Dee Why Beach

Photo gallery: Dee Why Beach
Google Earth Position: 33°45'13.87"S 151°17'47.43"E

Dee Why Beach is one of Sydney 's Northern Beaches (a continuous strip of around 20 beaches stretching up the coast from Manly to Palm Beach). The beach runs for about 1.2 km.

BTW the Northern Beaches are overall one of the wealthiest areas of Sydney.

The name Dee Why is unexplained. The earliest reference to it is pencil note in surveyor's book, "Wednesday, 27th Sept, 1815 Dy Beach" – but what it meant to him was not recorded...

Historical Bondi Beach

Royal National Park

Photo gallery: Royal National Park
Google Earth Position: 34° 7'53.83"S 151° 4'57.17"E

Royal National Park is the world's second oldest national park (after Yellowstone in the USA).

We enjoyed not only riding through and observing fauna and flora but also swimming in the sea, breathtaking lookouts, walking,... and picnic of course :))

Cronulla

Photo gallery: Cronulla
Google Earth Position: 34° 3'59.81"S 151° 8'46.05"E

Here are several shots from Darook Park in Cronulla.

Cronulla is a beachside suburb in southern Sydney located 26km south of the Sydney central business district (CBD) directly reachable by a train.

The 2005 Cronulla riots were a series of ethnically motivated mob confrontations which originated in and around Cronulla. Soon after the riot, ethnically motivated violent incidents occurred in several other Sydney suburbs, including Bondi Beach.

Sailing Whitsunday Islands (Great Barrier Reef)

Photo gallery: Great Barrier Reef - Whitsunday Islands
Google Earth Position: 20°17'35.79"S 149° 3'29.55"E

We spent 3 beautiful days and nights aboard the luxurious Alexander Stewart.

This tall ship is made from rich timber and has really a classic sailing charm. It is 21m long with 9 private double A/C cabins, inside dining room, showers etc. We appreciated the huge open deck area, just a few people aboard and fresh prepared food during the whole trip. Daily we ate from 9am to 10pm actually :).

The starting point was in the port town of Airlie Beach that we reached by airplane from Sydney and where we spent two nights. We especially enjoyed good food and midnight swimming in the local lagoon.

Our cruise led around the Whitsunday Islands that are a collective of continental islands of various sizes situated within the Great Barrier Reef including e.g. Whitehaven Beach. This 6 km long beach is recognised as one of the most beautiful beaches in the world because of brilliant silica sand that belongs to the purest in the world. Yeah, it was indeed one of climaxes of our cruise!

The sailing was divided into various activities e.g. walking through interior of islands, visiting breathtaking lookouts, swimming or just basking on white beaches.

But most of all we were impressed by snorkelling among many types of local fish. If we were fast enough we could touch several ones after all. Or when the crew threw feeds into the water just next to us we could immediately see decades of medium and hundreds of small fish all around us. Simply amazing!

The trip finished in Airlie Beach again and we felt fantastically relaxed and in a good mood from doing many other activities besides basking on the deck, eating and drinking.

Sydney Aquarium

Photo gallery: Sydney Aquarium

I spent several amazing hours with my Slovak mates in the Sydney Aquarium in Sydney’s Darling Harbour.

It is one of the largest aquariums in the world with more than 6000 different Australian fish and other sea and water creatures displayed in their natural habitats. We walked "on the ocean floor" through 145 metres of several underwater tunnels.

I enjoyed especially these sections a lot: the Great Barrier Reef Oceanarium, the Open ocean Oceanarium and the Seal Sanctuary.

USS Kitty Hawk in Sydney

Photo gallery: USS Kitty Hawk in Sydney

The US Navy aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk (CV 63) has arrived in Sydney Harbour for several days, accompanied by four other US navy ships. The ship holds about 5500 sailors and can carry up to 75 aircraft.

The huge extensive clearway (no-stopping allowed) and no-parking provisions have been put in place around the naval base in a bid to avoid a traffic chaos. Thousands of people wanting to catch a glimpse of the mighty craft are forced to use public transport.

While I was waiting for a bus

Sunset. Bondi Beach, Sydney

North Head

Photo gallery: North Head

North Head is a headland south-east of the suburb of Manly as a part of Sydney Harbour National Park. It is situated just opposite to South Head.

We found that this area is really nice for a walk, look at both the city and ocean and also for a picnic of course :)

New Zealand: Map Of Our Trip

New Zealand: Christchurch

Photo gallery: Christchurch

Our last stop in New Zealand was Christchurch, the largest city in the South Island situated midway down the east coast. We consider Christchurch one of the most beautiful cities we have seen in New Zealand, especially thanks to the pretty architecture, quaint streets and simply many nice parks and squares.

Moreover, our sightseeing was livening up with World Buskers Festival being held in many places of the city.

We spent two nights there but we had big trouble finding free rooms because of the Ping Floyd’s concert! We found two beds in a dorm finally. Unfortunately, it was pretty bad experience for me – I slept in a dorm for the first time and I really hope I’ll never have to repeat it :).

We flew from Christchurch back to Sydney and that was the end of our stunning vacation. Of course, another one started being planned on the airplane...

New Zealand: Hanmer Springs

Photo gallery: Hanmer Springs

Our almost last stop on the South Island was Hanmer Springs, a year round holiday destination offering a variety of outdoor activities, many times awarded spas and great cafes.

There we went for one of scenic bush walks that led us to a top of a mountain from where a 360 degree view of the surrounding countryside was magnificent.

That day we also spotted something unbelievable in this part of the world – a legendary Czech car Skoda 120L! We pursued it for several minutes but then the driver noticed us and seemed not to like it at all :).

New Zealand: Larnach Castle Gardens

Photo gallery: Larnach Castle Gardens

Welcome to the flower stroll!

You’ll see several carefully selected macro photographs from the gardens of Larnach Castle. We spent there more than one hour and really enjoyed taking pictures.

New Zealand: Dunedin - Cadbury - Larnach Castle

Photo gallery: Dunedin - Cadbury - Larnach Castle

From the west shore of the South island we straightaway moved to the opposite one, specifically to the town of Dunedin.

We have very sweet experience from there thanks to a fascinating guided tour around the Cadbury Dunedin chocolate factory accompanied by tasting Cadbury products along the way :).

We also explored Larnach Castle, the only castle in New Zealand (btw Australia has none). It was built in 1871 and is still privately owned. Instead of an interior tour we spent more than one hour in a glorious botanic garden adjacent to the castle. There we took many macro-photos, so I decided to place them into another photo gallery. We were thinking about staying in the castle overnight, but after all a camp fitted into our budget better :).

At the end of the photo gallery you can find several photos of aboriginal Maori people and their culture.

New Zealand: Milford Sound

Photo gallery: Milford Sound

Another part of our NZ’s holiday led to Fiordland. Milford Sound is one of NZ’s biggest tourist attractions.

We decided to visit the fjord on a boat. If there was sunshine we could catch a reflection of these peaks in the water. But unfortunately, downpour of water is almost guaranteed in this area, so we could admire just parts of high hills sticked out from the clouds.

Anyway, several hundred meters high cliffs grown up right away from the water was really amazing. The cliffs were adorned with many long waterfalls and funny seals together with incredibly low fog :).

New Zealand: Queenstown - Lake Wakatipu

Photo gallery: Queenstown - Lake Wakatipu

We spent an entire day on the way through the Queenstown region. Thanks to very good weather we could enjoy magnificent mountains rising up to the sky from fascinating blue lakes. We were stopping unusually many times just to take pictures, we couldn’t miss anything!

Although Queenstown is quite small, it is a centre of this region and its mountains are famous for excellent skiing conditions. We liked the town a lot due to many nice small streets fringed by pubs, cafes, boutiques and neighbouring scenery as well. We consider it to be the most beautiful town we have seen in NZ, maybe because it’s very similar to Alpine’s villages.

Then we continued along large Lake Wakatipu to the West. With a length of 80 kilometres, it is New Zealand's longest lake (and third largest). It is at an altitude of 310 metres.

Living on Bondi Beach - Summer 2006/07

Photo gallery: Living on Bondi Beach - Summer 2006/07

I published several photos from Bondi Beach that were taken during the summer.

Olympic Australia Tour 2007

Photo gallery: Olympic Australia Tour 2007

Here are several shots from the concert of the Czech legendary rock band in Sydney.

New Zealand: Franz Josef Glacier & Fox Glacier - Lake Matheson - Lake Wanaka

Photo gallery: Franz Josef Glacier & Fox Glacier - Lake Matheson - Lake Wanaka

During travelling to the south we passed by two magnificent glaciers: Franz Josef Glacier (12 km long) and Fox Glacier.

The weather was pretty bad that time so we moved on to the Lake Matheson, which is a great place well-known for the reflections of Mt. Cook on its surface. We managed to walk around it but instead of the highest mountain in NZ we saw cloudy sky.

Another part of our journey led around Lake Hawea to Lake Wanaka where we stayed overnight in our lovely tent again :)

New Zealand: Wellington - Picton - Nelson - Hokitika

Photo gallery: Wellington - Picton - Nelson - Hokitika

Several first pictures were taken in the amazingly green and formed country in the south of the North Island. We drove through it to Wellington to catch an early morning ferry to the South Island. After we arrived in Picton we drove to the town of Nelson and further inland to stay overnight in a campsite by two charming lakes in St. Arnautts.

The next day we reached the west cost and continued to the south. We visited Hokitika, a small town famous for its traditional source of Jade (also known as Nephrite, Greenstone, and Pounamua). There we found many artisans carving Jade into contemporary carvings of traditional NZ designs, modern designs or simple, beautiful jewels.

We also visited interesting Glow Worm Dell. Glow-worm is a common name for various different groups of insect larvae and adult larviform females that glow through bioluminescence. Simply, when you go to the dell you can see only small shinning dots in the dark :)