So, I mentioned the cruise we recently went on, leaving Los Angeles, and heading down to Mexico - stopping in 3 ports, Puerto Vallarta, Mazatlan & Cabo San Lucas.

When you stop in each port, you generally arrive early in the morning, and you have the whole day in that city to spend the day doing what you like. Out of the three we visited, all were nice in their own way, but I have to say Cabo San Lucas was the highlight.

After having walked around for a little while, we headed back to the Marina and got a small glass bottom boat out to the beaches and looking at all the fish around the reef. Here is a photo I took going through the amazing rocks;

Cabo San Lucas

We then stopped at Lovers Beach, which was just stunning, here is a photo;

Lovers Beach, Cabo San Lucas

I should also show you the view we woke up to when we had docked in Cabo, we sat on our balcony of the boat eating breakfast while looking out over this - it was unbelievable;

Sun rise in Cabo

While Cabo was probably our favourite place, Mazatlan and Puerto Vallarta were still great, here are some shots I took while there;

Mazatlan

We took a walk along the beach in Mazatlan;

The beach in Mazatlan

And this one was taken at some markets in Puerto Vallarta;

Markets in Puerto Vallarta

After we walked around the markets, we headed up the mountains to a scenic restaurant that over looks all the waterfalls - it was great Mexican food in a great location;

Waterfalls in Puerto Vallarta

All in all, it was a great cruise, and we were able to see 3 great parts of Mexico, places we probably would never had seen without being on the cruise. This years cruise is through South America and the Panama Canal, so should be great.

So, next stop after Vegas was Whistler, Canada. I was meeting my family there - they were flying in from Sydney, I was flying in from Vegas.

They had all been to Whislter the year before, I hadn’t - so I didn’t really know what to expect. On the drive from Vancouver to Whistler (about 2 hours), it started snowing quite heavily - so that was promising!

We arrived and settled into our apartment we had rented - very nice I might add… It was getting dark by the time we arrived, but the snow was bucketing down. We went for a walk around, and organised ski hire. The next day we started skiing - great fun. We skied 11 out of 12 days - it is always the case, on the last day you are just getting the hang of it and then you have to leave!

Words can’t express what this place is like - you sit at one of the restaurants at the top of the mountain, and you just look out over the top of the clouds. Here are some pictures I took from Christine’s, at the top of Blackcomb.

View from Christine's (Blackcomb)

Another shot from Christine's

Here is another shot on the walking path that connects the Upper Village to Whistler;

Creek on the way from the Upper Village to Whistler

If you are ever in Whistler, we had the most amazing meal at Rim Rock Café - it was extraordinary. Great wine list, and the most amazing steaks. I would reccommend you stop by for a meal if you are close by. Details are;

Rim Rock Cafe

Well, people thought that it couldn’t be done. When I told my family and friends that we planned on driving from Melbourne to Adelaide along the Great Ocean Road in one go, and in one day, they thought I was mad. Google told us 14 hours – others who had done it told us 18-20 hours, so, we braced ourselves for the worst, and allocated a solid 18 hours to the feat.

On Thursday night we flew down to Melbourne. After many a delay, we finally arrived at Avalon airport at around 11pm. A 40 minute drive into our hotel on Collins St, and it was almost midnight before we were checked in.

Our plan was to leave at 6am on Friday morning, but with our late arrival into Melbourne we decided against it, and instead agreed to meet at 9am in the lobby. 9am came, and we packed the car. We had a Nissan Patrol, but after the drive from the airport to the hotel the night before, we decided we needed a different car. We swung by an AVIS and traded up to a Tarago. Talk about roomy – this thing was going to do us very well.

Within the first hour of the drive, Mark has asked us to stop 5 times so he could take photos. It wasn’t looking good, but we stayed confident that we could make it in the one go. Soon enough, we were making good ground, stopping at Bell’s Beach, Apollo Bay, The 12 Apostles, London Bridge and some other unbelievable pieces of coast line. At around the 12 Apostles, it started pouring down with rain, so we were now soaked. Before we knew it, we had finished the coastal part of the drive and had about 650kms to go – it was just before 6pm and at our current speed, it meant we would arrive in Adelaide at around midnight, making it a 14 hour trip.

GOR

The rest of the trip saw us drive though some beautiful country side – Coonawarra was unbelievable – Vineyards as far as the eye could see – it really was out of this world.

Night came, and around midnight, we pulled into our hotel in Glenelg, Adelaide. We were tired, but we did it. We saw everything, stopped everywhere and missed nothing, and did the drive all in 14 hours.

This drive is unbelievable, and it was a shame that it rained on us, as we missed out on many good photography opportunities, but even so, the views we saw were out of control – Everyone needs to do this drive at some point.

As I have posted before, some of my shots have been making Flickr Explore - a collection of the day’s most interesting photos. Only 500 photos make it on each day, so the fact that 24 of mine have made it is pretty good….

Here are the shots that made it.

1. Hyde Park by night, 2. Waterside dining, 3. Anzac Bridge by Night, 4. Sun sets, and the clouds move in, 5. Mount Vesuvius hides behind thick cloud, 6. Duomo of Florence, 7. Waves crash over Italy’s Cinque Terre, 8. Water crashes over rocks as sun wakes,

9. Sun wakes up over Turimetta, 10. First steps, 11. Clouds drifting over Melbourne’s Yarra, 12. Yarra by night, 13. Colourful Brighton Beach, 14. Beautiful Byron Bay, 15. Venice, truly spectacular, 16. The sun sets over San Gimignano,

17. The peace of Lucerne, 18. Quiet, Peaceful Siena, 19. A Cool Sydney Night, 20. The ever beautiful Vatican, 21. Sydney Harbour Bridge up close, 22. The beautiful Amalfi Coast, 23. Storm closing in on San Francisco, 24. Golden Gate Bridge by night

Quite a while ago now, Mark, Brad and I went down to Balmain for a shoot. It was a nice afternoon, and it was right on the water. We took quite a few shots - I took quite a few HDR’s (none were very good) - but these shots I liked, so thought I would post them…