Australia

Sydney Opera House, Sydney Harbour. A postcard view of the beautiful Opera House, taken from another scenic icon, the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

Cape Otway National Park, Australia. Cape Otway N.P. is a worthwhile stop along the Great Ocean Road on the south coast of Oz. Besides tremendous cliffside views from the lighthouse, this is one of the best places in all of Australia to spot wild koalas. Like this guy.

Blue Mountains, New South Wales (NSW). This view of the Three Sisters rock formation in the Blue Mountains can be found on many a cover of Australian travel guides.

The 12 Disciples, Victoria. Yet another icon of Australia (there are a lot of 'em). Located on the south coast along the Great Ocean Road - one of Australia's finest road trips.

Mt. Fields National Park, Tasmania. Tasmania is a hikers paradise, with a wide variety of very uncrowded terrain to explore. In some areas the scenery looks like northern California, other areas look more like Hawaii.

Australia is known for its large number of deadly creatures but there are cute and cuddly ones too. On the cute side we have the koalas (previous pic) plus kangaroos and wombats (above); on the 'danger' side we have the Tasmanian Devil and the Australian Drunk (upper left, lower right).

Perth, Western Australia. A treetop view of central Perth. The Federation Walkway runs through the huge Botanical Gardens at Kings Park, rising up into the eucalyptus trees along this elevated stretch.

Margaret River, Western Australia. In Australia, the east side of the country is green and the west side is bone-dry, much like in the US. Except for the lush area in the far southwest, which is the Margaret River region. Everything seems to grow well here, but especially grapes, so it's one of Oz's premiere wine districts. There are hundreds of wineries around here and, try as we might, we could not quite get to them all...

Everywhere, Australia. Oh yeah, and there is surf just about every place you look. This trip was in May, so it was coming up on mid-winter in the southern hemisphere, but the water was much warmer than I'd expected: the coldest was around 62 along the Antarctica-facing southern coast. CW from upper left: some Florida-like surf at Sydney's Bondi Beach; slashing at Newcastle; Bells Beach a couple of days after the Rip Curl Pro contest; tatty Ozzie surf girl.

The Edge of the World, Tasmania. If there was ever a place that fit it's name perfectly... This remote and oh-so-lonely shoreline is along the nearly deserted west coast of Tasmania.