Wet and wild

As you can imagine, much of life in Australia revolves around sun, sand and surf. If you live in any of Australia's five largest cities on the mainland (Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, Darwin) you are probably never more than 20 kilometres or so from the beach. Especially if you live in Sydney where there are something like a dozen beaches within the city limits.

As a result, many of the pictures I've taken in the last seven months involve the beach and/or water in some way or another. I think growing up in a landlocked province in Western Canada has only increased my fascination with the beach, to boot. Look at me in this picture. I'm jumping for joy. Shameless.

Here are a few more photos from recent wet-water pursuits.

A glorious sunset on Moreton Island. A couple of friends and I spent a Saturday night camping in the woods. This is the sunset we were treated to that evening. Couldn't have asked for it be much better.

Oddur holds up his big catch: a starfish we found while strolling the beaches of Moreton Island, which you'll note, span miles and miles of ground.

The resort I worked at is in the far distance, near where the land juts out further to sea.

The Tornado: one of the most "death-defying" slides at Wet 'n Wild, a waterslide park south of Brisbane that I visited last weekend.

This ride was cool! You sit three or four to a tube and come flying down a chute before being hurled into the round part of the slide (the tornado) and out the other end. It's all over very quickly but well worth the wait in line.

A couple of kids are shot out the end of the tube.

Washed out the end of tornado for the grand finale.