Warrumbungle National Park

Aleisha and I decided to head away for the easter long weekend and in an attempt to escape the crowds we headed to Warrumbungle National Park. This time I got the hire car I wanted, the economical Hyundai Getz. While we may have suffered permanent spinal damage due to the "sporty" suspension it only used 6L of gas per 100 km and the gear box actually worked. Unfortunately we didnt manage to avoid the crowds but the place was still pretty nice and we got some nice walks in.

View of the famous Bread Knife

After a few failed attempts I managed to get a reasonable star trail photo using a 30 minute exposure.

The Getz, by far the smallest vehicle in the campsite.

The final countdown

Well it is official, I am on borrowed time. Three yeas of my PhD have passed me by and I am now on an extension which will last six months. Hopefully I will be able to get everything finished before the extension runs out.

Sydney Harbour Bridge Walk

Last weekend Aleisha, Marty (a collaborator from Monash university) and myself decided to join the ~200000 other people celebrating the 75th anniversary of Sydney harbour bridge by walking over it. The most enjoyable part of the event was the knowledge that thousands of motorists were unable to drive over the bridge in their useless Australian made cars for a day. Other than annoying motorists it was an excellent opportunity to do some photography of a popular land mark from an angle that you can not normally get.

Due to popular demand a photo of Aleisha and I (apparently this blog has too much ranting from me and not enough photos of Aleisha and I. Me rant, never)

Marty

What does 1.5 million dollars buy you?

Well after much hype and speculation we have finally moved into our new lab, well into the new office at least. While the air conditioning seems to be permanently stuck on 16 C and the network is only partially functional everything else is looking pretty good. No doubt the lab will turn into a dumping ground as soon as we can use it so I figured I would put up a few photos while it still looks new.

One of the coolest features are two temperature/humnidity controlled crystal growing rooms. They are also designed to minimise vibrations, lets hope this will mean that I will be able to grow some single crystals for once.

At the back of the lab we have a instrument room, unfortunately we dont have any instruments yet. Depending on how my PhD writing goes I may start living in there.

In our old lab we had one partially functional fume hood, in this lab we have ten.

Our office is located at the front of the lab and will seat ~25 people in total.

I managed to score a fancy desk with a view in the quiet part of the office. I think my boss was hoping that I would write up quicker if I had no distractions!

Tasmania – Part IIII

Well it is time for the final instalment of my Tasmania journey. After leaving the Walls I decided to spend a couple of days exploring the Northern part of Tasmania. I stayed in a town call Sheffield which has become famous for its murals! The town was quite nice as it had a pub with cheap accommodation and a bakery with good danishes. I spent a day in the tourist trap call the Cradle Mountain National Park doing some hikes and while the place was nice it was just swarming with American tourists. That night I went to check out a penguin colony and got chatting to a park ranger who gave me a tip-off for an excellent place to spot Wombats. Trusting the ranger, the next evening I headed to Narawntapu National Park. Almost as soon as I got out of the car I was greeted by a bunch of Pademelons and when the sun started to set I finally saw a Wombat, actually I saw about a dozen in the end.

Cradle Mountain National Park

I hope you all like this photo as the rocks were bloody sharp!

Cradle Mountain

A Pademelon

Wombat!

Another Australian Story

I think people often believe that Aleisha and I have issues with Australian views because we are New Zealanders. The truth is we have issues with Australian views because they are bloody retarded. Today yet another example of the often narrow minded view of many Australians was shown in a SMH article that you can read here.
A lot of this clearing is being done in outback NSW to make way for farmland, of course Australia is in the middle of a drought so all the farmers manage to do is remove any trace of top soil that they have left. I seriously hope that one day Australians will realise that not every resource needs to be exploited in the shortest time possible.
I wouldnt normally be so forthright with my views (as I'm sure you all know) but my horoscope said that I was tired of pussyfooting around, and that I should go right to the heart of the issue. We all know that only a fool would ignore their horoscope.

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.