Kosciuszko National Park

Aleisha and I decided to make the most of our new found freedom, as well as sweet new camping gear and headed to Kosciuszko National Park for a spot of tramping. We skived off work a bit early to avoid the Easter holiday traffic and after 6 hrs arrived in Jindabyne. It turns out that Jindabyne is a bigger crap hole than Manapouri (long story) and even though it was the Easter long weekend all the accommodation in town had shut up shop by 7 pm. It turns out that this was a blessing in disguise as we ended up spending the night car camping in the National Park where we spotted a Wombat. The next day we headed off into the wilderness...

Wilderness - The main highway heading up to the summit, sorry summit is a little misleading as even though it is the highest peak in Oz it is only ~2300 m.

Camp Day 1 - After a few hours of nice weather it turned a little crud.

Camp Day 2 - We decided to be unaustralian and walk off the main trail, we were rewarded with having a valley all to ourselves.

Panorama from camp made with Autostitch.

This little critter is either an Agile Antechinus or a Broad Toothed Rat, although we are leaning toward the Antechinus.

After four years in Oz we finally managed to spot our first Frog, I will not even try to identify which one it is.

Kanangra-Boyd National Park

As we have had the new car for quite a while but not put it to good use, Aleisha and I decided to take the Hulk out to stretch its legs. The destination was Kanangra-Boyd National Park just west of the Blue Mountains. Much to my relief the Hulk did not fall apart on the 30 km of crappy gravel roads. While it was too hot for serious tramping it was a nice weekend away from Sydney.

Jacky Lizard (a really fat one)

The Hulk at the campsite

The Kanangra Walls

Western Australia - Critters

A Wedge Tailed Eagle

Perentie

Stromatolites - The oldest known living organisms on the planet. You have these little buggers to thank for the oxygen we breath today (or that God dude if you are that way inclined).

Dugong - Apparently these fat beasts are surpose to be what started the tale of mermaids.

A friendly Quoka on Rottnest Island, which is just off the coast of Perth.

A White-breasted Robin

Western Australia

Just a few photos from out WA honeymoon road trip.

The great wee Corolla that we flogged for 5000 km.

The Pinnacles just north of Perth.

We were lucky enough to see a the Carnarvon river flooding which was due to rain inland a couple of days earlier. In my rush to take the photo I didnt put my shoes on and subsequntly severly burnt the bottom of my feet on the molten concrete, so enjoy the photo.

Termite mounds on the road to Ningaloo reef.

Coral Bay - A bit more like your usual honeymoon location.

Wedding Reception

Due to popular demand I have decided to post the photos of the infamous bouquet tossing.

The Fishing Trip

As the madness of the last few months has finally come to an end I finally have time to post some photos of the fishing trip.

Iain hooks into the big one, it got away, but it was huge! Honest!

Sneaky Pete took the prize for best fish. It must have been due to the gigantic sunglasses that allowed him to peer into the depths.

Tasty Fish.

One of many fish caught on the day.

Wedding photos are all online

Well the wedding photos are all online now, all 600 of them. We have set up the old website again so just go to www.kiwishooter.com or click on the link.

Wedding photos are here

Well our wedding photographer just dropped off the wedding photos, and all I can say is wow. Aleisha and I are now trying to figure out how to best share the 300 digital images, 200 Black and white film images and also the 100 film colour images. The job is made even harder becuase there is only a couple of images that we dont like! If you are thinking of getting married then we highly recommend Alex Pasquali as a wedding photographer.

Wedding Day

The weather held, the food was great and now it is time for a well deserved holiday.

A weekend

Since the submission on the thesis I have rediscovered something called weekends when apparently people don't work. To celebrate this discovery Aleisha and I headed out to Maitland Bay for a quiet day on the beach. The water was a little choppy so the snorkelling was not the best, but any day away from the office is a brilliant day. I managed to take a few photos before the dogey underwater housing for my camera started to fail.

It is done

The HULK has arrived

Well yesterday was a proud day for Aleisha and I as we have finally bought our first car. Owing to its obvious exceptional build quality, phenomenal power and its green colour we have decided to call it the HULK. It is a 2000 Hyundai excel with just under 85,000 km on the clock.

The official handover with Lisa and Leon (the previous owners)

The HULK in its new home

Coming Soon...

Fun with neutrons

Well I am off to neutron school this week, I can barely contain my excitement. Unfortunately as the new nuclear reactor was purchased from Argentina it has broken down and we will have to have neutron school without neutrons.

Sculpture by the Sea

The other day Aleisha and I headed out to Bondi to check out the annual Sculptures by the Sea exhibition. As usual it was pretty good, although it was also pretty busy. Still any time not spent writing my thesis is always cherished.

World Famous in Australia

A few weeks back the science based documentary program Catalyst interviewed my supervisor, Cameron Kepert, in our new lab for a program on the Hydrogen economy. They have now releases it online, so if you are interested in viewing it then check it out here.

Camel Racing

With the recent outbreak of Equine Influenza the local racing club decided to run some Camel races to try to attract the crowds. It certainly worked as the place was packed with punters, possibly a little too packed. But it was a good laugh and everyone had a good time.
If you are wondering why the photos are of such poor quality it is because I was attempting to use my Dads old Canon AT-1 35mm film camera with some some Ilford XP-2 B&W film. Digital certainly does make life easier.

Long Weekend

I know there hasn't been a blog entry for a while but to be honest we haven't been up to anything interesting of late. So to make up for our lack of physical activity the long weekend was spent snorkelling, bush walking and doing some more snorkelling. All and all a very enjoyable weekend, although compared to thesis writing cutting my toe nails is exciting.

It took the combined effort of three PhD's to read the map.
On the way to Red Rock Cave, a site of some aboriginal paintings in the Blue Mts.

A Jacky lizard, although this is open to debate.

An Eastern Bearded Dragon, very much alive. This guy had everyone fooled with his playing dead routine.

Blood Moon

I think it is a sign that the chemistry gods are not happy with my PhD progress, back to thesis writing then.

My Brother Comes to Town

As my brother had a conference in Melbourne he decided to pop into Sydney for a few days and catch up with us. After a visit to the relatives on Monday we headed out of Sydney to show Karl some of the sights. The first stop was our secret Platypus viewing location (located some where on the road to Canberra) which did not let us down, with a good number of Platypi being seen. After checking out a the local bakeries we headed to the Royal National Park via the coastal route and after a few "scenic" trips around Wollongong (I took a wrong turn) we arrived at the Royal just as the weather cleared.

Log

The thought of another trip through Wollongong was too much to handle for Karl.

"I think I can see New Zealand"