New Zealand.

So after touching down in NZ at some unforsaken time in the morning, Alison (Mairi's 2nd cousin) very kindly picked us up and took us round to Ian's house where we were going to stay for the next week or so. Our timing was less than ideal as they had a garage sale on and it was all hands to manning the stalls.

Mairi and Ella under the sky tower.

Lord of the Rings Character Exhibition...hes not to scary

Playing on the swings on waiheki island after our bus tour with the old people

Auckland

Morning of stitching before a surf at Peha

a mini Americas cup

Mairi and Ian

my work of art

whitianga 

Best Pizza place EVER

Melbourne...AGAIN

So Cameron Kindly picked us up from the train station and put us up on his couch for a few days. Melbourne aint as bad as I had it down in my book after the last time when it was inhumanely hot and stuffy and were tired/lost. Apologies Melbourne for  the quick judgement, I now love this city.

After a chilled day cruising about the town we met Cameron and Alex for a after work drink - you know after a hard day in the office its understandable and well we are kinda on holiday...ahem?!? Then it was for a fancy alfresco dining and a trip back down to st killda. This time NOT walking under the evil 40' sun. Despite a fare crowd of egger tourists already encamping the breakwater cameras at the ready we managed to get a space and watch some fairy penguins come ashore. Im not going to complain because I really really love penguins, but these ones were going for the washed out rock star look, (Mairi claims they were moulting, I still reckon they could have put in at least a wee bit more effort) 

Dancing Penguins

Fairy Penguin 

Melbourne from St Killda

Tass part 2

So here are the last couple of days in Tassie...

Port Arthur Convict Prison.

what a stunner of a day!

Artist's Impression of convict ship building.

Life was good for the Governor  

Aus seem so proud of their convict history?! (History really? come on my school was older)

Sauna in the middle of no where! 

Start of the walk out to Shipsterns Bluff.

Looking rough and uneasy after several snake encounters looking down at Shipsterns Bluff

Mairi chillin and listing to the intimidating sounds of the tiny waves.

You know when you pretend to fall...then realise your crippled and cant counter it!

Rock Arch at Doo Town

Waves ( I wasn't allowed to surf) at Pirates Bay

Water Fall Art or Engineering brilliance?! In the MONA (Hobart)

Tattooed pig skin 

The artist paid him to do some ink then when he dies in return his back skin is put on display, in the mean time hes just chilling in the gallery as a piece of work.

If this is art then the art world are in for a treat when they see my garage/van!

Fat Porshe

My song of the moment.

Imagine (covered by Jack Johnson)

Tassie

Hey!
So after a glorious sleep in Melbourne airport, well as comfortable as it gets on a polished stone floor we finally set off for HOBART. Everything is so easy simple and relaxed-wander off the plane to be greeted by our bags some how all 3 together on the belt just in front of us, along with a seal?! Then wander across and out on to the first bus which drops us out side our hostel. This kinda set the vibe for the trip. The Brunswick Hotel cool chilled and relaxed so after dropping off our stuff we head on out to explore, but the town was DEAD like I mean dead less people then after the zombie apocalypse, but due to our lack of sleep and the sudden and the slightly surprising heat wave we end up back for a snooze in the room. The heat/smell of sick was truly amazing! So next day we set off to hire a car and get out and about.

First things first make a list. Second score off for what ever reason all the bits on the list that aren't possible and we ended up again with a big V6 station wagon. Suitably loaded with supplies we then went looking for cooking appliances as another camping trip with only fruit bread peanut-butter and choc spread wasn't too appealing. Our ingenuity and frugalness resulting in our cooking equipment being compiled off:

1 Gass stove and a few canisters of butane
2 Stainless steel dog bowl for cooking/boiling water
2 Tupperware boxes to eat out of/store food
1 set of chop sticks for mixing
1 sharp knife (other than my leatherman)
1 weird collapsibil strainer thingy
1 very small camp seat (for  Mairi as the weight limit is 75kg)

 We then headed North East looking for surf and hopefully some where to sleep for free.

"Mairi...do you fancy a surf?"

Breezy

Friendly Beaches

Wine Glass Bay

There she Blows!

Wilbur the Wallaby 

East Coast Surf

Bay Of Fires

So white!

Bay of Fires

Billy Elliot Moment

Ninja Black Swan

Mussleroe Bay

wish you were here...

camp life

mmmmmm...more veggie food.

Beach fires and Burns

"Im not colddd"

Light Houses (North West Coast)

Mmmmmm nice 

Hmmm I thought it was a right!

Hannah our local guide showing how its done.

wimpy wee wave in after bruising my ribs and dinging my board.

Alice Our other local guide. 

See that wee black dot stuck in the lip? thats me about to go down and get better acquainted with my board/sand. :-(

 Back in Melbourne Today staying with Cameron Wilkie untill we fly out to NZ....EXCITED