n the fall of 2001, my wife Lyne (fiancée at the time) and I went on our dream trip to Australia. We had only been together for a little over a year when we first thought up the idea, and we wanted it to be customized to our tastes instead of the packages you'd typically find in a brochure. Knowing it would cost a considerable amount of money, we pinched and saved for a little over five years before the dream finally came true.

Having a sizable amount of time to plan, we customised our trip down to the last detail, and with the help of Gina Dorey, a local reputable travel planner specializing in Australia, everything worked out perfectly. Even the events of 9/11 and the failure of Ansett, one of Australia's national airlines, did not throw us for a loop.  Gina was on top of it the whole way through, from booking alternate passage on Qantas, to ensuring our travel visas would still be sufficient to get us into the country.

When we got engaged in the summer of 1997, we decided that it would be special if our trip not only became our honeymoon, but that we could also be married there. Neither one of us wanted the traditional wedding, since those are ultimately for other people instead of the bride and groom, so "eloping" to Australia seemed like a cool thing to do.

This site chronicles our month long trip with a guided tour for people who want a detailed account of what we did and where, as well as a photos only section with some text blurbs for a more visual tour. While on the trip, the itinerary you'll find here was originally on a page of its own so that friends and family could track where we were and when. The web address was also printed on our luggage tags so that a kind soul could find us and send us our bags if they got lost. Finally, the links section is simply a place to put the addresses to the many sites we found useful during the planning of our trip.