Matteo's Visit

So our good friend Mateo (Matt) came for a brief visit before exploring other parts of Australia. We had a good time catching up, and drinking beer. Mateo got to see all of the iconic Sydney sights, but we all went to see the first Australian Flugtag. Rather than posting more photos of the Opera House here are some from the Fulgtag instead. Okay, so you can't go to Sydney and not have any Opera House or Harbour Bridge photos. There were tons of people having a good time despite the early showers. We too had a good time watching getting wet and silly. Of course we also had a friendly meet and greet at the Landsdowne so Mateo could meet the Aussie posse. As always a good time had by all.

Poll Answer

The answer to the last poll was car accident. As in: I just got into a bingle with that kangaroo.

Jenolan Caves

We had a chance to get away from Sydney for a day recently. It was a great day, with no clouds so we decided to head up to the Blue Mountains. This was the third attempt for KT to see the Three Sisters rock formation. The previous two times it was so foggy that we couldn't see more than 20 feet in front of us. This time, however, she managed to see it, and better yet we have photographic proof. After this we continued on to Jenolan Caves to see how they looked. The caves and river were spectacular. There are several different caves within the system that have their own paths. Here are a few photos of some of the formations within one of the subsystems. The broken column is one of the more famous formations there. We apologize for the photos being a bit blurry, but we didn't have a tripod with us, as we forgot it. The ladder in one of the photos used to be how people went out of the cave. A bit precarious, but could have been fun in a death defying sort of way. Please do excuse the helmet hair, but do notice the curtain formation in the background of the last photo. Until next time folks, take care.

What's a happening

Last week marked the beginning of school for TV and KT's classes also got into full swing. KT is settling down now into working and studying the different areas of midwifery. TV spent most of last week in lecture, and trying to figure out what the real class schedule will be. There were about 24 classes schedule and out of those 20 changed due to some unknown University shenanigans. We apologize if we don't update this site as often, but we won't have as many opportunities to venture out, we will instead focus on learning. Later gators!

Tasmania Part 3

On our way to the east coast of Tasmania we made a pit stop at a cheese factory, chocolate factory, and a raspberry farm. The first photo is of the cheese aging room at the factory, mmmm cheeeeeese. Then there is a raspberry orchard and proof that KT does drive sometimes. We then reached the eastern city of St. Helens where we enjoyed the beautiful white beach, blue water, and rust colored rocks. From St. Helen we went south along the coast and stopped for a lunch of fresh oysters and a glass of wine with another great view. After lunch we drove a little further and went on a short one hour hike to the Wine Glass Bay lookout where KT decided to interact with the local rocks. There are two shots of the spectacular colors of the bay itself set against the trees and mountains. On the way back from the lookout KT decided to take a break and take in some sun. Our last day we came back to Hobbart and visited the convict Women's Factory which housed most of the women prisoners during the years of transportation. Our last stop on our tour was at the Cascade Brewery to see the beer making process, and of course free samples. Arguably the best part of the holiday. It was interesting to see the contrast between the original building and gardens, and the modern bottling plant with it's robotic arm doing keg lifts and the line of bottles being prepared for packaging. Overall it was another successful holiday in which we managed to stumble across tons of interesting sights, sometimes completely by accident. We ended up driving around 1600 kms or about 1000 miles in the week we were there.
The dark photo from the last entry was of a penguin that we saw. He wasn't the only one, but he was the only one we managed to take a photo of, although not a particularly good photo.

Tasmania Part 2

The send installment of Tasmania photos begins with a last photo of our nice farm stay tower room at night. Leaving the Hobbart area we went north west to Mt. Field National Park, famous for beautiful waterfalls. On the walk to the falls we ran into this cute wallaby and told everyone about. The people we told gave us a funny look, which we later learned was because wallabies are very common in Tasmania and it's like telling someone in CA that you just saw a squirrel. On the way out of the park we saw this echidna
walking and sniffing for food. Echidna's are very interesting animals that have a very good sense of smell. That evening we made it to Lake St. Clair. This lake is the start or end, of the most famous hike over Cradle Mountain, the most famous mountain in Tasmania. We went looking for the elusive platypus, but came out empty handed, KT did get to reflect a bit though. We did see a rather brazen possum at our camp site before taking a photo of the moon over the lake and mountains. In the morning when we got up it was very cold and there was a beautiful fog over the lake encouraging us to get on our way to a warmer climate for breaky. We stopped to take photos of more waterfalls, after which our camera died on us. We have some film that we need to finish before we can get the next days photos developed. The last two photos are from our new digital camera. Can anyone guess what the second to last photo is of? We will reveal the answer in the last part of the Tasmania photo series. The last photo for today is of the southern cross constellation just above the cloud, taken on the north coast of Tasmania, the Bass Straits. Until next time folks, keep it real.