Sydney sights

I was in Sydney for a couple of days this week. After my last meeting I had a couple of hours before my flight back home. So I went on a shooting spree with my camera.

The hotel I was staying for the night was right across Darling Harbour and I had a room facing the harbour. The night was clear and the view from my room was stunning!



The next morning was just as glorious with hardly any clouds in the sky. Lunch was approaching and I visited a restaurant highly recommended by a Malaysian living in Sydney. But then I passed by so many other food outlets until I couldn't decide where to go. I then ended up having lunch at an Indonesian food store and topped it up with a glass of "Teh Tarik" at Mamak.





After all that food, I needed to walk a little before catching a cab to the airport.















As I was coming back there was a street show and this guy performing made all sorts of weird faces, one of which was...

The White House in Auckland

As I was walking along Queen St in Auckland, I came across a sign that said that the White House was just a few hundred meters away. And the sign looked pretty legitimate as well!


Was I dissapointed that this was only an entertainment centre and not Obama's holiday bach here in New Zealand.

My trip to the Far North

I wonder why they call the northen end of the country, the Far North and the southern end of the country as the Deep South?

After having visited the southern tip of New Zealand, I now had the opportunity to visit the other end of the country, Cape Reinga. This is not quite the northen tip but the most northern tip accessible. The North Cape which is 3 km further north from Cape Reinga is a reserve where public has no access to.

On the way, up to Cape Reinga we took the 90 mile beach which is apparently about 90 km but hey, who's to argue. There was a 100km/h speed limit on the beach which is also part of the highway. Cars can drive on the beach during low tide although some did not quite make it. You see parts of vehicle buried deep in the sand, despite the warning.



A bus which was trying to cross almost in the nick of time. The driver had to go in to check the depth of the water before the bus could cross.



Parts of the beach where there are sand dunes are massive. People, mostly tourists, use these dunes to sand board, like snow boarding, only this is on sand.



And finally the Cape!



According to Maori legend, the tree right at the bottom of this cliff is where the spirits leave this world.





I made it to the tip!

Sunset

Brilliant colours in the sky as the sun started to set this evening right in front of our house!

Africa

I recently went to South Africa for a conference and after the conference had the opportunity to visit some of the most amazing landscapes and wildlife the African continent had to offer.

My journey started from Johannesburg to the world famous Kruger National Park. We spent 2 nights at Kruger doing a night safari and a whole day safari at the park itself. We saw 4 of the big 5 famed animals and a host of other animals and birdlife at the park. The journey then took me across to Botswana into the Chobe National Park. Another amazing park with heaps of wildlife along the Chobe River. Finally crossing Botswana into Zambia to the awesome, breathtaking Victoria Falls, a World Heritage Site.

Here are some of the thousands of photos I took. Instead of uploading to many sites, I have added some here but the bulk of it is in my Facebook album. Link on the sidebar.

Ellerslie International Flower Show

I had a morning to kill while I was in Christchurch so I decided to take in the much talked about Ellerslie International Flower Show. After spending a few years in Auckland, this is the first time the flower show made it to Christchurch. What a success it turned out to be. The first 2 days brought in over 10,000 visitors a day. This was despite the gloomy and cold weather. From a cold 6c it warmed up to a nice 18c which was great for me.

Due to thw show, much of the roads around Hagley Park was off bounds to cars and some parts of the city was closed to parking. Right underneath the sign that clearly said "Keep Clear", I saw these two bikes nicely parked and locked! I wonder how they will be towed away.



With the warm weather and a clear day, the crowd was even bigger. By 10am when the gates were open, queues were at least 500m long and growing. After getting into the grounds, the queues were no shorter. While most of the exibits were outdoors, some were indoors and the queues were pretty darn long. The wearable arts exibition had fixed times and I was there at 10am but was apparently queueing for the 3pm show!



However, another queue was shorter, althought it still meant a wait of about 30 minutes. This was an indoor exhibition that won a gold award replicating an underwater garden. Truly amazing!



Among the many outdoor exibitions, this attracted a huge crowd. I found out why, when I was nearer.



Of course, like any other show, you have loads of free samples to sample. I brought with me a few fruits for lunch but with the amount of food given away, my fruits were safely left in my backpack.

Seaweek 2009

Last week was Seaweek. We were supposed to go on a boat to Kapiti Island to experience the Marine Reserve. While the sun shone and the sky was clear, there was a fair amount of wind - which caused the sea to be pretty choppy. And the boat ride called off.

Since we were all out to go to sea, we decided to see what else there was. A short Google showed some other interesting things including a kids snorkeling experience in Island Bay. So we headed out to Island Bay and our two brand spanking new snorkelers had an experience of a lifetime.











Here are some of the marine creatures they got to see. These are just 50 meters from the shore at Island Bay.