Bad Pooh - Good Roo

I learned a lesson- never agree to be a childrens entertainer for my friends Nieces 3rd birthday party when i have had a few too many drinks. this seemed like a good idea at the time.




Suffice to say the child was scared by the sight of a 6 foot winnie the pooh.

In other news I was camping in the Grampian mountain range over the weekend which was great, breathtaking scenery and tame kangaroos which could be coaxed into feeding from your hand.

Where's Waldo?

In the absence of GPS tracking I Have updated the blog to include 6 figure co-ordinates via Google Earth which is nice you can see my roof from here and can zoom out :-) I'll try and figure out a way to back track some of my previous spots in an Indiana Jones style flying map.

Graham in Melbourne

And on Google Earth very cool!

Google earth is available at http://earth.google.com



That is all

Cheers

G

Road Trip down the Great Ocean Road

I am Here

Well Melbourne is working out rather well - been staying in the city centre with a mouth watering mixture of fantastic multicultured resturants and bars within spitting distance. Helped out at at a Wallaby yard couretsy of alumini making shelters etc and catching Tammars (Macropus eugenii ) which was a fairly unique experience especially examining the pouches for young thimble size wallies.



This Weekend Drove down the Great Ocean Road, with Tash and Colleen
Spotted some Koala's along the way: I suspect despite their cute appearances one of these blood thirsty beasts could strip a man to the bone in a matter of minutes.

Stopped to see the Twelve Apostles (more like 10 now sections of these are erroding badly and one has collapsed) . This part of the coast line was simply stunning and the scale combined with the power of the Southern Ocean takes your breath away.

Thundercave Blowhole this is very cool a 100metre underground cave connects this to the ocean

Bye Bye NZ (for now ) - Hello Melbourne.

Well another wee update - Have been travelling around the NZ for the last Month with KiwiK - we managed to cover over 6000kms covering just the North Island which was pretty fast paced indeed. We worked up from Otaki outside Wellington after picking up our rather flash 4wd Nissan Terrano (thanks Trevor) driving up to Wanganui where we stayed with some very cool Nuns in a convent on the Wanganui River to start off trip off to a rather surreal start. We literally did so much that it's impossible to get it all down in type so highlights of the month had to be:
Stopping off at Lake Taupo a great wee town right on the lake itself (D'OH) with a nice feel to it and some great pubs.

Then to at eggy old Rotorua where you can see the entrance to Hades itself - completely other worldly and photos can't describe how colourful it really was (or indeed how smelly) :-)


Hurtling along the infamous Ninety Mile beach in the 4X4 and generating a bowwave whilst exiting up a rather deep and quicksand filled stream. Trying not to end up like the poor sod in the blue car below.


Bagging a luxury holiday "batch" at The Corromandel(thanks Andrea and Tim!) and digging a hot water spring pool on hot water beach.


We spent my Birthday near the bay of plenty i was intending to dive the Rainbow warrior but due to 40 knot winds off shore i thought a wreck dive may not be the best idea, we took a boat trip around the bay and spotted some very playful dolphins which were devine. The Boat later started to list rather alarmingly resulting in us being offloaded on a dodgy creaky old jetty, i think i was the only person on board who fancied a quick dunk.
Dove the famous Poor Knights Islands a few days later with paihia dive (probably the best dive company i have used very very professional) this was a great couple of dives in an amazing location - We did 2 30metre 45 minute dives with a bundle of aquatic life to keep me and my buddy company - huge 5 metre rays (no i wasn't narked) being the highlight. Certainly one for the log book - reminded me of a cross between st Abbs and the Red Sea - Really!

The Waitomo caves and the associated glow worms were fantastic (ignoring the annoying *merican tourists ahem) thousands and thousands of tiny glowing pin pricks hanging in the darkness tens of metres below ground. I must go back here and explore some caving courses.
A flight from Wellington down to Dunedin in the South Islands where i stayed for week, Dunedin struck me as a really nice city, very very much like it's namesake of edinburgh complete with a Broughton Street - Minus the prerequisite rave chip shop however :-( Saw some Yellow eyed penguins on the Otago Peninsula with Karen .


Arrived in Melbourne on friday the 28th and i can confirm it is a very cool and funky place indeed, I wasn't intending to visit Oz but am now here for a few months the hardship :-)

Only been here for a few days and already i have spotted a rare urban wombat - see below !
What other discoveries await i can only guess at

Cheers

Graham