After meeting on the live aboard dive boat Undersea Explorer, having their trip cut short by a cyclone and Katie being flooded in in Ross’ hometown of Cairns there was no looking back. A 3 year long-distance relationship between Omaha Nebraska and Cairns led to Ross moving over to the US where they lived in North Carolina while Katie completed her masters work on corals. They returned to Cairns in 2008 where Ross surprised Katie with a trip to the Great Ocean Road where he proposed. With Katie being a marine biologist and Ross a skipper, the Northern Beaches of Cairns have become the perfect place to call home. A restored kombie served as the limo shuttling the wedding party to Whitfield House following the ceremony where they held a cocktail reception with 80 of their closest friends and family.