New Zealand Pics

Will be uploaded real soon!
















Routeburn Track















Able Tasman Track, a walk on the beach.




















Sandfly Point at the end of the Milford Track, "Finally, a sunny day".

Click here to see the pictures in yahoo photos.

Exit Oz

My flight back to L.A. after almost a year in Melbourne.

Easter in the Snowy Mountains

The travel brochure always show Australia as sunny beach or hot desert outback. They never ever mention snow, which was farthest from my mind when I went on a backpacking trip in the Snowy Mountains (aka of `The Man From` fame) 6 hours northeast of Melbourne.















Sunny day quickly turned forboding as soon as we started off. Well that's Melbourne weather for ya.















We had rain worthy of New Zealand. It never let up for 16 hours. I was dreading not bringing a book. In the morning, it had turned to snow.















The above was taken at Mount Kosciuszko, the highest point in Oz at 2262 metres.















Wild animals of the kind you don't expect here, horses. They tend to go to the toilet all over the place so you have to be careful where you set you tent.

Candy is dandy

Candy is dandy but liquor is quicker.

Australian for Beer

I've been here for close to a year and I have never, ever seen Fosters being sold anywhere, let alone seeing someone drink it. Unfortunately it is the only beer available at the Grand Prix as they are the title sponsor (beer and car racing, good mix). Thankfully there's no sign of Paul Hogan anywhere.

Commonwealth Games

I got back to Melbourne in time for the tail end of the Commonwealth Games at the end of March. These games are a chance for ex-colonies of the British Empire to kick the Mother Country's arse, not that's all that difficult this day and age (but really it's just for countries that normally don't win anything at the Olympics a chance for some glory). The Australians, taking this way too seriously, cleaned up at the medals.

Along with the sporting events, the city had an Arts and Cultural festival in conjunction with the games. The most talked about was the series metal fish scupltures moored in the river.

Every night the fish puts on a Vegas-like show by sprouting water and changing colours. People line the bank of the river hours before the start of the show.

Volvo Race Around the World

The boats from the Volvo Race Around the World stopped over in Melbourne on March 11. No they don't race Volvos but carbonfibre yachts including an entry sponsored by Disney (now you know where your bonuses went). They will be at sea for seven months starting in Spain and finishing in Sweden.

Here are some pictures of their stopover in Melbourne. Next stop, Wellington.





The boat Disney built, the Black Pearl. Roy is below getting seasick.

A week later I was in Wellington, New Zealand. They happen to be stopping over for a couple of days there before heading off to Rio de Janerio, 6700 miles and three weeks away.


Race leader from the Netherlands and the Black Pearl leaving Wellington Harbour.



The boats heading to the Cook's Strait (in background) as seen from the deck of James and Son's palatial Seatoun home.

Its 42C in the shade

The daytime temperature on New Years eve was 42 degrees Celsius, a hot day even if you are in Las Vegas. When the midnight came around, it was still around 30C but an estimated half a million people still turned up for the fireworks.

We parked ourselves on a small hill and by serendipity, was able to see all five fireworks from different part of the city, like 5-channel home theatre fireworks.