. The Sydney New Year’s Eve Fireworks Sydney stages its annual New Year’s Eve fireworks celebration on Sydney harbour around its iconic harbour bridge. With a backdrop of the Sydney opera house and an armada of spectator water craft, the event is regarded as one of the world’s greatest New Year’s Eve displays. There are in fact two firework displays, one at 9pm lasting about 10 minutes and the major spectacle starting precisely at midnight and lasting 15 minutes. A photo of the 9pm display is shown in fig1. taken from a small park in Dover Heights, whose location is shown by a red arrow in fig2. . Sydney Fireworks Vantage Points. . There are numerous vantage points on the harbour’s extensive foreshores fig2, (see also city of sydney NYE firework vantage points), but there is upward of 1.5 million people competing for the best locations, resulting in most places becoming very crowded or being closed to visitors once the site has reached capacity. The public (free) sites with the most dramatic view of the fireworks are at Blues Point, a small reserve on Lavender Bay viewing the western side of the bridge; and at Mrs Macquarie’s Chair viewing the classical east side of the bridge, […]
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Uluru and Kata Tjuta Central Australia Uluru (aka Ayers Rock) is a world famous tourist destination located in Central Australia (see Uluru and Kata Tjuta map Fig2). But there is much more here than just the monolith and climbing to the top. Just before the point of sunset the whole landscape takes on a new persona with the rocks reflecting the brilliant red colours of the sunset. It is as if the land has woken up from its long daytime sleep, and discarded its drab bleached colours to be reborn once again. 50 km to the west at the end of a fast sealed road is Kata Tjuta (aka the Olgas), a jumbled collection of enormous rock slab domes with the tallest, Mt Olga being 200m higher that Uluru. This formation also takes on a different personality near sunset. It is rewarding to walk a short distance through the surrounding bush which is uniquely central Australian as well as exploring the canyons that surround the base of Kata Tjuta. But the overall piece de resistance is the aerial view from a hovering helicopter at the point of sunset ( above featured image), looking toward Uluru 40km in the distance and […]
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Bondi Beach, Australia One of the world’s top city beaches. A tale of the perfect beach. Some time ago a newspaper journalist reported he had found the best beach in the world in Costa Rica. Or was it in Colombia? Anyway, he described the vista that met him after his 2 hour taxi ride over a bumpy dirt track, as a magnificent curved white sand beach, completely unspoilt by human impact, fringed by curved coconut palms and greenery, and framed by a sea of the clearest turquoise. It was a hot day and he removed his shoes and shirt, but as he approached the tree line, thorns that had blown from the jungle stuck in his foot, and signs warning of falling coconuts scared him from sitting beneath the palms. There was also a disagreeable smell of decaying fruit which drove him back to the shoreline. Knee deep in the crystal clear water, and about to take swim, he was reminded of sea snakes, and worrying images from the film “Jaws”, flitted through his consciousness. Suddenly, he started to worry about unseen dangers lurking below the surface. Not a brave or foolish person, but now hot and sweating from a […]
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Heron Island- A Coral Cay Australia Heron Island Overview Heron Island is a small low lying coral cay located on the tropic of Capricorn at the southern end of the Great Barrier Reef, some 72Km off the coast of southern Queensland, Fig1. Being 300m at its widest point and 800m long it takes but 40 minutes to walk around the island. There is a small protected Pisonia forest that occupies 2/3 of the island and is part of the Capricornia Cays National Park. The remaining 1/3 of the island contains the Queensland University Research station and The Heron Island Resort http://www.heronisland.com/, which can accommodate some 200 guests in bungalows hidden amongst trees near the north-western shorelines, Fig2. The island is composed of sand and coral, surrounded by a fringing reef which is ideal for snorkeling and scuba diving, and is a major nesting site for sea birds and turtles. Due to the distance from the mainland and the boat transfer schedule, Heron Island has few day tourists. This provides a back to nature experience with pristine beaches and good water clarity. The peak activity for shore based wildlife occurs during the months of January through mid February. During this period […]
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Swimming with Whalesharks Exmouth Australia Exmouth in the far north west of Australia is a convenient location to swim with whale sharks. Just off the coast, the Ningaloo reef comes close to the shore, see Exmouth map Fig1. The Ningaloo coral reef spawns two weeks after the full moon in March, resulting in an explosion of plankton and marine life that attract large pelagic fish including considerable numbers of whale sharks. There are a number of dive companies in Exmouth that run day tours off the Exmouth peninsula to allow swimmers to snorkel with the whale sharks. See the Exmouth visitor centre. Each boat is accompanied by a spotter plane which locates the whale shark and then directs the mother boat to a suitable intersect point. Some boats launch the swimmers directly from the boat but most release the swimmers from a Zodiac inflatable that manoeuvres to a position in front of the shark. The Zodiac then picks up swimmers that have tired or have fallen behind and will again release them in front of the shark. Each mother ship has a strong staff member swim with the whale shark to keep the tour skipper informed of the whale shark’s […]
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Swimming with the jellyfish in Jellyfish Lake Palau Swimming amongst millions of stingless jellyfish in Palau’s landlocked Jellyfish Lake is an amazing experience and a must-do-activity. Palau has five landlocked saltwater lakes each with its own unique species of jelly fish, but visitors are only allowed to snorkel in Jellyfish Lake located on the southern island of Eil Malk, see Jellyfish Lake map Fig1. Here, the dominant species is the Golden jellyfish whose sting is mild and often undetectable to humans, as the stingers rarely penetrate skin. It is estimated there are 15 million jellyfish in this lake which migrate to the surface to follow the sun during the day and then return to the depths at night. This dramatic migration is an outcome of the symbiotic relationship between the jellies and a microscopic algae carried within their tissues. The algae need to feed on the nutrient rich layer which occurs at depths below 15m, and to return to the surface to photosynthesize a sugar to support their jellyfish host. The upper layer is oxygenated and safe for humans, but the bottom anoxic layer containing hydrogen sulphide and phosphates is toxic to humans. Consequently scuba diving is not permitted. Some Observations. ♦The Golden Jellyfish have a bell the size of a large grapefruit that feels smooth and not slimy to the touch. ♦The visibility near the surface is limited by […]
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