimilated when you point one out to your travel buddies and [...]
