Two new albums added. The first if from Lizzie's trip into the red center to see Ularu (Ayer's Rock) amoung other attractions. It really is stunning countryside, though I have stripped down Lizzie's photo collection to limit the amount of red rock on screen ;)  I love the picture of Liz with the little joey in arms.

 

The second is from a short trip Liz and I took to Tasmania.  The pictures speak for themselves. The place is amazing. We arrived in Hobart and spent the night in a quaint little hotel down by the dock side. In the morning we headed up the east coast to the Fraycinet National Park peninsula.  On the way we popped into the Meadowbank Estate winnery (http://www.meadowbankwines.com.au/) for a quick tasting and a bite of lunch. After spending about 40 minutes tasting each of their delicous wines we sat down for an amazing meal and another glass of perfectly matched wine. Trust me on this: if you are ever in Tasmania make sure a visit to the Meadowbank Estate is high on your list if you're a wine lover.  We left the place very sated and a little lighter in the pocket after purchasing a box of wine and a bit each - but such good wine should not be left on the shelf!

 

Check out the pictures of Fraycinet. They are easily distingishable from the later pictures of cradle mountian.  The west of Tasmania, where Cradle Mountain resides, receives more than ten times the rain of the east coast, where Fraycinet lies. I'll leave it up to the viewer to work out which is which :P

 

This was probabably the best, maybe the only, organised holiday that either Liz or myself have been on. We actually booked everything in advance.  Takes some of the fun out of things, but does save time when it such a short trip.  We managed to squease in a morning in a canoe in Oyster bay and a walk across the mountain (read as big hill =) to wineglass bay.  We stayed a rather unstylish, but nice enough, 70s decor apartment down by the bay.

 

Next it was off across the country to Cradle Mountain. Looking at the map we thought it about a four hour drive - Wrong! Try about 7 hours of up and down winding valley b roads. Once it got dark we were forced to drive at around 30 Kph due to allow us to dodge all the wildlife on the road.  Seriously, around every corner we'd have to dodge around a possum, a wallaby or a wombat. We even saw some of the smaller cousins of the tasmanian devil! 

 

The next morning we work and ... it was raining. Does it a lot over there apparently. Reminded me of the UK! The mountain was amazing and a really good hike. The last 40 minutes of the climb was great fun, spent scrabling over rocks, though coming down was a little more tricky.

 

Well, that's all for me. It's Sunday evening. I'm about to relax infront of a movie. Good night all,

 

Andy

This time from Liz and my trip down the Great Ocean road in Victoria.  A truely stunning stretch of ocean road.

 

Check out the Wombats!!!!

See the Royal National Forest - April '06 album

 

From my time with Liz when we took a week out before I started work to enjoy what the royal national forest had to offer. The Royal National Forest is just to the south of Sydney, litterally about a hour and a half drive. It's absolutely gorgous place for somewhere so close to a major city. I wrote all about the place when I went, it's just taken me a while to get the photo's up. Needless to say, I haven't included any photos from the noodie beach ;)

As discussed with people at home - I'm going to 'promise' to get pictures from my last two road trips on the blog.  The wombats are particularly cool.

 

Back to work for me now. Lots to do and the jet lag is setting in!

Realising I haven't posted for ... well, for months, I thought I'd just give a big thanks to everyone that pulled themselves out of their pit over the last two weekends to come see me while I was home in the UK and also to my family up north for feeding and housing me for a week.  It was lovely to see you all and, while I was happy to find myself back in warmer climates, it was a sad moment getting back on the plane and leaving both friends and family behind.

 

Thanks everyone!

 

Now for something completely different...

 

Check this out: http://graffitiresearchlab.com/?page_id=76#video  How cool is that!  Though I'm wondering how long before someone gets taken to court when some unexpecting office worker gets blinded!