Tasmania – Part II

After coming to grips with the unique features of the Holden Commodore I made my way to the Walls of Jerusalem National Park. Even though I had managed to skip out of the conference early I still arrived at the park car cark a little late, 4pm actually. Lucky enough for me it got dark quite late in Tasmania, but it still meant that the first day of hiking was going to be a little rushed as I had ~7km to do. The great thing about this national park is that there are no roads in it, or even to it for that matter. You need to hike for an hour or so to get into the park which I hoped would keep the tourist numbers down, which in the end it did. After a cruel climb I reached that start of the valley and was rewarded with some spectacular views. The clouds started to turn ominously black and with the setting sun created some amazing light for photography. But with the apparent impending doom of a storm and ever reducing light I had to tear myself away from taking photos and make a dash for the campsite.

The next day was overcast, cold and drizzly, not exactly great weather for tramping or photography. I headed off into the “Walls” and then climbed Mt Jerusalem before returning to camp that afternoon.

The West Wall

Camp and a Bennetts wallaby

Me on top of Mt Jerusalem

The West Wall from Mt Jerusalem

Macro Landscape

Simons Holden Commodore Review

The Holden Commodore Executive (aka the shitbox)

When I went to pick up my ultra fuel efficient Hyundai Getz from Avis in Hobart I was informed that I had been "upgraded" to a Holden Commodore Executive. I figured I had been Holden bashing for quite a few years and maybe this would be a good chance to really test the great Australian car. In the end I put the car through 1400km of rough Tasmanian roads so I think that my review is sound. So here goes...
I headed north from Hobart to the Walls of Jerusalem (about 5 hrs drive) and was quite impressed by its handling of straight flat roads at 110 km/h. However, at the first corner things began to change. As it is an automatic there is absolutely no engine braking so I spent the whole trip riding the brakes as the bloody thing wouldn’t slow down when you take your foot off the accelerator. The problem was compounded by the fact that the gear box had, what was possibly the slowest gear shift possible. You would put your foot down, nothing happens, push it further and still nothing, push the bloody thing through the floor and finally it drops 3 gears, loses traction and the rear wheels start spinning. This became a real problem when I attempted a quick 3-point turn on a tight road. The change between drive and reverse took for ever, not to mention that the turning radius for this car is about the size of a Sydney suburb. I discovered that the slow gear change problem could be partially solved by engaging "power shift", I think a more suitable name for this would be "disengage suicidally slow gear change". It was about this time that the ABS brakes failed (after consulting the manual I was relieved to see that the normal breaks would still work) which may explain the metallic grinding sound that often came from the brakes. But Australians reading this will be saying, brakes, turning, what? Power is all that matters and so I will now address that. The engine is a 3.8L V6 producing 152 kW of gas guzzling power for the rear wheels. The problem is that that power doesnt get to the road as there is no traction control and due to the appalling gear box the tyres spend most of their time spinning. This was initially a good laugh but the novelty soon wears off on rough gravel roads. On the plus side the car was packed with all sorts of electronic wizardry that showed the average fuel consumption and how many km's until empty. On the last day I noticed that I had ~160 km left of gas so I figured I would wait before filling up, unfortunately I forgot that it was using the Australian number system so 20 km down the road I was warned that I had less than 50 km of fuel left. Finally lets look at styling, while it is better looking than a PT cruiser, even that is push. So to sum it up the car quickly became affectionately known during the trip as "the shitbox". So the next time I get offered an upgrade to a Holden Commodore I think I will pass on the offer and walk 1400km.

Tasmania - Part I

The main reason for going to Tasmania was to attend the IC07 conference which was being held in Hobart. I was very lucky to be nominated for a talk which I assumed would be in some small room that maybe 30 people would come to, I couldn't be further from the truth. When I arrived at the confernce I was informed that the talk could be 12 min long at the very most (practices had it at ~18 min) so I spent the next few days trying to cut down the talk. Just before leaving for Tasmania I had also discovered that the talk was being held in the main plenary hall (shown below). In the end the talk went well and I even managed to just squeeze it down to 12 min. Unfortunately my arch nemesis won the Stranks prize, but I have put that down to the fact that she has Gingervitis and the judges felt sorry for her. With the talk out of the way I quickly bailed on the conference and went exploring in Tasmania.

New Zealand - Part II

So after visiting my relatives I joined Aleisha in Palmerston North for Rachels wedding. I had a bit of time to kill so I decided to check out the only tourist attraction of the area, the Te Apiti wind farm.

These turbines were bloody massive, each of the towers were 70m tall! I was using ND filters to reduce the amount of light and give a sense of motion for the blades but the filters were nasty ones from ebay so there is some weird color cast.

So then it was on to the main event, Rachels and Mikes wedding. It was a lovely day and an excellent venue.

Busy few weeks

Well I have now returned to Sydney after a busy couple of weeks. I was in NZ in early Feb to visit some relatives and for Rachel's wedding. After the wedding I flew to Tasmania for a conference and then took a few days off afterwards for a bit of tramping. I took a few photos and these will be put up over the next few weeks.

My Granny

The Kapiti Coast (using grad ND filters)

Swing art

Happy Australia Day

Well Aleisha and I made the mistake of venturing out of our house on Australia day, what were we thinking! To cut a long story short when we were waiting for a bus to come home I saw a women throw her old bus pass on the ground. Crikey, thats un-Australian I though, so I mentioned that she dropped something, her response was that it was used and she didn't want it any more. I said but its Australia day shouldn't you be looking after your country by not littering, her response, I look after myself. Next year we will stay indoors.

Goodbye Dr G

Since today is Dr G's last day we had a group BBQ at Cameron's swanky new (well renovated) house last night. It was an excellent evening with plenty of meat and home brew being consumed. Now that Greg has left I may have to start writing writing my thesis as it doesn't look he will have time to do it in Chicago, slacker.

The Group

Thats hot - Mikey

Cameron and Greg

Meat

Symphony in the Domain

Last night a bunch of us headed to the Domain for our yearly dose of culture. The Sydney symphony put on a free performance so I figured it would be an excellent excuse to drink wine and eat cheese. It was an excellent night and the music was also pretty good.

By 5pm the crowds were starting to form

Would you like some chips with that dip

In search of the Tawny Frogmouth

We headed off to Centennial Park to try and spot some Tawny Frogmouths. While they have the reputation of being somewhat difficult to see during the day we had a location where thay were sure to be. In the end we didnt see any but managed to some other interesting locals.

Cargo Cults

I am currently reading "The God Delusion" written by Richard Dawkins (he also wrote The Selfish Gene) and must admit that I am quite enjoying it. One of the many things that I have been enlightened about is the existence of Cargo Cults. Rather than trying to explain them myself I will simply refer you to the Wikipedia description of Cargo Cults as well as a classic example of one in the John Frum movement.
I guess these bazaar beliefs dont seem that far fetched when you consider that even today some educated (and I use that term very loosely) people believe in similar religions such as Scientology , Mormonism and others that have been around for even longer.

Happy New Year

We decided to join the masses of people (mostly Poms) and welcome in the New Year from Mrs Macquaries point. It was an excellent day of relaxing in the sun and enjoying the Christmas spirit. Sorry there are no photos of the fireworks as I couldn't be bothered lugging my tripod around with me.

Aleisha and Iain

Millions of Poms

Critters

In an attempt to keep my sanity I decided to drag my self away from work the other day to photograph some critters in Olympic Park. All and All a successful day of critter spotting.

Black-winged Stilts

Royal Spoonbill

Dragonflies

Its that time of year again

Believe it or not its three weeks until Christmas and in an attempt to get into the Christmas spirit Aleisha and I decided to put up our "tree". While it looks nice we still dont feel the Christmas spirit. Either it has something to do with being Secular Humanists or it’s due to our 8yr Kentucky spirit running low.

Bondi - Sculpture by the Sea

The annual Sculpture by the Sea exhibition at Bondi is always an excellent opportunity to do a bit of photography and get a bit of culture. Of course I took more photos than just this one, so if you would like to have a look at the rest then check out the website.

Wine Trip

On Saturday a few of us from work headed up to the Hunter Valley for a wine tour. It was a great day with a lot of wine being consumed, sorry I mean tasted.

Nothing like a few Blue Tongue beers to cleanse the pallet.

All the excitement was a bit too much for Allan.

U2

Well after much anguish (long story and kinda boring) we finally managed to see U2 on Friday night. The opening artist was Kanye West who, to be perfectly honest was pretty shit and thankfully only "performed" for 30min. Why he opened for U2 is anyones guess. Anyway U2 were who we had come to see and they did not let us down. We did get a little wet, and for once it was not due to the fat sweaty man in the mosh pit (it rained). U2 were excellent and played a good mix of old and new stuff with a set that lasted ~2 1/2 hours. All and all an excellent night.

Green Power

I think I may be turning into a tree hugging hippie as we have just converted to "Green Power". After getting pissed off by the Australian governments absolute retardedness when it comes to greenhouse gas emission we decided to do something ourselves. So we have converted 100 % wind generated electricity. How it works is that for every kW hr of power we use Origin Energy (our new supplier) purchases the same amount from an accredited wind farm. The electricity that actually comes into our house hasn't in any way changed but we generate demand for wind power. If demand increases enough more wind farms will be built, competition will increase and prices will come down and more people will use it (well that is the theory at least). It is more expensive at ~15c per kW hr but it worked out to be stuff all each month and if we can afford it (being relatively poor) almost everyone else can. To find out more follow the link. In case you didn't realise over 90% of Australia's power comes from burning fossil fuels and most of that is coal.

Outback photos are up

My Dad and I just got back from a five day trip into the outback, well the start of the outback at least. From Sydney we went to Kanangra Boyd national park, Bathurst, Cobar, Gundabooka national park, Bourke, Mt Oxley, Walgett, Lighting Ridge and finally Warrumbungle national park. In all we thrashed our rental car for 2500km, not a bad effort for 5 days. We managed to see a lot of critters during that time but unfortunately still no Wombats.
I have sifted though the photos and have put up a few on the website.

Sunset from the top of Mt Oxley

I know where you are

Google has made some amazing free software called Google Analytics that allows you to track who visits your website. I installed it on my BLOG a while back and have been tracking where everyone comes from and whos site they used to visit mine. It also gives you lots of other info like what operating system people use or which web browser is used. Does anyone feel violated yet? I was glad to learn that 76% of people viewing my website use firefox and then shocked to see that some dirty Mac user also visited my site.

Canvas Prints on their way.

Aleisha and I decided to get a couple of canvas prints of photos from our Africa trip and I just got the email saying that they have been sent. This is a copy of that email.

Dear Simon Iremonger                                                                 

It is my pleasure to inform you that your brilliant print has begun its journey to you. You will be pleased to know that I personally supervised our production team as they delicately printed your image and hand crafted a fine timber frame from the very best of our timber stocks. 

I watched as they delicately stretched and wrapped your print around the frame, and meticulously inserted Italian made staples to secure your print. I took great delight in witnessing our highly trained hanging expert from Japan insert the hooks and cord that will be used to hang your print for all the world to see. 

Your print was then carried aloft to our packaging temple, where our white-gloved staff checked your work of art to ensure it met our sky high standards. 

I could only smile as your print was collected by six fine horsemen. The roar of 100 drummers drumming was deafening, as your print left our premises. The entire population of Brisbane lined the streets and cheered as your print traveled through our wonderful city to the very competent hands of our delivery fulfillment partners. Please be calm in the knowledge 
that I personally inserted one of our purebred carrier pigeons into your parcel. Should anything go wrong, he will fly immediately back to let us know of the problem. 

We are thoroughly exhausted, but cannot wait to serve you again. In the unlikely event that you are not completely happy with your masterpiece, I have 9 of our finest staff waiting by the phone to resolve your concerns as per our customer guarantee. Thank-you once again, we truly appreciate that it is you, our customer, that puts the food on our table.

Some people have far to much spare time.

Aboriginal Rock Art

Yesterday Aleisha and I decided to try and track down some Aboriginal rock art in the Royal National Park. As expected there were no signs indicating where it was and after asking numerous people for directions and accidentally stumbling upon a nudist beach we finally found the rock art. There were also a surprising number of critters about.

Jacky Lizard

Little Corella

Anyone want a used underwater camera housing?

I have spotted an excellent deal on ebay, a used but excellent condition underwater housing for dSLR cameras.

Nanovehicles

Every now and again a paper appears that really grabs my attention, this was one of them. A new review article about Nanovehicles in Chem. Soc. Rev., it is good to see that scientists are researching areas that can really benefit humanity.

"Nanocars"

Happy Birthday Aleisha

To celebrate Aleisha's birthday we had the traditional Mutton roast (I would have prefered Lamb but its not my birthday). I think we will be eating mutton sandwiches for the next month!

Africa photos are finally up!

Well I know you have all been waiting so I will put you out of your misery, the photos are finally up. Due to the huge number of photos I have had to host them on a new site. I should also point out that your browser will need to have a flash plug-in for the photos to work, you can download it for free here.

http://www.kiwishooter.com/Africa


Sorry for those people who still use dial-up, it may be a little slow. So I have made a low resolution version which wont look great but it will have to do. The link for that one is.

http://www.kiwishooter.com/Africalowres

You can see any comments that Aleisha and I have written by simply moving the mouse over the photos.

Enjoy.

Photos on their way

I am about 80% through sorting out all the photos and rebuilding my old website, hopefully it should be up by early next week.

An article on street photography from the SMH

Every now and again the SMH actually prints an article this isnt a complete load of dingo crap. This is one of them and I found it rather interesting as I was in the same situation in Africa.
The article can be seen here.

On the hunt for the illusive Platypus

Today with the help of Iain and the Bush Mobile, Aleisha and I went out to try and spot the illusive Platypus (Ornithorhynchus anatinus). We had been tipped off just before we left for Africa that they hang out in the secret spot so on our first weekend back we decided to check it out. After seeing the "Big 5" in Africa we figured we should really try and spot the big 5 of Australia. We came to the agreement that they were the Wombat, Kangaroo, Platypus, Koala and Echidna.
While the weather looked bad and the locals were less than optimistic of our chances we still set out to tick off our 3rd of the big 5. Our secret source did not let us down and within 30 minutes we had spotted one.

The famous arched back of a diving Platypus

We also managed to spot a couple of nice birds as well.

Why South Africa is great

Just a few things that make South Africa an enjoyable place to stay.
Take a look at the last item on the menu, everything is cheap in Africa!


When you arrive at Jo'burg airport you are greeted with the following sign. Makes you feel really safe, doesnt it.